Project: Sickness & Project: Power Tower

[Pedastriol]

Hi all, I am new here and this is my first time modding. I've seen so many awesome modded systems on here that are really impressive, so I have decided to give it a try. It was hard to come up with idea's that weren't the same as others, and I really wanted to be original. After some thought, and some gathering of material, I have devised these designs.

http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/powertower.bmp
this is my Power Tower design, nothing too fancy. I want to integrate the sound system into the shell to accommodate space, also I have an extra 7" LCD so I threw that into the design as well. I will probably start this project around tax time that way I can drop some newer performance part into it.

(dropped project sickness due to a blown LCD screen :()

[LiTHiUM0XiD3]

Looks very interesting... Cant wait to see some progress.... Tho I must ask... are the images roughly to scale? If so... Have you takin into consideration about the lower sub causing too many vibrations/bumps and affecting the hard drive/s?

+rep for small LCDs :)

[d_stilgar]

Cool. A speaker mod with a computer in it, or maybe a computer mod with speakers in it. In either case, make sure that you insulate the magnets. For the most part it's been proven that magnets won't break your computer, but I don't think anyone has had them so close for extended periods of time. So it would be best to be safe about it.

[AMD Killa]

You wouldent have to worry about vibrations so much if you suspended your harddrives.

By the looks of things, you have kept the sub fairly far from components, so you should be OK. You could always use the Faraday shielding from an old microwave to cover the inside of the speaker to protect your equipment.

[Pedastriol]

These are rough scale plans that I tossed together on paint :) I was thinking that the tower will be about 4 1/2ft to 5ft tall. The woofer enclosure will be built separate from the tower and integrated later, mostly for seal and sound purposes. I actually wasn't sure about the magnet situation, I guess I will have to assemble a shield just incase, as far as vibration I am hoping that 3/4inch MDF board will keep it all in. Well I appreciate your questions and comments so far, I'm actually considering starting this one a little earlier :)

[Pedastriol]

now that I have reduced my projects to just one, I have decided to begin my journey into the modding universe :lick:

well being broke means I need to make sacrifices, so I gathered up anything laying around the house the I thought I could used to start this project
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0057.JPG

I found this little shelf hiding under the stuffed animal cluster in my daughter's room, wife wont be happy when she see's this :D
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0059.JPG

after tearing down the shelf I went ahead and cut the long sides into 4 pieces, 2 of them I cut down to 16 5/8-inches X 11 5/8-inches, and then shaved off 1 5/8-inch to an angle for a little more shape
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0060.JPG

I tied the 2 angled pieces with a 4 1/2-inch X 7 1/2-inch shelf board
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0063.JPG

thanks to my mother-in-law I gained some sticks of molding from a broken door mirror, very easy to cut with a knife so I figured out a way to use them
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0066.JPG

the molding, like most, has a grooved edge on the top back, so it almost cups the 7" LCD sceen perfectly
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0068.JPG

after digging around in my "junk drawer" I came up with this old fan shield from a older mobo, and some very small screws
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0070.JPG

now I have some ghetto but effective mounting brackets, and they actually hold pretty well
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0072.JPG

here is the lcd mount from the inside
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0073.JPG

and this is the outside view :lick:
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0074.JPG

more to come soon.....

[FuzzyPlushroom]

I love reused bits! Those brackets rock. +rep

[nevermind1534]

You have the same table and chairs that are in my kitchen lol. +rep

[Pedastriol]

ha nice, its a pretty nice set for what I paid. Yeah those brackets made mounting the lcd super easy, good thing I didnt toss them out :) So I ended up staying up all night working on the 2 top sections of this tower, and got a **** load figured out and completed. I didn't however stick to the plans as much, I just worked with what I had and thought up new additions......

so here I started building the middle sections, or the main board housing....http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0075.JPG



I stacked the 2 pieces together and measured 1 3/4 inch on each side to center the top with the bottom

http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0076.JPG

just a side view
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0077.JPG

now I have to figure out how to mount the dvd drive, I started off using some L brackets that originally go to sliding glass door blinds :D
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0079.JPG

once I leveled the drive on the brackets, and leveled it with the shell, I started the molding around the drive face. The will later be covered with fiberglass
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0081.JPG

after running out of ideas, I decided to start mounting the mobo, since I am using 1/2 particle board and cant afford a jug saw, it would be a mission for me to cut out a side panel, so I'm mounting the mobo for front view action:lick:
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0083.JPG

with low resources for material, I chose to mount the mobo on the last shelf board, by drilling small holes, and using a 5mm socket I screwed 6 standoff bolts into the wood. After installing the mobo, I flushed the back piece and secured it with plenty of screws :)
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0084.JPG

poor old 900, perhaps something will come up in the future....
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0085.JPG

since I couldn't think of any other way to mount the hdd, I figured I could use the L brackets for the hard drive, and build some brackets for the dvd
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0087.JPG

without measuring, I cut 2 strips from the scrap metal, then split them into 4. I used a block to keep the bend spacing as even at I could, then I drilled out the screw holes
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0089.JPG

put the new brackets on, not too shabby looking I guess, but it will work
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0090.JPG

after leveling, centering, getting pissed off, and adding some small screws, I mounted the drive! :) it was a little difficult to find a shim to keep it at the originally mounted height :lick:
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0092.JPG

now I got a whole lot done last night, and took tons of pics, but I'm tired as hell and ready to continue working tomorrow. this last pic was an old idea I'm sure, and worked out good for me. I took one of my spare IDE cables and tightly wrapped red electrical tape around it. I didnt try to split the wires because I could never not break a wire, but the end result is still not bad
http://gladtesting.com/nigsta/107_0095.JPG

thanks for all your comments so far, they have really motivated me on this, and I hope everyone likes the finished piece.