The culmination of 15 months of busting my ass...

Creamy_Goodness

> A little over 15 months ago, I began to fiddle with the idea of building my own desktop PC, and I drew the first concept sketches of what I wanted it to look like. I wanted to give it the feel of a gaming console, so I wanted keep the machine small and lightweight, and plug all of the interface devices into the front of the machine. Since then, I've been hard at work designing and building the chassis inside and out from scratch. I've made a lot of mistakes, hit a lot of dead ends, redesigned the chassis a few times, and drained my bank account down to my last forty dollars. Just a few days ago, I went through the final assembly of all the parts and hooked up everything.

> The original sketch of the front of the machine...


> This is the result of all my hard work: The Creamy Entertainment System.




> I'm not entirely satisfied with the way CES came out, and there are a lot of things that I wish I had done differently. There are a lot of unnecessary drill holes, the top hatch doors are crooked, and the machine probably weighs over ten pounds, despite my best efforts to keep it lightweight. However, I'm still proud of the work I did, as well as the help of everyone who was kind enough to lend me a hand in building, let me borrow stuff, teach me how to use new tools, etc. I plan to enter CES in the case mod contest during this year's QuakeCon, and I'm going to have to find some kind of job to be able to afford not only the QuakeCon expenses, but also the cost of spicing up CES and getting it to look more like I originally envisioned it. I havn't turned on the machine yet, and I won't be able to until the power adapter I ordered a week ago arrives. When it does, I'm going to invite the people who helped me over to my place for CES's opening ceremony.

> As for stats, these are the basic capabilities of CES...
- P4 mini-itx motherboard (17cm sq.)
- 2.8Ghz Celeron D processor with a 256MB L2 cache
- 1GB of PC2100 SDRAM
- 120GB 7200RPM hard drive

> I keep a photo and written log of the build on my web page. The log only covers about a third of the total build and is way overly detailed, but I plan to someday write a shorter version of it. This is one project that I'm glad to finally have behind me. I guess that I can now focus on getting a career in PC repair to resucitate(SP?) my bank account. Maybe I can even use the fact that I built my own machine to my advantage when seeking employment.

> The CES build log...
http://www.planetquake.com/polycount/cottages/iwow/Builds/CES_Log_Page(fs).html

Slipstream

Wow. It's probably because I don't fully understand the process but I think that's amazing. I'd like to see what it'll look like completely finished.
And definitely props for the attempt too. I know too many people who come up with great plans and idea's like yours, but just don't act on them.

usagi

thats cool. i like the console-like design. i think if i were to build my own pc, id opt for something similar

Creamy_Goodness

> It's three days before CES's grand opening, and I've discovered some very serious problems with the machine. I turned on the machine earlier this week, but have only managed to get the power LED and the two fans to run. Everything else, (the drives, and I/O ports, etc.) is apparently dead. The power adapter I'm using provides CES with up to 110 watts of power, and the external power supply gives off up to 200 watts, so right now I'm thinking that the problem may be a lack of power. CES uses a 2.8Ghz Celeron D processor, but I'm not sure how much power a chip like that needs to run. I'm going to see if I can convince my brother-in-law to take a look at CES to help me come up with some kind of diagnosis.

Hunter

So... is that where youve been for the last 15 months ???

Nice work, my friend.. I am always amazed at the custom mods I see.. I'd love to take a stab at that one day..

Good work..