A Box for Mom

S

starhawk

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Oct 4, 2004
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Hello, everybody... built a new system for Mom. It's *almost* done (more on that in a minute) and it looks pretty good for what she wanted. The guts are nice, too, so it should serve her well.

I was going to use an old floppy-disk box (no, not that kind of floppy disk ;) the big 5.25" kind!) but it had all sorts of weird angles -- and it was mostly acrylic where I needed to put holes :eek: I've never worked with acrylic, and I was told [H]ere that it's a pain in the butt to work with if you don't have a steady hand. My hand is about as steady as a jackhammer at full tilt. Not good.

So... talked to Mom, she wants something "plain". Look around, and I find a cardboard DVD box. It's brown, "Cargo" brand (no idea where we got it 3+ years ago) and fairly boring looking. I show it to her, she likes it.

Let the games begin :D

Well... actually, I'll skip the storytelling (it's a long-winded yarn, that) and just give you specs and pix. The missing part, BTW, is an extension cable for the 20pin ATX connector to the mobo. Needs to be a little longer, so I got the cable offa eBay for cheap. (Not Hong-Kong-cheap, though, I'm not that stupid -- or patient!)

Specs first.

Gateway E-4000 SFF PSU, 160W
Jetway NC91-230-LF Mini-ITX Motherboard
Onboard Atom 230 CPU, 1.6GHz
Kingston ValueRAM 1gb DDR2-533 (I'd love to make that a 2gb stick...)
80GB Seagate IDE HDD (I forget the exact model)

Power switch came from Radio Shack >.< I soldered the wires on from another switch.
The green IDE LED came from one of several Spare Parts Piles around the house :rolleyes:

Now pix.



Now... I need help with one small thing. This box needs a name. It's destined to sit on a living room end-table running Farmville all day. Nothing glorious, in other words. But it still needs a name, and I can't think of a good one. Suggestions, anyone?
 
Craig? Greg? Geoff? Sir. Edmund Rosemary |||? Vince? [H]ector? All these names are gold imo.
 
Think yer bein' funny, do ye?

Actually, in all honesty: funny? yes. Useable? Sorry, no.
 
I'm insulted.

Let me approach this from a different angle. Its combustible and disposable, combosable? Dispustible? Dispustinator? recyclable and disposable, dispyclable? Thats my favorite so far. The Dispyclabler.
 
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The Brown Box, Mom's Box (agreeing with above), The Box, and Cardboard Computer (or CiCi for short)
 
I've been leaning towards "Brown Box" myself, so that may be it. Still open to hearing other suggestions...

@caniba: not sure whether you're being naughty or nice. Either way, Santa's gonna have a word with you come December 25th :p
 
i like this i been looking for something for my media center they do leather boxes like this so may just do for my whs also
 
Thanks, I'm glad I inspired someone else!

Did some cabling fixes... PSU cabling is now largely under the HDD, and the HDD cable itself has been replaced with a rounded cable. Since Paper Tiger is down with a case of the Bad Mobo Blues, that's where I stole the rounded cable :p

Here, have a pic:
 
Very ghetto design, but wouldn't the start of an electrical fire be a concern?
 
Not really, no. I did think about that. The only way that could happen is if the power supply shorted out or somesuch, and I trust it better than that. It's actually made by Delta, and is one of the best OEM supplies I've seen -- it doesn't have coil whine, and it doesn't induce coil whine in the mobo. AFAIK, if you want coil whine to the max, the best supplies for that are made by Allied ;) at least, those are the loudest (in terms of undampened racket that translates into boardside coil whine) in my house.

FWIW, if you do the math, I think you'll find that the power supply I'm using (~160W rated output) is actually rather beefy for what I'm doing with it. It's powering one desktop hard drive and the Atom mobo, and that's it. Maximum power consumption might actually be a full 80w -- but I doubt it.

As for the design, when your household has a budget of just under $1k/mo., you work with what you have. I don't have the budget for a cordless drill, let alone anything actually fancy. Rather, I'm good at using (and re-using) the stuff that people normally throw out. e.g. I ripped apart the remains of a rather sturdy plastic binder (an old version of Staples' poly binder line) with an "exacto" knife and a strong pair of scissors. That, with some perforations courtesy of our old (corded) Rockwell drill, is the mobo backplate.
 
Got the ATX extender today, and put it in. Mom stayed up all night with her laptop and is therefore asleep today. I think it'll probably be tomorrow before I can get any photos of the box in its latest state. (Sorry 'bout that.)
 
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