Project Cylon PC

O

Ozona

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Joined
Oct 31, 2005
Messages
57
Project: Cylon PC

I've followed many of the case projects you guys have done. There is some really impressive stuff here. I've also started to get a little bored with my Lian-Li PC60 based system and been wanting to try out an extreme watercooled PC. (My MCE PC is already WC w/ a Reserator 1).

I really got a kick out of the Gigabyte 3D Aurora case when I saw it. It reminded me of a cylon thing from a favortie show, Battlestar Galactica. I really like the new series. :cool:

6sm.JPG


So the plan for the PC is to outfit the Gigabyte 3D Aurora to look like a Cylon built PC..well somewhat. I don't have some of the crazy skills you guys have. :eek:

So what do you do when you get one of these?

auroraboxsm.JPG


Promptly disassemble it:

aurorahackedup.JPG


And then take a dremel to it and hack out the stamped in fan grill on the front, and both of them in the back to improve airflow.

hackedupaurora.JPG


The back of the case really lends itself well to the 2x120 Black Ice X-Flow radiator. The (4) 120MM fans are Acoustifan Duststop fans, even at 12V they are very quiet. All 4 of them are quieter than the stock HSF Intel cooler on my 3.06. Turn them down to 7V and they are almost completely silent. Wiggling the #6 threaded rod through the radiator was pretty simple once I opened up the holes. So far pressure testing says I didn't nick one of the tubes. :)

coolertrialsm.JPG


So far I've taken all of the blue LED fans out of the case, replaced the front case fan with a red ultra quiet 120MM fan. I have also changed out the 3 LEDs in the front of the case with 660nm red LEDs.

Next up, of course I'm thinking that it would be cool to make it look like it's alive. So I found and built a circuit to make the front case lights "breathe." I can't believe it worked on the first try. I'll try to take a movie of it and post it here.

breathersm.JPG


Next up, I'm hoping to either build or buy a "scanning" LED setup to put the moving Cylon "eye" in the front of the case.

Anyways - more on the project as I progress. :D
 
Hinokagutsuchi said:
This looks like it could prove interesting.



What kind of shroud is that, or is it two pieces of plexi?
Click to expand...

The rad is sandwiched between (4) 120MM fans, with vantec noise isolators. The flash makes them look more solid than they are.
 
hey Ozona im just curious, do u have any plans for cutting up the motherboard tray, for easier wire management or flipping the HDD cage etc, if u will, please tell :p :D
 
pincho said:
hey Ozona im just curious, do u have any plans for cutting up the motherboard tray, for easier wire management or flipping the HDD cage etc, if u will, please tell :p :D
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I'm really comfortable with hacking on aluminum, lots of practice over the years. I'll most likely wind up modifying both the motherboard tray and/or the HDD cage for cable management. I have a rivet gun, so drilling out the rivets doesn't bother me.

I'm going to mock up the whole PC, then take it back apart, finish the mods and then put it all back together.

I want to take the case in and have the entire inside anodized, however I don't see how to remove the plastic sliders in the drive cage w/o breaking something. I'm going to mess w/ it a little and see what I can figure out.

Plans for the PC:

Asus A8N32-SLI
AMD Athlon X2, Toledo core - thinking 4400
2 GB Corsair RAM
(2) nVidia 7800GTX 512MB SLI
Creative Labs X-Fi

Some of the parts aren't available just yet. I can get an employee purchase on the 7800s through work, so once they're out broadly that's what I'm going to go for. I've been watching the A8N32-SLI for awhile. "Released in September" :rolleyes: BS

My water loop parts are: Swiftech 655 pump, Swiftech Storm, Danger Den Maze 4 SLI setup, 5 1/4" clear bay rez (mostly for looks), danger den fillport rez/fill port combo, (4) 120mm Acoustifans, Black Ice X-Flow rad, tygon tubing, and red UV non-conductive coolant (pc ice).
 
system *drool* :eek: that looks awesome mate.

ive been thinking of modding mine over the summer (here in Aus) but im not too sure what to do, although i want something :D hopefully ill have enought to go AMD64, going opteron 165 and 7800GT maybe.. so i could mod then install new system. we'll see anyways, cant wait to see ur mod completed :)
 
Subscribed!

I'm a big fan of the show--can't wait to see what you come up with...
 
Time for an update. It was a busy week, so I didn't get a bunch done. Actual PC parts did start showing up though. :cool:

mobosmall.JPG


Man there's a bunch of stuff in that box.

mobo2small.JPG


I'm going to modify this thing to connect to an internal USB port and get it off of the PCI bus area.

zephyrussm.JPG


Saw this and thought a red one would be just the ticket.

redbulginsmall.JPG


A few minutes with the dremel - and it was in. I think it really looks good.

bulgininsmall.JPG


Here's some more inspiration for the case project:

cylon1.jpg


cylonguys.jpg


So with that in mind...the black powdercoat on the drive cover had to go.

Before:

beforepolishsm.JPG


After:

afterpolishsm.JPG


The picture stinks, it's extremely reflective. I'll take a shot of it outside tomorrow so it's easier to see both the general idea below and the polished drive door above.

The general idea:

theideasm.JPG


There are a lot of things that will have to be changed for cable management, and for aesthetics inside the case.

So...

norivetssm.JPG


More madness tomorrow. :D
 
LOVING the polished metal and black! looking real good so far man. keep it up!
 
Woah. Gigabyte actually used metal on the front door? Or did you just paint and polish it until you got bored?
 
Could you post some more info about the scanner. Did you buy or build it, if built hows it done?
 
TehRoflcopter said:
Woah. Gigabyte actually used metal on the front door? Or did you just paint and polish it until you got bored?
Click to expand...

The front drive door is thick aluminum, about 1/4" thick. The lower grille is stamped steel (or feels like it is), the front of the case is black plastic, the back of the case is nickle plated aluminum and the rest of it is aluminum.

stryder2720 said:
Could you post some more info about the scanner. Did you buy or build it, if built hows it done?
Click to expand...

I'm using two different lighting effects.

I built a LED breather for the front case lights to make them look like they breathe. The circuit is pretty simple..well simple enough to do.

The scanner circuits are substantially more complicated if you want more than 8 LEDs, and you want a "trail" rather than just a moving dot. I'm working on a purchase of one, more details once it shows up and I get a chance to review it. :)
 
Just to let you know that PCICE stuff isn't really non-conductive. You can actually light up LEDs in it, so I might not trust it to keep my PC safe.

MCT-5 is orangeish in color, and is truly nonconductive. If you just want the PCICE for its color (it is a very nice deep red color I know) then I would treat it as if it were normal water+antifreeze and do everything you can to keep it from spilling.


Nice looking work so far.
 
Erasmus354 said:
Just to let you know that PCICE stuff isn't really non-conductive. You can actually light up LEDs in it, so I might not trust it to keep my PC safe.

MCT-5 is orangeish in color, and is truly nonconductive. If you just want the PCICE for its color (it is a very nice deep red color I know) then I would treat it as if it were normal water+antifreeze and do everything you can to keep it from spilling.


Nice looking work so far.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the information. I'll treat it as water..and check the conductivity of it w/ a meter for fun.

It's advertised as non-conductive. :rolleyes:
 
Ozona said:
I built a LED breather for the front case lights to make them look like they breathe. The circuit is pretty simple..well simple enough to do.
Click to expand...

Did you use a circuit like this?

LED Throbber

or another one?

I'd be interested to see the circuit design too for the scanner that has the "trail" effect. I really like that idea...
 
The polish job is great, did you do it by hand or with mechanical assistance? It contrasts nicely with the black lower panel. Your LED scanner is going to be sweet in between. I thought of Cylons as soon as I saw that case. I've never seen the new show (live in Japan), is it any good? Hard to beat Maren Jensen (Athena) in the original series though.

http://home.planet.nl/~m-a-d/Photos/Maren_Jensen_1_s.jpg

Any other future details you want to share with us?
 
willie92 said:
Did you use a circuit like this?

LED Throbber

or another one?

I'd be interested to see the circuit design too for the scanner that has the "trail" effect. I really like that idea...
Click to expand...

Yes, I used a version of the circuit above. The pots in that one are interesting, I might see about adding those so that I can control the case breathing effect speed.

This is the one I built:

http://www.rabidhardware.net/index.php?id=5

themark said:
The polish job is great, did you do it by hand or with mechanical assistance? It contrasts nicely with the black lower panel. Your LED scanner is going to be sweet in between. I thought of Cylons as soon as I saw that case. I've never seen the new show (live in Japan), is it any good? Hard to beat Maren Jensen (Athena) in the original series though.
Click to expand...

The new show is great, and season 1 is on DVD, so you should be able to get it.

I did the polishing by hand with sandpaper. I have a lot of experience polishing aluminum from my other hobby, cars. :D

More posts/updates in a few mins, then later today. Hopefully I'll get close to finished this week.

Thanks everyone for the interest/compliments. :eek:
 
Here's where the project sits this AM..

I completely disassembled the case to get rid of all of the metal shavings from the cuts, as well as to paint it. I also cut two slots in the motherboard tray for cable management.

afterpaint2.JPG


You can see the two slots for the cables in this shot:

afterpaintsmall.JPG


I carried the drive bay aluminum theme from the case door into the case by leaving the external drive bays natural.

More updates soon. :cool:
 
Great graphics cards... shame about the cheaseball graphics printed on them. :rolleyes: Any way to pull those stickers off?

Thanks for the info re the new series. I'll have to check it out.
 
themark said:
Great graphics cards... shame about the cheaseball graphics printed on them. :rolleyes: Any way to pull those stickers off?

Thanks for the info re the new series. I'll have to check it out.
Click to expand...

They're just stickers. I'll be taking the whole heatsink off for watercooling. ;)
 
Well, I was going to buy 2 of the new 7800GTX 512's also, but I though paying my rent would be a better idea!

DAMN LIFE! :mad:
 
holes for wire management, all i wanted to see. 2x7800 GTX's 512mb, case mod... meh :eek:





[/sarcasm]

HOLY CRAP!!! :eek: :eek: this is going to be one sweetass setup/case mod. good job mate!

/subscribed again
 
Hell yeah! :cool:

Do you have any plans to use Danger Den's NV-78 SLI in 512MB flavour (once it's been done)? :)
 
Leeum said:
Hell yeah! :cool:

Do you have any plans to use Danger Den's NV-78 SLI in 512MB flavour (once it's been done)? :)
Click to expand...

Only if my ram sink temps suck. Otherwise I'll stay w/ the Maze4 SLI setup. Danger Den says they'll work.
 
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