Project: Ultimedia Blue

[bschott]

Recently, I was talking with a college IT Director friend of mine and he decided to give me heads up on when he was doing a yearly clean up of the PCs and servers the college no longer wanted or used.

I was able to save a couple servers and a bunch of PCs from the 'prep' area before they went into a waste truck headed to the city dump's shredders.

One of the servers I just had to make my new main PC.

It started as a basic white Chenbro SR-103 case with a 800Mhz xeon setup (which I trashed out in liew of new components).

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/cubedoorb.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/backcubeb.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMAG0011.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMAG0010.jpg

I had a basic idea of what I wanted to do in my mind and I worked from there...my goal was to create a new, more powerful multimedia machine...basically Ultimedia's replacement.

I stripped the case down to the basic framework and started cutting the windows I wanted. I thought of going with tinted lexan for all the windows but it was just too dark for this mod.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0035.jpg

I didn't like the lines in the basic case, and I didn't like all the 'led' indicator lights in the front of the case.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0045.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0032.jpg

While I was cutting, my buddy Curtis started filling in the lines and holes with fiberglass.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0040.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0037.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0039.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0033.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0038.jpg


http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0044.jpg

[bschott]

After the cutting and fiberglass was done, we both grabbed different sections of the PC and start sanding down the fiberglass.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0043.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0041.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0053.jpg

After all the sanding was done, we both took cans of automotive primer and did the 'prime-sand-prime' dance that all experianced case modders who like a nice paint job have done time and time again.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0055.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0053.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0058.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0061.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0066.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0071.jpg

At this point, I also primed covers and handles for three of my removable harddrive bays. Since they were white, they were throwing off my "black drive's only" setup. Primer set us up for a later coat of black paint and lacquer.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0048.jpg

Finally we were done with primer and we then moved on to the actual paint, a deep blue with small metallic silver flecks. We did five coats of paint, with sanding in-between coats, then three coats of lacquer, with a final wet sanding of 3000 grit sandpaper.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0078.jpg
Me

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0079.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0081.jpg

I looked back at the case and decided I didn't like the PSU the way it was and I didn't like how the outside was a nice blue while the inside was still the standard bare metel...so...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0073.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0075.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0076.jpg

....I ripped it apart and installed the PSU circuit board inside of a custom made Lexan shell. It's overly aircooled with the 120mm fan pulling air from below, and 2x40mm fans blowing onto the heatsinks, while a 80mm fan pulls air out an away from the PSU. The internal metel was painted blue as well, and the back, top, front and bottom of the case was painted a satin black with laqucer covering.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0091.jpg

I decided to use rivets to hold the side windows in place. I also decided to use liquid nails for the front two windows, and LCD window. So...here is the finished product!

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0082.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0085.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0086.jpg
(the cold cathode fell down out of it's spot...I had forgotten to clean the area where I put the adhesive first)

I dropped the room lights to show the LCD in action...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0083.jpg
The blue circle in the small window is actually my Bulgin Anti-vandal power switch from Xoxide.

And here is a video of the LCD in action:

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/th_MVI_0090.jpg (http://s102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/?action=view&current=MVI_0090.flv)

Finally, I have 10 blue cold cathodes running in this server. 4 per side (top, edges, bottom) and two on either side of the window of the front bay door. There are two 'windshield washer sprayer lights' I have mounted to the bottom of the PC as well. (I'll update with pics later on that)

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0089.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0087.jpg

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/Bschott007/IMG_0088.jpg


So...what are the specs?

CPU: AMD Athlon 64bit FX-62 Dualcore @ 2.8Ghz
RAM: OCZ Dual Channel XTC 4096MB PC5400 DDR2 667MHz Gamer Memory (4 x 1024MB) matched
Video: Nvida 8800GTS 320
HDD: 2.5 Terabytes accross eight harddrives (6 SATA, 1 IDE, 1 External USB)
Drives: DVD-RW
MB: DFI LANPARTY UT NF590 SLI-M2R/G
PSU: OCZ GameXStream Power Supply (NVIDIA SLI-Ready) 850Watt
Extras: Hauppauge WinTV PVR2 USB
KB: Zippy STQ (Slim-Thin-Quiet) gaming keyboard
Mouse: Logitech MX-518 gaming mouse
(Sometimes use Logitech wireless MX5000 keyboard/lazer mouse)
speakers: Logitech X-540 5.1 speakers
OS: Windows Vista, Windows XP Pro, Solaris 10 (depending on my mood...just need to swap removable harddrives and away I go.)

So why do I need all that HDD space? The Hauppauge works wonderfully with Vista Ultimate's Media Center and allows me to record shows I would normally miss and watch cable while I am surfing or gaming.

You are the first ever to see this case as I JUST completed it. Happy Modding!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Mate looks fantastic, You should so water coo it, you have so much room to play with. +rep

EDIT: would give rep but need to share it around first :(

[calumc]

nice job +rep!

[p0Pe]

nice:D... sooo big.. sooo blue xD... i like!

[billygoat333]

that is a sick case. :) even before you modded it i was like, damn thats sweet! wish i had one. lol

[tinker]

haha yea.
great job.
I wish I could get my hands on one of those cases, too.

[cured]

thats nice gj