my deep black Silverstone with "power rails"

but to get current flowing, you'll need enough voltage. so, in other words, for voltages up to about 40v the resistance of your skin is to high to let a harmful current flow...


edit: static discharges wont kill you because theres not enough charge on the surface you're touching - if you touch an electric cable with 40,000 volts on it, better make a photo, it will look quite spectacular ;)
 
well after some of you asked for it, here are some pictures of how the powerrails actually work:

erklaer1.jpg

erklaer2.jpg

erklaer3.jpg

erklaer4.jpg


well i dont wanted to demount everything so i made the pics out of the drawing program that was being used for the design

hopefully everything is clearer now :]


edit: pic1 is from an older version, that tube for some additional wires has been removed eventually
 
frenzy said:
AAAaaaargh!! Twitching, twiching uncontrollably at this sight! Man thats a lot of wires.

Thats a sick job on the entire project, nice LCD as well. I've had power rail ideas a few years back, but never thought of using solid copper, beautiful man, just unbelievable. I was simply looking to power CDROMs and FANS with ready to plug outlets available every few inches. Hope this is inspiration for others as well as future mods from you, cuz we all know we learn from previous mods and improve!

Liquid Rails anyone ?

BTW Is there a chance your rail connectors could twist and touch the non-contact rail? Are the plexi pieces shown in the diagram installed on the final project? I can't tell for sure, it looks like there's some sort of spacer there. Cool!!!
 
thx alot bro..


using a liquid to conduct current wouldnt work out very vell. liquids usually have a very hig resistance and so the power supply for the cpu and gfx card would be very unstable - i think.

but it could work for fans oder lights i believe.. :)



the whole rail installation is quite stiff, you would have to use brute force to bend them that much to actually shorten them ;)
 
The raw, unguarded power flowing down so close to the motherboard suggests maleficent intent. A very daring and edgy appeal. I like.

Edit: Oh, by the way, get that thing off the floor for God's sake!
 
I'm speachless in front of your Power desing, very "special" work here. Great job!!!
 
what's the advantage of power rails? Also, what's the big green cap at the top?

ANd if you already use water cooling on most components, is those 2 fans really necessary? Shouldn't 1 be enough?
 
Happy Hopping said:
what's the advantage of power rails? Also, what's the big green cap at the top?

ANd if you already use water cooling on most components, is those 2 fans really necessary? Shouldn't 1 be enough?


well, they look good ;) and they are more effizient than regular cables and therefor they allow for more power to be delivered to the mobo. but to be honest, you also loose some efficiency because you have to clamp the cables somehow to the rails..

the green cap? do you mean the reservoir?


and yes i need those fans because the system is well overclocked and usually i have temps around 30°C (80F) in my room, so the system needs airflow badly
i guess that i can turn some of them off in the autumn though

@firespyer: sorry, but i don't get that :eek: 3rd rail on a subway?
 
frenzy said:
thx alot bro..
using a liquid to conduct current wouldnt work out very vell. liquids usually have a very hig resistance and so the power supply for the cpu and gfx card would be very unstable - i think.
but it could work for fans oder lights i believe.. :)
Dewd ... no Dood. I meant using a RAIL/TUBE type system for LIQUID cooling with quick release connectors to tap into. quick release (similar to a air compressor), would never work real well, you'd always get leaks. It would look cool tho. Your power rail makes the case look like some SCIENCE LAB equipment. giving you props on the work again, cuz I can't stop drooling. L8r
 
How is the ATX plug plumbed? Looks like you're running some of the wires from the power block and a few are routed out of the PSU, through the back of the case and then back up & straight into the plug? Is that correct?

Beautiful & innovative mod, BTW.
 
Doberman said:
How is the ATX plug plumbed? Looks like you're running some of the wires from the power block and a few are routed out of the PSU, through the back of the case and then back up & straight into the plug? Is that correct?

Beautiful & innovative mod, BTW.


yeah thats right, all the support lines like -12v or 5v standby are soldered directly to the back of the motherboard
:cool:
 
man that is DEAD SEXY!, and very well planned and executed, Mucho props ya got skillz to pay da billz.

i caught an episode on electricity on mythbusters its takes 3amps to kill u.
how many volts/watts no clue, but when it comes to electricity i triple check things.
 
Man this thing is awsome. Very nice clean look you got there. I was thinking of doing something with coper lines after seeing American Chopper where they used it for oil lines. Gives a nice nostalgic look. And it looks so nice with the black case.
 
Prettu sure that looks like Alphacool. And judging by the book he has his rails laying on, he didn't have to pay customs to get it either.

Happy Hopping said:
What brand name is the reservoir?
 
How did you manage to split the rails into the 4 main volts? Did you just take one of molex cables and make contact w/ the 4 different wires? Does the PSU route all the necessary power through a single cable if that is the only location of load? And also could ou show us a pic of the other smaller cables that need to be soldered on to the motherboard?

Very impressive rig! I'm an electro engineer major myself so this is a very interesting idea to me.
 
Love the all black look and the copper rails. One question, does that front radiator pull in cool air though the front or does it push it out the front? I have the same case and I've thought about putting a radiator in that spot but the front dust filter seems to be very restrictive of airflow.
 
its pulling in from the front, but i had to cut out a lot of metal there and i removed the mesh behind the front grill AND - its still very restrictive. i mean it works, but probably i'll have to rethink that
 
can I borrow your brains?
I just want to build an AWSOME rig as such, you can have you brains back after.

(im so jealous)
 
Sorry to bring up an old thread. But I recently had a similiar idea recently before stumbling upon this using pcbs with buses that kind of navigate throughout the case. But your idea definately takes the cake.

This brings me to another point. I don't see a need for all these wires in modern computers. Case manufactures and mobo designers should start a new specification that require all mobo power conectors to be on the opposite site of the board with cutouts on the mobo tray. Case designers could incorporate some kind of power rails within the case so the mobo just plugs into the designated connectors. PSU manufacturers could take advantage of this so they just slide in and hookup to one big connector.

Step one: Put connectors on opposite side of mobos / Mobo trays include cutouts / PSU manufacturers use right angle adapters for mobo

Step two: Case manufacturers design a power rail system so devices slide in (Could even charge a premium for "New Super Power Rail System"

Step three: eliminate PSU cables with female/male adapter within case and on PSU

If only I had all the tools to do this...
 
Amazing! I love the look, the design, and uniqueness. Wooh did I just pull a George Bush and make up a word? But I digress. The power rail idea is cool, but having the power that open scares the $hit out of me. Very cool though.
 
You know in my eight or so years of building computers and seeing other people's computers, I have to say that is easily one of the best jobs I have EVER seen. :cool:

But I'm confused about the copper runs- do you have pvc/teflon coated wires running inside the copper tubes or is each copper tube carrying electricity through the whole copper tube?
 
jtobrien said:
You know in my eight or so years of building computers and seeing other people's computers, I have to say that is easily one of the best jobs I have EVER seen. :cool:

But I'm confused about the copper runs- do you have pvc/teflon coated wires running inside the copper tubes or is each copper tube carrying electricity through the whole copper tube?

He is using the copper rails (solid not tubes) to carry the current, and is only making contact where needed to draw power off of them.

Very well done.

It would have been really cool to also have a smaller -12, -3.3, and -5v rails.. (some 3mm rails or some such) and to have powered the drives etc off of the rails, that way there would have been no wires coming out of the PSU.. But even this much is more than anyone else has done.

==>Lazn
 
thx again, its nice to know that you appreciate my efforts..



it would probably look better if all the wires were replaced by solid rails, but i just ran out of time

the rig is getting some small updates at the moment, so there will be some "new" pics soon :]
 
ive looked at probably 2000 case mods and internal mods and yours is BY FAR my favorite. everything about it is flawless. the power rails are... wow... this mod beats scientology on the unbelievable scale. i think i'll cry if you dont make a worklog on the rails, even without pictures, just do something!!! what i dont get with the power rails is where to your plugs go from?(like powering a fan or IDE drive?
 
I'm curious if you had any issues with emi on that? All sense of logic is telling me that the board probably wouldn't even boot with that setup.... have you had any issues?

Looks cool as shit though. Very nice work.
 
no, i didnt run into any issues at all.

well, besides some minor stuff that im getting rid of atm, ill post an update in a few days :)


@moddest mouse: the harddrive and dvd drive have their own cables with exact the right length, going straight from the psu to the drives
 
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