[PROJECT LOG] Budget Bench Build

[Alaric]

Anyone who read my ambitious thoughts in Johan45s Classified thread here http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...nd-LGA-2066(price-drop)-motherboards-for-sale is familiar with my visions of recirculating LN2, automotive water pumps and Honda Civic Radiators. Well, it turns out I also have to eat and live indoors, and if I don't budget for laundry my girlfriend won't come over anymore. Coming to these realizations I've scaled back my entry in to benching a wee bit. OK, a lot. Meet the $6 Goodwill plastic shelving unit:


Necessity may be the mother of invention but poverty is another kind of mother altogether, so elbow grease and creativity it is!
A small miter box and modeling saw...


...and I'm on my way to a functional construct!


The lower deck will hold drives and PSU, and eventually a pump, radiator and reservoir, leaving the top deck for a motherboard tray and room for a multi meter and/or notebook. The motherboard tray and PCIe support come from an old case I took apart for this. Still a lot of trimming to do on it, and paint, but I think it has potential.


I cut an opening behind the socket, and intend to mount a fan on the underside of the top tray, blowing on the back of the socket. I also have the dreaded "Pentium duct" from a dead Dell I'm going to mount so it blows down on to the VRM heatsink from a vertically mounted fan off to the side. The ATX, VGA and CPU power leads will come up through cut outs, and eventually the liquid cooling lines to the CPU. Then paint, (still haven't chosen colors) and final assembly. Finally, with my very limited floor space, I can put it in a corner in my bedroom when not in use and it's the right height for me to sit on regular furniture when benching.

 

[maxfly]

looks promising, i look forward to seeing how BBB turns out

 

[Alaric]

I've settled on a color scheme. Bright f*** red with yellow highlights. The bench will be red, and the accents (PSU, brackets, etc., will be yellow.) I have a Saberkitty, an Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2, Phenom 8750 BE, Phenom 9850, and a 980 BE that's hit 4400 MHz on a stock air cooler. I'm gonna have some fun! LOL

 

[Blaylock]

I'll sub. These are always fun projects.

 

[Alaric]

It's going to take a while, but the fun construction part shouldn't be too long. After setting up the mobo tray and getting an all purpose PSU I can start making brackets and cutting access ports. And painting. I like painting. I've got a Paasche airbrush and compressor I'm dying to use.

 

[Johan45]

Cool project Alaric

 

[Lochekey]

Do you plan to mount the motherboard tray vertical like that or lay it down horizontal?

 

[caddi daddi]

I love these hack jobs, you get to do anything any way you like!!!!!!
and thanks for wearing socks and saving us the old man feet.

 

[Alaric]

and thanks for wearing socks and saving us the old man feet.

Do you plan to mount the motherboard tray vertical like that or lay it down horizontal?

It was just vertical for the picture. I'm thinking about a slight incline from horizontal just to keep a visual on everything while benching. It's being set up to be used while sitting on the couch at the moment, so it won't take much at that height. I still have longer corner supports if I get a proper stool and separate room for it in the future. I still have some serious trimming to do on the sheet metal, and it eats Dremel cut off wheels at a pretty fast rate. I'll be looking to mount/hang the PSU from the underside of the top shelf so I can route cables through the tray with some leeway for different boards/positioning. The underside of the shelves is braced pretty well, so if I can mount the ODD and HDD under it that will leave me lots of options for the future for mounting liquid cooling.

 

[UltraTaco]

PROJECT [HOME DEPOT] bench build

There! Fixed it for ya!

 

[Nebulous]

Wicked project Al! Subbed

 

[Alaric]

I think this afternoon will be more cutting of metal with the Dremel's cut off wheels. Since most of my tools were stolen a few years ago I may have to invest in a few items like a drill, shears, hole saws, etc.. I've been a couch potato for so long now that when something to actually do came up I got all excited. The prospect of building something seems to have relit my fire. It's too bad I'm poor! LOL

 

[Mandrake4565]

Looking forward to this Alaric

 

[UltraTaco]

You can do it, we can help!

Wow, this is so fitting for this forum, I almost went out of breath excited!!!

 

[Alaric]

Pics! Not many, but what I have ATM. This isn't the final mounting system (Thank God), but I'm adding a VRM fan of epic (Well, Dell anyway) proportions.


I'll box in the end circled here


Good sized fan. It has an accessible resistor that runs it at 7v, but I can easily solder in a couple wires and a toggle switch to bypass the resistor for the full 12v. At that speed it sounds like a Tu-95 engine. LOL


I have to be careful about how far it extends, as I have a Hyper 212x coming. Once I get a water cooling system in place I'll have more room. And, obviously, this is just the mock up stage. I thought about just funneling the air from the Hyper 212 exhaust down to the VRMs, but figured why use hot air when I can put them in a wind tunnel?


For boxing in the end I haven't decided if I want to use fasteners or find a big old EI transformer and make a spot welder out of it, since the sheet metal is pretty thin to start with.

 

[Alaric]

]Pics!
Cutting the table for the socket fan, with (one of) my handy switchblade(s) and sandpaper. And no, those are not my toes! Mine are to the left in the black boot. My nails don't look like that, unless it's a special occasion or something...



Done, fan installed with the cutout for the wires. The cover in the first pic is over the fan so I don't do something stupid when it's all together.



Cutout I made in the mobo tray for the socket. There wasn't one at all originally in the cheap tray. Also a cutout for the CPU and socket fan leads. It was originally just a punch out for a PSU lip.



Getting closer! Trimmed the tray corners to move it to the lip. I'll cut more slots for mobo cables when I get the PSU and figure out where/how I'm going to mount it. Should be next month on that.
Teh 'Kitteh! Still have a little metal work and paint to go, but I'm pleased with the way it's going. The buying of hard parts come in monthly bumps, but I decided to get a good air cooler for the time being while I acquire a solid LC set up. Power switch, audio jack, etc. still to come but I don't want to do anything else until I know exactly what I'm doing with the PSU.

 

[Blaylock]

Looks like it's coming along nicely.

 

[Mandrake4565]

Nice work Al....though um you could make your toenails match the build....come on man attention to detail!!!! Oh wait they're not your toes yup!!!

 

[UltraTaco]

They're RGB toenails. It'll work!

 

[Alaric]

I haven't abandoned it, but I have another rig I'm putting a custom water loop together for (the owner of the RGB toes) and finances only allow what they allow. Can't get much benching done in Phoenix in the summer without big water, either, so beating up Thubans and Denebs on air is just mean. LOL