Project "Frost" Hey mates, welcome to yet another project, that will probably never be finished Please note that I have posted this project in the Modding section, because I might not regularly update this project, so it does not comply with the Project Log Rules as stated in the Project Logs section. I've pulled an old AT case out of the shed, to make it kind of a better looking thing than it is right now. As you can see in the pictures the case has already been modded a bit. A sidewindow has been added in the past and will stay just the way it is. On the motherboard side of the case, there are some holes drilled in the sidepanel. That was because in the past, I wanted the case to sit on it's side. The feet that are still actually under the case, would have been mounted on the side of the case, so it could be rotated 90 degrees, and it would nicely sit on its side. Kind of like an HTPC. These holes are not a problem either. You might see that in of the latter pictures. So, this is what is actually still inside of the case. It's a very old Intel motherboard, with a CPU that is at least as old as the motherboard. But, this system is still working! It has a nicely working Pentium 120MHz CPU and a motherboard that still works like a charm. If you want it to be an MS-DOS based MP3 player that is. Yes, there will be modding in this project. If you look at the name of the project, and at these A4 sized papers with an ice crystal on it (or a snowflake if you will ) you might just get the point of what I am planning for the motherboard side panel. As for the other hardware, I will be using a somewhat older 50 speed CD-ROM drive. While booting up the system, it will fetch information straight from a CD-ROM or harddisk or floppy drive. Since I will only be using a tiny harddisk, just for the MP3 playing software, the CD-ROM is the only thing other that I might need. I will probably add a floppy disk drive as well, in case the system needs to be reinstalled.
Ok, so I had to make a decision. There's another case I have been planning on modding as well. So basically what I did, was decide the old and small AT case has to go... to the scrapheap! So I'm rid of that. There's another case I wanted to mod though. I've already modded this before, as project Helios. Turned out as a great case, and I just loved it. However, this case is about 3 years old now I guess. The paint has been peeling off the case, the plexi in he window has been scratched quite badly, the soundproofing in it just sucks. What has Helios got to do with Frost? I've kicked out the case that was ment for Frost at first, and taken Helios to do a total remod, with the name Frost. Another pro in this switch is that Helios already is an ATX case, and I have already got a system laying around in a box for it to be fitted in Frost. I have lots of ideas for this case. The window has to be done all over again. There are lots of holes in the side panel that will have to go. Same goes for the motherboard side panel. The back panel of the case has got quite some holes as well, those will have to go too. So the best thing for that is... Bondo. Yesterday I checked out a guide on Bondo usage, by Defyant. This will definately come in very handy, since it's my first time with Bondo. The front blowhole has to be done over again, with Bondo. And in the back a fan will be fitted as well, maybe even more Bondo The soundproofing will have to go too. What am I talking about, everything the case IS right now, HAS TO GO!!
Alrighty, Frost will have quite a unique look to it, so some (more or less) unique features when it comes to function should be in place as well. I've had an 8 port Sitecom 10/100Mbit switch laying around, which could come in pretty handy when I need it. Why not just build it into the computer itself? That way it will not even take any space on your desk, and since the back side of the case will be tackled with Bondo, why not add the switch right away as well? So, I've taken the switch apart, and basically, in the pictures below, I am showing you what I am planning on doing with the switch. And for those who love electronics, two candy shots from the switch PCB.
The case had a lot of bitumen mats sticked on the bottom, sides, backpanel and frontpanel. This stuff matched the black exterior of the case quite well, but now the case will be painted, it just had to go. On the second image you can see what I had to tear out, using a screwdriver, and some raw force. The amount of bitumen in the image is just a third of what actually came out. The weight of the total crap torn out, was about 2kg. Saves quite some weight in the case... In the fifth image you can see the marks the screwdriver left behind. You can also see the little amount of left over bitumen fragments that have not been taken off the panels. This will be removed with some adhesive dillutant. Here's the front panel in it's current state. It will cange very much. Once I am done with the panel you will not be able to recognize it anymore. Here's a PSU I came across, while checking my boxes of computer hardware. There must be at least 2 complete computers in those boxes, not mentioning the old AT systems that will be thrown away to the scrap heap (unless any one of you wants those). It's a pretty standard 235W PSU. Nothing special. More specifications can be seen in the second image.
Alrighty, I've been sorting out some gear to go inside the computer. I've digged up an old Gigabyte motherboard, with a 370 socket. Together with that I've taken an old Intel P3-800Mhz CPU, an old 3D 32Mb graphics card, an old soundcard, and a 10/100Mbit NIC. Here's the motherboard with the CPU and a hybrid HSF on it. Hybrid, because I put this thing together myself... I've also taken a leftover socket A HSF. Socket A? Yes... Remember that socket 370 is the same as socket A? Anyway, I removed the old HSF and mounted the new one. Looks a bit cooler, and fits a lot better in the theme than the old one. Well, I also digged up an old 6.4Gb Maxtor harddisk and an old floppy drive. I'm planning on using these as well. I decided to mount it all into the case, to see how crowded it would get. Don't mind the quality of the images, somehow the images went a bit blurry on me, my guess is the camera had some trouble focusing. Could be the battery power left or something... On the images you can see the motherboard has a completely different color compared to the NIC, GPU and soundcard. I hink I will have to come up with a working solution for this. I've seen stealthed motherboards before, hmm... ah, why not This afternoon I will be off to the DIY store. First of all I will need some bondo, to get rid of some holes in the case frame. Besides that I might get me some cans of spraypaint. Can anyone guess what color it will be yet? Primer and transparent laquer I already have, so those I don't need. Updates will follow a lot quicker now, if all goes well!
Yesterday I went to a DIY store. I ended up going home empty handed because those n00bs didn't sell any bondo or polyester based plaster. So today I went to another DIY store, they did have the gear I needed, so this time I went home pretty exited. As proof I have added an image.
Defyant makes bondoing look easy. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as he lets us think Yesterday I started bondoing on the backpanel of the case. There's a lot of tiny holes to be filled in that. I thought I would be smart, and put a little plexi panel on the back of it and stick that in position with tape. Works perfectly, the bondo hardly adheres to the plexi, so that's quite nice. I could easily tear the plexi off again. The slightly larger holes in the backpanel became a pain in the ass to me. First I stuck a plexi panel behind the holes, then I smear over a layer of bondo. Let it dry and you're off to sanding. Sounds good, but doesn't work that good. You need some force while sanding, but this force could also result in a breaking layer of bondo. Basically, I pushed the layer of bondo right back out of the hole I smeared it in. Right now I've fixed the problem, and yet another layer of bondo will go over the hole. After that the backpanel will be as good as finished. Then I will show you a picture of the result. And then I'm off painting the panel and bondoing the rest of the panels.
On with the pictures!! I've done quite some bondoing and sanding this weekend. The parts I finished bondoing have been sanded down as smooth as possible, and some new parts have been bondoed. Here's the bottom plate of the case. I bondoed the speaker mounting spot shut. No more silly holes there The other side of this plate has to be sanded a little bit, but this doesn't have to be as neat as this side, since it will not be visible. Next, we have the back of the case. There were just too many holes. Lots of holes have been bondoed shut now, but there's still a lot of sanding to do. The large, rectangular spot has been finished already. This is as smooth as a mirror, but without the reflections
Hi ReFred, one of the limitations of bondo is it needs a "surface" to stick to, when trying to fill holes there is very limited surface area for it to bond to. Hal got around the problem of holes in a side panel by using glue on the inside of his case as per the pic on his thread http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=91911 alternatively a metal panel glued on the inside of the rear panel might be a bit "neater" if the side window will show the area in question. subscribed
What I actually did, was stick an acrylic panel to the spot where I want to put bondo. As seen on this picture. This way I can bondo over it. When it's pretty dry I can just take off the acrulic, and I will have a bit of a blob on the inside. This can be easily sanded away. Like this it will also get very smooth in the end, which is important, since most of the case will be visible from the outside through the window.
Well, today I spent my entire day in the garden, setting up a painting booth and painting some case panels. The bottom panel is entirely finished now. I will first be spraying all of my panels and such, and when they are all done, I will move on to giving all parts a couple of clear coats. Here are some pictures for you. The first picture is the bottom plate of the case, with it's feet mounted to see if the paint clottered up the holes a bit, they still fit great! On the second picture, you see my home made camouflage paintjob. Try finding the parts on the partly sprayed (to match) newspapers
What being bored can't do with you... I decided to put the mainbord, graphics card, NIC and soundcard together. I made this quick ghetto setup of it, till the case is ready to house the gear again.
Right now I am applying some serious layers of bondo to the front of the case. The backpanel has been finished, except for the switch cutouts that I still need to do. I'll have a look at that later on next week. The bondo on the front panel will cover the lower two 5.25" bays and slope down to the center. Besides that, the back panel and the top panel of the case are being painted right now as well. I have no pictures of the progress unfortunately, since I am not able to do some serious uploading. I went straight over my bandwidth limit last month, so I have to find some other place to upload my images. Maybe I'll do that when I'm with my in-laws tomorrow. They don't have any limits
I've been working off and on the bondo for quite a few weeks now. It's an incredible amount of work, and I can hardly believe Defyant does his bondoing in such short periods of time. I know I'm not able to do that anyway. However, I'm trying as hard as I can! Here's a little thing I did today on two of my old harddisks. I will probably mount those inside as well. I think I'll make a plexi hdd rack for it, so the shine can still be displayed as good as possible. Before: After I will not be showing the other harddisk, since that one is quite errmm... scarred by the wound of war? =/
