Project: Paranoia.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Looking forward to it. Hmm... Maybe the destroyed-camera route would be interesting. http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

[Beta-brain]

Bit of an update

I've cut a hole in the plexi for the 120mm rear fan, I was going to fit two fans but it probably won't be necessary and I can always fit another if I have to.

Added some cross members to the frame and made a couple of brackets to support the PSU, it's a good fit so tightening up the support brackets holds the PSU quite firmly, also cut out the PSU vent hole in the plexi.

I mentioned before that I want to keep all the I/O panel/PSU cables hidden inside the case which is why there is a gap left behind the back panel where they can go.
I also didn't want the fan venting out the back so I had the idea (jeez, why do we have these ideas) to vent the fan up the back of the case and out the top, to do this I needed to make a deflector to direct the air up the back.

I made a card template to get the curve right and then wired up a fan and tried pointing it towards the deflector and it seems to work quite well so I decided to go ahead with it and made a plexi deflector and added some mounting brackets.

I've called this cooling/deflector idea, "Second skin".

I've added a side piece to the curved deflector to surround the PSU vent as well, it's in dark plexi as I've run out of clear, also added the side piece on the other side and filled the "To be filled" hole.
I've outlined the complete unit in white to make it easier to see/understand hopefully?

The second skin is pretty much a sealed unit now and just spinning the fan by hand you can feel the air coming up the back of the case, a success me thinks

There will also be two fans at the top of the case to extract the air.

While the glue was drying on the Second skin plexi I made a up a HDD cage (not going to use the one I made previously) this cage is made from some plexi and some pieces of aluminium profile.

I discovered that you can tap the central hole in the ally profile with a 6mm thread, very handy for fixing the plexi to it

I was going to put some profile pieces at the top as well but with the HDD fitted it is quite strong enough.

Fired up the fan for the first time and the air is really blasting out the top of the second skin

That's all for now, back soon

[Beta-brain]

Looking forward to it. Hmm... Maybe the destroyed-camera route would be interesting. http://www.speedcam.co.uk/gatso2.htm

Aww, poor cams
Not exactly sure yet, but I've got four cctv cams and I'm bidding on a four channel RC transmitter and servos on ebay

[Tavarin]

Very nice work with the plexi, the rear fan duct or second skin looks amazing.
+rep and +sub

[Beta-brain]

Thanks very much, it does make a change for a plan to work out much as you wanted it to

[x06jsp]

Nice work there

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Ducted cooling rocks! Nice work, man.

(I'll have to become intimately familiar with it soon...)

[Beta-brain]

Hi, Apologies to those that were watching my build but I have had health problems, I started getting vertigo (spinning) and balance problems, I have finally found some medication that helps but I still have a way to go yet but I have recovered enough to be able to continue with the build

The original build was named "Paranoia" and was to be a security based PC with built in cams and screen but I've had a change of plan as I have gotten back into playing some old DOS games so the revised build is for a DOS box still with a built in screen.

I was going to try and rebuild my previous posts with the photos that I used before I've lost some of the photos and it was proving difficult so I have posted some photos here of previous work and brought the build up to date with the work I've done in the last few days, it's good to be back and doing some modding as I'm not happy unless I'm messing with something, I also have a lot of catching up to do with all the new projects that have been happening here which is great to see.

OK, Here we go again!


I am making the case frame, support brackets and beams from aluminium profile, it's 20mm square and has slots in it for various joining brackets and you can also slide in small bolts which is real handy for attaching things to.

I bought the aluminium profile from http://aluminium-profile.co.uk/ there are many types of profile and I have used three types which have slots on all sides, another which has a smooth side on one face the smooth face being visible on the outside and the curved profile I have used for the corner pillars.

I'm using a hand mitre saw to cut the aluminium profiles to keep the ends neat so they bolt together squarely, this photo will clarify how the tubing fits together, the right angle brackets slide into the tube and small grub screws hold it all together, I didn't think at first they would be strong enough but
once you have a complete square/rectangle built it's quite rigid and strong, the more I use the stuff the more I like it!

Having got the basic frame together I am thinking that it doesn't look as big as I thought it would be, this turned out to be true, B****cks!

The donor case is an old HP Pavilion from which I have used the mobo tray and I/O panel once all the rivets were drilled out I reassembled it and pop riveted it all back together and checked the mobo and I/O panel for alignment, so far so good.

The mobo is a micro ATX board bought from ebay for just £8.00 and I also bought a Intel SL7PR Pentium 4 - 2.8MHZ CPU and 2GB of DDR2 PC2-4200 RAM, The mobo has a AGP slot so I can use an old Nvidea gforce 3 card which will be fine for playing DOS games.

I’ve bolted in the mobo and it’s looks a bit lost in the frame but, when I came to work out how to mount the PSU and the rear fans the PSU was nearly touching the cpu fan, this is because the PSU fits between the mobo on one side of the case and the monitor which will be mounted in the other side of the case.

I rebuilt the frame again this time making it wider and allowing enough room, this should be OK!

I want most of the case to be blank with as few switches and I/O leads visible as possible, I could have mounted the PSU sideways at the front of the case but I don’t want a venting grill in the side of the case, I made a new back plate out of plexi which is bolted to the I/O panel and the side of the case, You might have noticed that there's a gap between the I/O panel and the end of the case frame, this space is where all the cables can be hidden behind the back case panel and the fans will vent through the top of the case, I have a few ideas about how to do it and there's going to be at least one maybe two fans above the monitor as they get pretty hot.

Added some cross members to the frame and made a couple of brackets to support the PSU, it's a good fit so tightening up the support brackets the usual four screws at the back holds the PSU quite firmly,

also cut out the PSU vent hole in the plexi.

I've mounted the 120mm rear fan to the plexi, I was going to fit two fans but one will probably be alright as there will be the other two fans above the monitor and I can always fit another if I have to.
I mentioned before that I want to keep all the I/O panel/PSU cables hidden inside the case which is why there is a gap left behind the back panel where they can go.
I also didn't want the fan venting out the back so I had the idea (jeez, why do we have these ideas) to vent the fan up the back of the case and out the top, to do this I needed to make a deflector to direct the air up the back.
I made a card template to get the curve right and then wired up a fan and tried pointing it towards the deflector and it seems to work quite well so I decided to go ahead with it and made a plexi deflector and added some mounting brackets.

I've added a side piece to the curved deflector to surround the PSU vent as well, it's in dark plexi as I've run out of clear.

Added another side piece in tinted plexi, I've called this cooling/deflector idea, "Second skin" and it's a sealed unit now and just spinning the fan by hand you can feel the air coming up the back of the case, a success me thinks.

Fired up the fan for the first time and the air is really blasting out the top of the second skin.

Made up a hard drive cage from some profile and plexi.

That's about as far as as I previously got with the build but I've done some more in the last few days.

I took the back off the 14 inch monitor I bought (another ebay buy £20) and fitted some bolts to the outer case these bolts will carry the two top mounting brackets to secure the monitor to the frame.

I used the original stand mounting points on the monitor and made a new bracket to secure the bottom of the monitor to the frame.

These are the screen mounting points from inside the case, it's fitted in quite well.

Made up a frame to mount the twin 120mm fans to and used some plexi as brackets

Fitted a piece of clear plexi as a base in the case and bolted the fans to the base.

The fans are also bolted at the top on the cross beams.

With the screen and fans fitted the DOSBox starts to take shape.

That brings the build up to date, I have to fit some mesh over the front fans, two more fans and mesh to fit above the monitor, the wiring and switches to do, make up some side panels and make/fit some feet to the case.

I bought a neat little multi port panel to wire all the fans into and I have some sheets of plexi in clear, black, mirror and gold mirror to play around with, back soon.

[OvRiDe]

Wow, sorry to hear about the vertigo issues, that's got to SUCK! Glad to hear they have at least found you some relief. The build is looking GREAT! Looking forward to seeing your project progress.

[DonT-FeaR]

yeah man,... looking good.. hope the health gets better!