|
Intel asked me to make a system for them to show off their
Pentium 4 processors at E3 2002 (Electronics Entertainment Expo) in LA --
this is what I sent them. I'd like to mention that Intel has really
been there for us modders. In the spring of 2002, Intel invited me and
4 other modders to show our cases off at the Intel Developer's Forum in San
Francisco. The all-expense-paid trip was awesome and we all had a
great time. For those of you that think, "oh, Intel is
buying their customers" ... my reply to that is "more power to
them! no sh*t, Sherlock. brand name recognition, Einstein" No
other chip manufacturer has gone to such great lengths like they have done
for us. I truly appreciate all their efforts to bring the art of
modding to the masses.
I thought it would be artsy-fartsy to have a storyline to go along
with the case.... See the treasure chest? That's supposed to be a
buried treasure chest that scientists discovered at an archeological dig.
They found out that it emits mystical power shiznit stuff... so they decided
to use it on an experiment (the PC). And now it's got ahold of the PC
and it's giving off this strange red pulsing light (red pulsing LEDs).
How's that for some good artsy BS!?!?! :)
|
| System Photos |
The
system...
Turbine houses the mobo, cdrom, hdd, and GeForce4 ti4600 :)
The
treasure chest houses the power supply.
|
A
view from the top looking down |
A
pic with the keyboard and mouse to give you something to size it up against.. |
A
close-up of the Turbine.
I used a RotoZip to cut out the circular hole.
I used car door edge-molding to clean up the edges.
A
grill from Home Depot accents the industrial look.
|
The
back of the turbine |
In
the dark. Sorry, my camera sucks so the pictures are blurry. |
Close-up
in the dark looking down into the turbine. |
In
the dark, red light glowing through the turbine fins |
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| Treasure Chest - External
Power Supply |
A
close-up of the treasure chest. It houses the 180 watt Sparkle power supply. |
Another
pic of the Treasure Chest |
A
shot at the bottom of the treasure chest. There are 4 super-bright LEDs
under the case that pulse slowly. |
The
treasure chest opened up |
The
bottom of the treasure chest |
The
back bottom corner of the treasure chest |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| In-The-Making photos |
The
cable that connects the treasure chest and turbine
|
close-up
of the female side of the molex connectors |
close-up
of the male side of the molex connectors |
|
Pic
of the treasure chest before being attached to the power supply extension cable. |
The
empty turbine |
It
boots!!! I didn't want to mount everything in the case before knowing that
it would boot haha. Installing windows here... |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| The Anvil Shipping Case |
Intel
was really cool about the shipping case. All I had to do was give them the
dimensions I wanted and a few days later, this arrived in the mail for me! |
It
has two handles on the sides, and even a handle that extends so you can wheel
it around on its two wheels. |
Cool
latches |
My
system inside the shipping case |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Other pics |
P1010038.JPG |
P1010041.JPG |
P1010036.JPG |
P1010052.JPG |
P1010057.JPG |
P1010058.JPG |
P1010059.JPG |
|
The email I sent to Intel about the system:
Unpacking and handling:
The best way to handle the case is to grasp the
treasure chest and turbine by the conduit connectors. They are fastened
securely. Try to avoid the sharp turbine edges.
Setting up:
Please put the treasure chest on top of the
Plexiglas. This will make sure that there is sufficient airflow for the
power supply. Also, the Plexiglas will help enhance the red of the LED's
that glow from the bottom of the treasure chest.
Please try not to twist the flexible aluminum
conduit too much. The conduit on the ends is pretty sharp and it might
cut into the power cables at the ends.
Opening and closing the treasure chest
It's ok to open the treasure chest to show ppl
what's inside (just a bunch of wires anyway). When closing the chest, be
careful that the wires don't get pinched in the back of the treasure chest b/c
they seem to like to try escaping from the back.
Packing up:
Please be careful of the sharp turbine edges.
Again, try to avoid twisting the conduit too much as it might cut into the
power cables at the ends. I've attached a picture of how i was able to
get the case to fit inside the anvil box.
The Story:
I thought it would be nice and artsy-fartsy to
have a bit of a story to tell with the PC this time around. So this is
how it goes.... feel free to improvise and add your own elements to the story
of "Experiment Gone Wrong"
The treasure chest is supposed to be something
that scientists discovered at an archeological dig. They took it back to
their lab for testing and found out that it emits mystical power shiznit stuff
(feel free to paraphrase:). They decided to use the treasure chest power
supply on an experiment (the TurbinePC). Now it's got a hold of the PC
and it's giving off this strange red pulsing light (red pulsing LEDs).
How's that for some good artsy BS?!?!?! :) :)
PC Specs:
Processor: P4 2.2GHz Northwood
Motherboard: Intel D850MDL (a microATX i850 board
with built in sound and LAN)
RAM: 512MB PC800 RDRAM (Samsung)
Video: GeForce 4 ti 4600 128MB
Hard Drive: 40GB Maxtor
CD: 56X CDROM in the back.
Power Supply : 180Watt Sparkle Brand power supply
(for eMachines bought at Fry's for $45)
Keyboard : cool-looking BTC keyboard
Mouse: MS Explorer optical 3.0
How I got the LED's to Pulse:
If you open up the treasure chest, you can easily
see a little pc board in there made by "5Fame". It accepts a
standard molex connector and has connections for 4 LEDs. It's
responsible for the slow pulsing of the LED's. The red LED's emit 10
candela of light... so try not stare :) I have a total of 3 of these led
pulsers (1 in the treasure chest, 2 in the turbine). I total of 12 super
bright red LEDs.
The power supply extension:
The 1" thick flexible conduit that runs
between the treasure chest and turbine is a custom cable job I made to extend
the power cables for the motherboard and peripherals (see attached pics).
Did I know if extending the cable to 5 feet would work? Hell no, but I tried
anyway :). And here's living (and working) proof that using 14 Gauge stranded
copper wire from Home Depot for $15 for a 500foot spool will work.
The physics behind the extended power supply:
The stock Power supply wires are made of aluminum.
Aluminum is more resistive than copper. Also, the stock aluminum wire
has a thinner gauge. Thinner wires are also more resistive. The question
is whether extending the power cables an extra 5 feet will introduce too much
resistance into the system and cause the system to malfunction. In this
case, no. The wire I used was copper (less resistive than aluminum), a thicker
gauge (less resistive than the thin gauge stock wire) and see? it works! :)
Why the treasure chest:
OK OK, the REAL reason I chose the treasure chest
was because I couldn't figure out a way to fit the power supply in side of the
turbine. :P haha. You found me out!... Anyway, I was
browsing around the local goodwill store and found this treasure chest for
sale for just $5 !! If you look closely at the front handles, they're
like goblins. Pretty cool!
Why the Turbine:
because The Home Depot is my favorite moddin'
headquarters! :) I originally wanted the turbine to spin around the PC,
but the motherboard was too big :(
Click here to see other strange and unusual
computer cases made by envador
|
