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My semi-silent "radio" computer
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 1:51 am
by OKO
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
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 3:02 am
by idealcrash
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?
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 9:45 am
by OKO
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.
Posted: Tue Mar 30, 2004 2:22 pm
by Ralf Hutter
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!
Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 2:57 am
by WayneSim
Nice Job
Well done!
Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 9:14 am
by sbabb
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
Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2004 12:58 pm
by OKO
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...