Got money. Got ideas?

[SilentJ]

Howdy! Nice forum you got here.

I got this Idea, I was gonna buy a new lappy, but I ran across this website... http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/08/30/defcon2006_janus_project/ And I was like.. Hell yea, I want a totally portiable but super friggin kick-ass PC.

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/media/2006/08/goldy.jpg

So, I decided I would make one myself instead of buying a new lappy. But I live overseas and just going to Wal-mart to pick up a dremmel and some carbon fiber just isnt an Option. I will pay twice the ammount of the computer just for shipping here... So basically I want to maybe contract someone to build my PC for me. Then I only gotta pay one shipping fee.

So, I want to use the same pelican case the dude used on the Janus Project but I want the computer to be a little more powerful... I'm thinking..

AMD 64X2
4GB Ram
2 500GB hard disks
Blu-Ray Burner
Sloat Load DVD+RW
The best video capture card avaiable to man.
17" inches in the top pannel.
Wireless of course the best VGA ect.

Basically, a super-powerhouse of a kick ass computer.

Thats the guts, the tricky part is getting the inside to resemble the LG chocloate. http://www.probuem.ru/i/uploads/LG_Chocolate.jpg

Basically, I want the inside to look just black. So if you open it you wont see any of the componants or the flatscreen just slick black like the Chocolate. Only when you power-on do you see the screen - (Like the chocolate) I want just about everything hidden, but I want to keep the case intact, with only a hole for the powercord, but when closed I would like to keep it waterproof like the origional. what else would be cool is to put one of those fingerprint scanners there too for security. What would be really awsome is to have the keyboard like touch sensitive so I wouldnt need an external. That would firggin rock but dont know if it's possible.

Anyhow, you guys got any good idea? Let me know, and if you are intrested in building it for me let me know as well, MrMusa@gmail.com

[xdxforever]

it doesn't really matter where you live overseas, you can still buy most parts and tools if you have any local stores... I would really suggest trying to build it yourself. almost all good components come in slick looking black models: there are black mobos, Video cards, memory, HDs, PSUs, etc.
In terms of small size, thats harder by a lot, to get the small size in that pic, you would have to make hardware sacrifices. Cooling would be especially difficult if you want it waterproof while closed.
For contracting someone to make such a slick thing for you would, by the way, cost far more than shipping yourself parts i bet.
I'll let someone else comment on actually trying to build this thing.

[SilentJ]

Actually, I would really love to build it myself. I actually live in egypt where everything here is 10 times its origional price and 5 years outdated, I suppose If I go to cairo I can track down the parts I need, but I really just miss Wal-mart! I mean, half of the fun of the PC will be that I built it myself, then again I never modded a PC before, I am pretty savvy when it comes to this kinda stuff tho so I trust myself not to mess it up. However, like chopping up a 500dollar flatscreen kinda frightens me a bit. I was thinking of watercooling as far as that goes, The dvdrw's can be slimline to cut down on some space, other than that I think there should be plenty of extra space in there.

What do you guys think about the Keyboard? I am sick of lame ass flat keyboards... Any alternitives?

[SilentJ]

what do you think of this! Kick ass
hehe

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/2/0,1425,sz=1&i=23110,00.jpg

[DaveW]

We had an Egyptian modder a while back. Dr Kamoli or something was the name he went by.

I have no idea what that thing is.

-Dave

[SilentJ]

I live kinda out in the boonies, away from the city, but I suppose the little extra work going out for parts or buying them and waiting for them to ship to egypt will just make me love it more hha. Thats a Keyboard BTW. To expencive tho, just over 1,200 bucks! :O I really want to do something different with the keyboard, to really set it apart from anything else.

[SilentJ]

I think I like this better!

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/2/0,1425,sz=1&i=24502,00.jpg

A review on this " Keyboard ? "

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,1112012,00.asp

[Airbozo]

what do you think of this! Kick ass
hehe

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/2/0,1425,sz=1&i=23110,00.jpg

Once you get used to it, it works great! Unfortunatley the learning curve is quite steep for that keyboard, but worth it in the end.

[SilentJ]

oh baby! I got the keyboard! haha http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/
http://www.thinkgeek.com/images/products/zoom/virtual_keyboard.jpg
Ok what do you think?
My idea is this, on the inside I can put down a black piece of rubber or some other nice surfice to shine this lazer on. frickin awsome find. Anyone ever use one of these things? How is it? Does it really work as well as a normal keyboard? Any insights would be great.!

Thanks

[jdbnsn]

I've seen those for a couple of years now, I think they started out as keyboards for palm pilot's. Sadly I have not had the chance to try one, but I want to. A friend of mine was building a PC system in his car and I helped with some little stuff, one of the problems we faced was how to get a keyboard in there that will be useful and not look stupid, and that was what we came up with. Unfortunately he moved before getting around to getting one so I missed out.

[Zephik]

I have never owned one... but I can only imagine how useful they must be in certain conditions. But as I believe someone once said about one of those... It just isn't as satisfying as feeling the push of the keys and the sounds of them "clicking" up and down. Draw a keyboard on your desk and drum your fingers on that for about 5 minutes. You'll understand what I mean. ^^

That first keyboard... is amazing. I had no idea they had things like that! Talk about thinking outside of the box! I wonder who though up that crazy thing? That second one is pretty crazy too! Looks EXTREMELY futuristic! For the life of me though... I just cant imagine how that works? How do you type?

-SF

[gaz_the_chav]

My friend has one of those and it works very well I mean I typed as fast as I could (around 100wpm) adn it did not skip one letter. As for space consumption it is also a big advantage becuase it stays right out the way.

http://www.llrx.com/images/virtualkey.gif

-gaz

[SilentJ]

I was wondering if anyone knew anything on water cooling.,.. is it at all riskey? I mean if there was a puncture in the tube or if it leaker... zaaaaap. Anyone use it? what is the best one to buy? what do you guys think would be the best way to cool this thing without drilling unsightly holes?

[SilentJ]

Snowfire, the firsdt one was actually featured in the Jodi foster movie Contat, apparently. I keep hearing that it really is a fantastic thing, it has a high learning curve but once you get the hold of it apparently its awsome. The Orb one types by moving the orbs in different directions. pretty cool. I think im gonna go with the lazer tho, it looks the most awsome and I think it fits in with what i wanna do! Thanks Gaz!

[SilentJ]

this is my vision

http://www.sukinet.org/musa/vlcsnap-1064732.png

[DaveW]

About half the people here use water cooling. I think i've only heard of one guy with a leak, and that was with a custom built part.

It's pretty secure.

-Dave

[SilentJ]

thats good I figured it was pretty secure. Only thing I dont know much about it. What / where is the best place to buy? If I use watercooling I wont neet to cut holes in the box ah? Do you have any other ideas?

Thanks

[Zephik]

These are Trusted websites to buy water cooling kits and/or accessories from! Or if you feel the need to build your own... you can do that too! :D

DangerDen.com (It's their specialty ^^)
Frozencpu.com
Newegg.com
Arcticmod.com
performance-pcs.com
Xoxide.com

Just to list a few. ^^

Since you don't know much about water cooling... I'll hook you up with some guides!

http://www.overclock.net/overclock.php?file=articles/water-cooling-guide.htm
http://www.spodesabode.com/content/article/watercool
http://www.xoxide.com/water-cooling.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/06/09/diy_water_cooling_101/
http://www.overclockers.com/tips505/
http://wiki.extremeoverclocking.com/wiki/Water_Cooling
http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=-178
http://www.wc101.com/guides.htm
http://forums.overclockersclub.com/Incredible_Water_Cooling_Guide-t64249.html

Mmmm.... linkage.... lol

My guess is that the first link there is your best bet for a complete and detailed guide. If you are lost or confused you can also check out some of the other sites or ask one of us here on the TBCS Forums! ^^

**Sorry I didn't personally filter through most of those website. But I am sure each one has a few gold nuggets in them somewhere!

-SF

[CanaBalistic]

Hey silentj.... Where's the PSU supposed to go? lol

You can get various sizes of waterproof box's. Maybe you should check out which size you'll actually need. They come in black also which would fit in with your mod.

[SilentJ]

Well Im sure I can fit the PSU in there somwhere lol, I think i will have plenty of room for the mod in the box its pretty big. The next size up is just to big. The big thing for me is cooling, I dont know how to cool the sucker. I was thinking watercooling but it looks like they are pretty cumbersome as far as size is concerned. I have a feeling im gonna have to do some stacking. maybe stack the hdd's I will have to wait till the case gets here to see just how much room I have.
I been to alot of the water cooling sites you posted but it still looks like I have to put fan, holes. Anyone got any other ideas? I woud really hate to destroy the box. ( 200 bucks )!

SIlentJ

[CanaBalistic]

How about this... You could drill 2 holes and run the water tubes out of the case to an externally mounted rad. You could fashion a shroud or bracket for it.

You could install quick connectors and keep the rad inside the case untill you open it and connect the rad.

[Timoi]

How about an air cooled system like in these pictures?

Note: I do not quite understand your layout plans but I think this (or something similar adapted to your design) should work.

[img=http://img299.imageshack.us/img299/3946/compactcoolingyy2.th.png] (http://img299.imageshack.us/my.php?image=compactcoolingyy2.png)

[GT40_GearHead]

that should have a good airflow...... LOL :D

[SilentJ]

Hello, Howdy. I was wondering if any of you have any idea about the skinniest, slimist, 19" widescreen LCD monitor. I want to squeeze a 19"er into the lid of this case http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/pelican-flashlights_1920_1359942

Here are the dimensions of the case, I think I should be ok fitting all the stuff on the inside but I think i am gonna have some problems with the LCD monitor, I can go with a 17"er but what fun is that I want to squeeze a 19" in there, I figure I can just about get 19"es in there with about 1/2' to spare on the top and bottom and about 1" to spair from left to right. So it should just about fit. Any suggestions would be great! If you know about super slim monitors.

Thanks alot.

DIMENSIONS:
INSIDE: 18-15/16" x 14-7/16" x 7-3/4" (48.1 cm x 36.7 cm x 19.7 cm)
OUTSIDE: 20-11/16" x 17-3/16" x 8-9/16" (52.5 cm x 43.6 cm x 21.7 cm)
LID DEPTH: 1-13/16" (4.6 cm)
CASE DEPTH: 5-15/16" (15 cm)

PS Tim thats a pretty good idea, I think I can work on that. Also, I was reading about some copper coil motherboards, I dont know exactly how they work but they have little copper pipes running to the CPU. Again with $3,000+ of hardware in this little box i am very afraid to go with water cooling. If it was going to be stationary that would be cool but because I plan to treat this as a "Ultra portiable DeskLappy" I dont like the idea of that water slochin around in there.

Thanks for the ideas!!
J

[SilentJ]

If I cant get the 19" into this case if it proves to small then i'll go with this one http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/pelican-flashlights_1920_7489826

But again the lid depth is only 1-13/16" so I am gonna have to find one about 1" sure I am gonna have to gut it, has anyone ever gutted a LCD monitor before? Do you think I will be able to fit it in there flush?

Thanks alot.

DIMENSIONS:
INSIDE: 21-3/4" x 16-13/16" x 7-7/8" (55.2 cm x 42.7 cm x 20 cm)
OUTSIDE: 24-1/4" x 19-7/16" x 8-11/16" (61.6 cm x 49.4 cm x 22 cm)
LID DEPTH: 1-13/16" (4.6 cm)
CASE DEPTH: 6-1/16" (15.5 cm)

( BY THE WAY... This picture is exactly what I want the case to look like when opened ( minus the brosure) Completely black, so you cant see any of the componants. I was thinking of Black Plexi glass or something I dunno. )