Bärsärkar-gång: SFF Low Power Water Cooled

[Doubl3KiLL]

Whats going on with this? I just read through the whole thing and man, you have a great talent Mach. Im very interested to see how this turns out, and equally as interested to see other interesting metal workings you come up with.

 

[natan-]

The water cooling stuff is awesome. You have a long way in learning how to properly solder. FYI soldering iron >>>> soldering gun. Its like trying to cut a slice of bread with a chainsaw. If you every try to desolder something and you don't care about the part but care about the board you always sacrifice it. Traces can easily come loose from the board when heated even briefly. Also why all the trouble to put the runes on when you are just hiding it in the solid metal canister?

 

[Doubl3KiLL]

Also why all the trouble to put the runes on when you are just hiding it in the solid metal canister?

Its the small, unseen things that make magnificent things truly magnificent.

 

[King Icewind]

This is pretty cool.

I might've looked over it, but what program did you use to create your layout/designs?

Thanks and good luck!

 

[Mach]

Thanks folks, I appreciate the feedback! This one is still alive. I'm programming the gauge, audio, and lights now so should have some video in a week or so. End of year crunch at work is chewing up all my modding time.

@natan-: Thanks for the suggestions. I agree I still have a ways to go on my soldering. I usually use a Hakko 936 or a 937 for my electronics soldering. The gun I was using in my failed attempt on the motherboard was actually a desoldering gun, Hakko 808. Its a soldering gun with a vacuum pump attached. Not as good as desoldering station but slightly cheaper. Your advice on sacrificing the part is similar to what markkleb suggested. I'm leaning to just soldering the wires on the back of the mother board at this point though. It was an expensive lesson

On the runes, Doubl3KiLL pretty much nailed it. Just because something is secret or hidden doesn't mean its wasted effort. I love the story about the hidden message in Abraham Lincoln's watch. It all adds to the mystery of the mod.

@King Icewind: Thanks, I'm using sketchup for the 3d planning ( I have a love hate relationship with skecthup ). I'm also using CorelDraw for 2D drawing for the etchings and laser files.

 

[Mach]

Huzza, it is alive! Thank you for the patience. This time a real update to the berserkers and the mod.

In 1938, Albert Hoffman synthesized a new drug called LSD from a grain fungus that grows on rye. The fungus was called Ergot, and it has carried an ominous reputation for centuries.

Pont-Saint-Esprit, 1951 - That night the first man died in convulsions. Later, two men who had seemed to be recovering dashed through the narrow streets shouting that enemies were after them. A small boy tried to throttle his mother; patients...screaming that red flowers were blossoming from their bodies, that their heads had turned to molten lead.-Time, September 19th, 1951

In the end, over 200 people died from eating contaminated rye bread. In the 1800s, the illness was called St. Anthony's fire also known as Ergotism. Before that, historical accounts of werewolves are now suspected to be related to Ergot poisonings.

The vikings too knew of Ergot and used it in burial rituals. It is a compelling idea to suggest Ergot as the source for berserking. It certainly could drive someone insane but given its lethal nature, its unlikely that it was used for berserking. Was there another drug that they could have used?

-----------------

Back to the modding. Time to take a look at the base that sits on a piece of wood and is covered in leather. It will hold the SSD and the DVD drive. To give you an idea of where the pieces fit...

On the back is the exposed electrical jack that the Xbox power supply will plug into.

Base marked for dremeling. I'm using an easy lock metal cutoff wheel on a 220 volt dremel. It melts through the soft steel.

Cut out but still rough.

Nothing a little filing won't fix.

Back before dremeling

After with a little clean up.

Tracing out the wooden base

Using a piece of cedar siding and a jig saw to cut it out.

Sanded down

A little chisel work later and a pile of wood chips...

a roughed in place for the DVD and the SSD.

and the base mounts on top. Unfortunately the cedar base was too soft and a little too small.

So take #2 with 2 pieces of birch plywood glued up and cut to size. Chiseling was much easier as the individual layers just peeled up with a sharp chisel.

DVD and SSD in place.

Top in place

Added brass cross supports to allow mounting

Also added the brass frame that re-inforces the case.

Bent and soldered but still needs clean up and polishing.

I also back tracked on the PIR sensor. I wasn't happy with the plastic cover.

I found copper mesh at the local art supply

which worked out much better

Hopefully next time, I'll have more pics of this for your perusal. Thanks for looking!

Many thanks to my sponsors!

Bitspower

HardwareLabs

 

[Elledan]

Getting more and more original Nice job!

 

[Pzych0]

Ser bra ut!

 

[Mach]

Thanks Elledan! Takk Pzych0!

 

[K-Mac]

very sweet!

 

[Axly]

Interesting base, and I absolutely love the "spokes".
Still getting all happy inside when I look through your log here

 

[Rossi~]

Bloody hell this is going damn well mate Keep it up, im excited to see the end result!

 

[Hamateer]

really impressive...

 

[FrEaKy]

coming together nicely bro!

 

[BikerTrash]

Wow! I can't wait to see how this turns out!

 

[Mr.OppressoLiber]

This is awesome, subbed

 

[Mach]

Thank you for the comments and the interest. Work has got me stitched up this week but more is on the way. Laser goodness is about finished. I feel like a kid on the night before Christmas waiting for the pieces to arrive.

See, see what I mean? Vintage Laser continues to taunt me with fan grill photos like this.

 

[stupoop]

those grills are going to look wicked on your build

 

[EastwooD-]

I dont know if anybody has said this yet but this build reminds me of the game BIOSHOCK!!

 

[markkleb]

Im really sorry I totally got busy and forgot about this mod..Its so cool to watch your detail work and ideas take shape.

Well done so far.

 

[DeFex]

It is beautiful. I like the steampunk kind of look as long as everything actually does something rather than those silly glued on gears and things.

fantastic attention to detail as well

The extended bolts are great! i would never have thought of that.

 

[AbsintheGuy]

Dude, this is f*cking fantastic!

 

[Mach]

Thanks for the interest folks and about the brass fan grills...oh look an update

When examining berserking, the drug theory is compelling. Drugs could be taken before a battle, could cloud judgment, and might result in the unintentional flashbacks or lingering after effects. Considering the physical effects of berserking, it resembled a drug binge more so than anything else suggested.

Berserking began with shivering, teeth chattering chills. Their faces swelled and changed color followed by a great rage, howling, and indiscriminate brawling. When the rage abated, the berserker was exhausted and feeble for several days.

Behaviorally, berserking presents as a combination of steroid induced hypo-mania ('roid rage) with an adrenaline rush or possibly PCP. None of which the Vikings were able to artificially produce. So if a drug, then what drug?

-----

With the Cobra-matic mod, I dabbled with laser cutting. At the time, I was fortunate enough to find a laser cutting company in Texas called Vintage Laser. They almost made it too easy to get a special fan grill cut.

Tony Le, the owner at Vintage, walked me through the file formats needed and we went back and forth several times to get everything right. I think the results speak for themselves, no? (that's the fan grill on the front covering an Antec Big boy 200mm fan)

Well no good deed goes unpunished. With Barsarkar-gang, I wanted to experiment more so I sent Tony what I thought was some complex cutting with a brass requirement (of course ). He didn't even flinch. For your viewing pleasure

Laser cutting video on YouTube
In case you're wondering, that is 2.3 mm brass...goes through it like bud-ahh.

The basic process initially was to draw everything in Sketchup in 3d.

Then export to Corel Draw X4 in 2D.

Because the size of the case is so small, I printed out the Corel draw file, pasted it to styrene, and checked tolerances. Lather, rinse, repeat.

After numerous iterations (including new batteries for my digital micrometer) and many weeks, I was sure as I could be on all the dimensions, I exported the 2D drawing to DXF files and shipped em off to Vintage Laser.

They hit a couple snags along the way. Lasering brass is not as easy as other metals. Tony joked that he was going to make his body armor out of brass if he was ever in a laser battle.

But he persevered and again, I think the results speak for themselves. Awesome, awesome work!

Fan grill option 1 - I'm leaning toward this one

Fan grill option 2 - What do you think?

Remember the polystyrene bezels?

Now they're brass

Pump bezel, not crazy about the blue in the pump.

Full side shot

Half the screws are for looks only

They don't actually hold anything.

Radiator/fan mount

Motherboard tray

In case you were wondering how they go together. I've got to solder the mount on the back of the motherboard tray yet; more on that later.

I love modding because it gives me a chance to try new tools and techniques. The whole laser experience has given me a new appreciation for the CNC mod gods who make an entire case from scratch. Its not a gumball machine for modding. Its an iterative design and test method that would have been impossible without the help of Tony and the guys at Vintage laser. Tony if you're reading this, thank you very much.

Wherever you land on the hand tools vs power tools modding debate, I highly recommend working some sort of CNC (laser cutting, water cutting, milling, etc) into your next mod. It was a fantastic experience and opening the box of parts from Vintage had me grinning from ear to ear. That's all I got this time around.

Next time, I'll show you how to sand the skin off your thumbs the natural way.

Many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower

HardwareLabs

 

[Elledan]

*waits for the assembly pics*

 

[lillimon04]

That Mobo tray looks nice man, how did you think of that design?

 

[Mach]

Hi Elledan, yah I'm waiting too

Thanks lillimon04! The design was born out of the need for airflow, wire management, and staying true to the deco theme. The slots in the back will hopefully be used to route wires to the back side of the motherboard....hopefully.

 

[Mach]

In 1956,Fabing describes the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms, specifically Amanita Muscariaor or flugswamp mushrooms as the single source of berserking. It was an interesting theory as flugswamp mushrooms were known by the Siberian and Scandinavian peoples but the effects, while mind altering, do not cause a berserking rage, quite the opposite in fact.

A possible alternative may be found in the location where the Vikings spent much of their time; on open water.

Consider this, in 2006, 2 men ate a fish in the south of France. Little did they know that they would be hospitalized the next day because of hallucinations and nightmares. The fish was the Sarpa Salpa. The very same fish was recently found in the English Channel. Could the Vikings have used a similar fish to induce a hallucinogenic rage? Have the experts overlooked the most obvious source of berserking drugs? Did the Vikings find something in the sea?

-----

I am a little ahead of myself on the updates. I forgot to show you guys the final on the fan grills from the last update. Just so you understand where the fan grill is located. It's on the back of the case pulling air into the case which hits the back of the motherboard tray.

To minimize vibration and fan noise, enter a Bitspower silicon fan pad 140mm size.

It's appears to be well made. I'm a little worried that it may be too thick for my needs but more on that later.

Photographing it is interesting; everything sticks to the silicon - lint, sawdust, dust, gah. Here it is from the back.

The HWlabs Black Ice GT Stealth 140 unfinished radiator polished up.

Gasket goes on

Fan goes on. That's a Thermalright X-Silent series 140 mm fan. With a 140mm rad, I've been looking for the right fan that was low power as well as quiet. I picked this one in a very unscientific comparison. So those of you who care about accuracy should look away now.

The 4 fans that looked interesting were (clockwise from the orange fan):
Xigmatek XLF F1453, 1000 RPM, 63.5 CFM, 16 dBA, 0.3A
Yate Loon D14SM-12 , 1400 RPM, 62 CFM, 29 dBA, 0.7A
Yate Loon D14SL-12, 1000 RPM, 46.9 CFM, 25 dBA, 0.5A
Thermalright X-Silent Fan, 900 RPM, 60.42 CFM, 20.9 dBA, 0.14A

In the looks department, the Xigmatek was first choice with the orange / brass combo but the white LEDS are too bright. The Thermalright was my second choice because of 11 translucent blades. The Yate Loons are ok but not notable when compared to the other two.

On the subject of noise, I setup my video camera to capture the relative noise that each fan puts out. Check it out
YouTube Video

I was surprised by sound of the Xigmatek fan. Maybe I've got a bad one but wow, that would drive me nuts. The Thermalright sounded best to me. At the time, I didn't have the D14SL-12 when first comparing but the D14SM -12 sounded very smooth at the higher RPM so I grabbed the 1000 rpm model just to check

Unfortunately, I screwed up the camera position so it sounded comparatively louder than it actually was. The sound on it was very good though; comparable to the Thermalright.

I wanted to also get some relative measurement on performance so out comes a retro piece of kit. Its an anemometer used in mining I am told. While the dial indicates some degree of precision, my interest are simpler.

Fan drag race The two Yate Loons are in the middle with the SL on top. The anemometer was sat 10 inches from the outlet of the fan to gauge relative output speed.
YouTube Video

Again I was surprised by the relative performance of the Xigmatek. I was impressed by the Yate Loons. The SL was on par with the Thermalright and the SM just cranked. I'm curious to find out what the SH is like. So as I mentioned, I picked the Thermalright for the reasons above but also because of its lower power consumption.

Anyway back to the grill, remember these screws.

Here's why I modded them when I couldn't buy them anywhere. Had to be brass on brass.

And trust me, I looked.

Most folks seemed to like this fan grill the best so I'm going to run with it for now.

Maybe replace the fan sticker with an etched copper piece later?

I thought about putting some copper or brass screen in to act as a fan filter but I think I like the exposed fan. I may change my mind when I see the dust buildup.

With the brass in hand, I can test fit the components and see if the design is going to work.

Here's where things started to get interesting

See the foot on the motherboard tray. It's sticking out about 3/8" too far and I need that space for the waterblocks and tubing. Did I mention this is going to very tight?

From the front, it lines up ok.

The flow indicator and pump fit ok. Tight but nothing unexpected.

The video card looks like it'll be ok too. Still a little worried about the tubing routing but that's next to check out.

On the back of the case, the fan grill is hitting the frame. It looks like the silicon pad is adding about an 1/8" to the thickness also. A little file action should set the frame right but that'll have to wait.

Next update, I'll get to the natural sandpaper story that I promised.

Many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower

HardwareLabs

 

[Elledan]

Moar pics!

Looking awesome so far Can't wait to see it in action and some performance numbers.

 

[HaX]

cool beanz

 

[Mach]

cool beanz

Why yes HaX they are beanz of the particularly cool variety.

Moar pics!

Was that a request? Ok, here ya go.

Before launching in to the next installment, I ask your indulgence for a brief aside. Most of the research for this mod's back story comes from the internet links that you see posted. Some of it though comes from good old fashioned movable press which pleases me to no end. I love books, everything about them, the smell, the feel, the creak they make when they're new, and the stained and tattered covers when they're old.

So to say I was excited to find this volume, well...I was. It's a copy of the Icelandic Manuscripts, the first part at least, that I've been quoting. "Sigilla Islandica I" was published in 1965 by the Manuscript Institute of Iceland in Reykjavik. Its awesome and no, I can't read a word of it except the copyright.

Some of the other books that I've been using, particularly for this update. And now back to the mod….

-----
In 1947,a category 5 hurricane struck the USA mainland causing US$1,000,000,000 in damages ($110,000,000 in 1947 dollars). It was a 100 year hurricane, massive in size, and strength.

It was first spotted off the coast of Dakar, Senegal where it quickly escalated to a category 3 hurricane. Before churning across the Atlantic towards the USA, it pummeled the west coast of Africa sinking ships and washing ashore debris. In the hurricane's wake, strange sea creatures washed ashore too including an unidentified sea slug. The slug caused those who touched it to go mad, attacking their neighbors with preternatural strength until they collapsed.

Seemingly overlooked for years, the sea slug is only now becoming a focus of marine research. With good reason;Toxic sea slugs have recently killed a series of dogs on the beaches of New Zealand.

In the uncharted space of the ocean depths, could the Vikings have found an animal that caused their berserking rage? If so, how did it make them invincible super soldiers?

Next time: Get your foil hats on, did the CIA know?
-----

Picking up where we left off in the last update. The laser cut motherboard tray already has the holes for the standoffs (why drill when you can laser?). While I tested it 3 or 4 times with the polystyrene prototypes, I'm anxious to see how it fits.

That's a 6/32 tap. From the prototypes, I knew that I was going to have a problem keeping the tap straight. I saw someone using a hand tapper in another worklog but $100+ was little more than I was willing to pay.

Instead I picked up a tapping block from the littlemachineshop.com. It holds the tap at 90 degrees to the work surface.

Works great too!

All four tapped and filled with brass (of course) standoffs.

The new motherboard, let us not discuss the last motherboard . Everything lines up for mounting, whew!

From the back, the pattern on the tray wasn't just for the deco looks. It gives easy access to the ATX and 4 pin contacts.

4 pin connector

ATX connector. Instead of de-soldering these, I'm going to try to solder to the contacts…after a lot more practice. Expect this worklog to become polluted with trial run photos. It would be nice if motherboard manufacturers would offer an enthusiast option for reverse connectors.

The slot on the side of the motherboard tray is for the PCI-E extension cable. Unless I can get one that reverses the connector, I can see some cable origami in my future.

Changing gears to another part of the mod, you'll recall the base that was carved out of birch plywood. The plan is to cover it in Stingray leather

Stingray leather or Shagreen was popular in the 17th and 18th centuries with a brief resurgence in the 1920s and 1930s. Jean Paul Cooper, a London artist, is credited with its introduction to the Art Deco movement. The Victoria & Albert museum in London has a phenomenal exhibit of objet d'art made from Shagreen. Most of the pieces in the exhibit are made of shagreen that is dyed green. I haven't been able to find out why this was popular at the time.

The color that I'm using here isn't green but brown. Most of the hides come from SE Asia which is where I got this one a few years ago.

I hung out on boot and shoe making forums for awhile asking questions on how to work stingray. Their advice helped as did Tim Skyrme's youtube videos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3w1gaxZkgA

These are shoemaker pliers or lasting pliers.

Barge cement recommended by thistothat.com for leather to wood. It’s also the glue that was used in Mythbuster's Escape from Alcatraz episode for fashioning their life raft. In other words, it sticks very, very well and sticks more the more that you beat on it.

The first part of gluing the bottom down was easy. The corners? Not so much.

By taking the shoe making videos advice, I worked the corners into smaller and smaller folds.

The first corner I did without cutting the Stingray and then my fingers told me to get stuffed. The other historical use for stingray skins, as well as shark skins, was sandpaper. While this was tanned leather, it still did a number on my fingers. Ouch. So the other 3 corners, I wimped out and cut them.

Here it is from the bottom. My friend questioned the design because I put the "eye" on the bottom. Technical details aside, I told them it wasn't the first thing that was going to be hidden in this mod.

Test fit, not too bad for a first attempt.

You can see where I made the cuts on the corners but I have a plan for that.

From the back.

These are brass clamps used for welding hoses.

With a little modding they're corner covers...

...but that's for another update. Thanks for looking!

Many thanks to my sponsors!
Bitspower

HardwareLabs

 

[Elledan]

That's my first time seeing stingray leather

This mod keeps getting more and more nuts (in a good way )

 

[FrEaKy]

THat is just INSANE bro, I like it.

Starting to look like something outta BioShock - Rapture

 

[Mach]

Thanks Elledan & FrEaKy! Yes the nuttiness continues...

I'm seeing more and more video in worklogs. Which set me to wondering what it can do for a worklog. It seems to be useful for revealing things that static images just cannot; for instance, the direction and inspiration for this mod. Would you kindly look at this film and let me know what you think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nttNEAmnUA

 

[TeeJay88]

My friend, you have something amazing on your hands here. Looks beautiful. Keep up the stunning work.

 

[vinceboi]

wow very very very nice keep it up!

 

[ekuest]

awaiting updates!!!

 

[charlesshoults]

Wow, this is the coolest, and craziest build I've seen in a long while. I never would have thought about flipping the power connectors to the back of the board. I like it.

 

[HAF72]

Very impressed! Can't wait to see the complete mod! I can see you put in a lot of details to the design!! Hats off to you!

 

[Mach]

Thanks for the comments folks! @ekuest: Updates away!

Berserking on demand has staggering potential from a military perspective...at least the American CIA thought so. Between 1945 and 1964, titled with the innocuous names of Operation Paperclip, Artichoke, and MK-Ultra, the CIA contracted 149 projects to investigate chemical, biological and radiological means to alter and control human development. Over 80 institutions participated including 44 universities, 15 private companies, 12 hospitals, and 3 prisons including Eli Lilly & Co., Harvard University, Fontaine Pharmaceuticals, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Authorized by American President Truman, under the code name of Operation Paperclip in 1945, the US began the quiet recruitment of Nazi scientists after WWII. Initially their focus was on aeronautics with the successful recruitment of key scientists like, Dr. Herbert A. Wagner, an expert in the field of control and guidance systems, and Wernher von Braun, the central figure in Germany's pre-war rocket development program.

But then in 1946, Operations Paperclip's remit fractured into multiple "dark" projects, many specifically targeted at human experimentation.

----

Let's do this thing... You're going to get your money's worth on this update. First and most notably, I have a new sponsor. Galaxy has graciously agreed to sponsor this project with a new 9600 GT LP LP. This card is essential to this build so many thanks to Galaxy and Shane!

Second, I've been fairly cagey about the case but since you got a glimpse of it in the video, let me give you the full run down.

Its a 1940s Arvin space heater manufactured by Noblitt-Sparks. Sizewise its small; not the smallest SFF case but enough to give me headaches.

In 1941, Noblitt-Sparks began producing its first private-brand merchandise. Such production was brought to a quick halt after the United States entered World War II late that year, and by 1942 all production efforts were geared toward the war effort. During the war Noblitt-Sparks produced a wide range of military products, including chemical and incendiary bombs, rocket-launching tubes, steel containers, fire extinguishers, anti-tank mine parts, radio communications equipment, and parts for military vehicles. In 1944 the company purchased a former furniture plant in North Vernon, Indiana, and began producing boxes for the bombs being made at its Columbus plant.

The heater's art deco lines as well as it's manufacturer's history made it destined to be a Bioshock mod.

Here's what the final should look like. I'm still debating colors including plating vs powder coating and I'll need your opinion but that's a later update.

This mod and it’s back story came together through a series of surreal connections and coincidences, if I can take the time to share one. One of the inspirations for the story was spawned from the 2K Games Bioshock 2 viral marketing campaign at www.somethinginthesea.com. In fact, the secret message in the runes was coded from there. In the campaign, if you sent a letter to a fictional detective then 2K sent you swag. I received the old record that you see in the video and a membership card.

The card came with typos on my first and last name (likely due to my poor penmanship). While Arvin isn't my name, it is the name of the heater. And that's just one coincidental connection to this mod that makes me love this build. There is still a ways to go and a few surprises yet but I am going to be sad to see this one end.

Back to the build and the welding hose clamps where we left off, the nice thing about brass and copper is you can anneal it and shape it however you want.

Hose clamp meet stingray

From the bottom side, the clamps are secured to the wood base with brass nails

I trimmed off one side of the hose clamps to clean up the look.

A few wing nuts, threaded rod, and solder = hold down thumbscrews.

The base isn't just there for looks. Most of the wiring will be hidden in the base as well as the DVD drive. One of the challenges of found case modding is figuring out how to mount the hardware. For the DVD, I needed some way to make mounting and adjusting the DVD position easy.

I found brass bolts like these in the plumbing section at my local DIY. They're bolts for a toilet.

Soldered to brass cross braces to support the DVD. You get the idea.

The HD and platform for the circuit board

Attached with 3M VHB tape to the DVD. So by turning the nuts on the screws, the drive can be lowered and raised.

Testing with wing nuts and knurled nuts

Knurled nuts are apparently used for lamps, again from the local DIY.

The brass hold downs were a bit of a change in plan with a rethink in the base mounting. So experimentation with different coverings and coatings ensued.

After several iterations and days trying brass/copper foil and mesh...

I came back to using a heavy canvas lining (which feels right for the mod). Now I just need to learn how to sew it together. Once the lining is complete, I've got the front switch, HDMI port, and wiring holes remaining to finish off the base before I can send it out for final finish.

On the wiring, I started looking at the graphics card setup. While the mini-itx MB does have integrated graphics, part of the design challenge was to include a graphics card for better performance. Given the size constraints, a few unique things were needed. To minimize the visible wiring and the tubing routing, the graphics card is mounted off board and upside down.

Casey at http://www.adexelec.com/ helped find the right PCI-E extender. Thanks Casey!

Cable-gami anyone? It took a pad of paper to figure this out.

The folding flips the card side connector upside down.

The other necessary thing is a performant graphics card with low power requirements and a small footprint. The best one that I could find was the Galaxy 9600 GT LP LP. The LPs stand for Low Profile Low Power. It’s the ideal card for what I have in mind.

Thanks Galaxy and Shane!

This card is a tiny half height card at 8 x 2.25 inches. Also check out the lack of power connector on the right side of the PCB. I've got a max of 200W to play with on this build so every little bit helps. One less set of wires to worry about doesn't hurt either. [H] did a great review of the card last year that gives all stats if you're interested. For this build or for a lower power home theater PC, the card is a great balance of power and size.

Testing the card with the motherboard everything was aces running at a cool 60W with DVD playback.

The only thing that glitched was the modded xbox 360 power supply. When I swapped over to an unmodded one then everything worked. I'll need to cross check my soldering.

From the back side, the mounting doesn't look too complex. Huh, mounting for what?

Something naked this way comes.

Not sure if you noticed these in the video and pictures from Vintage Laser.

Laser block or layer cake block that are stacked pieces of sheet brass soldered together.

Because the laser can't cut copper, I had to go old school on the 1/8" copper.

I plan to solder them together and no, I have no idea what I am doing. Should be fun. Any bets on whether it'll work? Opinions vary from it'll leak or that performance will be too poor. On the last point, I don't think it'll matter much given the cooling requirements of the card. On the first, stay tuned to find out…

Thanks for looking and many thanks to my sponsors!

Bitspower

Galaxy

HardwareLabs

 

[formula409]

Sick Mod Dude! very nice work and a cool subject....Or should I say Hot!