3D-Printed Computer w/ Built-In IPS Screen! (MONTAGE and full videos)

[Adahop]

I've made a montage of the entire process. 11 months of working on-and-off compressed into 3.5 minutes.

 

 

 

And here's the most recent full video (the finale!)

 

 

 

Hello everyone! I've been a fan of Linus (et al) for a while now, but only recently made an account here so that I could post on the Ultrawide Festival thread. I honestly just suck at keeping up with forums/blogs/etc usually.

Anyway, after seeing a lot of other posts here I've realized that this would be a great place to post my own build. Essentially, for the last several months I have been designing and 3D-printing a tiny gaming PC that I can use at work and wherever else I need a bit more oomph.

Here's my contest entry for a quick summary:

 

This started as a budget project, using spare parts from past builds, a $20 H81 motherboard, and some really penny-pinching parts. That...didn't last. My main workstation is already more than this build could ever hope to be, but I've pushed it to the limit anyway (spending far more money than I actually have) and I have to say that this little bugger is SNAPPY. Here's the current breakdown:

MB - ASUS Z97I-PLUS
CPU - Intel Core i5-4690
GPU - MSI GTX 750 Ti 2GB (low profile version - there is not a 900-series version of this yet)
RAM - 16GB DDR3 1600 Patriot Viper
SSD - 256GB Samsung 850 Pro
PSU - ThermalTake 550Watt
Screen - 1280x800 (16:10) Tontec 7 inch IPS Display (integrated with case design)
OS - Windows 7 Pro x64

It boots up in well under ten seconds - it was literally 4 seconds on a fresh install which blew my mind compared to my X79 tower.
 
Ellie is still a work-in-process, but she's FINALLY getting close to completion. The videos below go fairly in-depth with the process of developing and refining it over the last 6 months in my spare time, as well as how much my hair has grown. 
 
Looking back at parts 1 and 2, you can probably get away with just watching part 3 unless you're really interested in the entire process. I say that mostly because of how much I just cringed re-watching part 1 just now.
 
Part 1:

 

 

- Fan cover and screen framing printed, initial components selected
Specs at this point:

• ASUS H81M-K
• Intel Celeron G1830 (bought to update BIOS)
• Reference GTX 560 Ti 1GB
• 4GB DDR3 1333 Kingston HyperX
• 250GB Crucial BX100

Part 2:

- Nothing new printed, but massive update to specs and a temporary case
Specs at this point:

• ASUS Z97I-PLUS
• Intel Core i5-4690
• MSI GTX 750 Ti 2GB
• 8GB DDR3 1033 G.Skill Ripjaws
• 250GB Crucial BX100

Part 3:

- Prototype version of the case finally half-printed and assembled, plus another spec upgrade
Specs at this point:

• ASUS Z97I-PLUS
• Intel Core i5-4690
• MSI GTX 750 Ti 2GB
• 16GB DDR3 1600 Patriot Viper
• 256GB Samsung 850 Pro

Part 4

- Several final parts are printed, the prototype is assembled and functioning, parts were Dremeled/sanded down to size, and I finally have a chance to catch my breath.
 
Part 4 Bonus Episode

 

Spoiler

 

Part 5

- Everything but the lid is completed, assembled, and screwed together! At the end I also finally test it out in some games.

I have most of the parts printed that I need to assemble it in a more attractive final form, so look out for the finale in the next few weeks, as well!

 

Part 6

 

- She's done!

[Guest]

Off topic: My sisters name is Ellie.

 

On topic: Damn thats cool.

[Arty]

Noice 

[Adahop]

Noice

 Thank you!

 

Off topic: My sisters name is Ellie.

 

On topic: Damn thats cool.

Haha, nice. The actual reason I named it Ellie needs to be in my final video...it's a little convoluted. Thanks for thinking the case is cool!

 

(Here's the reason)

The computer is running a CPU built with the Haswell microarchitecture. The Haswell architecture was named after the small town of Haswell, Colorado. Haswell, Colorado has very little of note (their entire jail is 12x14 feet measured on the OUTSIDE) but they do have a singular radio telescope nearby. Radio telescopes were essential to the plot of the movie Contact, in which they were used as part of the SETI project to make first contact with alien life. The protagonist of Contact who initiated this first contact was Dr. Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway, played by Jodie Foster.

 

That also explains the radio telescopes I'm using in the final case design. That and the fact that I was an astrophysics major before I switched to my degree in animation.

[Sithhy]

Looks pretty nice but I would go for a bit bigger screen tho...

[Adahop]

Looks pretty nice but I would go for a bit bigger screen tho...

Heh, it's crazy small, yeah, and using Windows 7 on it makes me squint a little (although not as much as my 28" 4k screen does...I constantly am leaning way in to see what I'm doing). Anyway, it still retains its other video outputs, so the built-in screen is mostly meant for when I'm using it in certain situations at work or as a small secondary screen. It's entirely functional as a primary screen using the card's VGA output directly into the screen, but doesn't absolutely have to be. Using anything larger would have meant making the case larger than necessary to fit the motherboard, GPU, PSU, and everything else, as well as making it less portable.

 

If you include the outputs on the board itself, it still has 2 HDMI, 2 DVI, 1 DisplayPort, and 1 VGA for outputs.

[Adahop]

Part 4 is here!

Several final parts are printed, the prototype is assembled and functioning, parts were Dremeled/sanded down to size, and I finally have a chance to catch my breath.

[Adahop]

A bonus episode today. This entire 12 minute video was an outtake from yesterday's video. It highlights the trouble even our most agreeable printer can be sometimes, and how time consuming it is.

[Adahop]

She's almost in her final form, now! Everything but the lid is printed, assembled, and screwed together. I also am finally testing it out in some games!

[CatCloud]

Aah warping, a 3D printer's worse enemy aside from all other possible issues we run into.

Cool idea though, never though I'd Se someone do this without one of those big printers out there.

@TheProfosist pretty cool right?

[TheProfosist]

Aah warping, a 3D printer's worse enemy aside from all other possible issues we run into.

Cool idea though, never though I'd Se someone do this without one of those big printers out there.

@TheProfosist pretty cool right?

I would definitely have to agree. I still need to do that wrist rest some time.

[CatCloud]

I would definitely have to agree. I still need to do that wrist rest some time.

Still got the file, still lack the proper printer. One of these days.

[TheProfosist]

Still got the file, still lack the proper printer. One of these days.

yep one of these days That board needs to be disassembled and cleaned so bad too.

[Adahop]

Thanks guys! Yeah, it's been fascinating and frustrating getting through this. On the plus side I'm fairly convinced that if I am able to get around to reprinting the parts, they would turn out much better and more aligned. I've changed the design since the final prints to fix it, but I doubt I'll go through with printing a new set anytime soon.

[Hikaru12]

What printer do you use? Is this being done in ABS? Looks great man. Awesome work.

[Adahop]

 

The finale is here! I'm still gonna make a montage of the entire thing as well as an FAQ video, but as far as the build log goes I'm finally done!

[Adahop]

Montage time!

 

 

It took absolutely AGES, but she is finally (or at least 99%) done! I'm by no means an expert in 3D printing and I know that I messed a lot of things up, but this was a personal project done in my spare time on my not-for-profit private teacher wages.

Ellie (that's her name - long story) was printed in both ABS and PLA, by a combination of the Da Vinci AiO 1.0, Makerbot Replicator 1, Makerbot Replicator 5th Gen, 3D Systems CubePro, and a PrintrBot Plus V2.1.

On top of having a 100% 3D-printed case - and what really made me want to see this a reality - it has an integrated 7" IPS display on the front that runs off of the system's internal power and is directly connected to the GPU. This can act as a small secondary monitor or as the primary screen in a pinch. It's 1280x800 (16:10) so it has plenty of real estate for such a tiny screen. It also has fully customizable RGB lighting within the case itself thanks to the NZXT Hue+.

It originally started as a suggestion from a friend of mine, but when I saw a current-gen mATX motherboard (H81, but still) at the store on-sale for $20, that's what really kicked everything off. It was originally planned to be as absolutely cheap as possible, using as many spare computer parts as I could and as many bargain-basement deals as I could find. I started out with a $20 board, 4GB of old, unused 1333 Kingston RAM, an old GTX560 Ti graphics card, an old power supply, a really cheap basic Crucial BX100 SSD, and all I had to buy on top of the board was a CPU to go with it.

That's where it all fell apart.

Long story short, I ended up with a computer that is 100% removed from the one I started out building. She's fantastic for the wonky form factor I designed and is REALLY snappy, even compared to my 19TB workstation tower, but it came at a cost.

This is the system I ended up with:

CPU: Intel Core i5-4690 ($217)

MB: ASUS Z97I-PLUS ($173)

RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600 Patriot Viper ($97)

SSD: 256GB Samsung 850 PRO SSD ($130)

GPU: MSI GTX 750Ti 2GB (Low Profile) ($150)

PSU: ThermalTake 550Watt ($49)

Screen: Tontec 7" 1280X800 IPS ($73)

Case Fan: Noctua NF-F12 PWM "Linus Tech Tips Special Edition" ($38)

Lighting: NZXT Hue+ ($68)

KB: Corsair K65 RGB w/ Cherry MX Red switches ($152)

Mouse: Razer Mamba Tournament Edition Chroma ($103)

Mousepad: Steelseries QcK ($10)

Ext. Monitor: Dell 1907FP (temporary - old)

And that's only about a quarter of the things I bought for Ellie. The upside is that an entire other bonus computer came out of this, with a Celeron, 250GB SSD, GT640, 8GB RAM (half of an old 16GB kit - I put the other half in one of my sister's computers), etc. that I gave to my brother.

Anyway, back on topic, I designed/modeled it entirely in Maya 2014. My degree is in computer animation and Maya is the program I'm used to. You can strong-arm Maya into modeling for precise real-world measurements (at a base level it actually works in real-world units, which is helpful) but it doesn't work well with STLs. My process involved polishing everything to perfection at the precise scale I wanted within Maya, exporting individual objects as STLs, immediately uploading said STLs to a netfabb service, then pulling them into my printing software and fixing their orientation. After that I had to inspect the previews very closely to make sure nothing had gone haywire (normal, yes, but my goodness could the issues come out of nowhere).

With prints this large and thick, warping was a HUGE problem for ABS. It was basically undoable. Only the smallest, thinnest parts ended up being ABS in the end. All of the body is composed of PLA, but even with the computer under maximum load it hasn't gotten nearly hot enough to warp the body. That combined with the positive static pressure from the fans means the case has managed to stay cool and totally dust-free since I finished it.

Anyway, I realize that I might be rambling, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have about it. It's been a very long, very expensive ride for something that was basically a "I'm doing it because I [think I] can" sort of project, and I am so relieved to see it finally finished.

I just realized that I have *no* good photos of it, yet, but once I do I'll post them to Imgur and link them in this post, for sure.