Project Lego

T

Targ24

n00b
Joined
Dec 2, 2005
Messages
59
Hey guys. Long time viewer, first time poster to these forums. Just wanted to show off my best (so far) custom mod. No sheet metal, or custom acrylic. Just a case built entirely of legos. I always loved legos, so I figured why not? I'll build a computer out of em. My goal was to make it look clean, and to use no glue, or screws. I had to fudge a lil bit with the screws. 4 hold the motherboard to 2x2 lego blocks, and 2 hold the front side USB bracket in place, since without them, the force to put a USB device in was snapping off the frame of legos I made for it. Anyway, stop my yammering! pics!
front_top_left.jpg


I know what you're thinking: why the hell is the DVD rom gray? Well, I'm thinking the same thing. I just haven't had a chance to paint the bezel yet. My old drive died on me, which was black, and I needed a replacement. This one was sitting unused, so I swapped them. Just haven't gotten around to dying it.
inside.jpg


the inside of her. She's running an athlon XP 2400+, radeon 9600SE, ATI tv tuner card. 30 gig hard drive, 230 wat SFF PSU all strapped to a Velocity Micro V6DP motherboard. Some of these specs are kinda low end, but I had a limited budget at the time, and used as many parts as I already had. My apologies for the size of the images. I submitted this to a case mod competition, and wanted to make sure the images looked good. If you wanna see other pics, I have some. Let me know what you guys think.
 
LEGO's FTW!!!


Awesome dude, what type of temps are you getting in that case?
 
N_Raged said:
Now try making a vertical ATX case.
Click to expand...


I could probably build a darn server case with the shit load of lego's I have.

Lego's ruled my childhood. And I still like them today :D
 
Yeah, considering this was my first attempt at using legos as the structural support, I didn't want to risk internals to design a vertical tower. It had crossed my mind, but without glue, I wasn't sure on the stability. Maybe at some point I'll redesign.

As far as temps go, for being a notoriously hot running CPU, the 2400 never tops 45 Celcius under load. One of my main designs was not apparent in the pics I posted. there is a single 80 mm fan on the right side that pulls air in through a sort of tunnel that runs the length of the case, from right to left. It pulls air off the cpu and memory, and through positive pressure, the air is forced out vents on the sides to cool the hard drive and video card. the only "hot spot" in the case is on the opposite side of the video card, where it starts to get a little warm. I've been thinking of ways to solve this. Most likely something like a 40 mm fan on the left side <side with cd rom> as an exhaust fan. The PSU heat is isolated from the rest of the case. It draws air in directly from the top of the case, and pushes it out the back. The CPU also draws air directly from above <the red grill in the pic> I'm attaching my favorite pic I've tkane of the case. It's a closeup of the 80 mm fan. As my father put it when seeing it, "you're looking into the eye of hell." :D
fan_light.jpg
 
that is seriously bad ass and coincidental because just a few days ago my friend asked me if anyone had ever built a case out of legos.
 
Heh, I am far from the first to do it. Before I took on the project, I did a lot of trolling forums for people that had built cases out of legos before. In some instances, I was severely dissapointed. I saw several that someone took a standard case, and warpped it in legos, so it wasn't what I was looking for. :rolleyes: I know I'm just teasing you guys. Here's another pic. Enjoy :D
top_bothopen.jpg


this shows you how it's all laid out inside. The hard drive is just barely visible underneath the floppy. I built a cage out of legos, and was somewhat paranoid that the HDD would rattle around, but amazingly enough, it stays put. the cable management was...interesting to figure out. There isn't a lotta room left inside. Incidentally, if you noticed the EL wire running around inside the main door, I am really considering removing it, as it detracts from the clean looks I was going for inside. Originally I wanted all the holes and openings to glow red, but didn't have room for massive CCFLs and the PSU probably doesn't have the juice for dozens of LEDs. Any ideas on a simple way to achive that? The light up fan pic kinda shows what I was hoping to achieve all over. Keep the commetns coming. Kinda new to this sort of thing, and already planning my next mod. Might make a worklog. Anybody have an Apple G5 they'd be willing to part with cheap? ;) :p (I love these smileys)
 
Actually, you'd be surprised at how little juice an LED pulls. I'd be surprised if a standard power-switch LED pulled a quarter of a watt, but let's call it an even half for the sake of argument. That means you could power 12 of them with 6 watts, which is comparable to, if not less than, the amount of power a standard hard drive pulls. I think you could power upwards of 20 LEDs without your PSU even noticing the difference.

Edit:
http://www.leesspace.com/LEDs.htm
Color
Vf

Red
1.8

Yellow
2.0

Green
2.1

Blue
3.4

White
3.6
...
Most LEDs are designed to operate safely at 15-20 mA with normal cooling
Click to expand...
Remember that A=W/V, therefore W=A*V
Worst case scenario, highest operational voltage is 3.6V with a 20mA rating. This is an ABSOLUTE worst-case scenario of .72W. I under-estimated a bit, but not by much.

Also, you can cut this number in half since you said you wanted red LEDs.
 
thanks Mavalpha for that info. could come in handy. I'll have to look into a way to hook up LEDs without using seperate power connectors for each. My soldering skills are minimal, and haven't soldered in a few years. Might have to refresh my memory. It'd be a good weekend project I know FrozenCPU sells seperate LEDs.
 
Very sweet. May I make a few suggestions?

Two clear half blocks in the front with LED's mounted in them for power and HDD lights.
After the second pic, I was expecting a [H] logo in black and red.
Don't paint the drive. Stealth it with a lego plate.

That is a very nice setup you have made!
 
Good news. The mod contest I entered in has finally posted the winners. I took 3rd place overall! :D
desk.jpg


Here's the rig in its home. Probably when we move into a new house, I'll configure this as an HTPC. Will probably upgrade the aging hard drive first.
 
Targ24 said:
Good news. The mod contest I entered in has finally posted the winners. I took 3rd place overall! :D

Here's the rig in its home. Probably when we move into a new house, I'll configure this as an HTPC. Will probably upgrade the aging hard drive first.
Click to expand...

Errm, that is SICK - i love the red and black makes an awsome combo, very nice job!!!
 
Better yet... When you kinda done... Find a way to put a castle or something on there... that would make it be Very 1337... Now its 1337 becuase of that damn beige DVD drive and nothing on top of the lego case...
 
Nice case, temps was probably the first that cam to my mind when looking at it and then reading the part about your fan be careful of dust lego its the most bendable to get to places.

DUDE i see my zorro case down there well u got the real deal i ended up with a fake version same colour scheme yet its smaller and sidepanel looks a bit different and front has the star trek logo AND none of the leds at the front work !!! :( :mad: :(

very nice lego case I always loved the stuff :)
 
As a kid who grew up always playing with Legos, that is awesome. I was thinking of a similiar mod when I build my "retro" box that'll be used to play my old DOS games.
 
Luckily, dust hasn't been a major issue yet...inside at least. this thing is a pain to dust off the top with all the little nubs. I use an old toothbrush. heh, go figure. I don't have any air in a can atm.
tanjO, if you can't tell, I have a thing for red and black. :cool:
Borg, yeh, I like that one. The monitor on the right is actually displaying my main rig. Monitor on the left is the lego rig. I did some tricky setups with a KVM switch so that I can dual monitor my main rig, or run the lego rig, while still seeing what's displayed on my main. It was kinda just to see if it would work, but if Im running one, full screen, I can still have internet stuff up on the other, and never have to minimize :D I'm lazy, what can I say?
sanj101, the zorro case is my main rig. My blue LED works, but the HDD activity lights quit working a while back. My g/f actually has the same case. (I gutted her compaq to build her a new machine, and she liked my case. So that's what I got her.) Her power LED doesn't work, but the HDD lights do. Go figure.
Hmm, I really should get a sig, with all this tech info. lol
 
nice case.

Now, slap the [H] logo on there! It's the perfect color scheme!

I love LEGO, but I've never got around to making a case. I'm thinking of making a HD encloser though.
 
Hehe, I could build an enclosure, and just attach it right to the case. No worries, I won't steal your idea. Don't have enough hard drives to fill an enclosure. ;)
 
Incredible Job! I just dont have enough legos in supply for something like that right now. although thats a very inspiring idea and id love to get a few buckets and give it a try! Very nice desk setup too.
 
Thanks for the compliments and suggestions guys. I'm relatively new at this sort of thing. BUT, my office where I work has a metal bender and metal cutter, not to mention a bench press. Time to step out of legos, and start with metal and acrylic. Still lookin for a G5 case. :D Ebay is hit or miss atm. :rolleyes:
 
So cool. Reminds me of the time I was a kid and went to some LEGO place in FL. Everything was made of LEGOs!
 
Has anyone seen that honda CR-V made of legos? I-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. Even more inspiration to do this sort of thing. Since legos come apart easy, you can make tons of things! External bays for optical/hdd drives, so on and so forth! The possibilities are endless!
 
wow, thats awesome. Lego FTW! nice work, I too once thought about making a PC out of legos, but.. meh... but thats pretty neat I must say.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top