Weirdest Case Mod You've Ever Seen 409
mattman writes: "Here's the stangest case modification you've ever seen. Someone assembled a pile of computer parts, hooked them up without a case and covered the lot with quick-dry spray foam. The result is a light-weight computer ready for LAN parties." This is wrong.
Oh my god (Score:1, Interesting)
Then again, perhaps the foam allows airflow because of the nature of the foam? Or does it incubate.. ? If it does, it'd make a good hand warmer anyway.
Mineral oil (Score:3, Interesting)
It was covered in on Slashdot [slashdot.org] However, use the previous link, the story's link is no longer valid. You've been warned.
its been done before (Score:2, Interesting)
Though their computer would not boot after they filled it with foam.
Koolance display at 2001 comdex (Score:2, Interesting)
Not water... (Score:5, Interesting)
Picture a thin plastic duct leading from one end, to the CPU, to the GPU, and to anywhere else on a given modern system that would get particularly hot--northbridge on some systems, perhaps. *Then* with the ducts in place, one could encase the whole thing in foam and have an intake on one side and an out-take on the other, with a high-capacity fan on each side to keep the air moving and pump the heat out quck.
Then of course one could power on the PC and hope the thing doesn't overheat anyway.
Re:Not water... (Score:3, Interesting)
You could hook up to a common water source (if some maniac builds a party sized water chiller) or just hook one to a faucet, and let the other run down the drain if you don't mind being wasteful when you have the system away from your normal water source.
Then again, I'm not the person to pntificate on overclocking/cooling techniques. I've tended to underclock processors more than I've overclocked them...
Actually... (Score:2, Interesting)
There might just be another way to look at this... don't take it as a "finished" deal, more as a proof of concept to be extended further.
I have a PC running inside a Wizards of the Coast cardboard box (K6-2/300), and have been considering other wacky ways of doing the case for it (no, I will not just use a spare PC case
The PC isn't going to be upgraded any further, as it's already just a linux development workstation and test web/db server. I could take the assembled components, build a basic cardboard frame around the assembly to keep a rectangular (1 PCI card height) form factor, and then simply fill the interior with spray foam. This would yield two benefits: (1) The exterior cardboard frame doesn't actually support the components once the foam has solidified, so it doesn't have to be strong (and could probably be removed afterward), (2) the PC is still a rectangular form factor and *very* stable (no cards coming lose in this thing!).
Yep, this is definitely a go. I'll be headed to a hardware store in the morning, and my finished result should at least be more aesthetically pleasing than the "sheep mound" these guys built
Re:hahaha (Score:2, Interesting)
Take it to the next level (Score:5, Interesting)
Surely the next step is to create a nice mould for the case, and inject the mould with the foam. I've done pretty much the same thing using cans of insulation foam (used to fill large holes in walls). I took large balloons and filled them full of foam, then cut the balloon away from the foam. This gave a really nice teardrop of hard foam, that was very light.
Off the top of my head, I fugure the same thing can be done using a styrofoam cooler box with a PC in it, fill the thing full of foam after blanking off the internal guts with card, and when it's set crack the case off and shape with carving tools.
The beauty of doing this is that you could, with some serious planning, create some amazing looking designs that had built in air ducts that forced the cool intake air to spiral around heatsinks and hot components. I imagine a nautilus shell would be easy to do - you'd end up with a PC that looked really cool and would be built with great cooling capabilities from a single fan or set of fans.
Shell shaped quiet PC anyone?
Laptops (Score:5, Interesting)
This may not be completely crazy after all (Score:2, Interesting)
Try searching google for "E-PAC" EPP foam.
The URL for an article on the subject is http://www.cconvergence.com/article/CTM20000515S0
The EPP design guide that I originally found is a pdf file that can be downloaded from http://www.tuscarora.com/components/epac.htm
Best disclaimer ever seen so far: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Not water... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've seen this material airbrushed to look like organtic "Aliens Cocoons" or "Metroid walls" stuff - including a really nifty wall at a comic book store with mannequin parts embedded in it. It can really look good with some paint - but it's still pretty fragile and crumbles with a relatively light poke of a finger.
--
Evan
Re:Heat-Conducting Carbon Foam from last Friday (Score:4, Interesting)
Now what would be cool would be someone running a system in a fish tank full of pure de-ionized water (hint : that doesn't conduct electricity)
TastesLikeHerringFlavoredChicken
Re:wonder if it over heats? (Score:3, Interesting)
I make racks out of hand formed portland cement and newspapers mushed together into a slurry and then pressed into shape with nothing but gloved hands. I can easily stack four PC units along with room for a few audio amps in this kind of rack that goes up to the ceiling taking up the floor space that one ugly ol' PC case would take up.
I just lay the boards out on the racks with the PSUs and HDs off to the side and the ethernet cables dripping off of one end. It's a far cry from portable, but if you tend to collect quite a few machines, a rack is the way to go. I have way less problems with boards laying out open on my hand made racks than I do with the few machines I still have in conventional cases. And, when I do have problems they're way easier to fix and swapping parts is a breeze. Cheap cases suck and expensive ones are . . . expensive. I say build your own racks.
By the way, I got inspired to make these racks after I made a squashed spheroid sub-woofer encloscure out of the same cement/newspaper mixture about three feet in diameter and weighting at least a hundred pounds. It's the funky jelly donut from hell. This thing thumps big time. I highly recommend it although my downstairs neighbors mourn the day I built it.