Orange Crush. A revisit. ITX LAN PC.

[AlienALX]

Good afternoon all Linus fans.

 

I began modding PCs in and around about 2003. Since then it has been a long journey, with a lot of lessons learned along the way. This particular PC was modded and created way back in 2015, and was originally called the Pockit Rockit. IDK how many of you have been around here that long, but the original log is here.

 

 

Slight change of usernames since then as the forum had a bug where it would not send a confirmation to hotmail addresses after an update. So I had to create a new account.

 

Any way, onward and upward !

 

 

So just shortly after doing that mod I hated it so much I stopped using it. TBH it was a daft idea, because I had two other gaming PCs at the time and it was underpowered at best. So I removed and sold the Titan Black, put in a Quadro of sorts and gave it to my aunt when my uncle was first diagnosed with cancer. At that point she had been using an Ipad, but obviously then needed a proper PC in order to go through all that. Sadly my uncle passed back in January after having beating it twice. RIP Unc, I love you.

 

As such my aunt no longer needed it and it was heading to a landfill near you. I had spent a lot of money on it (pointlessly) and thus could not let that happen. But, I needed to come up with a use for it as I am now older and wiser. And the thought hit me... LAN rig. Doesn't need to be powerful at all (we play the original HALO, COD4, COD3 and FEAR) and thus it would be worthwhile doing.

 

So here it is back with me after 8 years.

 

 

It looked like this inside.

 

 

Sans the Titan, and this outside.

 

 

So the idea here is to spend as little money as possible, yet create something that stands out. Before I got into that though the hardware needed a boost. Somehow a dual core Pentium wasn't going to cut it, so I ordered this.

 

 

No gamble needed, I already checked the CPU support list. I then dug out 8gb of DDR3 a pal sent me last year (it only had 4gb in) and tested it. This is also the GPU I shall be using in here. It's not as extravagant as a real 1080ti sadly, it is a 980ti in drag (yes the cooler fits, you just need to mill off one screw post).

 

 

Sorted. So after checking I realised that I had broken the USB3 front panel header on the board (one crushed pin. I could try fixing it but CBA) and one of the DIMM levers had snapped. This case is a real PIG to work in, and I think frustration got the better of me back then. The cooler is also broken.It uses horrible plastic lugs and pins and two are snapped. So, the big spend. I got this.

 

 

I am going to use the extensions to make a new custom loom. I have pins, so that shouldn't be too much bother. The fans are to replace the ones I modded into it originally. They were Yate, but you could only get 20mm then. These are 15, meaning the case side panel will fit better.

 

 

OK so the first idea I had for the refresh. The side panel grill is going. It was supposed to be meshed, but the mesh was crap so I put a window in it. That is being replaced with this.

 

 

Left over from a project. So think this.

 

 

The left over rocket grill will go on the fans in the bottom, to save them going into your fingers when you lift the case. I forgot what a nice job I had done on that tbh.

 

 

So, strip it down and clean it all up.

 

 

 

The orange plexi was under the silver dinoc. Result, no painting needed there

 

Mod one. Make a real fan fit in the top.

 

This took some head scratching. The fan in there was 120mm, but another fan would not go over the pins on the case. After a lot of thinking I realised it was the holes in the fan. So, I made them larger and.

 

 

Need to cut down some long M3 bolts, but that is done. Then it was onto the IO. Like I said, the USB3 header is broken and I don't need any front IO. So....

 

 

OK so why the heck would I do that? I will tell you. Because getting a full length GPU in there is like water torture. And that did not help. Nor did this.

 

 

So that is being cut out also.

 

Now the astute among you would have clocked a whacking great bar handle. Yup, that would be this one.

 

 

Hmm.

 

 

OK so let's see what we can do there..

 

Scan.

 

 

 

Make circle.

 

 

To get this.

 

 

Machine 4x out of 5mm scrap of white acrylic, and.

 

 

That has now been fixed to the case with epoxy and I have begun the frenching process with JB weld.

 

So with that all done let's talk about the plans.

 

 

[Agall]

 

This cut should be huge for the GPU's thermal performance. You could also make a little duct for it that would also support the GPU that could bolt in from the front.

[flibberdipper]

Man all these years later and you're still rocking the BF4 keyboard. In that time I've gone through... like 5 or 6? Them were the days though.

[AlienALX]

On 11/7/2023 at 3:59 PM, flibberdipper said:

Man all these years later and you're still rocking the BF4 keyboard. In that time I've gone through... like 5 or 6? Them were the days though.

 

Oh no mate those pics are from 2015. Not got that any more due to space. It was full sized.. Cherry blues though, a super board. Just too big now.

[AlienALX]

On 11/7/2023 at 3:12 PM, Agall said:

 

This cut should be huge for the GPU's thermal performance. You could also make a little duct for it that would also support the GPU that could bolt in from the front.

 

I'm a bit confused by that post. I am going to remove a section of the foamed area.  Above where the side panel clips in. Just so the GPU goes into the case straight, and doesn't need to be put in at a bad angle. The side panel goes back on, the air comes in from the two 120s in the bottom. Cooling was always good, due to how I had made a wind tunnel basically.

[Agall]

7 minutes ago, AlienALX said:

 

I'm a bit confused by that post. I am going to remove a section of the foamed area.  Above where the side panel clips in. Just so the GPU goes into the case straight, and doesn't need to be put in at a bad angle. The side panel goes back on, the air comes in from the two 120s in the bottom. Cooling was always good, due to how I had made a wind tunnel basically.

A decent amount of the airflow from a blower cooler comes from the front, something I tested with my GTX 1080 between the Silverstone SG13 and Ncase M1, the M1 having a solid surface at the end of the card.

 

 

It appeared like you intended to cut the front open for this section, and I suggested ducting it.

[flibberdipper]

10 hours ago, AlienALX said:

 

Oh no mate those pics are from 2015. Not got that any more due to space. It was full sized.. Cherry blues though, a super board. Just too big now.

Ah. I see my dumbass is showing again.

[AlienALX]

Nah not cutting the GPU. The case can deffo take one that long, but you have to put it in at a horrible angle. As such things get broken etc. Just needs some clearancing is all

[AlienALX]

Human malware slowed things. My fingernails now have weird dents in them

 

The cooler came a while back. I also found an old P68 board in the cupboard with white RAM retention levers, so I robbed those.

 

 

Had they been black I would not have bothered, but they match it really well.

 

 

Unfortunately what also slowed things another week was the fact that the Phanteks extensions I bought were out of stock. And they didn't tell me. For a whole week, when I asked them. I hate it when companies do stuff like that. Any way, I got a refund on them and found this as B stock for £40.

 

 

It's a full Cablemod set in paracord. Which is much better than the horrible plastic stuff on the original custom cables, as they were a real git to bend. These are nice and floppy. The only issue here? they were made for a Cooler Master PSU. However, they had the correct pins both ends unlike the Phanteks, and, have dedicated braided SATA and Molex too. So earlier today I set about taking them out one by one and switching them into my loom. I was annoyed that a lot of the 24 pin wires were doubled on the extensions, and angrily started tossing them to one side. I then realised that on this PSU (Silverstone ITX) that the 8 and 6 pin PCIE are doubled on 6 wires. There is only one connector at the PSU end. So those doubled ones? man, saved me a lot of time and potentially nasty modding.

 

 

So, we now have a fully done 24 pin, 4+4pin EPS and the 8 pin to 8+6 pin PCIE. All done, without needing anything but a pin remover. Awesome.

 

I will buzz the SATA and molex connectors next time I go at it (week or two, got some stuff to do for Christmas in the meantime) and get that all done.

 

So overall very happy. The only thing left wrong with the motherboard now from my original rage fest back in 2015 is one snapped USB3 header pin. Thing is I am not going to be using it so yeah, I will leave that. If one day I do want to attempt to repair it though? I can use said P68 board in my cupboard for pins.

[AlienALX]

Happy New Year all !

 

So the weather in the UK has been rain. With rain, and then some extra rain just in case there wasn't enough rain. On the one occasion it wasn't raining it was foggy, and I painted an amp panel black and it went all frosted and weird. So basically what I am saying is? painting is out.

 

I had every intention of waiting until Spring. Then something happened, and red mist set in.. I shall explain !

 

I am a huge Fallout fan. Like, beyond huge (I have over 4k hours in FO3!). I have around 2k hours in FO4, yet FONV? maybe 200 at best. This is mostly because it has been harder to play. Again, I will explain...

 

Obsidian did not update it very much. The way they were treated by Bethesda? I can understand why. See, the Xbox 360 version of FO3 has been updated with new textures and much higher settings if you play it on a Xbox 1x (not the S E X, the One X). It also runs at 4k, and looks really nice. Sadly whilst it does run on a 1x NV looks like potato graphics and does not run above 1080p, with no AA (so jagged heaven) and crap draw distances. These games need a  spruce up if playing now.

 

OK, so I have 3 PCs just run it on one of those right? well actually no. They all sport big navi (6800XT LC, 6900XT Toxic LC and 6950XT MBA) and NONE of them will run Fallout NV. It gets about 3 FPS, stutters and judders, then crashes. And no matter how many of the mod fixes I install nothing changes that. I think it is just because NV is a very old game, and AMD big navi is relatively very new. As such why would AMD go back 12-13 years and make sure an old game works properly when they have bigger fish to worry about frying.

 

As such that is why the red mist set in. See, I wanted to play it bad but now I was angry and wanted to play it even more. It then dawned on me that hey, the 980Ti is Nvidia, and it's old, and so is the rest of the system. As such I can run it at 4k easy, even with hella mods, and play the snot out of it.

 

As such I wanted this in an operable state now. Sadly the case was in a thousand bits and needed cutting around to get the hardware in and I just can't do any of that now.

 

So, I did what we all would, and threw it all in the recycling bin. I know, it's nuts, but not when you realise I had this emptied out sitting in my attic.

 

 

A much newer, much better case. Well, when you remove the crap glass and stop it being a hot box.

 

The good thing is Lian Li realised this, and soon sold extra mesh panels. Mesh panels I did not want to have to paint, as acrylic paints are quite thick and block mesh when you try to paint it. So, I simply ordered two cut price sets of white panels.

 

 

And set to work.

 

By this stage I had made the SATA power cables and even pinned up the Molex set so they are there. Not in there, but in a nice Cablemod bag. Please note this was done with 0 fudges given, because it will all be coming apart. Everything you see that is part of the case and is black will be orange and white mixed in.

 

 

 

 

 

Now the astute among you will notice this.

 

 

Ain't 'gon fit in thar. But this will.

 

 

And so a short time later the substitute skunk was kicking ass.

 

 

I have now installed Win 11 (hacked it, no TPM etc) and a heavily modded absolutely gorgeous FONV install running at 4k on the TV monitor at the end of the bed. Needed to install a god load of fixes to stop it crashing, but am now about 10 hours in.

 

I will see you all come spring time.