Well, here's going to be the project log for my new case (made out of a case from a previous mod), Black Sunshine. Named appropriately for the color and the fact that it should be lit up like a Christmas tree when all is said and done.
Here's a pic of the front Bezel already vinyl dyed and the feet about to be.
As you can see, the previous case was black as well but it was a rush job so I'm redoing it. Since I currently have everything in my YY cube, this one will be done with patience. This is an aopen case that had little "divots" in the bottom of the front bezel that have been bondoed and sanded down and now the vinyl dye appeas to be completed. You can't tell much about the front bezel there because of all the paint around it.
Here is a picture of the top of the case which used to house two 120mm fans. This is now a cutout for a window that will be in there once it is completed. It's sanded down now and will be painted once I get my primer and paint.
Here are the old side panels that haven't been sanded down yet. I'm pretty sure I'll be putting a different window in there so the puzzle piece will be gone.
This is my custom digital hard drive activity indicator. I hooked this all up last night to see it work for just a short period of time. Since I was trying to short a couple of wires manually as it wasn't hooked up to my motherboard, I believe I burnt the optoisolator when all was said and done. More have been ordered and this will, hopefully, work just as well as it did originally.
Finally, this is the skeleton of the case that still needs to be cleaned up and painted. My pump and radiator will be in shortly and I wonder, if anyone would care to give their opinion, what may be best for the radiator. I will be fitting two (one intake, one exhasut) 120mm fans on the rad and will, hopefully, be putting it in the top of my case. Now my question is about which way. Should I have it blowing the hot air out of the top of the case (I will be putting a port in the window for this) and have the top two 80mm fans blowing in cold air for it or should I have the 120mm radiator mounted fans pulling in cold air from the top and then the 80mm fans as exhaust for the hot air? I would think the latter of the two but I also don't want a lot of hot air trapped inside. If I am able to put the rad at the top, I will also have 1 or 2 40mm exhaust fans in the rear bottom and also a 120mm intake fan at the front of the case.
Still to come is a customer made rheobus and also a fiber optic "mural"... more on that later.
Stalemate
July 13th, 2003, 09:02 PM
Keeping busy, huh? :p
Looks very good so far! :thumbs:
ephmynus
July 14th, 2003, 08:26 PM
I have to warn you, the next update includes a pic of my graphic mod wound. Don't look if you get queezy easily.
Now, here is the beginning of my Fiber Optic "mural" Instead of having a regular logo for the case, I decided to do it all in 1mm fiber. I have 15 red leds coming to take care of the lighting and 20 foot of 1mm fiber to run to each individual hole you see. And, of course, I'll be posting pics once it has been completed.
Finally, here is today's modding wound. I was cleaning up the back of the faceplate for the rheobus and sliced the top of my finger almost completely off. The wound doesn't look too bad at this point but, when you look at this, just remember that all the shiny skin that you see... that isn't attached to my finger. Luckily the wife wasn't home so I didn't have to go get stitches... let's just hope everything grows back together alright
That has to be the freakiest nail-biting accident I've ever seen! :eek2:
Tell me more about this vynil die...
My daughter recently took my PC case for an easel by using my permanent black felt-tip CD marker to it. :(
I'm looking for modding possibilities on this case which "used" to be perfectly sulver.
ephmynus
July 14th, 2003, 09:21 PM
Originally posted by a d e p t
That has to be the freakiest nail-biting accident I've ever seen! :eek2:
Tell me more about this vynil die...
My daughter recently took my PC case for an easel by using my permanent black felt-tip CD marker to it. :(
I'm looking for modding possibilities on this case which "used" to be perfectly sulver.
Vinyl dye is a wonderful thing... for plastic. It bonds to the plastic so it looks as though it was molded that way. It won't work on metal very well so you'll still want to get a good auto paint for it. If you're not into doing it yourself, you may want to look for a new case. But, if you have some hours and want to be proud of a good finished product, get to it.
Stalemate
July 14th, 2003, 10:42 PM
I'm thinking black flames or tribal lines with a black face to complement.
Thanks for the info - I'll stick to paint then. ;)
Garak
July 15th, 2003, 05:50 AM
looking good, any more updates????
ephmynus
July 15th, 2003, 06:46 AM
Originally posted by Garak
looking good, any more updates????
Woooahhh... slow down their tiger :D Hopefully, I'll get the optoisolator in tomorrow and be able to get that lit up for you. I'm going to start running the fiber tonight but I've got to wait on all my LEDs before I can get it lit up. Once my radiator gets here, I'm going to figure out where I'm going to mount it so I'll be able to get the skeleton painted as well. Updates will be coming shortly.
Here are the beginnings of my rheobus. I wanted to get knobs that had some black in them but I didn't want to paint aluminum ones. Picked these up at ratshack for a decent price and I think they'll end up looking nice.
EagleAye69
July 15th, 2003, 10:06 PM
That last pic looks schweet. You gonna be okay from that near-fatal injury man? :D :D :D
ephmynus
July 16th, 2003, 10:31 AM
Yea, I imagine I'll make it alright. I took of my bandaid for the first time (minus to clean it) and the top of my finger didn't even fall off. The wife was pretty pissed that I didn't go the ER but that's how it goes. I should be getting the remaining 4 pieces of plexi cut tonight and get the rheobus finished (possibly minus the lighting depending on time). Unfortunately, I blew up my test AT power supply last night so I've gotta wait for a new one to come in. I had hooked an LED up for testing on the backlighting and it was one that I had previously put a resistor on (read, about a year ago). It looked pretty dim under 5V so I hooked it up to 12V and it seemed like it was doing right. About 2 minutes later, my paper supply blew up in a spark filled frenzy, lighting sandpaper and power towels filled with dried bondo on fire... it was an interesting night.
NooNoo
July 16th, 2003, 10:39 AM
OK, so thats 2 - whats the 3rd gonna be?
BTW like the new screen name :D
Stalemate
July 16th, 2003, 11:20 AM
Originally posted by NooNoo
...BTW like the new screen name :D
Now that's a mod I'd like to implement also... ? :confused:
kato2274
July 16th, 2003, 11:30 AM
Originally posted by a d e p t
Now that's a mod I'd like to implement also... ? :confused:
yeah how'd that happen. when I saw it I shot into usercp to see if it was now enabled like with the other software, but alas no.
NooNoo
July 16th, 2003, 11:30 AM
Simply email scott and ask nicely :)
ephmynus
July 16th, 2003, 11:37 AM
Yes, based upon Noo's wonderful expertise, mine was changed quite quickly. Thanks to NooNoo and Scott.
Stalemate
July 17th, 2003, 09:09 AM
Thanks for the tip.
ilovetheusers
July 17th, 2003, 02:37 PM
Looks like it's gonna be cool. Is it going to have any color but black and is the window going to be a great deal larger? f it is all black It would probably look awesome with a blacklight and with several UV reactive things of a single color inside.
Oh, and what the hell is a optoisolator?
ephmynus
July 17th, 2003, 05:05 PM
An optoisolator is sort of a bridge between two different wiring systems. In this particular instance, it is bridging the 5v DC power supply and the motherboard header for the HDD activiity LED. It makes sure I don't blow up the motherboard with two much power. The inside chassis is going to be black and I believe all of the outside will be as well. However, I'm thinking I might do a dark mirage painting scheme on the outside. Shiny paint and changes color in certain lighting conditions. However, I haven't really decided as of yet.
confus-ed
July 18th, 2003, 05:53 AM
I was gonna ask who on earth ephmynus was ... but I see its A tech ... I mean how many Kazakhstani's are there in the world ? :D (where the hell is that ?)
Nice name though ... bit of culture for us - from the greek -euphönos, sweet-voiced ....
NooNoo
July 18th, 2003, 06:14 AM
now say it out loud phonetically Confus-ed..... ;)
confus-ed
July 18th, 2003, 06:20 AM
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh *&$! ... stupid boy ! ... eph - my -nus ! ... F minus :rolleyes: .... :D :D :D
You got me good ! ;)
ephmynus
July 18th, 2003, 08:33 AM
Hahahahahahahahaha.....
.
Hahahahahaha
I'm sorry.... I just couldn't quit laughing when I saw this
Huuummmmmmm That was good for a laugh. Thank you.:D
ilovetheusers
July 18th, 2003, 10:28 PM
Originally posted by ephmynus
An optoisolator is sort of a bridge between two different wiring systems. In this particular instance, it is bridging the 5v DC power supply and the motherboard header for the HDD activiity LED. It makes sure I don't blow up the motherboard with two much power. The inside chassis is going to be black and I believe all of the outside will be as well. However, I'm thinking I might do a dark mirage painting scheme on the outside. Shiny paint and changes color in certain lighting conditions. However, I haven't really decided as of yet.
Never thought about painting the inside before. Sounds pretty cool.
confus-ed
July 19th, 2003, 02:58 AM
Originally posted by ilovetheusers
Never thought about painting the inside before. Sounds pretty cool.
I have a user who did the inside of his with mirror paint ! This was to reflect extra light from lights around the case, what he didn't think about was the infinite reflection effect you get with mirrors placed opposite ... however after moving the lights about a bit - he loves it ! ;) ... even me- old boring git - is mildly impressed :D
ephmynus
July 19th, 2003, 02:57 PM
Well, been working at it but don't really have anything concretely finished. But an update nonetheless.
My watercooling stuff did get here so there's one good thing. I've had trouble finding screws long enough that will allow me to mount this and also have room for a shroud. Still looking in my local area but I may have the fan bumped right up against the rad for the time being. Once the project is completed, I'll need to get a waterblock and I'll be ready to go.
Here is the first pic of the lighting for my fiber "mural." On the right is an LED cluster from a big road sign. I wanted to cover the front of it so light didn't escape so I went to Lowes and found a nice little 1" PVC cap. After scraping about 1mm off the inside wall, it fit around the cluster like a glove. On the left is an extra drive cover that I'll fit this into as a brace. You can see a bunch of 1mm holes cut in the center of the cap that I will lead the fiber to for its lighting. This is the best idea I could come up with to prevent light from escaping.
Here it is all fitted up attached to the front faceplate with vinyl screws that are JB Welded to it. It doesn't look wonderful but the only thing I'm interested in seeing is the front so it does its job. I'll start working on running the fiber tonight but I may have to pick up some more as I don't think what I have will be enough.
ephmynus
July 20th, 2003, 03:57 PM
Here's a small update since I finished my HDD activity meter. I was pretty upset to find that the yellow and red leds just don't have enough umph to light up and they almost look nonexistant next to the blue green ones. With that, I am ordering 6 more blue greens and everything will be one color. The way I did this was to cut a front panel out of a drive cover and put frosted plexi glass behind it. Then, I used 9 boxes of the perfect size.
And now I have a whole sh*tload of tic tacs to eat:D These were painted black and glued to the back of the faceplate and plexi. Then I mounted the leds in holes I had drilled and here is how it looks.
Since it was light in my house when I took this, you really can't see the yellow at all. However, that should be fixed shortly so I'll be much happier then.
Here's a short (4 sec) wmv clip of it falling from full hard drive activity.
Here it is with the front panel on it. I'm worried that I'll have to put a fan port on the front of the case because of the lack of ventiliation. But, the bottom of the front bezel underneath is open so, pending temperature readings and noise levels, I may just leave it as.
Here's a rear angle. You can't really see the radiator since EVERYTHING is black but you can just barely see the side of it. The black is looking really nice so far and I'm quite pleased up to this point.
ephmynus
July 21st, 2003, 08:48 PM
Here's the completed LED "mural." Considering the name of the project, I tried to get this the closest to a sunshine as I could. The edges I ended up having to bend at almost 90 degrees to get them toned down but everything seemed to work pretty well.
Now you need to put an LED eclipse on the other side, to get true black sunshine :D
ephmynus
July 22nd, 2003, 07:58 AM
Wooo! By the time this project is done... I'm not gonna want to have to work with another LED for a while... don't try to persuade me to put EVEN MORE in there:D
ephmynus
July 24th, 2003, 07:37 AM
Well, I've started finishing up painting on a few pieces. One side panel needs a final coat of paint tonight and then two coats of clear coat and then I'll be on to polishing it. I'll be starting the cutout for the other side panel tonight as well. Here is a picture of the top with 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of paint, 2 coats of clear coat and about a half hour with the rubbing compound. It's not quite as smooth as I would have liked so I'll probably hit it with more rubbing compound tonight but it's looking pretty good IMO.
Originally posted by ilovetheusers
He11 did you do with the painted tic tacs?
Ate 'em ? ... Did he paint 'em ? ... I thought he wanted the cases not the tic-tacs !?! His breath should be nice & fresh for a while anyways ... unless he did paint 'em ... then he'll be dead ! :D ... so if there's no more posts for a while ... A+, oh sorry f-, must be the world's first tic-tac overdose ! :eek2:
ephmynus
July 26th, 2003, 06:37 AM
Back from the grave:D I actually painted the tic tac boxes as the containers used for my hard drive activity mod. I got the new LEDS for that in yesterday and, with a little more playing around, that will be finished today. Will update with pics later on.
confus-ed
July 26th, 2003, 06:55 AM
Originally posted by ephmynus
Back from the grave:D
:wave: ... hiya mate ... glad to know the tic-tacs didn't do you in ! :D
Still looking forward to the 'end' result ;)
ephmynus
July 27th, 2003, 09:16 PM
Well, it's almost finished. I finished the cutout today on the side panel, finished the painting for it and cut the plexi for the top. I'll finish the plexi for the side tomorrow as well as get it mounted (had to wait to go to the hardware store tomorrow for some molding.) Here's some pics. I probably have about an hour worth of polishing left but it's coming along.
Also, I decided against an inline setup because of the minimal amount of space left in the inside and ended up figuring that I needed to go with a submerged pump against my better judgement. So, I found my reservoir and good ole Wal Mart and got the tubing holes cut for it.
I figure I probably have a good week left on this and my waterblock (maze 4) should be here by the end of this next week.
ephmynus
July 28th, 2003, 07:45 PM
Well, got the windows in and the molding put on. This should be finished by this weekend. My waterblock should be in by Friday and I have a new DVD Rom (see my thread in Hot Deals) should be in before then. Everything will be going in and getting finished this weekend. I'll also take the time to finally screw the top and sides in together so that ugly white line isn't there :D
So where you gonna put the walmart fishtank? :D Its looking very good. :)
ephmynus
July 29th, 2003, 08:16 AM
The Wal Mart fish tank is going to be sitting outside the case in the back. I've got to cut holes tonight for the tubes to be taken into the case. I just found out that my waterblock will actually be here tomorrow so I get to start leak testing it sooner than I though. w00t!
ephmynus
July 31st, 2003, 09:32 PM
I got the watercooling equipment hooked up last night and running with no leaks thus far. A great tip to watercoolers setting up a new system.... pliers! Last time I used these plastic tube clamps they were good... but not great. This time I tightened them down as much as possible with pliers. After playing with them for a while to make sure it wasn't going to cut in the tubing, I found out this was the absolute best way to put these on.
I don't really care about the top since that doesn't have to be cooled off really so everything is tucked up there. I played MOHAA for 30 minutes and never saw temps go above 39C for the CPU. This is a P4 2.66GHz so I'll have to see what this can do a little later on in terms of overclocking. I'll probably follow up with some night time pics once I am able to take them.
NooNoo
August 2nd, 2003, 02:00 PM
Why is the water pink?
ephmynus
August 2nd, 2003, 02:33 PM
Water wetter-it's a coolant/anti-bacterial treatment for the water. It works wonderful but it IS pink.
NooNoo
August 2nd, 2003, 02:38 PM
they don't do more fashionable colours? Like neon green? :D :D
Novakain
August 3rd, 2003, 05:24 AM
Wouldn't good ol' coolant do the same job? You can get that in green. :D
Nice case F-, I've been following your progress since last week BTW. Hope your finger is healing OK.
Just one thing: Are you planning on keeping the radiator inside the case? Wouldn't it work more efficiently outside with the resovior?
ephmynus
August 3rd, 2003, 06:46 AM
Originally posted by Novakain
Wouldn't good ol' coolant do the same job? You can get that in green. :D
Nice case F-, I've been following your progress since last week BTW. Hope your finger is healing OK.
Just one thing: Are you planning on keeping the radiator inside the case? Wouldn't it work more efficiently outside with the resovior?
There would be a small decrease in temperature but it's really not worth it. I would have to find somewhere to mount it outside the case, I would have to run power out there for the fan and it would be much louder having the fan outside. Also, coolant would do a similar (not quite as good cooling) job but it wouldn't prevent bacteria from forming.
Novakain
August 4th, 2003, 06:19 AM
Gotcha. Looking forward to seeing how the case turns out.:thumbs:
confus-ed
August 4th, 2003, 06:44 AM
Originally posted by NooNoo
they don't do more fashionable colours? Like neon green? :D :D
PINK !?! something you want to 'share' ? :D
You can add simple food colourant to water to get more 'interesting' shades usually it doesn't react with any anti bacterial agents (I've used the stuff from pet shops for aquariums for this) ... I have a 'dude' who added coloured oil to his system to get quite 'mad' effects in the water reservoir, though personally I'd be a bit iffy about what effect that might have on cooling ... but his temps are good ! so I guess why not !?!
Oh edit ...
On a more prosaic note ... re pliers ... I've always found 'circlips' the ones you tighten with a screwdriver or nut are by far superior to any other method to 'crimp' conections tight ...
ephmynus
August 4th, 2003, 09:14 PM
Originally posted by confus-ed
On a more prosaic note ... re pliers ... I've always found 'circlips' the ones you tighten with a screwdriver or nut are by far superior to any other method to 'crimp' conections tight ...
Those do generally work better... except with acrylic tubing. They generally have a very negative effect being that they cut into the tubing, many times cutting it off completely. The plastic racheting clamps are generally the best to use for maximum tightness and to avoid any problems with the tubing.
confus-ed
August 5th, 2003, 04:16 AM
Originally posted by ephmynus
Those do generally work better... except with acrylic tubing. They generally have a very negative effect being that they cut into the tubing, many times cutting it off completely. The plastic racheting clamps are generally the best to use for maximum tightness and to avoid any problems with the tubing.
You can buy ones with plastic (I don't know how to describe them) ... oh yeah threads ! ... & metal 'tighteners' ... but I get your drift ... I have used ptfe (plumbers tape) to alleviate this too (around the tubes below where any fasteners go) ... it's probably all done by now, anyways ... but a tip nevertheless ;)
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