Aperture Science Portable Testing Unit (scratchbuild)

[confusis]

Excerpts from an Aperture Laboratories Employee, circa 2012:


9 March 2012:
I've become a fan of older Aperture hardware it seems. Working on the latest Aperture Laboratories Portable Testing Unit, I discovered the following images in an old service manual:

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/ZTJHb.png

I've managed to dig out these parts, and intend on resurrecting this machine from Aperture's early days. With the ongoing lockdown in the labs, I have some free time to complete this project. I'm still trying to find any form of literature regarding the unit's external design, will log those images as soon as I discover them.

[B]This post brought to you by:
http://imagehost.losias.net/images/hUQr4.png

Note: This worklog is in no way connected with vALVE or related companies. This is just a mod made by a fan of the Portal game/world.
[END TRANSMISSION]



[B]Sunday 22 April

After a lot of planning (and interruptions, damn that Wheatley, useless pile of [REDACTED]) I have started to work on this project! First I have grabbed a power supply from the reverse engineering plant, seems they were looking at this Silverstone Essentials Series 500W unit in preparation for the reverse engineered Aperture Science unit to supply power for our next generation of Aperture Science Single-user System.

Disappointingly, the pinout of the connectors is all wrong! How inefficient is a motherboard when it needs to be supplied all these different voltages?! Seems the ASPTU uses a more efficient combination of 12v and a standby 5v supply. Much nicer.

So, I've had to remove all these unnecessary wires. See below:
http://imagehost.losias.net/images/Uj0V7.jpg
Seen above is a quick size comparison of the PSU and the ASPTU board.

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/BupDC.jpg
The unit in its correct location in the system

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/ESoQw.jpg
The opened unit (OOC: Warranty? BAH!)

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/0Hb4Y.jpg
Removing the unnecessary wires - the ones to the left are about to be removed

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/Pt587.jpg
That's more like it. 26 wires in total, rather than the 40+ that existed before. Don't worry, the wires will be sleeved for a more uniform look.

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/B4TCw.jpg
The remaining ends - the plugs you see are for the Aperture Science Singular Board Unified Televisor Translator (seriously the marketing dept needs a shakeup!)
The loose wires will be inserted into a 20 pin plug for the board.

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/HUWSr.jpg
A selection of the removed wires. Some of this (approx 10-20cm) will be saved for powering disk devices and cooling apparatus.

I hope to pass on more work on this project soon, barring any more interruptions.

[END TRANSMISSION]

OOC:
A few more pics over on LOSIAS.net :)

Specs so far
2x Intel Xeon L5420 2.5GHz (according to Passmark, the pair have 90% of the performance of a stock clocked Core i7-2600k. I render a lot as well as game so need 'moar REAL cores'. I also have a trick or two up my sleeve. Passmark says 3GHz 5400 series Xeons have similar performance to the core i7-2700k or i7-3820.. considering what I paid for this hardware it's a steal)
4x 1GB DDR2 FB-DIMMs (going to purchase another 4 soon enough, for real quad channel bandwidth)
Supermicro X7DWT motherboard (I believe I'm the first modder to use the Half-SSI style form factor.. I could be wrong. The board is designed to be paired with a twin inside a single 1U server, hence the funky power input. Seriously, read the thread here: http://www.losias.net/showthread.php/758-The-Supermicro-X7DWT-thread! )
XFX GTX285 1GB (I wanted something within budget that had decent performance and was long, to suit the motherboard)
500GB WD Blue
2x Deepcool Ice Edge Mini coolers (going to be custom mounted)

Chassis will be made from 1mm alu sheet, with some steel reinforcing and whatnot.

[TLHarrell]

Welcome to the forums. Making a great start of a buildlog on your first post! Fantastic little back story you've got going. Subscribed and watching this one. :up:

[d_stilgar]

If it has to do with Portal, I'm interested. I'll be keeping my eye on this.

Welcome to the forums!

[AmEv]

:stupid:

and

:stupid:

[confusis]

Thanks guys :) I've been lurking for a while, thought I'd share my worklog with you folks:) It is shared on LOSIAS and [H] as well.. Just sharing the modding love :D

[Kayin]

I just passed on my dual Xeon setup. I still remember working on them all the time when I worked.

I should get me a board of that form factor for my dual hexacores here. May as well use them.

[confusis]

Wednesday 25 April

Some work on the back panel. Needs a few more rivets. I will be painting the whole chassis, so don't mind the scratches! The IO area will have some moulding inserted, the bent back alu is for structure!

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/5gnG.jpg

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/QqtYA.jpg

As always, more pics on LOSIAS.net :)

Next stage is finishing the rear panel including the chassis braces, and then it's time to move to the front!

The board is running fine, with the GTX285 GPU and the massively modified 500w Silverstone PSU. Windows doesn't appear to like mixed steppings, so I have to stump up for another Xeon :(

[jdbnsn]

Ohhhhh, this does look cool! Don't hold out on the pics bro, welcome to TBCS!!!

[confusis]

Thanks dude. LOSIAS hosts my images so its sort of a kickback for them (us..I'm head Editor lol)

Trying to decide whether to buy or make the fan controller..hmm

[xr4man]

stupid work firewall blocks your site.

[AmEv]

...Do you need audio on this?

[confusis]

Yup. I'll be implementing a USB audio card - just a cheap fleabay one until I can afford a decent model.

[xr4man]

looks good so far.

[SXRguyinMA]

looking good man, can't wait to see it come together!

[confusis]

6 May 2012

After the previous shots got out, Aperture Science Health staff came to visit - and confiscated the case! They said something about the bucket of drill bits being able to cause an outbreak of tetanus or the like. Long story short - have to start again. I have a chassis from Coolermaster (the Elite 330 All-Black Edition) that I will sacrifice to the cause to ensure this hardware has a home!

(OOC: Yeah I lost some of the chassis parts I had saved for this design... thus I have to start again :'( )

[confusis]

7 May 2012

Well, after being tested, retested and probed a few too many times by the Aperture Science Health team, I'm back into building this system. As I said in my previous transmission, I have re-started the build using a CLEAN Coolermaster Elite 330 All Black edition. The chassis I came across had obviously been modified by a previous Aperture Science employee, but that's not an issue.

Some hacking, chopping, swearing, and rivets later, I'm here:
http://imagehost.losias.net/images/Aio7P.jpg
http://imagehost.losias.net/images/cZURY.jpg
http://imagehost.losias.net/images/GjZz0.jpg
http://imagehost.losias.net/images/BrHwg.jpg

To make this look a little nicer I plan on filing, filling, sanding, and so forth to smooth the exterior out. The motherboard tray is the next major project, and with the board's unique mounting hole location, this could be interesting.

On a side note, the Aperture Science Perpetual Testing Initiative is coming online very soon - here's hoping I don't get drafted!

==END TRANSMISSION==

OOC: Chassis started as one of these: http://www.coolermaster.com/product.php?product_id=30 Except I had the limited edition black faceplate. Fancy!

[confusis]

http://imagehost.losias.net/images/IsRnc.jpg

[confusis]

Thursday 17 May


My team leader has advised me that they will no longer be supporting the X7DWT FRU for this build. Thus I have obtained another board for a continuation of this project, albeit in a quite different guise.


OOC: I was offered a quad Socket F motherboard at a crazy price and have sold off the Xeons, Motherboard, RAM and power supply to fund the new hardware. The X7DWT will live on in another modder's build though!

[AmEv]

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!

[Kayin]

You got an Arima, or something different?

[confusis]

Arima yes. Struggling to find much info on the board, But I have the green revision 2 board, so things should go a lot better than the folks with rev1

[Kayin]

I PMed you about that. I can tell you pretty much anything you want to know.