Hi all – first time Modder here but I have experience with building my own PC from parts. Basically I am thinking of building a steampunk themed case to house my current rig. I am very much at the thoughts/plans phase and have a multitude of ideas in my head, just wanted to get some of your wisdom and knowledge about them. Firstly I plan to use my current system; Asus M4A87TD USB3 mobo, AMD athalon IIX4 640, NVIDIA GeForce GT 240. I am thinking of possibly adding water cooling for the CPU, but with the rest air cooled. The case will be made from 3mm aluminium with Perspex windows to show the insides, and have a mate who has advised me on a suitable paint scheme. I plan to house PSU/mobo/HDD/water cooling in their own separate areas within the case. With hatches allowing access to key areas of the case, and the other side swinging out to allow access to mobo. Front of the case – I am thinking of having a motif back light with l.e.d.s and using toggle switches for on/off and fan controllers, as well as analogue dials to show info like temperatures etc. Anyway that’s my idea – any suggestions/advice? apologies for the wall of text
Mahogany wood, leather and brass. Warm white LEDs imitating incandescent lights. Brass toggle switches.
Wire up a couple of lamp holders and fit some squirrel cage bulbs? Start routing around local junk shops, for broken clocks, brass items, crappy old wooden furniture. You'd be amazed at the random things you can find for really cheap.
You can also use Nixie tubes as digit display (temp monitoring, etc.). Ogilumen sell good kits : http://www.ogilumen.com/index.php
Good link! Thanks! I'm working on a Steampunk design (well, several). I'm thinking of Decatrons or Magic Eye tubes as HDD activity meters and power lights. See a nice Steampunk case with such a mod here.
Thanks for the link, it's a nice case and I always love to see circuit diagram You can have a look on eBay, I found nixie tubes that can displays symbols (°, Hz, A, V, etc.). It's pretty simple to drive and you can find DIY kits with socket, PSU and controller (mostly from the Arduino family). I have a project in mind to build a media center that use those tube to display tracks information. There's also a bar meter version of those tubes (elapsed time, etc.) Here's two video with good example : I wanted to mod my P182 to fit WC int it, with a Jules Verne / Victorian look, sort of Nautilus like case (corroded brass, submarine window, Glowing paint to simulate radioactive fluid leaks, etc.) But I try to keep myself working on a single project, else I'd have 100's project in progress and will never achieve a single one (I'm kind of a dreamer)
For some inspiration spend some hours on Filimon's home turf. It's in Russian but worth the effort. http://www.modding.ru/ or wander around the Tactile forums on brassgoggles. I play over there when it strikes my fancy to do obscure and esoteric projects. Datamancer shows up there too and many ideas abound. john
Yeah, Russians do great Steampunk mods. I have seen an awesome passively cooled PC with massive home-made copper heat sinks. Brass Goggles is good; I visit there. So is the Steampunk Workshop.
Russian, they are awesome at modding, steampunking, etc. I spent a lot of time on russian site. I make some LARP (Live Action Role Playing) and I find lots of stuff and tuto on russian site. Edit : I restored the youtube broken link above
Might seem like a foolish question but what films are steam punk style googles not loving me at the mo
Not foolish at all; the films that make a nod at the style do not explicitly call themselves Steampunk. But you could watch: Hellboy The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen City of Ember The Golden Compass The Time Machine (both versions) 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea
You could also watch: Wild, Wild West Van Helsing (mainly for the the weapons and the Frankenstein bits) Young Sherlock Holmes (the Spielberg movie) Sherlock Holmes (the 2010 version) TV series: Sanctuary (has some elements) Warehouse 13 (has some elements) Anime: Metropolis Steamboy
Nexxo beat me to the anime side. This person comes to mind too. --Link-- He has an art book out called 'Cannabis Works'. -Should be floating around the net... There's some of his animations on youtube as well.
Reminds me of the works of comic book artists Moebius (Jean Giraud --you'll recognise his work all over the film The Fifth Element) and Enki Bilal.
Yes! -another good example. I'll throw in googling Victorian ironwork to supplement Nexxo's Victorian engineering.
Definitely ironwork. I'd also Google for Crossness Pumping Station and other Victorian pumping stations and steam engines, Babbage's Difference Engine, orreries and telluriums, particularly the Planetarium-Tellurium by watchmaker Richard Mille, the Millennium Clock at the Museum of Edinburgh, the Clock of the Long Now at the London Science Museum, and valve amplifiers and valve radios (any you can find). These have all been my inspiration.
ok wow - sorry guys I haven't checked in on this thread for a while. I'm currently knocking up some ideas in sketch up. as this is going to be my first scratch build case - I'm dialing back my ambition a little, will post a sketchup picture sometime soon.
