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)...
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)...