Coca Cola Can PC

[Therealriley]

24/02/2014
Hello all,
Welcome to my project log.(Cool named suggestions welcome)

I decided to build this project because since i was around 14 years old i have had this picture in my mind of a cool 'idea' for a PC. I'm 30 now and can finally afford it

I have not had a lot of call for a PC these days due to tablets and smartphones and TBH i don't ever see the time of day when i can sit and play games so i have no need for a mental gaming system so i decided to start building the computer case i wanted to build as a lad, Ive not seen one anywhere or similar so i like the fact it will be a one off piece when done.

I have basic knowledge when building computers and have only ever built one when i was about 15-16 so i cant really say i have any clue what im doing, so go easy on me and i welcome your constructive advice.

I am starting with this old gem from the 80's/90's. Its an Akura Hi-Fi in the shape of a coke can. (I had one when i was young after breaking it i threw it away and i thought of this project in its memory)

Here is a crude paint mock up of what i'm after with a few sketch up models of the plans.

The sketch ups were difficult but give the clearest idea of what im doing.
Left

Right

Side

Other side

(ADMIN- hopefully i have sized these right otherwise i will rectify this upon realizing when i hit submit new post? and then edit until they do please bear with me while i do this and i will try to keep it clean)

I have drawn inspiration from various things like this

and this

My idea is obviously to build the computer inside, but upon opening i soon noticed space was a bigger issue than i thought.

Ok so my equipment wish list and prices are below

(not purchased yet) more to add later
£429 MB, CPU +ram
Asus Sabertooth Z87 carbon fiber Armour motherboard
I5 chip (specs to be considered yet)
8- 16gb ram
Component speakers
slot load dvd and a slot load bluray drives


(Purchased) more to add later
Coca Cola hifi £50
OCZ 750w power supply £99
(i bought this already in anticipation of needing a lot of power but probably wont)
7 inch VGA headrest monitors x2 £74
Mini Amp £13
Large EL panels £60
Heart EL panels £30
Original EL panels £12
Coca cola badges £7
Hole saws £24
Kingston v300 SSD £65
Extension lead £6
Black foam seal £5
x2 120mm aerocool shark 15 blade fans with red LEDs £13
x2 80mm arctic F8 fans £6.98
X2 50mm fans £5
aerocool fan controller with LCD display £22
multicard reader with 2.5 HDD hot swap bay £16
4x rolls of red DC fix vinyl £16
a lot of carbon fiber 3d weaved di-noc ? film (its from ebay so who knows but looks awesome) £30
Orange film £6
Pci slot covers £3.50
Led strip RED £1.79
Cable bungs £7
Mesh £2.49
Sata to molex cable £1.48
Red acrylic paint £5
Air duster cans £2-3

(I have to come back and edit this list later as there's too much of the top of my head and im trying to sort photobucket and my getting my pics the right sizes for now)

I have loads of pictures to put up so this may need updating a lot over the next few days but here is a few teaser/spoiler pictures of a few bits to wet your appetite

The base unit

Spoiler

Some equipment

Spoiler

A door

Spoiler

PSU

Spoiler

Fan

Spoiler

I wont give too much away for now and will get started on the next post however i will be editing the first post along the way as well as posting and discussing on new post below.

 

[Therealriley]

Part 1 'start from the bottom'

Ok so pictures say a thousand words so here's how i got the bottom started.
(Please note i have iphone and camera pics and mostly were camera taken)
I stripped the can to its main parts and removed the stereo and wiring.

I then proceeded to wrap this although i was a little concerned on the fact this was a 20 year old bit of cardboard/wood.

Looks great until it started bubbling.

Once it dried i could not get rid of this raise in the film that would push out but kept coming back so i ripped it off to cover in red film instead.

Threading the power extension through the base (this will be fitted inside)

Adding the original shelf parts back and prepping them for vinyl.

sanding any imperfections

After a good scrub i then wrapped it in red film

I had originally added the extension lead here (but have relocated this recently)

Hot gluing the extension lead to the back

Now its looking really RED

Then i found another piece of wood for the top frame and i just wrapped it in carbon

As you can see i do this all over the house wherever there's a space

I tidied this piece up on the ends and added it to the mainframe.

More to come on Tuesday now guys. The PC bits will be added too HAHA
Looking forward to any comments the more i show what ive done the more in detail i have gone so im hoping it will look good.
Thanks for viewing.

 

[Therealriley]

DO NOT REPLY TO IMAGE THREADS UNLESS ITS NECESSARY QUOTES
I HAVE TO MAKE THIS CLEAR
USE THE POST REPLY BUTTON AT BOTTOM OF PAGE or QUICK REPLY BOX

Thank you

 

[deblow]

Good idea, cant wait to see how it looks when complete

P.S I love my glue gun

 

[colinmcr]

Look forward to seeing how this looks as you progress, I like the carbon, is it the 4D one?

 

[Bart_Hunt]

Good stuff
Is Coca Cola a sponsor?

 

[WalderX]

Looks cool, very unique for sure! I would have done it in a beer can but only coz I don't like coke! Subscribed

 

[Ajaxx]

I remember selling these in Dixions wayyyy back in the day

 

[something daft already!!]

Oh man, I used to sell those things back in the day!

 

[cypto]

Wow haven't seen one of those in years, Have to say very interesting project.

Initially from the title I thought it was a computer built into an actual coke can, and man would that be impressive. NUCoke pc build? NUC + Coke

 

[hawkhench]

Really liking this potential of this, I remember those hi-fi's, think I ended up with the bottle-cap digital clock/radio instead though (Really want another one though, can't find anything as good these days)

You're doing a great job of building to the design so far, keep it up. Subbed.

 

[Cosimo]

Well this is different. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.

 

[Aneskimo]

Well this is different. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.

1

Great potential this

 

[Therealriley]

Thanks for the support guys. I just wrote a long reply and it logged me out and that wiped my message. I'm writing this for a second time now
Never mind though.

The carbon wrap is 3M scotchcal 3D Carbon weaved (not printed) wrap/film.
It takes a while to get used to but makes anything look good. I must have gone round the house wrapping anything that was not nailed down with the off cuts
My only complain is the lack of adhesion after heating round corners and its easy to twist the film if not stretched properly.

I also used just a thick red film from dc fix and this would cover anything i couldn't wrap with carbon fiber.


I came across a few issues at the start.
1) size and space was limited (despite it being 3ft tall)
2) there is a support beam on the back which means the fans cannot be fitted to the outside of the casing easily
3)I originally planned to fit the psu box where the extension lead is but there was clearly no space. So had to find somewhere else.
4) Lack of tools! Cheap tools are useless and break often. my bargain screwdrivers couldn't turn a screw without rounding of the screwdriver head! It didn't effect my project but wasted money that could have been better spent.
5)Cause the can is curved, so is everything inside.
6) I'm was in the middle of having damp proofing injected into my walls and most walls being re plastered so finding somewhere that's dust free and easy to work in is a nightmare.



PICTURES!
I know you love them

I had purchased a couple of fans from ebay. These had to look cool, glow red and pack a punch because i can unfortunately only fit them one way as i will explain later.

I purchased two 120mm aerocool fans and 2 of these Artic F8 80mm from my local computer center.

two 50mm fans which was for the dvd drives, switches etc but airflow plans have changed.

Two outside fan grills (can be bent to fit around the back of can)

Then i bought this computer case from the local computer center (no brand) and then tested where it can go and how to fit.

I originally thought sideways and then i can add an acrylic panel to peer in.

space issue again, as the square corners would stick out.

so i need to strip it and cut it too bits

Near to finished but still need some adjustments to make it fit on the shelf.

I bought a multi tool online and cut away most of the case to keep the MB tray and the rear of the case


Whilst this was going on i wrapped the rear post in red and planned to find way to add the rear fans.
I have a lot of spare wood for my fireplace and found a few bits i could cut to size and use as mounts.

Then i covered them in film and fitted them back to the unit with the 120 mm fans fitted in place. Tidying where the vinyl didn't stick with glue.

Whilst doing this, i planned where to fit the two 80mm fans would be going.
My intention was to suck the air in from the bottom (rear) fan, upwards through the shelf, through the PC case and over the motherboard then sucked out from the top rear fan.

The fans were then fitted to the shelf underside.

I also needed to work out how to fit the front panels and how to lift them so support will be needed here for gas strut braces to be fitted later.

The clear plastic piece will be explained later in depth.

I then needed to cut some 76mm fan holes in the shelf plus another hole to the side for cables.

Pipe for the cables could be added?

by this time im juggling a few things im doing so i decided to get some paint cause i wanted to see how the pc case would look in red.

a light coat was all i needed for now. i let this dry while i ordered some car edge trim to go around the case.

This is roughly what it will look like after a lot of sanding and repainting and a few other mods but it will help you get the idea for now.

next i bought some dancing Electroluminescent (EL) panels for the doors so i can recreate the dancing LED coke bottle effect. At £5.95 each i thought i cant go wrong (this proves to be a pain and i don't use these ones because they arrived and lit up blue not red)

I have replaced these now with the exact red dot size and colour i wanted at an additional cost of £30!! I wanted to be a perfectionist and this would have bugged me not getting it right first time. I will show more in the next few days post.

I will have to go have some tea now so that is your lot tonight. Ive not purchased a lot of hardware yet for the fear of the dust and damage from the plastering work im having done but this is my next purchase hopefully for march but its coming together.

my pictures are not in order my end, so its taking a while to post these by memory so if you don't mind a long post i will do them this way but let me know if you want smaller regular post.

The next few sets of photos should bring you up to speed with where i am. Theres lots of problems i didn't think of writing about cause i either solved them or changed the design.
I'm still waiting on a replacement monitor and the painted one above was just a spare bracket i decided to paint test but you can see it forming now i hope.
but with this pic you can see whats to come....

More tomorrow guys

 

[hawkhench]

So many pictures, /drool

Looking good so far, you're working at quite a clip too. Must be enjoying yourself

 

[Parabellum]

Awesome project mate cant wait to see more

 

[WalderX]

Nice 1 man! Looking forward to helping you spec up the hardware to go inside!

 

[Coley]

what an awesome idea, I still have my exact stereo down my shed where it has been since i was a kid but just could not part with it.

Once I move into my new place I may give the old girl a new lease of life

 

[Zefan]

I love this!

 

[Therealriley]

So many pictures, /drool

Looking good so far, you're working at quite a clip too. Must be enjoying yourself

I am now its coming together, eerily excited but the only thing that's holding me back is the postage on some items coming from America or china and i had to get a replacement monitor from another seller on eBay cause only one of the two worked others sellers just didn't bother posting an item and i ordered one cable and the opposite one turned up. Ebay sellers are the bane of my life at the minute but its the only place to find the stuff i need at a decent price.

Nice 1 man! Looking forward to helping you spec up the hardware to go inside!

I could always do with some good advice on the hardware.
I want the ASUS sabertooth z87 Mother board because i like the look of it and it will be on show through a window. I will probably go for an I5 CPU 4670 or the K. I don't know what the difference is other than you can overclock the K i think? Ive never tried overclocking before.
I want it to be powerful and smooth operation but i don't think I will get into gaming very often other than a bit of gta modding which is usually rough anyway. The pc will be a server to my TV mostly TBH.
Ive had a good quote through my local computer shop £429.99 MB, CPU and 2 4gb ram as above so im tempted by that price to just stick with what ram they have for now.

The rest of the equipment will include two slot load dvd drives (maybe a 3D one but not necessary) i will get a main SSD for the operating system and plan to have space to add more but i have loads of old sata drives i can use for extra storage for now.
Ive bought the memory card reader, fan controller and worse thing is im praying ive bought the right fans now?

I also need to find someone to make me some metal front display panels to fit all this stuff too.
Then im adding some usb 3.0 sockets in the door moulds this should be easy enough but im confused on the best way to make the sockets powered.

Im bending my mind on what to do for monitors because i want the can to be standalone and without a monitor nearby or on top etc so i have a small monitor with my old pc and a large 3D tv to use for a monitor but i dont know whether to get a wireless HDMI transmitter, i hear bad things about them but its about 10ft away from each other and i dont want to run a cable if i can help it.

There is the two 7'' VGA monitors and im going to have to convert them to hdmi with another adapter off ebay or something just so i don't damage the frame when threading the cables between the door and the main body i need a smaller adapter so hdmi seems the best solution because of the size of the adapters.

Please let me know what you think on the hardware as I could do with another opinion on what im buying before i buy it and what i else i can add to the design.
As you can probably tell i have lots of questions

Oh and i would love to add some water cooling with a coke coloured liquid running through seems a cool idea but most people are saying i shouldn't bother. Plus again ive never done it before.

I will have something to eat and then il get started posting a few more pics. Keep your eyes peeled