Fenris_Ulf
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
- Messages
- 1,908
A few years ago I came into possession of an old (circa 1988) NeXT Cube. It was only the case not the cutting edge 25 MHz, 256K computer. I've been skulling for about a year now on how to properly mod this thing and I think I've come up with a plan. I've been wanting to do a tribute to my favorite game mod, Natural Selection, so I figured I'd combine the two.
First, here's what we have to work with:
The brainchild of Steve Jobs. A one foot cube made of magnesium alloy. Big optical drive hole in front, but I have ideas for that already... Well, there's nothing on the inside that could be used for any sort of modern attachments.
So now it's time to make a sub frame for all the components. For this I turn to my old friends the table saw and router and make a MDF form. Then I cut a slightly oversize piece of tinted Lexan and clamped it to the form:
Then added heat:
After being bent, it was trimmed on the table saw and an end piece was added:
Next it was time to turn my attention to the back panel. There were four narrow slots in the back that were probably meant for I/O to line up with circuit boards. Too narrow for my use, so I cut out the middle piece:
There are small slots in the back that held metal plates over the slots through friction. I found that a piece of thin plexi 2 1/4" wide could could fit. Tabs were bent to fit in the slots and that problem was solved. And the magnesium alloy cuts like butter.
Of course, I'm gonna watercool this beast, so I got this heater core from Danger Den:
But they were very lazy and just soldered in barbs to the end of the existing tubes. In this cube, space is at a premium and this just won't do. Plus, I feel the need to mod just about everything, so I de-soldered the fittings. DD had expanded one of the tubes to fit the fitting, so I did the next best thing. Mr. fitting met Mr Angle Grinder and viola:
Now they were just re-soldered into place, and a newer low profile heater core is ready:
Next, I cut a hole in the sub frame and bent a tab to form a ledge:
So that the radiator fits like this:
Fitting everything in this will be TOUGH. I tried about 50 permutations before I settled on a final design. There are about four or five different items all fighting for the same space. Move one and it blocks another. Move that one and it blocks a third. Finally, I arrived at what I think is the best compromise between all the issues and still allowing everything to be removed.
I made a drive cage out of Lexan and installed it:
More to come soon.....
First, here's what we have to work with:
The brainchild of Steve Jobs. A one foot cube made of magnesium alloy. Big optical drive hole in front, but I have ideas for that already... Well, there's nothing on the inside that could be used for any sort of modern attachments.
So now it's time to make a sub frame for all the components. For this I turn to my old friends the table saw and router and make a MDF form. Then I cut a slightly oversize piece of tinted Lexan and clamped it to the form:
Then added heat:
After being bent, it was trimmed on the table saw and an end piece was added:
Next it was time to turn my attention to the back panel. There were four narrow slots in the back that were probably meant for I/O to line up with circuit boards. Too narrow for my use, so I cut out the middle piece:
There are small slots in the back that held metal plates over the slots through friction. I found that a piece of thin plexi 2 1/4" wide could could fit. Tabs were bent to fit in the slots and that problem was solved. And the magnesium alloy cuts like butter.
Of course, I'm gonna watercool this beast, so I got this heater core from Danger Den:
But they were very lazy and just soldered in barbs to the end of the existing tubes. In this cube, space is at a premium and this just won't do. Plus, I feel the need to mod just about everything, so I de-soldered the fittings. DD had expanded one of the tubes to fit the fitting, so I did the next best thing. Mr. fitting met Mr Angle Grinder and viola:
Now they were just re-soldered into place, and a newer low profile heater core is ready:
Next, I cut a hole in the sub frame and bent a tab to form a ledge:
So that the radiator fits like this:
Fitting everything in this will be TOUGH. I tried about 50 permutations before I settled on a final design. There are about four or five different items all fighting for the same space. Move one and it blocks another. Move that one and it blocks a third. Finally, I arrived at what I think is the best compromise between all the issues and still allowing everything to be removed.
I made a drive cage out of Lexan and installed it:
More to come soon.....