Project Woodbox

[Feronix]

Heya all!

I've not finished my White Lotus build yet, and that build log will continue once I've got all the things that I need, but this might take a while!

In the mean time I'm starting this project, named Woodbox. The name kind of gave it away, I'll be modding a PC case into a wooden box, using some nearly 10 year old hardware, to do a build on an as low budget as possible.

Some of you might remember the HTPC in the Antec Fusion case that I had been given, I reused that case and PSU and gave it new internals for my dad to enjoy. Later on, the 8600 GT had to go back into it as well, to fix scaling issues with our TV. This did however mean that I had some fully functioning hardware lying around.

Today, I picked up a - what to the used parts shop's knowledge was a - case and PSU, but I'd already spotted a motherboard in there as well. I only needed the case for the motherboard tray though, as a bonus it came with a power supply that I've tested and it works, so I will use that for the build.

Specifications so far:
- Intel Pentium D 925 Dual Core 3GHz CPU
- Asus P5L-VM 1394
- 2x 512Mb DDR2 667 RAM
- Seagate 320GB Sata HDD
- FSP 350Watt PSU OEM

Case parts so far:
- Nobrand steel motherboard tray and I/O
- 2x Bitfenix Spectre 120mm
- Fractal Design fan controller
- Nobrand silver round casefeet with padding
- Nobrand steel 2x 3.5" bay for HDD

Currently eyeing up a 512mb 8800 GTS that I can buy for €10 but he doesn't want to ship it and lives on the other side of the country. Should I maybe shoot for a 1GB card to play a couple of old-school games on it like GTA SA (and maybe even 4). Also I think I might upgrade to a Core 2 Duo if I find one nice and cheap. What do you guys think, and should I get a 6600?

Total cost on the computer so far:
€5,-

Because of the low specifications, for the main operating system I had Elementary OS in mind, for smooth web browsing, movie watching and music listening. I have no real purpose for this rig yet so it really is just me having a play with hardware from before my time in computers

I might toss in an old Windows install (XP?) as well though, to do some really old-school gaming. Actually the kind of games that I did grow up with long before I got into the hardware aspect of game PCs.

Little sneak peek of the front that I plan to use. The first panel will be attached to the main frame, then offset with some mesh at the top, bottom and side and then the second panel on it.

Excuse the very first image of the build log being very poor image, but I have to rely on my phone for this one and I had nothing around to serve me as a tripod for this shot. Also, it was literally just to show the guys in the OC3D Whatsapp group what I had gotten:

First I tested the power supply, which is an FSP 350 Watt unit. It only has a 20pin connector where the motherboard has a 24pin, but I have heard that this is not an issue? Please enlighten me on this guys!

Safe to say, this being a €5 purchase from a dump shop, that they hadn't even bothered testing and the CPU, RAM, GPU and HDD had been pulled out, I was surprised to find the PSU actually works. The only thing still plugged in though, was the 20pin connector, so I'm only assuming they weren't able to get it out and left it - lucky for me.

Then I started pulling the PC apart. Disadvantage to being numb in your right hand so you don't notice these things, but it's always a good indicator to see you are doing modding right. It's not a mod if you don't shed blood.

After about half an hours worth of work I am now left with:

1- A completely stripped down case, ready to be cleaned and cut for its motherboard tray and 3.5" HDD rack.

2- The gear that I had lying around. I won't be using the LAN NIC card you see in the middle though, the motherboard has one and even though it probably isn't a gigabyte NIC, I doubt this ancient, no brand (so no drivers) card will work at all anyway.

3- The power supply, casefeet and a bag of screws from the case, the power cable is one that I had lying around and the fans are leftovers that came with the Phenom in the White Lotus build. The Fractal fan controller is a leftover from a client build, although I'm not even sure I will make use of it yet.

 

[Highlander89]

Lol you literally stole my two brilliant ideas and beat me to the punch! Damn you!

Also meaning to do the exact same thing, ie, reuse old rig and build a wood box around it. Already scavenged some nice looking hardwood from a dumpster container out back

Although my project may be delayed until summer when I move back home, which will give me access to machines.

First I tested the power supply, which is an FSP 350 Watt unit. It only has a 20pin connector where the motherboard has a 24pin, but I have heard that this is not an issue? Please enlighten me on this guys!

Worked for me for 8-ish years, although I used a semi-decent aspire 520w


Looks good so far, just put a lot of love into the wood work and I'm sure it'll turn out awesome.

Best of luck to you mate!

 

[Wraith]

Nice start dude, going to be a tidy little system when you've finished and I have to admit after working in a timber yard for 8 years I have a soft spot for wood especially the smell.

 

[Dawelio]

Nice start dude and really nice work going on, love the wood teasing stuff. Definitely have me subscribed mate!.

You do however really like your BitFenix Spectre fans, don't you?

I also have something similar in mind, upcoming... might tell you a bit in a PM down the line... or not :lol:

 

[Feronix]

Lol you literally stole my two brilliant ideas and beat me to the punch! Damn you!

Also meaning to do the exact same thing, ie, reuse old rig and build a wood box around it. Already scavenged some nice looking hardwood from a dumpster container out back

Although my project may be delayed until summer when I move back home, which will give me access to machines.



Worked for me for 8-ish years, although I used a semi-decent aspire 520w

Looks good so far, just put a lot of love into the wood work and I'm sure it'll turn out awesome.

Best of luck to you mate!

Awh I'm sorry haha! A wooden case had always been a dream of mine too though, although for the main rig it's just not practical and I never had any spare hardware to put in it. Now I do and I'm just even more excited for this build than I was for the White Lotus

It's just going to be a nice little project box on which I can experiment with OS' like Linux and Android, without having to risk any data on my main rig. I'll also probably load Windows XP on it at some point for all those nostalgic games that I grew up on (GTA San Andreas, Vice City, NFS Hot Putsuit, Underground, Call of Duty 2 & 4, etc).

Aaaaahh the memories of modding Windows XP to make it look like vista back before I was into PC hardware and I still had a Pentium 4 and GeForce 6200. This is going to be the rig that I wished I had back then. It's time to make one of my childhood dreams come true

Nice start dude, going to be a tidy little system when you've finished and I have to admit after working in a timber yard for 8 years I have a soft spot for wood especially the smell.

Thanks mate!

Not so sure about tidy, as I did have the idea to elevate the motherboard tray off the floor for a cable management compartment, but the PSU cables are pretty short so that's not going to work.

The PSU is what's going to make this into a ghetto rig anyway. It only has a 20 pin connector, where the motherboard has 24 (even though it's not confirmed this works), a 4 pin EPS connector, which the motherboard does have for the 95 Watt Pentium D :lol:

And then the only other connectors are 4 molex connectors. Two will be used for my 2x Molex > 6Pin PCI adaptor that I snagged from my GTX 760 box to power the 8800GTS (if I do get it, I am awaiting a reply). Then one molex > Sata power adaptor to power the Sata drive and then one molex plug to power the fan controller.

This is going to be a ghetto rig and I'm really going to take a lot out of that poor little PSU ^_^

Nice start dude and really nice work going on, love the wood teasing stuff. Definitely have me subscribed mate!.

You do however really like your BitFenix Spectre fans, don't you?

I also have something similar in mind, upcoming... might tell you a bit in a PM down the line... or not :lol:

The spectre fans were the ones that came pre-installed in my Phenom, but I replaced the front with a 230mm Spectre Pro and the rear with a 120mm PWM Spectre Pro on the H60 radiator

Figured I could finally put these to use without wasting them. Thinking about it I also still have two white ones in my Shinobi rig :')

I think I may have started a trend here (or accidentally fallen into one without realizing), everyone is suddenly doing wooden builds and it's going to be awesome

 

[tinytomlogan]

Moar photos!

 

[Highlander89]

Awh I'm sorry haha! A wooden case had always been a dream of mine too though, although for the main rig it's just not practical and I never had any spare hardware to put in it. Now I do and I'm just even more excited for this build than I was for the White Lotus

It's just going to be a nice little project box on which I can experiment with OS' like Linux and Android, without having to risk any data on my main rig. I'll also probably load Windows XP on it at some point for all those nostalgic games that I grew up on (GTA San Andreas, Vice City, NFS Hot Putsuit, Underground, Call of Duty 2 & 4, etc).

Aaaaahh the memories of modding Windows XP to make it look like vista back before I was into PC hardware and I still had a Pentium 4 and GeForce 6200. This is going to be the rig that I wished I had back then. It's time to make one of my childhood dreams come true

Aye, dream for me too, I like working with wood, opposed to metal and plastic.

As for the OS. Way back I ran ubuntu and XP with dual boot options, wasn't really that hard at all (since I managed to pull it off ). So maybe that would be an option?

Thinking of running Ubuntu with XBMC as home theater OS. And XP as old skool gaming OS.

Are you planning on using the 320gig as OS drive? I assume it's SATA 1? I have the WD equivalent, but I'm looking for a small (~60GB ) used SSD as OS drive. Even though the mobo is limited to SATA 1, I think it would still be a improvement in boot times. And they probably won't be that expensive.

Moar photos!

+ 1

 

[TPC]

the woodbox syndrome is taking over!

I'm very interested how you will actually implement your idea.

 

[Dawelio]

the woodbox syndrome is taking over!

I'm very interested how you will actually implement your idea.

Isn't that an Cooler Master Elite 110?...

 

[TPC]

Its is! It's the small dream I'm dreaming

 

[Dawelio]

its is! It's the small dream i'm dreaming :d

+1 hehe

 

[Feronix]

Moar photos!

I'll do my best but unfortunately I am limited to the built-in 5MP camera on a €100 phone

ISO on 100 and shutter speed at a full second though - it shoots surprisingly brilliant low-light photos.

Aye, dream for me too, I like working with wood, opposed to metal and plastic.

As for the OS. Way back I ran ubuntu and XP with dual boot options, wasn't really that hard at all (since I managed to pull it off ). So maybe that would be an option?

Thinking of running Ubuntu with XBMC as home theater OS. And XP as old skool gaming OS.

Are you planning on using the 320gig as OS drive? I assume it's SATA 1? I have the WD equivalent, but I'm looking for a small (~60GB ) used SSD as OS drive. Even though the mobo is limited to SATA 1, I think it would still be a improvement in boot times. And they probably won't be that expensive.

I did make a lot of things out of wood when I was a child (like 8-10), but never since. I'm in completely unknown waters here, so any tips? Other than the obvious sanding and clearcoats?

I did consider a dual boot but it's only a 320 GB HDD which I'm afraid might fill up quickly. Ohwell, could always do a 100GB partition for Linux (movies, music, browsing) and a 200GB Windows partition. Games weren't that big back then anyway and it won't run anything new.

Don't really want to spend a lot of money on it though. Have two surprises incoming hopefully tomorrow (eagle eyed people will already know) though, that I spent €20 on but then the components are mainly complete. Just the case itself to go now and I have access to the actual wood and tools for free

Just need to buy a power button (decided to scrap the rest of the front I/O for clean looks), Bitfenix mesh stripes and some other bits and bops. You'll see

the woodbox syndrome is taking over!

I'm very interested how you will actually implement your idea.

Whoooo, let's call March the month of woodboxes on OC3D ^_^


-------

Few updates coming in tomorrow!

 

[Highlander89]

I did make a lot of things out of wood when I was a child (like 8-10), but never since. I'm in completely unknown waters here, so any tips? Other than the obvious sanding and clearcoats?

Well, I'd say to feel your way forward. Feel the essence of the wood etc. Going all spiritual here, but that's the closest I get . Take your time of course. If you got time, work with your hands rather than machines, especially in sanding.

Also there are a lot of different ways to treat the wood. Waxes, clearcoats, oils. I've seen some waxes with pigments in them to get eg pine to look like cherry etc. unfortunately these are rather expensive. But it's a good way if you got cheap wood and want to make it look unique, depending what you got access to.

I thought about having pine with an inlay of mahogany in the center, so I'd get like a darker stripe. something like this:

That could be something to look into also.

I bet Wraith got alot of tips also.

Good luck, will be looking forward to updates.

 

[Feronix]

Thanks for that reply mate! I was thinking dark coloured wood with some black, or light coloured brushed alu accents.

Update time

This afternoon I started working on the case some more.

First, I cut out the pwr and pwr_led cables of the front, the only cables left after I had already taken out and binned the rest of the I/O. I need to re-use these cables for the vandal switch that I want to buy, just need to solder them onto the switch

I then decided to give the case a good old clean. A lot of dust had gathered in it, although judging by how old it seems it wasn't as bad as it could've been. Definitely made me sneeze a few times during cleaning though.

Much better.

The front of the case has to go anyway, so I decided to test making the 'brushed steel' look on the front, so that maybe I can apply it at the back of the motherboard tray. What do you guys say, dark wood with brushed steel, or dark wood with black?

The internals are staying grey though, for that ultimate vintage computer look.

After that I took out the harddrive cage, which was riveted in from the front. I tried drilling them out but since my dad only owns a battery-powered drill that quit on me halfway through, I had to smash the rest of them out with a screwdriver and a hammer.

That is why some of the bits of steel are so crooked, but I already made them straight again, right after taking the pictures.

The excess steel on the side that was used to offset it from the back sidepanel will have to go. Also, the other two bits on top will have to go. I will then re-use the drive cage, although in a different position.

These IDE drives will not go into the system, although I might add the 160GB Caviar Blue at some point if storage runs low with the dual boot.

Update 2

My presents arrived today:

2x 512mb Kingston RAM DDR2 667Mhz
+ €8,-

All installed into the motherboard. 4 RAM dimms for a whopping total of 2 Gigabytes of RAM
Don't you just love the look of old motherboard?

And the cherry on top of this build; a 512Mb GeForce 8800 GTS, the later version that actually out-performed reference 8800 GTX cards, while drawing much less power. Therefore it only has one 6pin connector, perfect for my tiny PSU.

What a beauty

+ €12,-

Build total cost so far:
€25,- / £18.-

 

[Highlander89]

The front of the case has to go anyway, so I decided to test making the 'brushed steel' look on the front, so that maybe I can apply it at the back of the motherboard tray. What do you guys say, dark wood with brushed steel, or dark wood with black?

I'd say go with the brushed steel. Going to contrast nicely against the dark wood.

And the cherry on top of this build; a 512Mb GeForce 8800 GTS, the later version that actually out-performed reference 8800 GTX cards, while drawing much less power. Therefore it only has one 6pin connector, perfect for my tiny PSU.

What a beauty
+ €12,-
Build total cost so far:
€25,- / £18.-

Really going all out on this build eh? No expenses spared

Looks awesome

Cheers

 

[JR23]

Oh god, that's not a lot of I/O people are catching up with me I must stand by my promise to go front I/O free in 2015 onwards but i'm gonna have to start removing rear I/O to stay ahead of the crowd.

You need to get yourself one of these early 1940's pro-modding tools and spare the screwdriver abuse...

JR

 

[Tripp]

that bike though haha, keep the update coming dude

 

[Feronix]

I'd say go with the brushed steel. Going to contrast nicely against the dark wood.

Really going all out on this build eh? No expenses spared

Looks awesome

Cheers

Yeah, I was thinking the same, some nice contrast, plus who doesn't love brushed metals?

Aye, most expensive PC ever
I'm trying to spend as little as I have to but I'm just having too much fun with the project!

Oh god, that's not a lot of I/O people are catching up with me I must stand by my promise to go front I/O free in 2015 onwards but i'm gonna have to start removing rear I/O to stay ahead of the crowd.

You need to get yourself one of these early 1940's pro-modding tools and spare the screwdriver abuse...

JR

It's literally just the power button with built-in power LED

I did have the plan to add some USB 2 ports and audio jacks, but with current I/O sets available it's all USB 3, which the motherboard doesn't even support (and it's blue, ew) or the USB ports are literally stacked on top of each other. I figured you don't need them much anyway so I'd scrap them all together.

A completely wooden faceplate would look very bland and boring though.

Now that's awesome, I do need that The screwdriver didn't suffer too badly though!

that bike though haha, keep the update coming dude

That's my dad's Yamaha Thundercat. What can I say, midlife crisis? :lol:

 

[Feronix]

Small update guys.

Sad times, I broke my case

This creepy thing tore through the steel case in under two minutes. Luckily for my me dad did it cause I'm not going anywhere near that :lol:

Watch the fingers there. That's going to take some filing and sanding

Casually creating an optical illusion

Perfect!

And for the brushed steel back. Shame the case was already pretty damaged when I got it, but I won't spend too much time staring at the back anyway and I'll just consider them battlescars

 

[Thelosouvlakia]

You need to get yourself one of these early 1940's pro-modding tools and spare the screwdriver abuse...

JR

I have one of these!!!

Also Feronix that looks awesome! (The 535 has a brilliant camer and Lumia Camera app must've been helpful)