The Football [LAN PC]

[Mambroz]

Every few months I get together with some friends from college for a LAN party. Transporting a large PC is a pain, and I am always afraid for my monitors dragging them about to these things. I could buy a high end laptop sure, but where is the fun in that. So this is my new project, The Football. Oh, and by the way, my first one up here on the LinusTechTips forums.

 

Anyway, the plan is to take all of this:

 

 

And put in in this:

 

 

The parts list:

 

• Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell
• Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H
• Corsair Vengance Pro 8GB DDR3 1600
• XFX Double D R9-280X-TDFD (not pictured)
• Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
• Seagate SSHD 1TB
• Corsair RM Series RM650 650W
• ViewSonic VA2342-LED 23"

Here's a link with the bits: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1V6cz

 

I'm currently doing some cable sleeving while I'm still waiting for the graphics card to show up. I'm planning on doing orange/black/gray with some blue highlights on the motherboard.

 

I'll need to do a custom motherboard tray and top panel. I'm hoping to go about it leveraging 3D printing. The plan is to keep the case waterproof so all I/O and power connections will need to come through the top once the case is opened. I'll also need to figure out how I'm going to mount the monitor in the lid without bolting through it.

 

Wish me luck!

 

::UPDATES::

 

I've set up a gallery on Imgur that I will keep updated: http://imgur.com/a/IqO9e#0

 

• Prepping the monitor mount

Edited November 12, 2013 by Mambroz

[Homicidium]

Ouuuukay, this could be VERY interesting!

Good luck, mate!

[helping]

Your PC case is a case?
 

That's gold 

[ANUPLUCIFERGAMER]

i see that you're a corsair fan-boy!

[flibberdipper]

I'm thinking this will be a pretty good build.

[Mambroz]

Your PC case is a case?

 

That's gold 

 

And one heck of  a case! It's waterproof and really solid.

 

i see that you're a corsair fan-boy!

 

I guess I can't deny that, my last build was more or less "Brought to you by Corsair". I really do like almost all of their products and I've never had a bad experience, knock on wood. I will say that I'm not a super huge fan of their mice so far (this will be my second one), I usually go Logitech for mice, but I figured I'd Corsair another shot.

[Carter]

I have a similar pelican case lying around... This would be pretty cool to try

[KingLuvely]

Good luck dude! Look forward to seeing updates!

[Akolyte]

Every few months I get together with some friends from college for a LAN party. Transporting a large PC is a pain, and I am always afraid for my monitors dragging them about to these things. I could buy a high end laptop sure, but where is the fun in that. So this is my new project, The Football. Oh, and by the way, my first one up here on the LinusTechTips forums.

 

Anyway, the plan is to take all of this:

 

Parts.png

 

And put in in this:

 

Case.png

 

The parts list:

 

• Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell
• Gigabyte GA-Z87MX-D3H
• Corsair Vengance Pro 8GB DDR3 1600
• XFX Double D R9-280X-TDFD (not pictured)
• Samsung 840 EVO 500GB
• Seagate SSHD 1TB
• Corsair RM Series RM650 650W
• ViewSonic VA2342-LED 23"

Here's a link with the bits: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1V6cz

 

I'm currently doing some cable sleeving while I'm still waiting for the graphics card to show up. I'm planning on doing orange/black/gray with some blue highlights on the motherboard.

 

I'll need to do a custom motherboard tray and top panel. I'm hoping to go about it leveraging 3D printing. The plan is to keep the case waterproof so all I/O and power connections will need to come through the top once the case is opened. I'll also need to figure out how I'm going to mount the monitor in the lid without bolting through it.

 

Wish me luck!

Dang! you should attach the monitor to the side of the case and then you can just unfold and play

[Mambroz]

Dang! you should attach the monitor to the side of the case and then you can just unfold and play

 

Yeah that's the plan, the monitor will be in the lid, I'm hoping I can store the keyboard and mouse inside as well, maybe even a headset, so just unfold, plug and play. That's the goal anyway.

[alpenwasser]

I've been wanting to do something similar for quite a while, integrating a screen

into the case lid and all that. But that will have to wait. Definitely intrigued by

this.

[Bertrock Obama]

Dayum.... 

[Akolyte]

Yeah that's the plan, the monitor will be in the lid, I'm hoping I can store the keyboard and mouse inside as well, maybe even a headset, so just unfold, plug and play. That's the goal anyway.

hmmm, you might need some holes with fans or something inside, it would get quite hot. and Awesome!

[Mambroz]

hmmm, you might need some holes with fans or something inside, it would get quite hot. and Awesome!

 

Yeah I'm hoping I can manage to bring enough cold air in to create positive pressure and then have my exhaust in the where most of the heat is being dumped. I will certainly need to keep a good eye on the temps as I test it. I'm hoping this weekend to get the acrylic pieces that will make up the top cover and the motherboard tray/mounting areas. For some of the more complex mounting parts I plan to get 3D printed.

 

NCIX still hasn't shipped the graphics card to me  . I've got everything else though so I'm going to get it built and running so I can test out the parts I do have, and I'll be working on cable sleeving as well this weekend.

[Akolyte]

Yeah I'm hoping I can manage to bring enough cold air in to create positive pressure and then have my exhaust in the where most of the heat is being dumped. I will certainly need to keep a good eye on the temps as I test it. I'm hoping this weekend to get the acrylic pieces that will make up the top cover and the motherboard tray/mounting areas. For some of the more complex mounting parts I plan to get 3D printed.

 

NCIX still hasn't shipped the graphics card to me  . I've got everything else though so I'm going to get it built and running so I can test out the parts I do have, and I'll be working on cable sleeving as well this weekend.

I would try to get the cooling system going first. The GPU is not all that hard anyway to install.  Compared to the rest.

[Mambroz]

I would try to get the cooling system going first. The GPU is not all that hard anyway to install.  Compared to the rest.

 

This is true, that is part of what I'll be doing this weekend, getting all my measurements taken so I can start laying out what is going to go where in the case. I've got some thoughts already on how I'm going to do it but we'll see how that goes once I start working on it. I think I might try to get the monitor in there this weekend. If all goes well it will be removable.

[sperkowsky]

looks good

[MiguelOliv]

Man what a crazy idea! It's gonna to be wild! Can't wait to see some pics!

[Akolyte]

This is true, that is part of what I'll be doing this weekend, getting all my measurements taken so I can start laying out what is going to go where in the case. I've got some thoughts already on how I'm going to do it but we'll see how that goes once I start working on it. I think I might try to get the monitor in there this weekend. If all goes well it will be removable.

sweet

[legopc]

nice but how are you going to mount the gpu 

[Mambroz]

nice but how are you going to mount the gpu 

 

I should be able to mount the GPU right off the motherboard, with a custom bracket of course, it's been part of the plan. If it proves to be too tall (I've done some quick thinking about the measurements already and I should be okay) I can use one of those PCIe extender jobs, I don't really like the way they look but if that's what it comes to I guess I'll have to deal.

[flibberdipper]

I've been wanting to do something similar for quite a while, integrating a screen

into the case lid and all that. But that will have to wait. Definitely intrigued by

this.

Haven't you strangled your wallet enough, AW?

[alpenwasser]

Haven't you strangled your wallet enough, AW?

Strangled, beaten, dried out, turned into dust and then blown into the wind.

I also want to do another server, ZEUS is running low on space already, and

I want to have an ECC-capable system.

But I am a patient man. Plans get postponed and/or updated and/or replaced,

but not scrapped.

Ontopic: 3D printing is awesomeness, looking forward to what you will do with

that.

[Mambroz]

Ontopic: 3D printing is awesomeness, looking forward to what you will do with

that.

 

 

It is! The whole motherboard tray and top panel would be too expensive for 3D printing, so those will be acrylic probably, I just bought myself a new Jigsaw for just that! I can say I'm working on the first 3D printed bit today. The monitor I bought has an external power brick, I went with what I believe was the thinnest and lightest 23" monitor I could find so that is expected. I am however worried about the power cord coming out so I am making a clip for that.

 

I'll post up a 3D view of the file when I'm done, and some photos when I actually get the part.

 

Off topic: I think my mouse wheel is dying, it does strange things like I can scroll up, and it jitters or jumps back down the page. So is that software, hardware, or demonic possession? (I'm not ruling anything out yet)

[Mambroz]

So this is the little clip I'm going to add to the monitor to hold the cable in place. Hopefully this works out, we'll know if a week or so.

 

Monitor Clip (click to view in 3D)