Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Descenterace on May 04, 2005, 01:02:50 pm
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It's been a long time since I posted here (or even visited here, in fact; my Bookmarks list is too big and I'm a busy Uni student) but I'm back, with another ambitious scheme:
A Freespace 2 themed case mod.
DISCLAIMER: This particular project is entirely dependant on my getting a second job sometime soon.
I have recently become interested in watercooling (my air-cooled Athlon64 runs hot when idle, even with no overclocking and with a massive heatsink) and in my usual all-or-nothing fashion I've decided to investigate case modding too. Which is why, during the Summer holidays, I'm going to start on what I've dubbed 'Project Sathanas', in honour of FS2's Juggernaut and the NetBIOS name I usually give my main PC.
The system will be based on the CM Stacker case, giving me lots of room for stuff inside and lots of room for eye candy on the outside. The internals are still a bit uncertain (Athlon64 San Diego core will definitely figure, as will the Radeon X900XT if it's available by September). There will be a Black Ice Pro III radiator inside the top 150mm, with three fans sucking in air from one side of the case and blowing it directly out the other.
The aim is to make the case look like some sort of Shivan vessel. Red internal lighting goes without saying. I can acquire some electroluminescent panels cheaply too, so I can put some cool lighting effects even where no neon can fit.
Currently, I plan to use epoxy resin to make raised areas (like wide veins) on the surface of the case, a la the sides of a Rakshasa cruiser, then blend them into the surface with extensive sanding. Then, black spray paint for the undercoat and a grey highlight on the raised areas.
I'm not sure how well this would work, so I need ideas from you!
I do not as yet have plans for the front panel. I need some. I won't be able to mod the fronts of my drives very easily, so I'd prefer something simple but effective. I was considering having Shivan 'spikes' curling forwards from the four corners, but those might get in the way.
Finally, the Stacker case has a large circular cutout on one side with a big filter in it and a mounting point for an 80mm fan. I won't need the fan and I'm not shy about ripping out the filter and welding/brazing bits of metal over the opening. Spiky is good, here.
(To round off the insanity, I intend to make the watercooling setup entirely copper. No plastic tubes at all. So a brazing kit will need to be added to the shopping list... It's true that this is my first attempt at both watercooling and casemodding, but a) my housemates have experience of watercooled rigs, b) they know about casemodding and DIY, and c) I'm the sort of person who learns to swim by jumping into a river and I haven't drowned yet.)
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I was thinking of doing this myself. Are you doing a shivan themed case? :)
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Yup.
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Good luck with it :) It's always fun doing stuff like that. I really want to look at a watercooling system myself, my computers are in my Bedroom at the moment, and I can't sleep without turning them off, which is a pain if I want to do a large render or the like.
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Sounds impressive... best of luck to you! Now that I think about it, the AlienWare computer cases would really lend themselves to the general build shape of the Iceni or Deimos classes...
Be sure to keep us updated with pics! :D
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GTI Terran Case all the way :nervous:
Best of luck though.
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X900XT? Do you mean whatever the R520 is going to be called? I'd assume it would be something different. Not sure what, but as it's an entire new generation of chips, they'll probably change from the Xxxx style of naming, just as they changed the namings system from 9xxx to Xxxx when the R420 core replaced the R360 on the high end.
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I wonder how long til they run out of good video card names?
Although I guess technically they have, and are resorting to random alphanumeric strings.
"Look! A new video card, the ZSX-34600-Xp9387!"
"Omg! All I have is a ZAX-34500-XXQ7!"
And here I am, still not entirely sure whether GTs, Ultras, or plain old postfix-less cards are the best.
Edit: Seriously, what's GT supposed to stand for? Great Thing?
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Ultra in the case of nVidia, XT in the case of ATi.
Also, you'll be wanting an Athlon X2 (or it might be named Athlon 64 X2, we're really not sure) with the Toledo core, not the San Diego-based Athlon 64.
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Ghia Turbo ;)
Seriously though, the names are getting bloody confusing now, I wish they'd find a way standardising it, since companies are catching onto the fact that people buy cards with the highest numbers on them ;)
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*bought a 9600XT because 9600 is greater than 98-- wait a tick.....
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No matter what you build it out of, you have to christen it as the GTVA Colossus "heatsinks were not built for this kind of abuse, command!"
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:lol:
Originally posted by WMCoolmon
Edit: Seriously, what's GT supposed to stand for? Great Thing?
Gran Turismo, they just stole it from the auto industry, because it gives an image of speed and power. I'm sure you're familar with the GTO. Pontiac brought it back, but GTO also refers to a Ferrari model, I think. Maybe someone here knows. GTO stands for Gran Turismo Omologato, if you were curious, which is Italiano for Grand Touring--umm, I don't remember the O. :p
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It's also funny how 'Turbo' has been stolen and mis-used over the years...
You can not 'turbocharge' a graphics card, software, email, downloads, processors, hair clippers, missiles, razor blades, RAM, wireless routers, cameras, label writers, batteries, yeast, jet aircraft, vacuum cleaners, guns, food mixers etc. etc. it's just stupid...:mad2:
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*Turbocharges dough*
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it'll need a slow-pulsing lightsource (red for shivan, naturally) to get the right feel for it, i'm sure there's a lot of electronics kits out there that'd do that.
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Cool.
I was looking at building myself a new computer soon also.
I've kinda dropped out of keeping up with technology so I'm gonna have to do a little reading to catch up. =/
What's the best current graphics card for value of money?
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A few months ago, I'd've probably say the GF6800GT is best for the money. Right now, I'm not sure.
I've already set my mind on building a Shivan-themed case. I'm not trying to shape it like an actual ship, just make the same impression. I've always preferred the Shivan vessels to the GTVA ones. I'm a Babylon 5 fan now and I think the Shadows are cool too.
Pulsing light, high? Niiiiice... I'm a bit of an electronics tinkerer, so that'll be fun to implement. Maybe some red lasers...
On that subject, a GTA-based case could use some of those green lasers that www.thinkgeek.com sells. Those beams actually show up in air, so they'd make a really nice addition.
Re: My choice of hardware
I thought it was going to be called 'X900XT'... Anyway, if it supports Shader Model 3, I want it. Unreal 3 Engine looks fantastic.
(Don't mention GeForce to me. I've never had any problems with ATI hardware or drivers, but nVidia stuff really doesn't like me. When designing a system for a client I'm fairly unbiased, since GeForces seem to be better at the middle of the scale, but by own system is ATI-only these days. Might have to consider an nForce chipset in my new rig, though, simply because this Abit VIA-based board seems to dislike my SATA disk)
As for dual-core... I can't see the point. This is mainly a gaming machine and I never need more than one high-load app running at a time. A dual-core CPU just isn't worth the money.
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I usually prefer ATI too.
So the X800's are already being outdated? argh so confusing now-a-days.
I want a card that's gonna allow me to run any game without slowness or drop in FPS. I was thinking a 9800Pro as a minimum. I'm not sure how well they go but supposedly they're better than the 9600XT's.
Is it worth getting a 9800XT now days? A friend got one in his rig a while back and it never falters. But will the next gen of graphics start to hit on it?
I'm probably going to get a decent LCD monitor as well, which usually means a standard hi-resolution that everything needs to run in to prevent bluryness.
If the vid card's got X800 on it does that mean it will out run the 9800XT?
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Almost certainly. More memory bandwidth, higher core speeds, wider range of shader instructions. On the other hand, you might want to wait for ATI's Shader Model 3 cards to arrive before seriously upgrading. And you might want to consider switching to PCI-E at the same time; AGP is dying. I'd recommend picking up a 9800Pro for the time being. They run Doom 3 nicely enough.
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Everything I've heard/seen indicates that the FX6600 is the best card as far as money/power ratio goes. It performs (IIRC) about as well as an X700, in HL2 at least.
The 6600 is also pretty reliable. Mine's been through a fair amount of abuse and hasn't died (yet).
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They ditched the "FX" moniker. The GeForce FX line was basically the GeForce 5s. The current line is the GeForce 6s.
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Originally posted by Grug
I'm probably going to get a decent LCD monitor as well, which usually means a standard hi-resolution that everything needs to run in to prevent bluryness.
Not necessarily, if you switch your dispaly to centered output, you can play games at a resolution lower than your monitor. The only thing is, any space that isn't used is black, and some of your icons might be shuffled when you quit to desktop. It's kind of like watching a movie in letterbox. You'll either like it or you won't. Also, if you can, run the game in a window. This works wonders for me. I wouldn't be able to play Freespace without it.
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Cool, make sure you photographically document it. :)
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And give us pics on mod case. :D
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Definitely will do. I've got my own webserver at present so I won't be limited by webspace...
32GB of disk to build a website on. And all it'll cost me next academic year is the price of a 2MBit ADSL line, shared with three housemates.