Scratch Build – In Progress Project : Redemption - Completed Pics Page 2

Named in part after The Shawshank Redemption film which is an awesome film.

I've got a new PC which I'll be using as a Media Player / Blu-Ray Player which hooks up to my 32" LCD TV.

At the moment it's caseless (less than ideal) so I'll be building one from scratch.



Title will be laser etched pictures will be either laser etched ,stickers or something else and will include other films / characters like WALL-E and the Batman logo, also possibly an Alien or Predator shot.

Stickers would be easier for a maintenance point of view and easier to change but may not look quite as good after a time. Whereas etching would look awesome but it would have to be a film I would always love.

 

So I got my Perspex Rods back from the machine shop today.





Large pics so I had them as thumbnails instead. They look swish and I'm looking forward to putting it all together.

 

Nice idea for A HTPC

much nicer then some on the market, which look awful!

 

Figured it was about time I put some specs down for this build

Specs -
Asus P5N7A-VM (with onboard 9300 HDMI)
Intel Q9450
4Gb G.Skill 6400
LG Bluray Drive
OCZ ModXstream 400W
1Tb Samsung (nearly full already)

Windows 7 Home

 

Spent a little bit of time on it today.

In the garage with the wind howling, not that I could hear it as I was listening to Dragonforce on my Ipod.


Anyway I had some rod left over for the feet of the case, so today's task was to get them sorted.

First a case of cutting the rod into sections of 3cm



Had to go slow but found that spraying WD40 on the blade every so often made it a lot easier and they were done. Still had to sand the ends down a little. Can you tell which I've done?



Then all I had to do was drill a hole through the centre. Oh god if it was only that simple. Out came the pillar drill look-a-like.



Getting things centred is a nightmare when you don't have the proper tools to do the job. I made up a rig to hold the rod sections in place and so it should have just been as simple as lowering the drill...Except it wasn't.

I've ruined a couple (good job I have more rod spare), as they were just off centre by a fly's todger so things didn't line up correctly.

Finally I got one completed, another nearly done and a third ready to drill. Guess I need to cut another one.



I also bought some of this from *cough* B&Q which I plan to use later.



Hopefully I can get some more done during the week.

 

Figured this was due an update. I been busy the last few days with Monolith so this has been put on the back burner a little.

However...

I've ordered the perspex sheeting, thats due any day now

I've got an easier (and cheaper) way of putting images on the panels, although they won't be etched I'm hoping it will still look the mutts nuts. (cheers woody )

I've picked up some rubber channelling which will be used as anti-vibration for the panels.

I'm still looking for more film suggestions that I can put on the case.

 

oooh another update

BTW - All my images are now linkies as they can be large and stretch the forum something wicked.


My perspex arrived today, took a few shots of it (yeah you've probably all seen perspex before, but I'm going to show you anyway)







Its a nice Red Tint which I got from International Displays otherwise known as Plastic Online at Ebay

I've also got a sheet of Gloss Black (identical to Monolith), heres an off cut



Heres that Runner Channelling I was on about earlier too.





As you can see the plan is to have it fit onto the side panels and then I can slide them in and out of the Corners sections easily. It'll also help stop vibrations in the panels.



Here's an image I'm toying with currently. I've printed it out onto a Clear Vinyl Sticker which I can then stick onto the case.

Sorry for these last few pics, its very hard to get a good picture of a transparent, glossy surface.

White Background


No Background


I'm planning on using the Chest Piece as a power button so it'll glow a little too.

Keep your ideas coming folks

 

Quick update

Did some painting over the weekend. Couple of coats of frosting.



I think it still needs a couple more coats to get the desired effect.

Hope to spend some time on it again tomoro.

 

After a couple of coats of Frosting I have the desired effect for the perspex rod corners.



Also I got the feet finished with drilling countersunk holes for my socket headed bolts



Fit in nicely now.



and bolted together.




In other news....

I had to send my Mobo back a while ago (29th Oct) as it was a duffer. Finally got through to Aria chasing it up and they told me that it's a discontinued product and they gave me a refund. Thanks a lot. In the meantime I bought a new board from mini-itx.com which arrived today.

Zotac 9300 ITX - My god is this thing small..holy hell.





But its jam packed with stuff.

Rear Panel Connectors:
PS2 Keyboard, S/PDIF optical digital audio out, S/PDIF coaxial digital audio out, VGA, DVI-I; HDMI; 6x USB 2.0; eSATA; Realtek RTL8211CL Gigabit LAN; 3x 3.5mm audio connectors, Antenna Socket for WiFi.

Board connectors:
6x USB 2.0 connectors on 3x 9pin headers; 2x DDR2 667/800 DIMM sockets; 3x SATA 3GB/s ; PCI Express 2.0 x16 (supports Hybrid SLI); S/PDIF; 20pin ATX power connector and 4pin 12V power connector (both must be connected); BIOS jumper; Chassis intrusion; LGA 775 processor socket; Chassis Fan; CPU Fan; FPANEL.

I mean jezus, what more do ya need?!?

Looks like I'll have to either buy a smaller cooler or mod the current Arctic Freezer 7 Low Profile, it's a tight squeeze for sure. but I'll leave that for another update.

 

Welcome to the small world of mini-ITX. It still impresses me how much technology they can stuff on the ITX boards even though I've built a dozen or so of them.

 

I like the shawshank redemption I watched it just a few days ago

 

It is an ace film. Even if it is set in a prison..mind you the green mile is also pretty good and thats prison based too. Anyway on with an update.

Here is the problem. The board is very compact and the cooler is quite large. I've got the heatpipes touching the chipset cooler.



The real killer is that it overhangs my RAM slots.



Causing me to only be running 2gb instead of the 4gb I have reserved for it. Still I'm sure it can be fixed with a dremel

On to more exciting things now.

I've got my Red Tint perspex being cut in the next few days (all being well) which will include some "extra" work which I'm looking forward to seeing.

I've made my Hard drive mounts now too, basically 4 clear perspex square dowels.





I'm undecided whether to frost them or not, as they don't look too bad at the moment anyway. I'm sure someone will make a decision over the coming weeks. (either me or management )



I got some felt pads which I will be putting between the dowel and the drives to prevent vibrations. They are pretty thin but I'm sure they will do the job.






I need to work out how to join up some LED's to a molex connector (pretty straight forward I think), but then I would like to be able to dim or turn them off completely which I think might prove difficult. The only think I can see which might do it is an X10 controller which of course isnt compatible with the Logitech Harmony 555 Remote I'm looking at.

Any ideas on how to do it remotely?

 

Bummer about the cooler - I put a shedload of research into mine (you should post this log at Losias.net too) and got one that fits _perfectly_ and runs a fair few degrees cooler than the stock.

 

stonedsurd - I'll keep an eye on the temps once I've hacked the fins down.

Oooooooooooooh..DELIVERIES!!!

Perspex for the base all cut and ready to go.


Oh look a switch..A Vandal Switch even


Mounting the feet.


Building the corners up.


Added the top too. Startin to look like a box now...


Screwed together has a nice sandwich on the red perspex. Should look even better with the protective covering removed.


Topped off with a Socket Head. Should contrast nicely.


The award to roughest mockup ever goes to.............

Must be me then

Still need to drill various mounting holes for PSU, Mobo etc, and work out the cable management. I'm going to be using a Top Angle PSU lead to a socket so my power lead won't be coming out of the side panel and ruin the looks.

Last but not least. A quick teaser.

 

Looks awesome, mate.

Sub'd

 

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed the bowing of the base panel

I'm a little miffed at that tbh as I was assured (by the perspex supplier) that the 5mm would be strong enough NOT to bow under the weight..Ho Hum life goes on.

I need to do another mockup (with items in the correct places rather than just casually thrown on) and check the issue. I'm tempted to place another foot in the centre of the panel. This would be a clear version of the feet so as not to draw attention to itself. Leaving the base as an elongated 5 spot on a die..except its a little big to be rolling

Time will tell I guess.

 

So I'm supposed to be resting after my operation but I've been bored so I sleeved my 3x 80mm fans.

btw all these images are clickable so I don't stretch the place


I've also hacked off the 3pin header plug which I won't be using. Not just because my mobo only has 2 fan connectors (with one being the CPU fan), but because I felt the urge to.


So now it's just molex powered which is fine by me especially as they are quiet fans anyway, if they were delta's it would be a whole different ballgame.

Here's a better picture of the mobo for size reference, apparently a pen isn't good enough


Also spent a bit of time butchering the heatsink so I could fit my 2nd stick of RAM in. It's not pretty but if it still cools fine then I'll tidy it up.

 

Damn it's been cold today...so I stayed indoors yet again.

Today's tasks were to hunt through my boxes (and boxes, and boxes, and boxes) of junk for things that were useful.

Some power switches and LED's


After a bit of time spent doing some rewiring and cable management and voila.
BETTER power switch with LED




Also found this little beauty. Obviously custom-made just for such an occasion, but not custom enough for me.


I'll be damned if I work outside in this cold today, but maybe I'll venture out in the next few days.

Oh and Happy New Year!!

 

Subbed!!!