I sort of laser etched my window and it's awesome

[Sauron]

Now all it needs is a liquid cooler

[jkraghify]

Now all it needs is a liquid cooler

Now all I need is more money

[Sauron]

Now all I need is more money

 

One can't have everything I suppose ^^ besides my own rig is pretty messy, I never cared about looks so it's just the best arrangement I could make with completely mismatched parts  B) we're talking an m-atx motherboard in a corsair 800D that I got second hand for free...

[ahhming]

kim jong un approved.

 

anyway how much does it cost

[jkraghify]

how much does it cost

It was free for me since I'm a student. I don't know how much it would cost in the real world. It's a laser cutter, so the only cost is electricity.

[W-L]

Only if my university had their laser cutter even up and running -____-

 

Looks great, is the etching placed in the middle of the acrylic or on the surface.

[jkraghify]

Looks great, is the etching placed in the middle of the acrylic or on the surface.

It's on the surface, but I am thinking of covering it with another acrylic piece

[W-L]

It's on the surface, but I am thinking of covering it with another acrylic piece

 

I think it would be better just as it is since a second panel may leave gaps in between the panes, it'll also leave it a lot clearer.

[Captain Matt]

Very well done!

[simson0606]

nice mod!

 

also love the classic zalman cooler!

[NickCG]

Now all I need to do is put in some white LEDs! I might make my own strips though. My room mate and I are both modding our PCs and we want to make our own LED strips

 

If you're talking about getting single LEDs and soldering them together, or (even worse) making it out of SMD LEDs, I wouldn't do it. I attempted it before and the time it took and the end product isn't worth the savings IMHO. If you search ebay, you can get LED strips for really cheap (< 2$ per meter). Plus it can look pretty ugly if you do it yourself 

 

If you're talking about making your strips yourself in another way, I'd be interested to hear what you mean 

 

Anyway, that rig looks really sweet!

 

EDIT: I found these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/131021767060

[ManWithBeard1990]

Laser etching / cutting IS addictive. I should know. I built my entire case with one.

[MblaZe7run]

Can we get a mod log please! Seeing progress on this would be amazing!

[squirrl]

An external hard drive inside a PC? Someone's living on the edge!

[A Banana :D]

Get a white and black heatsink and boom. Youre golden.

[jkraghify]

Can we get a mod log please! Seeing progress on this would be amazing!

I would love to do one, but I don't have the money to mod anymore this year I pay for my own college and I need to buy a car

 

If you guys have suggestions for mods I can do for free, I'll do em! I have access to every tool you could think of. I just don't want to put more money into it, lol.

 

Maybe if I can get a professor to clear me to use the 3D printer I could do something.... hmmmmmmmmm

[jkraghify]

Get a white and black heatsink and boom. Youre golden.

 

I was considering somehow "anodizing" the copper, but I don't think copper works that way. I know anodizing works with aluminum because the anodized layer is clear, but I think on copper the layer would be green. The reason I have the bare copper cooler is because of the awesome heat transfer properties of copper.

 

If anyone knows how to make black copper, please tell me. I looked online but I can't figure it out. My chemistry friends would definitely help me out here and I'm totally willing to dip my cooler in sulfuric acid, or whatever can make it black.

 

An external hard drive inside a PC? Someone's living on the edge!

 

I move my PC a lot and don't bother moving around the external drive  I used to use it for booting into ubuntu but I broke the boot drive somehow and never cared to make it again lol

 

Now it just stores all my data (documents, drivers, and offline installers for MS Office, chrome, Photoshop, and all my other programs I use daily) when I do my re-installs of windows so I am back up and running in an hour rather than in a couple days

 

Lifehack: cut a small hole in a PCI slot guard and put the external drive wire through and BOOM: external drive is now internal

[Bosco]

-snip

 

Lifehack: cut a small hole in a PCI slot guard and put the external drive wire through and BOOM: external drive is now internal

 

or get one of those internal usb header to usb connectors that were mentions in one of the handy tech videos.

[W-L]

 

I was considering somehow "anodizing" the copper, but I don't think copper works that way. I know anodizing works with aluminum because the anodized layer is clear, but I think on copper the layer would be green. The reason I have the bare copper cooler is because of the awesome heat transfer properties of copper.

 

If anyone knows how to make black copper, please tell me. I looked online but I can't figure it out. My chemistry friends would definitely help me out here and I'm totally willing to dip my cooler in sulfuric acid, or whatever can make it black.

 

For blackening cooper there is the process of antiquing which is basically oxidizing a thin layer of the metal to turn black, but I'm not too sure how well that black copper oxide will affect the heat transfer. The only other way I could see blackening the cooper heatsink without affecting cooling performance is electroplating with a black nickel type finish where you'll get basically metal to metal heat transfer to the air.

[jkraghify]

For blackening cooper there is the process of antiquing which is basically oxidizing a thin layer of the metal to turn black, but I'm not too sure how well that black copper oxide will affect the heat transfer. The only other way I could see blackening the cooper heatsink without affecting cooling performance is electroplating with a black nickel type finish where you'll get basically metal to metal heat transfer to the air.

 

electroplating sounds like something I could do. I have a friend that's trying to electroplate some car parts right now! I could try it out maybe next weekend if I can find some black nickel and pay my friend a visit!

 

But I was also thinking about asking a girl I like out this weekend... decisions decisions!

 

(honestly though, electroplating sounds like so much fun! maybe I could get the girl into it too because shes studying materials engineering. I could be like "hey could you help me color this copper black" and she'd be like "I've been waiting weeks for you to ask that!" Boom. Two birds with one stone. Master plan. I'm not sure why I'm using parenthesis still.)

[Ostwind]

dat zalman cooler.

[W-L]

Haha that's one way to be efficient , and it sounds like you guys have loads of equipment available to manufacture all sorts of things.

[jkraghify]

Yeah I am really lucky to be going to a lab-oriented school. Almost all our work is project-based. Last year my room mate (computer engineer) build a crappy power supply! It's really cool here, I love it.