RATTATAY's LEGO PC CASE

The time has come for me to do something that I've wanted to do for a long time - build a pc case of LEGO bricks. I had been planning to do this with left over parts after building a new pc this summer, but that plan fell through. Instead, I opted for a budget pc, which strangely enough could theoretically score better on a benchmark than my 3 year old semi-highend pc. Here's what I ordered for a total of NOK 1815:

From Netshop.no . Thanks for the candy ;)

Gigabyte GA-M68SM-S2L nForce630a

Athlon 64 X2 4600+

OCZ DDR2 2GB 4-4-4-15

WDC 80GB SATA

Nvidia 8600GTX with Zalman Cu cooler

Samsung DVD SN-S082H Slim

Once all the parts were unpacked, examined and properly photodocumented, I found that the slim DVD did not have an IDE interface. A crossover from 50-pin to IDE is ordered and will hopefully arrive soon. Below is a test setup to see if everything works.

I had to make a power-on switch using an old 2-pin socket and copper wire. I'll get a proper switch later, but for now this one does the job. Everything works well, and the best part is that there really isn't alot of noise. Once the case is complete, there will be 4 fans, the HDD, and the DVD making noise. The fans aren't tested to tangible levels, but I estimate somewhere between 20 and 25 dB. I'll make a proper sound test later, it's time to fit the parts into the cage:

1. adjustment. The MB fits well inside the cage, with lots of free space in all directions. It's a little cramped towards the back, but I opted to solve this by extending the front by 4 studs.

2. adjustment; I had to change the fan from a 120mm to an 80mm fan because of the GPUs power connector. Both the GPU and the 80mm fan now draws power from the same 3-pin connector labelled "sys_fan". The 80mm fan fits well underneath the power connector of the GPU.

3. adjustment; The rear of the case will have a gridlike centre, and plates to channel the air out from the PSU. At this stage, I realized that the vertical design of the rear didn't go well with the way the cables will be connected. Furthermore, once the PSU is in, there are alot of cables in the way of airflow. This will be dealt with on the next revision