The humble beginnings of the Beastly Valkyrie! Dewalt PC Mod...
Between orders and normal holiday chaos MacGowan's has been burning the midnight oil to build a proper shop PC. Why is a shop PC necessary, James? Well, we're planning to start posting short "how to" videos and normal "day in the shop" videos as soon as humanly possible. Having a fast PC nearby will be incredibly handy for such a task - an added convenience when you don't have a film crew to handle all the media. As a matter of fact, my shop PC has been a mini HP - a great little netbook, but that's really all it is. My "inside" computer is a bit of a monster, but was not built to endure the rigors of shop life, so she will stay where she works best.
MORE POWER is always sought at MacGowan's, and this little Beast will do the trick! She's been put together, updated, unlocked, overclocked, wined and dined, and taken apart to undergo her transformation from skinless mess of innards, to a tough, kill or be killed Valkyrie from hell. Screw Odin! This little Valkyrie will rule Valhalla! Oh, sorry... got carried away.
The first photo is of case #1, which will house the motherboard and possibly hard drive, but I'm thinking of adding the hard drive to the second case to allow more air circulation in the first case. Second photo is of the inside of the case with the original tool bracing removed - a little blood and tissue was removed from myself in the process... it's only fair, I suppose. Third is the motherboard mount from a cannibalized PC case - the cutout part will be used to mount the mATX MSI motherboard, which will have additional metal bracing underneath to allow a more secure mount to the case. And last (for now anyway) is the motherboard mounted in case #1 and the PSU and DVD burner in case #2 (not yet mounted).
The cases will be attached to each other to make transporting easier and to eliminate the possibility of pulling the wiring out and damaging the expensive innards.
A radiator with 2 mounted high output 120mm fans will be added, as well as 2 more high output 120mm case fans to ensure proper air flow. A 350 gph water pump will produce a high flow from the reservoir to the CPU and, finally, the radiator. The ram is cooled by 2 60mm fans housed in a Zalman Ram Cooler, and the hard drive will be cooled by yet another 120mm fan! Yup, she's gonna be one helluva Beast - a loud water/air cooled beast. On this issue of noise: The fans will be controlled by a touchscreen fan controller, so when the ambient temperature is cool I can turn the fans off, such as when the beast is inside in the air-conditioning, or out in the shop on a cold winter's day. But, being a Valkyrie is hard work, and it's bound to raise your body temp when you're busy flying around at top speed killing those who need a good killing, so in the hot summer air she'll have all the cooling capabilities she needs.
Specs to date:
MSI 880G-41E motherboard
AMD Phenom II X2 Calisto Black Edition - 4 core unlocked and overclocked to 3.7ghz
Corsair 4gb DDR3 RAM
Seagate Barracuda 500gb HDD
750 Watt PSU
To be added:
Zalman CPU water block
4gb DDR3 Ram to make a total of 8gb
UV reactive tubing for water supply
UV lighting / LED lighting
Lighted switches for power on/off and reset
LEDs for HDD activity and possibly wi-fi activity
More to come...
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