Let me see if I can help you out a little......Like I said as an old Retired Vet, Vietnam Guy........
I have sitting in front of me a virtually like new very few hours on them: A Crucial 480GB BX200 SSD and a 1TB Seagate Spinner just as good as new, and a very nice GTX750 Ti.......
If you would like to accept my donation please PM me with your name and mailing address and I will get them shipped to you.........or better yet if you care to drive down to Smyrna I will hand them to you and take you out for lunch.....to show my appreciation for what you are doing for Veterans...
Let me see if I can help you out a little......Like I said as an old Retired Vet, Vietnam Guy........
I have sitting in front of me a virtually like new very few hours on them: A Crucial 480GB BX200 SSD and a 1TB Seagate Spinner just as good as new, and a very nice GTX750 Ti.......
If you would like to accept my donation please PM me with your name and mailing address and I will get them shipped to you.........or better yet if you care to drive down to Smyrna I will hand them to you and take you out for lunch.....to show my appreciation for what you are doing for Veterans...
You have no idea how much this would help. As for the drive offer, I think my wife would have my head in a platter if I took a 4 hour road trip I'm located up in the very NE tip of TN(Tri-Cities). The only time we've been in your area is when we drove from the west coast and moved to the area 6 years ago. Now the furthest south we get is Pigeon Forge. However, if you find yourself riding up this way feel free to look me up.... and if it's a Sunday with no rain and not freezing cold, I'm usually standing behind a grill.
Just answered your PM.......I will get these items shipped to you tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest.......I will PM you with the tracking number once I get them shipped......
Glad I could help out even in this small way......
It was a privilege to serve.....seems like another lifetime ago. Went into the Army in 1964 and retired in 1984; dam that was another lifetime ago...LOL
I am just glad I found this forum and this thread so I can help out a little, this is a great project for a great cause......
It was a privilege to serve.....seems like another lifetime ago. Went into the Army in 1964 and retired in 1984; dam that was another lifetime ago...LOL
I am just glad I found this forum and this thread so I can help out a little, this is a great project for a great cause......
I'm glad you found the forum as well Kip, I can speak to some true quality people on these forums. Especially the moderators! Of course, you can't be a OCF member without knowing Blaylock... he's a true power user! You should pop over to his remodel project sometime(Project Man Cave in his sig).
I have gained so much knowledge and have gotten several tips when I've found myself in a bind, I have yet to have a bad experience here at OCF over the years.
Bikerkip, awesome that you are willing to help out. I look forward to seeing you around the forums, feel free to reach out if you have any questions on getting around the site.
Looking good Dalchi, Sorry I have not been around much been working on my own projects and tend to get sidetracked a lot.
I think my newest change to my updates is to post the most current update of the rig… just to please those that don’t like scrolling through the lengthy updates haha. But I present the test fit of the painted GPU backplate(before it gets the detailing done).
So first we will go through a couple of the care packages that I received to finish off the hardware of this build. To coin the phrase “it’s a small world after all,” I found myself working with fellow military veterans that were happy to assist in completing the hardware acquisition. Absolutely freakin’ outstanding people here on OCF as they are both from this forum!. Our first help came from @bikerkip in the form of a XFX R9 380X GPU, a 1TB Seagate HDD and a 480GB Crucial SSD (Which all is better than my current rig, and that makes me happy). He also sent me the 750ti SC that he was going to donate for PMT(until I subconciously convinced him to upgrade his main rig's GPU), with the note that he was confident I could find use for it in the future. The second veteran, @cdawall, gave me a discount on his i5 6400 that he was selling. This was the last piece of hardware I needed to get the build complete and up and running. I’ve said it many times in the past, but I couldn’t have asked for any better companies and people that have been fantastic in their support to this project.
Now that the hardware glory shots are over, we move onto the installation of the CPU and cooler and finish up with the GPU. I still love the way those pipes on the 380X look inside this military themed case. Feels very “military vehicle”-like to me. But we are all installed and good to go, next we can install windows and get those Riing fans to the right color design.
Shifting gears, we can have a little sleeving shots. We completed all the sleeving up to the point of moving the resistors to the PSU side of the cables left in place. I was able to remove and resolder the resisters on the other side of the cable, ensuring a clean sleeving look at the GPU. At the new location, sleeving runs up to resistor and heat shrink used to secure and insulate the connection. We also installed the 24 pin and got the cable combs in place(PRO TIP: Install the cable combs before you install the cable lol). Through this process we keep working our cable organization to take advantage of the small space we have.
Finally, we get to the GPU backplate. We measured and cut our copolyester, gave it a quick sanding and got straight to painting. We masked off the GPU once dry to add the tan accent line. Once that was dry it was another fine sanding and laying the clear topcoat. Once we receive our vinyl template we can spray the detail design and seal it again with a clear coat.
With the vinyl template, we will be sent this PSU plate that will sit behind the internal window. Design and creation provided by ArtMods.
Build aside, we created a quick board mounted folding machine to utilize our old 670 GPU. And the SSD I used still had Ubuntu installed and so it was quick to bring online.
Also, for those that were following the headboard DIY, we finished the structure and now just need to add the detail trim and the light box.
In the spirit of new traditions, I give a couple pictures of the current build status. First we have the front panel complete…... for the exception of one of the temp gauges I need to resolder together. Second we have the view from the side and a close up of the motherboard area that shows through the shroud. We are getting there people! PMT will soon be out in public raising donations for the VFW’s Color Guard fund. If you’re semi local to the East TN area and would like to enter the giveaway just let me know I can give you more details.
But onto our progress updates!
First we took some time to enjoy the good weather in the evening to sit outside on the porch and finish up the remaining sleeving for the GPU and CPU cables. The heat shrink and paracord worked nicely together to work around the moved resistors.
After we completed the sleeving, we ran the cables and got everything wire managed. We also took the time to get the cable combs in place to give them a nice clean look.
Once that was completed, we turned our attention to booting up the computer and installing Windows 10 which was also graciously donated by the veteran that we got the CPU from. After the OS was in place we could install all the drivers and get the fan controller software in place. This allowed us to get the fan colors configured the way we wanted.
Since the fans were now color configured, we might as well make the motherboard LEDs match.
A couple days later we got our package from ArtMods! Not sure if the sketch of the crazy looking guy is supposed to be him or me…. But either way it’s fitting. We can see here the vinyl is well secured inside the cardboard envelope, the PSU plate is all prepped and ready to be attached, and the nicely packaged LED kit for the PSU plate. He was nice enough to send me a kit instead of fully assembled so that I could sleeve it if I desired. However, he might have overestimated my soldering skills *laughs* but we’ll see what we can do. Look forward to continuing to work with him on future projects.
I tested the fit of the PSU plate, and that’s going to show nicely through the window.
Once I mocked up the front vinyl design, I was able to measure and cut the holes for the power button and gauges. Then it was another couple layers of paint and sealed with a layer of clear. Once it was dry and I could pop the gauges back in, we get to its current state. The black vinyl really ties it into the theme well.
After the front panel, I turned my attention to the other design features. First I put the star template on the SSD window and sprayed it with black and clear. Then slowly and carefully peeled off the template and placed it on the side panel to make sure my lines still matched. Hindsight we probably could’ve gone a bit bigger on the stars, but these should sit over the SSD almost perfectly. After that I began to work on the GPU backplate getting the templates in place. The letters giving me some trouble but hope to have that painted and installed tomorrow morning.
But that’s in for now folks, if I can carve out time this weekend I might have it finished and ready for display by Monday. Now to block out some time with our photographer to get the final pictures done!
So I just wanted to drop a quick note to say that we have completed Project Military Tech! Join me in a little happy dance wheeee! I have included a teaser cell phone pic from the photo studio while all the final pictures were being taken this morning. Hopefully I can get them all edited and be able to post the final results by next Monday…….. only a 100 or so shots to go through
Also, please take a moment and help me thank these sponsors for their support on this project. As a business it's hard to make a living in our current economical state, so I can't express my gratitude enough when I see this kind of support.
This is the moment everyone has been waiting for! We are complete with Project Military Tech and have our final pictures to show. Thank you all for the support you have given and the many bits of advice during this process. But in order not to spoil the goodness of a final update, I give you the final look at PMT!
I hope you enjoyed the pictures.... here's a sneak peek of my next project.
Knowing this project is in the books, I'm waiting to see what donations it brings as well. Maybe next time I take the server rack outside, it'll be with the spray gun and compressor rather than rattle cans.
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