Editor's note:
Introduction and Article By Rich Tornetta:
During the planning stages we knew this case should look intriguing with the lights off and then come to life when turned on… almost as if a large generator was started by the push of a button. We did not want this to be recognizable as a PC case in the conventional sense so every effort was made to take it as far from that realm as possible. The most common response upon first glance is “what the hell is that?” usually followed by “how is that a computer?”
Shown here is an overall view of The Toxic PC Case with UV reactive paint, fans and cooling liquid lit up with cold cathode UV and Lava neon tubes. Made to look like a small nuclear powered PC tower the goal of this case was to build an enclosure that looked like some kind of nuclear explosion had taken place. This is accomplished by details such as glowing paint, animated lava neon and 3D drips of ‘radioactive chemical’ oozing all over.
Here is where the power and reset buttons supplied by ClearPC were located rather than the standard location on the lower right corner of the case. With over 7 light sources and a total of 9 fans in all there is a feeling of “power” generated from the push of a single button. Status lights were left out to eliminate the constant versus random flashing of the power and HDD LEDs.
Once the power and reset buttons were mounted and before any other installation took place we had to cover this case in UV reactive paint. Our choice was Lumaseries “blacklight” paint from Spencer’s Gifts at the local mall. The green was not bright enough when illuminated with Ultra Violet light so we mixed half yellow and half green to get the “radioactive” glow.
With the right paint chosen we now had to figure out a way to visually make a nuclear explosion. The first step was to lay the case on its motherboard side and apply heavy amounts of paint along the top corner. After about 5 minutes to allow for partial drying we stood the case upright and allowed gravity to do the rest. The same process was repeated for the other small areas such as the power supply, front bezel and drive bay panel.
Here’s where the illusion of dripping toxic ooze really stands out. We didn’t want this nuclear waste to look like dried paint in a computer case. Therefore we had to devise a way to communicate action or wetness so the ‘explosion’ would always appear to have just happened. Our solution was to create 3D drips from the ceiling. Used for these drips were lots of hot glue and gun, multi-speed fan, stopwatch, craft sticks and UV reactive paint.
We achieved this dripping effect by turning the case upside down, applying a decent amount of hot glue to the ceiling and allowing 20-25 seconds to pass for partial cooling. Then comes the tricky part… before the glue gets too cool you have to turn the case right side up rapidly and wait for the glue to drip (turning the case too soon while still hot will result in gravity pulling the glue all the way down to the bottom of the case). We then held a multi-speed fan to the glue and placed it first on low so that the glue could still move and cool at the same time. As the drip would get longer and thinner it would move faster so we would have to quickly turn the fan to high speed and hold it right up against the glue. A craft stick was used to guide the drips in straight paths downward since the fan would cool one side faster than the other and the glue would curl to that side. We then finished up the 3D toxic waste drips with UV reactive paint. As you can see the drips on the power supply are shorter. This is due to the metal properties of the PSU housing which absorbed the heat from the hot glue much quicker resulting in premature cooling of the drips.
Now that the toxic waste part is finished, it’s time to give it ‘radioactive glow’. The use of neon and cold cathode lights came in very handy for this effect. Four UV cold cathodes were mounted vertically around the case. Three were mounted at the corners and the last one was mounted to the right of the motherboard in order to illuminate the large glob of paint on that wall. The UV tubes brightly lit the paint and UV reactive fans at night.
We then wanted to give the case a ‘nuclear generator’ feel to it… something that was moving rather than static. Street Glow’s Lava Neon tubes were just the thing we were looking for. These tubes were green neon that moved rapidly about the cylinder in a rolling or flipping pattern to produce a moving lava effect. This was perfect because when we laid three of these tubes horizontally side by side and painted the ends silver, it looked like something out of a Frankenstein movie. This also enhanced the feeling of “power” mentioned earlier when the case was turned on because the visual effect is something that looks high voltage.
Now that we have everything hooked up, it’s time to manage all the messy spaghetti. Before the time when custom sleeving and heat shrinking of PSU wires were offered at purchase (or before it was economical) we had to do the work ourselves. Green wire sleeve was chosen with blue heat shrink tubing to match the green and bluish lights in the case. All SATA, case fan, power/reset button and connective wiring/cables were covered the same way. Chrome spilt loom tubing was used for the large ATX cable bunch and ribbon bus cable for the Audigy 2 Platinum card/bay connection. One last detail was incorporated in the lower front of the case to cover the connection of the cold cathode UV tubes. Everything was finished off with green wire ties. A silver braided rounded ATA133 cable was used for the CD/DVD drive and a smaller version for the Floppy drive.
What modded case would be complete without its share of available symbols in the form of window etchings and aluminum fan grills? The radioactive window etching was necessary for this case and worked just as expected. At night the symbol glows with all the moving colors of the green lava neons right below it and blue UV tubes to the sides. I can’t say much about the Quake, Punisher or Halflife fan grills other than they’re a brushed aluminum finish and look fohking cool.
Our Koolance EXOS water cooling system was included in this system to eliminate the need for loud high-speed case fans and allow for some decent overclocking. Don’t let the three case fans, triple fan PSU and triple fan EXOS system fool you… all fans are temperature controlled. The EXOS radiator fans are controlled by the temperature sensing diode on the CPU block along with the three case fans that are hooked to the fan monitor aboard the EXOS. With the EXOS on Mode 2 the fans will only increase in speed if the temp reaches 36C. As you can see from the photos, my system is at a stable 29C and only hits 36C on hot, humid summer days with the windows open. The system is thus very quiet and while keeping a stable cool temperature allows for overclocking of both the CPU and GPU to an average 13%+ increase in overall performance.
Shown here are the coolers used in the Koolance EXOS liquid cooling system. The order of routing is radiator, CPU block, GPU block, North Bridge block, reservoir. I made sure I utilized the longest recommended tube length for the EXOS pumps. The purpose of this was to maximize the overall volume of water throughout the system, which takes longer to heat and therefore keeps the temp cooler and more constant. Care was taken to prevent tube creasing, which would restrict flow, by using long lengths of tube inside the case to connect the blocks.
Finally a few drops of green UV reactive dye completes the look. The result is a Toxic PC Case that looks radioactive as if a nuclear explosion had just occurred.
THE CASE
THE HARDWARE:
KOOLANCE STUFF: |