Rogue

[craigbru]

March 6, 2008

Man, I love updates! Updates mean progress is being made. It's a little bittersweet though. I can see the end in sight, yet building is so much fun. I don't want it to end, yet I have other projects (home related) I need to work on.

With my last update, I was still making holes. With this one, I'm still making holes, although they'll be a little smaller in the end. To start here, I needed to finish the hole in the frame for the widescreen LCD. Luckily, there really wasn't that much cutting involved.

Now, here is a shot with the LCD's and gauges sitting in place.

Okay, now that's out of the way. So, what's next? Well, I need a fan controller. Not just any fan controller, I have a Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus.

Okay, that's a fine controller you say, but where the heck am I going to put it? If you've been paying attention, space on the front of the case is at a premium. That doesn't mean I'm out of room though. In fact, far from it. However, it's not exactly a 'drop in' procedure. As with everything else so far, a lot of cutting and modding will make it fit.

Well, let's get on with it! Here you can see where the controller will sit.

That brushed aluminum face sure looks nice, but it's gotta go.

Here I've got the holes for the knobs marked out and ready to drill.

The holes have all been drilled, and the fan controller is test fit in place. Everything seems look good. You can see how the LED's in the fan controller will show though the hole in the case.

To be continued...

[craigbru]

March 6, 2008

I'm going to get sidetracked for a quick moment here. While working on the face of the case, I thought I'd take a little time to make the holes for the Bulgin switches that will find a home there.

All marked out...

Here's the secret to getting great large holes. Only a nice step drill bit will do. They're not exactly cheap, but they're worth every penny spent.

Moving back to the fan controller, this picture shows you a little bit of the problem I've got to work out. The inside frame on the case is in the way. Well, not for long... A few holes and filing will take care of the problem!

More coming soon.

[craigbru]

March 7, 2008

Although not directly modding related, my new motherboard has arrived... I'm not sure on the processor yet, but I do have two new sticks of 2x2GB Mushkin DDR2 Redline that I'm going to drop in here.

I can't wait to get this thing up and running. The fact that I've now got almost every component I need, only makes me realize that I'm very close to pulling this whole project together. From here on out, I shouldn't have to spend my time picking out parts, and wondering what I yet need or want. I've got to take what I already have, and a find a home for all of it. Only a little over a month to go!

[craigbru]

March 10, 2008

I've got just a quick update here. Although I have work to do on the front of the case, I decided to mix it up a little. I started working on the top of the case, and it's associated fan assembly. It's the largest cutting project I have left, and I am anxious to get it out of the way. If you've been following along, you should have seen a mock up earlier in the log. This should have given you some idea of the direction I'm headed.

The first thing I had to do, was get the layout marked on the case's top panel. You can see that there is a small strip missing where the original acrylic window was. I'll fill that in a little later.

The final cut is done, and I'm working on cleaning up the edges.

All done except for the filler strip.

Okay, so now what? Well, the fans won't actually be sitting in top of the case. They will be sitting in recessed and angled pockets. The next step is to get the pockets made. Here I've marked out a panel, and it's ready to hit the metal brake.

All bent!

I can't use the panels as they are, I need to cut the excess aluminum off. Here's one side done.

Now the other side.

That's it for now, but I'll have another updated for you all tomorrow. Stay tuned!

[craigbru]

March 11, 2008

I've got a micro-update here. I'm currently still working on the top panel, but I've got a couple more shots of the work in progress.

Here you can see the top panel sitting on top of the fan tray. The missing strip will be added once I join the two pieces together.

Then finally, you can see the fans sitting in position. Don't worry about the wires right now. They will all be sleeved and presented nicely. They will drop into the center of the cover behind each fan.

Well, I'm going back to work. I've got 6 big holes to make!

[craigbru]

March 14, 2008

I've got a little more work done on the top panel, so I thought I'd get a few pictures up.

The first thing I had to do, was cut about 12mm off the top rear of the case. I needed this material removed to resolve a fan clearance issue. Who knew that six 120mm fans could take up so much room? ;-)

Next, I used one of my grill templates to mark out where all the holes needed to be.

A little time with a hole saw made quick work of the aluminum.

With the help of a little JB Weld, the two top pieces were joined together. Here you can see the top panel sitting on the case.

Here is another pic with the fans in place. Now I've got to get the missing strip in place, and tomorrow I can get it sanded, cleaned up, and get the wiring for the fans figured out.

Speaking of the wiring... I mentioned something about not needing to unhook wires when I removed the top of the case. Well, these little things are going to help me achieve that. I've got male and female spring contacts.

I'm off to bed for the night, but work will continue tomorrow!

[craigbru]

March 18, 2008

Update time! I've been a busy guy, so I thought I'd share the fun with all of you. There's no sense in waiting, so I'll jump right in...

Last night I was too tired to dremel, but I still wanted to make progress. That left me with a few different things I could do to pass the time. I ended up choosing the one that seemed the most fun. So, enter the Via Epia Pico-ITX integrated motherboard... Just to recap the purpose of this board, it will be a dedicated download and storage box. It will reside inside the Rogue, and be networked both by wired and wireless. The 10.2" widescreen belongs to the Epia, and the whole thing will be controlled by a program called Synergy. This will allow full control of the box, without the need for a dedicated keyboard and mouse. The Epia system is something that can be left on at all times regardless of whether or not the Rogue is on. There's really not much sense in leaving the Rogue on to suck down power while I download stuff overnight...

So, let's get on with the pics. Some of these may look familiar, but for the sake of continuity, I am reposting them here. Putting the Via system together couldn't have been any easier. I only encountered one problem, which I will cover below.

The Epia will have 2 hard drives attached. There is a 40 GB laptop drive for the OS, and a 750 GB drive for storage.

In this picture, you can get an idea of how small a Pico-ITX board really is. It's not much bigger than a laptop drive.

It's getting 1 GB of memory...

And a 90 watt power supply...

[craigbru]

March 18, 2008

Man, I love updates! Updates mean progress is being made. It's a little bittersweet though. I can see the end in sight, yet building is so much fun. I don't want it to end, yet I have other projects (home related) I need to work on.

With my last update, I was still making holes. With this one, I'm still making holes, although they'll be a little smaller in the end. To start here, I needed to finish the hole in the frame for the widescreen LCD. Luckily, there really wasn't that much cutting involved.

Now, here is a shot with the LCD's and gauges sitting in place.

Okay, now that's out of the way. So, what's next? Well, I need a fan controller. Not just any fan controller, I have a Zalman ZM-MFC1 Plus.

Okay, that's a fine controller you say, but where the heck am I going to put it? If you've been paying attention, space on the front of the case is at a premium. That doesn't mean I'm out of room though. In fact, far from it. However, it's not exactly a 'drop in' procedure. As with everything else so far, a lot of cutting and modding will make it fit.

Well, let's get on with it! Here you can see where the controller will sit.

That brushed aluminum face sure looks nice, but it's gotta go.

Here I've got the holes for the knobs marked out and ready to drill.

The holes have all been drilled, and the fan controller is test fit in place. Everything seems look good. You can see how the LED's in the fan controller will show though the hole in the case.

To be continued...

[craigbru]

March 18, 2008

Tonight I got a little more work done on the top panel, in addition to playing with the Via system.

Here is the completed top. All the edges are filed and sanded clean. It's also got the holes drilled for the fan wires. It's almost ready for paint, but I've got a few more things I want to do first.

I want to keep everything neat and organized, and this little piece is going to help me do that.

A few minutes later, I pull this out of the metal brake.

A little dremel work.

Finally! This is a cover for the fan wires. All wires will be hidden and routed to the front through this.

More to come!

[craigbru]

March 20, 2008

Another day, another update! I've got a few different things I've been working on, so I'll get right to it.

Of all the things I need to get done, I decided to work a little more on the motherboard tray. Since the laptop DVD drives are IDE, I thought I'd take a little time to work on hiding the IDE cable.

Here I've marked out the motherboard tray for the slot I need to make.

With the slot cut in the motherboard, I thought I'd work on getting those DVD drives covered up. So, I've marked out a piece of aluminum, and it's ready for cutting.

The piece is cut and ready for the brake.

The cover fits like a glove...