Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[waynio]

Glad to see your are still plugging along. These labors of love can't be rushed.

You've got me thinking now about maybe building myself an nice simple test station. Was looking at the coolers I have and thinking about checking what the performance difference is between them. Have an original Cogage Arrow (disguised Silver Arrow), Silver Arrow SB-E, have TY-143 so can do SA SB-E Extreme, etc. So a nice simple test platform I can use in my study would be ideal to play on. As I worked wood in my profession probably use birch plywood. Something basic with PSU, HDD, optical drive in bottom with motherboard setting on top with PCI backing plate so can secure top of cards. Any ideas appreciated.

Thanks doyll

All you need for that is a 2 level open table big enough for it & canabalise the needed bits from a cheap or unwanted case & use velcro to mount them to the table, will cut out vibrations too.

I was going to make a test bench for this because it is a modular rig, the top rig plugs on/off so with not having time restraints now I think I will.

are those aluminum fans these ones by any chance?

Prolimatech Aluminium Vortex Silver Wings

They are snipped the LED's off & cut the outer frame away just keeping the core with 4 legs, won't be getting stuck in place until it's all been anodised though, I'll use a heavy duty adhesive.
Bit on the expensive side for a fan but I bought 2 to be used on the front of this, really compliments the frames I made.

Made a hiccup when extending the holes for the 3mm rods on my last session, I simply drilled too close so the outer edge is a bit knackered on the top panel, I'll re make the affected panels moving them further in by 0.5mm so might need to get more 3mm aluminium, not sure yet.

Showing the 3rd revision of the hdd cover pieces a bit clearer, still unsure about filing the 2 layers above to be the same or to bevel to the 3rd layer.

Marked & drilled the first 2 mount points on the stand cover which makes the whole look more together.

Then held the cover in place & poked a sharpie marker through onto the acrylic.

Drilled & bunged brass inserts in.

Testing & getting more marker points added.

Decided to use the top mount points to share the way it mounts to the stand so it's screwed in on both sides, had to shorten 3 screws by about 3mm.

To get the accurate marking of the upper mounts I just squeezed the assembly together & drilled through the brass insert on the drill press with a 2mm bit & then took apart & used a 3mm bit.

Put it together & it was nice & solid piece ready to install.

One tiny problem though, the custom fan pass through hole on the cover is I'd say about 1mm too low so it won't let me slide the HTPC in/out so it needs some careful filing so it will allow it to slide in/out, going to be difficult making sure it doesn't produce a significant gap spoiling the look.

I think it looks so much better with the covers, enjoy the shots.

I'll fix any of the mentioned issues in this update on my next session.

 

[waynio]

I love OCUK's Xmas smilies



Good to see you back Waynio - thanks for clarifying what it was that had disturbed your Karma - I'm glad that you're continuing work, and at your pace - you're doing it for the right reasons - to do the best job on the mod that you possibly can - so what if you don't get the mod i time to be considered for Mod of the year - it's the best mod that I'VE been lucky enough to witness this year, and it's taken all of this year to get where you are. Keep it up and don't compromise what you're doing by being distracted. After all, you're the one left with the mod at the end of the year - and it's better to have it forever and love it, and have enjoyed making it rather than compromising your vision...

Looking forward to the next instalment.

I needed extra extra time out lol, never attempted something as huge as this before though, it's a lot to chew through but it's past half way through at least.

The fan really sets it all off.. as does the power marble... and side vents... and the soffit you just made... and the rods...

In ref. to test bench. It will be a somewhat permanent rig I can use over time to check out how my different cooler perform.. and hopefully whatever my friends get too. I want to see what the actual air temp difference between intake and exhaust is as well as CPU. Most reviewers give room ambient but none seem to monitor actual intake temps.. and inside a case these temps are a critical part of testing cooler efficiency.

If I was building a custom case it would be wind tunnel ducting for both CPU and GPU.. Only cool air in coolers and all hot exhaust air out of case

Edit: so do I

Bit-tech is a good place to check out loads of scratch builds, you can learn quite a lot from detailed project logs before jumping into trying it out, lot of people hang around for a while before posting a project & some build up a budget for some good starter tools before starting, I just dived in with inadequate tools when I started but learnt a lot from doing it that way & it's been nice seeing the improvements as I've done more.

You could take parts out of a cheap retail case & make a basic 2 platform unit to mount them to, that would be the easiest & quickest way to make a test bench.

I just spent 2 hours reading this from the start. Was a very good 2 hours. Awesome build, great work. Congratulations.

Thanks mate, glad you enjoyed it.

how are the fans? reckon they are worth the price?

They are all about the look, not seen aluminium bladed PC fans before & they just seemed a perfect match for the custom frames I wanted to make, Akasa venoms are my new favorite fans for performance/noise/value, they shift loads of air & are PWM fans not that that will make a difference with using a fan controller but I plugged 1 into the motherboard & they are nice & quiet on lower speed but still move plenty of air.
I don't regret buying the 2 prolimatech fans because they enhance the look by a lot, they aren't noisy on full speed & do move adequate air flow but pale in comparison to akasa venoms on vital statistics & vice versa on looks.

Looking incredible, top work! Can't wait to see it all finished

Thanks nipnosis

Truly awesome... epic doesn't even come close!

That's some dedication, and the attention to detail is bordering on the obsessive!

Yeah, definitely some obsession in this thanks rhodeski.

You have to be obsessed or crazy to do these projects. Both helps.

Really is a awsome project isn't it?

Yep, both are in check thanks doyll.

Drat. Thought I'd missed an update

We've definitely been spoilt with updates over the past couple of months. Looking forward to your next exciting instalment...

Sorry about the sudden brakes slamming on this, wasn't intended but I really had to have a time out before continuing to get my spirits properly back up.

This looks insane!! jealous!

Thanks DGarfield.

this is just plain awesome, wish i had the time and inclination to do something like this

Just noticed this comment Thanks melvis.

I'll do the update on next post.

 

[waynio]

Sorry for taking forever on replying, I needed a bit of a time out, this is mostly a status update & an early look at something I'm going to make as an interval project.



Here is a preview of a HTPC I'm going to make before I continue with lean & green, it's for my dad & I want to get it completed before he gets home from Australia in February.

It holds mini-itx, sfx psu, 2x 2.5" HDD, 1 3.5" HDD, 140mm fan & marble power button new improved mini version, the form is simple & the cut work isn't complex so should be able to get it done quick once I start.

Because of where I made the psu sit I went with regular expansion slot height.

Slot for ventilation under the motherboard.

Got all the hardware & aluminium ready & waiting for action, everything in the design is covered this time so it should be a nice enjoyable project that I can quickly do before I step back into steep challenge mod lean & green.


I also upgraded my main rig to 2 670s in SLI after selling a bunch of parts I had getting no use but I lost my SLI bridge so had it performing as 1 card for a week, the SLI bridge I ordered came today though so I'm eager to have a good play with it, tried a run of 3dmark11 & heaven & wow it kills my previous 580, gave something like 3x the performance, so is an awesome upgrade.

Designed a dual layer homer eating his way out of the rig grill but I made the mesh holes too big so doesn't look too great, much smaller mesh holes & it should look OK, requires quite a bunch of hours to do though so some other time for perfecting this grill.

In more neutral colours.

With just getting the SLI bridge I'm going to resume modding on new years day or when the acrylic tube arrives so I can be 100% sure of accurate measurements, was going to get right onto it today or tomorrow but I only just completed this side project design & it would do me good to take some more days off so I can go at this new project mentally energised & not neglect my gamer side, would you believe I still haven't played all the way through the witcher 2 & I bought it on release day.

 

[waynio]

Class! Welcome back. Merry Xmas Waynio!

Thanks Tattysnuc & merry Xmas to you & everyone on here.

+1

Can't wait to see how this turns out, love the idea of miniature version of the marble power button!

Thanks Red, I'll post a reply on this log when I start this quick new one, I still want to try & have lean & green completed before mid February too, tall order but I'll give it a go.

I must have just got bored waiting for the SLI bridge with doing the homer grill.

Here is the tweaked updated model with scrapped double 2.5" drives, relocated SSD which will also make cooling better & internal e-sata HDD dock replacing the double 2.5s which can be switched on/off with easy remove mini side panel, side & top panels plug in place with little rod stumps by the way so the slots cut out will provide grips to pull them out, front, back & bottom are screwed in place.

The rearrangement gave some more breathing space too.

SSD relocation which will also aid in directing incoming air down to the motherboard.

HDD dock side has 2 side panels for quick easy access to the dock.

The sliding spring loaded block with gripper.

Bit of structure hidden to show it better.

One more look before I do this thing.

I'll make it printable & then enjoy the rest of this year before getting into it, I might or might not start before new years day, depends on if I get a sudden urge to make something or game on until new year.

All the best everyone.

 

[waynio]

Started the new log over here.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=23584120#post23584120

This project is currently paused until I complete the side project, shouldn't be long.

 

[waynio]

Harumph. Got me all excited then

Then I saw your other log, and all was right with the world again

Nice one geezer, but looking forward to the climax of this version of perfection

Got something here, not really an update but I fixed a future problem on this project.

Re made all the motherboard trays overnight, seems I didn't account for the extra 1mm allowance for the motherboard IO shield so had to squeeze motherboards into place, they are good now, done it for Midlag Crisis & both systems in Lean & Green, also added a light line for the PCI/IO piece on the ATX mobo tray.

This goes back to paused now.

Been stocking up on new hard drives too, would have stung me so much if I bought them altogether so I bought 1 whenever I could afford 1, got the last 1 the other day, the HTPC in this will now have 14TB of storage, bought Hitachi Touro external USB3 drives, they have 5400RPM cool spin drives inside them, got 3 4 TB ones & a 2TB one, I'll have to hack them open voiding the warranty but I'll get a pile of spare parts & I saved £80 on each one vs the OEM drives.

 

[waynio]

Sorry about the extensive timeout from this one everyone.


LAG by name LAG by nature.


I grouped many of the pictures together trimming from near 1000 to below 100 in 8 updates which I'll do 1 per day & already started new progress on it so I can seamlessly move over to current progress & I'll post this everywhere I post that was interested as a recap to properly resurrect this project.



Design play for a modular dual PC to cut back my power usage, yup it's heavily detailed but I wanted something that lights my eyes up whenever I look at it, low power for when I don't need it which is most of the time & power system for when I do, will save £200 off the electric bill per year which sadly so far I've missed out on £400 which could have paid for the ps4 I want to do a case for, that's the downside to knowing what I'd have saved & taking a year break from this one while I do another project to help get my mind recalibrated.

Coupling section.

HTPC

ATX system

Altogether with pedestal which I'll make 2 draws shorter for mystery reasons which you'll see eventually.

Materials, some of the bars was 4m long so had to cut them in half on the stairs so I could move them to the cellar, this load weighed a lot especially the 10mm plate.

I worked the project going from most difficult or time consuming working my way through to the easier stuff so the project would get easier instead of harder, this is the 10mm aluminium plates & I realised how much I had ahead of me so I just had to try & switch my mind off while I did it as if I was sleep walking (modding), which helped.

Turbo speed video of 1 of the coupling pieces being cut.

These ATX system side panels took ages to do.

Back HTPC panel.

Back ATX panel.

Front ATX panel.

Group hug & stack o parts.

 

[waynio]

Looks awesome, can't wait to see more

In for a treat for the next days then, it's a recap of all the progress so far with me taking a year break from it.
Thanks Charlie.

 

[waynio]

Started printing my designs using an a4 printer so had to precisely cut & join the templates, huge time saver & produces highly accurate templates, I use sticker sheets because glue spray didn't work too good for me.

Parts for the ATX PSU section.

Remake of the ATX front panel to support a fan controller.

New fan controller panel.

How it will look.

The ATX PSU section curve pieces which will have rods going through the holes.

More ATX PSU section panels.

Switcharoo of the PSU fan guard because the stock one made it too high & I wanted to test how difficult the fan grill would be to make, practice that turned into a part of the project, won't be seen though.

Wasn't going to make feet for it, felt no need to but with many saying it's top heavy I designed & made funky feet based on a flying squirrel but not just any flying squirrel, mighty flying squirrel that will hold up a heavy load.

The parts all interconnect making them really strong, also used rods for holding pieces in place, aluminium dowel rods.

Recap 2 of 6 complete (cut it back to 6 instead of 8).

 

[waynio]

Decided I don't like you any more waynio, You can and do everything I wish I could do but wouldn't know where to begin

lol Everyone starts somewhere though, posted my first here & it was rough as a bears ahh, worked but wow it was rough.

very talented! results look just great ...

Thanks klaxhu.

 

[waynio]

HTPC little front power switch section with a lot of detail in multiple layers.

HTPC side detail panels.

Pattern panels to friction fit into the coupling piece.

First I made them a perfect fit.

Then cut the patterns out.

Put in place.

How they look with the extra detailed pieces.

Loose fit.

3 more to go before regular progress.

 

[waynio]

Thanks everyone, I'm quite excited to be getting back onto this one, never taken a break this big from a project before but I've never done a project this labor intensive before so it figures.



Dropped the ball on the daily updates, dermatitis has come back due to prematurely stopping applying the ointment but I hope it goes away ASAP & I will try to not let it prevent me from making new progress.

Luxury jumbo power switch because I had to use my pinky to switch Stealthlow on (16mm vandal switch) big 40mm ball based on how vandal switches work, I wanted it to sit flush through the layers so had to countersink the insides of the layers with files.

Designed & made a bunch of replacement fan controller knobs because the stock ones were plasticky & boring plus I wanted to see if I could even make them with being so small.

Made the rear IO/expansion motherboard tray pieces for the ATX & the mini-ITX with low profile expansion card size, drilled expansion card mounts & used hot soldering iron to sink brass thread inserts into the holes.

These motherboard trays were remakes, previous ones were 1mm off with not accounting for the IO shield that comes with motherboards.

The assembly for the marble button.

Fixing the button assembly in place & fixing more panels together.

Squigly on bit-tech pointed out the spindicator LED mod to me & Riekmaharg2 on bit-tech really helped me by making the electronics part of the Spindicator leaving the LED soldering to me, I'm a total newb on electronics but seem to be good & happy with that fact other than knowing a large chunk of my imagination is untapped potential so I blag myself I'm happy about being an electronics newb, it works somehow.

Simplified the wiring a bit by making a copper washer I drilled holes for the negative pegs of the LED's to go through & I later caked liquid electrical tape over it all making it look real messy but insulated it all to prevent short circuits, cut a bunch of acrylic discs & pasted transparent vinyl's to them so I can select the colour with whatever looks best which I won't know for sure until final assembly.

Spindicator in action.

Few videos of it made with a kodak pointy shoot with 720p high fuzzyness, not high definition want to upgrade my canon eos 1000d to a 550d so I can shoot nice clear video because videos can say a lot without saying a word & I like that a lot.

Made a case for the spindicator electronics which only just fits in next to the HTPC PSU.

2 more to go.

 

[waynio]

I slipped up on the updates so to get it right here's another 1.


Mounting the coupling plates to the bottom plate, had to retrofit templates in place with not including mounting points in the initial design, this made fixing everything together a lot more difficult.

Mounting support bars to the top of the coupling piece, wanted to use 3mm but was all out so went with 6mm bars.

Back to the squirrel feet adding pegs to the front making it a good solid fit, they are also fixed in on the short ends so they don't move about.

Optical plate mounting.

Added rod & grub screws to bridge the gap from HDD section to motherboard section.

Added the layers to let the mini-ITX tray slide in/out.

HDD sliding slots to replace a HDD box I made but wasn't quite right.

Fan perch & more sliding slots.

HDD trays.

Sticking the slots in place & mounting them to the panels.

Works nice but more work will be going into it so the power & sata plugs don't have to be touched & I just slide the trays in/out of place hot plug style.

1 more to go, then I can carry on at normal pace.

 

[waynio]

I have no idea what that Spindicator is or what it does...I love it though!

can you explain, the videos left me none the wiser!

Edit - Googled it, cool stuff

Is isn't it, just glad I had the help on making the bit I have no knowledge of, thanks Sin.

Looks absolutely astonishing Subbed

Thanks benccritchley, I can't quite imagine how it's going to look complete but hopefully it makes my jaw drop.

 

[waynio]

Final catchup update.


Fan perch, fan just slot on top of it for a good snug fit that has no movement but can be lifted off for maintenance.

More work on the optical plate.

Both pieces in place.

Now the rods for the front corners, they all had to be ultra precise lengths & some of them needed drilling directly in the middle so I made a drilling jig to help on that, typically need a lathe for this kind of drilling, not got one so had to improvise.

Now, the piece I love, aluminium blades on these prolimatech fans, expensive, noisier & not as good performance as akasa apache fans but I couldn't resist the aluminium fan blades, perfect for the custom fans I'm doing, full aluminium fans, yes please.

First bunch of rods went in OK, the tapped ones.

The 3mm rods though I drilled too close to the edge of the panels so 3 easy panels need remaking which will let me fine tune the design of these corner rod parts to be spot on.

Work on the curved & bent front support piece & a fan mount for the ATX system which I did some rough but good enough milling with the drill press.

The sharp bends I wanted made doing the curves smooth really difficult, might remake the piece from 0.5mm sheet instead of 1mm so I can do it perfect & instead of using screws to mount it, JB weld to the support piece.

More work on the curved front & that brings this up to date.

Few bits to remake & tweak, then I can start making new progress, already started on new bits though so should have good new progress along with fixed sections for first new progress update for a year soon.

 

[waynio]

This is phenomenal! Love that spindicator! Haha

Cheers Dave, just wish I knew how to design my own electronic elements, so many ideas, so little know how.

Very nice mate! Spindicator looks awesome!

Thanks Viper.

 

[waynio]

Back to normal progress, completed a couple of new pieces for the ATX system, the expansion area cooling mount, used lexan because I had no clear acrylic.

It's been a fair while since I designed this & realised the panel I made would have covered up anything inside too much & also cancelled the fan ducts so I could have more expansion height space if needed so I tweaked the design to properly accompany the changes & made a new one.

 

[waynio]

Thanks


This has been my most riddled with delays project so far but it's still coming along.


Making spacers.

Square bars for the ATX framework.

Disc sander broke down so slapped a face on it & got a new one.

All 28 fan layers done.

Front & rear ATX panel remakes, needed extra internal space for the change of cooler & fancied a different front, but a nasty deep scratch revealed itself on the rear panel when I pulled the protective backing off, that'll need a heavy sanding session.

Subtle differences.

Bought a sheet metal roller for doing smooth precise curves since I had to buy a new disc sander, step backwards, 2 steps forwards.

Some change of direction because I had to make it likable for myself again for 2014.


One piece triple 140mm fan component which slots & clicks into the frame.

Out the box layered fan along with desktop saver stilts.

Changed the pedestal to a shorter shelf unit without walls because of the xbox one being a wide load with an extension to the top of the HTPC for a ps4 shelf & a TV mount.

Designed a multi layered HDD backplane for the HTPC.

Yep I still have the silly stack as an option because I at least want to photograph that option since that was the idea from the end of 2011.

Focusing on doing bigger chunks of progress from here now for updates so they'll be few & far between rather than bitty regular updates, wish I did this from the beginning but I didn't so oh well.

 

[waynio]

Incredible! missed this one initially - subbed

Thanks Walder.

I'm speechless! it's a work of art

Thanks jimbaw.

Very very impressive...it's kind of like American Chopper meets PCs.

One word of advice...Gorilla Glue is the most difficult thing in the universe to remove from skin....get yourself a box of disposable gloves !
I recently had to scrub my hands with thinners and scotch-brite to even get a tiny bit to budge. Lots of hard hand scrubbing in varying harmful chemicals and 4 or 5 showers over 3 days and my hands still look like I haven't had a wash.
Oh and I know better cos I've done it before !

It is a bit strong eh.

 

[waynio]

Hi all.

It's grown up a bit, yaaaay.

No progress shots, been getting stuck into it with wanting this complete before 2015.

Designed & made a very tall (2.4m) shelving unit, blu-ray rack/cable stash unit, another shelf unit & hide away keyboard desk under a shelf for a massive expansion of places to put things in a smaller space.

More when I've got more to show.