magnethead

Well, I couldn't afford all 12 LEDs.

But i'm making it work with 3 blue and 3 white. I need to get a 220 ohm resistor though (5 pack- 99 cents). So far, got 3 wired up.

Each LED will get 4 volts before resisted, so something like 3.8 or 3.7 volts resisted..which is pretty close to typical voltage (each is rated 4V max, 3.7 typ).

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magnethead

ok, got all 6 wired now. Not the prettiest of wiring jobs (or soldering for that matter), but it will work.

How it'll actually look is questionable, but it's better than the plainness.

meanwhile, i'm sweating as this heat chamber (my room) is currently 82 degrees @ 75% humidity.

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magnethead

Gonna pick up a 5 pack of 220 ohm resistors today and get a couple of them wired in. Soemtime later tonight I should have a picture of the finished panel.


.....220 ohm resistor - LED - LED - LED
.../.................................................\
../...................................................\
+ (positive lead)............(negative lead) -
..\.................................................../
...\................................................./
.....220 ohm resistor - LED - LED - LED

there's a rough n tumble wiring diagram for you.

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magnethead

Yes, I can already hear ya'll screaming at me for not using heatshrink.

For now (now being who knows how long), i'm going to wrap a short piece of electrical tape over each individual connection hot-dog style to isolate each connection.

Meanwhile, the case is still sitting gutted behind the storage ins in the closet, waiting for my dad's next trip so I can get the holes drilled in the mobo tray. Everything else is finished except for that and the case grilles (which I should probably work on drawing out).

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I'm not the world's greatest speller. Deal with it.

magnethead

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magnethead

So, I got the front trim painted (not the best, but it works unless you want to be picky), painted the fan grille rims (silver on top, gold on front), and painted the top fans so they wouldn't be boring gray- front gold, back silver.

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magnethead

Well, I got the template for the panel slots made. Wishing we had a router or something of the sort to make some decent straight lines with quickly (upposed to drilling 2 3/8" holes per cut and jigsawing between the holes and hoping for a straight cut).

The part around the HDD's (which theorietically should look something half close to darth vador's mask, for a visual idea) will have 12 vertical slots while the area behind the mobo tray will have all 20 horizontal slots of the template cut out.

each slot is 3/8" of an inch wide and 3 inches long.

no telling when the cuts will get made. It'll probably take 2 to 3 hours to get them cut out by jigsaw. Add 30 minutes to do the 6 holes in the mobo tray. I'm hoping to get this done by the end of the school year. All I need is for my dad to have another overnight trip somewhere.

Once the slots are cut, I'll mask over the holes on the ouside and spray more gold from the inside, so the slot edges will be gold. Then put the case back together, and do a final coat of black from the outside to get all the seams ect. Last thing will be to staple all the window screen in half-taunt to keep the computer guts in and other junk out of the case. I'll get the grill guards for the 80's and 120....sometime (painted gold). Still unsure how i'll do the 250's, probably more window screen pulled tight against the frames.

All that's left to buy (in order of importance):

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...roducts_id=738 120 fan grill 1.99
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...roducts_id=742 120 fan grill x 4 1.29 (5.16)
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...roducts_id=363 fan/LED controller 16.95
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813130542 motherboard 48.99
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819103196 processor 36.00
http://www.performance-pcs.com/catal...ducts_id=23524 front panel media unit 29.95

Only $139.04. That's almost halfway cheap, for a computer!

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Ssrogg

Is looking much better. Nice job on the LEDs. A bit of paint goes a long way to making it look good.

Not exactly going to be a "hot" machine, but will get the job done.

Eric

magnethead

well, the goal is to have a 100% quiet computer, that runs as cool if not cooler than any aftermarket case, and still has a high multitasking ability.

It'd be nice if I could do the edges around the fans and the front fascia alot better, as the manual brush did next to nothing. But it's hard to mask around such a small round object without wasting tons of tape (though it may be the only option). I may redo the fascia edges in black when i do the second main coat, just because i'm not so sure about how the silver came out.

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magnethead

Well, i've just about burned up the hole saw as much as you can. I've actually burned some of the gold paint off the mobo tray from getting it too warm. I thought we had metal cutting lube somewhere but i cant find any. Still have 4 more holes to cut from the tray.

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Ssrogg

If you have no cutting fluid, use some WD-40 or a bit of motor oil.

Eric

magnethead

I tried PB blaster (we use that over WD40), and all I got was a bunch of smoke. Although I didn't think about motor oil....

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magnethead

Well, i'm gonna see if I can out-stay my parents and go work in the shop for half an hour before going to bed. At least try to get (some of) the passive cooling intakes cut out. Gotta drill a 3/8" hole at each end of each slot (there's about 40 slots, do the math) then jig saw my way though each slot. Granted the shop is 50 foot from the house, and the workshop is in it's own room inside the shop, i'm still not sure what I can do without being exactly loud.

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Ssrogg

Better yet, and I didn't think of it. Hydraulic fluid or ATF. Pretty much IS cutting fluid (just don't breathe the smoke, please. lol)

Eric

magnethead

I'm still fighting for a window of opportunity to get all this done.

I'm gonna add a few extra passive slots in and around the PSU, so it has a slightly better chance of some airflow.

What will help finish it all off, is some half inch cable loom. Tidy everything up quick.

Based soley on surface area:

exhaust:

3 x 50 sq in + 1 x 16 sq in = 166 sq in

Intake:

4 x 7 sq in = 25 sq in


Quite the descrepancy in fan suface area, eh?

Passive intake:

42 x (.375 * 3) + 1 x (.375*2) = 48 sq in of surface area.

I'm still at 166 out vs 73 intake.

However, SA isn't everything. I only have 200 CFM of exhaust, and about 100 CFM in intake. So now, with all the slots, there should be ample avaliable intake, even if I shut the intake fans all the way off via controller.

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magnethead

well, got everything cut out. Mobo tray became a task (I burned up the hole saw...I tried to use some HD-30 oil for lube and bout had a fire) so i finally took the jigsaw to it.

I just gota take pics and button it all back up now.

__________________
I'm not the world's greatest speller. Deal with it.

magnethead