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HAL 9000 Mod - A 2U Modding Odyssey ---Part 1: The Dawn of HAL
I recently (4 months ago) saw 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time. Immediatly, I thought that having a computer that looks like the HAL 9000 would be AWESOME. So I looked around the internet because there HAD to be lots of people with this type of mod... I found Very few. Well, then there should be alot of movie buffs that have recreated or own the original HAL... again there are very few people, even fewer have recreated HAL correctly.
So that is my project. To try to recreate HAL as close to the way it (he?) was shown in 1968.
So first I turned to eBay to find a suitable fisheye lens to act as his eye. I eventually found a steal of a deal on a Bicar x0.15 Fisheye Lens (26$USD shipped), which I later found on a french site selling for 90Euros :agape:
Initial plans were to make a custom case that would mimic HAL in his(?) brain-room with the clear memory modules next to it (him... which I will continue calling HAL from now on because i want to). But, I was going to (*yoda* there is no try*/yoda*)finish the case before College (Carnegie-Mellon U.) began I decided to try and find a case that would work.
Classic Towers... No (at the time I wanted to make the HAL panel 2' tall (which I later found to be way off) there are no desktops that would be able to have HAL and the Mem. Mod.s on the side.
Cubes... Too $$$
Desktops... None would fit the hardware I wanted and have the right dimentions.
Rackmount? By the time I had got to this point almost a quarter of the summer had gone by and I was desperate to get a design laid out so that I could start working. So I decided that HAL would be the main focus of the computer while the memory modules could be incorperated into a wall mount for HAL (I was inspired by ZeusEnergy's Framed PC when I was wanting to Custom build a case)
OK so I had chosen to go Rackmount... What case would I choose? I looked around and quickly found the All-aluminum 2U Skyhawk AL-2025-IPC. It would fit my current hardware (i.e. use ATX PSU, fit ATX mobo, fit Videocard, etc.)
and was very light to boot (12lbs. or about 5.45kg.)
Then I started thinking about cooling (don't worry I'll get back to the case soon). Air-cooling was pretty much my only option (strapped for cash, b/c I need to upgrade my main computer *i.e. what is going into HAL* and maybe get a laptop for college), but since I wanted to keep my current OC it needed to be good. The big problem however is that 2U rackmounts are only 90mm tall. Which after subtracting height for the mobo standoffs, cpu socket, and fan breathing room leaves about 60mm to work with (that is height including a fan). I though about cutting a hole above the processor to let it duct in air from outside but that was X'd out because the case has one good side and one side that is full of holes (for HDD mounts to screw into. Another plus of the case, everything is unscrewable, no Rivets!!!).
I was trying to decide between some old Socket A Dynatron Coolers, the ThermalTake Pipe101, and the Zalman 7000B. The Dyantrons would clear the height requirement but would not cool well. The Zalman would cool OK but there were possible clearance issues with my Mobo and I didn't want to waste anything. So I was limited to the Pipe101 which was too tall, but could cool really well if I could get some air to it. The only problem with that is the Pipe101 has 67 or so fins, making normal (quiet) fans not push enough air through the heatsink.
Remarkably, All-Electronics started selling these which I ordered 2 sets of... Yes they run at 12500RPM, yes they are loud, but I am told you can run them at 5-7 Volts and make them quiet down nicely... the best part about these fans is the pressure that they push. 1.44 INCHES of H20!!!!! (36.5mm H20 for those metric people), when I point this fan at people across the room they can feel the air!!!.
I found out that I could probably run 4 of these little "buzzbombs", as someone on ocforums.com called them, near the heatsink and make a duct out of composites (my dad is building a composite airplane so i have materials and someone with skills to help me) to guide the air to the heatsink. Even better, there is a unused hard drive rack there so I can mount fans to that and then cut a hole in the side of the case and have room for some filtering material. *note: in the final contruction the 4 fans above the HS will be level with the top of the case.*
After some research about HAL, I found that he measures 12" tall and 4" wide
and after taking a picture of HAL from the movie and scaling to to the size of my lens, I found that my HAL should be about 10" by 3.33". I printed out a picture *on my printer that is low on blue ink but can somehow make the blue part of HAL* and positioned it to where i wanted it to be.
I think that is it for now... I'll maybe get some time to start cutting the case, but I'm a little gun-shy of doing so because I haven't made the faceplate yet... but I have to go to Washington DC in 3 days *not sure when i'll be back* and then to Canada Alaska on the 16-27... I hope this mod goes well, it will really be crunched for time
If you have any experience using Aluminium Framing or Trim please post a responce here or email me. "the.lipster" -at- gmail (d0t) com
Things to do to finish the Mod:
1)Cooling
a)Make Videocard cool better using shown 1U Socket A cooler
b)Cut hole in the side of the case to allow air to enter CPU cooling fans
c) Build duct to fit between CPU HS and Fans
2) Contruct the HAL Faceplate
a) The plate itself (metal or wood?)
b) get Lens ring Machined (probably aluminum)
c) get mesh to cover HAL's Speaker area
d) Find out how to lay out Aluminium Trim
e) Contruct the lighting box to give HAL his infamous Red Eye
3) OS Mods
a) try to make windows look as HAL like as possible (should it be themed as it
is HAL's desktop or as a tribute to HAL?)
b)Make Windows Loading Screen
c) Make Login Screen
4) Make the Brain Room
a) What should it be made out of?
Auxillerary things to do:
1) Get a camera with better macro/focus
I recently (4 months ago) saw 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time. Immediatly, I thought that having a computer that looks like the HAL 9000 would be AWESOME. So I looked around the internet because there HAD to be lots of people with this type of mod... I found Very few. Well, then there should be alot of movie buffs that have recreated or own the original HAL... again there are very few people, even fewer have recreated HAL correctly.
So that is my project. To try to recreate HAL as close to the way it (he?) was shown in 1968.
So first I turned to eBay to find a suitable fisheye lens to act as his eye. I eventually found a steal of a deal on a Bicar x0.15 Fisheye Lens (26$USD shipped), which I later found on a french site selling for 90Euros :agape:
Initial plans were to make a custom case that would mimic HAL in his(?) brain-room with the clear memory modules next to it (him... which I will continue calling HAL from now on because i want to). But, I was going to (*yoda* there is no try*/yoda*)finish the case before College (Carnegie-Mellon U.) began I decided to try and find a case that would work.
Classic Towers... No (at the time I wanted to make the HAL panel 2' tall (which I later found to be way off) there are no desktops that would be able to have HAL and the Mem. Mod.s on the side.
Cubes... Too $$$
Desktops... None would fit the hardware I wanted and have the right dimentions.
Rackmount? By the time I had got to this point almost a quarter of the summer had gone by and I was desperate to get a design laid out so that I could start working. So I decided that HAL would be the main focus of the computer while the memory modules could be incorperated into a wall mount for HAL (I was inspired by ZeusEnergy's Framed PC when I was wanting to Custom build a case)
OK so I had chosen to go Rackmount... What case would I choose? I looked around and quickly found the All-aluminum 2U Skyhawk AL-2025-IPC. It would fit my current hardware (i.e. use ATX PSU, fit ATX mobo, fit Videocard, etc.)
and was very light to boot (12lbs. or about 5.45kg.)
Then I started thinking about cooling (don't worry I'll get back to the case soon). Air-cooling was pretty much my only option (strapped for cash, b/c I need to upgrade my main computer *i.e. what is going into HAL* and maybe get a laptop for college), but since I wanted to keep my current OC it needed to be good. The big problem however is that 2U rackmounts are only 90mm tall. Which after subtracting height for the mobo standoffs, cpu socket, and fan breathing room leaves about 60mm to work with (that is height including a fan). I though about cutting a hole above the processor to let it duct in air from outside but that was X'd out because the case has one good side and one side that is full of holes (for HDD mounts to screw into. Another plus of the case, everything is unscrewable, no Rivets!!!).
I was trying to decide between some old Socket A Dynatron Coolers, the ThermalTake Pipe101, and the Zalman 7000B. The Dyantrons would clear the height requirement but would not cool well. The Zalman would cool OK but there were possible clearance issues with my Mobo and I didn't want to waste anything. So I was limited to the Pipe101 which was too tall, but could cool really well if I could get some air to it. The only problem with that is the Pipe101 has 67 or so fins, making normal (quiet) fans not push enough air through the heatsink.
Remarkably, All-Electronics started selling these which I ordered 2 sets of... Yes they run at 12500RPM, yes they are loud, but I am told you can run them at 5-7 Volts and make them quiet down nicely... the best part about these fans is the pressure that they push. 1.44 INCHES of H20!!!!! (36.5mm H20 for those metric people), when I point this fan at people across the room they can feel the air!!!.
I found out that I could probably run 4 of these little "buzzbombs", as someone on ocforums.com called them, near the heatsink and make a duct out of composites (my dad is building a composite airplane so i have materials and someone with skills to help me) to guide the air to the heatsink. Even better, there is a unused hard drive rack there so I can mount fans to that and then cut a hole in the side of the case and have room for some filtering material. *note: in the final contruction the 4 fans above the HS will be level with the top of the case.*
After some research about HAL, I found that he measures 12" tall and 4" wide
and after taking a picture of HAL from the movie and scaling to to the size of my lens, I found that my HAL should be about 10" by 3.33". I printed out a picture *on my printer that is low on blue ink but can somehow make the blue part of HAL* and positioned it to where i wanted it to be.
I think that is it for now... I'll maybe get some time to start cutting the case, but I'm a little gun-shy of doing so because I haven't made the faceplate yet... but I have to go to Washington DC in 3 days *not sure when i'll be back* and then to Canada Alaska on the 16-27... I hope this mod goes well, it will really be crunched for time
If you have any experience using Aluminium Framing or Trim please post a responce here or email me. "the.lipster" -at- gmail (d0t) com
Things to do to finish the Mod:
1)Cooling
a)Make Videocard cool better using shown 1U Socket A cooler
b)Cut hole in the side of the case to allow air to enter CPU cooling fans
c) Build duct to fit between CPU HS and Fans
2) Contruct the HAL Faceplate
a) The plate itself (metal or wood?)
b) get Lens ring Machined (probably aluminum)
c) get mesh to cover HAL's Speaker area
d) Find out how to lay out Aluminium Trim
e) Contruct the lighting box to give HAL his infamous Red Eye
3) OS Mods
a) try to make windows look as HAL like as possible (should it be themed as it
is HAL's desktop or as a tribute to HAL?)
b)Make Windows Loading Screen
c) Make Login Screen
4) Make the Brain Room
a) What should it be made out of?
Auxillerary things to do:
1) Get a camera with better macro/focus
Will be checking in on this diabolic machine mod.
