Project: Paranoia.

Hi all, This build was inspired by the surveillance society we now live in and the paranoia that has taken over so many aspects of life today, the UK supposedly now has more CCTV cameras per head of population than any other country in the world, think of it this way....your more likely to be being watched than not being watched, or maybe it's a case of (pun intended) "Just because I'm paranoid it doesn't mean their NOT watching me!

I am making the case and many of the support brackets and beams from aluminium profile, it's 20mm square and has slots in it for various joining brackets and you can also slide in small bolts which is real handy for attaching things to.

I bought the aluminium profile from http://aluminium-profile.co.uk/ there are many types of profile and I have used the basic type which has slots on all sides, another which has a smooth side on one face, the smooth face being visible on the outside and the curved profile I have used for the corner pillars.

I am using a mitre saw to cut the aluminium profiles to keep the ends neat so they bolt together squarely

Having got the basic frame together I am thinking that it doesn't look as big as I thought it would be, this will turn out to be true, B****cks!
It's a bit daunting staring at a bare empty frame wondering what the hell your going to do with it now!

The donor case is an old HP Pavilion from which I have used the mobo tray and I/O panel once all the rivets were drilled out.

I reassembled it and pop riveted it all back together and checked the mobo and I/O panel and capture card for alignment, so far so good.

Most of the parts I got from ebay, the capture card is a 4 channel card which 4 CCTV cameras will be plugged into it also has an audio channel input so the audio from one of the cams will also be fed to it., £9.00
Here are the micro CCTV cams, there cheap about £9.00 each and not bad quality for the price, I’ve got 3 of these and another slightly different cam that I already had.
The monitor is a 14” flat screen for £16.00.

The mobo is a micro ATX board again bought from ebay for just £8.00!
Not sure what cpu I will be using yet but it won’t be anything special as it will only be really running the cams which is why I shall also use the onboard graphics which hopefully will handle the cams.

Any ideas on a suitable cheap cpu are most welcome.

I’ve bolted in the mobo and it’s looks a bit lost in the frame but, when I came to work out how to mount the PSU and the rear fans the PSU was nearly touching the cpu fan, this is because the PSU fits between the mobo on one side of the case and the monitor which will be mounted in the other side of the case.

I made up an aluminium back plate for the fans etc, and although there might look like there is lots of room to mount the PSU there isn't when you consider where the other parts are going.
I want most of the case if not all of it to be blank with as few switches and I/O leads visible as possible, I could have mounted the PSU sideways at the front of the case but I don’t want a venting grill in the side of the case.

You might have noticed that there's a gap betwee the end plate with I/O panel and fans on and the end of the case frame, this is because I want to have all the fans venting through the top of the case and have a few ideas about how to do it, there's going to be a few fans and at least one maybe two above the monitor as they get pretty hot!

So despite the work I’ve already done I decided to scrap it and widen the case some more but, of course I had run out of aluminium profile so I had to order some more, while I was waiting for the that to arrive I played around with making some kind of HDD holder, this was the first result, it reminded me of something which you would see in the Myst/Riven games I doubt I will use it but I enjoyed making it and it might come in useful for something?

The new aluminium profile arrived and I've widened the case by 4".

Now that looks better, I've also made a new back plate out of plexi which was the first time I've cut the stuff with a jigsaw and it worked out so well I think I will be using a lot more of it, maybe for a HDD cage as well.

So, as is often the case (another intended pun) I seem to have gone two steps forward and one step backwards but, I know from my experiences of bike (motorcycles) building that is often the way it goes and I am happier with the second case than the first one.
That's about it for now, I'm off to cut some more plexi, back soon modders 8)

Looks interesting mate, nice job of making that frame! Keep it up :) +rep

Paul

A D820 is super cheap, and will give plenty of performance. You should be able to get one for under $30, and you'll be very happy with it. It also overclocks nicely if you keep it cool. Water rig will push past 4ghz.

Cheap CPU? How 'bout a Spitfire-core Duron? :D

Just kidding, man, Luke's suggestion works for me. I'm liking where this mod's going so far...

How'd you secure the corners, I like that profile stuff, much easier looking than the square tube I'm trying to use. :dead:

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Originally Posted by mofo

How'd you secure the corners, I like that profile stuff, much easier looking than the square tube I'm trying to use. :dead:

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Sorry, I didn't think to take any pix of assembling the frame (once I start working I forget about taking photos) so hopefully this photo will clarify how the tubing fits together, the right angle brackets slide into the tube and small grub screws hold it all together, I didn't think at first they would be strong enough but once you have a complete square/rectangle built it's quite rigid and strong, the more I use the stuff the more I like it!

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Originally Posted by FuzzyPlushroom

Cheap CPU? How 'bout a Spitfire-core Duron? :D

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Now your talking, I had the 950 MHz one (think it was a 950) in my "Top end system" but that was about 8-9 years ago:D

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Originally Posted by Luke122

A D820 is super cheap, and will give plenty of performance. You should be able to get one for under $30, and you'll be very happy with it. It also overclocks nicely if you keep it cool. Water rig will push past 4ghz.

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Thanks for that, I've found a few on ebay to watch;)

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Originally Posted by Beta-brain

Now your talking, I had the 950 MHz one (think it was a 950) in my "Top end system" but that was about 8-9 years ago:D

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I meant like the one on your mockup motherboard. :D I had one too, mine was a cheapo ECS board with a factory-OC'ed mobile Spitfire at 9x107 (945 MHz)... Damn thing was soldered onto the board! Fortunately, that machine didn't turn me off of socket A stuff!

Anyway, forgot to mention it before - love the aluminum stock you're using for the frame. Might have to get me some... +rep for the minimal but sturdy corner bracing as well.

Thanks for all the encouragement and Rep, I have done some more work and will post some more pix soon:)

Looking forward to it. Hmm... Maybe the destroyed-camera route would be interesting. http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

Bit of an update :)

I've cut a hole in the plexi for the 120mm rear fan, I was going to fit two fans but it probably won't be necessary and I can always fit another if I have to.

Added some cross members to the frame and made a couple of brackets to support the PSU, it's a good fit so tightening up the support brackets holds the PSU quite firmly, also cut out the PSU vent hole in the plexi.

I mentioned before that I want to keep all the I/O panel/PSU cables hidden inside the case which is why there is a gap left behind the back panel where they can go.
I also didn't want the fan venting out the back so I had the idea (jeez, why do we have these ideas:rolleyes:) to vent the fan up the back of the case and out the top, to do this I needed to make a deflector to direct the air up the back.

I made a card template to get the curve right and then wired up a fan and tried pointing it towards the deflector and it seems to work quite well so I decided to go ahead with it and made a plexi deflector and added some mounting brackets.

I've called this cooling/deflector idea, "Second skin".

I've added a side piece to the curved deflector to surround the PSU vent as well, it's in dark plexi as I've run out of clear, also added the side piece on the other side and filled the "To be filled" hole.
I've outlined the complete unit in white to make it easier to see/understand hopefully?

The second skin is pretty much a sealed unit now and just spinning the fan by hand you can feel the air coming up the back of the case, a success me thinks :)

There will also be two fans at the top of the case to extract the air.

While the glue was drying on the Second skin plexi I made a up a HDD cage (not going to use the one I made previously) this cage is made from some plexi and some pieces of aluminium profile.

I discovered that you can tap the central hole in the ally profile with a 6mm thread, very handy for fixing the plexi to it:D

I was going to put some profile pieces at the top as well but with the HDD fitted it is quite strong enough.

Fired up the fan for the first time and the air is really blasting out the top of the second skin :)

That's all for now, back soon:)

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Originally Posted by FuzzyPlushroom

Looking forward to it. Hmm... Maybe the destroyed-camera route would be interesting. http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

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Aww, poor cams:rolleyes:
Not exactly sure yet, but I've got four cctv cams and I'm bidding on a four channel RC transmitter and servos on ebay:eek:

Very nice work with the plexi, the rear fan duct or second skin looks amazing.
+rep and +sub

Thanks very much, it does make a change for a plan to work out much as you wanted it to:)

Nice work there :)

Ducted cooling rocks! Nice work, man.

(I'll have to become intimately familiar with it soon...)

Hi, Apologies to those that were watching my build but I have had health problems, I started getting vertigo (spinning) and balance problems, I have finally found some medication that helps but I still have a way to go yet but I have recovered enough to be able to continue with the build :banana:

The original build was named "Paranoia" and was to be a security based PC with built in cams and screen but I've had a change of plan as I have gotten back into playing some old DOS games so the revised build is for a DOS box still with a built in screen.

I was going to try and rebuild my previous posts with the photos that I used before I've lost some of the photos and it was proving difficult so I have posted some photos here of previous work and brought the build up to date with the work I've done in the last few days, it's good to be back and doing some modding as I'm not happy unless I'm messing with something, I also have a lot of catching up to do with all the new projects that have been happening here which is great to see.

OK, Here we go again!


I am making the case frame, support brackets and beams from aluminium profile, it's 20mm square and has slots in it for various joining brackets and you can also slide in small bolts which is real handy for attaching things to.

I bought the aluminium profile from http://aluminium-profile.co.uk/ there are many types of profile and I have used three types which have slots on all sides, another which has a smooth side on one face the smooth face being visible on the outside and the curved profile I have used for the corner pillars.

I'm using a hand mitre saw to cut the aluminium profiles to keep the ends neat so they bolt together squarely, this photo will clarify how the tubing fits together, the right angle brackets slide into the tube and small grub screws hold it all together, I didn't think at first they would be strong enough but
once you have a complete square/rectangle built it's quite rigid and strong, the more I use the stuff the more I like it!

Having got the basic frame together I am thinking that it doesn't look as big as I thought it would be, this turned out to be true, B****cks!

The donor case is an old HP Pavilion from which I have used the mobo tray and I/O panel once all the rivets were drilled out I reassembled it and pop riveted it all back together and checked the mobo and I/O panel for alignment, so far so good.

The mobo is a micro ATX board bought from ebay for just £8.00 and I also bought a Intel SL7PR Pentium 4 - 2.8MHZ CPU and 2GB of DDR2 PC2-4200 RAM, The mobo has a AGP slot so I can use an old Nvidea gforce 3 card which will be fine for playing DOS games.

I’ve bolted in the mobo and it’s looks a bit lost in the frame but, when I came to work out how to mount the PSU and the rear fans the PSU was nearly touching the cpu fan, this is because the PSU fits between the mobo on one side of the case and the monitor which will be mounted in the other side of the case.

I rebuilt the frame again this time making it wider and allowing enough room, this should be OK!

I want most of the case to be blank with as few switches and I/O leads visible as possible, I could have mounted the PSU sideways at the front of the case but I don’t want a venting grill in the side of the case, I made a new back plate out of plexi which is bolted to the I/O panel and the side of the case, You might have noticed that there's a gap between the I/O panel and the end of the case frame, this space is where all the cables can be hidden behind the back case panel and the fans will vent through the top of the case, I have a few ideas about how to do it and there's going to be at least one maybe two fans above the monitor as they get pretty hot.

Added some cross members to the frame and made a couple of brackets to support the PSU, it's a good fit so tightening up the support brackets the usual four screws at the back holds the PSU quite firmly,

also cut out the PSU vent hole in the plexi.

I've mounted the 120mm rear fan to the plexi, I was going to fit two fans but one will probably be alright as there will be the other two fans above the monitor and I can always fit another if I have to.
I mentioned before that I want to keep all the I/O panel/PSU cables hidden inside the case which is why there is a gap left behind the back panel where they can go.
I also didn't want the fan venting out the back so I had the idea (jeez, why do we have these ideas) to vent the fan up the back of the case and out the top, to do this I needed to make a deflector to direct the air up the back.
I made a card template to get the curve right and then wired up a fan and tried pointing it towards the deflector and it seems to work quite well so I decided to go ahead with it and made a plexi deflector and added some mounting brackets.

I've added a side piece to the curved deflector to surround the PSU vent as well, it's in dark plexi as I've run out of clear.

Added another side piece in tinted plexi, I've called this cooling/deflector idea, "Second skin" and it's a sealed unit now and just spinning the fan by hand you can feel the air coming up the back of the case, a success me thinks.

Fired up the fan for the first time and the air is really blasting out the top of the second skin.

Made up a hard drive cage from some profile and plexi.

That's about as far as as I previously got with the build but I've done some more in the last few days.

I took the back off the 14 inch monitor I bought (another ebay buy £20) and fitted some bolts to the outer case these bolts will carry the two top mounting brackets to secure the monitor to the frame.

I used the original stand mounting points on the monitor and made a new bracket to secure the bottom of the monitor to the frame.

These are the screen mounting points from inside the case, it's fitted in quite well.

Made up a frame to mount the twin 120mm fans to and used some plexi as brackets

Fitted a piece of clear plexi as a base in the case and bolted the fans to the base.

The fans are also bolted at the top on the cross beams.

With the screen and fans fitted the DOSBox starts to take shape.

That brings the build up to date, I have to fit some mesh over the front fans, two more fans and mesh to fit above the monitor, the wiring and switches to do, make up some side panels and make/fit some feet to the case.

I bought a neat little multi port panel to wire all the fans into and I have some sheets of plexi in clear, black, mirror and gold mirror to play around with, back soon.

Wow, sorry to hear about the vertigo issues, that's got to SUCK! Glad to hear they have at least found you some relief. The build is looking GREAT! Looking forward to seeing your project progress.

yeah man,... looking good.. hope the health gets better!

Thanks guys, appreciated and it's good to be back 8)

Hi, I've done some work on the DOSBox so here's a little update.

Fitted some mesh to the fans which was quite easy with the grooved profile tubing just slot some short bolts into the profile, cut the mesh to size and bend around the fans and bolt it up, the mesh came with a silver finish but I might spray it another colour not sure yet will see what it looks like when the fans are working as they have blue LED's in them, can't remember where I got the mesh but I always think it's expensive considering there's more holes than metal!

I've made some front panels using gold mirror plexi I was a bit cautious about cutting the stuff as I had read that the gold can chip off when cutting and I didn't have a spare bit to practice on but it cut alright using my jigsaw with the normal settings I use for plexi which are zero pendulum action and a stroke rate setting on four.

The groove in the profile is 6mm wide and 5mm deep so the 3mm gold plexi fits in it leaving a 3mm gap behind it so I put some thin 3mm strips of plexi behind the gold panels to hold them in place, it's all fitted together quite nicely but the shots of the front gold panels don't really show up that well as they are difficult to photograph without getting my ugly mug or the flash in the reflection.

The wiring and I/O panel are going to be hidden inside the case behind the rear plexi panel so I masked up some black plexi marked it out and cut it, there is going to be an access door in the panel so I can get to the I/O panel to use USB memory sticks as there isn't going to be a permanent DVD/CD drive just one hooked up for the initial OS install and by USB if needed later.

The doorway is cut squarely it's just the reflection of the bottom frame rail in the plexi that makes it look crooked :glasses:

The rear panel fits in the profile groove the same as the front panels and all it needs now is a door to cover the opening to the I/O panel, I thought about fitting a door with hinges and springs and all sorts of overly complicated things but eventually I realized the simplest way was a simple sliding door, hardly original but simple, just another piece of black plexi fitted in the groove behind the panel and sliding in the groove, I like simple especially as I don't have a workshop and only have a very small working space.

The rear panel, now you see it,

The only wire that will be visible outside is the power cable which is routed inside and exits through the bottom of the case.

That's it for now, back soon.

very nice, and a surprisingly familiar idea. grin.

I like the idea with the frame.

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Originally Posted by madd0ct0r

very nice, and a surprisingly familiar idea. grin.

I like the idea with the frame.

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I thought of it first but built it last! :D

wicked sick

Looking awesome so far going to be a really nice case when its done:up:, wish my alluminium stockist had bars like that, can just get the basics ie angle, flatbar a few tube types but nothing fancy like those, shaping up brilliant:banana:.

I'll be starting my v2 next week, already redesigned it on google sketchup, ordered my sheets, bars and nut & bolts and a countersink bit, I'm going for a no rivet aproach this time and to make the motherboad tray and back IO bit so it is all made by myself, looking forward to getting busy.
Once I have completed my v2 that will be my 24/7/365 pc rig and I'll be trying something special like some of the brilliant mods featured throughout TBCS and really take my time.

lol nearly forgot +rep again great looking case so far.

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Originally Posted by Waynio

wish my alluminium stockist had bars like that, can just get the basics ie angle, flatbar a few tube types but nothing fancy like those.

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Hi Waynio, I see your in the UK, I'm in Cornwall, I got the ally tubing from here as usual the postage is not cheap but they do deliver quite quickly, the profile I used is 20x20mm @ £2.90 metre.

I really like your "Frankencase" build it really looks like it should be in some mad scientists laboratory 8)
Thanks for the rep and look forward to your new build.

Ahh brill, added to my favourites thanks, think I'll have to get some of that. looks like it goes together really well.

Had to call it frankencase because its such a botched job :) drill holes all over it, its being used for shelving in my room now hehe thanks for the compliment.

Going to be using my dads drill press this time round for most of the holes, was doing freehand mostly unclamped drilling with a very much past its best drill up til now lol.

Sorry to anyone looking here but my ISP has managed to delete some of the photos on the first/second pages for this build from my web space, expletives cannot express the "slight dislike" I have for them (it's not the first time it's happened!) I will try and rebuild the posts later but as my ISP claim they are doing "essential work" I cannot even FTP to my web space to upload the photos, and they expect money for such a service :evil:

Pages rebuilt now.

Hi, I have finally finished this build which due to health problems and the usual life hassles has taken way too long, I had done most of the work but I hate not finishing projects especially before I start something new, I don't have photos for all the work but I've posted what I remembered to take.

The original idea for this build was a PC linked up to some cameras with an integral screen for a security system hence the original name of "Paranoia" but that changed into a PC for playing old DOS games with DOSBox but still with the built in screen, I also wanted to make it very clean and minimal looking with as few as possible of the wires and cables visible, so here is the final assembly.

I've fitted a small two way toggle switch and red led to a rear panel slot blank, this is for power, reset and the led is HDD, using some wiring and connectors from the old spare parts box.

I found that with the screen mounted vertically it was a bit awkward to look at so I altered the mounts and leant it back a few degrees, much better to look at and I think it looks a bit better as well, I used some plasticard to fill in the gaps around the screen, the first time I've used the stuff but it's easy to cut and bend, very useful.

Mounted the simple HDD cage made from a few pieces of plexi and some of the alloy frame tubing to the clear plexi case base and fitted some rubber feet to the case base.

This view from underneath shows how it all fits in the case with the clear plexi base fitted, I remembered to attach the graphics cable to the monitor and card this time!

Fired it up to check if it was all working, it was and the front fans look quite nice.

A quick look inside before the top goes on.

Cut some black plexi for the case top and cut a hole in it as this is where the rear fan vents out and stuck a piece of alloy honeycomb grill to it with some heavy duty tape.

A logitech wireless keyboard and mouse will be used to keep it clean with a minimum of wires exposed, I put the logitech USB receiver inside the case and put the case lid on just to test if the keyboard and mouse would work, I had expected to have to cut a hole in the case somewhere and mount the receiver right behind it so it would pick up the signals but it works fine just lying in the bottom of the case.

Finally I decided to change the gold plexi for black as it was way to bling and shiny, but I ran out of black plexi so the side opposite the screen is a chrome mirror finish it's not what I want but if I have some spare black plexi left after my next build I will replace the chrome, the only exposed wires are the power leads

The monitor has two speakers in it and a line in so I use the on-board sound and run a lead from the audio output socket on the back panel to the monitor

The second skin works well and the rear fan shifts plenty of air.

I get most of the DOS games I play from Abandonia.com

DOSBox running the great old DOS game "Fable".

Game Over, Build finished, I hope the next one doesn't take as long!

Not sure if it matters as the build is over now but I couldn't see the images on the first page of this project. Great work though, neat design. Love the sliding cover for the I/O panel!

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Originally Posted by Munty

Not sure if it matters as the build is over now but I couldn't see the images on the first page of this project. Great work though, neat design. Love the sliding cover for the I/O panel!

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Hi Munty, I put the photos on the free web space my ISP provide but unfortunately they had some major problems a while ago and a lot of data including my photos was lost, they said as it's free web space they don't keep any backups of data uploaded to it and I also no longer have all the original photos so that is why I attempted to start again and post what photos I still had to try and make some sense of the build, in future I might post the photos to a host like Flicker it might be safer!

The beauty of using the tubing for the frame is it has a 6mm slot on three sides so you can fit 2-3mm plexi in the slot and then place another piece behind it and you have a sliding panel, I intend to use it again ;)

Wow this project became a distant memory but it's good to see it turned out pretty damn sweet Beta-brain +rep for finishing :):up:.

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Originally Posted by Waynio

Wow this project became a distant memory but it's good to see it turned out pretty damn sweet Beta-brain +rep for finishing :):up:.

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Thanks a lot Waynio, It certainly did turn into a ridiculously long time for a relatively simple build but it was because of illness, you need to try and have some goals to aim at when your ill for a long time and getting this build finished was a goal, that and the fact that I really hate not finishing things properly.

The good thing about getting a project finished is that even if you never use it again you can happily rob parts from it for another project knowing that you finished it, if you take parts from an unfinished build that often makes it much harder to return to that build and finish it in my experience :whistler: