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Toshiba Libretto W100
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LG 42LK450
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Toshiba Libretto 100CT
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Netgear RangeMax WNDR3700
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Toshiba Libretto 50
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Dell Latitude D410
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Microsoft Windows Home Server
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Microsoft Windows 7
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Sony α NEX-5N
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Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP
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Wacom Bamboo 1st-gen
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Olympus Stylus Tough 8000
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Transcend StoreJet 25M
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Motorola MOTOROKR S9
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Samsung LN46A550
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HTC EVO 4G
With every passing project I feel like my basement is being converted from a living only area, to a work and project area. Computers being built, gadgets being taken apart, Lego projects all around. I’m not complaining by any means, but I do feel as my basement becomes populated with more and more tech based projects that the environment is missing something organic, something natural to balance things out.
I’ve been interested in working on a project for while that would combine something tech-based with something organic. Mixing the two elements intrigued me for a while. I’ve wanted to add flowers, or maybe plants of some sort to blend a little bit of nature into the space. I do receive a bit of sunlight through a glass block window, but the temperature in the basement is usually on the colder side. In the winter I don’t really heat the space because the folding farm outputs enough heat to keep the temperature comfortable. I didn’t want to change that aspect so I needed to come up with something that would tolerate slightly cooler temperatures and limited sunlight.
I can’t exactly recall when the idea came to me, but at some point I started wanting to use the heat from a computer as a way to warm the soil and help with germination/growth. I’m about as far from a botanist as it comes, I did some reading online and became pretty interested in the effects of soil temperature on germination/growth. I read different studies and papers from various universities. It was not too long into that process that I became hooked on the idea of using computer heat as a way to control the soil temperature of some sort of living plant life.
As the idea developed further I started looking into wheatgrass as a plant option. There is something clean and natural about the look and idea of a piece of grass growing in my basement. I thought the look would alter the space a little bit and add a bit of color along with something more than just metals and plastics. After reading enough studies and papers on the effects of soil temperature and germination with wheatgrass I felt like I had a good enough handle on the basics to tackle this.
The first step was finding a computer to adapt for the project. Luckily I had a lot of donated computers that people had given me for various project purposes. Most of them didn’t work, but by cobbling together various components from a bunch of different old computers I was able to come up with enough good parts to make a working computer.
At the time I was starting to get a formalized plan together for this project, another idea popped into my head. I’ve got a 5 yr. old who is already fairly geeky (just ask him to do his Jabba the Hutt impression for you) but he really does not get that much computer time. He’s getting to an age where he’s more inquisitive about tech stuff and I think he’s ready for his first computer. Since I was already well underway with this project it seemed like a perfect opportunity to orient the computer itself towards a learning tool for him in addition to using it as a way to blend something organic with a piece of technology.
With all of these goals in mind I started tinkering away. The computer hardware itself was nothing fancy, definitely outdated, but perfectly suited towards this project.
CPU- Pentium 4 (3 GHz)
Dell Factory Motherboard
Various Ram Sticks- 2gb
Old Maxtor 120gb IDE Hard Drive
Old FPS Power Supply
Donated Old Computer Case
If you’ve spent any time around computer hardware in the last decade you’re probably well aware that Pentium 4 has a reputation for running hot. The 90nm Pentium 4 was named Prescott and it didn’t take long before the nickname Pres-hot popped up. In this case though that extra heat is going to be put towards good use.
Once the hardware was all in order I started working on the layout and arrangement for the case. I had originally envisioned the grass growing out of the top of the computer case. This seemed like it would provide a good blend between the hard edges of the computer and the soft feel of the grass. This also worked well with putting the soil area in the upper portion of the case, where the most heat should collect. After doing some initial tests with this configuration I found the measured temperature near the top of the case was the hottest. The placement of the CPU near the top of the case and the lack of airflow in that area contributed to these higher recorded temps.
After finishing with some initial tests I decided to completely strip the case down and start removing all the unnecessary brackets and pieces inside of the case. Like most computer cases all the internal brackets and mounts are riveted together, so I drilled all the rivets out of the components I wanted to remove and pulled them out. The gutted case looked pretty barren after being stripped.
In keeping with my original plan of having the computer blended with the organic grass I wanted it to be easy to see the inner workings of the computer and also the soil from the grass growing above. I needed something that was translucent, which left me with either glass or acrylic/polycarbonate as my options. I ended up choosing acrylic because I was able to find a cheap, used, die-cast model car display case top that was the perfect dimensions for the top of the case. Couldn’t go wrong for 5 bucks.
I test-fit the acrylic over the top of the computer case and marked my layout on the top of the case. My plan was to cut open the top of the computer case and insert the acrylic display case into the section I cut out. To cut open the top of the computer case I drilled a hole as a starting point and then used tin snips to cut through the thin gauge metal.
Once I had the metal opening cutout, I needed something to put along the edges of the freshly cut opening to create a clean and finished look. For $2 I was able to find some black, car-door-edge, plastic molding that worked perfectly.
After getting the opening of the top of the computer handled and the acrylic case properly fitted, I moved onto some more testing with soil in the acrylic and the computer running. I wanted to see what kind of heat transfer I would get and how it would affect the soil temperature. I knew that using acrylic over glass would make it a little more difficult to heat the soil as acrylic is not that good at transferring heat. Luckily though I didn’t really need to alter the soil temperature that much, I just needed a little extra heat. Testing showed that heat transfer with just the single acrylic display case as my soil container was slow. So I decided to add some acrylic tubes. This would allow more surface are for soil to acrylic contact and also give me an area where I could add a mixed substrate to allow for soil drainage.
I went online and found a 3ft long section of 2 1/4″ clear acrylic tubing for $8 dollars. I wanted to add a couple of hanging cylinders off the main of the acrylic display case in the top of the computer case. To do this I needed to cut holes into the bottom of the display case. Cutting holes in acrylic is not always easy, it’s likely to chip and craze at the edges. To get around this I used a buildup of masking tape on both sides of the acrylic, to provide a little bit of resistance and strength. I placed the acrylic display case back into the computer and marked my layout for the tubes. I needed to leave clearance for the CPU cooler, power supply and hard drive mount.
After marking the layout, I used an air-powered pencil grinder and carbide tipped bit and cut through the acrylic case along my marked lines. After the initial shape was cutout I used a tube piece as a template and slowly worked on grinding the holes as perfectly round as I could get them so that the tube had a snug fit all the way around. The fit is pretty important as the acrylic cement that I used needs there to be a tight fit so that the acrylic can bond correctly.
I placed the tubes into the acrylic case and mounted it in the computer and test fit the placement and height of the tubes. After getting everything lined up and oriented correctly I moved towards bonding the acrylic together. Using a needle dropper applicator I applied the cement to all the joints. After letting it set overnight I came back the next night and applied a thin coating of clear silicone caulk around all the joints just to ensure they were completely water tight
The next step was sealing up the bottom of the acrylic tubes. I looked at a couple of different options before realizing that the discs I had cut out of the acrylic case to fit the tubes would be almost the perfect size. Using a bench grinder and a test piece of tube I slowly ground each disc to the perfect size for a tight fit all the way around. I placed the clear acrylic discs into the bottom of each tube and repeated the same cementing and silicone caulking procedure to ensure they were water-tight. After a couple of days’ worth of drying I tested the case by filling it with water overnight and checking in the morning to make sure that no leaks had popped up.
In order to hold the weight of the acrylic case after adding soil, I drilled and installed a machine screw with a rubber cap at each corner of the computer case to bear the weight of the acrylic case.
Once all the work was done with the acrylic case section I started reinstalling all the components. The motherboard, hard drive and power supply were added and then wired up.
At this point all that was left was to make a clear panel for the side of the case. I had some left over acrylic sheets from a different project that were really close to the right size, after test fitting, marking and cutting I then had a clear side panel to see into the case. (I left this off for the pictures because it caused a reflection)
The final step was filling the case with soil and adding some wheatgrass. I had been test growing other samples of wheatgrass during the build process. So I had already a couple of different patches of grass growing. I tried to keep the soil level just below the top of the acrylic case edge to make it a little more seamless.
For the computer itself I ended up installing Windows as well as Linux in a dual boot setup. Since the computer was going to be used by my son as something to play with I figured I should put both on there so he can tinker with them and learn as he goes. Besides, for important life decisions like picking an OS (Operating System) I think any good parent should present the options and then let their kid decide for themselves.
In the end I’m happy with the result of the project. It’s been fun experimenting with growing wheatgrass and I like how the natural look of grass is blended with the very modern, inorganic case.
Notes
Temperature Testing
In testing the case temperature versus the soil temperature I found it was easiest to control the case temperature by using a variable fan speed control on both the inlet and outlet fans. By turning the fan speed down I could increase the temperature inside the case and correspondingly raise the soil temperature.
In order to maximize output of heat during these tests I used Prime95 to run the CPU at 100% load.
Using this method to control the case and soil temperature I played around with adjusting the soil temperature and then tracking the rate of growth of the Wheatgrass. The target temperature for peak growth seemed to fall around 66°F (19°C).
Using the fans to control the case temperature allowed me to vary the temperature inside the case from a low of 75°F (24°C) to a high of 91°F (33°C). In order to achieve the desired increase in soil temperature, I had to run the case temperature toward the higher end of the scale.
When the soil temperature was too high, the growth of the wheatgrass would slow.
Wheatgrass
The wheatgrass I used for my tests was nothing special, it can be found as seeds (berries) in a lot of health food stores and it grows relatively easily.
Caring for the wheatgrass is just a matter of keeping it watered. It’s a pretty easy plant to work with and doesn’t require any special skills.
Wheatgrass is often used as a nutritional supplement; it can be juiced and mixed into smoothies and other beverages. I plan on harvesting some of the grass and making some juices.
Plant Options
While wheatgrass offers a nice, attractive and easily grown option I do plan on trying other plants as well in the future. Since I already have the “planter” built all I have to do is add a different plant and see how it goes. I’m sure there will be some plants that don’t like the lower light environment, but it will be fun experimenting with other plants as well and seeing how they take.
Materials
Donated Computer- Free
Clear Acrylic Display Case- $5
Clear Acrylic Tube- $5
Plexiglass Side Panel- Free
Total- $10
Uncategorized by .
I’m an avid Lego geek; I love sitting down for a build session whenever I can fit one in. This often means pulling out the bins of Lego bricks and clearing a spot on the floor or a table and having at it. With bricks flying and hands madly building it’s only a short time before robots, dinosaurs and all kinds of fun Lego creations are scurrying about. The downside to this fun is at the end of a build session you have to clean up and put away the bin of Lego bricks and even….gasp… disassemble your new creations! The horror.
The solution to this problem seemed simple enough; just build a dedicated area for Lego play and building. Only one small hitch, my house isn’t big enough to devote an area for just Lego play. So I started thinking, I needed an area that I could use as a Lego build area and never take it down, but I didn’t have any more space. This got me thinking further, what about my walls? Why couldn’t I just get some Lego plates and stick them to the wall and build on the wall, seems like that could be pretty cool way to do it. I toyed around with this idea in my head a little bit and eventually decided that if I was going to build a permanent Lego area on the wall I wanted it to be both functional and aesthetically pleasing.
Besides utilizing unused space, I also wanted to implement the design in a way that would allow for a little more creativity during building. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with a big flat space of Lego plates but I wanted something a little more than that. Since I was going to be building on a vertical surface now I thought why not take it one step further and add some Lego plates to the ceiling as well. Inverted Lego building area! I thought that by having both a vertical and inverted surface to build on it would change things up a bit and offer the chance to do things I had not done before, plus it was just more space that was sitting there going unused, so why not.
The two most important aspects to me for this project were the overall layout of the Lego plates/design and the location of where I would build this. My basement was the ideal place in my house since it was already my principle domain and a favorite spot for all kinds of Lego, computer and general geekery projects. I evaluated a couple of the walls and corners and ended up choosing one that I felt offered the best design possibilities. While a standard corner would suit this project just fine I had a small area in one corner that jutted out and offered a couple of extra surfaces to work from. Plus, I liked the angularity and look. I spent some time tinkering around in my head what I wanted the layout to look like before I finally came to a decision.
When it comes to the Lego plates you have 3 options for the plates themselves. There are two colors of the 10″ x 10″ plates, either blue or green. There is also a larger “15 x 15″ plate that is grey. The 10″ plates are $5 and the “15 plates are $15 dollars. Since I was trying to get maximum bang for my buck I went with the 10″ plates. I ended up choosing the blue plates since I thought they offered a nice contrast to my wall color, though the green probably would have been just fine too. I had saved up a birthdays and Christmases worth of Lego gift cards and took off to my local Lego store to buy the plates. For the design that I intended I would need about 26 plates.
Unfortunately, the area I intended on putting these plates was not an even surface because when the previous owner refinished the basement they used 1/4″ thick strip moldings everywhere. I needed to get the surface flat before I could mount anything. In order to do this I went to the hardware store and bought a couple of small sheets of 1/4″ MDF board. Then I went through and based on my design laid out exactly the lengths I would need in order to build a patchwork of MDF board that seamlessly blended in with the existing 1/4″ mold work to create a flat surface. I also wanted this project to be removable in the future without damaging the walls. Just in case I ever sell the house and some crazy non-Lego loving person moves in; they can always take it down.
The actual attachment of the MDF board uses short drywall screws to fasten all the pieces in the exact locations needed. The Lego plates themselves are attached using Liquid Nails. The key to making the system removable in the future is to not apply Liquid Nails around the areas where the screws are, this way if you want to remove the system you can break the Lego plates off the MDF support boards and then just unscrew the MDF boards from the wall.
After getting all the MDF boards in place and making some final double checks on the placement I moved forward with gluing the Lego plates onto the MDF support boards. Using a very thin amount of Liquid Nails and spreading it with an old plastic card across the surface, I put each board in place one by one. Once each section was done I used 2×4 Lego bricks to align each plate and make sure they were the exact distance apart, so you could seamlessly build from one plate to another. This is an important step, because if you didn’t align the plates before the Liquid Nails dried you would not have the correct alignment to build across plates.
With all the plates installed, and the Lego bricks at all the edges lining them up, I let everything dry overnight. The next day I removed the bricks and took a look and was very happy with the result. I lasted all of about 37 seconds before I had my bins of Lego in front of me and was building away exploring the different surfaces and things I could do. I spent a couple of hours, 2-3 days in row, playing each night. It was nice to be able to build without having to deconstruct anything. After about 5-6 hours of play over a couple of days this is what my Lego corner looked like…
In order to facilitate easier builds and to get all the bins of Lego spread throughout my house into one place I bought an Ikea Trofast organizer with bins and put it up right under the build area, this allowed for easy and quick access to all my Lego bricks and makes building an ease.
The biggest problem I ran into during this whole project is that there were a couple of spots where the wall geometry is not perfect and square, so I just kind of had to make due and roll with it. In a perfect world all of your walls will be even and square. My house was unfortunately built over 60 years ago, so I’ll cut it some slack for being off an eighth inch here and there.
In the end, I’m very happy with how this project turned out, I didn’t spend too much money (thanks to gift cards) and I now have a permanent Lego build area using space that was unused before. I really enjoy the new things I can do with the vertical and inverted building that I had not played with before. Plus I think it looks kind of cool, but as a Lego-maniac I might be biased.
Materials
Lego Plates- Qty 26 ($130)
MDF Board- Qty 3 ($15)
Liquid Nails- Qty 2 ($5)
Total after using Lego gift cards- $20
Legos by .
This past Halloween I decided that I wanted to go a little more all out on my costume than I had in years past. After a little time spent brainstorming I decided that I wanted to try and find a character that let me use my already messy fauhhawk spikey hair and incorporate it into a costume. With spiky hair as a requirement I quickly turned towards anime and video game characters, from there I further narrowed the list to Final Fantasy and settled in on Cloud Strife. I had played FF in the past and thought it would be perfect. Only one problem, my hair is black and Cloud’s is blonde. Then I quickly remembered that Zack also had awesomely spiky hair. That helped finalize my decision in choosing Zack Fair.
The real fun of getting to do this costume was getting to attempt to build a Buster Sword. I did a bit of research and looked around places on the web to see what I could find. I ran across some sites selling replicas for a couple of hundred dollars, but they were not full size. What’s the fun of having a Buster Sword unless it’s the full-size version? I figured out the scale of the sword and decided if I wanted a relatively accurate Buster Sword I was going to have to build it myself from scratch.
I originally set out with the intention of building two swords, the first would be a prototype and the second a more polished version. But due to time constraints I ended up just putting all the finishing touches on the prototype and rolling with it. The sheer size of a full scale Buster Sword meant that I needed to find a way to build it and keep the weight down so that I could actually wield it. I first thought of using foam board and an overlay and then moved towards a hollow wooden structure. In the end though I settled in on just buying a 2×10 8 foot piece of lumber and whittling it down.
After some initial testing for weight I determined that the single piece of lumber approach would yield a sword of the appropriate weight to wield. I busted out the reciprocating saw and cut out the basic shape of the sword blade.
I then moved to the edge of the blade and cut both sides at the appropriate angle and width to create a blade edge that matched that of a full scale Buster Sword.
Once I had the basic shape and woodwork done I moved to the most labor intensive task of the sword build which was the finishing of the wood. The more difficult aspect of using wood is that it’s hard to paint it and not have the grain structure show. After getting the wood itself to a decent smoothness I used some epoxy filler to fill in the knots and rough areas of the wood surface. I followed up by sanding the surfaces before I applied a base coat of varnish to seal the wood. After applying the varnish I resumed sanding and smoothing the surface. Once this was done the next step was applying a coat of primer to the surface and then resuming sanding. This priming-sanding-priming technique was done numerous times until I was final satisfied with the smoothness of the finish.
After achieving a fully prepped surface ready for paint I experimented with a couple of different paint colors to try and achieve the right look for the sword blade. After a couple of coats of paints followed by some wet sanding I was able to achieve a finish that in most cases looked almost metal like. Enough to fool most at least.
The next step following the sword blade was moving onto the handle and hilt of the sword. In testing out the weight of the sword and the balance I determined that I needed to have more weight near the handle to balance the sword out better. For this reason I ended up using a block of aluminum instead of a lighter piece of wood. I purchased a scrap cutoff of aluminum from a metal shop for cheap ($5) and then using a drill press drilled and tapped the holes needed for the handle itself, the attachment points to the blade and the 5 decorative screws in the face of the hilt.
I sanded the block of aluminum with many steps of progressively finer sandpaper to achieve the metal finish that looked best with the sword. The handle I ended up using was a scrap piece of electrical conduit tubing from a hardware store. I cut it to the correct length to match the sword at full scale and then inserted it into the aluminum hilt. The handle inserts into the hilt with a small amount of press to keep it from moving. It’s secured with the middle decorative screws on both sides of the hilt, which are longer and are drilled and tapped into the conduit pipe.
Using another scrap piece of aluminum bought from a metal shop I made two aluminum pieces for the handle, the one fit over the handle and butts up against the hilt while the other is capped and fit at the end of the handle with a press fit.
For the handle surface I ended up getting a cheap spool of leather lacing and wrapping the handle top to bottom with it to achieve the look of a leather-wrapped handle.
The final portion of the assembly involved attaching the hilt to the sword itself. I was concerned at first that the weight of the wood and length of the sword blade would be too much load for screws to hold the hilt to the blade. So instead of using regular screws I found a couple of unused screws I had purchased for a gutter I had hung on my house. These screws are larger in diameter than regular screws and most importantly they are very long, about 6 inches. Just one of these screws was able to hold the hilt to the blade and support the entire sword without issue. I used 3 of them to ensure that I would have plenty of clamping force and load carrying ability. This allows the sword to be swung around without fear of it breaking.
The finished product came out better than I could have hoped, given that it was just supposed to be a prototype I’m very happy with how the overall finished Buster Sword looked.
The sword materials list and cost are as follows-
2x10x8 lumber- $6
Epoxy Filler- $6
Spray Primer- $6
Spray Paint- $7
Sandpaper- $8
Electrical Conduit Tube- Free
Aluminum Scrap piece- $5
Aluminum Scrap round- $5
Screws- Had
Spool of suede- $5
Total = $48
I worked with my lovely assistant and costume maker extraordinaire @thetinnishflash and built up a pretty respectable looking Zack Fair costume from pieces gathered at the local Value World thrift store.
The costume itself came out great! I’m not a super picky costume person so I didn’t worry about some of the exact details; I just tried to get it pretty darn close. The same thing can be said about my hair, and the Buster Sword. I know Zack has had a couple of different hair looks in the series so I kind of just went with a mix of what seemed to look decent. For the Buster Sword itself there are a bunch of versions that I know of- Crisis Core, Advent Children, FF10, Kingdom Hearts, etc. I decided to just go with a more original and toned down look. I was going to add the gold coloring and handle embellishments but when I got to the end I really liked how the sword looked as it was, so I ended up leaving it. While it’s not a spot on replica I think the look is close enough that most will easily be able to tell what it is.
The sword was a huge hit and everybody really liked it, I had a couple of people offer to buy it and many people took pictures with it. Not sure if I’m going to sell it to someone who more frequently cosplays Zack or Cloud or just keep it and hang it on my wall.
For correct scale reference to a person and for the sheer awesome geekout factor I had @thetinnishflash do some magical Photoshop work and take one of the photos of me in my Halloween costume with the sword and Photoshop me into a Final Fantasy background. Its silly looking, dorky, geeky and everything else and I love it.
Also here is a picture of me making a really goofy face with my hair still done up like Zack fair but out of costume holding the sword. It gives another example of the scale of the sword; it’s a little over 6 feet in length.
Halloween by .
Like Tribbles, Legos seem to have an uncanny ability for multiplying in my house at an almost exponential rate. First, you build models, then it’s Star Wars, then it’s your phone, your jewelry. Before things are said and done you’ve got nooks, bins and chests full of them. I’ve been addicted to Legos for longer than I can remember, so when the opportunity comes up to work on a new project of some sort the question that invariably arises is, “Can I use Legos?”
When I first looked into building my next computer I had no intentions other than taking the system and speeding it up. The once venerable overclocked Phenom quad-core system, with its dual Raptor HDs in a RAID 0 and other hardware was starting to show its age. I decided that this time around it was time to start a new platform. I had been making upgrades to my AM2 based AMD system for a couple of years and it seemed like the platform had served admirably but was reaching the end of the road.
Around the time I began my planning I beginning to be involved in Grid Computing. I liked being able to use one of my geek hobbies in a way to help try and benefit others. Grid Computing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_computing) allows for using your home computer (through the addition of a small free downloadable program) to use its CPU and or GPU for the purpose of processing data in the form of research problems, equations, and more. Normally, it takes a supercomputer days, weeks, or months to works its way through some of this research. Grid Computing leverages the power of hundreds of thousands of computers whose users donate their processing time to make this happen.
Since I was going to be building a new computer anyway it seemed like the perfect time to maximize my build for Grid Computing (Crunching). My first plans were to focus on a multi-GPU setup that would be a dual purpose crunching/work machine. I encountered a problem in that my Grid Computing program of choice did not offer any GPU compatible projects, only CPU compatible. My main goal was Grid Computing with medical research and humanitarian projects in mind. For this reason I chose to go with IBMs World Community Grid as it offered a lot of these types of research. (Cancer, Aids, Muscular Dystrophy, etc.) http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/
My plans changed when I realized I wouldn’t be able to make use of a GPU folding farm. The type of Grid Computing I wanted to do required CPU power in the form of multiple fast CPU cores. My first plan was to build a dual CPU Xeon based platform with a EVGA SR2 board. Some of the SR2 based systems I was finding were jaw-dropping; the performance was out of this world. But such performance comes with a high price tag. I had planned on using my normal budget of $1,500-2,000 and doubling it when I decided to build a Grid Computing computer. I decided that the money was a small donation in terms of trying to help a much larger cause.
My initial goals with my new system were as follows-
$2000 budget goal
100,000 Points Per Day (Points are used as a rough estimate of computational power)
Energy Efficient as possible
After pouring through and reading for hours in the forums I started to realize that the SR-2 monsters I had seen huge numbers from were also somewhat fickle beasts with RAM and some other settings. At that point I realized I wanted to go a different direction. I started looking more carefully at the computers I already had in my household and also looking at the electricity costs to run all these systems in addition to adding the new Folding computer. I already had a quad core workstation computer and a slightly lower end intel Core2 system running a touchscreen in my kitchen, and a server. Adding a fourth machine gave me pause.
I began thinking a little harder about the whole project. I wanted this to be efficient, at least relatively speaking. I turned my direction briefly towards building a multi-CPU setup based on a server board. This would have satisfied my requirements for multiple CPU cores. The downside of course was the cost. Server CPUs are expensive, as is the motherboard that supports them.
I was stymied for a couple of days on this whole project. I knew what I wanted, but couldn’t formalize a plan to pull it off. As I was working on other people’s computers and staring at the pile of pulled motherboards sitting on my bench I got to thinking, why do I need to have a bunch of separate cases and power supplies? Why couldn’t I build one system that housed multiple motherboards and CPUs? I could use desktop parts that were cheaper and consolidate all of my PCs into one.
Based on this I started to put together a parts list-
3x Motherboards
3X CPUs
3x CPU Coolers
2x GPU (Only 2 of the systems needed video, the third is remote operated)
3x Power Supplies??
3x Computer Cases??
Multiple Hard Drives and SSDs
Now that I had a plan I started doing some research. I wanted to use the highest rated efficiency power supply available, but I did not want to buy multiple power supplies since that seemed inefficient with the power loss I would have per power supply. When I calculated out the power requirements of each sub-system it seemed like I was going to be right around 350 watts. This started me thinking, why can’t I just get one power supply with output around 1100-1200 watts and wire it for all three systems? This would give me the efficiency of buying the best Gold rated power supply along with saving some money. After a little more research I found what I was looking for; the Antec 1200 High Current. According to reputable online power supplies sites and reviewers this was the bad boy I wanted.
Cases presented my next challenge. I had an idea in my head what I wanted the case to look like, but after researching I couldn’t find something to fit my vision.
This takes me all the way back to the beginning. With every project I do I always invariably arrive at the same point, “Can I use Legos?” VOILA! YES! Lego! Lego and computers definitely sounded like a good combination. In reality the structure of a case built from Legos was going to require a fair bit of thought. I needed to get my case laid out correctly and able to support the weight of all the components without Legos buckling or falling apart.
Now that I had a solid plan I got underway with buying parts for the project-
3X Sandy Bridge 2600k CPUs
3x Thermaltake Frio Cpu Coolers
3X Asus P8P67 Micro atx motherboards
1x Antec 1200 HCP Power Supply
2x Corsair SSD (System 1/Workstation)
1x Mushkin SSD (System 2/Touchscreen)
1x WD HD (System 3/Folding Only)
3X DDR3 for each system
8x Aerocool 140mm Case Fans
1x Metric Crapload of Lego Bricks (Technically it was about 2,000pcs)
Through careful timing of Newegg sales, along with promotional codes and rebates I was able to get all the computer parts for right around $1,800. As far as Legos, I already had a lot of the black pieces I would need for this build, and I purchased the others I thought I would need in addition.
I eagerly awaited all of the goodies in the mail from Newegg. On the day the first batch of parts arrived I quickly tore into them and started tinkering.
My first step was bench testing all the parts. After that I started working on modifying the harness of the power supply to fit all 3 systems. After a little bit of work I finally had everything plugged in and ready to be test fired. I hit the button and all 3 systems lit up! I used my test stand to then test each system to ensure everything was running as it should be.
Case Design
Once the testing was done I quickly moved my focus to building the case. I had a veritable mountain of Legos before me to work with. I slowly started to piece together the design that I had envisioned in my head. I had planned to incorporate some clear Lexan windows into the case. I purchased some Lexan and cut it down to what I thought was the appropriate size. The next step was mounting of the motherboards. I wanted to stick with a basic design philosophy; loading in a downward direction only. The outside walls of the Lego case actually support the load and weight of the components. Trying to hang anything of a significant weight from Legos will pull them apart. This is why the weight must always be pushing them together.
In order to accomplish this I used a couple of thin pieces of aluminum bar, cut them to size, and drilled and tapped them to accept the motherboard screw pattern. These aluminum bars have the motherboards attached to them with regular PC case standoffs. The bars span the case and rest on each of the Lego walls and are encapsulated by Legos. This arrangement uses the weight of the components to apply a compressive force on the Lego walls and ensures that everything is stable. There are 4 of these aluminum bars. The first set at the middle section of the case supports the lowermost motherboard which hangs upside-down, and also the motherboard that sits directly on top of them right side up. The second set of bars sits across the top section of the case and supports the upper-most motherboard that is hanging upside-down. This arrangement of inverting the two motherboards allowed for me to pack a lot of components in a very small space.
Another thing I carefully considered was the overall airflow of the case and the layout of the components. I wanted a short, direct path of airflow from the front case fan directly into the CPU fan/cooler. Behind that, another open section leading to the exhaust case fan. Each CPU/cooler has its own intake and exhaust fan directly in front and behind. The power supply also has this fan arrangement. The space between the motherboards was designed to allow for airflow over both the top and bottom surfaces of the motherboard to ensure maximum air cooling of the PCB and components attached to it.
Another thing I took into account was air pressure. Cases that have a lot of large air spaces, and voids tend to have low pressure over the components they are supposed to be cooling. Air takes the path of least resistance, which means given the option of flowing through a heatsink or around it, air will flow around it. I attempted to avoid creating paths where air could flow through dead space without cooling anything. This is part of the reason that the components are spaced so close together. I also made sure to buy case fans that had a higher pressure rating to make sure I had adequate pressure to correspond with the airflow.
I attempted to do my best to cover and hide wires. This was both from a standpoint of appearance and also for avoiding possible interference to airflow. Many sections have wire hidden or concealed under Lego panels to provide a cleaner look.
Testing
After getting the majority of the case structure done I moved onto wiring. To say I had ten pounds of wires in a two pound basket is an understatement. It was tedious work ensuring all the wires were out of the way of the airflow paths and components, especially with having the wiring of all 3 systems crammed in such a small area.
After getting everything setup, I worked on installing Windows 7 on the first system. The install went very quickly and before I knew it I was in Windows configuring the SSD RAID 0 setup. I then moved onto the other 2 systems and did the Windows installs and configurations on them also.
Once I had all 3 systems up and running I went to work on overclocking. The new UEFI BIOS was a bit unfamiliar at first, but after some tinkering I got the hang of it. I played around a little with the settings and soon enough I was staring back at a 4.7Ghz number for each of the CPUs. I setup each system running an instance of Prime95 and let the machine go overnight to test my stability. When I returned the next morning I was happily greeted by all 3 machines still running without errors and with temps right at the 60-65 degree mark.
Seeing that the overclocked systems had all performed without error, I pulled up the World Community Grid/BOINC program on each system and started crunching. After a couple of days it looked like my average points per day was about 43,000 to 47,000 points per system. With all 3 systems crunching as a team this gives me a per day average of around 135,000 points. Given that my old system used to average about 10,000 or so points a day I would say I’m very happy with these numbers. I’ve managed to increase my folding/crunching performance by a factor of about 13 while only increasing my power requirements by about double.
Since my UPS has an LCD readout that displays wattage consumption I used it to compare the differences in power between my old system and the new folding farm. Not exactly super-duper accurate, but close enough for comparison sake.
AMD Phenom Quad Core System- (4 CPU Cores, 4 Threads)
Full Load- 350 Watts
Folding Farm Sub-System- (4 CPU Cores, 8 Threads)
Full Load- 270 Watts (Including all case and CPU cooler fans)
Entire Folding Farm- (12 CPU Cores, 24 Threads)
Full Load- 670 Watts
Instead of having 3 separate computers taking up my desk space I now have one system that functions as three. I sold off the two other computers I had to recoup some money from this build as well. In the end the most important thing to me though is that I feel like I’m doing more to help contribute to a good cause in humanitarian and medical research. I know it’s just one system, but every little bit counts in finding cures and solutions.
Numbers
Folding Farm vs. Old Workstation PC
Folding Farm-
Crunching Points Per Day Average- 135,000
Power Consumption Full Load- 670 Watts (UPS Measurement)
Old WorkStation PC-
Crunching Points Per Day Average- 10,000
Power Consumption Full Load- 350 Watts (UPS Measurement)
Notes
Operating System
I choose to use Windows 7 as the operating system for all 3 systems primarily because I already had copies I had bought and installed on the other computers. There was no added cost for me to keep using it. Additionally, I have a Windows Home Server that plays very nicely with all the other Windows 7 machines and wanted to keep it that way. The remote desktop function native in Windows 7 also makes it brain-dead easy to remote in from any other computer to keep up with the folding progress.
If you were starting off from scratch and the operating system cost was a factor you could very easily repeat this setup using Linux instead. This would save the cost of the operating system and give you a lot of the same functionality.
Lessons Learned
The entire build process had me looking for solutions to problems that arose during construction. As I look further in detail at certain areas I think there are changes I would make with future builds.
Add lower, middle and upper layer between sections about 1″ thick that would have openings for all the wiring to go into and be concealed. This would allow for an almost complete elimination of wiring to work around and organize.
Get more rounded Legos and other shaped pieces that would allow to create more aerodynamic surfaces for airflow in certain parts of the case.
Heatpipe Coolers
One area of concern I had initially was the orientation of the CPU coolers. The reason being that the coolers I chose to use are a Heatpipe style cooler. This type of cooler uses tubes filled with a liquid that go through a phase change from a liquid to a vapor to release heat. The issue I thought I might have is that if you invert the cooler (by installing the motherboard upside down) that you would not allow the cooler to function properly because the liquid was moving in the heatpipes as a function of gravity.
I made some calls to Thermaltake which put my fears to rest. The cooler uses a capillary action inside the heatpipe in this model that allows the liquid to move back to the base of the cooler no matter what direction it’s mounted. Keep in mind that there are motherboards which use heatpipe coolers on the PCB directly and these may not have this same internal capillary function.
Z68 versus P67 Chipsets
When I started this build I had wanted nothing more than onboard graphics, which are native and built into the Sandy Bridge CPU architecture. However because of the way that Intel was offering chipsets at the time you only had two choices, you either got a H67 with onboard graphics capabilities and no overclocking ability, or you got a P67 with no onboard graphics but with overclocking ability. Because of this I was forced to go with a P67.
Fast forward to the present and Intel now offers the Z68 chipset which offers both onboard graphics and overclocking. This is definitely something I would have preferred since there would’ve been fewer components to worry about and, more importantly, less wattage required.
Power Switch
Testing out the multi-system wiring and the power supply I found that if you just used one power switch it would turn on all the systems and shut them all off at once. However, it would not turn on every portion of each system, just the main power and fans. Missing was the triggering to enable graphics and a few other things. I had to wire the switch to activate all three boards at once in order to get correct operation. You could accomplish the same thing by having three separate switches and turning them all on, but I went ahead and just wired it with one switch. Granted, this system runs 24/7 so it will be rare that I will ever be turning it off and on.
Airflow
I’ve been experimenting with adding Lego pieces in various parts of the case to alter airflow paths and try and focus the air more on the things I want to cool and less on the dead space of the case. After trying a couple of different variations in air dams and directional vanes, I’ve noticed the temps move around quite a bit. So far I’ve managed an additional 2-3 degree drop by adjusting and optimizing airflow. I plan to continue using this system as a test-bed for further airflow and case development.
Future Upgrades
When I built the case I tried to keep the design fairly symmetrical in the upper level that houses the two motherboards. My goal was to be able to add another level at some point down the road and add an additional two folding only sub-systems. For this reason I intentionally chose a power supply that was larger than I needed. The power supply needs to operate somewhere between 50-90% of its peak in order to run at maximum effciency. I should have enough power in reserve to add more sub-systems down the road. I also drilled and tapped the upper most set of aluminum bars with the micro-atx motherboard layout on the other unused upper side. Hopefully when the time comes this will simplify adding another level on top.
Computers by .
It’s alive! Well, it’s technically not really alive. Nor is it a robot in the sense that it performs some function or task. He pretty much just hangs out, making awesome robot faces.
The idea to build a robot out of old, obsolete computer parts came at random. While throwing out some trash I stumbled across a pile of discarded old computers and parts that had been thrown out. As I looked at the pile of parts sitting there with the broken circuit boards, dusty computer cases and rats nest of wires I felt for a moment a brief feeling of sadness for these discarded PCs. At some point in their lives they were once the object of joy as their proud new owner unboxed them and set them up for the very first time. How things have changed since then, seeing them now, discarded, dirty, broken and about to be buried under tons of trash in a landfill.
In this modern day age of electronics and computers, obsolescence takes less time than ever before. From the moment you buy a new electronic or computer gadget the timer starts ticking. It doesn’t take long before that fancy new piece of awesomeness is nothing more than an annoying hindrance. Too slow, too old and too outdated. It’s at this point that people discard these once high-tech devices. Most of them unfortunately end up in a landfill somewhere, while others are put to the side and forgotten. Occasionally they’re recycled. I began to think about re-purposing.
After seeing the number of parts and pieces in the trash I decided to see what I could build from these old components. The idea for a robot came from wanting to build something that looked like it had a purpose again. Instead of being trash in a landfill this “junk” that had been discarded could be re-purposed as an object of art. Since robots and electronics are complementary I figured it would be a good fit.
I happily discovered that I could make use of some of the random bits and pieces that I had saved over the last few years, such as old CPUs, wires, boards. I started asking friends and relatives for their old electronics they did not want. After a while I managed to come up with quite the collection.
Here is a list of most of the gadgets, gizmos and electronics I used to build my robot dude.
Dell Inspiron
Dell Optiplex Desktop Computer
AMD Athlon Processor
AMD Duron Processor
Gateway CRT Monitor
Toshiba 40GB IDE HD
Maxtor 60GB IDE HD
SCSI HD
Numerous 3.5″ Floppy Drives
Numerous CD Drives
IBM Thinkpad
IBM Thinkpad Pentium II
Gateway Desktop Computer
Sharp Mobilon
IBM Microdrive 4GB
Lots of old DDR Ram
Intel Celeron Processor
Canon CF Card 32MB
Couple of PCI Modems
Couple of PCI Sound Cards
Dell LCD Monitor
HP 3.2 MP Digital Camera
Canon 4.0 MP Digital Camera
When I started this project I had nothing more than a box of old, obsolete parts that people had discarded. With each part I added during the build process I felt a little more like my robot was coming to life. Camera lenses to see, CPU’s to think, arms, legs and joints to move. After attaching the last couple of pieces I stood back to take a gander at my new robot friend. He was cute, and had all the robotic features a boy could ask for. He put a smile on my face, and with that show of human emotion I realized that those old parts now had a purpose again.
Projects by .
I’ve been busy as of late trying to optimize my current system for Grid computing. This means 24/7 operation at 100% CPU and GPU load. My system was previously overclocked and setup without any real purpose other than better productivity and daily usage. I had not really pushed it that hard and had a somewhat mild overclock.
With the recent change towards optimizing my setup for Grid Computing I decided to push my overclock a little harder. On top of that, I also plan on leaving my computer running 24/7. These two things mean I needed to re-evaluate my cooling setup to ensure that I would be able to keep my temps in check.
My current computer setup is a AMD x4 940BE processor with a XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 cooler. The case is an Antec 900 with the stock Antec fans swapped out and replaced with higher flowing Silverstone fans. My previously CPU overclock around 3.4Ghz. I never really tinkered too much with it much before. I have another rig that has a 4.0Ghz Intel C2D that was my primary overclocking toy.
I decided to push my AMD setup closer to 3.8 Ghz since I knew that would help a little with my points per day production for Grid Computing. This required a bit of a voltage bump and subsequently a little more heat. After loading up Prime95 and doing some stressing I found that my temps were running around 50-51c. Not bad, but something I thought I could improve upon. I decided the easiest way would be to lap the heat spreader on the CPU (which I’ve done in the past) and found it to be worth a couple of degrees.
Since I was going to be lapping the CPU heatspreader I figured I would take the opportunity to measure the surface finish as well before and after. The main purpose of lapping the CPU heatspreader is to make sure the surface is perfectly flat so that there is maximum contact with the CPU heatsink base. More contact equals better heat transfer. The surface finish is a secondary thing, and while I don’t believe it has anywhere near as much impact as the flatness, I do think there is some value in the finish. Using a profilometer I was able to measure the RA finish of the CPU heatspreader before and after lapping.
Starting with 600 grit sandpaper and working in steps (800 grit, 1200 grit, 1600 grit) and the finishing it off with a light touch of 2000 grit yielded some pretty good results. During the lapping process I found that the stock CPU heatspreader was not all that flat. While the stock CPU heatspreader looks flat to the naked eye, it’s pretty obvious after you start lapping that it is not.
Stock CPU-
After lapping for a couple of minutes here is what you end up with.
Here are my surface finish measurements before and after lapping. (RA finish in inches)
Stock- 12 RA
Fully Lapped- 3.1 RA
Again, I’m not sure how much the RA finish comes into play but as you can see the improvements are pretty good from lapping.
Finished CPU after lapping-
Now for the numbers that matter most; the temps. Here are the results of my 6 hour stress tests using Prime95 and maxing all 4 cores out at 100%.
Stock CPU- 51.3c (Peak Temp)
Lapped CPU- 47.2c (Peak Temp)
Difference- 4.1c
All in all the lapping process returned some excellent results. I managed to drop my temps another 4c. The temps I had before were not that bad but they were a little high for my liking. Being able to reduce my temps further makes me feel better about operating my computer 24/7. Plus I was able to up my overclock another 400Mhz on top of that .
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