Project: Paranoia.

[Beta-brain]

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

[JohnyFive]

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

Paul

[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.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

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

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

[mofo]

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

[Beta-brain]

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

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!

[Beta-brain]

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

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

[Beta-brain]

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.

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

[FuzzyPlushroom]

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

I meant like the one on your mockup motherboard. 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.

[Beta-brain]

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