– Chapter 0 : Préambule – Music DJ : "Handlebars", by Flobots. Hello boyz & girls of Bit-Tech ! Here is my first (and as far as I can say, my last) workblog. I've made nothing yet, but I already have the concept (somewhere in my head, between the socks and some mojitos after party). I start with a basic idea and a simple philosophy : When you don't have the money, you have the ideas. A stupid idea... is also an idea. And having stupid ideas is one of my favorite hobby (with photographing, because I'm a professional photographer, pushing grandmas in stairways and drinking weird cocktails). <!-- End of the workblog. --!> • Ok. For those who'd like to know more, here is what I expect from my project (better known as "The Stoupid Project 1.0" because I still haven't find a name), there is a short program (like in ice-skating): I want an acrylic case. I want no visible screws. By the way... I want no screw. I want it easy to mount (and demount). In one word : ergonomic. I want a perfect cable management. Last but not least, I'd like to make it without losing my hand (and without having to sell my kidneys). Because the funny part is I don't know a thing about working with acrylic, and I never touch a Dremel in my whole life. Anything more ? Oh, yes, I forgot : I want an Aston Martin DB9 and Nathalie Portman's phone number. Thanks for asking. "And now, let's make some LSD !" [But before that, I have to learn how to use Google Sketchup... Please wait, be back in 42 minutes.] PS : Please, forgive me for my bad english
– Chapter I : Inspirations – – Chapter I : Inspirations – DJ Master : "Appartment Story", by The National Here is where I start doing a groupie, where I put my mini-skirt, and where I start howling (because a real groupie doesn't shout, she howls) : "I love very very (very) much what you build !". And because it's hard to be a genius (and because I'm not one), I choosed the easy way : inspiring myself from the bests ("Inspired from the bests, handkrafted like the worsts). And this is definitly my dream team : [*] The Corsair Obsidian 800D [*] The Cygnus X1 [*] The Lian-Li Tyr PCX-2000 Window Edition [*] The Silverstone TJ07 [*] The Neptune's Trident [*] Some Nutella and other mojitos stuffs. What coarsely makes an equation like this : And what is the rendering with Sketchup ? Huch... can you imagine a baboon playing hokey with a cheesecake ? This is how my disastrous trial on Sketchup looks like (even worst) : - Front view - Right view (back of the case) - - Left view (front of the case) - - Left lower back three quarter sight (it sounds like a skateboard trick... do we say like that ?) - - Right upper back three quarter sight - Note : I understand nothing at Sketchup. So I didn't manage to modelise the panels of the case. But they will be supposed to look like the Lian Li Tyr's : And now, I have to explain : The casings ("carter" on the pictures) for the radiators will be in white opaque acrylic. They will support the radiators, the ventilators, and will work as aerodynamic skirts. The HDD and PSU casing will be in purple acrylic (I don't know why purple, my mind told me it will be purple, so it will be purple). Or maybe blue. The PSU will be in the back. The airflow will come from the third ventilator of the 360 radiator. The upper will be like the Cygnus', but not as beautiful, I guess... The wich lead to this architecture was to transform the left panel (in the back) into a tank, for the watercooling system. I have to learn a little bit to see if such a big and high tank won't be a problem for the waterflow. A DVD player... hum... a DVD player... (what the hell is that thing ? Is it edible ?) The small ugly block in the front of the computer case will support the dust protection filter. There will be a monobloc shell (in one black acrylic leaf), like in the Silverstone TJ07. The side panels will be black and trasparency. I'm thinking about covering them with [censured] but It will be for the end of the mod. I will use kilometers and kilometers of sleeves to braid the shell (ouch ! my fingers !) The mod will be black, white, blue and purple. As you can see, that's a stoupid project... This architecture is supposed to host my next workstation. I have no hardware with me, because I'm working on an iMac, and this will be my first PC. I'm not very hurry because I expect the price will be lower when the mod will be finished. For the hardware, I hope they will be a motherboard porwered with a chipset able to manage Sata 6Gb, because I'm a photographer and I need a lot of speed for Photoshop, Lightroom and other software (which is not the case with my iMac), and they will be a lot of hard drives (because all of my pictures are cloned in three different HDD). I think I said everything. Now, I have to buy a Dremel and some acrylic leaves. But before that, next level : making a model out of paperboard, to check if everything will match, and because I will build it like an "origami". Thanks for reading. See you at the next Chapter
haha man! this should be interesting! you inspired me, thats for sure, and for that, have a little rep enjoyed the reading
Hey, thank's a lot oldnewby ! Your nearly following will be an high honour, and I'll be a bit under pressure (because you're stille the Master, and me, the stoupid Padawan). But in France, near Bordeaux, we have a saying : "We don't undergo the pressure, we drink it !" [I don't know if the joke works in english , but in France, if you ask for a "pressure", you will get a good beer (if you're lucky), or a bad beer (that's quite most of the time). I'm sorry WarrenJ, I'm not an Elphe anymore : I stopped after dying three times, and that hurts a lot. But if you talk about the cable management, it will work, yes : Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul. Thanks a lot p0Pe [Huch... what is a "rep" ?... ] Today, I won't work a lot. I'm supposed to take pictures in the "Ecole des Beaux-Arts". It's gonna be awesome (with a lot of young pretty françaises in mini-skirts, and a beautifularchitecture).
Wow, what you may lack in previous build experience you certainly make up for in presentation! A lot of fun to read, definately going to follow this one
Thanks Oliver, but you know, in real life, I'm like that : a sort of giant big joke. I think my mother sang me "Don't worry, be happy" a little bit too much when I was a child. @ p0Pe : Thanks a lot for the explanation. Having fun is good for health. Yeeaaaaah [And thanks a lot for reading me.] [....] And now.... – Chapter Z : This is not an update. But... – Music DJ : "Breathe", by try∆d. You know, yesterday, I wrote I had to take pictures of the "Ecole des Beaux-Arts", which lead me to talk about the girls, the mini-skirts (and stuffs like that). Today, I have to reveal you a very inconvenient truth : The most amazingly-pretty-beautiful-sexy-hot-cute-youplaboumtralala girls I saw in the street weren't French. Shame on us ! I guess this is a good reason to emigrate (maybe somewhere in Italia or in Sweden or in Finland). • But don't worry, there is a solution : overclocking ! And I'm sure french girls have an high overclocking potential. Yeah So, I didn't work at all on my mod (physically talking, but I didn't sleep because I tried to count acrylic sheeps...), but I have some photo to show you. And, maybe, you will forgive me. Enjoy (and maybe, see you one day in Paris). Camera : Leica M8 // Lens : Summicron 28 ASPH With some comments: From the outside, the school is messy and dirty. Nothing to worry, my school looks the same. • But inside... it's just absolutely amazing. It's like a museum : if my school have looked like this, I guess I would be more at work in the labs, and less on my computer. • On my point of view, the most impressive is the library. It's that kind of place, when you get in, you just tell yourself "if I were illiterate, I would probably learn reading in one hour, and then pass au my days and nights with the books". I like that. For the modders, the last picture is the most important : I present you the ultimate camera to take great pictures of your mods. It's a large format camera, brandmark Sinar, and if you have the luck know a photographer, from your friends, or the friends of your friends, even from the friends of your enemies, this is THE camera to borrow him. Why so ? Because it allows what we call "tilt & shift". Why using the tilt-shift ? Because of the perspective. For example, when you take a picture of an high tower from the street, you can see the extreme left and right lines meeting each other on the same point. And you're beautiful tower, which is classically supposed to be a rectangle with parallel lines, becomes an horrible triangle. That's good for all day pictures, but not when you make architecture photography. In one word, it's a question of correction of the perspective (ok, in four words) What is link with modding ? Well... when you take picture of your case with exotics point of view, for example a low point of view, the camera will allow you to respect the parallelism of both sides of your case. Isn't it awesome ? For those who would like to more and understand french, here is a link about "Les décentrements en photo". For those who don't, there is a wikipedia page, "Tilt-shift photography"[/url. This page is not exhaustive, but it's a good start. And for those who would like to try one, I'm sure there is a photo store close to your place :wink: On the Internet, there is also some commercial websites, as RObert White Camera and Ffordes in UK, orB&H in USA. And don't remember the others, I'm very sorry
- Chapter 2 : Pizza boxes are my friends. - – Chapter 2 : Pizza boxes are my friends. – DJ master : "Paper Gangsta", by Lady Gaga. When I was a child, I had stupid habits. For example, as soon as I was in age to live alone in my own apartment, I stopped throwing away my toilet paper rolls (and when it happened, it was only because my girlfriend did some clean up without my approbation). My mother told me it was highly stupid and useless. I just thought it was funny, but deep inside of me, I agreed with the uselessness. Still... a little voice in my head (I've got a lot of little voices in my head) kept telling me "you never know, maybe one day it will save your life ! [Or not.]" Last friday night, while I was coming home totally drunk (normal, it was friday night, and I'm a student), I met five laptop's boxes, and a large piece of paperboard (2m x 1m). Youplaboum youpi ! That allowed me to start my mod, or the paperboard model of my mod. I introduce you to my week-end's best friends, and one of the laptop box : As you can see, these are very high-tech tools, and even the NASA is jealous of me. [...] The goal of making a model is quite simple : Check if my measures were good, and make a new calculation if necessary. Check if the folding I imagined was realizable, et adjust if necessary. Check how many screws I would need. Give me an idea of the size of the case. Measure the surface of acrylic I will have to buy. Stay all the sunny week-end alone at home, as the girlfriendless boy I am (Yeah ! ) For the folding and the assembling, I used three different technics : A notch system. For example, used to match the two parts of the casing for the radiators. A hole system, to fix different parts together (for example, the HDD casing and the radiator casing). A slot system, because I love slots, and to allow a future easy assembling and disassembling. As you can see (more "imagine" in my sketchups, the case is made from three main parts : the radiator part, the HDD part, and the tank. The motherboard is somewhere in the middle of that. I didn't make the tank, nor the panels, because I didn't have paperboard leafs large enough. But I made the back of the computer, which was still a little bit blur in my head. 1. Radiator casing. It's made from two pieces : the biggest one maintains the radiators, the other one maintains the ventilators. Each one is made in a single leag, cutted then folded. The radiators part : After the folding, it becomes : The ventilator part : After the folding, I fix the two parts together : And here is where you can laugh at me, discovering how they perfectly doesn't match at all But that's not a problem, and I'll see later if I can transform this lack into an asset. 2. HDD casing. It's also in two parts : one, which is fix and support the PSU and all the cables, and the other one, mobile, which support the HDD and hides the cables. After the cutting work : On the left the mobile part. On the right, what is supposed to be the fix part. But there was a little bit of wind, so I praise, and tried to take another photo : [Yeaaah ! ] Now, I try to fix th HDD casing with the rad casing: This time, it works. 3. The back part It was a problem, because I didn't have any paperboard large enough, and if it was large enoug, it wasn't rigid enough. And if it was rigid enough, it was too small. And... so, it drove me a little bit crazy And it holds without magic ! Youpi. And that's a good thing because I'm not allowed to tell you I come from Hogworts. You can notice the long and slim band, which runs from the HDD's to the radiators. This one will be for the cable management. 4. Comments. I'm quite happy for having make this model, even if my back and my hands are not. This gave me a better idea of the beast, and to notice a view folding problems. I prefer having this problems now than later with the acrylic without a clue to easily solve them. This also gave me the opportunity to imagine how the hardware will match (like in Tetris), and I proved myself I can do it (because I suffer of procrastination). For the negative side (there always is a negative side, event with Jedis), I clearly oversized the case (maybe it's better than undersizing...), and I'm sure I can make 10 centimetres smaller and shorter. And I will save 50€ in acrylic leafs. Finally, this update is not complete. I made the shell (in one leaf, remember, like in the Silverstone TJ07), but I finished after the sunfall, so I didn't have the time to take photos. But, trust me, that's not a big lose for modding : the shell is incredibly ugly... That's all folks. For today. See you soon
mmm pizzaaa im in france right now too but just for a school year abroad. Rennes est mauvais par rapport à Paris.
This is fun! Are you going to be doing this in folded acrylic? That will be very difficult, but it has the potential to be awesome.
Thanks. I'll be please to. [But before, I want my cake with black & white chocolate ] I hope you enjoy your year in Rennes. I don't remember it well (last time I was in, it was... 15 years ago), but it's a nice city. But if one day you come to Paris, I'll be nice to share a bear with you (and to show you our "geek street"). Thanks a lot, both of you For the folding work, yes, I know it's gonna be difficult, especially with my hand tools (and also a little bit my two left hands). But, from me to you, the most difficult part will be to do it well, and to do it well, I will have to stop drinking (the evil voice in my head is telling me "What the f*... hell? Stop drinking? No way! ". Shut up the evil voice ! ) For the next update, I still don't know if I will start by buying the fans, or buying the acrylic. It will depend of the money I'll have for the holiday (I know, in France, we always are in holidays). I'll let future choose for me (the future has a name, and this name is BAF, for Bank Acceptance Factor).
