FullMetalJacket
08-22-2006, 06:32 AM
This began as a plan to make the most elegant computer case out there. Black velvet, walnut panels, dead quiet.
Then I started thinking about other fabrics.
It was my elder brother's idea to investigate thick, black fuzzy speaker box carpet, and my father went from there.
Thus was born 'Project Amped'.
Presently, technicals are a little lower than I'd really like, with 1024Mb of DDR RAM, a 700Mhz PIII, stock intel D815EEA Socket 370 mobo, Slow and old seagate HDDs (one nine Gb, one twenty) and an ASUS Radeon 9600 128Mb that I wrangled for cheap on ebay.
The plan with those next is to purchase a new Western Digital 160Gb 7200RPM for $88. The mobo and mainboard I intend to leave as they are, and spend the next lot of cash on my next planned computer.
But back to the mod. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of it under construction, as I only gained access to it in these later stages of work.
It took us about three months to get around to buying the first parts. These were a few metres of speakerbox felt, rubber cornerpieces and top handles.
The idea then came from me for ducted cooling. This, however, proved difficult to implement and once again my father came up with a better idea, of using a tweeter port over the 70mm ThermalTake SuperOrb dual fan tower for air induction (I was having some airflow trouble before that).
(pictures to come)
So we 'nibbled' out a port hole on the plate with a power drill and small bit, measured and cut the port to fit and bought a jar of kwik grip. Then we stripped it down to the chassis and started lathering on the felt.
Leaving that drying overnight, we started thinking about the faceplate. The decision was made to use a piece of stained pine that was precisely the right size.
The power switch have been replaced by a custom circuit I've laid and soldered that when two fingers are touched to a pair of polished boltheads, the capacitance changes and trips a relay that sends a startup or shutdown command.
Also on the cards are a set of analogue gauges cannibalized from a Kenman amp to display clockspeed, temperature and power consumption.
Then I started thinking about other fabrics.
It was my elder brother's idea to investigate thick, black fuzzy speaker box carpet, and my father went from there.
Thus was born 'Project Amped'.
Presently, technicals are a little lower than I'd really like, with 1024Mb of DDR RAM, a 700Mhz PIII, stock intel D815EEA Socket 370 mobo, Slow and old seagate HDDs (one nine Gb, one twenty) and an ASUS Radeon 9600 128Mb that I wrangled for cheap on ebay.
The plan with those next is to purchase a new Western Digital 160Gb 7200RPM for $88. The mobo and mainboard I intend to leave as they are, and spend the next lot of cash on my next planned computer.
But back to the mod. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures of it under construction, as I only gained access to it in these later stages of work.
It took us about three months to get around to buying the first parts. These were a few metres of speakerbox felt, rubber cornerpieces and top handles.
The idea then came from me for ducted cooling. This, however, proved difficult to implement and once again my father came up with a better idea, of using a tweeter port over the 70mm ThermalTake SuperOrb dual fan tower for air induction (I was having some airflow trouble before that).
(pictures to come)
So we 'nibbled' out a port hole on the plate with a power drill and small bit, measured and cut the port to fit and bought a jar of kwik grip. Then we stripped it down to the chassis and started lathering on the felt.
Leaving that drying overnight, we started thinking about the faceplate. The decision was made to use a piece of stained pine that was precisely the right size.
The power switch have been replaced by a custom circuit I've laid and soldered that when two fingers are touched to a pair of polished boltheads, the capacitance changes and trips a relay that sends a startup or shutdown command.
Also on the cards are a set of analogue gauges cannibalized from a Kenman amp to display clockspeed, temperature and power consumption.