Project: STHU

[Altima]

Project STHU

Hello all. Like many of yours, my computer is loud as heck. It used to not bother me that much, but slowly it has become unbearable. I can't keep it on at night, so I decided to buy some quieter fans. Then, I decided, while I am at it I might as well just repaint it and make it look a bit nicer, and so started project STHU.

First I took all the side and front panels off my computers. Then realized I probably should have taken a picture first.. Well, here it is.
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/544/4120sthu2.JPG

And the panels, that's the old colour, the new one is the spray paint cans you can see in the picture. The blue is getting a little old, and I have more experience in painting now and can make it look much better.
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/544/4120sthu3.JPG

Here are the culprits... >:( (notice the large amounts of elec. tape holding stuff together :-/ )
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/544/4120sthu1.JPG
The 120mm is running on 7 volts and is still the loudest thing in the case by far. The 92 mm on the cpu is extremely loud as well, but I am going to keep it, just using a fan controller instead.

So I went and found all my painting stuff and bought some fiberglass and other stuff. Luckily I had painted my laptop over the christmas break so I had a lot of the stuff I needed..
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/544/4120sthu4.JPG

Then I went over to bigfootcomputers.com (Good for all you people in Toronto, the $7 1 day shipping was cheaper than the gas it would take to drive there! They are fast, I ordered on the Long weekend, and they had shipped it by wednesday, and I got it on Thurs.) and ordered some new fans and some expandable sleeving to sleeve my PSU.. The split loom just doesn't compare to what I've seen on here when peopel sleeve their psus. The fans are SilenX and they run at 14dB!! You can get ones that run at 11dB too, which is half as loud as these and push only about 7-10 cfm less. I went for the 14db ones for 2 reasons, pushed a little more air, and saved me about $10 :-/
2 x 120mm and 1 92 mm. The 2 120s are going in the front and back. And the 92 is going in the front as well, to cool off the drives.
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu7.JPG
The sleeving..
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu8.JPG

more in next post..

[Altima]

So I took my computer apart. First step was to turn the drive bay. One of my HDs has a SATA adapter on it, and it sticks out far, I originally had a hold the side of my case the adapter stuck out of. You can see how the orientation of the drive bay would do this.
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/544/4120sthu5.JPG

So first I did a bit of drilling and managed to get it into this position.. (sorry for blurryness)
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu9.JPG

Only to realize that there wasn't enough room for a 120 mm fan up front. So after scratching my head for a bit, I managed to relocate it at the bottom.
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu10.JPG

It's a tight squeeze, but the 92mm fan fits in there, and there is room above it for a 120.

Now I've drawn out the circles, but I am stuck trying to find the dremel, my rents just moved so I have no idea where it is. I've also sanded down the case. I also wanted a bit cleaner look to it, so I decided to take this top bezel thingy off. Only now there is holes at the top of my case so I fiberglassed it flat, now I just got to sand it
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu11.JPG

More on the way, will post back soon with updates.

[Viper2004]

i like the idea, hope it comes out good ;)
ive got a couple of sawhorses like that in my garage :D

[indimint]

Yeah, it sounds like a great idea! I hope it works out well for you. You should do something awesome to replace the old color, like getting your case chromed.

[Andy71600]

that case is from a gateway isnt it? hah i have that same case somewhere in my house... Good luck with the mod!

[Altima]

Thanks. Hehe, ya, it's from gateway. I got it with my old 1.4GHz Willamette from gateway. I have since changed everything, except the old HD which holds a few seasons of different shows. I love the case, everything is easy in - easy out, requires no screws for any hw aside from the mobo. Even the PSU is just snapped in.

[SK8]

Heh, i used to have a gateway case like that, after about a yr of modding it i gave it to lil bro and now its a frakensiten case bc it has sitckers all over it and no front panel and its also allmost coverd with ducktape :X , gl with the mod!

[Altima]

Update! I resleeved most of the PSU today. Unfortunately I am going to have to order some more, but it only need very little.

Before:
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu12.JPG

After I took the psu apart and took off all the old split loom. ( ! be careful, this PSU has been unplugged for a few days, so the risk of shock was fairly little, but still there, but you can seriously hurt yourself ! )
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu13.JPG

Got the sleeving on, now just got to heat shrink..
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu14.JPG

Here it is complete... minus a little bit after I ran out. I may also take off the old black sleeving and resleeve that as well (why not ?)
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu15.JPG

[Viper2004]

very nice sleeving job, i like the blue
btw i got that same dish network controller at my house :attn: :D

[Salami_Joe]

Hmm, I sure hope that sometime throughout your work you would clean the layer of dust off of everything in that computer... :eek:

[OLMI]

Very nice idea, and I agree that your sleeving job went really well. I'm sure it'll turn out nice, as it's already looking cool in the early stages. Good luck :D

[Altima]

Thanks. My family just got satelite, and since I only got back from univ. a month ago I find it amazing. I managed to watch like 4 hours of Simpsons straight just going from channel to channel :D I really like the sleeving, can't believe I didn't do it sooner. I just ordered in some more 1/2" and 1/4" sleeving to finish it off and cover the fan tails. I also ordered a knob for my fan controller and some LEDs for another part of the project I'll be starting as soon as I can find the dremel :bang head: Dust is another part of the reason I am doing this project. The dust you see there is from literally 2 weeks of use. I have filters for all the intake fans this time though :D Lucky you didn't see the hs. There was enough to knit a scarf with :eek:

[Salami_Joe]

Two Weeks?? Wow. What kind of cat/dog breeding operation do you run? Seriously how is there so much dust in that case from two weeks?? :confused:

[Tabrin]

Those silenx fans don't push much air period. I've got a couple of them, and the 80mm's strain to push air through those metal mesh filters. The 120's are nice though.

I'd personally just get some ADDA or even cheapo 120mm's and voltmod them myself in the future. Or just plug them into a fanbus.

[tbones1337]

cut the grills out with tin snips and/or dremel

[Alucard]

Good job with with the sleeving.

[Altima]

Thanks for the complements :)
As for the dust, my best guess is it's a brand new house, my rents just bought it like 6 months ago. So my dad is doing a lot of work around here, there is also tons of contruction outside, and I have 2 cats and the weather is just getting warmer... other than that no idea why its so dusty :\

My stuff, I ordered on mon. night from bigfootcomputers.com, got here today (thurs) so I finished the PSU. I wanted to get rid of the AUX and EXTRA (molex) connectors since they were useless, so I tucked em all in to the PSU (don't want to cut em off since I want to be able to use the PSU in another comp later on). It's really packed in there.
http://tinypic.com/65ap


Here it is all finished.
http://tinypic.com/65as

The only cable not sleeved in blue (the black one) wasn't because of this little critter :mad:
http://tinypic.com/65at

EDIT: Update...

I managed to make myself a molex removal tool.
Here they are: (Can you believe it costs < $0.25 ;) )
http://tinypic.com/65gj

This is the male removal tool in use.
http://tinypic.com/65gl

Here are my fans all sleeved up :)
http://tinypic.com/65gm

[Frozen Shadow]

Question abotu tucking the extra lines into the PSU..does that happen to damage the wires in time? with the heat and fan from the PSU. The job looks great so far.

[Salami_Joe]

Hmm, Is it possible for you to tuck those extra lines behind the motherboard tray? I did that with mine, its probably a lot safer than stuffing them in the PSU.

[Altima]

Ya, your probably right. I tried to keep them away from the dangerous stuff, like heatsink and fans and stuff, most of it (~75%) is stuffed on either side of the power switch... I may just cut it too.

[Frozen Shadow]

Have you considered..possibly making half a cylinder type shape and mounting it towards the back of the PSU near the one level of airvents? Say the top section and simply stuffing the wires into that. You could probably use say a clip system so that it is perm.

C-ya

[sonicdrive]

looks like a good start but i dont like that blue but it is your system

[sonicdrive]

After I took the psu apart and took off all the old split loom. ( ! be careful, this PSU has been unplugged for a few days, so the risk of shock was fairly little, but still there, but you can seriously hurt yourself ! )


hey to let everyone know that sucker can hold power for over 20 yrs unpluged i work on old military Radios from ww2 and those suckers will give me a humdinger if i dont be careful those caps will hold powerer as long as they are good

[AFIsoldier]

Chill sonic, it IS a common misconception that you can turn a PSU off for 24 hours and the capacitors lose their charge, but that is not so. The safest way to work with those is work over something non conductive, wear rubber sole shoes, no jewelry, before you take the PSU out of the system, unplug it and hit your computer's powerswitch and that should get rid of most of the charge left in the caps.

But remember sonic, everyone here is learning and some people here would say the same kind of comment that you just said, but direct them towords you if they didn't have curtesy (sp?). So play nice and don't flame or thread crap.

[pwnt by pat]

Heh, amen to the 20 years.

I got an old black and white TV out of my grandparents garage, they said they hadn't used it since 1970ish, when they got their first color set, so I pry it open with my crowbar, and what happens? It touches the leads of a capacitor and the shock knocked me back on my rear end. At the young, tender age of 13, I was of course scared to work on electronics thereafter. But, in bundling and sleeving my Antec, I took a plastic-handled screw driver and shorted the caps out, so I was safe

oh....Nice job so far, with the drive cage

[Altima]

Thanks sonicdrive, good to know :D Don't worry about the post (pre-editted ver.), you may have saved me some serious pain/my life :)

Sorry about the pics that are down, I guess tinypic.com is doing something :-/ I am trying to find them, hopefully have em up again soon.

Not much to say... Little update.

I am making a door for my drive bays, that will cover them and run flush with the front of the case so it looks cleaner.

I am using fiberglass to make the door (warning! (I hope I am right on this one ;)) fiberglass resin is awful stuff, it has, does, and will cause lung/respitory problems and brain damage, always work in a ventilated area if you can and always wear a respirator. If sanding/cutting, where eye protection, mask, and clothes that covers all your skin, if not you'll be itching for days! This isn't like "paint" bad, its much worse, I used to work in a place that rented/built canoes, you should see the guys that make the canoes, bad line of work :()

Here is the cloth stretch over the front saturated in resin+catalyst (front is masked off underneath).
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu31.jpg

After that I pulled it off, cut around the edges (the shape of the front made lines where I should cut), then put on a couple layers of fiberglass, it's hard as a rock now, right here it is still drying.
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4120sthu30.JPG

And I finally gave up looking and went to CT and bought this :D
http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/4541sthu32.jpg

Thanks for the comments guys.