Blood Lust - BuffaloBoy's FIRST EVER project log!

[BuffaloBoy]

Well, I've been planning this forever, and it officially starts tonight. I just placed an order on a White AMS Gmono midtower (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-180-012&depa=0) from Newegg.com. I will be visiting home next weekend for about 4 days, and I hope to get most of the cutting done. I'll post a pic of the cheesy plans I drew in MS paint.

This is the first project log I've ever posted. I'll try to get pix as soon as I can, and keep you guys up to date, but since I go to school 250 miles away from my workshop and tools, I will only get to work on it every other week or so, but Thanksgiving break and Christmas breaks will hopefully bring some major progress.

The goals of the project are as follows: to create a computer that will make people drool, is powerful enough to run most games popular at LAN parties, and to serve as a dedicated server or a fileserver. It has to be quiet enough to be able to sleep in the same room with it while it is running (silenced harddrives, 120mm fans @ 5v, etc). Hence the single LED fan. I am avoiding CCFL's on this one because it will eventually be left on 24/7 as a server, where it will be unattended most of the time, and I've heard horror stories of CCFL inverters causing fires. While this may be rare, I dont want to be burnin' anything down, especially my nice case.

Basically the idea is to make the case look like it's been attacked by some sort of wild animal...a huge gash in the top panel, a chunk torn out of the side where the window is located, and four claw scratches down the motherboard side. All cuts will be backed with plexi, and hand painted with the blood detail. The chassis will be painted solid red, as will the power supply (an Antec unit modified to fit a 120mm red LED fan in the bottom, the case's only source of interior light). The paint will be automotive-quality, with several coats being applied and wetsanded. This will be my first attempt at painting anything somewhat professionally, and I hope that I can get it right, any painting tips would be GREATLY appreciated.

Here's the pic, it's only a preliminary sketch of what I envision for the final project. The sketch I drew in my notebook in Psychology class looks a lot better, but I dont have a scanner, lol.

[mnpctech]

I've heard horror stories of CCFL inverters causing fires. While this may be rare, I dont want to be burnin' anything down, especially my nice case.

Invertors I've never had problem with, but I always wrap them in heatshrink for safety. I've got photo somewhere of 4" CC bulb I was working igniting. It both scared me and pissed me off :rant: Cheap labor crap.

Looking at your designs, my first thought is accentuating both the blood and claw holes. Think cartoony... so they really stand out for viewer.

[Nexxo]

I've heard horror stories of CCFL inverters causing fires.
If you look at EL Wire Cheap.com (http://www.elwirecheap.com/index.html) you'll find CCFL inverters wrapped in a nice shiny metal housing. Aside from looking good, it would contain any fires that might occur. I've got some and they run fine. You have to remember though never to have inverters plugged into the power supply without connecting a CCFL to the other side --inverters don't like that at all...

Mod sounds interesting though --a sort of Silent Hill/Resident Evil thing? I'd play it understated with the "injuries". Mostly white, perhaps one stylised gash and some dynamic blood splatter.

If you want the machine to be quiet and air-cooled, you'll have to make some compromises... I faced similar choices with Metaversa, so here's my two pence of experience: If you use HDD silencing you may need to use Western Digital JB or Maxtor Maxline series drives, as they run relatively coolest of all brands out there. Remember: it is easier to get rid of noise than heat. Alternatively go for some Seagates, which are not the fastest, but so quiet you won't need silencing. Forget Raptors, too hot to silence, too noisy to run free. Go to Storage Review (http://www.storagereview.com/) for more info on these variables.

Your next choice will be the CPU cooler. I hear good things about the Asus Star Ice in terms of noise/performance ratio, and the fan can be regulated. The Coolermaster Hyper is good also, but not better, won't fit on all boards. Be prepared to run Speedfan and MBM (or else one of those new digital baybusses) to automatically balance temperature and noise for you.

Your choic of mobo may depend a bit on it having a chunky heatsink (without fan) on the Northbridge. Else slap on a Zalman passive heatsink --from personal experience I can say they work great. The new Abits for P4 and Athlon 64 are good because they have a big NB heatsink, and they are eminently overclockable, being able to lock the PCI/AGP bus.

Consider the airflow in your case. Find a way to funnel cold air directly to your CPU sink and hot air straight out, but also maintain a steady breeze through the case overall for other mobo components like the voltage regulators. Forget the crap about "positive" or "negative" air pressure --it doesn't work and just causes turbulence (=noise). Just keep airflow balanced, and your fans as big and slow as possible. ;)

[Fibbles]

AWESOME! An "Attacked by a Werewolf" mod!

When you see those nice light up and removable blade lightsabers, they use EL wires or tape. Quite a few cheap places would shove the electronics into a plastic or metal handle and when you held it in your hand and turned it on, BOOM, the shock would hurt and make you throw the saber. Cheap EL sabers may look nice, but always ask the seller is he heatshrinked it or not. :mellow:

[Darv]

Very cool idea for a case! Good luck with it :)

[BuffaloBoy]

Thanks for all the feedback, guys!

@ Nexxo:

For harddrives, I have a 160GB Seagate that I'm going to throw in there for now, it's a quiet drive and it's pretty fast. My idea for the heatsink is to get another Alpha (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-112-010&depa=1) heatsink and an adapter so I can use a 120mm fan on it, or use ducting and hook it directly to the exhaust fan on the back of the case, since these heatsinks seem to work better with the fan sucking air off of them. Also, i will look for a motherboard with a passive Northbridge heatsink. The Abit IS-7 I am using now has a fan on the northbridge (40mm @ 6000RPM) and it's the loudest thing in there, especially now that it's bearings are dying.

Airflow will come from 2 120mm intakes, one in front and one on the side, both with filters, and 2 exhausts, one in back and one in the PSU. I want to have a little bit of positive pressure to keep dust from being sucked in the vents on the side panels. I ordered a 4-channel fan controller, I'm going to paint it red and stick it in the top 5-1/4 bay, also replacing it's blue LED's with red ones.

My Power Supply is a standard Antec unit. I am going to open it up, cut down the heatsinks and put a 120mm fan in the bottom of the power supply. Then I am going to cut out as much of the back as possible for improved airflow, filling the hole with some sort of grille/mesh material. I think I have some old speaker grilles I can use for that.

*edit: I want to keep the case's white color as the base color for my design. My question is, how do I prep the surface that I am going to be painting the second color over? Can I get away with just scuffing the surface, or must I prime the surface as well? Also, with the masking, I want to do more of the drip effect, like on the front drive bay, all the way around. How would one go about masking that? Would it be feasible to just lay down a strip of 2" tape and cut the outline with an X-acto knife? And I am going to clearcoat the entire unit, wetsanding it between each coat. Since I am a total n00b to painting, I have some basic questions: How long should I let it dry between coats, and how many coats should I use at each stage (primer/color/clear)?

*edit: here's a pic of what I hope the PSU will look like when finished.

[BuffaloBoy]

Well, here's kinda an update for ya. My case got to my house, but I was unable to do anything except unpack it because I had a very crappy weekend. Started out with having to bury my dog :( and then I came down with the sore throat from Hell...my doc's gonna call me tomorrow and tell me if its Strep throat, Mono or just an infection. Oh, well, here's some pix of my case, fresh out of the box. The finish isn't quite what I expected, but I figure some wetsanding and a couple coats of clearcoat ougtta fix that up.

[xedin0]

Nice gratuitous use of the Bawls bottle. I'm definately looking forward to watching this one progress.

[BuffaloBoy]

Well, I finally got around to posting pix of all the progress I made last weekend. The first thing I did was create the front intake...this was done with a hole saw in a drill press, which worked fine for the plexi, but since the holesaw was designed for wood, it wouldnt have worked too well on the steel plate, so I had to cut that by hand. Lines up pretty well, IMO. Its just a bit smaller than the 120mm fan I have mounted behind the hole.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00411.jpg

Next thing I did was cut out the fan grilles in the chassis. Note the round fan holes in the pic below, they originally had a steel "X" with a few rings that was stamped into the steel chassis...very restrictive, if you ask me, so I just took the jigsaw to it. The end result:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00412.jpg

With the cutting to the chassis being done, I began the painting process. I started by wetsanding the top until I saw bare metal, then primed it with my auto-body primer that claims to bond to metal. I then put on a couple good thick coats of Krylon Banner Red (no runs or sags, and it came out pretty smooth :D). I think it's much more attractive in red than it was in that boring primer gray.

This angle shows off the fan holes I cut out.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00415.jpg

Another angle, might give you a bit of an idea of the reflection quality (and it will be much, much better by the time I'm done)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00414.jpg

[mnpctech]

Lookin good BB! Yea, I like the red as well.

I'd mount filter in front or behind front intake fan. Unless you like dust cakes :blink: ;)

[Nexxo]

I'd mount filter in front or behind front intake fan. Unless you like dust cakes :blink: ;)
hmmm... dust cakes.... :p

[BuffaloBoy]

Both intake fans will get aluminum mesh filters mounted behind them (same ones I use on the machine I have now, I'm really happy with them). The front will likely have no grill, but I think I'm going to put something on the side, nothing fancy, maybe a steel wire grille painted red or something like that. The front and side fans have been painted with Chrome paint (actually looks more like cast/machined aluminum, which looks pretty kickass to me) and the exhaust layout has changed from 1x120 to 2x80mm red CoolerMasters. The power supply didnt have enough room inside for a 120mm fan (hits the power plug on the inside) so I ended up with a 80mm on the front next to where the power wires exit, and a 92mm in the bottom to hopefully draw heat away from the processor. The back is open for free flow of air out of the PSU, and I wired up a 3-pin fan connector to both fans, so I will be able to plug it into my fan controller and control the speed of the PSU fans manually.

[BuffaloBoy]

UPDATE!!!

Well, I got the chance to work on my case today, first thing I did was paint my 120mm LED fan. This is going in the front of my case. All I did was put a small square of masking tape over each LED, and painted away. Turned out pretty good, I think.

Chrome paint:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00452.jpg

Powered on:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00454.jpg

In the dark:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00453.jpg

I also got some wetsanding done on the top of the case, first 400 grit then 600, should be ready for clearcoat. Just have to go to the hardware store tomorrow and pick some up.

Reflection:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00449.jpg

And that's just at 600 grit!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00450.jpg

[BuffaloBoy]

Well, I think my fan controller is about done. Got some clearcoat on it last night, let it dry overnight and wetsanded it this morning.

3 good thick coats of clearcoat:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00448.jpg

Wetsanded & polished:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00455.jpg

Assembled:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00456.jpg

Now I'm off to the hardware store, need another can of clearcoat and some marking tape to re-sleeve my power supply wires (they are currently flourescent green and I need red). More pix to come later.

[mnpctech]

Lookin good there.

Are you still planning on the blood-esque paint design?

That is one big workshop :wub:

[BuffaloBoy]

Yep, still going mostly according to the original plan. I think I'll start hacking up the side panels as soon as I'm done with the chassis.

Yeah, I love my Dad's workshop. Big enough to fit an 18 foot camper plus a 10-person LAN party :D

I got the power supply sleeved, and some clearcoat on the case top, I'll post pix tomorrow since my Dad has the digicam at the moment.

[BuffaloBoy]

I probably won't be able to do any more painting this weekend since there's deer hanging in the garage (where I normally paint) and its way too cold to paint outside. So, I figured, why not put together what I have done and see how it looks? So I did. I got the power supply and fan controller hooked up, and hotwired the PSU with a paperclip (connect the green wire with any of the black wires).

Here's how it looks assembled:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00460.jpg

You might notice that the fan controller isnt flush to the front of the case, thats because its just a bit too wide to fit back into the hole in the front. Guess I need to do a bit of sanding.

View of the back:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00459.jpg

Those red CoolerMaster fans are awesome! Possibly the quietest 80mm fans I've ever used, and I love the color. Next on my list of things to do is get a wire fan grill for the power supply to keep fingers away from the electricity running around inside.

Front intake:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00461.jpg

Here's a pic with the cover off, you can see my quickie wire management job, and my awesome sleeving job (yes, I realize its pink, but most of it'll be hidden anyways, and given the choice of that or flourescent green, I chose the pink)

Inside:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00462.jpg

Flash off, view of the rear fans:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00463.jpg

[toby]

Lookin great keep up the good work

[Starbuck3733T]

Sweeeeeeeeeeet! Plans to keep that front white like that?

[BuffaloBoy]

Yep, the front'll stay white, except for the blood effects at the top, which will be on the surface of the plexi as opposed to on the steel plate underneath. I was considering painting the plexi white instead of leaving it clear, as I find the reflections around the edges of the clear plexi a bit distracting.

On another note, when I hooked everything up and turned it on, I was pleased with how quiet it is! With the fan controller turned all the way down, all the fans are just about silent and there is noticeable airflow moving through the case. I just hope the noise doesnt increase too much when I add dust filters and hard drives.

[Starbuck3733T]

dust filters usually don't make a noise difference unless they vibrate. get quiet drives (seagate cuda Vs, samsung spinpoints) and isolate their vibration and you'll be fine.

[Darv]

Looking cool. The red and white goes really well together.

Seagate HDD's are great but they do make quite a bit of noise when they are reading. But they are inaudible when they aren't doing accesing :wub:

[JBM]

I have 2 cuda's....what do you consider quiet?? Mine are almost silent.

I also have a maxtor and a western digital,they are alot louder.

[fillip]

I've got a Maxtor, a Cuda and a Deathstar.

Maxtor = loudest and hottest by far, Seagate super quiet but does make some noise on access, and the Hitachi is supremely quiet and cool - non of those high pitched noises reported with other units.

[BuffaloBoy]

I got a 160GB Seagate that I'll use. I think it's got an XP home install on it, but I'll likely format and partition it. Last time I had it running it was sitting on my desk hooked to my gaming rig so I could get some needed files off of it. I think it'll be quiet enough, and I found that even the seek noises are pretty quiet. As for the Hitachi's, they call em DeathStars for a reason...unless they've improved over the years. I'd like my hard drive to have a nice long life.

[fillip]

As for the Hitachi's, they call em DeathStars for a reason...unless they've improved over the years. I'd like my hard drive to have a nice long life.

That's funny because i heard they were called Deathstars for a completely different reason. :unsure:
Anyways, no probs as of yet.

[Da_Rude_Baboon]

yeah i thought they liked to self destruct. I have WD which are great drives but they develop a very annoying high pitched whine after a while. :rant:

[BuffaloBoy]

yeah i thought they liked to self destruct. Kinda what I was referring to ;)

[fillip]

Kinda what I was referring to ;)

I heard the name came out of a positive not something bad like short lifespan or self destruction

[fivecheebs]

iirc, the "deathstars" were originally made by IBM and the first couple of revisions suffered badly with a tell tale "click of death" shortly followed by mobid scilence. They have improved them no end and the hitachi models are, apparently, nice drives.

[BuffaloBoy]

Sorry to take so long, but I've been so busy with finals and all. I went through a total redesign a couple days ago, and I worked on my case ALL day today. Even sprung for a Black & Decker RTX and a 5-pack of Dremel cutting disks. Very nice tool.

Here's the new design:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/xwingcaseplan2.bmp

Got the front panel masked and painted.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00485.jpg

I had a cool idea for the trim around the power buttons. I played around with Paint awhile and came up with this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00486sm.jpg
I drew the stripes, added the labels and printed them out. Just for reference, there are about 85 pixels per inch in Paint :P

And the power supply is finally finished. There's an 80mm on the front, a 92mm on the bottom and a 3" hole in the back
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00482.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00483.jpg

I won't keep you waiting, here's a pic of my almost completed side panel. Just a little cleaning is needed to finish it up. You might notice that I rotated the X-wing a bit from the original plan. I was playing around with a silhouette that I made from a paper printout, and I decided that it looked approximately 10 times cooler this way.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00488.jpg

Here's a closer view. As you can see, I haven't quite mastered the curved line, but remember that this was all cut from the back. I did burn the paint in a couple places, but its not noticeable, and the finish is pretty much intact. I am more than happy with the results so far - keep in mind this is the first time I've ever touched a Dremel before.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00489.jpg

[zer0]

wow thats a cool idea to have the stripeing behind the powerbuttons its kinda like a control panel on some heavy equipment. and i agree the X-wing looks much better that way.

[biggiy6]

Nice it looks really good. Is the striping on the left side a bit crooked?

[BuffaloBoy]

yes it is, but that's just paper and its not glued down

Got things put back together
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00493.jpg

Hooked up the power supply and fired it up
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00494.jpg

One with the side panel on. Still need to put in my plexi
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00496.jpg

Front panel lit up all pretty like
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00495.jpg

Angle shot
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00498.jpg

[Starbuck3733T]

Hawt.

[mnpctech]

window design had me sold.

[BuffaloBoy]

I love color matched drives :D
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00499.jpg

could't get the tray off the drive though :unsure:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00502.jpg

here's where I sit so far:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/xwingcase.jpg

[mnpctech]

Red translucent acrylic window.... yay or nay?

[BuffaloBoy]

know where I can get red translucent acrylic?

[Starbuck3733T]

http://www.tapplastics.com/info/acrylic.php?#GP

Make sure you e-mail them rather than calling. the guys in the stores are clueless about custom cuts and shipping it out to people. plus they're a bit rude. (pricks!)

[biggiy6]

http://www.cuttingedgecasemods.com/windows/windows.htm

[mnpctech]

^ biggiy, that outfit doesn't state thickness of their acrylic <_< I was trying to compare their prices to others.... (or maybe I just need another cup of java)

[Fibbles]

http://www.cuttingedgecasemods.com/windows/windows.htm (http://www.cuttingedgecasemods.com/windows/windows.htm)I have a Jellybean radiant window from there. It's pretty nice looking really.

^ biggiy, that outfit doesn't state thickness of their acrylic <_< I was trying to compare their prices to others.... (or maybe I just need another cup of java)My window is 4mm thick.

[BuffaloBoy]

Well, I got the plexi in the window today. I wanted a red tinted look, and I didnt want to find and pay for tinted plexi, so I looked for some of that colored cellophane wrap. I found this at Smiths - clear plastic gift wrapping stuff.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00504.jpg

Got the plexi mounted. I used some clear adhesive caulking to mount the window. Should be dry in the morning.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00503.jpg

[mnpctech]

Oh yeah... You can also buy red window tint @ AutoZone. Sorry I didn't think of that earlier :rolleyes:

[BuffaloBoy]

Well, here's the finished window:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00509.jpg

I think it's finished...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00506sm.jpg

[Starbuck3733T]

Bad ass man, bad ass. Can we get a closeup of the x-wing?

the only thing that might make that better, imho, is if you had mnpctech's airbrush dude take a shot at airbrushing the x-wing on!

[fillip]

Very nice.

It'd be great if you could accentuate that 'x-wing style' cut out with either some back lighting or indeed artwork painted on the outside...

[EDIT] I posted at the same time Star was ^_^

... I'm a little slow typing today though.

[BuffaloBoy]

Can we get a closeup of the x-wing? Ask, and you shall recieve :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00513.jpg

I have a 12" red cold cathode on order to backlight it.

[biggiy6]

That is sick! I love it!

[Starbuck3733T]

I dont think the camera is doing you justice, the x-wing looks a bit uneven. Definitly get some artwork on that, or possibly a vinyl aplique. I really like it.

[zer0]

the red looks totaly awsome on that case very nice work.

[Nexxo]

Great work! But seeing as you've gone over to the dark side, you might want to rename your project. :D

[BuffaloBoy]

Its finished!!! All that remains is to put the hardware in, as soon as it gets here (hoping for tomorrow)

I got my CCFL from NewEgg today.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00515.jpg

I also wired up some blue LED switches from Wal-Mart:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00520.jpg

An overall shot of the machine:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00518.jpg

Another shot of the window:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00514sm.jpg

[Duffman]

Im in love with that orange, great work on the cutout.

The front looks allitle buissy, but sides that its nice!

[mnpctech]

Great job! I luv that window.

[zer0]

very very nice work the ornge light realy makes it looks cool.

[Sinner]

hot damn that looks good!

[JBM]

Very, very cool. Good job !

[BuffaloBoy]

Thanks, everybody!

My parts came in yesterday, so I got everything put together. Went to a LAN last night, and it runs great. Got plenty of power for Halo, UT2K4, CoD and BF1942. Final specs are: P4 2.0 @ 2.5, Abit IS-7 E2 mobo, 512MB DDR400, FX 5200 - 250/350 @ 300/450 core/mem, 52X CD-ROM. Not the best, but it runs great and it was cheap.

Got some more pix when I got home from the LAN.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00526sm.jpg

Side view:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00525sm.jpg

Crazy angle shot:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v465/BuffaloBoy/DSC00524sm.jpg

[Starbuck3733T]

Now THATs more like it, the cuts look perfect. I knew it was lighting

[Sean_Best]

Wow. Nice dremel for your first time. I like how th red looks orange, orange is the best color ever so I like.

[The_Dragon_No1]

those colors and the x-wing is INSANE good combo !!! love it ... makes me wanna get some new neons for my mod ROFL!!!
VNJ !!