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Project Metaversa: LCD goodness (small update 17/07/05)

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Nexxo, 11 Apr 2003.

  1. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    ...and then there's me, brand spanking new member of the ReviewNation team... just some pics to show (and keep track of) my project (which has developed far enough now to actually show something):

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    A Lian-Li PC-12 Dual Athlon of watercooled goodness. Throughout, I will endeavour to go with a Men-In-Black style black and chrome theme:

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    and a red MSI K7D-Master L with Paul Vodrazka's home made waterblocks:

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    The pump will be a 12V continuous rated Johnson pump, the slightly bigger brother of the Jabsco pump... around (edit: 400, not 200; thanks for pointing out, Penguin4x4) GPH at 4 ft. head...

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    with no effort spared to make things as silent as possible... rubber grommets everywhere...

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    ...and to make even little details, like case handles and fan grilles, look good.

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    Stay tuned... :D
     
    Last edited: 17 Jul 2005
  2. daydreamingknight

    daydreamingknight What's a Dremel?

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    SWEET!


    Looking forward to seeing more!!


    MORE!

    MORE!!


    DDK
     
  3. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    More progress: I polished the Aquatube mounting plate to a nice shine...

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    I have also had the Aquatube drilled out to fit wider barbs. That should take care of restrictions... :D

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    The eternal question: can you polish an aluminium Panaflo fan?

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    Yes, you can! :D Here a bit of "before and after":

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    I couldn't quite get the light to catch it, but it looks better in real life (and in the pictures further down):

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    I have been working out the internal arrangement of the components...

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    ... to arrive at a cardboard template for the mounting frame for the cooling assembly:

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    This is traced out on a piece of sheet aluminium (covered in our faithful friend: paper masking tape!):

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    And here is the finished product (aluminium cut, bent, sanded and polished; rubber grommets fitted):

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    Special thanks go to Steve Allen of the Birmingham University School of Sport and Exercise, who helped me out with their workshop, and did some trickier bits for me...

    Here is the unit fitted, without shroud or pump:

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    And the assembly test-fitted:

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    More to follow! :D
     
    Last edited: 27 Jan 2004
  4. Madyeti

    Madyeti Supermodder & sig shrinking victim

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    Ooooh! Looking nice! Subscribed to this one! ~Davy
     
  5. Shambla

    Shambla What's a Dremel?

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    Lookin very nice indeed so far - love the black and polished chrome theme too, not to mention the SMP Athlon MP goodness. Just out of interest, do you do a lot of work in any apps that benefit from SMP or is it more of a 'I've got more processing power than you could ever imagine' thing? :lol: Either is a good enough reason IMO. Anyway look forward to some updates and keep up the good work
     
  6. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    Well, it's sort of a "creamy SMP smoothness" thing. I want to be able to do everything at once. I don't want to have to drum my fingers while my PC juggles various tasks, I want to be able to surf in multiple windows, while piping music through the cable, while rendering some pictures in the background, and having it do cool visualisation stuff on the 5" colour LCD built in the case, all at once...

    I did mention the 5" LCD screen, did I? :D

    Anyway, dual processors just look pimp... :D
     
  7. eddie_dane

    eddie_dane Used to mod pc's now I mod houses

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    I really like that bracket you fashioned and how that fan came out... really nice
     
  8. Shambla

    Shambla What's a Dremel?

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    Oooh 5" LCD screen sounds good to me - always a good addition to any Lian Li as Phire and many others have shown and I take it its going in the tradditional 3 1/2" bay slot? Anyway back to SMP I have a couple more questions just outta interest: What speed are the MPs and how much RAM are you coupling with it (a gig at least I imagine). I have often been tempted by SMP especially since the introduction of MPX boards like the MSI you've got. Problem would be that even tho I do quite a bit in Photoshop, I just dont need the extra horsepower - if I finally get around to learning 3D Studio Max (like I have been meaning to for ages) then that may change.
     
  9. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    Yup, the 5" screen will indeed go into the 3.5" bay. This will also save me having to adapt the floppy cradle to accomodate the BIX assembly (not that that would have been a problem). On the screen, I will be running MBM 5 and Glint.

    Glint? Yes indeedy! Glint is a systems monitoring program that measures pretty much anything that goes on in your PC (up to 100 different processes) and displays them, in real time, in pretty little graphics:

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    It's a free download, works on Windows 2000 and XP, and you can get it :here:.

    I will be going for the fastest MPs I can buy at the time (haven't yet bought them-- I'm not that far yet anyway so why buy them when you know their price is always dropping as faster ones come out?), and as you correctly summise, at least one gig of memory, otherwise there would be little point to the dual MPs. They need some room to work in. :D

    EDIT: I keep forgetting. The Lian-Li PC-12 is a very nice case, but despite appearances, the grille does not have very big holes at all (more like little slits, really --in that respeect its siblings of the PC60's series have much better ventilation). This does not deter a modder, though. :dremel: I painstakingly drilled out and squared (with a needle file) all the holes in the grille. This mod has been done before on this type case, and is said to improve temps by at least a couple of degrees... we'll see. Below is a pic of when one half of the grille was done, to show you the difference:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: 27 Jan 2004
  10. Shambla

    Shambla What's a Dremel?

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    Good to see you have something more than winamp visualisations planned for the 5" (though they are undeniably cool) - that Glint program looks pretty interesting, I presume it works in much the same way as LCDC or whatever but displays it on the 5" rather than a serial LCD (programming people, feel free to correct me if I am wrong).

    Sounds like a good plan on waiting for the MPs, after all as you say they are always coming down in value and there is no point in having them sit around doing nowt. I am in the same situation as I am collecting the funds for a second system (for some good wholesome LAN action) - I am gonna get the case down first like you are doing. That'll keep me busy for a while whilst I find some work to pay for the system itself.

    Wise decision on the front fan grill as I am sure those MPs could use it - I even felt my old PC70 could have done with a little more ventilation at the front, and that was with a single XP. Anyway, keep us posted on the mods,
     
  11. NiHiLiST

    NiHiLiST New-born car whore

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    What can I say? :jawdrop: I want your skillz/money/time/1337.

    Edit: 1000th post :D :clap:
     
  12. DETN8R

    DETN8R What's a Dremel?

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    Re: Project Metaversa

    Where did you get that chrome/aluminum thing on the fan?
     
  13. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    Actually, those are "Tenderfeet"...

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    They are some of those specialist Hi-Fi anti-vibration feet that people put under their stereos to (presumably) reduce sound distortion. They come in various sizes, and in both aluminium and black:

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    and cost about £13,-- for a set of three. Bargain!

    My application is as follows... Before:

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    (note that the ThermalTake logo is the wrong way around; that's how I had to mount the grilles to make a good fit with the rubber edge moulding. But I didn't want the logo anyway, hence this solution)... After:

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    :D

    The moral of the story? There is an amazing ammount of modding stuff out there, in unusual places. Look at esoteric Hi-Fi stuff, car customising mods (particularly in-car entertainment stuff) etc. I'm currently looking for car starter cable organisers as these, I suspect, will come in useful tidying up those rounded Floppy/HDD cables. :naughty:

    P.S. Mounted the pump onto the assembly today. Can't wait to show you the pics!
     
    Last edited: 27 Jan 2004
  14. Haddy

    Haddy World Domination

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    Thats pretty modtastic right there....Plus its watercooled...Bonus!

    Keep up the good work :thumb: :dremel:
     
  15. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    As the Haagen Das commercial teaches us: "Watercooling is the Path to Joy." :D
     
  16. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    OK, time to update:

    I've now fitted the pump, making the cooling assembly more or less complete. I am now proceeding with the case mounting bits...

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    And I've done the rear fans. A second fan made it a tight fit, but with careful cutting of the rubber trim and rubber grommets, it fits (by the way, for a 80mm fan cut a 76mm hole, and cut trim to 26cm lenght; once fitted you only have to remove about 4mm of the rubber trim for a tight, and near seamless, fit. Don't try to estimate trim length by using the pi value, it don't work that way!).

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    And here are the fans fitted. I used the Thermaltake grilles that came with the fans, and superglued the Tenderfeet (mentioned above) in the center (using Gel superglue; handy stuff!).

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    Close-up:

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    And the case as it is at the moment:

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    Some way yet to go! :D

    edit: you're not imagining things: I changed two pictures for hopefully better quality ones...
     
    Last edited: 27 Jan 2004
  17. Lord_A

    Lord_A Boom baby!

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    Looking good dude :clap:
     
  18. Boz

    Boz What's a Dremel?

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    looking very nice indeed, may i ask where you got those aluminium feet from? ive been hunting around for feet for my watercooling box for ages and those look perfect.
     
  19. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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  20. kong

    kong cnc-guy

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    When I saw your name in the logs list, I knew it would be a classy machine! Love it so far, all the shiney goodness, and the waterblocks - WOW! You obvously have far too much money! Keep it up!:clap:
     

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