~Dyrewolph - Project Logs~

[Dyrewolph]

Okay... I've been bouncing ideas off Kurtis for a few months and he's finally convinced me to start up a new thread for them.

Done...

You'll have to wait for me to make another post with some of my ideas though... right now... Dinner...

[Dyrewolph]

Okay... I've uploaded a few images... The red DW case was a basic idea a few months ago... very basic... okay I suppose but nothing special...
since then I went on to claim I was going to build the guy from Wolves in Human armor and even got around to buying some materials to do it... but gave up when it came to trying to figure out how to attach a round aluminium pipe to a flat piece of aluminium... Lumiweld would have worked but I would have had to order it from Victoria and I'm too lazy...

so... yesterday I went back to basic ideas... the blue ones this time for the Sonata...

so far just been thinking up window designs and also had an idea to remove the fan on the back of the PSU and seal the hole up and replace it with a 120mm fan on the top of the case with a blow hole through the case and the top of the PSU. From there I decided to put a window in the top of the case as well at an angle so the window slopes from the top of the new fan on top of the case down to the level of the case... simple idea and i suppose simple to do... just cut the panel in certain shapes and bend the metal to form the sides and support the acrylic, and I suppose that would either be a simple bend or a cut, and rivet 90 degree bars to suppport it (of which I have some from the previously mentioned purchased materials for the guy thingy).

[Mr.B]

Looking good, Lookin GOod.

If theres one things Kurtis is good for, its ideas ;)

[Dyrewolph]

Ya and wasting work time chatting with him on email :-P

[Kurtis]

Looking good, Lookin GOod.

If theres one things Kurtis is good for, its ideas ;)

lol don't you start now... see what you've done dyrewolph?

what was that flying out of the window just now? was it respect? damn!

[Dyrewolph]

heh well we all know you never had any... you sure it wasn't digni... ohh wait you didn't have any of that neither... mnah just kidding...

[PennyManDeux]

When are you going to start working on the case?

[Dyrewolph]

well... I plan on grabbing the fan next week and look around for an acrylic supplier during that time as well. I have annual leave for a week on the 19th so I really wanna get stuck into it during that week. I have it planned out quite well and all I need to do is transfer the plans to a template... disassemble the case and start work. I have all the materials I need (aside from a few nice looking screws that I would like to use to hold the windows in... :-)

My biggest problem is i dont own a camera at all so I may have to go out and pick up a couple of those little disposable cameras that tourists use and make use of the scanner I bought so long ago but have yet to seriously use.

[Dyrewolph]

I havent decided whether to hack up my Sonata or not yet... I might do a first attempt on another case and see how it works prior to cutting chunks outta it...
also...

I found a really nice res on another site... I'm trying to think of a plan to incorporate the top external fill port for the watercooling into the current idea i have for the top window...

[Dyrewolph]

Okay so far... this is what I'm considering as my mod...

---Water Cooling---
http://gruntville.com/reviews/wc/angeleyes_res/
http://www.polarflo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=55
http://www.polarflo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=61&HS=1
http://www.polarflo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=57&HS=1

and i'm tossing up between the Black ice or the Black Ice 2 radiators... I dont know whether the performance gain from the Black Ice 2 would be worth the noise of another 120mm fan... anybody got any suggestions?

http://www.polarflo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=67&HS=1
http://www.polarflo.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=68&HS=1

---Power Supply Mod---
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=75013 for the 120mm fan on top... if i can find a distributor
later on I'll look at modding an LED into it.
Bare in mind this will replace the current fan in the PSU and be place on TOP of the case rather than on the back... and I selected the fan with the thermal heat detector thingy so it can regulate itself.
I think because I'm going to be replacing the fan on my PSU I might just do my idea and try it out on another case first...

---HDD---
I'm considering 2 of these but havent made up my mind as to whether or not I'll even use a HDD cooling system... (once again if i can find a distributor)
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=75011
and I'll replace my Seagate 80G with another 80G WD Raptor...

I think I'll buy a rubber cushion for the HDD's to sit on as well to hopefully further reduce vibrations and noise.

---Case Lighting---
2x Flexiglow (maybe) 6" Blue Cold Cathode Tubes with inverter
and I can also pick up a set of the Sunbeam LED case feet... still deciding on them as well.

continuing on...
---Noise Reduction---
trying to find a rubber seal to go around the inside of the door
also going to seal up the punched antec holes on both sides - bondo perhaps... still gotta buy bondo...
and again try to reduce the vibrations on the HDD... still gotta decide what to do there...

---Wire Management---
Inside the case... I considered following the wire management guide I found here... http://www.moddershq.net/guides.asp?guideid=12 but I thought to myself... as nice as it looks... that's way too much hassel if I want to take a part back out... I'm still looking around... I may have to come up with something unique... or there's always this one... http://www.casemodgod.com/cable_management.htm
Outside the Case... serious Wire management issues... I need to tidy up the powerboard... and I have 6 satellites at the moment around my room... plus some headphones with a LONG-ASS wire...

---Windows---
Refer to my pic... http://www.thetechlounge.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7 I'll build a support for the top window using right angled aluminium bars and the left over metal from cutting out the hole where it will go...

---Tools---
so far i have my dremel, with numerous attachments
a pop rivet gun
tin snips
hobby knife
french curves
a sharpie
soldering iron with solder
needle nosed pliers...
a car adaptor kit for my cd play... hey no way I was looking for that...
a bendy bit of rubber
a hobby knife kit
needle files (of which I've already managed to snap one using it to cut apart a DVD case after JB Hi-Fi forgot to remove the locking mechanism - i know... I abused it... )

[Dyrewolph]

Ohh yeah... almost forgot...

As I dont have enough cash to blow on a video card and CPU AND a new M/b (and probably ram considering i just spent AU$500 on new corsair pc3200 xl-pro's), I'm going to swap out the current P4 2.4G CPU for a socket 476 P4 3.4G Prescott (which will still fit into my socket 478 Asus P4C800 Deluxe M/B) and an 256M GeXcube ATI X800 Pro AGP (again sticking with the same M/B)

[Dyrewolph]

uhh... what happened to my quick reply saying i was gonna go buy a new cpu and video card to replace my current ones as well?... ahh well

[Dyrewolph]

ohh there it is lol... new page... *little light goes on* i'm not blonde!

[Dyrewolph]

Taped up the side panel today... figured it was something easy to do while I sat on here...

As i dont own a camera... Paint is the medium I'm bringing this update to you in... I wont be cutting out the red parts (i think that's obvious).

this is what I have marked out on the case so far. I am yet to transfer the wolphy pic to the case in the desired location.

I've done two layers of masking tape... and might I add... if you can't find the thick (ie 1.5" thick rolls at your local convenience store... dont buy the 3/4" roll... it takes ages to tape up the panels... life experience here!!!)

so yeah... next step... print out a pic of the wolfy at as close to the correct scale as i can...

ohh and in the pic... I've used the scale of 10 pixels = 100 mm's (3.3" i think)... metric... so bite me...

if you're wondering why I only left 2cm's at the top of the panel... its because of the stamped out Antec logo. I'm removing it... :-)

anyhow... lets hope there's no problems... from what I can see on the internals... it wont be a problem to go that high.

[Dyrewolph]

i'm tired... my posts will be disjointed...

[Dyrewolph]

andrew (a guy from work) is now unable to pick up my water cooling kit in china... neither of us bothered looking for a chinese reseller of the parts until last night and as there's none listed on the polarflo website... we can't be bothered doing it that way... fortunately I've asked a certain someone to give me a hand and he's agreed. I'll let him stay annonymous though.

2 weeks from now I should have the proper bank balance and I'll order the parts and send over the money then... If all goes to plan, 2 weeks after that I may be 1 utterly awesome watercooling kit closer to having my ideal PC.

[Dyrewolph]

also... the fan I had selected for my power supply mod is inappropriate (running at 30dba...) so... for now I'm going to use one of my standard 120mm antec case fans to begin the mod and once I select the desired fan I'll swap them over.

I've found a shop here in south-east qld... (only an hours drive away) that sells the 6" cold cathode tubes that I want... i'm hoping I can find some other parts there but we'll see...

[Dyrewolph]

I think I have also found a plastics shop that will be able to sell me sheets of acrylic... also within 45 minutes driving distance. I'm not sure of the price yet though so I'll keep looking.

On a side note... thanks for the virus J2T... my computers shat itself ever since I watched the matrix ping pong thing... crap thing was I didn't even get to watch it... :twisted: fun!

[Kurtis]

you need to get a cheap digital camera bro...

[Dyrewolph]

you need to get a cheap digital camera bro...
no kidding... I can't even use my sisters cell-phone... she's taken it back to perth... my bro's is broke... my other sis's cable is missing... :shock:

[Dyrewolph]

ohh yeah and here's some stuff I was fiddling around with in paint at lunch time.
I'm not 100% sure of how the tubing on the watercooling fits together but I was bored and I figured this was how common sense would fit it together.

[Dyrewolph]

inside of case painted black

[Dyrewolph]

and with the window...

[Dyrewolph]

and I know the proportions of the case are WAY off... but it was lunch time and I didn't have a sonata sitting infront of me... >.<

[handrail]

needs more cowbell.

[Dyrewolph]

needs more cowbell.
whoosh... straight over my head... no idea what that means... none at all... :shock:

[Kurtis]

no kidding... I can't even use my sisters cell-phone... she's taken it back to perth... my bro's is broke... my other sis's cable is missing... :shock:

when you give me money for water cooling stuff to send to you, why don't you give me a little extra so I can get you a cheap digicam too? talk to me on MSN about it

[Dyrewolph]

well i would if you weren't always afk :twisted:

[Brian]

Kurtis AFK? nooo.... He's just playing Counter Strike ;-) He's even online on his laptop when he's at school. The only time he is AFK is when he's sleeping.

[Kurtis]

actually usually i am online in my sleep too... i wake up and i'm like whoa, did that article edit itself? ;-)

[Rich]

That would certainly explain a few things....

[Dyrewolph]

tired... going to bed early... starting at 8am tomorrow morning but finishing at 12... no work tonight

[MaNiAk21]

Dyre, have I ever mentioned that you are a master of Paint? You are. Or you aren't and I'm just too lazy to put so much work into such a simple program.

[Dyrewolph]

why thank you, my maniacal friend. :-D

[Dyrewolph]

10 minutes in PSP with that wolfy background pick i posted in the wallpaper thread... here's my template... now to find my printer power supply and cable to my PC and print it out to scale (PSP said it should be 27cm's high when printed at the current size)

[MaNiAk21]

(PSP said it should be 27cm's high when printed at the current size)

Eek! But.. but I'm American, please sir, have mercy on my meager understanding of measurment.. you're making too much sense. Convert, convert, convert... *waits for it* 10.5", yes.

[Dyrewolph]

printed... transfered to the side panel... ready to cut. decided to glue it to the masking tape then trace around it then pull it back off... wasn't thinking and used the superglue that I bought for my warhammer models... so when i pulled it off i pulled half the sticky tape off as well... but it's alright I stuck it back down, cut around the inside of the template with an hobby knife and pulled the top layer of masking tape off there... the edges were fine because I didn't glue them right down... just reapplied another layer of tape over the whole lot and drew around the the lines that showed through...

[Dyrewolph]

I placed the wolfy about 1/2" from the right hand side inner border of the previous drawn window edge... so that he covers mostly the hard drive and DVD drive bays... I would have liked to remove more from the left hand side but I dont want to remove too much metal from around the door locking mechanism. Personally though, if anyone from Antec is reading this, if we have thumb screws we dont need the little plastic door lock.

[Kurtis]

um... even if the thumbscrews are taken out i don't think you can take the door off if it is locked... of course you could if you REALLY wanted to, but u get my point

[Dyrewolph]

Personally though

personal opinion...

[Kurtis]

um if your opinion is WRONG... which I just proved... lol whatever

[Dyrewolph]

how can an opinion be wrong... :?: its a personal belief...

Ithink if we have the thumbscrews we dont NEED the door lock...

[Dyrewolph]

I like peanut butter, peanut butter is t3h yummy

[Dyrewolph]

mmm peanut butter... [Kurtis removed the last post and replaced it with the peanut butter comment]

[Kurtis]

technically... i just edited your post :-P

[Dyrewolph]

it made too much sense for him... he didn't like being wrong

[Dyrewolph]

it made too much sense for him... he didn't like being wrong
hehehe reposts before he edits it

[Dyrewolph]

anyhow back on to the project log...

get to dremel it today but first I'm gonna go buy that dodgy disposable camera i was talking about

[Dyrewolph]

Decided to cut this out and place it on a spare front bezel panel and see what it looks like... Will light it up with blue leds...

[Dyrewolph]

the bezel is mostly cut... just gotta file and sand it and then figure out how I'm going to put the acrylic on it... :-)

[Dyrewolph]

ohh yeah and if you want to know why my pics are mostly red... my printers out of black ink so I'm printing everything in red :twisted:

[Kurtis]

ha... :lol:

[Dyrewolph]

stuffed up on the Bezel... is that the right spelling? anyhow... I slipped and cut the plastic between two letters a few hours ago and have spent the time since then starting over... this is my last spare one so hopefully I wont mess up

[Kurtis]

lol. good luck :)

and don't forget, you can use bondo to fix mistakes...

[Dyrewolph]

lol except I dont own any bondo...

[Kurtis]

well go buy some lol, duh!

i don't have any food, so I guess I'll starve... <smack!>

[Dyrewolph]

see now if you hadn't spent money on bondo you probably could afford food... :twisted:

[PennyManDeux]

Hmm... Why don't you guys just talk on AIM or something? :-P

[Kurtis]

lol actually he IMs me a lot... at one point i had to tell him to stop IMing me every time and post more on the forums, i couldn't get any work done :-P

[Dyrewolph]

lol actually he IMs me a lot... at one point i had to tell him to stop IMing me every time and post more on the forums, i couldn't get any work done :-P

Response 1 - Yeah Yeah blame it on me...

Response 2 - At least that's the excuse he's telling everyone...

[Kurtis]

lol... if you were really annoying I could just block you, so count your blessings! :-D

[Dyrewolph]

Attempt #2 on the bezel is coming up nicely... I'm having the usual dramas with trying to file rounded shapes so that they retain their shape... and I snapped off part of the W but nothing superglue couldn't fix! I've got the W and the E 99% complete... The O is... an O but a bit wonky... the rest of it just need filing back to the lines... Front Bezel is i'd say... 85% complete in total... Tomorrow my bro and I are going to drive into Browns Plains so I'll stop by Bunnings and see if I can get some acrylic and hunt around for some nice looking screws to hold the window in... dont worry that's not all I have planned to hold the window in. Also, I just realised someone owe's me $450 so I can prolly pick up a nice digi camera tomorrow... just means I'll have to wait longer for the watercooling kit. Such is life... that part wont take too long to set up though I dont think... As long as I get the Bezel complete, and the window mostly cut out this week I'll be happy. I'll draft up the other side window next weekend if I dont get it done before my leave is over. Expect pics sometime soon!

[handrail]

so are you going to post pictures of this mod in progress or are you still mocking it up on M$ paint? :P

[Dyrewolph]

... read my last post...

[Kurtis]

he's too cheap to buy a camera lol

[Dyrewolph]

*just said I'm going to buy one... dont you people read?*

[Dyrewolph]

Happy?

Front Bezel... not finished...

[Dyrewolph]

And so you dont think that that's all I've been working on this week... Here's the side panel taped up with the template drawn on...

[Dyrewolph]

I love paint! This is how much I've cut out with three quarters of a Heavy Duty cutting wheel... for those of you who use your Dremel alot... I can't recomment the flexible shaft enough... with it I have about 100% more control over the direction and pressure applied...

EDIT: It was only 3/4s... I forgot I had used it previously

[Brian]

Cool. That wolf is going to look great! Just don't muck it up! :-P j/k

[Dyrewolph]

well dont jinx me then!

[Kurtis]

yeah the flexible shaft is something i'd probably want to get next time i work on a mod.

[Dyrewolph]

The all important "Use Safety Gear" shot... necessary in any case mod project log. It took me until page 8 to take one...

[Dyrewolph]

A... believe it or not... not paint drawn update on the cutting of the window after 2.75 Heavy Duty cutting wheels.

[Dyrewolph]

Where I'm doing all the power cutting (that is... aside from when I was dremelling my bezel in my bedroom infront of the PC... :shock: what was i thinking?)

[Dyrewolph]

the dremel with the flexi-shaft attachment

[Dyrewolph]

I'm considering using these bolts to hold the window in, as well as some other things... I'm thinking... about 11 of them around the outside... three across the base, 3 up the right side, 3 across the top, and 2 on the left side around the lock

[Dyrewolph]

I'll make the bolts either black... or blue with a black washer...

[Kurtis]

lookin' good, keep up the good work, and yes dremelling in your bedroom is a bad idea! :-D

[Dyrewolph]

Todays effort after approximately 1.5 hrs dremelling... taking hour breaks every half hour... (hungry / thirsty / can't see past sweat on my goggles / addicted to the net)

[fenix]

Slack ass... u can try using a fine blade jigsaw for the straight edges to save time.... or u can spend about 2 dozen dremel grinder blades like i did :P if u need some perspex i still have some, but u are gonna have to come pick it up :D

if u want a tough/bold look, leave the nuts mounting the perspex unpainted ^^
and try and do a mirror finish on the paint job, it takes a lot of effort but its absolutely awlsome ^^

now get moving and finish that case slack ass :P

[Dyrewolph]

Lol heya tom... stick your machine up under the thread in the hardware forum buddy

EDIT: It wasn't under hardware / software... it was in modding & more...
http://www.thetechlounge.com/forum/showthread.php?p=13269#post13269

[fenix]

lol sif i would do that rite after a long road trip :P besides, my case sux :P

just a tip.... dont drive 200kph over bumpty country road with soft suspension..... in fact... with any suspension....

[Dyrewolph]

dont worry... I dont have any suspension... left... :-P and my sisters car wont go 200kph (no idea what that is in miles... too lazy to look)

[Brian]

Welcome aboard fenix. C'mon post you machine! Let's see what you got!

[Dyrewolph]

another update should be coming in the next 2 hours... as soon as my fingers stop being numb o.0... I'll go back out and cut the rest of the window... I've completely cut out the wolf, only leaving attached in 3 places at the base... All I have left to do is cut the straight edge down the right hand side, and the curves at the top and bottom of that... and then clean up the right side of the wolfy... and then just the tiny holes inside the wolfy and then the side panel is cut.

[Dyrewolph]

Okay I took these just to show Kurtis in MSN but decided to post them up anyhow...

The almost finished window cut out

[Dyrewolph]

Another closer shot

[Dyrewolph]

And finally, the difference in size between the dremel and the flexi-shaft... you can use the flexishaft EASILY with one hand...

[Kurtis]

looking good, can't wait to see a window mounted in that panel

[Dyrewolph]

bleh stomach ache... >.> <.< am I dying? X.X

[Dyrewolph]

looking good, can't wait to see a window mounted in that panel


What? You mean you cant see that completely transparent sheet of acrylic already mounted in there? Wow... simply amazing... teeheeheee just kidding... I still have to buy the acrylic o.0 or get that perspex from tom...

[Dyrewolph]

Well I didn't get home until after dark today so that's probably going to be the trend for the rest of the week... wont get much done in that case... at least in terms of cutting metal... but hey... I might go back to working on the bezel in the evenings

[Dyrewolph]

okay played around with the dremel some more tonight (isn't it FUN!!!) and put some sort of little green grinding (i assume) stone on it... turned it up to high speed and mucked around with melting plastic on the front bezel... but it melted really slow so it was good for starting to even out those letters... here's another pic...

EDIT: I think the distortion on my monitor's because i had Macro turned on...

[Dyrewolph]

Okay... some really really sad news... I picked up myself an Intel P4 Prescott 3.4E Ghz Socket 478 CPU today and installed it... started the PC up and...
well i kinda realised partway through turning the power on that the video card wasn't plugged into the molex connector and without thinking... plugged it in... instant shutdown...

I wasn't paying attention so I dont know if the screen turned on at all the first time... but now it doesn't...

Monitors getting power... the RAM's getting power (lil activity leds are all lighting up)... therefore the Mobo has power (obviously)... CPU fan is running... and after about 20 seconds... the fan on the video card starts spinning

This leads me to think one of two things has happened...
1) I killed the video card... no big deal... getting a new one in about 3 weeks anyhow... (earlier now as i can probably convince mum & dad to lend me a few hundred bucks)

or

2) I fried the AGP port on the motherboard... A real bitch because if I knew I'd be replacing the mobo I woulda swapped to AMD prior to buying the CPU... also means my video card will take longer to get because I'll need the new motherboard first...

Unfortunately my brother's being an ass and wont let my try my video card in his system, or his video card in my system... at least until tomorrow morning...

[fenix]

*&@)@&#^(@*#^@)(&#@#+&@#(
MFG u have so much time on ur hand :'( I am still flat out learning god damn embedded programming and crap like digital system designs :'( not fun at all!@#$!!@#!@#!@# I need time to flex my n800 :'( (Back to coding...)p.s no time to post my comp yet, maybe later, but here are some specs

AMD 64bit 3000+
Abit 3rd eye
2x512 geil 400 ddr in dual chan
sapphire n800pro
venus 12 sink
108D burner
mod omni 65 bucks case
6x panaflow fan
some rice neons
maxtor diamond +9 sata 200gig

think thats it >.<

back to coding...

[CrimsonSky]

The card has undercurrent protection and should have throttled down when it got the signal that the power was unplugged...I don't know what card your using but all hope shouldnt be lost--try clearing the CMOS? " I've removed the plug from my Verto 5950 card while in windows, and all I get was a pop-up warning that the card was throttling down due to loss of power--

I'd say the problem is the new CPU--either installation prob, or the heatsink isnt on correctly. P4's will shut you down fast if it senses that not enough heat is being drawn off of it---even on startup

[CrimsonSky]

p.s. Love the side panel cut-out!!

[Dyrewolph]

Will try running a pedistal fan straight at the CPU... gimme a bit... then when andrew wakes up will try swapping the vid. cards...

[Dyrewolph]

no such luck... fan did nothing... >.< will still try the video card though... if my video card works in his PC... and his doesn't work in mine... then... I'll buy a new motherboard...

[SlipSand]

Need an Asus A7N8X-D rev2? I'm selling mine.

[Dyrewolph]

As I can't do much else in terms of actually using the PC... I've decided to start working on some wire management... I've taken literally everything off the PC shell... pics are included... I'm in the middle of planning. This will involve cutting and soldering wires to the length... superglue... and stuff I havent even thought of yet...

[Dyrewolph]

The PC parts... dont comment on my laziness and lack of anti-static... I'm not in the mood for it... :evil:

[Dyrewolph]

PSU has been removed...

[Dyrewolph]

The card has undercurrent protection and should have throttled down when it got the signal that the power was unplugged...I don't know what card your using but all hope shouldnt be lost

I've seen this before... and my card usually does do it... but... the thing is... the card was plugged into the board... and while the molex connector had power... I tried plugging it in... got a bit of a spark...

[Rich]

The last time I saw a spark from a computer smoke began pouring from the power supply. Sparks are never good things....

[Kurtis]

i've actually done something similar to that before and all seemed to be well after restarting the computer.

as a general rule though, try not to be lazy and take precautions, cuz stupid mistakes are often the expensive ones :-P

[Dyrewolph]

wish it were that simple... anyhow going to try and buy a new mobo sometime soon and a new video card... if it still dont work then... then a new PSU...

[Dyrewolph]

http://www.thediscshop.com.au/moreInfo.cgi?cat=PSU-ULT-XCONN&page=power

if i do need to get a new PSU then I'm looking at this... read no reviews yet though

[Dyrewolph]

another adventure in the project!!!

Okay it all happened today... about an hour ago... I was busy tidying up the wires in the case and I decided to put everything in and check to make sure the fans still worked (one didn't but that's besides the point...) So I went ahead and put everything back in.

Here's half of it back in...

[Dyrewolph]

and another one just because I felt like it...

[Dyrewolph]

And here's... something... I forgot... ohh right the stuff that hadn't been put in yet at the time of the INCIDENT

[Dyrewolph]

anyhow... back on with the story... set up the necessary stuff to get it up and running enough to check the fans... [ie the mobo... cpu... ram... etc... just enough...] and threw in the video card as well just in case it decided to work...

Plugged it all in and hit the on-switch... :-)

Well... I sat there for a bit and noticed something odd... I didn't have an orange LED there... hey wait... its a bit bright to be an LED that I wouldn't have noticed before... take a look for yourselves...

[Dyrewolph]

Okay so my motherboard caught on fire... no laughing!! it happens to the best of us!

:-) good news is I get to go looking for a new mobo and a new video card :-)

pity it didn't happen last week...

[Kurtis]

lol holy crap wolphie... how'd you manage to do that? is that from a motherboard standoff or did you do that by plugging something in while it was running?

[Dyrewolph]

lol beats me but as I had ruined it i decided to turn it BACK ON to show you guys... I kinda forgot to take everything out before turning it back on again but ohh well... I think I kinda need sleep

[fenix]

My god fraser.....


me and clancy leave u alone for a moment and ur mobo caught fire......

that thing in the foto is an LED, and the reason its on now is probably due to some sort of hardware config difference from ur original setup.... RTFM to find out ;)

I have a passively cooled Volcano II MX200 if u need it, and I should have a few PSU as well... in fact.... i also have a new mobo spare... but its amd... as for power supply, I would stick to antec true powers.... those brands from discshop is crap.... in fact... u are doomed for eternity for buying from discshop for anything other discs.... or disc pockets....
p.s when i post my previous post i didnt realise u are in so much shit :P

[Dyrewolph]

#1 - umm... dumbass... if that's an LED... then why has my mobo now got nice black burn marks around it (in particular directly above it)...

#2 - I haven't bought anything form The Disc Shop... I only used that site as a link to the power supply I was considering buying...

#3 - I've seen you three... maybe four times since high school... wouldn't exactly say you're hanging around hovering over my shoulder... and I've seen clancy less than you...

#4 - I dont need your stuff... I'm buying my own o.0

#5 - this is all in the name of fun... who cares if a mobo catches on fire?

[Dyrewolph]

Decided upon a new mobo...
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_Spec_GA-8KNXP%20Ultra-64.htm

anyone had one? any know of anyone who has?

[Dyrewolph]

well I sent off an email to a local supplier to see if they can order me in one of the boards... they dont open for another hour yet. I can probably get it either this tuesday or the next tuesday... at least it'll give me a chance to get some other stuff done that I have been neglecting.

[Dyrewolph]

Okay... I got two things to say...

#1... - I found a supplier and may be able to get it ordered in, in as little as two weeks. Catch is... so far they dont know the price.

#2... - How come Crimson gets his mods stickied instantly? Not fair (no offence Crimson)

[Kurtis]

lol because crimson sky's mods are absolutely amazing, and you are only a "nose-picking underling" according to your custom user title :-D

[PennyManDeux]

I like your project Dyrewolph. Keep the pics coming!

[Dyrewolph]

thanks Penny... I find it hard to work on the case at all during the week (I dont get home until about 6:30pm most nights...) so I end up having to stick to the weekends... and I got stuff on over the weekends mostly... so... yeah... but I'll try and clean that window up some this weekend!

Also I was doodling at lunch yesterday and trying to figure out how exactly I want the watercooling set-up.

I have a question... in what order should the parts go? Res, then pump, then rad, then CPU block, then both GPU and chipset, then a Y joint, then back to the res?

[Kurtis]

res, rad, pump, cpu, gpu/chipset, back to res

i think that's how it should go. haven't done water cooling myself in a while though so i could be wrong :-P but i'm pretty sure that the rad should come before the pump. otherwise it's gonna screw up the flow i think.

[Brian]

Honestly, it doesn't matter what order they are in. There are hard-core water cooling ppl who will argue that, but the temperature throughout the entire loop is only negligibly different. I'd be surprised if the order of the components made more than a 0.1 degree difference. Just set it up however it is convenient for you.

[Kurtis]

i tend to agree with brian, but i do think the rad is supposed to come before the pump. remember, the pump is creating the flow, and the radiator will disrupt that flow majorly i think.

and actually i think i was mistaken, what i meant to say for the order was:

pump > cpu > gpu/chipset > rad > res --> back to pump

i think that would give you the best flow.

[Brian]

The rad will slow down the flow, but it slows down the flow in the entire loop. It won't go slow in one part and fast in another. It is a constant flow throughout the entire loop.

[Kurtis]

you may be right, but i would still put it in that order anyways. i have a feeling you would hear a lot of gurgling and shit if the pump was right in front of the rad in the loop

[Brian]

gurgling? gurgling noises would require air bubbles in the loop, and unless the pump itself is pushing air, which it shouldn't if you bleed the loop, no air will be entering the rad and no gurgling noises will occur. Plus, if there are air bubbles in the loop, they will make gurgling noises anywhere in the loop.

Dyrewolph, just set it up however it fits your system. It’s simple physics. Kurtis is just trying making it more complicated for some reason. :-P

[Kurtis]

THERE WILL BE GURGLING AND IT WILL BE VERY ANNOYING!

kurtis has spoken.

[Dyrewolph]

well... simple solution... I'll set it up outside the case... and have a test run hehehe...

[Dyrewolph]

I ordered my replacement motherboard yesterday. It seems that all the half-decent boards for the old socket 478 Prescott's were made back in 2003... so... i guess that equals a price drop :-)

I originally opted for the Gigabyte GA-8KNXP Ultra-64 but have since learned it is a discontinued product and no longer sold.

So I've had a quick look through the intel compatibility list again and decided upon an Abit IC7-G with the 875 canterwood chipset. I've read quite a few reviews... the majority of them said it was an excellent overclocker. After ordering and paying for the board I read a few more and a few reviewers had a few issues with the board being a little slower than the Asus P4C800 Deluxe (asus's equivalent to the abit board) in benchmarking but it wasn't noticable in everyday use. If I remember correctly, the difference in a few of the reviews was within something like 3-4 frames during most of the benchmarking games.

My biggest concern was that I haven't been able to find a review newer than late 2003 so I dont know how they compare with any of the more recent boards. I'm not concerned though. If I have too much trouble with it... I'll set it up as a file server and fit out a brand spanking new system.

On to todays ramblings (I've been neglecting that thread).

[Dyrewolph]

Ohh yeah and I should have enough dosh left to order my Antec Neo 480W modular PSU this week!

[Kurtis]

ABIT iC7-G is a good one.

[handrail]

dosh? that's new ozzie slang to me.

/runs to ozzie dictionary.



"Dosh is a slang term meaning “money”. The earliest written citation is from 1953 – but it almost certainly existed as part of spoken English long before that. Jonathan Green, in his monumental dictionary of slang, says the dosh almost certainly comes from “doss” meaning “a place to sleep”. A common lodging house was called a “doss house” from the 18th century, and “to doss down” meant to find somewhere to sleep. This usage probably goes back to the Late Latin dossum or dorsum meaning “back”. Dosh is an English dialect pronunciation of “doss”, and if you had the money needed to pay for your accommodation, then you had “doss” or dosh. By extension, and over time, dosh came to mean simply money. The word first appeared in the US in the 1850s. Shortly afterwards it disappears from Britain, only to reappear (having been reimported from the US) in the 1950s."

[J2T]

lol, class dismissed. :mrgreen:

[Dyrewolph]

good work brad =)

[Dyrewolph]

all ordered... saturday I clean up the inside of the case and pre-arrange things like fan wires... etc... saturday night... got a party to go to ... sunday I'll refit the PC... hopefully this time there wont be any... complications...

[CrimsonSky]

I'd like to use that Antec Neo PSU in my Nighthawk mod---I'll be curious about your impressions with it when you get it.

[Kurtis]

The Antec NeoPower is quite nice. I've actually got one in my Athlon64 rig. It's great for getting rid of cable clutter, and we all know Antec makes high quality PSUs.

[Dyrewolph]

I love the NeoPower... very nice.. very clean. My only suggestion for improvement would be... as I only have 1 device that requires a molex connection, and 1 floppy disk drive... It's irritating having to use one of the cables designed to support 3 drives on a molex connector etc... I suppose its not a problem if you intend on plugging in fans and a reobus or something... or lights... so hey... when I do the lights... it'll be all good!

Ohh yeah and I managed to mess things up already... I played around in Bios... time to reset it heehee... well maybe in the morning when I'm awake enough to see the screen...

PS it booted first go... but windows was really unstable. I dunno what the hell I managed to do but it made a mess. Ahh well... I'll wipe the G: (system) and reinstall... the majority of my stuff's on the H: (data) anyhow so it'll all be good.

[Dyrewolph]

computers up and running... not bad!

only thing I'm having trouble now is connecting to the net... ever since I installed SP2 I've had issues with it dialing my ISP and then saying Failed to Connect to Remote Computer or some nonsense...

[Dyrewolph]

Back up and running after a format of the what-is-now-C:

still gotta reinstall all me games and stuff but for now I'm happy with it.

[Dyrewolph]

well today I've decided to do a little more planning on my case and figure out how the screws are going to look... so... I'm going to be playing around in paint shop pro and colouring them and looking at placement... the results will be posted here as usual

[Dyrewolph]

okay i played around in PSP... used distortion mesh to fit the window over a pic of my case... added a transparent blue 'acrylic sheet' to it... and then placed some bolts around the window... I dont think the scale of the bolts are right... they're only 1/8th of an inch in diametre so they should really be a lot smaller on the pic... I dunno whether I like the way it turned out... I'll have to paint one and then take another pic and see how it looks as different colors...

EDIT: sorry guys I uploaded the wrong pic

EDIT 2: before i get asked again... PSP = paint shop pro

EDIT 3: by the way... it looks a little untidy because its hard to keep the proportions correct when working with PSP's distortion meshes... also the acrylic on the actual case will be clear and there will be between 2 and 4 six inch blue cold cathode tubes and possibly a UV tube as well.

[tombf2g]

The wolf looks cool, impressive. Hope it looks the same when its really made.

[Dyrewolph]

thanks... i can only hope it looks even half that good when its finished...

[Kurtis]

dw, i think that you should probably use some inconspicuous bolts on the sidepanel for the window, and painting them black to match the case would be good too i think. it looks like silver bolts will look strange on the black panel

[Brian]

Or if he uses a chrome theme elsewhere on the case, he can polish up the bolts til they look chrome. That might look good with black.

[PennyManDeux]

Less photoshopping more modding!

j/k, go at your own pace :-)

[Dyrewolph]

I've been considering a few options...

black bolts & black washers...
blue bolts & blue washers (to fit in with the blue lights)
black bolts & blue washers....
blue bolts & black washers...
standard bolts & black washers (the area covered by the bolts will be a lot smaller)

[Dyrewolph]

ohh yeah and after having another look at the bolts they are about that size (if you take into consideration the washers)

[IronSight]

I agree with Kurtis, the silver bolts contrast too much.

[Kurtis]

I still say black and black for bolts/washers because on this sort of a mod you don't want the bolts to attract attention. you want that moreso in industrial type mods. just my 2 cents tho :)

[Dyrewolph]

i agree... but I'll experiement... if I do decide to use blue anything I'll make sure its dark blue

[Dyrewolph]

Other side of the case...

this is a screen shot from the 'Orphan' anime series... this is called a wolven.

[Dyrewolph]

okay thought i had posted last night but must have fallen asleep mid-post... finished dremelling the case side panel last night... moved on to filing...

what do you guys think of possibly adding modders mesh to that side panel just to give it a bit of an interesting look... i'd be placing acrylic behind it as well so basically i'd go for slightly larger holes to let more light through?

[Kurtis]

that might be cool looking...

[Dyrewolph]

Okay went to supercheap auto today... needed windscreen wipers for the car so... while we were there... we picked up parts of dads birthday present... windscreen wipers (go figure?) and... paint :-D
only had grey primer but so I got that anyhow and some black gloss enamel and some clear gloss enamel... so once I finish filing the side panel you get some nice groovy pics to look at... next stop... acrylic shop!

[Dyrewolph]

okay so the side panel sat in the shed and careless family members decided to place heavy objects on it... its bent in places and whatnot... so mod terminated.

new idea on its way but no promises yet.

[Brian]

That sucks. Sorry to hear. Sounds similar to what happened to Kurtis' mod... was in the garage and a cat knocked it over and ruined the outside.

[Kurtis]

:( damn cats. the paint looked good too til they chipped it and stuff. i was pissed at chris for a while cuz of it til i realized it was cats heh

btw brian... i think you're not really planning on finishing ur mod, but if you want i'd be more than happy to work with you on it to finish it, even if you wanna change up the design. it was looking good

[Dyrewolph]

Dont worry Brian... I have bigger and better plans now...

Not giving too much away at this stage because... well... to put it frankly... I dont know if I'll have better luck at the new one. It depends on my finances and motivation and stuff (obviously)...

Well actually... I'll give it all away... just dont be disappointed if I fail miserably.

Some of you would know what Warhammer is... I'd go so far as to venture a guess that almost everyone who frequently visits our website would at least have an inkling about what it is...

So... I guess in a slightly similar fashion to Paul's DOOM3 mod... I'm going to be doing a "fanart" case for Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War.

The particular model that I have chosen (and yes I have chosen already) to recreate to scale, is this little number.
http://oz.games-workshop.com/games/40k/spacemarines/catalog/spacemarines/images/SMRNDreadnought_large.gif

The space marine Dreadnought :-)

I'll be replacing the left weapon system (what is currently the missile launcher on the above pic) with the standard melee weapon (a mechanical arm with a rotating kinda... thing on the end of it. I'll be keeping the Lascannon (that linked cannon in the pic)

At a scale big enough to house a motherboard horizontally, it should stand about 62.5cm tall (not including base) and about 62.5cd deep, and 81.5cm wide. granted this is a little large for a PC and definately not portable (i wasn't planning to take it lanning...) but it should be fun to build.

This one, I think, I will be a little more enthusiastic about, because I really love Dawn of War and the other case kinda seemed a little... mediocre in its design and planning...

Anyhow... we shall see...

[Kurtis]

heh, i thought of doing a mech pc once, but stopped in my tracks during the sketch process just because it would be so massive :-P

[the man]

Okay... I've been bouncing ideas off Kurtis for a few months and he's finally convinced me to start up a new thread for them.

Done...

You'll have to wait for me to make another post with some of my ideas though... right now... Dinner... Not bad. I like the animal theme