Hi Guys, my name is Steve, and im live in southern germany/bavaria in front of some nice montains. This is my first thread in this forum, so i apologize for my bad english. The project i wanna start has its roots in my enthusiasm for HighEnd electronics in the home theatre and audio compartment in my house. Because of a tubeamp doesnt fit in a 5-Channel audio system, it becomes a HTPC in form of a tubeamp. Or it would be extremely expensive. As i saw this: AN IDEA WAS BORN: To get the look of the two tubes on the top, there is only one way -> WATERCOOLING! The enclosure of the build will be a high-frequency-proof aluminum rack-housing from MTS, which i get from ebay for a low payment. Normally it costs a about 300€. The size of the case is 19inch wide, 14inch long and 3inch high. The front- and backplate will be out of 4mm alu sheets, so it ould be very strong. Hardware: Mobo: Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 CPU: Intel I Core 5 661 4 x 3,33GHz RAM: Samsung DDR3/4GB PC3 10600 1333MHZ GPU: EVGA nVidia 285GTX 1Gb HDD: Hitachi 2Tb (maybe a SSD too) PSU: Seasonic SS-430GB 430W Cooling: CPU: Watercool Heatkiller 3.0 copper edition GPU: aquacomputer aquagrafx GTX285 Type 2 RES: 2x Phobya Balancer 150 shiny silver RAD: Magicool Slimline 240 Pump: Laing DDC-1T with Plexicover Fittings: Bitspower 11/8 mm G1/4 I hope to get this project managed well, because its my first scratch build. All parts are second hand, excluding the Bitspower fittings and the reservoirs.
Welcome to the forums! It's an interesting idea and should look good if you can pull it off. Think of cylindrical reservoirs and perhaps even nixie tubes or magic eye tubes. The latter can be hooked almost straight to PWM to work as fan speed indicators. But project logs need photos of work in progress... So moved to modding for now.
I'm sorry. Here some Progress: I got the latest parts so i start posioning the components Frontplate from behind, this will be milled from a professionel Then i mounted the CPU-Block. Place the mainboard in the middle of the backside. Insert the risercard. The stand-offs were to long, so i cut them to a length of 3mm. Most cut and mounted. Some old casefeet from a Silverstone SUGO series. OK, pump and mobo mounted. The stand-offs für the graphiccard are only for example. The real ones will be made on the lathe. At least i cut some tubes to the right length. This is the final postion of this parts. Thats all for now. Maybe its possible to move the thread to Project Logs again?
Update 1: Stand-offs for graphiccard Today i got some Brasstubes, which i ripped down to 50mm on the lathe and drilles a centerhole for M3 thread At home I wanted to start to mount this ones to the graphiccard. But there's to much material, so i milled it down a little bit. These are the final ones: Fits perfectly close to the capacitors and SVGA-bracket. At least i screwed them together and place a rubber washer on the upper side. This one should be better for the PCB to reduce the pressure Thats alls for today Thanks for reading!
I think you should build them both together. You can slim the tube amp down and use a micro atx system and put them both in the same box! Super retro looks like you show above, maybe some Mcintosh Amp styling. Sick!
I'm not sure for the sake of the computer that audio tubes should be is the same housing (high tube temps up to 200C, high voltage up to 1000V, etc) but it can't be helped, tubes are so gorgeous. For home theater you could build 5 monobloc of 300B, nom nom nom nom. Anyway, welcome among us and godd luck for your nice project. May the tubes be with you EDIT : While I'm thinking about it, you should take a look at Ogi Lumen website http://www.ogilumen.com/index.php. Drop some nixie in it, at least to display the time ... and you can even found nixie that displays caracters such as °C, °F, A, V, Hz, etc. With the bar nixie tube you could make a time lapsed display for music or movie and 2 nixies could display the current track / chapter. http://www.ogilumen.com/neon-c-51.html http://www.ogilumen.com/nixie-tubes-c-53.html
or you can just mod the tubes to be LEDs. Some of the tubes can be opened at the bottom. I did this for the tube tester mod I made a while back.
completely right mate, with small tubes like the ones used in the preamp stage (12AX7 can be found for a good price) it could be great. But keep the tube innards, just add a led (RGB led with the color changing with the temp : blue = cool, red = hot ?)
May I be false, but I think that you think that the yellow tube are real tubes, isn't it? Youre false. This are the two Phobya balancer 150 with a golden lume. But the idea of putting the inserts of a (for example) EL34 or a taller one into the balancer is just great. I will think about it!
