Project: Ay

[King Damager]

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...

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

And a very filthy case

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

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!

And always wear eye protection people!

Just in case this happens....

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

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

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!

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

 

[King Damager]

Looks extremely fun!

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

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...

Looking good and lots of fun..

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

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...

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

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

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

 

[King Damager]

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.

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

 

[King Damager]

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

 

[King Damager]

This should be interesting. Looking forward to seeing what you do with those pink LEDs too.

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

 

[King Damager]

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.

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

 

[King Damager]

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

 

[King Damager]

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

 

[King Damager]

Having spent the last 10 minutes or so re-reading the thread and stuff, I think I'm now starting to understand!

What I'll probably do is try and draw up a circuit diagram up on paint or the such like later when I get time!


As an update on the project and case, I received the other case yesterday, and will upload pictures later, with the quick once over I reckon I'll be using that case instead, however will no doubt take me a while sitting down with both of them to work out which I'd prefer!

I also ordered a PSU yesterday off of OCUK, whilst the ethos is very much second hand, I want to put a semi-capable system into this, so I didn't really want to cheap out on the PSU. If all goes to plan it will only be this and possibly a HDD that will be brand new... I'd update with pictures of the PSU however since DX next day has failed and apparently now isn't going to arrive until tomorrow -.- Quite frustrating really as I never had any issues with DPD, but ah, such is life...

kd

 

[King Damager]

Ok, so here's to hoping my diagram is correct....

Basically I've tried to work this out, and on the basis the Pink LED's should be about 3.2-3.6V I'm looking at 4 sets of 3 LED's on my fans (Because 3 makes an easier circuit!) This would give a total of 12 Fans obviously I reckon 3 should be ok for brightness as they're 5mm and 10000MCD

3.6V*3 = 10.8V Hence the decision for 3 LED's a circuit.
Also this means the Voltage Drop should be 1.2v
The ones I found have a DC forward current of 20mA

Here's my rough diagram! First square box the red cable goes into would be the resistors!

Questions:
1)I've got slightly confused as to what resistor value I'd be needing? I'd prefer them to be slightly dimmed by the resistor and possibly last longer rather than run a slightly higher voltage than recommended as I'd prefer not to have to fiddle with this mod for a while!
2) I just want to check as well that all the wires are soldered up in the right places on the diagram? Just so I don't end up creating a circuit I don't want to or something!
3) Where would be the best place to pick up some cheap thin cable? What kind of thing would I be looking to find?
4) Again best place to get a terminal block? Bay again? Is there any one in particular I should be getting or would any of them do? From what I can guess it needs 10 terminals as such? (4 Fans + 2 ports?) I might end up only using 3 fans would I then only need an 8 port terminal block? It becomes more complicated choosing which one by having recommended amps and all sorts...!

The other thing I've realised, is that even with the system above, again, if I wanted to remove the fans and put them in a new case, I'd have to remove them all as they're in the terminal block?

In light of this when the PSU arrives tomorrow (hopefully, I may change the wiring plan again!)

Thanks again for the help

kd

 

[King Damager]

Yeah, I did see the version of your 12 LED fan and wasn't so sure :S But would be slightly more of a pain to fit more LED's in

Just to clarify as well an I value of 0.02 is 20mA? Am failing to scale up my values correctly

Thanks for the help so far, will wait to see the PSU tomorrow and connectors to work out what to do

As a side note what you can see on the side is just some bubblewrap marks that'll just wash off

Might work out what I'm doing with it later, cable management space still doesn't look great

kd

 

[King Damager]

Ok, a small update

So a nice new product turned up

Braid wasn't the greatest, but I've already ordered some better stuff

So was going to use the black case, but when taking it apart earlier, I discovered it is the most stupidly designed side panel in the world...

So back to old case...

Need cake for a break

Found out that my 20p sanding block was soft... Thought this was a bit stupid as it stopped me getting pressure on the case with sand paper... So went to a house down the road I knew was chucking a load of wood out... and got the penknife saw out to cut down the wood to a sanding paper block size

Got pulled away though, by Miss.kd to fix the Sink U-Bend..

Managed to nicely sand down the top Fairly unreflective, but perfect for primer. Still need to do underside of top panel and both sides of side panels though!

I've now started to draw up where I might want to cut, and also work out where I can put fans in, and therefore what size fans I'll be needing...

Trying to work out if this'll fit an ATX Mobo.. Think it might, but what does everyone else thing?

That's about it for today, might do some more work tomorrow

kd

 

[King Damager]

Just a small update:

There have been further updates, however nothing is as of yet really 'complete.'

Also back in lectures and working now, so project pace has slowed down.

Parts are however arriving happily, and I'll get some photos uploaded soon

For now, I'll give you a little sneak at more of the colour scheme...
This also might help to explain why updates are taking some time.

I have to say, as others have said, this is absolutely gorgeous stuff.

I did end up spending more on braiding for the PSU than the PSU itself though! xD

Sleeving the Sata cable was pretty easy. So far the biggest challenge to me has been attempting to remove the pins...

Still really struggling to get the colours to come out properly with the camera

kd

 

[King Damager]

Another update!

Ok it has been quite some time...

There have been a couple of issues with the project and life at the moment that are slowing me down!

Project issues are that sleeving all the bloody cables is putting me off, the OCZ cables aren't the highest quality so it's a completely pain to get them out of the socket. This has kind of put me off in some areas.

Bigger issue is Uni at the moment. Second year has turned up with a lot more work than I was expecting, so this is taking a back seat, especially as I'm having to apply for a bunch of internships as well.

Anyway, the LED's from Hong Kong arrived in the post the other day, and tonight I finally got around to modding my lights. I drilled the holes yesterday, and this evening have put in all the LED's. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the result, think it would be something Teal would be proud of! xD

Special thanks to Teal actually, for all the help he has been giving me on wiring etc.. But it's actually been a part of the build I've really enjoyed.

Anyway. Here are some pictures

3LED's on Smallest fan, 6 on middle, 12 on largest. Largest is 140mm, middle I think is 80mm, can't quite remember smallest xD

Testing LEDs with some batteries to see if they worked.

All rigged in daytime shot - hotwiring my PSU to act as a power source for these xD:

Close up Daytime shot (brighter than they look!):

Night Shot:

Am going to see what I can do about actually powering the fans themselves (still working on a solution for this one xD) and I'll get some shots with them spinning as well!

I'll need to extend the cables to get the fans into position in the case when I put them in, but that's not an issue at all really.

Pretty pleased with the light they put off, definitely more than my Purple Xigmatek Crystals in my K62. Not sure if I want more light yet, if I do I'll be creating some LED strips from the LED's as well, as I picked up about 200 of them xD About 10p each, if that xD

kd

 

[King Damager]

It's back!

Well, whilst I don't have Uni work to do at least!

I've sold off a lot of the hardware that was going to go into this, seeing as I think this is now going to be much more of a long-term project then I originally expected. However, the project is still going to go ahead!

Anyway, foolishly in the mean time, since last posting, I got a bit fed up with the whole thing, and thought sod it, and tried spraying it, without the correct preparation....

It did not go well:

Anyway, we live and learn, just more sanding for me to get done. I learnt the joys of sanding with the Dremel though, so getting the paint off shouldn't be too hard.

So I thought it was time to start working on the case properly again, so started off with some basic cable routing holes. So: holes for PSU to back of case, PSU in and CPU backplate:

I then moved onto the Side Window, so all marked up

And started cutting.... Although this is where problem 1 occurred... It seems my Dremel seems to like eating through Dremel Discs:

For the record, these were the standard discs that came with the Dremel, however as you can see, to try and stop them from snapping (see above), I had doubled them up, so I'm impressed that they were demolished so quickly - pretty sure the case is quite resilient...

Anyway, based on advice, I tried out some of the speedclic discs... Seeing as they're apparently more resilient, and I had 2 lying around.... Well they didn't last long either -.-

Anyway, a trip to the shops later, and I'm back with 50+ Cutting discs, and some sanding drums in preparation for fixing my massive screw up...

Seems like the world was against me though, as coming back from the shops I fell off of the bike...

Set me back a couple of days, but in the end I finally have a nice side window cut out

Next task, was to drill the mounting holes, which frankly took forever. I've spent about 4 hours drilling 8 holes. I definitely need a better drill, if I'm going to do lots of drilling...

And to my delight, the holes actually fitted up!

So that's progress for now.
As you may have noticed, I've been banned from working outside by the gf... So, I've now relocated to my bathroom where it doesn't disturb people quite as much. I'll have to go back outside when I want to spray, but for now it'll do.

I'm currently working on cable braiding in the evening, when I don't want to annoy everyone too much with the small amounts of noise I make, so hopefully I can update you guys on that soon, and hopefully base sanding layer is going to get done this week!

kd

 

[King Damager]

To be honest guys, chances are this will be slowly wound down. I still have the case, and might continue to do some work on it over Summer if I get bored, but I'll soon be starting a project for my own PC.

I'll update it if I do do more though

kd