Project: CyberAnkh

[DeathCrush]

alright, i know there's another post on here somewhere about a pyramid PC, but i figured i'd share what i had as well (pyramids are too cool to not be made into a case :D)

this is a very basic concept image i have done. it's not the greatest, but hey it's just a concept image so who cares right? :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/basicoutline01.jpg

the blue line represents the motherboard while the red box is the power supply (wow this is a ghetto concept image)

basically all of the individual triangles (16 in all) are going to be 7" or 8" equilateral plexiglass triangles with some sort of nice looking edge on them. i'm still debating on whether or not to use just regular blue LEDs or maybe do some blacklights instead, i don't really know.

the grey eyes/ankh on the front is going to be a custom made 80mm fan grill designed from my friend's ankh necklace that she never goes without.

as far as specs goes here is what i plan on using in it (subject to change):
AMD Athlon64 3200+ Venice core
Gigabyte ga-k8n51gmf-9 mobo
1024mb Kingston PC3200 HyperX memory
nVidia 6800 graphics (probably unless i can find a 7800 for cheap somewhere which is doubtful)
Creative Live! 24-bit 7.1 sound card
Enermax 500watt Libery PSU
250gig IDE HDD
DVD burner
Slamd64 10.2 Linux (an unofficial 64bit port of Slackware)

so give me some feedback guys. tell me what else i can do to it, or tell me what to fix. keep in mind this is just a very basic outline of what i want to do and work won't start on it until a couple weeks from now when the semester is over and i am back home.

[Rankenphile]

I like that fan grill design - are you planning on scratchbuilding it?

I'm still unsure of your general layout - how are you planning on having your ports mounted? If the fan there is an exhaust, where is your intake? Are you going with a clear plexi, or a colored?

All in all, you've got a good start, but it's hard to know haw far along you are on teh detailing part of your planning process. Let us know a bit more, it makes it a lot easier to give feedback if we know specifics.

[DeathCrush]

thanks for the compliments on the fan grill. yea i'm just going to cut it out of the metal left over from the old panel on my other case.

good point on the details too, i guess i just rushed to get this up as fast as possible because i was excited :D
as far as airflow, the fan on the front will be intake and the outtakes will be located somewhere on the back (still unsure where because i don't know what size i'm going to use) the ports on the mobo will be in the back. i'm probably just going to have a open spot in the plexi glass where i can just plug everything in. due to the angle of the pyramid, they wont be flush up against the side, but they'll be in the back so you won't notice if you're not looking

for color of the glass, that's where i'm a bit stumped. if i use just regular LEDs to light it up, then it'll be clear plexiglass, but if i decide to go with a blacklight theme, then i'll probably do blue UV reflective glass.

the mobo also will be mounted by a few inch tall plexiglass dowels. for now, i figure i'll just lightly sand them so that i can mount an LED in the side of them to give a nice glowing-frosted look to them...

[Rankenphile]

You may want to consider using smoked plexi, which looks black normally, but lights up great when lit from behind. Clear panels on the sides with smoked on the front and back would look beautiful.

As far as the ports on the back, perhaps doing something like this:

http://rankenphile.com/images/pyramid1.gif . . . . . . . . . . .http://rankenphile.com/images/pyramid2.gif

The hole there would allow you to mount your mobo flat (the dark blue thing) and leave plenty of airflow room at the bottom for an exhaust fan or two (the light blue arrows indicate airflow), as well as your PSU. Giving the recessed panel for the port access would hide it sufficiently, and you could even construct a lid or cap for it that could pop out, or even fold out of the way, if you added a nicely stealthed hinge.

Hope that helps.

[DeathCrush]

hmmm, very nice. i like those designs a lot. the recessed design for the motherboard is what i had in mind for the most part, however i didn't think of making some sort of cover panel to hide everything, i like that a lot.

for the smoked plexiglass i'll definitely give it a shot. whereabouts could i find some? most places i've been too only have clear and some UV colored plexiglass. thanks...

[Rankenphile]

Heh. AC Ryan (and TribalOverkill, eventually) are good resellers of plexi. I'm not sure where Defyant found his, but he used a bunch on his Storm'd mod, which you can find in the project worklogs section. A very nice mod that shows some great use of smoked plexi.

[rxdrifter]

wow thats a cool design ive been thinking of making a case like that for my gf because she wants something different so let me know how it turns out. and pyramids is where its at :D

[crenn]

Interesting design, Good luck on this project!!!!!!!

[DeathCrush]

FINALLY! i have had the time to sit down and start working on this thing. I just finished cutting out the Ankh/Grey fan grill.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/grill01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/grill02.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/grill03.jpg

the inside edges are a tiny bit jagged although it's not too noticeable. the pictures actually make them look much worse than they appear. hey it was my first time doing this, i think it's decent :D

up next is painting the mouse (mx1000 laser mouse) and the long wait for the plexiglass to show up...

[Rankenphile]

Nice. I like the design.

You might wanna file/sand downt he edges a bit, through, they do look jaggy.

[DeathCrush]

alright, the mouse is getting painted as we speak, it's a MX1000 laser mouse. i plan on having a glossy black base coat with sparkle blue "blobs" in a random layout on it. here are a few "in progress" pictures.

the weapons in my arsenal
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse01.jpg

gutted
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse02.jpg

custom "Linux" water decal. i plan on putting it on the "MX Laser" logo on the end of the mouse (sorry Paul, i took the idea from you on your Doom3 mod :D)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse03.jpg

the gloss black base coat. you can still see the Logitech logo showing through the mouse. i figured i sanded it down enough but i guess not. took a few coats for it to finally go away
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse04.jpg

with the sparkle/silver base on. the flash on the camera makes it look a bit tacky, but trust me it looks pretty cool :)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse05.jpg


and that's all for now. i should have some more up later on tonight. my goal is to get the water decal mounted tonight before i spray on the top coat...

[DeathCrush]

alrgiht. as i promised more mouse pictures. only three but they'll suffice.

metalic blue-ized
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse06.jpg

above (not the greatest lighting)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse07.jpg

here is the decal i made. nothing amazing, but i think it'll look pretty cool
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mousesticker02.jpg

the water decal up close. unfortunately the edges look as if they cracked a bit when i was applying it and there is some white around the edges. i'm going to try to just add some black once it dries to cover them up. hopefully it works.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse08.jpg

alright, that's it for tonight. happy new years. hope everyone is watching The Twilight Zone marathon on Sci-Fi right now, the William Shatner and the creature on the wing of the plane episode is on right now :D

[DeathCrush]

just a quick update. i put what parts i have together and powered it on. i know this is pretty unsafe, but i just had to see this thing running.

as you can see on the display in the corner, the BIOS is up, so it's working! :D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/together01.jpg

on a side note, YES the fans are on. the shutter speed on the camera was fast enough that it managed to catch the blades in mid spin.

[DeathCrush]

and more on the mouse saga. since it's going to take another few days for my plexi to show up i figured might as well just paint the charging cradle for the mouse as well and make it match. i really can't wait until the plexi glass shows up so i can start working on that finally! ugh!

black base coat on the charging cradle
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse09.jpg

both pieces painted metalic blue
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse10.jpg

all three pieces clear coated. i used Krylon Triple Thick clear coat. it seemed to work pretty well on my test mouse i did a little while ago
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v723/DeathCrush904/mouse11.jpg

on a side note, i removed the water decal. it unfortunately just wasn't working out and caused more grief than anything. i must have screwed something up while making it. oh well, better luck next time :D

[Khromosone]

Wow that blue looks awesome