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Returning to the community

S

SiiRuHs

n00b
Joined
Jun 19, 2004
Messages
33
I don't post much but I've been keeping up with [H]ard|OCP since 1996 and over that time I've gotten a lot of ideas and inspiration off the main page and these forums. Since about 2000 I've been tinkering with making my own cases in one form or another but I haven't really posted any of what I've done simply because I was too lazy but I figure I might as well since it isn't likely I'd have done any of this if it weren't for other people posting pics of what they've done. :)

Here's my first attempt, it was made from a cambridge soundworks 2.1 speaker box. Originally the mobo was just strapped in with twist ties but over time I trimmed the box down until it was as compact as it could get.
case1a.jpg


An old MS Mouse Explorer for size comparison (about the size of my ratpad)
case1b.jpg


The second case, this time with a little more effort. It was modelled after a server design with the mobo/cards on one side and the PSU/drives on the other. I'm aware the cuts are quite nasy, they were done with a drill, hacksaw, and dull file. ;) I never did get any good photos, I only had a web cam at the time.
case2.jpg


By this time I finally got a proper digital camera and I had rebuilt the case with dual PSU's with the intention of hacked redundancy and possibly a peltier cooler. Of course, with power consumption going crazy relative to before, I decided not to bother with it. A suitable TEC wouldn't even run off dual 450watt PSU's at the time with the avialable power I had from the 12v rails not to mention the more powerful TECs like about 24v if I recall correctly. A dedicated power adapter wasn't much of an option and I was and still am a student so my budget is somewhat constrained. I did pick up a drill press for $50 though.
case3.jpg
 
And this brings us up to the current. I've purchased a keyhole saw, a new file, and a bench vice (no bench though :p).
Dscf0001.jpg

Dscf0002.jpg

Dscf0003.jpg

Dscf0004.jpg

Dscf0005.jpg

Dscf0006.jpg

Dscf0007.jpg


Yes, those are power sockets in the back.
Dscf0008.jpg

Dscf0009.jpg

Dscf0010.jpg


And the waterblock. It was also an evolutionary process but I don't have any good pics of its older incarnations. The copper has been recycled since the second case though.
block1.JPG

block2.JPG

block3.JPG


That's a 1/4" plate between the two 1/8" plates and most pieces seen were purchased on the cheap. There aren't any points in there that permit less volume than the 1/2" pipe. Bits and pieces came from the local canuck tire or aces lumber, most the plexiglass were from the offcuts bin at a local plastics shop. Some of the more stressed panels are poly-carbonite though. My aluminum was cheap cold rolled stuff hand polished (no buffer ;) ) and the pump is just a maxi-jet from a pet store. Radiator came from a transmission shop. All that's left to do is put a grill/fitler on the front but I've been busy with class and work since the summer so I haven't gotten around to it.

As for the results, I'm currently running with only the vantec 120mm stealth fan up front spinning (got it used - catching a patter? :D ) and the other fans off. There's a barton 2500+ @ stock 1.8GHz, 33c prime95 24h load. If I turn the radiator fans up to 5v, I'm solid at 2.5GHz and 43c prime95 24h load. It'll go at 2.6GHz but I have to turn the voltage past 1.8 and an extra 200MHz either way doesn't make enough of a difference to me. Besides, most games are video card dependent - doom3 and HL2 run with less than a 10% difference from the 6800GT benchmarks I've seen online with FX/EE based PCs. At least with resolutions of 1280x1024 and better. The top FSB on this abit a7n is 233, 1T 2-3-2-10 but I prefer to keep it at 227 and 1T 2-2-2-10.

result.gif


Any feedback would be appreciated but I'm too busy and stubborn to be likely to make any changes. The main ideas I had were form from function (I can't stand it the other way around and I'm no ipod fan). Natural convection from the radiator draws air up and out and the internal case temps are quite low. The 2nd and 3rd cases were quite large and LANs were bothersome so this one is much smaller - that's a regular ATX mobo to give you an idea. It's camped in there and changing the CPU does require ripping everything out but there's plenty of space for PCI/AGP cards as well as 3 HDDs (one day I'll get raid5... mmm raid5). The PSU has an extra female socket cable coming out the inside that plugs into a socket in the back. The sockets and pump are activated by a 12v relay powered by the PSU.

Whew. That was more than I planned on writing.

*Crud. Looks like I need a different host.
**Okay put it on a space a friend setup for me... just hope it doesn't eat all his bandwidth. Sorry Ashton! :D
 
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