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Pro/Mini Pro/Mini - The Uber LAN Box
Date Posted: Feb 2 2001
Author: Joe
Posting Type: Article
Category: ProCooling Projects
Page: 1 of 10
Article Rank:No Rank Yet
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Note: This is a legacy article, imported from old code. Due to this some items on the page may not function as expected. Links, Colors, and some images may not be set correctly.
Pro/Mini - The Uber LAN Box By: Joe

Pro/Mini - The Uber Lan Box

Well I was wondering what I should use for the first pic in the article, and I figured why not the Uber Lan Box in its native environment - a Lan.

This pic was at LanBurn only 1 hour after finishing the machine. ( and 3 hours late to LanBurn). I figured if any place would test this machine right off a Lan would. Well now that we know it made it there, lets go over what exactly the Pro/Mini is.

If you read the Pro/Mini plan then you know I was on a killer time table to get this machine done on time for the LAN. The time limit I had was exactly 7 days from the first cut to the last touch, including parts and stuff come'n in the mail from companies. Compared to DH3's 3 months of work and planning, 7 days to do it all including the PC aspect was a big challenge.

While just throwing a few pieces of tubing in, a radiator, and bolting the works to the mobo is easy, and any trained monkey can do that in a few hours <g>.   This machine was going to follow the standards and engineering DH3 brought forth for ProCooling. 

Goals:

  • Extremely Small and very compact
  • Light
  • Quiet
  • Efficient - able to cool the CPU very well
  • and the radiator can not bring heat into the case, or vent the air of the case through the radiator. (the biggest flaw in most cooling setups)

OK Lets get on with the goodness, I am going to go through it in the order of the days I did it on.  This project was done in 7 days so it wont be THAT long :)  ( please check out the Pro/Mini Plan for some of the preplanning that was done. )

DAY 1-

Planning and the first cuts and the Tools

OK I ran to Ace Hardware and picked up a LOAD of goods for this project. Some of them are:

  • Dremel Flex Shaft
  • Plumbers Goop
  • BernzOMatic remote torch
  • 12" Grip Clamp
  • Shrink Tube'n and a  lot Zip ties
  • 2 Quick release sets
  • Split loom wire wrap.
  • Carbon Steel Brush wheel
  • EZ Clamps from Home Depot

I picked up more stuff... a lot more stuff after the initial trip but this was the main Tools I picked up.

One thing DH3 hammered in stone was Preplanning and draw out your plan on something besides the stuff you are going to be hacking on.  So I used the top of the VisionTek GF2 Ultra box to draw out and size up for the marks I needed to make on the case.

That was really all the planning I did at first. I was able to do the rest once I setup shop in my parents basement.    I cant do this kind of work in my apt of course so I took over my parents basement shop and turned it into Case Mod central :)

So I packed up everything and took it to my parents. was 4 boxes of tools and supplies.

At the Shop

OK I had to bust out the tools and test em out.  the torch was VERY cool and a boat load of fun :)

I started to cut the case with the dremel, and I found a few things that make it rock:

  • Run the Dremel at 30krpm ( top speed)
  • Use the "Heavy Duty" lil red cut off disc's.  They seem to work better then the fiber re-enforced ones and you get 36 for the price of 12 of the Fiber ones.
  • Use the FLEX SHAFT.  OMG that's the single biggest improvement I found with the dremel.

You can see in the pic, I was still getting used to it and broke a disc. we never did see the other part of that disc. I averaged 1 lil red disc per side.

OK first thing I am prolly gunna hear is "Why you do Octagons?" instead of circles.  Well pick up a nice 120mm Box Fan and look at it's face. its an Octagon.  OK Yes it doesn't follow the typical circle that you see most other people make'n, but you know what?? Threre is NO airflow reason to use a circle. This will allow as much air flow and take like 5 min to cut. I needed to cut 4 holes in the case and I didn't want to worry about how long it would take so I cut all them in an Octagon fashion

Next thing I did was lop off the default hose barbs on the 4x4 radiators from OCWC. This was a bitch, as there was a 1/8" wall of Aluminum, and if you know much about the Dermal cut off bits, they hate Aluminum.  Took a bit of work but I finally got them both lopped off.

Day - 2  More cutting and stuff, and we play with fire!

If you want to jump to any area here are the days broken up into an index:

Day - 2  More cutting and stuff, and we play with fire!

Day - 3  Getting on with the plumbing

Day - 4  We start to get the toys in!

Day - 5  The Hammer drops on the project - its Go Time

Day - 6  More play time, this time with the CPU

Day - 6  Page 2 - Insulation Time - bust out the Vas and Silicone

Day - 7  Down to the wires....

Day - 8 LAN DAY - the Finish up

Wrap Up - Lets Finish this Beyatch up - graphs, etc..

Random Forum Pic
Random Forum Pic
From Thread:
Anyone tried a Hayden "turbolator" rad?
ProCooling Poll:
So why the hell not?
I agree! 67%
What? 17%
Hell NO! 0%
Worst Poll Ever. 17%
Total Votes:18
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