Looking good!
Looking good!
Thanks! More pics in a day or two - my pump in my desktop just went kaput and I'm waiting for a replacement. Anyway, I got the piano computer built, painted, assembled, and fired up yesterday....and wonder of wonders it's working flawlessly Gonna get the new OS set up today (I was FLABBERGASTED when I put my wife's old hard drive in there and it booted up into Vista with NO issues other than loading new drivers...it's the first time I've EVER transplanted a hard drive and have it boot up with no errors right off the bat. Of course, I can't leave this copy of Vista on there since my wife's still using it on her new hard drive. But still...it was shocking LOL)
Hehe nice when that happens.
my 1st scratch case made july 2008 (finding my feet)
Air Cube prototype (fin jan 2009) (still finding my feet)
Air Cube v2 now with added cpc stack (fin aug 2010) (getting better)
Project Stealthlow (fin sep 2011) (much improvement)
Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build - Paused
Midlag Crisis
Got my desktop pump replaced...turns out coolant got onto the pumps PCB. Grr...musta been an O-ring failure. Anyway, that pump sadly is scrap now, although I might hang onto it and get a replacement PCB. They're cheap enough that even if I can't fix it I wouldn't be out more than ten bucks or so.
So, pics of the all-new piano computer! I'm loving it so far...except for one issue. My CS4 Adobe suite with a full copy of Acrobat won't install. It runs perfectly fine on my other Win7 machine, on a Vista machine, and even on an XP machine. But it refuses to install on the piano computer, so I put Acrobat Reader on there. It doesn't seem to support two-page view while fullscreen, but it does do 2-page view within the Acrobat window, so it's not the end of the world.
The build quality on this case isn't fantastic, but then I was really just doing a quick-and-dirty wooden box to house the computer, and you can't really see it.
Power plug:
The gold screws in the last photo are the two that hold the fan panel onto the rest of the case. I left them unpainted so I don't have to hunt for them if I ever need to remove that panel.
looks great! good job and good mod!
You obv know what your doing but may I suggest changing your fan around so that you have less dust in the system.
Love the build. This would also be great for small desks. I know lots of people want a nice system but don't have the space.
Would gather dust if it's as intake or exhaust but I'd dare say less so as an intake as it is with the vents being on the top, a quick flick of a feature duster or compressed air spray should clear it quickly every so often.
Looks very nicely done, awesome idea for a compact pc.
my 1st scratch case made july 2008 (finding my feet)
Air Cube prototype (fin jan 2009) (still finding my feet)
Air Cube v2 now with added cpc stack (fin aug 2010) (getting better)
Project Stealthlow (fin sep 2011) (much improvement)
Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build - Paused
Midlag Crisis
Mainly the reason I have the fan as an intake is because there used to be a little fan on the processor heatsink. I elected to remove that fan, fearing it'd be noisy, and just have the one fan blow lots of air over the whole system. I have a small air compressor for my airbrush that I can use to periodically blow dust out (with 3 chinchillas and 2 cats, it gets pretty dusty here )
Thanks for the compliments! I'm really happy with it; I wish I knew why my CS4 suite won't install on it, but aside from that it was a very painless build, and it's shaping up to be a great little machine. Lovin' that mini-ITX form factor...
Fixed the leg length, and added a base that's screwed into the bottoms of both legs, and has foam rubber glued on its underside to prevent scratches to the piano. I also took the wood piece that was originally going to be the base til I discovered I hadn't cut it quite big enough, and I made that into a base for the 2 page-turn USB pedals. It works really well - I put foam rubber on its underside too, so it won't scoot across the floor, and now I don't have to worry about the pedals moving when I'm in the middle of playing. I'm happy
Now all I need is a shorter DVI cable; I only had a 6 footer laying around but, as you'll see in the pics, I really only need a 1 foot or 1.5 foot on there...
And that's it, I'm calling to done! I'm sure it'll go through future revisions the next time I upgrade it, but at this point the only real reason I'll want to upgrade is if/when even smaller components are available (and by that I mean maybe pico ITX with DVI; currently all I can find are VGA ones). About the only thing I might want to change in the nearer future is the HD to an SSD when they get cheaper. And at some point I may want to put a slightly bigger screen on it, especially when I can afford an LED-backlight 23" or 24" screen. Bigger, lighter weight, less energy = Til then, it ain't changin'