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Thread: Little Blue

  1. #1
    ATX Mental Case
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    Default Little Blue

    I named this project "Little Blue" because when I go to paint this case a color of my wife's choosing, it will blue .

    I bought a pallet of computers from a university from eBay, the greatest place to spend lots of cash, and thought all the computers would be too old to do stuff with and would be great dremel practice. I was half right, amid the junk I found the E-3400s and a workstation. The Workstation was not better than the E-3400 due to a better processor in the E-3400 (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5442). So after talking to Nil8 and Slug Toy (Thanks to Both for giving me the idea), there appears to be a way to make them better, and come to become server-like. So I got to looking around and seen a place for them but I had to remove a bar.



    After having that out of the way, I took needle nose pliers and broke off some of the plastic tabs that were in the way of the drive placement. I had no choice because the drives had to go a certain way or it cause problems.


    Once I had outlined where to put the hard drive, i decided to make sure I use really old ones, so not to ruin the better ones. Since I was using the holes on the bottom of the hard drive, I was hoping that it would be the same as the newer stuff. I used plastic pipe brace as bracing, It was strong enough to do the job and be drilled and painted if I wanted to. To hold the bracing to the lid of the case I used pentium 2 bracket screws and nuts, they do the job perfect.




    With the screws and bolts in place as you see, its really saggy and didn't look computer safe, so I though of another bracement and use a nut and bolt to hold the two straps together. With the four nuts and bolts in place the drives are secure and safe and thus ready to be switch with the ones I will use.



    With the drives in place, I grabbed a old hd exp card, two long ribbions and spliced together a power cord. Everything seemed in order, at the moment.



    Upon boot up, I found that the two hd exp cards I had installed cause conflict. So I popped one out and put two Hds on the onboard controller and the two on the roof onto the card. All boots up well, great relief.

    I tend to use spray paint for plastic, color the exp card and video card, and install a blue fan in the front.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Little Blue

    And I thought I horded computer parts but noooooo..........you've got to go out and by a whole pallet of spare computers........ Looks like a ton of possibilities, can't wait to see how it shapes up.

  3. #3
    I come from a land down under. simon275's Avatar
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    Default Re: Little Blue

    A pallet of computers lol.

    What shade of blue you going to use?
    Need a sig

  4. #4
    ATX Mental Case
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    Default Re: Little Blue

    It will a dark blue, to make it not stand out so much but still look cool.

  5. #5
    iShot the Sheriff jdbnsn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Little Blue

    Hi DRece,
    I see that the mounting system you build looks like it works, but you could make it look alot nicer if you construct frames of some sort. I used cheap aluminum angle strips from the local hardware store to make HDD chassis and they cut, file, and polish real nicely. Just a thought. Here is an example...



    "At the midpoint on the journey of life, I found myself in a dark forest, for the clear path was lost..." -Dante Alighieri

  6. #6
    ATX Mental Case
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    Default Re: hdd chassis

    I like that chassis, very shiny and sturdy from the looks of it. Had I had room for it, I would no doubt go for that design. I especially like the ability to hide the idea cables. Where would I get the metal for that? What does it look like underneath? If you don't mind I think I can really use that in my next mod, but not this mod. I use the plastic brackets for there inability to conduct electric and to snug to drives to the top. I hope to figure better idea for cable management for those ribbons and power cables, as long as it doesn't pull any thing when I open the case.

    That bracket idea make me want to paint my drive chrome for something like that.

  7. #7
    Overclocked
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    Default Re: Little Blue

    they carry aluminum like that in home depot. on the same aisle as the machine screws and such, usually. just take a buffer and some polishing compound and go nuts.

  8. #8
    ATX Mental Case
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    Default Re: Little Blue

    Quote Originally Posted by ajmilton View Post
    they carry aluminum like that in home depot. on the same aisle as the machine screws and such, usually. just take a buffer and some polishing compound and go nuts.
    I might just do a shiny inside paint job with this hd mod, and polishing nuts.

  9. #9
    ATX Mental Case
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    Default Guide to Cheap Round cables

    (Note: I do not know if this is anywhere on the net, I did use any guide on a net. I used the idea that flat cables can be folded, and that electric tapes comes in cool colors, that is about it.)

    This guide came out of what all great things come from, that is necessity of a solution. I am strapped for cash and wanting things to look nice with what I had, which was flat cables and electric tape.

    I took what I knew about cables first before I thought of anything else. I know that flat cables can folded,and these same cables can bend when folded. Something that I learned on accident is that the slave connector can be removed and the cable works just as well, but the place where the connector once was needs to be covered because the wires are exposed.

    Next I though about how a letter is folded and how rounded cable are, thus figured out how to fold them. It make a for a ridged semi rounded cable.

    So the first step was getting the cable that I want to use and get ready for it to be a single drive cable. You can skip this step and make a master/slave cable but it will be shorter. The folding of a single drive cable does make it shorter too, so i know this is not a good thing if your cables are stretched without this cable mod. So the first step is to look at the back side of your slave drive connector and look how it is connected to the cable. I often find that taking a screw driver and placing it between the cable and the plastic of the connector. Gently place leverage until it pops off the connector. A successful result will show what you see below.



    With the last picture, you see the connector just kind of snaps to the ribbon and nothing else. I just pull this off like Velcro, and no harm comes to the cable. With the connector out of the way, you see the wires exposed as such shall be protected. Start the folding process by laying the cable "flat" on a flat surface. Make sure to undo any fold to cable, making it as wrinkly free as possible as to make a better fold. Now when I start the fold, I choose to find the red line and start folding from there, the red line helps like a guide line. I take the side where the line is and fold it over to were it looks like the red line is in the middle like the picture below.


    Once the red line is centered, I make the whole cable flat. Check to make sure that red line is centered all the way down the cable but leave like a inch from the connectors to allow flexibility( I did one with a slave connector and did not fix the area between the master and the slave, but you can if want to. It will be a little tricky really). Once you have accomplished this than take the other side that has not been folded and fold it over the red line. This is the part that allows for fixing or adjusting, you have to choose the make it even for it to be as slim as possible or allow for a greater gap to be wider for some reason. I choose slim as possible for this example and thus made sure the folds where even when i got the point shown below.


    After I was satisfied with the fold over on top of the red line I went ahead and fold the whole thing in half. I find that it is better to keep your folds on one side of the cable thus looking smoother in the end, but that is jumping ahead though. When folding in half, you could use cable ties to keep it in place ,but i am cheap so I did it the hard way. The picture below should be what your cable will look like.


    Next comes sleeving with electrical tape, to help with keep the folds together you should start by taping over the fold an inch from one of the connectors and wrap it around a few times to keep it in place, but do not cut the tape at all. You should have left a inch from your connectors untouched, if you have not you may, want to consider unwrapping and redoing. Once you have got your fold help place you should start taping down in a angle, while taping tight as you can ( electric tape streches a little but not a lot so be careful) and keeping the fold together as best as possible while taping. Here is a example shot below.


    When you get to the other side of the cable you should wrap the tape around the cable a few times and be sure that you leave a inch from the other connector to allow flexibility. Feel free to vary from this guide, it opens some possibilities. Good Luck!

  10. #10
    ATX Mental Case
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    Default Re: Little Blue

    the guide above is how I made the cables for Little Blue better but I used white tape instead of blue.

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