Girlfriend's computer: "Unit 13"

[TheMainMan]

Looks good! The front panel really does tie it all together nicely. Got anything planned for the visible parts of the drive bays inside?

[Omega]

Looks good! The front panel really does tie it all together nicely. Got anything planned for the visible parts of the drive bays inside?

Through the side panel? We may or may not do something there. Haven't decided yet. The aging process might carry over to the interior as well.

We're planning on doing a frosting/etching of a circuitboard pattern on the window so interior details aren't going to be immediately apparent. Also since the hardware we're going to use probably won't be terribly impressive and there's not a whole hell of a lot of room for cable management.

So the interior may be deliberately "messy", we'll see when we get there. Or I may have to go completely dumb and get some copper piping...

We got some sheetmetal too, to do accents on the front panel. Thin stainless.

[Omega]

Update!

The build is nearing completion. Shelly got her tax return so we went ahead and ordered up the parts. I think I'll keep that a surprise for now.

Pictures!

So for the side panel, she wanted to do a circuitboard pattern. So we started by tracing the window and drawing the pattern she wanted.

I then popped that in to photoshop and traced it, then popped it in to illustrator and made it a vector. Took the image, mirrored it, and had it cut to vinyl at a local sign shop. Took it home, applied the vinyl to the window, and hit it with my soda blaster. There are sadly no pictures of this, that portion of the day was so productive that I forgot...

Here shelly is, peeling off the vinyl after I did the soda blasting.

The completed window.

We then took the case outside, and she started attacking it with the lava rocks from my front yard, as well as a can of flat black and flat brown spray paint to "age" it.

This picture really doesn't do it justice. This was taken in my garage with no care for the lighting and taken with my cellphone. But you can see that it certainly has a lot more "character" now.

Picture with flash of the "aged" panel.

And a day or two after, I got these cut and sanded to size. Now they just need to be painted to match the rest of the case, and (probably) glued in to place.


Left to do:
1. Tighten down all the bolts on the top panel.
2. Drill hole, mount and wire power button. Re-install front USB/reset/headphone jacks.
3. Make front panel drive bay opening acrylic piece, figure out what to do with space. It's still up in the air, since we've veered "off-plan".
4. buy 3x 120mm blue LED fans
5. install all the components and make sure it works!

I'm getting a new camera next week as well so I should have much nicer pictures of it as well!

[msmrx57]

Looks sweet! The circuit board pattern is a cool touch for the window.

[Omega]

Looks sweet! The circuit board pattern is a cool touch for the window.

Thank you!

We got it all the components in the case this last weekend but I haven't had the time to go through my pictures. Still, it's in one piece almost!

The front panel needs finishing and then that's it! Plus I got a nice new camera so expect lots of good pictures to come.

[Omega]

It's DONE!

Today, with the exception of two stickers, we finished!

Last week we got the computer together. Specs:

MSI Motherboard (I forget the model offhand)
Intel Core i5-4430k
Sapphire Radeon R9 270X
8GB of G.Skill Ripjaws RAM
1TB Seagate HDD
EVGA 600w PSU


almost everything was "done" last week, just the front panel needed finishing. So we did that and ran the EL wire today.

So here's how the day started, with the front panel ready to get molested.

We got a little sheetmetal plate to mount the power button and the light switch to.

Drill some holes in it...

A big one for the power button

and a smaller one for the duckbill switch. I didn't account for the stuff cast in to the plastic behind and the drill bit walked. This was a non-issue, I fixed it later.

Both switches mounted, getting the screws in place...

Yep.

Power button/lightswitch plate mounted.

Began installing the EL wire. Most of the wiring in the case is a rat's nest but I tried to keep as much of it as possible out of the upper corner to allow for airflow.

The EL wire got mostly ziptied in place.

I didn't get any more pictures after that. It was pretty much done anyway. She also painted the top vents and glued them in place. So without futher ado, here it is:

Bam.

We also put a piece of clear plexiglass in the drive openings. She wanted it clear and wanted to be able to see in to the case through the front, so that's what we did.

EL wire and front panel ribbon cables make up the view mostly. This is intentional -- it's meant to look old, ratty, and used, but still kind of high tech.


I will get more photos tomorrow, I have a white backdrop that we are going to use. It's getting a pair of stickers and then it's off to the girlfriend's house to get set up in it's new home!

[Omega]

Final photos! Put in an Imgur album so I don't have to downsize them a bunch.

http://imgur.com/a/wGwfC

[OvRiDe]

Nice work Mike's Girlfriend (and Mike)! Looks great! Came out pretty sweet.

[msmrx57]

Awesome look! Nice work guys.

[ssbenss]

now if only you could find a way to pair it up with this car, that would be awesome

anyhow congrats looks like a pretty awesome build man. im not very good at drawing, i like to keep the ideas in my head, which isnt really a good idea but eh, to each their own.