A work from home day as the train strikes are on - as helped push this forward a little (on my lunch break.. of course) Taped up so that i could mark the casing - i didn't want to drill it in situ but i guess if i hoover it out.. it'll be alright! Bodging at it's best! Plastic standoffs on at least 3 corners which provided some stability - and a massacre of masking tape! This little things are a godsend - Drilled and screwed in - dodgy photography skills! Last fixing sits on the ethernet port - decided to glue this one in place as provides another anchor point Some cable tidying and it looks pretty suited there.. plenty of height over anything touching and stable too.
Picture this - a quiet Thursday evening in the world of Mojo. I sit there on my desktop machine... An absolute beaut of a machine - made by @MODZERO himself - This one named Modzero Juice. I'd bought this from Joe several years ago now and it has served me nicely - had a few updates and a few changes as it's gone alone. I noticed the VFD shining away to me... almost like a beacon in the fog. "holy **** - that's a white vfd on a black background... it's USB too" Sometimes in life, we have to sacrifice or adapt to make the dream happen. It's a small update at the moment. I am currently waiting on a hot glue gun with black hot glue to do some more bodgery! I am in 2 minds about something - the front power button... I don't think i can make the original work.. albeit it does look like it suits the look and feel of the front. I might keep that silver button as a fake and add a replacement button on the side panel. To the untrained eye - it would look no different.
okay - so things got a little carried away tonight. My hot glue gun arrived and so I proceeded to glue everything and the house down within the facia. First things first - adapting the front USB socket - adjusted using the soldering iron... Success - front USB in.. VFD screen in and glued the cd drive blank in place and filled the edges with black glue...
but then things started getting chaotic.. as i had the soldering iron out.. i wondered if i could make the buttons on the front work..... Success - ALL of the buttons on the front now work as expected it looks a mess.. but once it's all glued down and tidied - it looks alright!! Using an app called JoytoKey - i've been able to map all of the buttons to a hot key.. and tested in spotify to check it works..
Brilliant! I just hope the hot glue holds up. I got in too late to warn you that you can re-melt it in a hot rig.
In my case it came apart and started venting benzene, which made my eyes itch... and stunk. Yeah, I don't think you will get THAT hot. Just don't vent the radiators into the chassis, out through the psu, and into hot glue.
I got worried around what you said @Cheapskate so looked up the hot glud sticks ive used. The melting point is 150 degrees and doesn't sit that close to the radiators
Nice work, looking good all round. Please tell me that your NFC PC still has a matrix display in another colour...
You'll be pleased to know Abroreal - a red one went back in.. The panel it is sitting in will be being made of carbon fibre soon so i'm not too worried about fitment just now Another small update - I ran out of front usb's with everything going on there... so have been able to find one of these little things - which splits the 1 internal header to 4.. meaning 8 devices in theory. Seems to work quite nicely! So on my list to finish up Front led header cable needs to be longer Front panel cables to be tidied and cable tied Side panel to be screwed back on Brackets to hold the radiators in the perfect places Do I make a lid for it with mesh so you can see the internals? The side panel is to be drilled for a small anti-vandal switch (low key and keeps the front looking nice) Polish and clean Scratch touchup
Thought I would button up some bits just to see if the lid still fitted... There is still some fettling to do if I am being a perfectionist. We had some casualties and battle wounds. I had noticed specifically that this corner was bent out of shape - by the previous owner potentially trying to open the casing... it's no issue as I will sort it... A lot of edging needed some effort to get it to go back in. Once everything is finished I will give the panels just a final once over with the paint to make it perfect. but... i think it looks pretty tidy - OEM looking for sure and i think the untrained eye would not be able to tell that it was a pc. Right?
So 14 hours later - and it's still up and stable. Slightly worried about the 99 degree max - so i think some better thermal paste and adding some thermal paste between the block and the head pipes will likely help with the heat transfer. It might also be helpful to add them between the pads and the radiators too.
I think for the moment i can park this as complete. Sorted the corner out and it seems to sit itself in place nicely. Added the button on the side so it doesn't ruin the look of rhe front. Screwed all the sides in place. Placed it in location and powered up Spotify..
Might look at a white filter for the front but it doesn't really stand out. It is very subtle and I'm happy with it. Next project will be to get a ups for the plex server and qnap now. See if i can modify it to match the beech stand!
