Project Oracle

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


The case before I started to work on it again. The dust makes me sad, shows how long it sat haha.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My metal place sent me steel. It shouldn't make much of a differance once its painted, save making the case a bit heavier in the back end.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Marking up the back panel for the motherboard tray.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


After a bit of cutting.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A bit more cutting.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I actually ran out of dremel discs, so I had to make a little supply run :D .
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Got some of those snazzy new dremel quick change cutting discs
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The motherboard tray in place. There will be a sheet of plexi between the tray and the steel, I think I'm going to work on that tomorrow.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My new favorite toy, a right angle adapter for my dremel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sometimes a job calls for bigger tools, having a shop with built in air lines is a truly wonderful thing.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Or REALLY big tools. That thing scares me, I dont touch it. My dad had it out for one of his projects.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Sorry for the blur. Anyways, you can see the space cut for the fan, and the extra bit chopped out to allow for the power switch on the motherboard tray. I'll round that out and clean it up a bit before all is said and done
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Starting to work on the left side motherboard/ radiator mount.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Dont know why this picture is here, but here it is so enjoy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A little preview of things to come.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


I dont have a problem. Shut up. They were on sale. Seriously.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, I ordered a few toys. SVC didn't have the radiator I wanted (BI Pro III) so I decided to go with the Black Ice GT Stealth 360 X-Flow since that's the only other decent radiator they had in stock and I wanted to get this order on its way. For those of you keeping score at home, you'll notice I have a 16 inch deep case and a 16.2 inch radiator. Basically the back port is going to hang out the back of the case, so I'm going to have to run a bit of tubing into the case. I think with the proper lighting and a bit of fancy cutting it will look awesome.

So the radiator, a small pile of fans, and something else I cant remember are on their way to me, should be here Friday or Saturday.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the bottom and the back mounted, along with the motherboard tray mounts fabbed up and installed.

A question that someone posed on another forum: what hardware is going in Oracle? Honestly I haven't a clue. I like the way I have my computer set up now, so it wont be transplanted. A buddy of mine has volunteered to have his PC installed for the final photoshoot (for which he will also be the photographer as it happens), but other than that it will remain empty until I come up with a spare $1500 to put together a quality system. Unless some kind soul wants to donate some hardware... :p:
 
want my shitcake Foxconn K8MA-8EKRS, my Athlon 64 3700, and 2x512MB of OCZ Platinum Rev.2? It's all yours if a kind soul gives me a properly working DFI LP NF590 SLI mobo, an A64 X2 4200+ EE proc and 2GB of Corsair Dominator sticks :D

c'mon rich people, do it for Endscape (and me)
 
n00btard said:
want my shitcake Foxconn K8MA-8EKRS, my Athlon 64 3700, and 2x512MB of OCZ Platinum Rev.2? It's all yours if a kind soul gives me a properly working DFI LP NF590 SLI mobo, an A64 X2 4200+ EE proc and 2GB of Corsair Dominator sticks :D

c'mon rich people, do it for Endscape (and me)

:p

Well folks, I am officially very sick, so there wont be any updates of any sort for a few days at least.
 


Well, it was $30 more than I wanted to spend, and longer then would easily fit, but I like it none the less. I'm always impressed by the build quality of Black Ice rads. Happiness abounds.

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



A better angle of what's been cut thus far. I wont be cutting the holes for the PSU and the radiator shroud whatchamacallit until I get the shroud built and the radiator mounted to make sure everything lines up right. Tomorrow I'm going to rivet the rear and bottom panels together, I'm going to go with a single long bracket like the side panels as opposed to three small ones.

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






Building the motherboard mounts. The JB Weld should be all set up by Monday, so I'll be able to grind off the excess and give it a much cleaner look. Tomorrow's plan is to get them installed and get the cross support rod in place.

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



Mmmmm...I think there might be a few projects in there. The coolest thing is a box of wifi cards that form a secure network amongst themselves only, looks like they could yield all kinds of interesting adventures. Did I mention it was all free?
 
Umm dude, take some pics of your old cases. Damn I want em :eek: Reminds me of the good days :)
 
very nice for free, i love putting good working puters together with free parts, and dump linux on them, and you have all sorts of options....
 
gjvrieze said:
very nice for free, i love putting good working puters together with free parts, and dump linux on them, and you have all sorts of options....

Yeah, there are some real gems in there. There's an old dual PII server with a SCSI RAID card and a pile of 8.7 (if memory serves) drives, couple dual Pentium Pro boxes, all kinds of fun to be had.
 
Susquehannock said:
So your project is [h]ere too endscape. Cool :cool:

Okay, now I know you're stalking me. :p

Anyway, I'm sick and my Dremel broke. Yeah, life pretty much sucks. After two bouts with Strep throat my neck is killing me, I have no energy, and my lymph nodes are swollen like all get out. I've got a doctors appointment in the morning, so hopefully they can figure out what the heck is wrong.

No idea when I'm going to get around to work on Oracle, I'm hoping to get it ready for paint before I go back to school, so I have lots and lots to do.


E
 
Thermalmodder said:
hey im sorry but i dont see pics all i get is the dreaded X

The hell...they just disappeared off my web server. Hopefully dreamhost can explain themselves, the first 20 or so posts aren't backed up anywhere. Damn.

E

EDIT: Pictures are back up.
 
So while I was recuperating from whatever it is I had, I cleaned up my work space and added a few new toys.






Note the new band saw, the mounted monitor, and the vice.

I really haven't had the umph to work on the case as much as I would have liked, but I did get the PSU mounted. I'm changing the internal layout again, I'll post an updated sketchup file later.





I'm planning on stopping by my favorite hardware store tomorrow to pick up some bolts to mount the radiator, then I plan on remounting the side panels when i get back from class.
 
Glad that you're back and feeling better. New toys are always fun... I wish I had a garage, and a new project to work on :p
 
Glad to hear you are up & at it again. New tools are always :cool:

Looking good so far. If you don't mine me asking, why didn't you extend the motherboard shelf all the way over to the outside panel? Even a couple supports there would make the cube a lot more stable.
 
Glad to hear you are up & at it again. New tools are always :cool:

Looking good so far. If you don't mine me asking, why didn't you extend the motherboard shelf all the way over to the outside panel? Even a couple supports there would make the cube a lot more stable.

whoa we almost said the same damn thing LOL :D
 
Glad to hear you are up & at it again. New tools are always :cool:

Looking good so far. If you don't mine me asking, why didn't you extend the motherboard shelf all the way over to the outside panel? Even a couple supports there would make the cube a lot more stable.

That was trippy.

Anyway, I've got an idea for some additional support to keep the cube a little more rigid. Once the side panels are on, however, its pretty solid as things go.
 
Got a little more work done tonight.

Started off mounting the air pump. The pump vibrates and makes a good deal of noise if its strapped straight to the case, so I decided to use some rubber gaskets to isolate as much of those vibrations as possible. I'm leaving the paper on for the time being to protect the plexi until I decide how I'm going to finish it.











I also started making the hard drive air intake shroud. I need to clean up the edges, paint it, and add the LED's. I still have to add the mounting tabs and cut the bottom panel as well.




Next up: hard drive rack mounting, hard drive air flow setup, and the feet.
 
Nice idea for the pump isolation. I take it you are wanting this PC to stay quiet...
 
Yeah for more progress! I got started on the tank. I need to pick up some sandpaper tomorrow so I can finish the paint job and glue on the front panel.




What's this? Another new toy? Why, its a sandblasting chamber!



A little preview of things to come, can you spot what's going on here?



Disregard the massive run, it will be sanded out before I install it.



Got the hard drive rack mounted. Still to come: lighting, plexi cleanup, some more rubber, some sort of additional support for the upper part of the bracket, and maybe some paint.






 
So I'm thinking about paint colors, and I cant quite decide. All black, black with white pin striping, all white (maybe a pearl white), or white with orange pin striping? The striping would be minimal, just enough to stand out a bit. The first two options would have white and blue lighting, while the last two would have white and orange lighting.

Thoughts?
 
I'm loving the case, but I have a slight problem.

You matched an AquaXtreme 50Z pump with AC blocks? Blasphemy! :p
 
I'm loving the case, but I have a slight problem.

You matched an AquaXtreme 50Z pump with AC blocks? Blasphemy! :p

Haha, I did, and it worked quite well. However, you'll be seeing a DD TDX introduced into the design into the near future as the AC blocks got sold off some time ago :p
 
I'm trying to visualize what you mean by pin striping and how it would be done. Could maybe you give a visual example?
 
QuietIce said:
How about black w/orange pin striping ... ;)

A little too Halloween-y for my taste.

Played around with Sketchup a bit, I'll try more color combos later. Check the last couple images for some more colorful mock ups.













If I go with a white base I'll sand blast the black paint off the res and leave it frosted. Add a pile of orange LED's and ohhhhhh man it should look six kinds of awesome.
 
Very nice Sketchups again!

I'm liking the lines at the bottom, especially the way they are broken up by the rad etc. Are these lines going to be painted on?

Here's an idea for you, how about some orange EL wire for the lines? I know EL wire has lost some of it's magic lately, but I think you could do it well. Drill some holes to route it in and out of the panels, make it nice and taut and/or glue it down. You could even router the lines so the wire is sunken for a flush look, and would keep the wire straight.
 
Endscape! Less Sketchup-ing, More Modding!

Mysterae! Less Viewing Endscape's Awesometacular Sketchup Drawings, More Modding!

Keep up the good work, both of you guys :D
 
Very nice Sketchups again!

I'm liking the lines at the bottom, especially the way they are broken up by the rad etc. Are these lines going to be painted on?

Here's an idea for you, how about some orange EL wire for the lines? I know EL wire has lost some of it's magic lately, but I think you could do it well. Drill some holes to route it in and out of the panels, make it nice and taut and/or glue it down. You could even router the lines so the wire is sunken for a flush look, and would keep the wire straight.

I'm planning on painting them, yes. EL wire has always kind of pissed me off, so I'm staying away from it. However, I am looking at a solution involving LED's, but it will require some pretty fancy plexi work. We shall see.

Endscape! Less Sketchup-ing, More Modding!

Mysterae! Less Viewing Endscape's Awesometacular Sketchup Drawings, More Modding!

Keep up the good work, both of you guys :D

:mad:

;)

:D

Still playing around with color schemes.





 
im going to have to vote for the white/orange. and if you could get the rez to have that Ocean blue tint to it, it would make it look really good.

and another choice you havnt done but a dark gray with orange. Takes the halloweenish out of it. I really like glossy gray paint jobs.
 
im going to have to vote for the white/orange. and if you could get the rez to have that Ocean blue tint to it, it would make it look really good.

and another choice you havnt done but a dark gray with orange. Takes the halloweenish out of it. I really like glossy gray paint jobs.

I do have a source of BMW Steel Grey auto paint... :eek:
 
I'm going to have to agree on the glossy grey paint... and if you could use BMW auto paint that would be badass. Also I think the orange stripes look the best
 
*Slides onto stage*

And I return!

*Confetti*









So I'm just going to throw these out and let you guys guess what's going on.

E
 


If you have not painted it yet, I would personally go with this one. It is the most subtle of the group you posted (in terms of computer cases), yet still has a little personality to it.

Everything is lookin cool so far! :D

edit- meant to quote the pic with the gray border pinstripe paint, not white. I fixed it :)
 
Back
Top