The basis of this mod is from the enjoyment I got as a child going to the arcade to play the racing/flying games. Climbing into the seat was like climbing into another world, surrounded in all its gaming glory.

UGR-1 is stage one, and the most basic, of a trilogy of mods I plan to build.

You can view the slide show at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chatsauvage/sets/72157601297497058/show/ or go through them one by one at http://www.flickr.com/photos/chatsauvage/sets/72157601297497058/
and now you can look under the hood as well. To see the initial computer build, and its scores you can go here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chatsauvage/sets/72157605655225544/

This mod started almost 2 years ago on paper, and is a largely toned down version of the original design. Since it is the first of this design I have built, it is labeled version 1.

***** Not shown is a small upgrade to the mod, taking it from version 1 to 1.1. I added a full cushion heater massager to the seat.******

The goal was to build everything a hardcore gamer would need into a single unit. It had to look good. It had to have some functional eye candy. It also had to keep the blasted dust out of my PC! I thought it was bad with my Dell, but after finally getting around to building my first gaming rig from the ground up, and using the Antec 900 case (aka: wind tunnel) I couldn’t take the dust anymore.

The pictures will tell you most of what you need to know, but the list of all the goodies is as follows:

- Modified (disassembled is a better term) Antec 900 case.
– eVGA nVidia 780i motherboard
– E8400 OC’ed to 4.36GHz
– 2x SLI eVGA nVidia 8800GTX OC’ed to 621 Core / 1566 Shader / 1008 Memory
– 2× 2GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2-800 OC’ed to 1GHz @ 2.0v 5-4-4-10
– 2x Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB 32MB
– ABS Tagan BZ900
– Samsung DVD (CD/DL/LS) Burner
– Tuniq 120 Tower

- Dell 22” Ultra Sharp WS
– Logitech G5 Gaming Mouse
– Logitech G25 Racing Wheel/Pedals/Shifter
– Saitek x52 Flight Control System
– Wolf King Warrior Gaming Keypad
– Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
– Creative Inspiron 5500 5.1 Surround System
– Plantronics GameCom1 Pro Headset
– Woods Premier Surge Protector

On top of all that, there is some wood, some nails, some screws, some speaker box carpet, a little bit of insulation, and a bucket seat out of a 93 TransAm. Oh, and a cool looking skulls and barbed wire seat cover!

The mod also has a specialty truck box “paddle” latch, a door, a hidden compartment, a nice sized storage box, a custom power/LED panel, hidden and easily accessible USB/Firewire/Mic&Headphone jacks, and extra power outlets.

The mod boasts 12 fans total. An 80mm fan custom mounted to keep the board for the speakers cool. Three 120mm Antec blue LED fans draw air into the computer case through a filtered 16×16 register vent at the front of the rig. In the cockpit I used plexi and a mirror to allow you to see the intake fans from the interior of the cockpit.

Another 120mm fan sets on the other side of the top (technically speaking it’s the right, now) drive bay helping to force the air across the memory and directly into the Tuniq 120 tower which uses its 120mm fan to cool the chip and send the air on to the 120mm exhaust fan. This setup, which is just a tweaked version of the original Antec case design, has optimized airflow in the case, and keeps things very cool.

The GPU’s, PSU, and north bridge all sporting their own stock fans, and the 12th fan is the 200mm “Big Boy” that was removed from the top of the Antec case. It is now keeping the media drive, monitor, and racing wheel cool, mounted atop the dash box.

The entire mod is finished with black and Navy blue speaker box carpet (commonly called trunk carpet). All the speakers are custom mounted (removed from their original casings completely) with the subwoofer directly below the seat. The dell monitor speaker was re-wired to be used as the center speaker in the Creative setup. The circuit board that was removed from the sub box has been mounted under the mouse pad to make it easy to plug into, and easy to get to the sub DB gain knob. There is a small intake port just under the mousepad, and an exhaust port with fan at the bottom side of speaker circuit board which is cooling the speaker circuits. I would have rather took cool air from low, and ported hot air out higher up, but I couldn’t make it work in this design without blowing the hot air onto the person in the seat. I prefer to stay cool when gaming!

The monitor stand was disassembled to remove the plastic feet covers and expose the aluminum feet below. This was to both make the monitor feet exactly 1/2” (to flush mount into the dash, allowing to carpet over without any bulging) and to keep from ruining the stand. Every component in this mod, including the Antec case, has not been permanently damaged in any way, and can be removed from the mod and put back together as it was from the factory.

The floor, armrests, and the exposed raised floor in front of the seat (when the seat is fully back) is all padded. The raised seat section is separate from the computer/dash section to make for easy moving, and to fit through doorways. The door latch pulls upward, lifting the entire armrest up to allow for door swing.

Flipping the door armrest fully open reveals a hidden compartment in the door that houses both the keyboard and gaming headset. The fixed armrest on the right is for storage. The monitor swivels to the left to allow access to the hidden ports as well as the extra power outlets.

It was made for gaming, and the computer itself can handle anything you throw at it. It scored over 28k marks in 3Dmark05, 20k marks in 3Dmark06, and over 11k marks in PCmark. It chewed up Crysis at Ultra High settings 4xAA, 16xAF, 1680×1050 and spit it out asking for something harder.

It took me about 3 weeks to build it, getting sidetracked on other projects and running out of material, but now that its done I want to start another one. I had no intention of showing it off like this, but after posting in the forums on ExtremeTech for the guys who helped me on the initial computer build, I noticed that ET had put my post in their readers spotlight on the main page. After some pressure from my friends at the ET forums, I figured I might as well give this contest a try.

-Sauv

Project Motorized Madness began with one thing in mind. To build a completely automated case, that when turned off would conceal all the inner workings and typical computer hardware such as fan controllers, intake fan, switch panels and more. However, when booted up, all these cool gadgets and controls would be automatically revealed and exposed.

Of course this case would have to be water cooled, have a top notch paint job, and unique air flow designs that would eliminate using hot air from inside the case or put any additional heat into it.

Cooling Design:

The cooling system starts with the Turbine at the top.
A XSPC 250 mm finned aluminum reservoir sits inside a tunnel. At the end of that tunnel is a 120 mm radiator with 2 turbine style fans that draw cool air through the tube and exhaust hot air out the back, similar to a turbine engine!
This design takes full advantage of the finned reservoir, as the cool air is drawn through the fins to keep the liquid as cold as possible.
The exposed tubes are functional and bring cool water down to the CPU water block. There is also a 240 mm radiator located on the side of the case with two 120 mm fans that pull air through the radiator and exhaust it out the front of the case through louvers directly below the turbine intake.
This design eliminates adding any hot air into the case, and uses the coolest ambient air possible!

Motorization:

There are 9 servos total that control 8 different moving items in the case. This does not include the stealth DVD drive.
When the computer is booted up, a custom script runs to tells a 32 channel servo controller to open each item in a sequence.

1. There are hidden light trays that extend out from each side and front of the base. Each has an array of blue led’s that turn on when opened and shine upward to illuminate the sides of the case.

2. There are doors on the front concealed behind a split gear that open up into 3 vertical panes to expose the 120 mm intake fan.

3. A hidden panel on the side of the case rotates over to reveal several useful tools. There is a water temperature monitor and alarm system, 2 USB ports, a reset switch, a hard drive status light, and a slot to load Secure Digital memory cards.

4. Another hidden panel located in the front, flips down to reveal 4 toggle switches and 1 push button switch for the DVD eject. Each switch is labeled with a blue led back light. The switches control the different light elements of the case.

5. In the front, there are small louvers that open for the 240 mm radiator exhaust.

6. A hidden panel on the side of the case tilts out and exposes the fan controller. Each control is labeled similar to the switch panel.

7. There is a large “half” gear on the side of the case that rotates down into a channel behind the lower section of the same gear to reveal a clear window into the case.

8. There is a hidden panel on the opposite side of the case that rotates out and flips over at the same time to bring a color LCD monitor into the picture. This monitor is used for system stats among other things.

Just as all this action happens automatically when the computer is booted up, the same happens at shutdown. All the doors, louvers, and panels close and return to conceal all the accessories.

Paint job:

The look of an old, rusted, machine that has been worked on and rebuilt over many years fit this mod to a “T”. With all the kit bashing elements, riveted panels, exposed gears, and moving parts, it only seemed natural that this case have that “rustic, weathered, dirty” look.

Lighting:

Hope you like the color blue, because there is plenty of it. 6 led fans, two cold cathode tubes, 2 led motion tubes in the turbine base, 11 led’s to light up the sides, back lit led’s for the switch panel and fan controller, 15ft of EL wire, and a Bulgin power switch that remains illuminated even when the computer is off, all in blue!

my entire work log for the Turbine is here: http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=9129

And my entire work log for the Case is here: http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10192

A special thanks goes out to all that encouraged me, You know who you are! Especially my wife and my son who haven’t seen me for 7 months straight.