The G.E.C.K - Vault Tec component.

ALXAndy

ALXAndy

ALXAndy

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I'm not going to lie this only came about yesterday. I saw a video and an idea I had had for about what? 17 years finally became viable.

So what in tarnation is a G.E.C.K? well any one who played Fallout 3 to completion will know. It is located in Vault 87 and you need it for Project Purity. It has something to do with farming and vitality of land, but more importantly it filters water from radiation etc making it safe. This is a GECK.



However, it also stands for something else. After Fallout 3 launched Bethesda released a tool for modders to make quests and items with. The Garden Of Eden Creation Kit. Very clever.

So what is my GECK for and what will it do? hilariously it will be a working computer (running Linux, it does not work with Windows **yet**) that is built solely for the playing of Fallout games.

And this is where it gets very different indeed.

So yes yesterday I was watching the tube of poo and a video popped up from Hamish, AKA Budget Builds Official. I mean no disrespect here but I don't sub to his channel because it is mostly him playing with cheap crap (literally) for lots of views. Picking the peanuts out of poo is not something I would normally partake in so yeah.

However, yesterday he posted what is, IMO, his most interesting video yet. Basically he got hold of a back plane that was built for mining that contains a Ryzen APU (most specifically the one from the PS5) as well as 16gb memory and etc. IE, a whole PC on a back plane. This.



It is dual slot and about the size of a GPU. Yet, it is an entire computer on a single board. Couple more pics.





It is a very simple thing to power. You literally just need a PSU. Now I want to keep this thing as small as humanly possible, so I got this.



Now these are known for being noisy. However, I have two options. First one is to put a Noctua fan in it. Which will make it silent. The second option? remove the fan completely. This may sound sketchy, but the design of the unit will be such that it will get tons of air shoved through its bottom just like the plane. How? Well, imagine a PC with a front panel that is, IDK, 130mm x 130mm square. With a nice powerful fan in it. Then imagine the PC being the depth of the back plane so you can connect things to it. This design is also known as the wind tunnel. Which, amazingly, is how the server it once lived in would operate. Hamish stuck a fan to the top of it, but that is not how you would go about cooling it.

The plan.

Machine the entire machine from 5mm acrylic, in the Vault Tec colours. Only unlike Modular I will not be relying on these pieces of acrylic to be straight. That was where I went wrong last time. This time around not only will I machine out any vents, details and logos myself but I will also cut the entire panels at the same time using the machine so I know they are all perfectly straight.

The cool part of this all is that it should cost less than 200 quid all done and running. I have been waiting for a project idea for my new CNC since I got it. So far it has machined out a few parts but nothing on this scale.



LFG !!
 
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I am currently deciding on how I want to erect (snort) my wind tunnel. But I am leaning toward something like this.





With a suitable self made controller. Maybe not the 3.9 amp one though lmao. I found a couple that are 2a or less. I just want something that is reliable, and capable of pressure. It doesn't need to be deafening whilst doing so.

I also think I will shape the front panel like a vault door.
 
OK so that is the cooling sorted. I ordered this. Cost me 11 quid. New, too.





At the amperage it should be easy to run on pretty much any fan controller.
 
OK guys, so here is where I am at. I am unsure of the depth needed yet. I may as well wait until it arrives. However, I looked up the data sheet for the Delta fan, and came up with these. I also figured out how I want to hold it all together. I want to use M4 bolts, tapped into the plastic. However, for that you need some thick plastic. As such I decided the front and back will be doubled up 5mm acrylic, plastic welded, giving me 10mm to tap into. I should have done this with Modular, but figured I could glue it. Nightmare that was !

So this one will be the outer panel. It will be blue. I will put these into the CNC software soon and post some images of what it should look like as a piece. However, for right now just use your imagination.



That part was reasonably easy tbh. Just find an image, trace it as a vector, put it back as a EPS so I can work on it in Photoshop and yeah. 10 min jobber. This one on the other hand started out life looking nothing like this. Had I ran the machine it would have fallen to bits. As such I had to basically draw in a load of pieces to attach it making it one solid piece.



And then I could fill it in.



So imagine that the first pic will be a piece of 5mm blue. The piece above in the last pic will be in yellow, and will be plastic welded directly below the blue layer.

Don't worry, I will be putting a vault door number in the middle (87...) but that will come later, as anything in the image right now will machine all the way through. Again this would cause the number to basically fall out (pardon the pun !) so I need it as a separate object I can engrave in, rather than cutting out.

I hope that makes sense...

The back also will be two pieces. These will be the anchor points for the top, bottom and both sides to screw into. I may well bond a couple of them also, leaving the ones needed to access the hardware. However, what I am dead set on is M4 screws.

I have also been looking into ways to tame that beast of a fan. I found this. It is 3a capable, so more than enough to run the one single fan.



I can then manually set it. I also just ordered one of these. Again, this will be part of the wind tunnel. Overkill absolutely but it was cheap (11 quid) and will work very well.



The only other thing purchased is this.



Now you may be wondering what the heck that has to do with anything. Well usually I use a special (and expensive) double sided masking tape called Kipp. It's awesome. However, I usually use old brown card envelopes from that place on the internet you buy crap from. Problem is they can be uneven etc. So I finally decided to buy something suited.

Basically it should be about a mil thick. You double side it down to the bed, and then double side the top to hold down the acrylic. It gives you some breathing space when you go through the acylic without dragging the bit through the spoil board. Which would, over time, reduce the ability to stick things down fully as you would have air channels.
 
Having looked at the yellow piece.... I was a bit concerned about the air flow. So, I changed it around a bit adding more holes.



Better.
 
Now this is a very cool idea, I'll be watching this one closely! I also want to pick up one of those boards to mess around with
 
Right now apparently they are 69 pounds or so. I didnt wait for the flash sale and paid 100. I just had visions of waiting 8 hours only for them to sell out immediately.

Any way Ive been doing more nerding and etc. Im going to fit a heatsink to the back plate where the GDDR lives. Im also going to remove the 8 pin connector and solder the wires on a pigtail. Otherwise it needs to be 20mm larger inside and then treads into heffa territory.

No lights, no RGB etc.
 
OK so I bought one of these.



It is a 2011 Supermicro cooler. I am going to remove the bolts and their C clip things and just thermal epoxy it to the back plate right behind the memory chips. I could have gotten a larger one for a bit more, but the fins were the wrong way around to allow air to pass through.
 
ALXAndy said:
Im also going to remove the 8 pin connector and solder the wires on a pigtail. Otherwise it needs to be 20mm larger inside and then treads
Click to expand...

Perhaps massively out of scope and likely to make your life more complicated....but I feel it's time I took @LePhuronn 's role and took pleasure in that! :D ;)
Could you hard-mount the opposing 8-pin connectors to the case and recreate the pluggable blade form-factor? JLCPCB (and others) do small PCBs for a pittance and I happen to know your soldering skills are up to the challenge! :D
 
No idea what youre on about.

The PSU is modular. Im going to chop off the 6+2 end for a GPU and solder it into the board. Then you simply plug said pigtail into the PSU and youre off.

Also whilst we are on the subject..

I still have some yellow silicon wire I used on Modular. So I'm going to get some blue the same and remake it all.
 
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OK, micro splurge. About 35 quid all in.

First up, a cheaper option for controlling the fan.



Then inner wire. This will make the pigtail. I already had this. 18 awg.



And I ordered 3m of this. Same thickness, pic is of thinner wire.



This is for the heat sink for the GDDR.



This is for the power to the PSU.



That will go on the rear, along with this one for turning on the PSU via the two wires on the 24 pin.



And then for the power from the wall to the PC. This cost me about 12 quid all in.



Cable. I got 2m. About 40cm will go inside from the socket into the PSU, the rest will make up the outer cable.



And finally...



4 quid odd from AEX.

That should about do for the sundries. Next up will be lots of gold bolts (M4) in various lengths and of course the plastic itself.
 
Ah, you're pigtailing the PSU - I thought you were going to desolder the sockets from the AMD blade and pigtail those.
Transparent mains plug eh? Better make your wiring neat! :D
 
I am ! dang dude. Have come coffee :D

Here dude. Note the cable coming out is a totally 100% legit photoshop and looks exactly like it will when I am done (note the sarcasm. Have another coffee...)



I am going to remove the PCIe connector from the modular cable that comes with the PSU.



See dude? the one next to the 24 pin. I am then going to solder the wires into the board after removing the 8 pin socket so they come out of it sideways. Otherwise? the socket with a plug in it will add 20mm to the height of the computer case. I don't want that. As such the plane board will have a pig tail hanging from it that plugs into the PSU directly. I will be making up my own wires for that in blue and yellow.
 
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