Cooler Master Case Give-A-Way Contest

[gotrootdude]

This is my matsonic CLE266 via 800mhz C3 board getting ready to be baked in the oven submerged with candle gel. I bought ten pounds of gel, around a pound is placed on the board in one pic.
The aluminum foil is the mold for the gel.

I'll be using some of the gel to fill a hard drive enclosure with the drive in it.

The heatsink is cady-cornered because I took the original one off and replaced it with a older P4 one. It wouldn't go straight without hitting against something important. It's attached with Artic Silver Adhesive, and I did have to file the edges to keep it safe.

The rear connectors are taped to keep the gel out.

I haven't baked it yet, because I was looking for my compactflash-IDE connector with which I'll be loading geexbox before baking it into the gel as well, and a USB rear slot connector so I could connect up the USB headers on the board before baking so as not to lose them, and maybe a CNR modem. I'll be posting pictures of the results. There's a few things to iron out before I bake it.

I could use a case, any case. I was planning to make a case for this gel PC out of K'nex, with a handle for carrying, and using a PS1 LCD for showing videos.

Oh, the power LED is going to be a old bicycle rear light I picked up from circuit city that strobes from side to side like a cylon raider, it will be baked into the gel as well. I was planning to dual boot a nlite stripped down XP with crystal player for video, but then I thought about booting geekbox on a compactflash card using a IDE adaptor reading media from a spare drive could work better. I'll leave one IDE cable hanging out for attaching a spare hard drive.

Better yet, I'll tri-boot boot damn small linux, astlinux and geekbox, use mame with DSL for a little retro gaming, astlinux for voip pbx functions, and geexbox for media playing since it supports MCE remotes.

Also, I haven't decided on how to power it yet which is why the extender cable is hanging out. I'll either use a micro-atx PS, or a morex 60w PS. If I use the morex PS, I'll add a 12V remote control switch (I've seen them over at xoxide).

Please forgive the bra on the floor, and ignore the micro-SD in the DS, I swear it's for homebrew.

Will post pics of the work.

I'll be uploading more pics of my creations in a bit. This is just one I was working on at this time.

[Jason]

Your pic has scored you 4 entries and a shot on the front page.

[A_Str8]

No picture or video for me. Just a boring old reply

[gotrootdude]

I've found my compactflash-IDE adaptor. I also figured out the power supply issue. I have a small generic micro-atx PS, I'll strip the PS out of it's case, remove the fan, and rebuild it like shown below.

Well, on second thought and for safety sake, I may just wrap it with EL wire and leave out the cold cathode, besides, I have the EL wire on hand.

I also found a old telephone holder at work made out of acrylic that measures 8 1/2 x 9 inches with clear feet that will serve as the base.

I paid $54 for the motherboard around a year ago. $14 for the generic 150w micro PS. $5 for the IDE adaptor, $0 for the 64mb compactflash card, $0 for any other supplies used. The remote is a spare one I use for the media centers in the house. The EL wire is left-over from halloween. The bicycle light is left over from the kids. I'm not spending any more for the whole project.

[gotrootdude]

OK, The PS fit great inside the CD case, but, I found only one side can be glued to the 120mm fan. The other side of the case is too big, so I'll just attach a piece of black plastic stolen from a display rack. I'll have to relocate the plug adaptor to the side with the back plastic. I'll also use a cut piece of the black plastic to isolate the PS from the cold cathode.

Was going to post a pic, since I didn't leave my cheapo camera at work this time, but I left the power supply, 120mm fans, etc at work instead. Argh.

The actual baking is going to have to wait until I have time to watch it. I only get around 30min a day to work on my projects during the week.

So instead I'll post a pic of another project I'm working on. Yeah, I know, it's a mess.

[Luvlyan]

I could sure use a new mATX case. Include me in the draw please!
Good luck every1

[gotrootdude]

It's alive! The candle gel media center PC is baked, and working!

I went to load geexbox, and found I had no blank CD's to burn the generated ISO. Then I went to take a picture of it running and found my cruddy camera has died.

So, pictures of the working project tomarrow night. I sitll have to finish the power supply, but it's coming along.

I have to say, nothing looks better than a motherboard baking in the oven. Looks even better afterwards sitting on it's acrylic base.

I was surprised to find that the taped over spots did nothing to keep the gel out. I had to spend a bit of time with a toothpick pulling gel out of the USB slots, etc.

[gotrootdude]

And running. Watched a movie and some on it. The gel got a little warm to touch on top the cpu, but had no problems.

Now to finish the PS, and clean up the cables. It's really hard to get a good picture of clear gel.

[Choco]

That CoolerMaster case is pretty!
Count me in please!

Thank you

[Assassin]

Phew! Just in time for the closing for the contest.
Count me inn