More pictures from the building process

I just thought I'd upload some more pictures of how my LEGO PC was built. This time emphasizing the power and keyboard buttons...

The power-on button is made entirely of LEGO Technic pieces. The cables are fastened by squeezing them between the parts.

Here you can see the keyboard stripped of its shell.

And here it is placed into the frame made of LEGO bricks and plates.

The finished keyboard. Some areas were not covered as it didn't fit into the LEGO measures. This goes for the keyboard LEDs and some of the mouse buttons.

Here is another picture, showing the scale in relation to an LG 19" flat screen monitor.

The dimensions of the PC are: 27,5cm wide, 33,5cm deep, 23,4cmtall.

The dimensions of the keyboard are: 29,5cm wide, 16,1cm deep, 4,8cm tall.

The LEGO keyboard

This is a Deltaco mini PS2 keyboard/trackball. I've stripped it of it's former shell and built it into a LEGO-shell. I tried to keep the color scheme to black and red, but at this point, I've run out of 1x3 bricks, 1x1 bricks, and 1x1 plates in both red and black.

On the right, you can see the trackball. I've noticed that the ball is so smooth that it slips on the trackers inside, resulting in poor performance and accuracy. So I've developed a tapping technique which involves tapping the ball in the direction you want the pointer to move and then correcting back until you hit the spot. For a coming version, I will buy a mini keyboard and trackball separately and build these into the LEGO-frame. On the left, I've placed the mouse buttons. A 6b axle is suspended above the buttons, and a few technic pieces are added for ease of use.

The LEGO PC at dusk

Here is the preliminary final version of the PC case. I've decided to call the project Speed Racer LEGO PC for now, but the exterior will be modified with a more custom LEGO theme soon.

Underneath the red car, you can see the DVD-writer (laptop size), and the 120mm fan in front. I decided to use differen building techniques on the sides, front and back, so that it doesn't look boring over time. I know you're thinking "it's LEGO, it can't get boring", but have you tried staring into your girlfriends face for more than 5 minutes? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

More pictures of the building process to be published later...

Here's a quick update:

I've taken the previous model apart, and started anew. The previous cage was not nearly as stable as I wanted it to be. This one will be better. As you can see, The MB has been rotated 90 degrees to fit the 120mm fan. This, as well as the area between the GPU and cage wall, will hopefully make room for all the cables that are connected to the PSU.

The GPU has to be supported, and that is what the black and grey column does. The little red brick has a 1x1 round red "brake" brick to hold the GPU firmly in place and 90 deg. to the MB. I've used arches to go up in height, and a cage has been constructed around the CPU to elevate the PSU and secure it, where it will suck the air out of the CPU cooler. The HDD is laid flat upside down in between the CPU and the 120mm fan to keep cool. I'll use rubber "feet" from the Mindstorms set to secure the HDD and minimize noise from vibration.

This is what the CPU cage looks like. I've removed the HDD to fit the IDE cable. I had to remove the slave connector pins on the IDE cable to make it more flexible. It now bends and runs below the GPU. The cage is cleverly connected to the main LEGO structure and forms the "bed" for the HDD along with the beams used to secure the 120mm fan.

More updates to follow tomorrow.

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