Project: Wall mounted wood PC - 56k Unfriendly

[Knivez]

Will get some Pics up relativley soon.
Well its gunna be a 2' high, 3' wide and about 9 inch deep wood PC thats going to be mounted on the wall behind my monitor. My dads crazy and said he was going to build his own case and mod the hell outta it so I had no choice but to support him.
Its going to be a water cooled PC, a Laing 4 GPM pump thats beent painted metallic blue, a Black Ice II Extreme radiator ( I can't convince him to get anything else :sigh: ). A swiffy P4 waterblock, cant remeber the name. A swiffy 9800 block. Hes cooling a 2.8 ghz P4, a 9800, he just finished ordering an A-bit ICG-7 Max-II, blue sleeving kit etc... There will be two comparments, the right compartment will be about 6 inches wide and will hold drives, power switch and radiator. The left will hold all the other parts, including the Pump. We are ripping a few pieces out of his and my old dell to use for drive mounting, PCI bracket etc...
So tell me what you think, I will get more detailed specs up about the pump once I get some pictures in.
The cabinet will be made out of Birch, We just got a piece of Birch for teh back and are trying to find 2x10's for the sides. The front will haev two windows, one in the main compartment and the other showing off the rad. It will have white lighting, with blue water and pretty much anything we can paint blue.

[Diggrr]

Sounds too cool, and Birch is a purty wood. It also sounds like some nice cooling gear, don't fret the BIX2X, it's a decent radiator and the wood cases tend to be quiter, so you can put a good fan on it if need be. :)

I got tired of store bought cases a while ago, and I start on my second total build tomorrow (had to create a new work bench for the build tonight).

Post the pics, but be nice and resize them to 600 x 600 or smaller so us 56k'rs can enjoy them too! I don't even bother looking at the big pic threads...

[cetoole]

I saw a mini-itx machine like this, had an LCD and looked like a picture hanging on the wall. Sound cool, but make sure you have good mounting in the wall, as that will be much heavier than a regular picture. How thick is this going to be?

[fzepnts]

sounds nice, post pictures when its done :)

[Sean Lindstrom]

Great. I like just about everything wall-mounted or built-in. The desk I'm at now has no legs; it's secured to the wall. It was designed for that.

A big squarish box hanging on the wall will look absurd, though, unless your home is a gas station tool shed. It's got to look like it belongs there, like the space would be lacking if it wasn't there. Some other shape? Anything in the room it can echo or expand on? If not its beauty must be greater than its position is weird.

[Knivez]

Great. I like just about everything wall-mounted or built-in. The desk I'm at now has no legs; it's secured to the wall. It was designed for that.

A big squarish box hanging on the wall will look absurd, though, unless your home is a gas station tool shed. It's got to look like it belongs there, like the space would be lacking if it wasn't there. Some other shape? Anything in the room it can echo or expand on? If not its beauty must be greater than its position is weird.
Not really, mainly everything in the apartment my dad lvies in is square. It will look like a large and 9" deep picture on the wall.

[Quattro]

I hope your not going from that old Dell to this beast in one hit are you?

[Knivez]

I hope your not going from that old Dell to this beast in one hit are you?
Yes, yes I am. It was a nice Dell when my dad got it, I build my own PC's but he bought a Dell.
9800 np
2.8 ghz P4 HT
1 gig of PC3200 RAM.

[Knivez]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0475.jpg
Painted metallic blue.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0474.jpg
Frozen CPU Blue lit power switch
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0472.jpg
120 mm Delta with gold painted fan grill
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0471.jpg
Antec True330 painted blue
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0469.jpg
Pump with mounting bracket
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0468.jpg
Another
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0467.jpg
Danger Den Fillport
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0466.jpg
Black Ice II xtreme radiotor with clearflex tubing
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0465.jpg
Abit ICG-7 Max II mobo

[xanderjobizzle]

looking good d00d.

-Xander

[Knivez]

And freshly gold painted 120 mm Deltas, on the Black Ice
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0477.jpg

[Knivez]

PCI mounting bracket painted blue and the motherboard I/O bracket painted gold
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0480.jpg

[phantomditto]

Looking pretty cool, man. Birch... sounds like a nice wood for a computer case.

Does your dad do a lot of carpentry?

[neonblingbling]

*pst...* Quick question, are you gonna cool the hard drives at all? I know my Seagate could get pretty toasty... Without the 120mm fan on it. :D

[Knivez]

*pst...* Quick question, are you gonna cool the hard drives at all? I know my Seagate could get pretty toasty... Without the 120mm fan on it. :D
To answer that I present you with a picture
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0483.jpg
This is a mock-up of the setup. the blue mount toward the top above the mobo is where the HDD will be. So a 120mm Delta will be blowing air on it. The fan on the left is blowing out.

[neonblingbling]

lol, I just read your first post wrong.

There will be two comparments, the right compartment will be about 6 inches wide and will hold <b>drives<b>, power switch and radiator. The left will hold all the other parts, including the Pump. We are ripping a few pieces out of his and my old dell to use for drive mounting, PCI bracket etc...

Dumb me. :p

And it is a nice set up. Looks VERY spacious.

[Knivez]

I made my last order from FrozenCpu.
Polarflo CPU block and GPU block
4 white CCFL's
2 white 5mm leds
2 Vantec blue sleeving kits
Blue molex's
y-splitter with bluw LED's in the Molex's
4 blue RAM heatspreaders from TT
4 blue VGA RAM heatsinks from TT
and 8 Blue RAM heatsinks from TT that I will use to sink the mosfets

Here a few pics of progress
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0492.jpg
The hole for the power supply routed and ready to be sanded
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0494.jpg
The hole for the PCI bracket routed and ready to be sanded
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0495.jpg
both
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0496.jpg
The hole for the black ice II routed and ready to be sanded. I couldn't keep the radiator straight becuase holding the radiator and the camera is a little difficult.

[neonblingbling]

Kind of irrelevent, but why is there a molex on the back of the psu?


Looking good!

[CandymanCan]

Some PSU's like the Antec powersupply's have this im not sure if all thier models have this or not but my 550wAntec, has the molex in the back the reason its thier is for external things, Like external fans or cathods or pumps or something. I use my molex in theb ack for my 2 92mm fans on my raditator which is to big for inside my case

[Sean Lindstrom]

Mmm. Marine plywood. Once it gets some amber from the varnish it'll contrast beautifully with that hardware.

[neonblingbling]

Some PSU's like the Antec powersupply's have this im not sure if all thier models have this or not but my 550wAntec, has the molex in the back the reason its thier is for external things, Like external fans or cathods or pumps or something. I use my molex in theb ack for my 2 92mm fans on my raditator which is to big for inside my case

Ah, makes sense, makes sense.

[Skeen]

Man, that case is so big you could just put a plexi/glass top on the open side, throw on some table legs on the other side, and voila! a desk with the pc built in.

Or maybe you could make it a solid wood top and just put hinges on it so it'd open like an elementary school desk.


I'm sure it'll look nice on the wall too. :D

[NovaShine]

Definately a nice idea.

Frame your PC and hang it on the wall :beer:

[Knivez]

Well I'm trying to think of an idea for the main compartment window. We were thinking flames coming up from the bottom, but are not sure. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Sean Lindstrom]

That glittery blue you've got already summons roller coasters and banana seats, and maybe space or sky. Flames could bring additional colour (good), but should tie in somehow.

[Knivez]

That glittery blue you've got already summons roller coasters and banana seats, and maybe space or sky. Flames could bring additional colour (good), but should tie in somehow.
The flames would not be painted onto the plexi, but rather they would be cut as part of the wood. So the plexi would go behind all of this and the flames would be stained the same color as the rest of the wood

[Aphex_Tom_9]

ooooh, those gold-painted fans are hottt

[Sean Lindstrom]

The flames would not be painted onto the plexi, but rather they would be cut as part of the wood.
Routed as the other edges, for chubby flames? Or use thinner ply? Either sounds nice.
So the plexi would go behind all of this and the flames would be stained the same color as the rest of the wood
Stain will unequally darken the plywood edges, and make them stand out, you know. Even clear varnish will bring out the edges.

I want a light golden tone. :cry:

[9mmCensor]

Looks really nice. Is that a plastic cap on the pump or something?

[techun]

looks sweet! lol, get the computer out of the way

[iNterBeiNg]

lookin good, very original idea, Im looking forward to seeing you finish it!

[SilverJag]

AWSOME..I'd add a couple more fans though.. maybe some Cooler Master blue led fans? :clap:

[Knivez]

Routed as the other edges, for chubby flames? Or use thinner ply? Either sounds nice.

Stain will unequally darken the plywood edges, and make them stand out, you know. Even clear varnish will bring out the edges.

I want a light golden tone. :cry:
It is going to be light.
We got golden oak stain and spray polyurethane. The radiator side is already stained and polyurethaned, will have pictures up by saturday.
And in reference to the fan comment, The deltas push 110 CFM of air, so one in, one out should be fine for case cooling, plus the intake on the PSU is close to the mobo so that will get cooling. My order from FrozenCPU came in, everything except the waterblocks, which should be here by friday. They decided to give me 2 TT active memory cooling kits, rather than the blue passive heat spreaders with ram heatsinks, which is what we ordered, so their are some more fans into the mix. We also got a package of eight ram heatsinks to sink up the mosfets on the mobo, and are using my old dell passive NB cooler to cool the SB.

[Knivez]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0046.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v148/vash7hestampede/DSCF0051.jpg
Much progess done since last post. It is just about completed, just need to do molding around the corners of the door and drives. The hard drive bit the dust as well, so a new one is in order. It still works occasionally, but clanks and often doesn't boot up. Temps are about 33C idle, and 40C load.

[Aphex_Tom_9]

Haha, wow that's awesome!
great job.

[facialicious]

looks great! i like how all the internal components seem to go together.

i would be a little concerned about airflow though. it seems that you have a lot of fans pointed in counterintuitive directions. The top fan should blow the hot air out and the fans on the bottom should blow in, right? I am afraid the hot air will just be blown back down onto the system.

[Knivez]

That was thought about. The tempature difference between the top and side is negligible. The main reason is that the pump gets hot and needs airflow. If the fans were reversed the pump would get much less airflow.

[neonblingbling]

Wow, so much happened in 2 months. I say throw 3 more systems in there..... Folding center! :D

[Knivez]

Wow, so much happened in 2 months. I say throw 3 more systems in there..... Folding center! :D
Slightly pricey though :p
We are going to make an HTPC next.
What do you think is the likelyhood of us winning the CPU mod contest they have every month. They have a mod they pick out and put in their magazine. The $1500 newegg gift certificate is just too much to pass up.

[Sean Lindstrom]

It is going to be light.
We got golden oak stain and spray polyurethane.
With that blue - just right.

[voodoomelon]

Very nice.
I once made a hard drive case out of wood, it makes for much easier cutting than metal, wouldn't you agree? By the sounds of it, you probably have lots of fancy tools compared to my jigsaw that can't cut in a straight line, lol :p

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v282/voodoomelon/1minicase.jpg

;)

[Knivez]

Very nice.
I once made a hard drive case out of wood, it makes for much easier cutting than metal, wouldn't you agree? By the sounds of it, you probably have lots of fancy tools compared to my jigsaw that can't cut in a straight line, lol :p

Not too many fancy tools really, a jigsaw, rotozip, drill press, table saw, grinder and a Dremel.
Anyone know how to get incredibly strong glue off of plexi? My dad got slightly careless, and glue seeped out onto the front of the plexi.

[subtotal]

sandpaper? i've found rubbing compound is good for getting light scratches out of perspex, you could sand it back then polish it...

[Sean Lindstrom]

Anyone know how to get incredibly strong glue off of plexi?
If you can freeze the plexi this will weaken the bond, if the glue contracts at a slightly different rate. I'd then try a razor, tapping it with a small hammer if no progress by finger pressure. Caution: this may cause the razor to explode.

[mad_pc_man]

from many hardware stores u can buy a solvent try and get a nontoxic one and do it outside it worked wonders on my windows from where the decoarotr got paint and upvc sealent on them

[Albaholic]

this looks awesome man