What's the worst computer chassis hack you've done?
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I've seen a computer run out of a pizza box (on the Internet anyway) - just the mobo and drive and stuff sitting in a greasy box. When I was young I put a 286 mobo and MFM HDD (remember those?) inside a cabinet with wood screws. Soon I will be propping my PC up on 4 soup cans to give my 1000 watt PSU's fan some clearance to see if that solves my overheat problem when I use 4k rendering. Gotta wait for some adapters for my 2 remaining fans though before I try that. Life goals are the setup from the movie Pi.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Well, there was that abacus that I had to bind together with twine made from flax, because the granite beads were too heavy for the sabre-tooth ivory frame. But then I am bit older than a lot of you.
Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth.
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Did you do an ohm meter test on the cotton string? I would be afraid of static transmission. I thought silk was a better insulator. I vaguely remember some story about Ben Franklin flying a kite in a lightning storm with a silk string.
If you want to go to so much detail... No, I did not ohm tested. But I anticipated that static electricity might build up so I kept the string away from any electronics, plastics, and other strings. I added long screws to the usual mount points of the motherboard and the string strapped to those, on both sides of the motherboard to avoid bending due to too much tension on just one side. Used a similar setup for the HDDs. Also connected those screws to the case of the PSU with copper wire (insulated obviously) to establish the connection they usually have in a normal ATX chassis. So, effectively, those connections were grounded. Tip: some motherboards fail to boot if those points are not properly grounded. I approached the build as a suspended cable bridge project where the motherboard and the HDDs are part of the deck, floating in the air but at the same time secure and without excessive vibration (that in bridges can lead to collapses). So, anticipating that the strings might come loose due to the vibrations (because cotton stretches more than metal) I stress tested a single string with the double of the maximum length I would need to find how many I would have to use per cable (one cable per mount point) so that stretching was imperceptible. Then I built braided cables with the double of that amount. I did not use plain string to secure things. Those cables had a hole near the middle that could be used to twist them to increase the tension if they ever got loose and, anticipating moister, those holes were also used to hold desiccant bags. On the points the string cables attached to the mount points I used electrical tape to prevent tearing on the screws threads. Also used electrical tape to bound the strings together and prevent the cables from unwinding. That setup lasted two years and then laptops started to become cheap enough and powerful enough so I replaced this setup with a laptop.
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I've seen a computer run out of a pizza box (on the Internet anyway) - just the mobo and drive and stuff sitting in a greasy box. When I was young I put a 286 mobo and MFM HDD (remember those?) inside a cabinet with wood screws. Soon I will be propping my PC up on 4 soup cans to give my 1000 watt PSU's fan some clearance to see if that solves my overheat problem when I use 4k rendering. Gotta wait for some adapters for my 2 remaining fans though before I try that. Life goals are the setup from the movie Pi.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
oh man... where to start. When I was at university I had a 486 Motherboard hanging from the celling using fishing-wire and a huge desk fan blowing air on it to keep it cool (This was largely in the days before most CPU's had coolers on top, and a lot where still passive), I had to keep it cool because I'd overclocked the 66Mhz 486 DX 2 I had in it to something like 80Mhz. I've built cases from Lego, changed airflow technology's and ducting using tea-bag boxes and cereal cartons, and during my 4 and a half years as an engineer for Orange UK, you don't want to know how many bare systems where glued into racks in data centre's using "No More Nails", when on a 4AM call out and no spares where available! Right now in my rack up in the loft is a couple of AMD servers that are basically just bare boards sat on a piece of cloth (To prevent shorts) and propped up in the rack on those bus bars you have for connecting patch leads :-)
Still Crazy (Best and only way to be!)
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oh man... where to start. When I was at university I had a 486 Motherboard hanging from the celling using fishing-wire and a huge desk fan blowing air on it to keep it cool (This was largely in the days before most CPU's had coolers on top, and a lot where still passive), I had to keep it cool because I'd overclocked the 66Mhz 486 DX 2 I had in it to something like 80Mhz. I've built cases from Lego, changed airflow technology's and ducting using tea-bag boxes and cereal cartons, and during my 4 and a half years as an engineer for Orange UK, you don't want to know how many bare systems where glued into racks in data centre's using "No More Nails", when on a 4AM call out and no spares where available! Right now in my rack up in the loft is a couple of AMD servers that are basically just bare boards sat on a piece of cloth (To prevent shorts) and propped up in the rack on those bus bars you have for connecting patch leads :-)
Still Crazy (Best and only way to be!)
Apparently you're the reason I asked the question about hacks. This is what I was hoping for. Well done!
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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Well, there was that abacus that I had to bind together with twine made from flax, because the granite beads were too heavy for the sabre-tooth ivory frame. But then I am bit older than a lot of you.
Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth.
That sounds like something a particular friend of mine might say. Mark, is that you? :laugh:
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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That sounds like something a particular friend of mine might say. Mark, is that you? :laugh:
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
honey the codewitch wrote:
Mark, is that you?
Sadly, no.
Nothing succeeds like a budgie without teeth. To err is human, to arr is pirate.
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Apparently you're the reason I asked the question about hacks. This is what I was hoping for. Well done!
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
LOL... :-) I've had many accolades over the years, but that ones a first!
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If you want to go to so much detail... No, I did not ohm tested. But I anticipated that static electricity might build up so I kept the string away from any electronics, plastics, and other strings. I added long screws to the usual mount points of the motherboard and the string strapped to those, on both sides of the motherboard to avoid bending due to too much tension on just one side. Used a similar setup for the HDDs. Also connected those screws to the case of the PSU with copper wire (insulated obviously) to establish the connection they usually have in a normal ATX chassis. So, effectively, those connections were grounded. Tip: some motherboards fail to boot if those points are not properly grounded. I approached the build as a suspended cable bridge project where the motherboard and the HDDs are part of the deck, floating in the air but at the same time secure and without excessive vibration (that in bridges can lead to collapses). So, anticipating that the strings might come loose due to the vibrations (because cotton stretches more than metal) I stress tested a single string with the double of the maximum length I would need to find how many I would have to use per cable (one cable per mount point) so that stretching was imperceptible. Then I built braided cables with the double of that amount. I did not use plain string to secure things. Those cables had a hole near the middle that could be used to twist them to increase the tension if they ever got loose and, anticipating moister, those holes were also used to hold desiccant bags. On the points the string cables attached to the mount points I used electrical tape to prevent tearing on the screws threads. Also used electrical tape to bound the strings together and prevent the cables from unwinding. That setup lasted two years and then laptops started to become cheap enough and powerful enough so I replaced this setup with a laptop.
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Got a desk with drawers on one side, and a box (closet?) on the other one. Box is four drawers high. Mounted a mini-PC motherboard in it. Passive cooling, very silent. The current PC doesn't fit; a monster of a machine built by a gamer. I still miss that old mini-PC though. In terms of performance, it outran many full sized desktops. Remember I said passive cooling? It burnt in a summer three years ago, scorched the desk. I was proud of it, and consider it my "best" machine. The worst, could have burnt down the house.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Sadly, no. The VT220 went "pop" a few years ago. :sigh: I still have the keyboard and hopes of getting another VT of some sort. These days I use Putty to access these systems when I use them (which is rare).
I still have a microvax II chassis and a VT terminal in my basement. Haven't been powered up for over ten years.
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I still have a microvax II chassis and a VT terminal in my basement. Haven't been powered up for over ten years.
I rarely power any of these up. But I do have to at least once a year to apply new licenses.
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I've seen a computer run out of a pizza box (on the Internet anyway) - just the mobo and drive and stuff sitting in a greasy box. When I was young I put a 286 mobo and MFM HDD (remember those?) inside a cabinet with wood screws. Soon I will be propping my PC up on 4 soup cans to give my 1000 watt PSU's fan some clearance to see if that solves my overheat problem when I use 4k rendering. Gotta wait for some adapters for my 2 remaining fans though before I try that. Life goals are the setup from the movie Pi.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Stick a box fan under it meanwhile. Where I worked for a while a couple decades ago, we always built our own computers for client jobs, and it was normal for us to always have computers sitting around that consisted of everything screwed to a piece of plywood or foam core board or stiff cardboard or whatever was around for testing before we committed to the components we were going to put together in the boxes, in addition to having some that we already assembled to test them already built. Not quite pizza boxes, though. That's a good one! Personally, though, I just use some old towers that I keep around and just put together new stuff in them.
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I've seen a computer run out of a pizza box (on the Internet anyway) - just the mobo and drive and stuff sitting in a greasy box. When I was young I put a 286 mobo and MFM HDD (remember those?) inside a cabinet with wood screws. Soon I will be propping my PC up on 4 soup cans to give my 1000 watt PSU's fan some clearance to see if that solves my overheat problem when I use 4k rendering. Gotta wait for some adapters for my 2 remaining fans though before I try that. Life goals are the setup from the movie Pi.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Just counter top, but they make these nice crypto currency sluices that are pretty low cost. [12GPU Open Mining Rig Frame Chassis For Crypto Coin Currency Mining ETH Zcash US | eBay](https://www.ebay.com/itm/393947219378?\_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818143132%26meid%3Da0eb2e269009497692be7f959a254986%26pid%3D101198%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D334297049522%26itm%3D393947219378%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLCvipPairwiseWebWithBBEV2bDemotion&\_trksid=p2047675.c101198.m1985&amdata=cksum%3A393947219378a0eb2e269009497692be7f959a254986|enc%3AAQAGAAACAJ7nQXRq%252FwKina%252BroYAc%252BRp%252FfPm44H3RjIig6uS1KwJ5PpWHFugpCY0HD6jHsjIVbKtBNlApzIHZX06tRjiskn28M0cF%252FXAjOojwIuYlG3LQneT0VJHZQQ69TyQ5%252B%252Bp8mKcFQfJa3S0YlG7fjzMedzf6xWR0HTgIS7FF%252FZV21pD8%252Fxp0RPJNaplQ8PBwRIWhkplGnxYEWDSMB8YXNGYj5z%252FzQGpedTukSc2OD2Sox8%252BT4ktK99Afkq2lgQWyNPa1x9iQg8QyX42GizlUF1YRlFKJNesv01tnZ9uIJCaipyIhra8PTCiF9DS1dme%252FCYfV%252F15v62uyYSw%252FMDrAdMcCKXsUyVckGQZQLs7Ea6vCIXPOLoQ5sqGv82HOhokEWF%252FJYjJJTrxFlVxADjubMjvkU10QsqEw5YHBI4TjMmnxJkqQppKFIHK8knUXdv3OUrosRk9hYOc8S%252BDY7IqAxkxP4fAfox76TKx6dzIuhVTBIpxMlg4L3%252FtWR61YvIRS7hr%252FOJWnpu0JA3yvfNw2Wu2yomPIe6STVYB%252FUd87e0dWhOLzrLlyWHbGVrlLsgGPH1vD5Qf%252BMrigAFrYxDbuvmfF%252F8FLPOhk%252FLaeW1twdDoCfU6yoCKNybI6ijlXwYLbfauIq2LwHFDFo7Xm6MbzmTp2Asv8CKTj5MY1QzV%252BSD43ZGhc|ampid%3APL\_CLK|clp%3A2047675)
If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
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I've seen a computer run out of a pizza box (on the Internet anyway) - just the mobo and drive and stuff sitting in a greasy box. When I was young I put a 286 mobo and MFM HDD (remember those?) inside a cabinet with wood screws. Soon I will be propping my PC up on 4 soup cans to give my 1000 watt PSU's fan some clearance to see if that solves my overheat problem when I use 4k rendering. Gotta wait for some adapters for my 2 remaining fans though before I try that. Life goals are the setup from the movie Pi.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
Giving new meaning to the expression "Soup up your PC"
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Just counter top, but they make these nice crypto currency sluices that are pretty low cost. [12GPU Open Mining Rig Frame Chassis For Crypto Coin Currency Mining ETH Zcash US | eBay](https://www.ebay.com/itm/393947219378?\_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818143132%26meid%3Da0eb2e269009497692be7f959a254986%26pid%3D101198%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D334297049522%26itm%3D393947219378%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLCvipPairwiseWebWithBBEV2bDemotion&\_trksid=p2047675.c101198.m1985&amdata=cksum%3A393947219378a0eb2e269009497692be7f959a254986|enc%3AAQAGAAACAJ7nQXRq%252FwKina%252BroYAc%252BRp%252FfPm44H3RjIig6uS1KwJ5PpWHFugpCY0HD6jHsjIVbKtBNlApzIHZX06tRjiskn28M0cF%252FXAjOojwIuYlG3LQneT0VJHZQQ69TyQ5%252B%252Bp8mKcFQfJa3S0YlG7fjzMedzf6xWR0HTgIS7FF%252FZV21pD8%252Fxp0RPJNaplQ8PBwRIWhkplGnxYEWDSMB8YXNGYj5z%252FzQGpedTukSc2OD2Sox8%252BT4ktK99Afkq2lgQWyNPa1x9iQg8QyX42GizlUF1YRlFKJNesv01tnZ9uIJCaipyIhra8PTCiF9DS1dme%252FCYfV%252F15v62uyYSw%252FMDrAdMcCKXsUyVckGQZQLs7Ea6vCIXPOLoQ5sqGv82HOhokEWF%252FJYjJJTrxFlVxADjubMjvkU10QsqEw5YHBI4TjMmnxJkqQppKFIHK8knUXdv3OUrosRk9hYOc8S%252BDY7IqAxkxP4fAfox76TKx6dzIuhVTBIpxMlg4L3%252FtWR61YvIRS7hr%252FOJWnpu0JA3yvfNw2Wu2yomPIe6STVYB%252FUd87e0dWhOLzrLlyWHbGVrlLsgGPH1vD5Qf%252BMrigAFrYxDbuvmfF%252F8FLPOhk%252FLaeW1twdDoCfU6yoCKNybI6ijlXwYLbfauIq2LwHFDFo7Xm6MbzmTp2Asv8CKTj5MY1QzV%252BSD43ZGhc|ampid%3APL\_CLK|clp%3A2047675)
If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
I don't know if a mining cart counts as a hack.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
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I don't know if a mining cart counts as a hack.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
I own a MIG welder and chop saw, so I can weld one up and powder coat it from stock steel. But I think it's a pretty neat product and worth a look.
If it ain't broke don't fix it Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
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I've seen a computer run out of a pizza box (on the Internet anyway) - just the mobo and drive and stuff sitting in a greasy box. When I was young I put a 286 mobo and MFM HDD (remember those?) inside a cabinet with wood screws. Soon I will be propping my PC up on 4 soup cans to give my 1000 watt PSU's fan some clearance to see if that solves my overheat problem when I use 4k rendering. Gotta wait for some adapters for my 2 remaining fans though before I try that. Life goals are the setup from the movie Pi.
To err is human. Fortune favors the monsters.
My first hack was in my college years, back when a "laptop computer" was the size and weight of a typewriter (and kept your lap PLENTY warm), I bolted a steamer chest handle to the top of my mini-tower, and an eye-bolt to the back. I then fashioned an old strap with clip-hooks (think old-style carabiner clips before carabiners were known to anyone but climbers) on the ends. This was my daily setup for going from home to school to the office and back again. I got lots of interested looks on the bus. My second hack was back when my kids were starting grade school and learning more about the internet than Dad was showing them, I gathered scrap components from various dead machines, and built my first home firewall on a piece of cardboard that I mounted on the wall behind my desk. Never worried about overheating. My wife even thought it was a fun conversation piece when friends would come over, even though she knew nothing about computers, and could barely use the one I gave her. I have done several hacks since then, but they have been less and less original. I did once mod a 5 1/4" floppy case to fit into a drive bay, and used it as a drawer to keep all my license fobs in. Remember those horrific parallel port devices you had to plug in to make commercial software work? ---------- Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
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My first hack was in my college years, back when a "laptop computer" was the size and weight of a typewriter (and kept your lap PLENTY warm), I bolted a steamer chest handle to the top of my mini-tower, and an eye-bolt to the back. I then fashioned an old strap with clip-hooks (think old-style carabiner clips before carabiners were known to anyone but climbers) on the ends. This was my daily setup for going from home to school to the office and back again. I got lots of interested looks on the bus. My second hack was back when my kids were starting grade school and learning more about the internet than Dad was showing them, I gathered scrap components from various dead machines, and built my first home firewall on a piece of cardboard that I mounted on the wall behind my desk. Never worried about overheating. My wife even thought it was a fun conversation piece when friends would come over, even though she knew nothing about computers, and could barely use the one I gave her. I have done several hacks since then, but they have been less and less original. I did once mod a 5 1/4" floppy case to fit into a drive bay, and used it as a drawer to keep all my license fobs in. Remember those horrific parallel port devices you had to plug in to make commercial software work? ---------- Money makes the world go round ... but documentation moves the money.
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A and B drive cables, getcha some. WD st-225 perhaps?
I dropped ST-225 and head 0 got damaged. I had to install inverters in both head select signals on the drive so the unusable head was now #3. BIOS didn't like the idea of head #0 being bad. I also wrote a driver for modified drive parameter block telling the DOS that the disk only had 3 heads. 15MB total instead of 20MB but it worked. Later I 'upgraded' my XT to 486. The PC did not have regular chassis, it was a frame built from random aluminum rails. Mounting holes for new motherboard lined up with holes on XT motherboard so I installed 486 straight on top of XT on standoffs.
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I dropped ST-225 and head 0 got damaged. I had to install inverters in both head select signals on the drive so the unusable head was now #3. BIOS didn't like the idea of head #0 being bad. I also wrote a driver for modified drive parameter block telling the DOS that the disk only had 3 heads. 15MB total instead of 20MB but it worked. Later I 'upgraded' my XT to 486. The PC did not have regular chassis, it was a frame built from random aluminum rails. Mounting holes for new motherboard lined up with holes on XT motherboard so I installed 486 straight on top of XT on standoffs.
That's is hard core. :thumbsup: