Maximum PC

Well gents, I've been working on a mod for the past few months. I was able to get an old Sun X-terminal, 15-inch Sun monitor, and a few external SCSI drives (without the drives inside) from work before they tossed them out. Slowly but surely I've been modding the parts, starting with the external SCSI drives by making them into an external IDE hard drive and an external CD/RW/DVD optical drive. The past few months I've been working on the chassis, cutting a big window into the top, and ripping out the guts. I've built up the new stuff on the workbench, using an Athlon 64 3000+ Winchester (my first Athlon 64 CPU) and Windows XP 64 beta. In April I tore down the bench setup and starting the tough part - figuring out how to stuff all the parts into the chassis. I decided to leave the power supply outside the chassis, and here's why - the whole box and power supply will hang on the wall next to my workbench. The Sun 15-inch monitor and the two external boxes will be under the monitor. Here's some pictures to show you where I'm at. Suggestions are welcome, as it's not complete. I've been waiting for a laser-etched window from Xport1.com, but if it doens't arrive soon, I'll put in my own window.

Specifications:

motherboard: MSI RS480M2-IL micro-ATX
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 90nm Winchester
CPU cooler: stock AMD with Coolermaster Aero blower fan
Memory: 1 GB of Mushkin enhanced (2 sticks of 512MB) PC3200
Video: onboard ATI IXP 400 (this is not a gaming system)
Operating System: Windows XP Professional 64-bit beta

Usage: Downloading drivers, browsing the Internet, forums (no gaming)

Estimated completion: mid-June, 2005

Lookin' good!

Keep workin.

It will be interesting to see how it sits on the wall. Can you do anything with the wires comming from inside the squirill cage?

Kinda looks like a blower on a car - kewl.

Manta


PS - watch the image width (640pix)

These old Sun/SGI workstations are great for this. I've been wanting to tear into an old Silicon Graphics Indigo2 I have sitting here, but have too much respect for the hardware Maybe sometime I will. Looks good so far!

(I notice the MPC Kickass badge stickers in the monitor sticker, they send you those for the ROTM?)

Ackk, RGB all in one case. Looks alright so far!

Remember that it's not finished yet. The power supply will hang below the chassis when both are mounted on the wall (pictures to follow soon), and all those wires you see right now will be neatly tucked away for display. There are lots of wires coming from the blower fan, some for the voltage pot, and some for power. I'll need those wires to keep it humming. Colors aren't set yet - you are seeing a $10 device that controls two sets of cold cathodes with pulsing lights or sound-triggered lights. I've also used my favorite fan controller, the Coolermaster Aerogate I. If everything works as planned, the cold cathodes will light up the edges of the window that fits where my cardboard template is right now.

So you noticed the MPC Kick Ass stickers? Yes, they send you a few. I stuck one on my "printer-to-computer" that won in February 2005. The rest adorn my workbench and end up in the background of some pictures. Hopefully I'll win again some day. Meanwhile, go check issue 26 of PCExtreme (which I don't have yet), and you'll see another one of my projects.....

dude, this should be a killer mod coming out of a genius like yourself. I'm on pins and needles waiting to see how this comes together in the end. Keep us posted, good luck and godspeed.

Hey, I reduced the size of my posted pictures so they meet forum constraints. I also found a few wall mount pictures and a picture of the power-on touch-switch interface to show you guys.





By the way, thanks for the complements. I suppose that's half the reason we modders do this to computers. The other half is to keep us from having to do yard work on the weekends...

The way you illuminated that drive bezel, that is just plain sexy! Did you put some EL wire or a CCFL in front to get that effect? There is some serious skill here.

Yes, it's EL wire. More specifically, a cheap kit from www.SVC.com. Due to the nature of the interior of that old Sun SCSI external drive case, and the size of my optical drive combined with a USB-to-IDE interface from a cheap external hard drive enclosure, I decided to set the optical drive back almost an inch from the front of the enclosure. Then I decided that some cool lighting effects could be obtained with a strand of EL wire wrapped around the opening. It actually turned out better than I thought it would. I think the color of the EL wire was blue, but it appears a bit green to me. In any case, I do like the effect too. It took quite a bit of touch-up grinding with the Dremel tool before the tray would open without hitting the external enclosure.

Here are a few more pictures; the first one shows the interior of the external hard drive case, and the second shows the custom bracket I made to hang the power supply on the wall:




Lastly, for those of you who want to see Bigal in person, here I am, sitting on my new 2005 Harley-Davidson Fat Boy motorcycle (bought a few weeks ago); this is going to cut down on my modding time....

nice bike man!

oh yeah, and the mod is fantablulous!

what did you wire the EL wire up to as a current source? did you need the inverter when you hooked it up to the power in the drive? please share. i love how that looks.

I used the power coming to the external drive USB to IDE adapter. Inside you have a 12-volt molex available for the IDE hard drive or IDE optical drive. You just add a splitter to this to get another 12-volt molex for your EL wire inverter. It's easy and cheap. To bad SVC is out of stock on all these EL wire kits right now. They are only $7 when they have them.

http://store1.yimg.com/I/svcompucycle_1843_53620232.jpg

yeah, I managed to snag one a few months back. EL wire is fun to play with! Plus, it's a real cheap mod that anyone can put in their PC. Another cheap mod that I like on my PC is the LED case feet. It sorta adds an underglo effect to your case!

I'm not sure I understand. You used an external drive for the drive in the case and then just used the molex adapter? or did you jsut use the adapter without the drive?

Well, the Sun external drive case used to have a SCSI drive inside. When I got it, it was empty. I ripped out the power supply and SCSI interface. I then purchased another cheap external IDE enclosure, as this comes with the "guts" I need - a USB to IDE interface, and a power brick to provide 12-volt power via an internal molex connector. I then used a splitter off that molex connector to power the EL wire.

Does that make sense?

Nice bike. My dad has been a Harley guy for a long time, but in 2000, he got a Honda CBR929...insane bike. He watches Harleys though all the time. You can see the drool, but I told him he will not sell the Honda.

My last bike was a 1984 Honda Nighthawk S (700 cc). It was fast enough for me, when I used to ride through the canyons of Southern California (Malibu, Topanga Canyon, visiting the Rock Store, etc.). I picked that bike out from a brochure while still in the hospital recovering from a major motorcycle accident in the summer of 1983. My previous CB650 was destroyed (front wheel smashed up to the engine) when a female "assigned-risk" driver blew threw a stop sign on Nordoff St in the San Fernando Valley, and I'm told that she crossed in front of me and I broad-sided her car. I have no memory of the accident, and all I know is that I woke up in intensive care with a badly fractured right-wrist, a broken ankle, and a major concusion. But I got back on a bike again in early 1985 with the Nighthawk S, and soon learned that my wrist could not take the strain of riding too long, and somehow I now had some issues about feeling safe around cars. Anyway, I gave up the bike after a few years of riding, and went almost 15 years before buying my new Harley. A sad story but with a happy ending. The more relaxed riding position is much easier on my right-wrist, and my lower back problems (I had a slipped disc about 4 years ago) don't seem to be an issue for short rides.

More than you wanted to know? Perhaps I should stick to modding....

that El wire trick was just that simple? toss in a splitter, and you're done? I like it... I like it a lot. Simplicity is always the best option. Now I will have to see if I can adapt it so I can use it inside a internal drive. Maybe in a hdd window mod too... *brainstorms*. Thanks BigAl!

It does require an external chassis that is deep enough for you to set the optical drive back a bit from the front. Some optical drives are longer than others too, so take that into consideration.

My favorite lighting mod is using an Thermaltake X-view kit (less than $20) just for it's two EL panels (and one double inverter). I cut the panels down to use them for a custom "Big Al's Computers" logo, such as you saw on my ROTM in the February 2005 issue. Another one of these logos was used on my PCExtreme magazine (issue 26) mod of the month. I wish I could see that magazine - it's still not in the bookstores out here yet.

You know what I just noticed? You don't have your own custom badge and title! If Dracos got one, then you deserve one too!