Scratch Build – In Progress "The Golden Sail" - update 12/24/09

Hello,

Now it´s the time for a something bigger project, after my “masterpiece” (Sine curve) gets slowly long in the tooth.



The aim of the project is nearly similar how by my project Sine curve, briefly speaking I´ll try to build an “ideal PC”. But how it is by every “ideal”, it isn´t possible, you could only approach on it. Moreover everybody of us has another view of an ideal PC. But generally a PC should have a lot of performance (power), should be very silent, nobody around the world should have the same case, all people should stand in front of the PC and say only “WOW” and at least the PC should be as small as possible.
All who thinks now “Yeah eventual a little gaming PC”, I have to fail you, because the pc will have at the end a similar size how the Sine curve and the CoolIT PC. The reason for that is on the one hand that I don´t play a LAN-parties, so it doesn´t matter whether the PC weighs 5kg or 30kg. On the other I able to implement the other three features (performance, super silent and unique design).
















I want to create a computer in the shape of a sail that stands on a socket. The sail will be made of gfk and the socket of aluminum. A central theme will be the water-cooling system. The long Plexiglas tube in the front will be later the reservoir for the cooling circuit. In the tube with a diameter of 40mm will be a tube with a diameter of 12mm. This smaller tube has in the upper part a lot of very little holes. Through these holes the water that comes from the socket will splash at the inner site of the thicker tube. This has two advantages in my eyes, on the one hand the reservoir wouldn´t mist up and on the other hand it looks better. The reservoir will be illuminated by two Highpower LEDs, one at each of the two ends. For the cooling I take highly likely radiators from coolIT systems with peltier-elements, because they cool better than normal radiators.
The inner case will be impressed with 24 carat leaf gilding. To get a contrast to the gold all hardware will be black just like the tubing and the water cooling fitting (black nickel). Moreover all cables will be sleeved with black sleeve. To get a great illumination the inner case will be illuminated by two high-power LEDs. Besides the two single radiators the PSU and the pump find a place in the lower part of the sail. The hdd/ssd and the optical drive find their place in the socket. The optical drive is at the back of the socket just like a 230V power connection.
At the back of the sail will be leaf gilding, too. These will be illuminated by 5mm diffuse LEDs, which shine how all the other LEDs in warm white.

Well after some words about my “plan” where the separate things find their place in the case I tell you something about the hardware I´ll use. But at first I want to say a big

THANK YOU​

to all the following companies how support this project, because without them the project wouldn´t exist.
















































Because I´m not sure about all hardware I´ll use I start with the hardware with is to 99.9% sure


Mainboard: EVGA X58 SLI LE

CPU: Intel Core i7-920

RAM: CompuStocx Diablo3 6GB 2000Mhz Kit

PSU: be quiet Dark Power Pro 100W

Pump: Laing DCC
Radiator for the cooling circuit: CoolIT Freezone Elite Chiller (only the radiator)

Fans: NB-Multiframe® S-Series MF8-S2 und NB-Multiframe® S-Series MF12-P

CPU block: EK-Supreme - Acetal

Sleeve: MDPC Sleeve

LEDs: Seoul Z-Power P4 Star, 2 Chip Superflux LED und diffuse 5mm LED


So and now we come to the hardware that I contemplate, but that isn´t sure.


Video card: GeForce GTX 280 or Radeon HD 4870 with at least 1GB RAM and also water-cooled with EK Waterblocks

HDD: 2 x 1TB

Optical drive: slimline slot-in DVD burner

Tubing/water cooling fittings: 10/8 black tubing and 10/8 black nickel fittings




Well I hope that I could give you a more or less good view about my idea for a nearly ideal PC. Certainly I am looking forward to criticism, suggestions, opinions etc. during the whole process of this project log.

Concluding it´s to say, that I´ll try to provide you each one or two weeks during the next 4 months, 4 days, 4 hours and 4 minutes, because after that it´s the 09/09/2009 9.09 o´clock (at least in Germany) and this is the ideal time for some (final) pictures of the wedding between the case and the hardware…

 

Oh...oh my.

Subb'd.

I look forward to this one

 

Hello

you have high targets, I will follow this project in two forums to see the progress. I think you will attend the dccm with that case, or I'm wrong?

The skteche looks like the burj al arab. But they are very nice.
These scratch build will be very heavy, if it's done, and also very huge.

I'm intent of the first pictures from the building process.

 

Very cool! Subscribed

 

I keep clicking on the title, hoping you have posted the start of your build photos... I am on the edge of me seat here, I loved Sine, and this design looks wonderful too. I love your attitude to computers as pieces of modern sculpture.

Build photos... to keep me from squirming?

 

So I think it´s time to inform you about the current situation of the project. Unfortunately I could show/tell/write, because I haven´t the Plexiglas tube for the reservoir yet, but I´ll should get it this week.

Nonetheless I build the appliance to warm up and bend the tube. This was indeed more difficult than I thought, because nowhere I founded some progress reports about bending a 130cm long Plexiglas tube. Therefore I had to think of myself how I´ll bend such a tube, whereby to bend it isn´t such a big problem rather to warm it up. For this problem I had two ideas. The first one was to build a box in that I put the form over which I would bend the tube and the tube itself. This box should headed up by a hot air blower, but I think that is very difficult to get a constant temperature in it for maybe 20 minutes, so I discard this idea. Because of this I´ll try my fortune with my second idea. At this the tube will rotate and I´ll try to warm it up with two hot air blowers. Certainly I don´t know if my deliberations are right, but I´ll know it after the first attempt. Well that you have a better imagination what my idea is, here some pictures of the bend-setup, indeed without the tubing, that I´ll glue between the two Plexiglas slices.





Unfortunately this was all that I made last week, and I couldn´t write anymore. The only thing that I could say is that the aluminum socket will be most likely a stainless steel socket.



At least a picture that the postmen bring me last week…

…what inside is I´ll show you in one of the next updates.

@ringo: Thank you, well I´ll only come to the dcmm if it´s eighter relative near to my home or it´s within a great or with seeing fair. But I didn´t had the dccm in my head than I plan the case.

@Fisher/Macros_the_Black/Van Lazuli: Thank you and I try that your aren´t disappointed!!!

 

What you might want to consider for bendig the tube is to fill the tube with sand. Otherwise it could be, that the tube collapses.
The sand has another good reason to it aswell, as it keeps the temperature for very much longer.

 

::Adds another bullet point to the "Alternative Uses for Legos" list::

Can't wait to see MOAR!

 

i cant tell what the legos for..

but cool

nice bracket...
and yeah i agree with the sand idea works alot better

 

I wondered those legos too, until i noticed that intention is to use them to connect that drillpress to rotate tube. Like an right angle attachment.

I'll hope it works.

Sand would be good idea too, but in that postion it might make tube too heavy and it may crack, doesn't know for sure thought, but i might put that guide sidewards in that case.

Interesting desing in this case, i'll be following it.

 

Now I want to get in touch, although I didn´t do a lot of the last two weeks, because of a little misunderstanding with the Plexiglas tubes. But at Monday I could hold the tubes in my hand. The tubes are sponsored by KÖNIG Kunststoffe


At first I take a piece of the tube and put it into the oven to test at that temperature the tube is bendable.


The result of the test was that the tube is bendable from 145°C and over 165° emerge bubbles in the Plexiglas. Now some people would ask themselves why I want to know this. Reason of this is that I got a great idea under the shower. The idea was to heat up the sand which I´ll fill into the tube. And this hot sand would warm up the tube very consistent.
During the sand was in the oven I tested my spin mechanism with the cold tube and made some photos of it.





Before I put the hot sand into the tube I inserted a fabric tube into the Plexiglas tube. So the sand wouldn´t contact the Plexiglas tube and don´t scratch it. This fabric tube I sewed before two weeks.




Well and now the series of mishaps started. Unfortunately I haven´t no pictures of it, because I was alone at the shop. But I´ll try to explain it with words, if I´ll be successful I don´t know.

At first I fill the sand into the red fabric tube that was into the Plexiglas tube by the help of a funnel. That works relative good, but at the end a little bit sand flowed between the fabric tube and the Plexiglas tube, because I pour in too much sand into the funnel (mishap #1)
Ready with this I screwed down the tube and inserted it in the spin mechanism. Thereby I noticed the tube was a little bit bend. This wasn´t good at this moment, because the tube had an unbalance by the time of rotation. After some seconds the Lego gear were destroyed as result of the unbalance (mishap #2)
Well now I had to rotate the tube with the hand at this I noticed the tube had to grind at two sites, because at this sites were scratches around the tube (mishap #3)
After 5 minutes I had the feeling that the tube is ready to bend. I took it at one site out of the mounting and try to bend it. Unfortunately the tube wasn´t at one end and at a site in the middle smooth enough for bending, so the tube got a little kink at the middle (mishap #4)
The one end I had heat up again with the hot air blower that I hold in the one hand, and with the other hand I hold the tube that it could slide down. Because of this I hadn´t another hand for bending the tube and took my foot. The problem was, that I haven´t such a sensitivity in my foot. I put too much pressure onto the tube and the seal break away from the tube. So the sand flowed out of the tube (mishap #5)

How you could see nearly all went wrong. At the following picture you could see how it looks at the end



And so looks the tube after I released all the sand of the Plexiglas tube


In my opinion the result isn´t really miserable, but I don´t like the kink and the scratches.



So I´ll try it once again in the hope that the next tube won´t have a kink and scratches. Certainly I´ll change some things.
The greatest modification is that I won´t use the spin mechanism again, because I won´t need it. I´ll heat up the tube at ca. 100°C with the hot air blower. After this I´ll fill in sand that is 175°C hot. And so the tube and the sand will be 155°C hot, and this temperature is enough to bend the tube.

In the hope that I´ll a get a great bend tube with my next try I´ll start with the Styrodur from this weekend.

Moreover I have some „Hardware-News“. Instead of the Aqaustream pump I´ll use a

Desweiteren gibt es noch ein paar „Hardware-News“. Statt der eigentlich geplanten Aquastream DDC pump taht I get from Laing. Besides I´ll get from OCZa Vertex 60GB SSD that will I use as for the OS. I also get support from Dremel and highly likely from Aquatuning.


Well and now I haven´t to write anything. But if you have questions please ask me and I´ll try to give you an answer. Moreover I would be happy about suggestions and criticism

 

The result is very good actually when considering that this is the first try.

The solution you're going to try next sounds reasonable and it should result in a well bend tube imho.

So far

 

great work although it didnt turn out 100% looks great for first attempt keep it up

 

the golden sail - tube bending the second

How I promised you I try to bend the Plexiglas tube again. I did all how I described in my last update and so looks the tube directly after the bend process



Than the sand was cold I let it drain out…

…and refill it with hot sand.


So looks the bend tube without the orange fabric hose.


After this I cleaned the tube with water to make some more pictures of it.



To protect the tube from scratches I swathed i tat first with stretch leaf and then with crepe tape



Well unfortunately I haven´t no more news from the build. Certainly there are two new “hardware news”. On the one hand I´ll use these compact black nickel fittings that I´ll from aquatuning. Moreover the T-Balancer will be employed to see the temperatures and the flow rate at the desktop.

 

first of this is incredible!!!
If you're planning on protecting yourtube with that tape for a long time be carefull... It has a tendency to get Very Sticky unless ofcourse you have a method to clear it of... i once had to throw a perfectly good case window out because i couldn't get the tape of, of the plexi...
Subb'd

 

Nice idea for a case - What are the black fins at the top of the case front in this render - CoolIT radiator?

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc82/Superpeter69/3-104.jpg

 

looks much better good work

 

Very interesting concept. I really like the way you bent the tube.
The sand was a great idea.

 

After I bended the tube more or less good I could start with the positive form of the sail. For this I built at first a Styrodur cutter/thermo saw. Certainly the saw didn´t work at the beginning. I planned to use a 20W transformer, but this worked only 5 minutes. Fortunately I had another transformer with 160W at home and also some 2.5 ohm resistive wire.




Ready with it I could start with cutting the Styrodur into shape. For this I made at first 3 stencils (bottom, back, side)



Now I started with cutting the 3 pieces into shape




To get a better imagination of the size I put it near the Sine curve


I know that I will be a really big PC and that it´s possible to make it a little smaller, but more than 10% smaller isn´t possible. And if I´ll make it 10% smaller I would get at some sites space problems maybe. So I decided to make it rather a little bit bigger before I get into trouble with the space.


Ready with the “base frame“ I filled one site with Styrodur, for the other site I had no more time, but I´ll try to fill the other site tomorrow evening





@LooZyther: Thank you for the tip with the tape, but fortunately I put at first very thin leaf at the tube and only then the tape.

@Monkey Puzzle: Yes the black fins should be a cool IT radiator, but I don´t know to 100% if I´ll install a radiator at this place.

 

looks like the al burj hotel in dubai

Nice work, very unique concept, perhaps golden tubing or solid yellow tubing would be better? Solid black tubing has honestly been done to death...