case mode

Some of you know I have decided to make a "case" for a modding competition.

After many hours of contemplation the pic below is a fair representation of what I want to do.

sometimes I think I am crazy, other times I know I am crazy, apart from an extremely tight budget there are many possible hurdles and challenges in order to finish this in the next 35 days.

I have already purchased the mobo that will fit just underneath the scythe (comp rules state you have to use the mobo from the comp organiser. http://www.ecsmodmen.com/ )

I have made the sunderer shell, and I am now at the stage where I have to start planning the final layout and placements of the hardware, wires, cooling, joining laser tubes etc.

I have given most of this many sleepless hours of thought, but I would certainly appreciate any input from everyone, just in case I have missed something.

Basically the plan is to have the PSU at the back of the sundy, the cd rom and hdd at the front of the sundy and the mobo underneath the scythe, all attached together by the tubes that will hold the lot together with the wiring through the tubes.

Some of the challenges I have been contemplating:

keeping the cpu cooling light and small (water/fan/?)
balancing the weight of the high mobo
the strength of the aluminium "laser" tubes and how to attach to both the sundy and the scythe (I have some reasonably good ideas for this :-)
etc etc

Wow dude... That would be something I have never seen before.

I would imagine that water cooling would be best for the CPU to along with the "tube" design you mentioned. Also, remember that noise will be a factor with such an exposed case.

You could enter a plethora of online competitions (there are heaps already) too once you pull that off.

Good luck!

(inb4 j0n0 gramma nartsi on title)

yeah phats, if i could i would have the water cooling going "down" the tubes on the outside in a spiral to almost match the games animation. i would love to know if i could add silver particles so that one could see the direction of the flow (supply tube would be inside the tube)

(and we can blame auto correct on the title :(

photo's Mike photo's and planning information we could make this into a epic article! do it! looks like an amazing project!

who's photo's stu :p

I will definitely post photos as I go along :)


OK - so the planing stage (pun intended):
I saw the link to the case mod comp in the news feed we have below our shout box -
and I started thinking how cool it would be to have an jet plane with a mobo inside it. an idea born out of thinking about modding an old guitar with all the pc hardware inside. my mind went to how the jet would look with a boring stand holding all the hardware with the mobo inside the jet. So i started asking around for a jet mould i could make a fibreglass shell from. not much luck from that department and then one sleepless night the idea took shape, in fact it kinda hit me with a wet mosquito and drop podded my mind for ages. a scythe and a sundy - how difficult could that be?

many hours of googling I found this thread - http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/i...e-tools.54360/

This dude has made an amazing tool that creates 3d models out of the planetside data files from which elogas was able to convert into an import file for my cad program (Sketchup).
From that I was able to get the scale sizes for the sundy - fitting the PSU, CD rom and HDD in.

Putting dimensions on to the cad drawing I then drew the cutout lines onto the 3mm thick off-cut signage board that eco signage kindly donated to me.
With a bit (plenty) routing and 'scribing' I carefully cut out, heated and bent the board to get what you see in the pic below.
The green tube you see is from a printer and I have been given a few of them from Nashua and a printing ink supplier in kya sands (name to follow)

So now what is holding my mind up is - the final orientation of the mobo under the scythe, how to attach with strength the tubes to the sundy and mobo (i think i have solved this), how many tubes i should be using, how to put the mobo main 24 pin through the tube - I will make a tool that will allow me to unclip each wire to the 24 pin and then thread through and reclip, but i don't have a spare 24 pin PSU that i know works 100%. (Gotta test it)

Howzit Fly, thanks for referring me to this post of yours, and with reference to our discussions, this is my views.... have fun with them.

1. Modding a case, doing something with a computer that has never been done before is always cool, it demonstrate your creativity and more importantly it is fun.
2. I think one need to ask the following questions before you embark on such a journey, they are:
2.1 how practical should it be? This is quite important, because in my experience some people go for really over the top builds, but the actual build is not very practical / useful in terms of things like heat, upgrades, noise, dust, etc. The worst design I have ever seen was the Antec Skeleton open case. I have "won" one of those, I came second in a competition, first prize I believe was two of them. Seriously, think about practicallities and "usefullness" of the case. If I take my own Mahogany Design Case then that whole case was build to suit my personal needs in terms of being able to upgrade it, fits in with my decor, and easy to swap components when the need arise. The more "complex" and "integrate" your design, the less practical it becomes. In your example, assume you are going for a water cooler, let's assume H70 (or whatever). You now design your whole case / design around the water cooler. Tomorrow, intel releases a new CPU, different socket, you need new water cooler, suddenly you can no longer use your case. (not that this will happen, but your get my drift.)
2.2. Cost, budget and material? Cost is obviously important, and I am not gonna talk around this alot as I think you are well aware of how quickly such a project can become freaken expensive. Material, take the following into consideration. How does this material react to heat, vibration, humidity, change in ambient temps, what is the different strenght properties of it compression strenght, shearing strenght, etc. Sounds of it, if you go with aluminium, then you should be fine.
2.3. Mod design? First of all, you will be using a motherboard, cpu, psu, gpu all in configurations which it was never designed for. For instance, mounting a motherboard upside down may seem like a great idea, especially considering that things like a PSU's motherboard is also upside down. This may mean that you will not have any dust settling on the motherboard and in the components (thanks to gravity), but given the airflow, you will find that you heat certain components up which had the board by right side up, or mounted vertical would not have been a problem. Just think carefully about things like airflow, dust, when ever you plan to mount it in a different configuraton than it was originally designed to be in.
2.4 Use of the PC. I appreciate that most modders believe to overclock the living daylights out of a pc, however, and I want to challenge you on this, why do you want to build a super powerful rig? It is as challenging if not more, if you built say for instance a slightly underclocked pc but then you can get away with say a passive air cooler... Just because you can install a water cooler does not mean you should. Basically, think about where and how you would like to use the pc.

Ok, enough about the boring stuff. Onto your questions. I assume the tubes you are thinking of using is the same as the printer ones? They are thick, so you can run any number of cables through them. Regarding how to push through a 24 pin ATX plug, here is some suggestions:
You can manually remove each pin (please take careful notes exactly where they came from and first test your rewired psu on another motherboard!), and then reconnect them at the end. However, that is the "easy" approach, here are some other ways as well...
Instead of removing the cable at the plug side, open up the PSU case and cut off all the wires (leaving you just enough space to either solder or crimp new wires on). This will allow you the benefit of ensuring all your cables are exactly the correct colour (black, blue, white, whatever theme you are going with) and it will also ensure that the cable is precisly long enough meaning you do not need to worry about cable management afterwards. This is obviously a lot more work, but it will allow you the benefit to sleeve each cable if you want to.
The other option is to get a ATX extension, which is what I did for my case. This allowed me to make the cables a tad bit longer, but I don't think that will solve your problem.
The last option, is to perhaps consider a full modular PSU, the ATX cable that is plugged in on the PSU is somethings a much thinner solution.

Ok, PSU ticked. You mentioned HDD and H2O. First, think if you really want water cooler or not. You don't NEED to water cool the thing, going with a 1 inch thick passive cooler can be just as cool! (but that means you need to underclock the cpu) The HDD, obviously a SSD, the beauty of a SSD is that it is so small you could potentially mount it INSIDE the PSU for instance... now imagine the looks if somebody is trying to find a HDD and they can not see one... ;-) I actually saw a PC mod once where this guy have build a FULL pc (using an ITX motherboard) into a PSU. Then he mounted the PSU into a normal MIDI PC case, but the rest of the case was empty... so he would go and plug this PC in and switch it on etc, but then he will open the case to show the people it is a "invisible motherboard"... Depending on the size of the tubes, perhaps even consider 1.8" drives or something like that and then mount the drive inside the tube... ;-)

During one of our telecons, you've asked about strenght and the way to connect the motherboard. If you use aluminium, you should be fine as long as you can attach the ATX board to all 9 screws. I assume you have a tap & die set, so that should not be a problem. Just to give you an idea, I once build a 19" rack mount "case" out of roof-flashing (basically, tin that is about 0.6mm thick) and I very succesfully tapped the holes and managed to mount the motherboard on that. Saying that, I would not have swing it around nor mount it upside down... you mention 3mm aluminium, more than enough to mount it in any configuration you want.

How to attach tubes.... now this is the old age question each architech questions. I will need to know the following to help you. What diametre "tubes" will you be using? What "angle" will those tubes be mounted at? Do you want to tubes to be able to swivel as well. I.e. in your pic, you had the ship ni the front with the tubes looking to be at around 25 to 30 degrees. You could in theory have the ship be able to move forward and back by just allowing the tubes to "swivel". Regarding strenght, you need to look at the pressure points, in your current design, assuming the tubes penetrate the vehicle, the pressure points will be at a the entry point right behind it. It is important that you reinforce that part of the metal to some extend. (basically, if you push the front part down, the back is going to "pop up". Reinforce the back. The Easiest way I have found to do things like that is to simply use two sheets of metal, mount them an inch or so away from each other. Then just drill two holes in them at the right angles. Now you just need to spread the pressure points to as wide an area as possible and you should be fine.

Anyevent, let me know if you have any other questions, or if any of the above doesn't make sense. Sorry for any grammer, spelling errors. Not only is it because I am a boertjie, but also because I have just formatted my PC and haven't installed Office yet so have no dictionary. Then again, I don't think I was allowed into the clan for my awesome writing skills....

thanks skoups, lots of food for thought. please dont worry about grammer and spelling :)

the aluminium tubes are 22mm ID, I cant find a thicker one the right colour, so i might be going for 4 of the same. the design isn't for simplicity or function, it is more for wow factor.
I don't intend overclocking at all, the cpu will most likely be the cheapest I can find. like the g465.

I recon I have the mouning of the tubes sorted, many hours of thinking and i am sure you will like what i plan :)

I am sure I will... please share photos / ideas / comments / questions when you are ready to do so. Best of luck!

thanks skoups

I have been spending the day working on the tubes and the ammo boxes.

the tubes are ready to be attached to the back plate. Now it is a question of fitting both the 24 pin atx power supply and the vga THROUGH the 25mm (OD) tubes.
The aluminium angle iron that the tubes attach to inside the sundy have been cut to size and are ready to install inside the body, i just need to find my 25mm drill bit that i bought a million years ago.
I am sure I will have some pics tomorrow

Aren't you finished yet?

http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/a...12/loooool.png

nearly there geth :p

But i am a little stuck - I pretty much have everything except the socket 1155 cpu and the water block for that socket.
If anyone has the brackets for that socket set, i would appreciate, because i could probably make a water block. and I should be able to afford the CPU in a week or two, but i would gladly pay for a second hand one if available. The water block is very scarce atm, hence wanting to make one - which i could most likely do out of a heat sink with the heat pipes that go to the fins. I would take the fins off, and then bend the heatpipes, join the odd ones in a circle and the in and out water pipes. just an idea, not sure if it would work but i am keen to try.

In the mean time I found a cheap water cooling kit (without any cpu brackets or blocks) - an old aquacool jetart, been on the shelf for ages and paid R350 for it. it comes in a nicely packaged external unit that was too big for my sundy. so i took it apart, and in the process broke the one fitting off the radiator block :0 which in the end wasnt a bad thing. because i have blocked that hole up and put new nipples facing the way i want them to face. BUT MAN OH MAN what a run around. not one single place could identify the threads from the fittings, nor could i find until today (3 days of searching) a place that could actually help me. I eventually went to the place that helped me with paintball co2 fittings 20 years ago. should have gone there first - he GAVE me a number of fittings and helped me with making one fit into another. so i have soldered the fittings on to the block, in the direction i need them to be going. you can see the radiator sitting in front of the sundy and the "shocks" for the front wheels in the first pick, and the soldered nozzles in the second pic.

I'm sure all the guys with connections can try to source a cheap 1155 cpu for my new rig.

Cheapest I have seen (assuming this rig is not designed for gaming?) is an i3 2120 for R1383.
Quad cores start around R2200.

i have seen some for less than R600 (pentiums) so i might end up going for that.

And for it to be yours you will need to pay :p

you are right though, I am not designing this for gaming. not enough time for sorting out stuff for GPU cooling weights etc.

you are a brave man my son.... making one's own CPU waterblock... that takes a lot of guts.... (or very few brain cells!)

May I make a suggestion, please test run your water block for a couple of hours before you put it onto the cpu! No offence, but doing welding / brazing / soldering to a degree that will ensure water thightness with water under pressure and a water block that heats up (thus expand, thus weakening the joints), is not something I am fully comfortable trying on my own rig just yet... Your soldering is obviously much better than mine... ;-) When you test it, try to heat up the waterblock as well, maybe just put it face down on the stove or something (please ensure wife is not witnessing this act of testing....) and then run the water through it.

Good luck, and post some more pictures please.

Ps, if you want to tap your own holes, then you will need a M3-0.5mm tap for the fine threaded screws (motherboard / dvd rom) and a M3-0.8mm tap for the HDD / PSU screws. Finding m3-0.5 is easy, but I have not been able to find m3-0.8, so if you can find one, get me one as well please.

yeah thanks skoups, I will definitely test out the whole system before actually having any serious electronics near it :-)

I spent Sunday afternoon making the block for the PSU. I still have to cut the bolts to the right size and then lap the heat sink after sealing the unit. (And then test it connected to the pump system.

I was looking for a heatsink that had rows of slots for plenty surface are heat transfer. so I took apart an old AGP GPU - thinking I was getting a copper heat sink - turns out it was aluminium, but hey, next time i will use copper.

The perspex turned out quite easy until the router guide slipped (hence the funny corner) but I am quite pleased with the end result - I might put more curves on it.

I might well kit myself out with more 'finer' tools, but I had an m4 tap and a gazzillion m4 countersunk and mushroom cap bolts. The m3 screws for the HDD and other hardware will have to be measured carefully :)

Right now i will be sticking to my angle grinder and hammer :p

Fly, I just had a close look at the CPU waterblock that you've made, just a couple of questions.

1. If I understand the pictures right, the water will effectively flow between the perspec that you have and the heatsink that is installed. That therefor means you will need to ensure that the perspex has a water tight seal over the heatsink?
2. if I understand the above design correctly, then if I could give you a tip, perhaps just squirt a tiny drop of clear silicon between the metal part of the heatsink and the perspex before you tighten it down (with the 8 bolts)
3. It looks like about 5mm perspex, meaning I estimate the inlet / outlet holes that you drilled is about 3mm, that basically gives you a 1mm perspex thickness on the sides, that is very thight margins if you will be pumping through heat (warping of perspex) and water under pressure. If the inlet / outlet holes are thinner, then I will be less concerned (but that then increases the pressure of the water)
4. Using wet / dry sand paper that is wet, will allow you to ensure you have a very smooth cutting surface on the perspex. I can recommend starting with 300 grit, and then work your way down to at least 1500 grit for a very smooth finish. (on the sides of the perspex). By the way, you could also try to use an orbital sander but I found that elbow-grease was the best. I have tried something else before, but it did not work well and that was to heat the crap out of the perspex (flames etc) to clear it off as per various you-tube videos, I just could not get the flame hot enough, perhaps you have better luck than me. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRCnVBM3R0c) Let me know if you could do what this guy does in the video, I could not. (yet)....


Fly, I think it is coming on nicely, keep it up, and keep sending us photos. (preferably some close ups and some big picture ones too....)

its 9 mm perspex, holes are 4.5 and 6 (6mm for the brass swage nipples) 1mm clearance on bottom, and 2mm on top for the brass tube that goes in to the perspex. more for the actual hole in the perspex.
I have already thought of the silicone for the aluminium heat sink sealing on to the perspex, i am not sure though if it will work well for the brass on to the aluminium - i was toying with the idea of proper perspex glue on first half of brass tube, and silicone on 2nd half.

I have seen the perspex dudes heating the edge with a very small blue flame, - I have a pencil torch, and will be finishing off the block with both a slightly different shape and chamfered edges. (which would be easier to sand and heat).

This afternoon I drilled the holes for the front scythe tubes in the top of the sundy, angling the drill (25mm) to get the right direction for the hole. (see pic).
The tubes are covered in masking tape to protect the finish.

starting to take shape. Fly I missed the post about how you made the vehicle? What material did you use and how did you actually made it. I was thinking that the silicon would just seal it, you will still need to use the bolts. 9mm perspex should be fine as well.

thanks skoups - i will do a write up with pics when i have finished the mudguards for the sundy :)
In the mean time - think - 3mm plastic coated in 0.1mm aluminium on either side - nice to work with, easy to bend and easy to break.
It is a signage product called dybond - if you remember my case trolley from rage - that was made from a much thicker version of it.

I have a headache from breathing in polystyrene fumes :-0
On Thursday I fetched laser cut scythe cross sections and started bonding the blue extruded polystyrene to it. On Friday I figured that the quickest way to shape the outside edges was with a hot wire cutter, it would have taken me less than 35 minutes to make if the wire hadn't broken, version two below includes the spring from an electric fence to keep the hot wire from getting loose from expanding when hot. Slicing the blue foam requires an incredibly sharp knife and can be very tricky with thick sections of foam, but works well with whittling action.

The laser cut material is 3mm super wood and the normal polystyrene contact glue worked wonders to stick it all together. Once stuck it was easy to move the hot wire along the shape to get the outside edges, and then whittle and sand (200 - 360 grit works well) to the desired shape.

a small tip here - when sanding, instead of breaking the wife's stapler trying to get sand paper stuck onto a block of wood - thinly spread contact glue on the wood block and the sand paper - if you don't have and big blobs of glue - it works very well.

I have also finished the water block - note the shiny edges Skoups :-D the top surface comes etched but the edges where quite easy to fire polish with a little pencil torch I have. (after all the elbow work getting down to 800 grit :)
I spoke to the technical chaps at Pratleys and they had a two part acrylic called eezee bond, which seems to have worked very well gluing the brass to the perspex.

very nice Fly... starting to take shape!

yaaa, but getting nervous :0

i have found a compound that will coat the scythe - hope to pick it up tomorrow and then
the fun starts :)

Wow, very nicely done Fly !!!

nearly finished shaping the scythe

just have to carve up its ass :)

Lookin sweet Flyyyyyyyyy!

finally the first coat of paint is on the scythe.

Each component got two coats of epoxy gelcoat (red) which when cured (16 hours) got lightly sanded and if i had more time and money i think i would have done a carbon fibre lay up of the scythe.

The first coat of purple is on and once the l do the light blue decal and cockpit glass.

the biggest mission has been shaping and sanding the foam and then the gelcoat. very time consuming.

I must also thank the very generous people from SPRAYON who donated 7 tins of spraypaint to me. The Purple used on the scythe is their lacquer spray, which i must say has given me the best results both on the gelcoat and on perspex (amongst other materials)

Its looking really good so far, fly. I hope you win this (again) as you always give so much time and always show dedication to things. Holding thumbs ....

thanks Onny I really appreciate the encouragement :)

Managed to do the wheel arches/mud guards today out of superwood (22mm) I went to the perspex place in honeydew and they wanted R200 for a 150mm x 200mm x 20mm piece of perspex. plus extra for cutting. with a big sigh I left and almost drove away, RIGHT next door was a company doing CNC cutting of super wood. as luck would have it the owner was there and while i was waiting his chaps dumped a large piece of wood on their off-cut pile - with strips sticking out of it that where so close to the sizes i needed that i wet my pants. he not only gave me the small strip, but the very large off-cut too. will definitely come in handy. I was so excited i forgot to get his company name. something i will do shortly.

The result is what you see below - the wheel arches edged with a router (on a table top I made for the purpose), super glued on to the sunderer shell and then the excess routed out to follow the shape of the arches. I hope to have the base coat painted on by the end of tomorrow.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by flycatchr

....on a table top I made for the purpose.....

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Fly, the next time I am in JHB I would really appreciate a tour of your workshop / garage as I think we have more in common than just being cannon fodder... ;-)


Ps, I made my router table top from normal 16mm supa wood, but covered it with some high pressure laminate to protect against wear and tear. As mentioned, I think I need a tour of your workshop and I will gladly extend the courteously for when you decide to visit Cape Town.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Skouperd

Fly, the next time I am in JHB I would really appreciate a tour of your workshop / garage as I think we have more in common than just being cannon fodder... ;-)


Ps, I made my router table top from normal 16mm supa wood, but covered it with some high pressure laminate to protect against wear and tear. As mentioned, I think I need a tour of your workshop and I will gladly extend the courteously for when you decide to visit Cape Town.

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Date night for Denis and Michael...

Hahahahaha nice 1 Jarrod

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dragonne

Date night for Denis and Michael...

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You getting jealous Jarrod?

lol dennis , I don't really have a workshop, I have a garage full of crap from stuff I haven't tidied up, I have literally been working out my toolboxes, under an umbrella on my driveway. When I have been at my customer (he has given me an old stable for an office) I have either been working on a small trellis worktable, sitting on a cable drum or sitting on the grass watching my chaps work while whittling away at my cockpit.

It is my dream to have the time and money to turn my garage (read afdak at the moment) into a fully fledged workshop. I know it could be done. just need some impetus and time.

but I am keen on that date night :P

for all intents and purposes the scythe is finished. I still need to shine the cockpit and there are some glaring paint boobs to be repaired. But those are for later.

I had the wingstrip decals printed on plane paper, cut out the grey parts, and then literally held the paper on to the wings and sprayed. Not the best finish - but certainly quick and cheap.
the fuselage and stabilizer tips where just masked off with insulation tape to get a curved look (stretch it and pull sideways) but I am finding that both the masking tape and insulation tape leave a bit of a residue. (both are cheap and nasty products - i think i should try the Nitto brand next)

Flyyyyyyyy! That scythe looks fantastic!

thanks russssian :)

Wow - GRRRRRRRREAT Work on the Sythe - amazaballs

heteric! what a brilliant job thus far! Really impressive!

Fly in your spare time plz make me one as well !!!

Brilliant job so far, in your drawings you mounting it backwards, any reason why?