Woohoo, case mod article!

[zackbass]

I just did a write-up of the steps involved in the case window I did, and it seems that overclockers.com put it up,so go and check it out!

http://www.overclockers.com/tips1018/

[TAZTG]

Very Nice. You should have mentioned in the article, to avoid scratching the outside of the panel to put the template on the inside of the panel and do the cutting. I know thats what you said was your one major mistake. In the PIC you can see the scratches, I still am wondering if you will sand the panel or have you decided to paint the whole case?? Nice Job ZACK keep up th good modding.. TAZTG..

[meat322]

Ibet you can sell that case if you were to put em into prodction. or are you going to throw the drawings away like i did with a bbq grill i built for work' it was sharp but it was a pain to build and of coarse everybody wanted me to build them one so i told them i threw the drawings away

[CrawlingEye]

Very nice, I remember your thread with that. The one flaw the window has is that you can't really see your mobo or anything. However, I wouldn't really mind that, since you can put a cathode right under it and just have this ill as hell *insert color here* dragon shining out of the side of your case.

Great job.

[zackbass]

I think that I'll lave the side "in the raw" for now.

For the next few days I am putting a new motor in my dad's hot rod. Then I have an internship at a local IT company where I got to do all kinds of cool thing like flatten boxes, reload computers, clean up cables. When I'm not doing lowly work there I'm writing a program in VB to automate business proposals (never even imagined using skills from THAT class).

I've already hit the wall with really cool things to do with this small case, so I'm already drawing up ideas for the next one, which will house a Hammer processor, or whatever Intel has at the time. Some ideas making the list include waterjet or laser cutting the same design into the side, but much bigger, new WC system with custom waterblock, and a gas powered fan for looks and awe from spectators. I am thinking of using a ducted fan driven by a four-stroke model airplane motor inn the upper couple drive bays. To add extra coolness I was thinking of a servo-controlled stealthed fan cover. Anothner idea is car paint for the case, which is probably the easiest of all suggestions.

Please submit some more suggestions, because I'm planning the next one to be decked out with mods.

[CrawlingEye]

Argh, you stole my model airplane engine idea.

Oh well, tell me how it works.

[zackbass]

You know it! But I didn't think you were acutally considering doing it!

[CrawlingEye]

Originally posted by zackbass
You know it! But I didn't think you were acutally considering doing it!

Naw, I wasn't considering doing it, it'd be too loud and I'm a bit scared of unenclosed fans, particularly without grills, let alone ones moving that fast. The AVC Sunflower taught me that lesson.

*ouch*


Just sayin' it was my idea. hehe
That's not to say that I'm not interested in hearing how it works for you, though.

By the way, do you intend to use an air-plane controller to control the servos, or?

[zackbass]

The fan would mainly be ornamental, it'd be extremely loud. I am thinking of controlling the servos with a basic stamp microcontroller. They can output the PWM signal the servos need, and can be set up to control my LCD and lights.

The biggest problems I am thinking of are exhaust, which is full of oil and unburnt gas, and vibration. I think that I'll route the exhaust out some stacks on the side of the case, like the kind big trucks have, nad having a whole bunch of filters and things on it. For vibtrations I'll probably just make a rubber mount for the motor which should absorb most of the vibration.

Also, I am going to need an RC car motor for this. The airplane motors are designed to cooled by the air and don't have big heatsinks on them, so the motor might overheat at a standstill in an enclosed space. Also, I haven't seen any aircraft motors with electric start, which is a must for this application, which RC Car motors can have.