Ghetto Mods

[Compgeke]

I needed an exhaust fan on my Precision T3500. Dell has mounts for two of 'em but nowhere to plug 'em in. Made use of one side for an exhaust fan and the other for a RAID battery.

 

[micropage7]

I needed an exhaust fan on my Precision T3500. Dell has mounts for two of 'em but nowhere to plug 'em in. Made use of one side for an exhaust fan and the other for a RAID battery.

nice, but the fan, its kinda hard to see since it cropped
and yesss zip ties

 

[xBruce88x]

I see it has a power button symbol and while I'm sure it's great for turning computers off, I'm not confident it can also turn them back on.

Its from the startup logo of the game hard reset... its hard to see the text in the pic, but its there lol

 

[wagana]

Apparently someone wants to see my build here :S... (short story: Freezer's 7 AMD mounting system didn't reach the CPU, so I'd to put some cardboard and tape with stock heatsink's fixing clip to install it firmly)
-The Pic:

-GPU, it's a Powercolor Radeon 9250... The heatsink, well... It's tiny passive heatsink just didn't cut it... overheated a lot, so I took an Intel stock heatsink and made VRAM heatsinks with the old one (MX-4 under them, instant glue on the corners to fix them). In a future probably I'll put some heatsinks for the VRMs
*Sorry for the lighting, my camera's flash started to fail:

COSMOS S PORTABLE PC
It already got handles. It is alumium=light.
Now it needs integrated sound and WiFi. Come and see:
1. Logitech USB speakers installed under the top, where there is a room for watercooling. Stock, they don't fit so wel, so I dremmeled away a lot of plastic and made a 1 piece 4 way sound machine! haha.
2. USB Wifi antenna, also installed in roof part.
Slick it is!

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That Wireless card reminds me of what I did to a friend's PC when he wanted a white DVD drive... I couldn't find one... so I used an IDE one... USB Header->USB hub->USB SATA/IDE controller (with modified power connector to molex)->DVD

Also sorry if this ends up in a long post... I read the guidelines... but I didn't see anything about Spoilers

 

[JunkBear]

So many people say SORRY in their posts. Are you all Canadians or what?

 

[xvi]

cardboard

firmly

Wh.. what? How?
Would you mind showing/explaining how you got that to work. I'm actually rather impressed.

 

[wagana]

Wh.. what? How?
Would you mind showing/explaining how you got that to work. I'm actually rather impressed.

Cardboard from a cereal box. the dark gray line is the fixing clip... The cooler can be installed straight, but that requires lots of force...

 

[R-T-B]

This isn't really a "ghetto PC" mod but I got a good one for you guys.

So everyone knows about Killowatt meters right? I wanted one for my bitcoin farm. They don't work in 240V though, which is what I run my bitcoin miners at for increased efficiency. So I started searching ebay for a "240v watt meter" and after pages of extremely expensive electrical carrier grade stuff, I got this cheapo device shipped to me for very little from China:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Micro-Elect...808?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item540c90df50

Sketchy, right?

I got it. It's rated for 50hz, not the American 60. (It's also rated for 220V not 240). "It probably won't work..." I tell myself, knowing the AC switching hertz are probably cheap chinese crap and hardcoded. I don't care. I wanna try it. I plug it in:

Well I'll be damned! It's happy and keeping really accurate measurements! Who would've thunk it?

I kept it in there for about 6 months, then mining became unprofitable and it sat on a shelf. Today, I got an idea:

"Heck, it took 240V 60hz when it was rated for 220V 50Hz, lets plug it into an american 120V outlet and see what happens"

For the record, this is a horrible idea that should only be attempted by those who have a good breaker box and don't care if they get electric shock and/or start a small fire. You should not willfully violate your devices specifications. You furthermore should not bend the outlet prongs to fit an outlet it is not intended for, like this:

Furthermore, you should never plug it into a live wire if you have done so, like this:

And you certainly should not expect it to be accurate afterwords, like this:

...


Holy shit it is.

China, proving electricity is aparently just electricity...

The funny thing is, this watt meter has PF correction calcualations built it, and is arguably better and more versatile than a killawatt while being nearly half the price WITH SHIPPING.

How'd they make this thing? Did they just stuff it with "do not give a fuck" metering parts and call it a day?

But it's still accurate? Do they actually calculate for this shit? Why? That has to cost more...

Anyone have a weird voltage or hz rating and wanna try this thing? It's crazy (not as crazy as me for trying this though, admittedly).

Seriously, pick one of these things up. They are awesome. Just don't do any of the things above... that would be unhinged... And also apparently work fine...

PS: I'm not responsible if you blow up for reading this post and trying dumb things. That's my job, not yours. This also has aparently a 10Amp limit, though judging from these tests, I have absolutely no reason to believe any limits printed on the box or product are accurate.

Oh, and for the record, Killawatts do melt/spark if you plug them into 240V outlets. I know this. Pictures of that aftermath later.

 

[Caring1]

That has an Australian type plug and power ratings, so may have been made for our market.

 

[R-T-B]

Probably. But I fixed them up good!

Seriously though the integrated computer and measuring device is way better than any killowatt. I bet you could find it with the right outlet too. I fully recommend that if so. China wins this one.

And actually, as an aside, pretty much the entire rest of the world has a better electric system than America IMO. We may have pioneered electricity, but Edison scared us of high voltage so much we arguably use a more dangerous system, because the amount of amps pumped over 120V is usually double and generates more heat. (Edison would've had us doing this furthermore with 120V DC which is pretty idiotic from a distribution perspective.)

I mean technically if you get shocked I GUESS 120V AC is slightly safer. But don't lick the outlets or stick metal implements in them (like me) and that probably won't happen. The heat from amps is more of a danger IMO.

 

[xBruce88x]

well that's handy... nice find

 

[AsRock]

Probably. But I fixed them up good!

Seriously though the integrated computer and measuring device is way better than any killowatt. I bet you could find it with the right outlet too. I fully recommend that if so. China wins this one.

And actually, as an aside, pretty much the entire rest of the world has a better electric system than America IMO. We may have pioneered electricity, but Edison scared us of high voltage so much we arguably use a more dangerous system, because the amount of amps pumped over 120V is usually double and generates more heat. (Edison would've had us doing this furthermore with 120V DC which is pretty idiotic from a distribution perspective.)

I mean technically if you get shocked I GUESS 120V AC is slightly safer. But don't lick the outlets or stick metal implements in them (like me) and that probably won't happen. The heat from amps is more of a danger IMO.

Is that what courses all the sparks you can get from turning on\off light switches ?. And i my self prefer UK outlet over a US anyday

 

[OneMoar]

AC is more lethal because if you grab a hot AC line it causes the muscle to spasm leaving you unable to let go.where is if you touch DC it will knock you on your ass but your reflexes will cause you to let go
HIGH AMP DC Will Arc just as much as AC most welders operate in DC mode by default with AC as a option for special cases
you can even weld using welding sticks,jumper cables and a few car battery's connected in series

 

[R-T-B]

AC is definitely more lethal but Edisons plans for deploying DC large scale called for a powerplant within 3-6 miles of the service location. This was not practical in the way AC was.

I personally recommend avoiding electric shock in the first place.

PS: My understanding was that it's voltage that creates arcing, not amps. But I admit my knowledge there is thin.

 

[xBruce88x]

i think its voltage as well, since that's more the speed of the current whereas amps is the power in the current if that makes sense. where ohms is resistance of the current or path it takes then you got hz which measures frequency and watts which represents the total work the current can do

 

[Peter1986C]

i think its voltage as well, since that's more the speed of the current whereas amps is the power in the current if that makes sense

Other way around. Tension (V) is like pressure while current (A) is the "speed".

 

[R-T-B]

Yeah, raw overall power of the current is actually best represented by watts.

 

[Jetster]

All I know about electricity is a Taser hurts

 

[Caring1]

All I know about electricity is a Taser hurts

I gotta ask, how did you find out?

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

I put an Hd 5750 in this Shuttle a couple of years ago, which meant a big hole to fit it in

Sold the 5750...............kept the hole

notice how i put reflective tape around the hole to make it "safe"


i used one of these .........oops !

4 inch grinder........it didnt take very long !

 

[JunkBear]

Is that what courses all the sparks you can get from turning on\off light switches ?. And i my self prefer UK outlet over a US anyday

Why that preference?

Other way around. Tension (V) is like pressure while current (A) is the "speed".

Wrong. Volt is like speedflow of water, amperage is like diameter of water jet passing in the pipe and the watts is like liters/minute at the outlet...gallons for USA guys.

 

[AsRock]

Why that preference?

besides seeing the US spark ?.

UK plugs have replaceable plugs and fuses.
US plugs seems to spark more often, well much more. Although on a UK plug the pins are much more covered over.
Never had a shock of a UK plug or light switch which in just 13 years i had two of each in the US.
Pins cannot be bent on UK plugs
Maybe like this in the UK now but a lot appliances in the US come with stupid really short cables to the point they can be the problem, sent so much shit bad to places after finding the cable to some thing because the cable was only 12-18" long.

Why that preference?




Wrong. Volt is like speedflow of water, amperage is like diameter of water jet passing in the pipe and the watts is like liters/minute at the outlet...gallons for USA guys.

Just a funny thought.
Did you know a US gallon is smaller than a UK gallon.

 

[R-T-B]

Honestly, you should see LESS sparks from us electricity all other things being equal... I think you'd see more heat however.

Maybe you were just in a shittily wired place. We have quite a few.

 

[AsRock]

Honestly, you should see LESS sparks from us electricity all other things being equal... I think you'd see more heat however.

Maybe you were just in a shittily wired place. We have quite a few.

Yeah all 6 places we lived in, so no don't think it's that.

 

[R-T-B]

Yeah all 6 places we lived in, so no don't think it's that.

Hmm, weird. I've never been to Europe and am just using basic electrical knowledge. No idea.