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This is one very fast moving mod. I like. Gosh you are a luckly duck AW9D-MAX motherboard, E6700 Core2 processor, 2Gigs Dual-Channel OCZ PC2 6400
What graphics card you gonna get to compliment this nice set of gear.
The can of coke is for scale and refreshment purposes right :bunny:
Well, another week has passed and as luck would have it I managed to spend some serious time working on the case today. So it's once again ... Update Time ! :)
First I'll answer the questions...
Quote:
DaveW: Damn, you put that together fast. As was said above...nice shop man.
Watching this ;)
Well ... you all might think it's a fast moving mod but to me it's taking forever. lol The graphics card is, as I said in a previous post a BFG 7900 GTX O/C, and yes the coke can is there for scale (the refreshment part was long since gone by that point :) ).Quote:
simon275: This is one very fast moving mod. I like. Gosh you are a luckly duck AW9D-MAX motherboard, E6700 Core2 processor, 2Gigs Dual-Channel OCZ PC2 6400
What graphics card you gonna get to compliment this nice set of gear.
The can of coke is for scale and refreshment purposes right :bunny: 10-30-2006 02:12 PM
I will be having the case conversion coated and then powder coated black once I'm finished. Following which I intend to paint the interior red as well as add some red highlights/accents to the exterior.Quote:
NocturnaL: Love the case youve made out of the sheet metal, one question tho, are you planning on painting it black like your 3D model, or are you keeping it how it is?
Now on to the pics of todays progress.
I decided not to build my own motherboard tray, so I went out and bought the cheapest case I could find to scavenge.
Here's the victim...
...looks so innocent and virginal sitting there, totally unaware of what I'm about to do to it. :twisted:
12 screws and 20 or so drilled out rivets later ... I had my tray.
The scene of the crime...
The aforementioned motherboard tray ...
And some surprise goodies, the victim also contains 4 LED's pre-wired with resistors, and a front panel with USB ports and audio jacks. I know I'm gonna be able to use all of that and maybe even more from this sacrificial lamb of a case.
So several hours, much thinking and planning, and a little elbow grease later we have this...
The hole in the back is only rough cut so far, tomorrow I will clean it up and make it match the box. Maybe even get the holes cut for the fans/rad, and perhaps start on the case door.
Here's a mock up of the door so far, for the mask I intend to make a windowed box approximately where it sits in the pic (I know it's not a very good vantage point/pic), the box will be flat black inside (might line it with the box the mask came in as it has a form for the mask to sit on) and the mask will be illuminated from below with two of the LED's that I scavenge from the donor case. The 140mm Fan will be mounted at the bottom of the door as in the pic, haven't decided whether to put the filter mesh infront of the fan or behind it. The space between the mask and the fan is now reserved for the 7in widescreen LCD screen I just purchased.
Well that's it for now ... it's late and I need to sleep. Hopefully I'll have more to report tomorrow, and more pics to share.
I would like to thanks everyone for the great comments, this is after all my first mod and the encouragement and support from this group is just awesome, I'm glad I joined here. :) I hope I can be of some small help to someone else at some point to repay in kind.
'Till tomorrow night. Peace all.
FyreKnight
Oh wow a 7in lcd screen that will look nice. What are you going to use as the video feed for it? The main grapahics card or a second one that runs on PCI. Also is the screen VGA or video.
I agree making a mobo tray is to much trouble better to save the time and effort and get a cheapo case.
Can't wait to see this done.
I think this will turn out to be a kick ass mod :banana:
Nice work man, coming together pretty quickly too.
ooooo!
this is nice, and more
you did a great job, just go on ;)
That's a pretty big computer! Didn't realise it was so large.
-Dave
Quote:
Originally Posted by simon275
The best solution would be to run a dedicated PCI card for the monitor. If he chooses a VGA 7" monitor, only an older PCI card would allow for the low screen res that is probably required by the monitor. On a composite signal, desktops look like ass, and you cant use the touchscreen functions, if it happens to be a touch.
Excellent work so far. I love the way you did the back of the case. I can't wait to see the mounted mask on the front.
keep up the good work.
Indeed, im currently modding one of those portable play station 1 LCD's. The soldering would usually suck, but i rigged it to an IDE cable that plugs into the designated PCI card i found.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crimson Sky
The case looks great man, rugged as hell. Will probly look 10x better with a nice black powder coat as you said. And heres an idea for the mask you have. mayb stick some red LED's behind it causing the eyes to glow red?
And may i ask how much that case you bought was? looks like it made a good investment :)
is the mask just going to stick out? would it look cooler if you had a window for it, and mounted it on the inside. possibly a fog machine and some explosives for effect inside the window (partitioned off from the rest of the case).
i think it would look pretty sweet, but im sure no matter what way you take this mod it will look as if alan moore had a hand in creating it himself.
Ok I know I said I would post this yesterday, but it was late and I was tired so it got delayed a bit. :P
As to the question of what's going to drive the 7" LCD, I haven't quite decided that yet. It isn't a touch screen, and it's native existance is as a 7" widescreen TV with composite in (looks like svideo in the pics) So I'll have to wait 'till it arrives and disassemble it to find out what drives the LCD itself. It's a 1480 x 234 Active Matrix TFT LCD so I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be able to splice a VGA connection in there somewhere, but as a back up plan I can run it in composite mode as I only need it mainly to display Time/Temps/Fan Speeds and the like.Quote:
NocturnaL: Quote:
Originally Posted by Crimson Sky
The best solution would be to run a dedicated PCI card for the monitor. If he chooses a VGA 7" monitor, only an older PCI card would allow for the low screen res that is probably required by the monitor. On a composite signal, desktops look like ass, and you cant use the touchscreen functions, if it happens to be a touch.
Indeed, im currently modding one of those portable play station 1 LCD's. The soldering would usually suck, but i rigged it to an IDE cable that plugs into the designated PCI card i found.
The case looks great man, rugged as hell. Will probly look 10x better with a nice black powder coat as you said. And heres an idea for the mask you have. mayb stick some red LED's behind it causing the eyes to glow red?
And may i ask how much that case you bought was? looks like it made a good investment :)
The case I bought was $39.90CDN after the tax man took his share, I think it was a good deal considering the work that it saved me and the bonus items I got. :)
For the mask, yes I've considered backlighting the eyes so they glow but I haven't decided yet. I'll prolly play with it and see how the effect grabs me, and whether or not it blends with the lighting from below the mask.
Yeah it's pretty big (26" wide x 12" deep from the very front x 24" high), but due to some inefficiencies in the design/shape of the case the front section is mostly un-usable except for cosmetic purposes, so it's still a challenge to fit everything in and guaranty good airflow and esthetics at the same time. It's a learning experience to say the least. :)Quote:
DaveW: That's a pretty big computer! Didn't realise it was so large.
Thanks all of you again for the wonderfull comments and encouragement.
Now on to the pics of yesterdays work ...
First I didn't light the pic I got yesterday of the case front mock up so I took it again.
Then I cleaned up the big hole in the back to make it match the internal box better.
Then I went ahead and cut the holes in the top of the case for the rad fans, and then mounted the fans and rad. I actually quite proud of how they turned out. :)
And lastly heres a shot of the planned layout so far, still some details to iron out but this will be pretty close to the final.
Well that's it for tonight, I hope you all enjoy. :)
'Till next time, peace all.
FyreKnight
Very nice man. That case was a deal for how much you salvaged out of it lol. Keep the updates comming, Your keeping me entertained in school :)
OMGOSH WOW This is a nice mod. Good job with the fans there. I cant wait to see this one finished.
Nice metalworking skills, very neatly done! This is one cool looking case, you just need a couple of rows of daggers somewhere... I loved that flick too, and had never heard of the gunpowder plot until I saw it, very cool story.
Well I know it's been nearly 3 full weeks now since my last update, but work and family sometimes just can't help but take some of my free time. :P
Today however I was finally able to get back to work and although there was not as much progress as I would like, I did mange to get some things done.
There has been a small change in my plans, the 7" widescreen LCD panel turned out to be a flop. I wanted to run it from a vga connection but it was configured for TV input, so after much researching I tried to wire the controller for a vga input. Unfortunately it was a dismal failure and in the process I completely fubar'd the chances of using it in its original TV input format.
So after a short fit of depression over my lack of success, I picked myself up and blew a fond farewell kiss to the $140 experiment. (Life's lessons don't always come cheap. lol)
Still determined to have an LCD screen integrated into my case and no where near the limit of my VISA card I began searching once again, this time with the clear resolve to find an LCD with VGA input already there.
This is what I ended up with ...
A package?.... For Me? What's inside?
Ooooo ... and it's a touch screen too!! :D
And now for todays progress...
I cut the first holes in the front cover, for the mask shadowbox, the LCD, and the 140mm fan. The pics were taken after 15mins of cutting and around 1 1/2 hours of filing. They turned out pretty good I think.
And here I was finally able to properly mock-up the front cover, although I still have the 2 angled sides to take care of. As of now the plan is to have a large window on the right side, and perhaps acrylic daggers arranged on the left. The fan will have the "V" symbol over it in acrylic which I will try to have lit-up, and of course the shadowbox for the mask will be covered with acrylic as well.
And these are a couple of shots of the beginning of the door mechanism, it's basically a modified keyboard drawer slide. The idea is for the door to swing out and up a few inches and then slide up on the drawer slides, and finally tilt back until it rests on top of the case.
I don't know if you can tell from these pics, but installing the slides involved a slight modification to the original I/O box for clearance. Of course saying it was a slight modification is only in reference to the looks, the work involved was almost as much as making the I/O box all over again. :P
And that's it for today ... 9 hours worth of work and it barely looks like I even showed up. :(
I should be able to get a few more hours in again tomorrow, so I will try to post another update then.
Peace all.
FyreKnight
oh my damn....that touch screen looks seXy! o.0~!
Aye Caramba, nice work. You're good with the metal dude.
-Dave
Thanks for the comments guys ... you're makin' me blush :P
As promised I managed to get a little more time in on "V" today so here's another li'l update.
Didn't get anything done on the case or door today, but I worked on my hinge assembly and I'm quite pleased with the outcome. Still needs a little bit of fine tuning and I'll have to reposition it some, but the main part is there.
The pics ...
Here is the assembled hinge in it's down/closed position, if you'll notice one of the adjustments I have to make is to move the hinges in closer to the center of the case, as in their current position they stick out a li'l bit too far. A minor miscalculation on my part but nothing I can't adjust.
And here is the hinge in it's up/open position...
I still have to make the mounting for the door itself, which will be at the very top of that aluminum tube where the door can pivot and rest on top of the case.
And finally some pics for a change of how I got there.
First, start with a shape...
Copy it many times... (8 times to be precise. :) )
Add in a few more carefully crafted pieces...
And begin assembly, first one hinge plate and the hinge tube...
...then a spacer tube, it's shorter than the hinge tube by a little more than the thickness of two hinge plates...
... add another hinge plate and stuff the lot inside the carefully cut and drilled square tube, securing it with the proper bolt...
...repeat the process with all of the hinge plates...
...and again repeat with the other end of the hinge plates and their respective square tubes.
...And Viola!! a working hinge assembly which, coupled with the drawer slides gives me 3" overheight clearance for the door allowing it to pivot back and rest on top of the case.
It took a total of 7 1/2 hours to accomplish all of that. including some time for designing on the fly.
That's it for this week ... not sure if I'll get a chance to work on it next weekend as it's my birthday on the 4th and my fiance's birthday on the 3rd. So inevitably the in-laws will be hosting some manner of get-together. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. The weekend after that looks good so far, so I will most definitely have something to report by then.
'Till next time, PEACE!!
FyreKnight
I wish I had a workshop like that :(, I guess i just have to confort with my own little crappy garage.Anyways looking pretty pro man, nice metal work !!
Hi there intergalacticman. What compelled you to start (de-constructively) criticizing other people's work on your second post?
You're going to be very, very, very, unpopular here with that attitude.
-Dave
ok ok sorry about that
Lol, would loveee to see you come up with somethign better Inter. But anyway the mechanics of it all is great man, i like the hinge idea you have. And that touch screen LCD is gonna be sweet as hell once its installed. Is it going to be for a desktop display? or mayb something else?
I'm interested to see where this is going. One thing that you might make sure to look out for, being as everything on your front panel involves wires, you will want to make sure that the wires are long enough that you wont need to disconnect the lcd, the led lights, and the fan everytime you lift up the case. (I'm sure you'll be showing off those hinges to more than one computer fanatic)
hmm, the toch screen is nice touch, are you going to have a seperate monitor also, cuz the screen looks a little small, and also the fan size is a little overkill, but then again, the case is not done yet, so i would like to see it when its done.
ps, kudos on the built from scratch thing, i mainly revamp old computer cases, so the case shape was a little suprising, sorry for the negativity earlier
Wow. This mod is looking simply amazing, great job with everything! The hinges are especially cool and well done.
wow looks good, almost too good. are to sure your not part of the chinese mafia?
anywho, almost looks like a kick ass workstation for a custom machine. touchscreen control, water cooled, this is an awesome mod if i ever saw one. kudos.
That is a sweet ! mod continue with the updates lol ;)
Great movie, and equally great mod! I'm subscribing as we speak.
If I ever get around to a mod of my own I'm definately putting in a screen. Could you show us how you hook it all together?
Thanks!
Very good mod
My favorite movie at that
You should put the words he has written on
the mirror on there
I think it should have a built in speaker that announces "Remember Remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason, and plot. I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot" on startup. You'd make everyone around you have to change shorts.
I'm insanely impressed. Ill be following this.
lolQuote:
Originally Posted by t3hninja
That would be kind of cool, have it quote a part of the movie on startup. Good Idea. ^^
This is such a good movie, I am so glad you are doing it justice Fyreknight! Keep up the A+ work!
-SnowFire
Magnificent! I have always liked the idea of a door mechanism sliding, shifting, or cleverly moving out of the way, and the way I have seen your's done is simple, yet complicated, and completely fantastic.Quote:
Originally Posted by FyreKnight
I also wouldn't put red LED's behind the mask. I would simply illuminate the face of the mask; in the movie his eyes were never red, so why should they be here? And you said you were going to have a window on the right and daggers on the left. Why not have a window on both sides, as in your original design, for symmetry?
-Cool-
all i can think to do with the quote on startup is to put the mp3 in your startup folder... you could probably do it through the use of a yak back type device with a transistor that initiates the play switch then the computer puts power to the hard drives.
</rant>
Damn I'm good
You can easily change the windows logon noise, too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maz
A friend of mine uses a clip from Rammstien's "Sonne".
wow! this what modding is all about. i love the fabrication of the case so far.
i can't wait to start mine!
For the startup sound you could do something extravagant like Crimson did on the airlock door on the Doom 3. He had a total sound card with a bunch of sound effects that initiated on boot.
Yes the fabrication on this case is top notch. If you were ever going for a job that involved working with metal you could use this in your resume.
Thanks for all of the great comments guys ... it's almost enough to make a simple guy like me blush.
Hmmm .. Never even thought of that ... thanks I'll have to try and find a place for it :)Quote:
Durrthock: You should put the words he has written on
the mirror on there.
I will definately have a sound clip from the movie as my windoze start sound, just haven't decided exactly what to put yet. :)
As before I appologize for the long period between my updates, it seems this time of year is full of other obligations ... but, the week between Christmas and NewYears looks awesome for mod-time availablity :) :up:
For the time being, here's a small update. Managed to get a few hours in today, reworked the hinge assembly for movement and clearance, and built the HD rack. And of course .... PICS!!
First an Overview ...
The HD Rack assembly...
A closer look ...
I'm pretty sure this is how I'll cut the windows/details on each side, sorry about the lighting in the overview pic ... the aluminum is too reflective, bounces all of the flash AWAY from the camera if it's not facing it directly. :(
Here's a couple showing each side ...
And that's it for now. Comments and suggestions are always welcome. :)
Peace all.
FyreKnight
I retract my previous statement. The knives, window, and fingermen badge look decent the way they are, although I wish there was more window.
-Cool-
