My semi-silent "radio" computer

OKO · Post by **OKO** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 1:51 am

Hi all, I just wanted to share a sneak peek picture of my (almost) finished computer. There are a few things left to do but I've been too lazy to fix those lately.

I'm at work right now but if people are interested of seeing more I will borrow a digital camera and post more pictures.

The specs:
P4 2.8 GHz 800MHz HT
SLK-900U w/ 92mm Panaflo
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro w/ Artic Cooling VGA silencer
DFI PS83-BL (Intel 865PE) motherboard
512 Mb PC3200 TwinMOS
Nexus 3000
2x panaflo 80mm for exhaust

idealcrash · Post by **idealcrash** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 3:02 am

Definately post pictures of the inside!

The DVD-ROM would look much better integrated in the case somehow, is that one of the things you plan to fix when you stop being lazy?

OKO · Post by **OKO** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 9:45 am

I most definetely will try to install that DVD+/-RW in the topmost slot in the front. Problem is that there is a hard drive right about there. (A Samsung spinpoint 160 Gb SATA). The other small things I want to do is to install one white LED for the power on (that lights up the station selector) and a green LED that lights up the small white area on the selector.

I will be taking pictures of the inside as soon as I get a digital camera... I warn you though. It is not pretty and my cable routing skills are not very good.

The three knobs in the front are:
Left: Turn counterclockwise->Reset and clockwise->power on.
Middle: Attached to a fanmate controlling CPU fan.
Right: Attached to a fanmate controlling both exhaust fans.

Since the box isn't that big there are no intake fans. The measurements are: 40cm wide, 24cm high and 22 cm deep. The exhaust fans are probably at ~5-6 volts and the cpu fan about the same... I haven't measured...

I find the computer quiet not silent. I can still hear it but I am satisfied for the time being.

I do have a picture of the back.

Post by **Ralf Hutter** » Tue Mar 30, 2004 2:22 pm

OKO wrote:The three knobs in the front are:
Left: Turn counterclockwise->Reset and clockwise->power on.
Middle: Attached to a fanmate controlling CPU fan.
Right: Attached to a fanmate controlling both exhaust fans.

Oh..that's schweet!

WayneSim · Post by **WayneSim** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 2:57 am

Nice Job

Well done!

sbabb · Post by **sbabb** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:14 am

Beautiful work!

What did you use as a case?

At first I thought it was a metal box with wood-grain contact paper on it. Then the rear view made me think it might have started out as a small microwave oven. Then I noticed that the wood-grain has chips and wear on it in some places, so now I think that you might have started with a real wood veneered radio box.

What's the display (it looks like a display to me) on the left side in the front?

Thank you for giving me a distraction from my current fantasy of building a David Hays-style folding farm. Now I'm fantasizing about building a PC that looks like an old radio. Maybe I could figure out how to use a tuning dial to crank the clock speed up and down for overclocking...

Scott

OKO · Post by **OKO** » Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:58 pm

Thank you, thank you all for your kind comments

It took me most of my summer vacation to make the thing.

The box is a real old radio box. I had to make the back myself since I couldn't fit a normal sized ATX board inside. The DFI board is a bit smaller than usual ATX ones (30.5cm (12.05") x 21cm (8.26")). The whole trick was to keep the old radio look for that WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor). There's not a whole lot of room inside but it's larger than, say, a shuttle.

The display is the old frequency selector thingy. It has a lot of markings on it such as FM/AM frequency and radio Luxemburg and such. It has no use other than that of making it look like an old radio.

Good news btw! I've managed to borrow a digital camera so I will take some pictures of the inside during the weekend and post them. I just wish I would have had a camera earlier so I could have documented the whole process...