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my progress so far.. now with xbox 360 goodness..and more crappy pics!
Donkbaca:
Okay first off, to give you guys a better idea of the profile: Its obviously woody inspired, but I changed the bottom to be straight, instead of flaring up, and the monitor area is a little more angled than in the woody, which is very straight:
Here is a new shot of the front. The plexi and bezel are test fit. The plexi is not clear because it still has the plastic film on it. I am going to tint the plexi to hide it all a little bit. I think it looks ok. The bezel is a PITA to make. The monitor I am using is a 21.5" NEC multisync. You can also see my admin panel. As you know I am a bit of a minimalist, but for this type of design, I think you need a panel there to cover up some bezel real estate. This is where my xbox 360 and KVM switch will go. The set of three holes at the left and the right will have sanwa 18mm buttons glued in. They will be the Back - Guide - Start Buttons for P1 and P2. The middle hole is for a 24mm seimitsu that will activate the KVM. Finally, the slanted area right below the CP is going to swing down to give me access to aimtraks, additional controllers, a track ball and the xbox dvd drive. When its in its closed position, it is pretty hidden
Someone had asked about my CP. This was the very first thing I started building a few months ago, and I was way more sloppy then I should have been. The bottom box is mitred on all sides, held together by L brackets and glue. I was not as careful as I should have been with the glue and got some on my wood, not thinking it was a big deal since the glue is "stainable". Well, stainable glue stains, but not the same as wood, so its a little blotchy. I am tempted to do it over again, but for now its in the "good enough category.
Here is a side pic:
Here is the front, that show how sloppy I was:
As you can kind of see from the pictures above, I am top mounting my controls. The wood is 1/2 inch plywood, at first I was worried about this being too thin, but when the controls are in they feel really solid, plus this is for home use. If worst comes to worst and it breaks, I will just do a thicker one next time, for now though I think its fine. I think people really underestimate the strength of plywood. Anyhow this is what is going on top [excuse the recycling pile next to it]
As you can see, pretty simple 7 buttons per. The buttons on top will be P1 -Select - Exit - P2. IN retrospect I don't need a select button, but it balances things out okay, I may use it for pause too. I was contemplating a trackball to take up some of the real estate in the middle, but decided against it since i really don't enjoy trackball games. I do, however, have an x-arcade trackball controller, so if anyone really wanted to play trackball games, they can open the door under the CP and pull it out of the cubby.
That's it for now. Its not revolutionary or ground breaking, I think its decent though, for a dude that had never soldered or woodworked before this, and I think the x-box capability will be neat.
Thanks guys
Malenko:
--- Quote from: Donkbaca on March 02, 2011, 07:59:35 pm --- ...........pregnant wife ...............
What do you guys think of the shape?
--- End quote ---
She's prolly fat? :dunno
--- Quote from: Donkbaca on March 23, 2011, 11:16:55 am ---One of the reasons XBs overheat is that the dvd drive sits right on top of the GPU heat sink
--- End quote ---
Thats so not true. In fact if you do the "card trick" the 360 runs cooler then removing the DVD drive. Its all about air flow.
Build looks good though. Gonna be a dark finish?
Donkbaca:
--- Quote ---She's prolly fat?
--- End quote ---
Actually she is not. she looks the same, only now she has a bowling ball sized gut. Anywhow, lets keep wives/significant others out of the conversation, unless we are talking about mikezilla's bed wetting girlfriend.
--- Quote ---Thats so not true. In fact if you do the "card trick" the 360 runs cooler then removing the DVD drive. Its all about air flow
--- End quote ---
What is this "card trick"? Are you talking about adding cardboard to direct airflow away from the heatsinks to the fans? I didn't say the DVD was the ONLY reason it overheats. I agree its about airflow, and I think the DVD sitting on top of the GPU traps heat between it and the heatsink. I don't really care though. I am removing the dvd because it will take up a smaller foot print in my storage area than the entire xbox would. I think I will leave the xbox decased to improve airflow, plus I like seeing the guts.
I think it looks alright :cheers: Its going to have a mahogany finish is a darkish brown...
Malenko:
--- Quote from: Donkbaca on May 19, 2011, 01:13:30 pm ---I think it looks alright :cheers: Its going to have a mahogany finish is a darkish brown...
--- End quote ---
Many leather bound books around?
Donkbaca:
going to put it right next to my autographed X2 BB filled shaolin toe stab bag