EnVaDoR's PVC Case II !! (Scroll waaaaay down for pictures. Well, not that far down.)

09/22/00 5:38PM - Project Has Begun!

After calling just about EVERY computer store in town, I finally found a local store (www.stspc.com) that carried micro-ATX power supplies (and they had only 1 left!). Scott at STS was so friendly and helpful!

I'm starting a new webpage (expect something as eye-candy-less as this page:) for PVC Jr.

You guessed it! Head on over to http://www.envador.com/Photos/PVCJr for PVC Jr. Stuff. Not much will be on there for now, but I had better hurry because Frag 4 is next week.

09/22/00 4:57AM - Yes, I'm still around

Hi everyone, I haven't forgotten about the PVC case projects. It's just that I've been so busy lately. PVC II has become my daily-use PC so there's not much chance I'll be able to turn him off, take him apart and inventory his parts. But as a consolation, I'll be making DETAILED parts lists and measurements for PVC Jr.! Besides, PVC Jr will be just as sweet but easier to carry around (like to LAN parties:)

I'm signed up for Frag 4, so I hope to have PVC Jr. done by then... hmm. Frag4 is next week! Damn, I better start building PVC Jr. FAST!

EnVaDoR ([email protected])

08/09/00 11:00PM - Slashdotted? Indirectly :)

*Scroll Down for the Pictures of my Case*

Slashdot had a post about the QuakeCon Case contest winners. Here I am looking at my log file for today and it's 50 megs! Thanks for all your visits :)

A lot of people have been asking for a parts list and measurements. I'll be pretty busy with school and work this week (hey! I graduate this summer, hire me! ... ok that was a shameless plug) But I will try to make a parts list with measurements early next week. If you want me to notify you when I have the parts list ready, just drop me an email at [email protected]

For those of you that have already emailed me regarding a parts list, I've already added you to my "Parts List Notification" mailing list.

08/09/00 10:00AM - QuakeCon Case Contest Winner!

My case won Grand Prize at the QuakeCon Case Contest!! woooot! hehehe

You can see the results at http://www.planetquake.com/quakecon2k/casecontest.shtml

So what am I going to do after this? I'm thinking of plans for PVC Jr.

PVC II was a little big, but that's fine considering the massive fan that was in that thing. I'm currently looking for suggestions on a good MicroATX motherboard with built-in sound. Built-in video is optional, but I really want it to have an AGP slot so I can move my Prophet II 32MB over to it. I've also heard of Flex ATX, but I don't know which one to get either. I'd like to stick with Abit or Asus since I've never had any problems with those two manufacturers.

Any suggestions? Please let me know!! [email protected]

Thanks! :)

EnVaDoR

P.S. - scroll down to see pictures of my case :)

08/01/00 10:57PM - Pictures of the Case Improvements

Here they are! I made some cosmetic improvents for the case this past weekend.

1) I replaced the fan grills with this chrome-plated plastic grill for flourescent light fixtures. I found it at Home Depot... most of my case is from Home Depot hehe.
2) The plexiglass surrounds the fan on the front, top and rear. I was too lazy to put a bottom!
3) I put casters on the bottom to make it easier to move around.
4) hinges are there so I can open up the case and show off/work on the insides of the PC.
Maybe I'll look like less of a goon at QuakeCon with these new changes :)... doubt it hehehe.

New Case Pics:

New Opened Up Pic. Notice the pretty grill and casters? :) Oh the hinge too!	Front-Left View - Pretty Grill! and Pretty casters too hehe	Front-Right View
Opened Up View from the Top	View from Side-Left (the side the fan is on)	A pic of the Grill Material. Originally intended for flourescent light fixtures.

Questions? Comments? [email protected] email me dammit. I like getting emails :)

07/24/00 12:30AM - First glimpses of the case

It's finished! here's a picture of the final Case

(Click to enlarge)

Questions? Comments? [email protected]

PVC II Details

The Fan

Unpainted Fan	Paint the fan CHROME	Another painting angle
The finished fan mounted	A closer fan pic

The Case

Size it up	Take fan out of box	Add motherboard mount
The empty case	Fill 'er up!! (view from Left Side)	Drive mounts (front view) Control panel (from Left to right - 1)Power LED 2)HDD LED 3)Internal Light switch, 4)Mobo power button, 5)dvdrom/burner/hdd/floppy power
Drive mounts (rear view)	The control panel (unmounted)	View from Right Side
Up-close from the front-left looking in	Up-close from the rear-left looking in	The Beautiful Orb and Blazing Mushkin Rev 2, turbo hyper fighting edition RAM.

In the dark!!

Computer in the dark. Nothing special here

Switch on that schweet internal light!! Smashing baby!

A closer view with the internal light on.

Fan and Case become one...

Yes, this is the same pic at the top of the page.	Close it up! (View from front)	Any other ideas for a grill? (View from Front-Left)
A close-up view from the Front-Left	View from Rear. Two Power Supplies: 1)Old AT for dvdrom/burner/floppy/hdd 2)ATX Sparkle 300W for mobo and MAXIM(I)ZER!	View from Rear-Left
View from Left Side	View from Top	The fan controls!! (close-up view of top-left

Miscellaneous

Curious kitty. Like, yeah, the fan is off. :P	My kitty plays quake. Does yours?

Computer Details

Why did I do this? *shrug*

Anyway, here's what's in it if you're curious

Performance

I haven't gotten around to really testing it with the benchmark utils or anything. It's not like this system will run any faster than any of the other o/c'd 950 athlons out there anyway hehehe. I did a Quaver timedemo and got 77fps on the normal setting. Then I started messing around with the quake settings and I get 63fps. Oops :( I'll look into it more later.

I built this for QuakeCon. See you in August!

Q & A

Q: Is it Loud?
A: No. In fact, the Power supplies and Orb are the loudest in the case.

Q: Electro-Magnetic Interference?
A: Haven't noticed anything so far. Not even while turning the fan off/on high/low - update 08/01/00 Still haven't had any problems with electromagnetic interference.

Q: PVC Case II? Where's PVC Case I?
A: See it at http://www.envador.com/Photos/oldPVC

Q: Is that thing covered? Stick your finger in and "slice"!
A: update 08/01/00 Yes! it's covered. The fan is surrounded on the top, front, and rear of the case so careless fingers or kitties don't get caught up in the blades. But also don't forget that it's a PLASTIC box fan. Those box fans don't have much torque to begin with and you can stop them with your hands easily like a ceiling fan.

Q: You wired a light to your power supply?
A: No, it's a long LED I found a few years ago at an electronics parts surplus store.

Q: Does that thing actually keep it cool?
A: I think so. It's a 750 running at 950 and 1.85volts. The temp after playing Quaver over and over was still 95F

Q: Is it heavy?
A: With all the stuff in it, yes it's heavy. However, the PVC II Case (when it was empty) was quite light. I have an InWin Q500 Full Tower for another computer here and I think the PVC II Case was about the same weight. update 08/01/00 I put casters on it to make it easy to move now. Check pictures at the top of this page.

Q: Don't you need wheels on that thing?
A: Yes! I put them on. Check the pictures at the top of this page.

-EnVaDoR

Questions? Comments? [email protected]