Project: Mod in a Week // "Fallout Cause SP"

[Luciel]

Hi Everyone,

This is the third and final mod of the season for me. I am currently waiting for my philips ambx to arrive for my “AIO AL” (a.k.a. “Nameless” mod also posted on here) and to get my hands dirty on finishing the remake of the horns and other details on “Diabolo” (also posted on here). All three will be on show at the MLP event in Murcia, Spain from the 6th to the 11th of December.

Fallout Cause SP (Slim & Passive) is the succesor to my fav mod of my own creation “Fallout Cause”, it was just a paintjob yet it was before I got in to making worklogs and I´ve learnt so much since then that I want to do something new in the same style as FC was.

About the conditions, maybe some of you remember my previous “Mod in a Week” project (a.k.a. Acid Burn), the conditions are the same, Start to Finish happens within a week, starting to day, Saturday 26-11-11 so it will be finished by Saturday the 3rd of December as the latest.

All products needed have to be bought/ordered and received within this period. This of course puts limitations on what I can use but that´s also part of the fun in this kind of project.

I chose to start today as the products from the sponsor for this project arrived.

Informatica Outlets is simply the must go to website in Spain for great deals on hardware and all needed components to build a PC. So thank you very much Informaticaoutlets.com for your sponsorship on this project!

The products sponsored for this project are:

B-Move Slim II M-ATX low profile case

Intel Celeron Dual Core E3400

ASUS EN210 GeForce

Gigabyte G41MT-S2PT Motherboard

Other products sponsored include a memory card reader for the case, a 250gb seagate barracuda sata2 hard drive and an LG CD/DVD rewriter.

As the name of the project suggests, I am aiming for making the whole computer passive, i.e. no fans, which is why I´ve gone for the ASUS 210 low profile silent GPU, and the celeron intel cpu, as it´s a low end basic cpu, it should be the easiest socket 775 cpu to cool without fans, just a heatsink and decent thermal paste. Other products I´ve acquired today for this project are:

Thermaltake Mini-Typhoon CPU Cooler

2x2Gb Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz (I know this mobo supports up to 1333 but its fine, it will help keep the ram cool to underclock it plus I got a simply great deal on them).

Let´s start then.

1st Day - Saturday 26-11-2011

So I´ve done a quick bench-test to make sure all the hardware is working fine and in deed, no problems whatsoever.

Because the B-Move Slim II is a low profile m-atx case I pressume meant for an HTPC, most aftermarket heatsinks will not fit, but I can´t use the stock intel heatsink because it´s cooling power is virtually non-existant without a fan. So I´ve gone for the thermaltake mini-typhoon as I got a great deal on it and it has a decent copper surface that should keep the cpu cool enough without a fan. So I mounted it with Noctua NX-1 thermalpaste, and went on to do some temp testing without a mounted fan. On idle I get 54c, on stress testing, it doesn´t go over 76c now, this are high temps for such a cpu, but remember it´s being passive cooled and the temps are within safe boundaries so I can check that off the list.

Again because the case is low profile, the cooler will not fit even without a fan, I knew this, hell, I wanted this to happen so I could cut a hole on the side of the case to expose the copper which will add to the final look, if any of you have seen my original Fallout Cause, you´ll know exactly what I mean : )

So, 1st, let´s cut the hole:

Now to test it on the case:

Very nice fit! next issue, the cpu cooler´s mounting possition means that the ram doesn´t fit because of it´s cooler, thing is, I like the cooler and rather not have to shave the trimmings off, so, did some measurements, and it would seem cutting off one of the cpu cooler´s pipes is the way to go, so that´s what I did:

[Luciel]

Now for mounting tests:

Now as you can see it fits fine but its in contact with the ram stick by very little, my question is, would this affect anything in any way? would it transfer heat to the ram heatsink or the other way round? Should I trim the ram heatsink?

That´s it for today, tomorrow I prep further modification to the case, I am planning on openings and signs of aging and damage caused by rust and the extreme conditions of a fallout post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Thanks for reading! : )

[lithium.bb]

Another one? Sweet!
Also, I don’t think you’d have to trim the ram heatsink for any reason.

[Luciel]

Thanks : )

Well it wouldn´t really affect it aesthetically and I´d feel better if it wasnt in contact : )

[Guzzi]

Why do you build these projects? Are you building for people who paid for you to do the projects? Do you build then sell on craigslist or ebay? Do you build for your own enjoyment?

I like all of the projects you have shown us thus far and the concept of this project is great as well. I look forward to more updates.

[lithium.bb]

@Luciel

Well it wouldn´t really affect it aesthetically and I´d feel better if it wasnt in contact : )

Yeah, it certainly wouldn’t harm anything. I had to trim a bit off of the heatsinks on the motherboard on my PC for the CPU heatsink to fit on correctly, but I’m not sure it’d be necessary either in this case.

[Luciel]

@Guzzi

Why do you build these projects? Are you building for people who paid for you to do the projects? Do you build then sell on craigslist or ebay? Do you build for your own enjoyment?

I like all of the projects you have shown us thus far and the concept of this project is great as well. I look forward to more updates.

I´d have to say a bit of everything really. I mainly enjoy a lot doing these things, but as you can understand, it´s quite an expensive hobby, not so much due to hardware as most of the times I have some sort of sponsor, even if it´s for the cheapest thing, and I always have parts laying about due to my work but the real expensive stuff is the materials, epoxy, filler, and mostly paint, specially paint aren´t cheap. Due to this, eventually I do sell most of my projects, be it for cost price just to recover some money or in some cases to someone who has really loved it and is whilling to pay a price to have something unique and exclusive. I have however never put them on ebay or the likes, as I feel it would degrade them like selling them as some second hand thing I no longer care for, so what I do is I normally put them on my facebook and on my personal website and sooner or later I get someone interested in them. I always do the transactions through paypal or google checkout for some degree of peace of mind even if it costs me a percentage in fees.

In some very specific cases, I do mods because someone has payed me to do something specific, but I would not normally do a public worklog out of them as I feel this is their idea, I´m just building it, so while I´ve done it, it doesn´t feel like my work if that makes sense?

Price wise, I can give you an example, my previous project (it´s named as “nameless project” here on the black mesa forums) I would sell it for around 600 usd. If you where to buy the screen and netbook, I guess it´d cost you around 400 usd? So I think it´s a fair price if not low, as there´s easily over 100usd in other materials used in this, when normally I would add 200 usd at the very least for my work but in this case because the netbook was donated to me I figured it was fair to bring the price down if that makes sense.

In any case, thanks for the comments : )

Personally I will keep doing them as long as I can afford to and enjoy doing them. Not normally as offer, the reason for the 3 last projects being done so close from eachother is because of an exposition happening on the 3rd of December, to enter I must have 3 pieces and I didn´t want to take any of the older ones which I still have.

[Luciel]

2nd Day - Sunday 27-11-11

Today is destruction day, I will make all the destroyed sections of the case to give it that fallout rusted out/cannon´d out look. When I get to the painting part I will aid this look by giving a rust look to all the edges and adding epoxy to simulate edges fusing togueter due to rust (i.e. the grills).

First thing however, is to trim that last lip of the memory module heatsink that´s driving me mad due to it being in contact with the cpu cooler, so here we go:

Much better, it´s barely noticeable and it is no longer in contact with the cpu heatsink.

Now it´s dremel time, I have to say I´m surprised at how thick and strong the metal is on this case, specially having in mind it´s a low end case so it´s mostly made out of scrap metal as they tend to do, I went through 2 heavy duty dremel discs in order to complete all the cutting. Once done I plied them backwards for two reasons, first, be it bullets, blunt tools or other, the impact would always be towards the case so it makes sense it´s pushed inwards, the second reason being to prevent sharp edges on the outside.

Here we go:

[Luciel]

And that about does it, I though of adding more as certain parts of the case looked to “clean” if you know what I mean, but I can always add imperfections and artificial damages when doing the paintjob and it´s effects. I think my fav one is the chunk missing from the side that lets you look right in to the cpu heatsink.

Tomorrow I will add similar effects on a small scale to the front of the case obviously very carefully, don´t want to brake any of the hooks that attach it to the rest of the case.

But for today that´s it. Thank you for reading!

[Luciel]

3rd Day - Monday 28-11-11 - Update 1

Last night while I was in bed I started thinking about the things I should o today and if I should paint the philips ambx that arrived yesterday evening for the AIO AL project or leave that till I finished this one this saturday. While having the AIO AL project in my mind I though, hmm I wander if I could add a screen to this project, I know I cant integrate it on the side because there´s no extra sheet of metal, pretty much the side is what the mobo is attached too. I know I can´t use fiberglass to attach it to it because while it would look decent, it wouldn´t have air breathing, and it would just overheat, not to mention adding heat to the sheet and therefore to the mobo and cpu, so that was a no go, figured I´d scrap that idea and I went to sleep. This morning however while I was looking at the screen and the case it bothered me because I really liked the concept of adding a screen but couldn´t find a way to do it, but I had some spare time so I figured I´d take the screen apart and see if an idea popped in to my head, as I removed the bezel and platform I clicked, mounts! it´s so obvious, why on earth didn´t I think of that before!

So I took some measurements, did some screen hw mounting within the tower checked cable lenghts, everything checks out. So started to process.

First thing, a straight cut wide enough to pass cables through and use them as a grip for the mounting:

Now it was time to make the hole big enough for the bolt to go through, so figured I´d use the dremel to make a small starting hole, took forever to go through that, I hadn´t realised just how thick that sheet of metal was. Once done I took a drill, with the right drillbit on started, took me about 40 minutes to do both holes, mainly because I didn´t want to press to hard so not to go spoil the drillbit, eventually got there and installed the first mount:

added some washers and tightened it up:

Now the second one and a test mount:

Feels quite solid, I think I will add some feet on the opposite side so no stress is on the screwed in side, so I will look for some later on.

Now for a proper test mount of the screen´s psu and chipset:

And it fits perfectly:

That´s it for now, I will post a second update later today.

Thanks for reading!

[danielsangeo]

I have to ask. What’s with the raggedy-looking holes?

[mankyman6]

My guess is he’s going for a “destroyed” look.

[Luciel]

Yes, this mod is inspired by fallout, not so much the game itself, but the actual meaning of the word. So you could say this a pc that survived a nuclear bombing, be it realistic or not, (most likely not lol) it´s my idea of how it would look after that. That said of course when it´s painting time, a lot of details will be added with paint to simulate rust, corrosion, etc…

[danielsangeo]

Okiedokie. Just was curious. Thanks!

[Luciel]

No prob!

3rd Day - Monday 28-11-11 - Update 2

Gave everything a final sand down, cleaned it up and gave it a coat of primer:

For some reason the image of the primed front part of the case was corrupted but eh, nothing important.

After waiting drying time I applied 2 coats of glossy black, now I have matt black but I used glossy in order to be able to sand it down so fragments will remain a bit shiny which will add further to that used and thrown about look.

For the devices mounting point since some will be seen through grills or holes I decided to try something new, I watered the paint down more than usual (added an extra part of water) in order to prevent it from being a solid color and included an acrilic brown compound normally used for plastic and metal surfaces that imitate wood (I guess you could call it an artificial wood barnish), I ended up quite liking it!

That´s it for today, tomorrow I will be going down to my local paint supplies shop to acquire the colors that I´ll be using and the rust effect compound.

Thanks for reading!

[Luciel]

4th Day - Tuesday 29-11-11

Today has been a bit slow, this is because I went to buy the yellow I wanted to use for this, and they didn´t have the exact one I wanted in the usual paint I use. So I bought the tone in a paint I´ve never used, it´s still acrilic and is completely fine and compatible with the primer and lacquer I use, it´s purely it´s water/paint/density rations that are different, no idea why. It has ups and downs, the up is that it´s much thicker than the paint I normally use, meaning two coats is enough for a solid color. The down is that it takes 4-5 times longer to dry, which is fine if you´re doing a solid colour, you just get it over with and leave it overnight to cure. But when you want to add other tones on top like I will be doing, it´s annoying because you waste a lot of time on it being ready for the next coat. But aniway doesn´t really matter. I covered the sections I dont want yellow and started painting.

First Coat:

Second and last yellow coat:

Have to wait till tomorrow but the process will be darkening it with a black paint mist so no area has the same tone, sanding it down first to prep for coating and further down to show usage and deterioration right in to the metal. Once done, rusting effects all over the place, more concentrated obviously where there are openings.

It´s easier to show you than to explain it, but you´ll see tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

[Zageron]

I have a feeling that this is going to look terrible through the entire creation process, and then look absolutely astonishing at the very end. I look forward to the final product!

[Luciel]

5th Day - Wednesday 30-11-11 - Update 1

It´s paint effects day!

First I took off all the masking tape used to make the lines and I descovered I didn´t totally cover one of the grates so paint leeched through to the inside of the case. At first I was like, easy fix, just repaint the inside, end of that. But as I looked at it further, I kind of like the effect, it gives the inside a bit of a glow, so for now I´m going to keep it:

What do you guys think? Keep it? or repaint the inside black as it was originally?

Aniway, now the the important part, here you have the outside with the exterior masking tape removed:

Now with the interior tape removed and the first two effects done, darkening of the colour in an irregular pattern and with copper dark red drops everywhere to simulate dirt and other paint degradation/damage:

While that is drying I went ahead and started sanding down all corners and curves in the other part of the case to simulate abuse:

and applied the rusting effect:

Repeated the process with the lcd panel´s frame:

[Luciel]

Now that it´s dry, I started doing the rust effect to one of the openings on the side of the case, here´s the first layer:

And the second irregular layer with the second component, essentially giving the final look to the rust on that opening:

That´s it for now, a second update later today, thanks for reading!

[geekofalltrades]

That’s starting to look really cool.