Project: Ay

King Damager

King Damager

King Damager

Soldato
Joined
16 Nov 2010
Posts
16,513
Location
Swimming in a lake
The project is finally here!

Introduction
I feel the project requires a bit of an introduction. Having built my first PC from parts only a couple of months ago, the bug has hit! Having spent many a day on the forums now, I've decided to start a new project! With both me and my fiancee at University and making the most of dual screens, I've decided to build her a base spec pc capable of meeting her requirements as her laptop's struggling to power the dual screens for internet browsing/office/iTunes and the light multi-tasking that she does. Now having just spent a fortune, especially for a student, on the last build there's not much money floating around for the new build! The challenge is slightly steeper with a bit of history, as I've spent my life doing next to no DIY! Managing to get a D in GCSE graphics. The most I've really done is the recent flat pack I've assembled (at 19) and frankly I've decided it is time for this to change! As such, and partially inspired by G-Dubs' Car Boot Project I took a trip down to the local car boot today... Thing is though, going to the local car boot (and the largest one in the county) all I could find was one computer with nothing to it's name, and frankly even the case wasn't worth getting it... So I went for a local trip to the Bay... £50(ish) later and I've got some old P4 HP, which should be in the post tomorrow, and arriving soon
But yeah, the same basic theme, of picking up parts dirt cheap off of the Bay/MM/car boots and building a PC that does the basic requirements. Going to customise the case to be a nice pretty case for the gf.

Going to keep everything else under the mat for now so we can see how it goes But yeah a similar Dubs-esque kind of idea - all credit where it's due, and I'll be relying on basically all of the OCUK expertise, to make sure I get out of it the other side with a working pc, 10 fingers and 10 toes


Now, as for the name of the project, I had some great suggestions, but in the end have decided to go for something decisively simple... Ay, is an abbreviated form of the alias the Fiancee uses online, so much like kd for myself... Makes all things fairly simple :)

Now a bit of an update from the original intro... The Bay PC, is arriving tomorrow, on a long delay from the seller -.-

As such, as I'm up in Norwich at the moment for Uni, I decided to go with the fiancee to the local Car Boot, and see what we might find... All in all I must have spotted a good 5/6 pc's... and in the end settled for getting a god-old pc, for a fiver as there was nothing that would inspire me hardware wise so I thought I'd grab a spare case... So £4 later, I have a bunch of old parts, that I may be able to use at some point, and tomorrow I have yet another PC arriving, that again I hope to use at some point...

Also this PC gave me a great opportunity to test out the new tools!
This is everything I picked up from B&Q/the boot sale this morning, figuring this would pretty much be everything I need...

Tools.png


Anyway, after the boot sale, I worked on taking apart my £4 PC.... and ended up with a bunch of parts

Parts1.png

Parts2.png


And a very filthy case

Case-Dirt-1.png

Case-Dirt-2.png


At this point, I kinda forgot the camera existed and got stuck in :) So apologies, but basically at this point I washed down the case with warm water and some fairy.
Whilst I was working the fiancee made me a sammich :)
Sammich.png


I then started cutting holes :) Thought I'd start off with some basic cable management holes for now, as this was the first time using the Dremel!
Dremel1.png


And always wear eye protection people!
Eye-Protection.png


Just in case this happens....
Broken-Disc.png


Again I got a bit carried away with the Dremel, and forgot about the Camera... Anyway, I realised that the original line I cut above, is actually under the Mobo - Cue swearing.... And started again! This time I managed to cut out in the correct place, and cut out some odd bump, that frankly from my point of view had no purpose, and just looks odd....

As you may have noticed, this was the point the heavens decided to open - Cue more swearing, so have had to stop the Dremelling for now :(

I also realised, that perhaps I shouldn't have bothered cleaning the case before cutting holes out of it... and should have done it after... Anyway, due to the weather, and needing to clean the case, it got moved to a new location :)

Relocated.png


Thankfully we all have en-suites in my Uni flat... as it left quite a lot of dirt...

Shower-Dirt.png


Anyway, that's been washed away, and thankfully I reckon there's enough ventilation through the fan in the Bathroom that I might be able to work in there in the winter when it's ****ing it down so long as I can get some card or a sheet or something to work on..

This is the final hole, with mistake line next to it! Hole is quite wonky in one place, but didn't think it was bad for my very first time with the Dremel!
Hole-Cut.png


As for the rest of the project, well you might have got a hint of the colour scheme, from the borders to the images! I apologise for the giant leaps in images, just got carried away, and next time I'll try and sort out better lighting for the photos!

Lessons learnt for next time
  • Work with the Dremel - working against it results in breaking the disc
  • Start off with a faint cut with the Dremel before going all the way through - otherwise you end up cutting wonky!
  • Don't forget the camera!
  • In pictures, get better lighting!

Unfortunately we may see a delay in updates for a couple of weeks, as all the stuff for doing the project will be at my student house, and we don't start properly for a couple of weeks, but this'll be a good taster! Frankly with the new case arriving tomorrow, I can't even say whether you'll see this case again!

Any advice, etc.. to avoid breaking the disc or anything else would be appreciated! :)

kd
 
brave man! pink case and for the lady..... just tell her the mistaken cut is for better airflow :P

GL and great job so far, make sure the molex pins on the psu fits through those holes.... they look a lil bit tight.
 
Last edited:
Hyburnate said:
Looks extremely fun!

Whats the storage capacity on that HDD as I was looking and most I could find were good old 60GB
Click to expand...

Yeah, it is ironically 60GB, there was a 120GB HDD arrive, Celeron system around, but the person wanted £20 and I'll probably pick up the actual internals from the MM as I'm looking for something slightly higher end...

Sgt Tackleberry said:
Looking good and lots of fun..

I should really go to a car boot and get some bargains
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can find some great stuff there! Gf picked up an original Gameboy for £7, I got a Tripod a couple of weeks ago for £2 for my Camera.. But yeah were plenty of bargains around... Best thing really computer wise is getting like a cheap case if you want fun with a case :) Although pretty sure Dubs' came with like a C2D...

haddows101 said:
brave man! pink case and for the lady..... just tell her the mistaken cut is for better airflow :P

GL and great job so far, make sure the molex pins on the psu fits through those holes.... they look a lil bit tight.
Click to expand...

Don't worry, I'll be cutting holes galore in it probably! Probably be more space than computer in the end... Chassis is pretty solid (about 2 or 3mm thick steel) so it can hold up with quite a bit :)

Also the Case is not going to be painted Pink... Couldn't cope with that! But there will be quite a bit of Pink in it :) Looking at probably Braiding/LED's/Some internals will be Pink, but not really sure yet, will have to wait and see....

kd
 
Thanks for the mantion KD and I wish it had come with a C2D. Just an old pentium ( I later borked the mobo so replaced with an AMD which I got off the bay.

I feel your pain with the Dremel discs, try the speed click system. It cost aabout £15 for the new attachment and a selection of discs but I promise you'll vove yourself for it. The discs are way better and I've not broken one yet. (I used to break about a disc every 6" with the original type which got very boring very quickly.
 
G-Dubs said:
Thanks for the mantion KD and I wish it had come with a C2D. Just an old pentium ( I later borked the mobo so replaced with an AMD which I got off the bay.

I feel your pain with the Dremel discs, try the speed click system. It cost aabout £15 for the new attachment and a selection of discs but I promise you'll vove yourself for it. The discs are way better and I've not broken one yet. (I used to break about a disc every 6" with the original type which got very boring very quickly.
Click to expand...

I think I'm getting the hang of it now, (touch wood), keep it on a fairly low speed and be gentle with it, but when I run out of the discs that come with it I'll definitely look into this! :)

Ah, knew you had to replace it, but didn't know what you replaced

kd
 
Last edited:
Haha, no problem if you don't! Also, as a question, when you file, to smooth down the rough edges, what do you use to do it? Standard kind of hand file jobby?

Realised out of all the stuff I got forgot sand paper -.- Need like 600/200/100 grades? or?

kd
 
Tealc said:
This should be interesting. Looking forward to seeing what you do with those pink LEDs too.
Click to expand...

Yeah, have some pink ones bookmarked ready to order! Not sure how pink they're going to be, as all the ones that come out pink seem to be in the same voltage bracket as Purple, so slightly worried about that, but going to try and set up some nice LED system with the fans and stuff, but it's all a bit in the air at the moment xD Also will probably need your help as well with electrical related stuff, although I have re-read your fan led guide which greatly helps!

kd
 
Pink LEDs use the same materials as Blue, Purple and White LEDs (I believe InGaN) so that explains the same Vf. I must admit I was quite dissapointed with my Purple LEDs when I got them, they were just like a brighter blue. The Purple I can get from my RGB LEDs though is very purple, as is the Pink.

Just let me know if you need anything.
 
Tealc said:
Pink LEDs use the same materials as Blue, Purple and White LEDs (I believe InGaN) so that explains the same Vf. I must admit I was quite dissapointed with my Purple LEDs when I got them, they were just like a brighter blue. The Purple I can get from my RGB LEDs though is very purple, as is the Pink.

Just let me know if you need anything.
Click to expand...

Hmm ok, thanks for the advice, might order a small batch first, before ordering a big one then, just to see how it comes out.. I must say the purple LED's in my main rig were quite disappointing, so yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how it goes... I did consider RGB, but really wanted pink..

But yeah I guess I'll just see how it goes :)

kd
 
RGB is awesome if you can get it working properly. You can basically get any colour you want. This includes proper pink shades and proper purple and not that crappy blue they market as purple.

Here's a RGB LED strip I got recently that came with a PWM RGB controller dialled to a pretty pink colour.

pinkxnb.jpg


I've also got one in my keyboard. The G11 is default Blue and cannot be changed like the newer G110.

keyb5.jpg

keyb4.jpg

keyb1.jpg


This strip is 60x 5050 RGB SMD per Metre already gives out a lot of light but you can also get 30x 5050 SMD Per Metre for a little less over the top light.

p1020502j.jpg


You control it with a 44 key remote control. I chose the 44 key version because it enables fine colour control whereas the smaller remote on eBay didn't seem to.

You can control RGB LEDs using a PWM circuit using 3x NE555 ICs or similar and to some extent by increasing resistance to the each colour LED to make it dimmer. You can also use a PIC microcontroller but that's getting pricey.
 
Well of course you can't get an RGB strip that can do UV but you can buy just UV ones with just the single colour, which looks bluey/purple in my opinion but may radiate some UV light as well.

I would search eBay for something like 'UV 5050 LED'. You won't need a controller for them but you will need to wire up a 12v source.
 
Last edited:
They are pretty sweet! Hopefully I can get the pink the same as that colour! Looks pretty cool, going to get a few and try some....

Been thinking about some stuff, and worked out that what I'm trying to do.

I'll try the best to explain this..

Basically I'll have 3/4 fans running as normal off of molex cables. But I want to run LED's as well. So going to try and run 4-16 LED's per fan (depends how bright they come out as...) off of a separate circuit... These will then go into their own Molex. The 3/4 Molex's from LED's I want to then plug into a single Power Cable, and put a switch in to the circuit before the first molex... If that's possible... I'm not really sure? My basic physics lessons states that it should be.. but not quite sure which wires etc.. I'd had to use, but that's how the theory is going at the moment...

kd
 
What I have on my LEDs (3x 16 LED Fans, 2x 30cm LED strips, front panel switch bay and whatever else I decide to bung in) is a Molex to Molex extension. I removed the unused Molex connector and cut back the 5v wire and it's nearest ground. I then run the yellow wire up to my front panel switch and then back down to a 12 way 3 Amp Terminal block. I did this because I would quickly run out of Molexes and switches.

On the terminal block I have 6 little link wires on the back going from pin 1 to pin 2 and then pin3 and so on. Also I have a yellow wire coming back from the front switch going to 7 to 8 to 9 and so on. 6 live wiring up spots and 6 ground spots.

All my LED accessories have just tinned bare ends and I just push them in and screw down.

As my front panel is illuminated I also run a ground up to the switch but in your case you won't need to do that.

If you would like I can take a picture of the Terminakl block so you can visualise what I mean.
 
Definitely could do with a picture!

Most of that just went over my head xD

Am I right in thinking this means you can turn off the LED's but not the fans?

Rereading, would it be possible to get a picture of the wiring of one of the fans as well/the molex extension system... If it's deeply lodged in your case and you'd have to fiddle around, don't worry about it!

kd
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom