iPC Mod

PohTayToez

PohTayToez

Active Member
I have decided to go ahead with my iPC mod idea... a computer enclosed inside a CRT monitor case. Keep in mind that this will be a relitively long project, as I do not intend to purchase the motherboard and processor until Intel drops their dual core prices this April, however I will start on modding the case, and possibly mounting bays for drives.

So far, I am just working on removing the CRT tube and all of the innards:



 
Yeah, oh well. :P

I just got the board out. I was going to try and get some of the heat sinks until the thing just shocked the piss out of me. I knew that TV and monitors held a charge, but damn. Kids, don't try this at home.

EDIT:
Since I didn't take pics of it before I took it apart, here is how the case looks together:


And here is what I have to work with... pretty roomy:


Just to see, I stuck the front panel on my LCD:



As you can see, of course the buttons don't line up, but I'll deal with the problem as I get to it. I plan on dissecting the LCD as well, and I'm guessing that all of the buttons are on one board. If so, I could easily just shift the board to the right and mount it, and that would take care of everything except for the power button, which should be the easiest to extend over.

Next, I'm going to clean it up, and then see how I could mount my mobo and drives.
 
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Very cool idea. Anything that you put a lowercase "i" in front of is automatically a bestseller these days, hit eBay with it when you're done. Lol.
 
PohTayToez said:
I just got the board out. I was going to try and get some of the heat sinks until the thing just shocked the piss out of me. I knew that TV and monitors held a charge, but damn. Kids, don't try this at home.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was going to warn you about that. Don't freaking kill yourself now.
 
Lookin' good so far man, Glad you decided to do this!

It's been a while since somebody did a mod like this, I think the last one to be posted was the 'Dark Water' one...

Nice work dude :D
 
Alright, I'm going pretty slow at this, mainly because I'm waiting for the new Core 2 Duos before I start buying parts, but I have plans for the case, and I've already purchased some stuff.

I'm going to paint the entire thing enamel black, but put a layer of UV Green spray paint from Xoxide, which goes on clear but glows green under UV light.

I've already bought three of these fans:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811998111

I think I'm going to mount them on the top of the monitor case, blowing down onto the mobo. They light green under UV light, so that should have a nice effect too.

I'm getting a couple of UV 12 inch cathodes for the outside and a couple of bright UV 3 LED lights for the inside, so that it will glow green inside and out.

I'm going to have to chop up a few of my old cases for the expansion bays... I'm going to cut a couple holes on the left side for DVD Burners. It's also going to have plexiglass windows on both sides, so you can see the glowing green. I also just bought a bunch of UV Green molex connectors that I will use to replace all of the current ones.

How's this sound?
 
I would make sure to use some sort of rubber on the mounting devices to reduce vibrations and noise. I would have went with maybe a 120mm fan on the rear or something just to reduce noise. Just suggestions, good luck, I am curious to see the result.
 
I think I might be ordering a few 80mm green rubber noise suppresses, but I'll see how it sounds without them first.
 
I also meant for hard drives and disk drives, they will be very noisy and cause a lot of chatter if not mounter well, which you probably already know.
 
I'll be using actual mounts from cases that I'll chop apart, and I think I'll attach them to the case with hot glue... it's rubbery and I think it'll absorb the vibrations.
 
Put with the internal temperatures the glue may become soft and weaken.

Just trying to help.

I am sure they make internal enclosures or something.
 
Where are the USB/Firewire ports going??? Where are the PCI slots going??? How hard is it going to be to take off the panel to get inside of the case???
 
A mini ATX board should fit so that I could cut out a hole in the back and glue in the I/O shield. I will be getting a board with onboard NIC and USB (who needs firewire?), so that will not be a problem. Also, I was thinking that I have a connector that goes from a 9-Pin USB connector on a motherboard to two USB ports on a PCI bay cover, and I could maybe rig that so I have USB on the from on the monitor.

As far as taking the panel off, it will be a little more difficult, as the monitor would have to be disconnected for unrestricted access, but hopefully I wouldn't have to often do that.
 
Jesus Christ this thing is going to kill me. I just shoved an Xacto knife into the side of my thumb trying to modify the side speakers.
 
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