Gonna make my PC "steampunk"

[zharrhen]

First off, I'm not going to just glue gears to it and say "DERR... STEAMPUNK!" I'm going for it.

EDIT: well, I will glue gears somewhere, but still...

I'm going to use wood veneer and stain it (not sure what color yet), remove the lights on the power button, replace the fans with something a little less modern, like these ugly brown fans that, since you can't see them very well and they will be spinning, will look wooden. I'll also paint the silver parts brass and add brass embellishments so it's not just a wooden PC. Finally, and best of all, I will add some random decorations that have functionality. I'm thinking a gauge that measures internal temperature, a knob that changes fan speed, and a victorian style pocket watch mounted next to the other gauge because it would look good and i'd finally have a clock that i can see from my desk.

Just an FYI, this is the tower i'm trying to do this to

NOTE: For those of you who have seen my n64 or gamecube worklog, you may see that i have little electronic skill, but I've made many ascetics mods (none of which are electronic, so none of them are on modretro)

 

[samjc3]

I do appreciate the notion of a proper steampunk casemod, however, wood veneer will not get you there. Real wood (and nice wood at that) or bust. Specifically, I'd say hit up a used furniture store to find some pieces that have nice, properly aged looking wood that you can alter into a case. Additionally, I'd say avoid the normal tower form factor - it's not that it can't look classy, but generally, it's rare anything older than the 70's was in that form factor. I'd go for a more low lying and wide setup, then put a row of dials across the front, including, but perhaps not limited to:
-Ampere meter
-Temperature (core and case, perhaps GPU, separated)
-fan RPM
-activity light
-CPU/Load, expressed with Nixie tubes

As for the fans, screw brown. Do your cooling with liquid cooling in proper copper and steel tubing (probably sleeve modern tubing in more classic looking stuff), and use a radiator for an older car or generator or somesuch instead of a normal PC radiator. Then for the fans, acquire some old peerless desk fans or similar. Replace the innards with the guts from a modern hydrodynamic bearing fan and it gets a lot quieter and more power efficient, plus PWM control. Oh, and if you do gears, put em in a cutout inside the case, and make them actually spin. And a metal insert on one of the sides with a frosted glass window that looks like a boiler door would be cool too.

Could be pretty be awesome (not to mention very expensive and time consuming, but hey.)

Also, not to be a grammar Nazi, but it's aesthetic, not ascetic. Ascetic describes a bland lifestyle, such as what monks are wont to have.

 

[zharrhen]

Thanks for the advice, I do like the idea of real wood, that's probably gonna be the most time consuming part, but i'll try. I'm probably going to look for darker wood or cherry stained wood, but I'm probably going to have to stick with the tower form because of my desk's layout (and my monitor isn't capable of adjusting height so it couldn't go under it) The liquid cooling, good idea, maybe i'll try to use a disproportionately large valve that turns, but doesn't effect the liquid cooling in any way for decoration. Finding an ampere meter and a temperature meter in a victorian style could be a little hard, probably gonna have to make those myself.

The activity light, I'm gonna borrow two of your ideas for this. I'm going to use a light sensor next to the normal activity light that is hooked up to a motor that spins some gears in a gearbox that you can see into on the side through some old fashioned or frosted glass (or a brass grate if glass it too expensive)

For the fans, I will probably stick with the brown ones, because unlike ones that you can find on the internet, these are extremely quiet and they have a really high RPM, plus I already got more of them than I need. They were giving them away free with any computer part purchase when I bought the components that are going to go into this thing. I also have an idea to go along with fan RPM gauges (again, probably have to make them), this could be covered with a really thin layer of wood and the knobs could be painted brass. http://www.amazon.com/Sunbeamtech-PL-RS ... controller

Also to clarify, I'm doing this to a PC that I've already built, so basically I'm giving my PC a new look.

 

[zharrhen]

Just realized that I should probably say what's going into this thing.

- Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H motherboard
- 12GB RAM
- MSI Radeon HD 7770 graphics card
- AMD phentom II dual core processor
- 700 watt power supply
- the usual junk like fans and a disc drive

 

[Abyss]

Just realized that I should probably say what's going into this thing.

- Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H motherboard
- 12GB RAM
- MSI Radeon HD 7770 graphics card
- AMD phentom II dual core processor
- 700 watt power supply
- the usual junk like fans and a disc drive

Awfully old processor for 12gb of RAM and a 7770 imo.

 

[XCVG]

Actually, either the processor or motherboard is wrong. Double check your part numbers, that motherboard is for LGA1155.

 

[zharrhen]

I double checked, it is a phentom II dual core. Yes it is old but it works for me.

 

[vskid3]

I double checked, it is a phentom II dual core. Yes it is old but it works for me.

Then the model number for your motherboard is wrong, unless you figured out how to make an AMD CPU work in an Intel motherboard.

 

[samjc3]

I double checked, it is a phentom II dual core. Yes it is old but it works for me.

Then the model number for your motherboard is wrong, unless you figured out how to make an AMD CPU work in an Intel motherboard.

Also technically speaking it's "Phenom" - no T.

 

[zharrhen]

got the model number wrong, sorry. it's a gigabyte and i'm too lazy to go and look for the box.

 

[zharrhen]

OK, i've run into a problem. I might have a hard time getting the sticker that comes with every copy of windows off. Also, I'm probably going to be switching to a case that you can put the computer in, not the computer case itself.

 

[vskid3]

Use a hairdryer or other way to heat it up. Stickers and tape come off super easy that way. Doesn't really matter if you swap cases, though.

 

[zharrhen]

OK, thanks for telling me how to do that.

 

[zharrhen]

Sorry I haven't updated this in a while, I've been studying for finals (yes finals, my school is wonky) and I haven't had time to do anything else.

I've looked at some antique furniture as suggested and I've found many different styles and options. I currently have my eye on an old record player which has a really nice wooden box, probably big enough for most of my components, I'd have to get rid of the disk drive, which I'd rather not do. I've also found a cabinet that has sections I could use to stylize it, plus it has some antique glass on it, so that would be one less thing to look for.
My concern is that the record player is pretty darn expensive and I'm looking for cheaper options, but nothing is quite as good.
I'm also thinking of applying the concept of frankencasing to this project if there isn't a cheaper option, but that leads to more problems.

To please those of you who are asking about the processor, I was looking at the wrong box . It's a Phenom II 4x with 3400s megahertz. The phenom 2x was my old processor.

 

[ttsgeb]

If the old stuff is cost prohibitive, just look at it for inspiration.

Take pictures, keep track of the ideas and designs you like, and see if you can't replicate them in modern construction.

Remember, steampunk doesn't have to mean old. It's just an art style, you can use new materials and achieve it just as well.


Also, look for brass motherboard standoffs. Get a hold of the right mountings and fasteners, and building a case from scratch isn't nearly as daunting.

 

[zharrhen]

it's been a while.

I've gotten some of the wood pieces that i need and several brass embellishments. it's a little mismatched though because of the tiny hard to notice difference in the color of the wood. it, however is very annoying to me (OCD) and is there any way to make them the exact same color?

 

[grossaffe]

it's been a while.

I've gotten some of the wood pieces that i need and several brass embellishments. it's a little mismatched though because of the tiny hard to notice difference in the color of the wood. it, however is very annoying to me (OCD) and is there any way to make them the exact same color?

Ever take a look at hard-wood floors? When using multiple pieces of wood, you're going to have differences in color. You just gotta go with it.

 

[zharrhen]

OK, it's been a while since i actually did something to this, but my PC's hard drive started to fail and i had to switch it out and clone it, etc... But for the 9 hours that it took to do that, I spent some of those working on my case. I stained all of the wood so it's close enough to the same color that literally nobody can complain except me and i've started to (without much success) make the mounts for all of the parts. I don't have any pictures because A: my pc is backing up to an external hard drive so i don't have to wait hours to clone again, and B: i'm not using my computer at the moment so i can't upload the photos and put them online. But it's just a rectangle with one side missing and a power supply mount in the back, nothing that exceptional.


yet.