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View Full Version : Light Question, and Mod Idea



Frogon
08-14-2005, 04:10 PM
Ok, basically I had an idea for a case mod, the only experience I have is cutting a hole in one of my side panels to put an 80mm fan, with a jigsaw, and that didn't go too smoothly..

Anyway, the theme would be something Unreal Tournament-ish, dark with pipes and lights and things, and then I got this great idea for how to set up the lighting. I'd have 2 Switches (here) (http://www.xoxide.com/militaryswitch.html) in the front, maybe in a 5.25 slot, one to turn on the computer, with only the needed things, maybe a few fans, and power to all the components. Then, the other switch, would be the "Holy crap thats cool" switch, which would turn on all the lights and whatever else I could cram into the case. I dont know how to do this, but I figured I might be able to pull it off using 2 power supplies. I've got a 350w powering my computer now, and I've got a spare 250w and a 200w from old computers. The idea was I plug all the needed stuff into the 350w, and keep the switch to turn on the motherboard, however, I dont know how I would rig up the switch to the other power supply. The other option I thought of was getting a bigger power supply, around 480w or more, but I still dont know how to rig up the lights to their own switch.

-now.. I'll add more about what else I'm thinking, so its all in one post

For the case, I was thinking of an ASPIRE X-Pider (http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/11-144-065-04.JPG) because of the size (19" x 7.8" x 21.3", Including front panel and case feet), and its not too expensive, however, there's a $30 Case (here) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811213013), thats a bit smaller, a bit cheaper, but I'm sure the quality sucks. I also figured I'd have to add some kind of side window, but I want the window to be very large and show most of the inside of the computer, and I figured there wouldn't be a case that was under $100 that did that and was big.

For the inside, I got the idea from looking at air ducts, and it kind of evolved from there. First, on both of those cases they have 2 holes in the back near the processor. My first idea was get one pipe coming from the processor, and have it split into two pipes that go out through both those back fans, which would look cool. My other idea, which might not be that great and might not work as well, is getting one duct that goes in the top fan, on the processor, and out the other fan, kind of making a curved T.--Scratch that, my heat sink sucks in air, so the circle thing wouldnt work at all. Then I got to thinking more about other parts of the computer. Mainly coming from Unreal Tournament maps, there's a lot of pipes going around, so I figured I'd put lots of pipes in there. But, why have pipes that are completly useless? Thats where my next idea came from, why not have pipes go to all the important components have air flowing through them, kind of like watercooling. Also, I could wrap all the wires in wire loom of different colors.

I'd probably try to make the air pipes look as realistic as possible by painting them, and I was not thinking about LED fans for those, cause you wouldn't really see them, however maybe having a Cathode light on the bottom and\or sides to have the pipes somewhat lighted.

As for the outside of the case, I havent thought about it too much, but I figured I could put some piping around it, maybe some of those cut out lines like on that Doom 3 case to make it more realistic. How's this sound? Probably too hard for me to do, but thats what friends, and the hardware store, is for (hopefully)...

slaveofconvention
08-14-2005, 08:19 PM
Important question. The old power supplies... AT or ATX? If you're lucky enough to have an old AT power supply hanging around then you're in business as these don't use a momentary power switch the way the ATX ones do. Even if you do only have an ATX one, it's still possible, just needs a little creative shorting (there's a green cable in the ATX power cable, you short it to any of the black ones to trick it into thinking there's a motherboard there. Then you need a momentary power switch to turn it on or off. What you are talking about is VERY possible though. One thing you might need to check - some ATX power supplies require a certain level of drain on one of the rails (and I'm not sure which, but someone here will probably know) so you may have to create that drain to get it to switch on.

As for using one of those military switches as a power-on switch. You'll have to fiddle about to get it to work. Modern PC's turn on when power is briefly passed thru the power button - as soon as you stop pressing the power button, the connection is broken - this is referred to as momentary - those switches will stay connected as standard. This will have the same effect as pressing and holding down your power button - eg - PC shutdown after 5 seconds.... There is a workaround - but I'm afraid I don't know what it is - the manual one is to flick the switch up and then back down again, but thats not exactly ideal :(

Frogon
08-14-2005, 10:18 PM
Thanks for the reply! How do I determine if its AT or ATX? I looked on the sticker and I couldnt find anything that said AT or ATX, however one's got labels about which wires get how many volts, or something like that. Also, there wasnt a green wire on any of the cords on the 200w power supply, but there is one on the 250w one, which is one the big power that runs to the motherboard. If thats not what you're talking about, I took some pictures of the power supplies just incase they're needed.

Hmm, you're right, it wouldnt be that fun if I had to flick it up and then down fast so the computer stayed on. I dont know much about electricity so I really dont know what to do about the switch.. or pretty much any of this..

If I do put two power supplies in my case, one obvious thing is I have to get a hole to have the second power supply blow its air outside. The easiest thing I could come up with is have it right next to the other power supply, held up by some kind of metal harness to the top of the case, then have an air duct that takes the air straight out. Also, if I need to, I could possibly put a power strip inside the computer, connect both power supply cords to that, then run the power supply's cord out the back of the computer, which might look funky, but it could work well. The only problem I'm thinking of is getting a hole that goes out the back for the cord, and getting the original power supply's cord back inside without looking too odd, maybe I'd have to put both power supply's exaust into one duct going out.

Also, another thing, I have 2 hard drives, and 2 rom drives, however one's optional since it can only play CDs, but has a nice play button, which some drives are lacking these days. But I'd like to put all that in the case, with 2 power supplies.. the hard part is finding a case big enough for all of that stuff. I think if I cant attach the power supply I might be able to fit it into 2 of the 5.25 drive bays. However I dont know how I would get the air out with the power cords going to the middle of the computer, if the fan was blowing towards the CPU and have a duct running vertically from there it might work, but getting the wires to work would be hard if I could at all.

slaveofconvention
08-15-2005, 12:07 AM
ATX power supplies connect to the motherboard with a 20 pin (2 rows of 10) plastic connector - AT is different. Most obvious difference though, is that AT power supplies nearly always have a power switch on them, connected to the wires, not on the back of the box - as for cases large enough - take a look at the coolermaster stacker - it has more space than you're ever likely to need, and comes ready to take 2 power supplies out of the box

Frogon
08-15-2005, 01:02 AM
Ok, then I think this would be ATX, cause they've got 20 pins, and look exactly like all other power supplies.. besides that they're old : P

As for the case, thats a little more money than I was expecting... but the size does look nice... ok, I looked around a bit, nothing looks too promising for dual power supply, which didnt surpise me much, however I looked into the Aspire X-Pider a bit more, and it looks actually alot better than I had thought, at the price is do-able. Mainly, from this (http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/11-144-051-04.JPG) picture, which looks like I could slide a power supply the rack, and have the cords go under neath the power supply. Also, for getting the power cable out, I could figure out some way to make that part of the outside part, maybe have a pipe run down and have the cord inside it or something..

I'd totaly get that case.. if it was the same price as the X-Pider : )

slaveofconvention
08-15-2005, 04:22 PM
I never said it was cheap - but you do tend to get what you pay for. In actual fact it's probably more expensive than you think anyway - they don't come with PSUs and because it is so well built, its HEAVY and the shipping will also reflect that

Frogon
08-15-2005, 05:19 PM
Yeah, I've seen some other cases that were server cases that were huge, and some of those tall ones, they all look really cool, but I was afraid to even look at one of those for $60 because it would probably be made out of cardboard...

However.. I might be able to shell out some extra money for that case, cause if I had it, that would make everything much easier.

As for turning on the computer, I could just go to a regular button and have that military switch for the extra things. I'll think things over.. but now I feel I'd rather have an awesome case, especially cause it supports the dual power supply thing extremly well, and that'd be the second hardest thing to do, first would be the entire rigging of the lights and fans : P

Thanks for the help, I'll probably end up making another post soon : )

public_eyesore
08-15-2005, 09:25 PM
i say, if you can afford the stacker, getr it . My friend has one and he loves it(it is not a lan party case, trust me), there's plenty of room for his water cooled steup and sli.