Project :blingGreen(04/03/2005 - MaximumPC's June issue! Rig of the Month!!!)

Ok... business trip and vacation done...

I'm back now... finally.
Apologies for the apparent desertion of the project, has not happened.

Just that Real Life had a long and exclusive grasp on me.

Now I'm back... I have a bit of time, and I am going to try and finish this thingy up. I have all of the power leads on the power supply meshed, I need to get the ATX and the P4 connectors completed.

I need to polish my drives, and mesh the power supply, get the clear coat layers on, finalize the external painting ( I have some polishing compound that needs sanding and painting....) and get it back on my desk!!!!


I'm going to start back at it again tonight, and I'll post up what I get done!

 

How was the london trip?? Now that you are back we are waiting to see the finish of the greenbling. don't leave us hanging too long.

 

The London trip was great! Weather cooperated nicely while I was there. Actually made it out and found a copy of CustomPC!!!

Good, good mag.... need to find a way to get it here in the USA.

Now that I am back, and the wifey knows that I am dying to finish this up, she is working with me to take care of the kiddos so that I can spend a bit more time on this project.

I made an alteration last night... I bought a 80mm-60mm adaptor for the HeatSink. It is a Blue UV shroud. Had to cut back the screws a bit to make it fit right... now I just need a good way to completely illuminate the UV fan adaptor. I put a Thermaltake 80mm fan on the adaptor that has 3 blue LED lighting up the crystal fan, and the 4th led position has a red LED for hard drive activity. So, while I use the computer, and the LED for the hard drive or the CD's lights up... I'll have that reflected on the fan facing me through the Lexan! Dont want to put a UV fan on there, but I think I found an "illuminating" solution!

I'm online right now, looking through the stock at some of the stores that I regularly buy from, seeing if I can find it. If I have no luck, I'll post up what I'm looking for, and maybe you guys can point me the right way.

More later tonight, and I'll try and push some pics up from the wifey's machine.

Thanks for everyone's patience!

 

Well... let's slowly open the "update" floodgate...

Would hate to pull a muscle or something by posting too much activity.

Momma always taught me to slowly eat my food... So, without further adieu...

pics and schtuff!!!!

1st off... thank you for everyone's input thus far. I have have a screaming idea that one of your suggested that I am going to follow up on. Really going to put the "bling" in it!

Also, I am doing test fits and stuff with all of the equipment on the PC, I'll try to get properly focused pics posted up tonight. I had the camera set up wrong, and most all of last night's pics came out blurry.

Figured it out, but was too darn tired to do anything about it, so... I'll hit it again tonight!

Main things I've been working on have been the molex swaps and the cable management.


Trying to keep the cables tight and neat. This was the one fan that will be in input up front. The active LED light show in the middle of the fan is pretty schweet... I'll try to grab a video for all of you and get it posted up.




"Warranty??!?... we dont need no stinkin warranty!!!"
Here is the next victim. My slow a$$ Ricoh tray loader burner. It was out of warranty before I even started thinking about this mod... but it is definately out of warranty now!!!


I sprayed the metalcast basecoat on the steel.


Then hit them with the anodized blue. Looks a bit uneven in the pics, but after drying overnight, the color evened out nicely in the morning sun!

I've finished up the front bezel on the Pioneer slot load DVD player (looks schweet) but the pic was blurry. I'll retake tonight and get it posted up.

Anyone see any issue with me snipping the P4 connectors off of a power supply? As a minimalist, the additional cable clutter drives me batty. As a purist, I almost feel like I am cheating (instead of sleeving the complete product...). Another question, when you cut off the additional lines, I believe there are some Red/black left over... those are viable power connectors... correct? or would I be better jus snipping them off and not using them?

More later... after I get the pics reshot and in focus this time!!!

 

If you are talking about the 6 pin connector, then yeah its safe to snip it as long as you take care to cover the ends with some electrical tape or something. I did that to mine and everything is running great.

You should be able to use the red/black lines as a 12V supply/ground, although you could always just do that at a molex connector you have no other use for.

I myself wouldn't use them, but that's just coz I'm a newb at electronics.

 

not to nitpick but i don't want anything to go all melty/flamey. red (in standard ATX/AT power supplies) is +5v, not +12v.

yellow is +12v (so your p4 yellow/black quad plug would be useful for full power fans, etc) and just for random factoids, orange is +3.3v, white is -5v, blue is -12v, and there are others that are special things like pwr good (grey), +5vsb (always on when psu has AC on, purple), and pwr on (green, turns the power on when shorted to ground (black))

ok, i think that's enough showing off for now

 

W00T! (then "Dannnngggg...")

I'll let the pic do the talking:


Oh yeah...
Got so excited I was not paying attention to how much blue metalcast I had left, and got started on the DS 106 Slot load DVD player I have.... whoops! Ran out in mid spray. Anyone who has gotten to the nasty bottom of a can of MetalCast knows that automatically requires a "redux"...

So, I'll let it dry out and sand it out tomorrow. Re shoot the metalcast primer, then a new can of blue. Oh well... me and paint on this project have been kind of at each other's throats....




UV Blue cable sleeving and blue heat shrink, followed by UV Green molex connectors. All power connectors will be green (if I can get that dang ATX power lead done I will be exceedingly happy!!!!). I'm even swappping out the fan header leads on the fans:


Gonna have some pop!!!

Here is the front bezel on the DS 106S slot loading DVD player. The portion of the dvd player behind it (the steel covers) will be the blue that matches my Ricoh burner seen above.




The drive itself is in pieces, and the covers are getting the blue anodized treatment. The glorious innards of a 106 (if that floats your boat...)



And the case being tested with some of the equipment inside:



Making headway! I have to go and buy more paint and try to fix the DVD player's covers... but other than that mis-step, it is progressing nicely!!!

More tomorrow!!!!

 

nice and neat

did you miss the USB PCI extension, or arn't you going to do it?

 

I feel bad about not posting on this thread for a while, as it is one of my favorite projects going. I must say, it looks awesome. Keep up the awesome work.

~Chrizzle

 

Heres a quick idea for you: why not get a matching acyrlic paint and do some traces randomly on all the PCB's inside the computer (including on the mobo)? It would make all the tacky green PCB's stand out a bit less, and better blend in (allmost as if the frame of the computer we're slowly melting onto them).

 

You and your paint!!! Looks nice I like the green and blue theme reminds me of home. Any who keep up the work and show me some BLING!!!!!

 

No worries there... I'm just out of heatshrink for the moment. I'll have that thig dressed up as soon as I get over and buy some more tubing!

Thanks!

 

I gotcha "bling" commin' baby...

 

I've got an idea that I am experimenting on using some older PCB's... kind of a similar thread. If it works out on the others, it will definately make it's way here!

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Been painting like a mad man tonight... but "patiently" I might add!

Learned a little something tonight that I'd like to pass on...

For those of us that are making a habit of using the Duplicolor MetalCast paints, I was reading the fine print for application, and stumbled into something. Seems that after you apply the MetalCast base coat, the color can recommends use of the CPP199 Adhesion Promoter before applying the color! The adhesion promoter is almost a clear primer. I never saw that part on the cans until tonight.

I had already bought some thinking that I might experiment with it on the plastics and such... looks like it can help make the Metal Cast a bit more durable!

I finished painting the CD Burner and the DVD ROM panels tonight. Letting the dry overnight, and likely most of tomorrow (just to be safe) and then I'll reassemble and snap some pics.

Anyone know of a good "Soldering for dummies" or Soldering 101 type of tutorials that they'd recommend? In order for me to finish up the power supply, I'm going to have to unsolder the power plug and the switch. I think unsoldering should be ok (just heat the solder till it liquifies again), but the reattachment has me a bit concerned. What type of solder do I use? What is flux and do I need it? Essentially, I have never used my Weller hot knife (which can be tip changed into a soldering iron) for this purpose. I just want to be sure I get it right. Tips? Anyone? Buehler?


Also, before I go and start hacking out my powersupply and meshing it, does the mesh cause a loss of air flow pressure, and therebu result in a less efficient/hotter running power supply? I was thinking that power supplies that are solid would have more of a wind tunneling and heat funnelling effect. With the meshing or additional holes... would not this adversly affect the efficiency of cooling the PS components?

More... much more... on the next update!!!

 

(Scooby Doo style) "RHUT RHROW!!!"

Anyone know if capacitors on a motherboard normally bubble a bit over time and leave a rusty looking spot on top of the cap where the joints are?

Machine is not POST'ing, and I am researching the hex error code on the manufacturer site now...

just lookin for some love if anyone knows...
-C

[edit] The POST code is inconclusive.. I'm afraid that I have killed the mobo. Not sure how. I have several caps on the mobo that are "rusting" (or lack of a better term) on top. I am assuming that since the other caps that I see on the board are flat on the top... then I am looking at a failied portion of the board.

[/edit]

 

sorry to hear about the mobo. Nice looking paintjob you got there. I can imagine what it'd look like in real life.

 

Like this ??

http://www.macs.unisa.edu.au/khendar/images/mod/full/burnies.jpg

I'm afriad your mobo is more than likely dead. The caps can be replaced, but its a fiddly job and its a matter of whether you can be bothered. Mixed views on what causes it. Some people have said its because of a dodgy batch of electrolyte, some say its heat, some say its a high-impedence/low ripple current issue (whatever the fork that means ) but yeah.

Mod's looking nice otherwise. Damn shame

 

Actually... not quite so extreme...
I'll snap up a pic and post later today...

Happy Fathers Day to me.... (sung to Happy birthday...)

 

Capacitor questions....

Are these damaged? Could this be causing my problems?

Look at the lower right side, next to the fan power, between the fan power and the end of the DIMM socket:



And others that give me concern, look to the left of the picture, below the ATX power header. The one next to it (to the right) also is "bubbled" on the top, as well as the one in the top left corner of the pic. It has bubbled up, but nothing is on the top of the cap. The other caps are nice and flat and are a good lighting point of reference. I just dont know enough in regards to the condition of what I am looking at :




Any advice or help appreciated. This machine was running fine prior to the mod (I say it was running fine, I've had some niggling issues from time to time with resets and stuff, but nothing that I'd label as hindering like what I'm dealing with now...)

TIA!