Project Kari

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xenophek

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Project Kari [lots of pictures]

d2e2a060.png

Well my friends, it's not often when I don't think of me. I mean, I'm pretty awesome and I deserve all of my attention, right? Anyway, this thread is about someone else, who is, for the moment, more awesome than me. Matt Calloway is a straight A student. Matt Calloway is a cross-country track runner who works very hard at what he does. Though he is busy, he finds time to joke around with us and have a good time. Matt Calloway is overall a good guy to know. Despite his hard work, he has a pretty crappy home life. I don't mean to sound sappy or anything, but we (and our video games) are pretty much his refuge. He is constanly and obviously mistreated by his parents. He's been to a military camp twice. The poor guy has been through a lot more than I can tell you here. He's never lucky, ever. In fact, we joke about how unlucky he is (sometimes).

You may know him as Featherfoot07 here. BlackMesaSouth and I brought him to Edge so we can all have a good time in the greatest online gaming community... in the world. He's a moderately active member who enjoys gaming and having a good [clean] time. There's only one thing: he doesn't have a game system at all. Back when we all played XBox 360, Matt didn't have one. When we all made the move to PC, Matt didn't have a computer that would come close to playing any game at all. His family's computer will barely launch Photoshop. So Matt plays on our rigs.

All of the above occured to me in one split second in the Black Mesa server, right after I got killed by Dragonhill. In this ironic moment, I realized that I really enjoy having a gaming computer. I really enjoy taking part in this online community, and my good friend Matt Calloway always has to watch from the sidelines because he's so damn unlucky. Right then I became determined to do something about it. I had a significant bit of money set aside to upgrade my rig to a HD4850 Crossfire setup, but I decided to put that toward a better cause. By myself, I didn't have enough money to get the job done. I couldn't build Matt a gaming computer by myself. So I called up Jake (BlackMesaSouth) and Nathanael (Palarious) and ran the idea by each of them. They both were very excited about this project, and we got together and drew up a plan.

We've build budget rigs before. Mesa's is a testament to that. So together we wouldn't have any problem. If you've ever read Matt signature before, it says:


"The gaming rig "Kari" currently in the beta-building stages. Big thanks to Xenophek and BlackMesaSouth for their involvement in constructing her."


He'd already named his future computer Kari, in honor of his deceased mother. Therefore, we knew right away what the name would be. One day while we were gathering materials, Jake (BMS) said to us, "We should call this 'Project Kari'" and the name kind of stuck.

As I post pictures of this project, I will be editing the video for you to watch. The videos are much more in depth and explain our process better than I will in text and photo. This is the build diary for Project Kari. It's a long one. If you think this is cool, please check in occasionally, because I have three hours of video to edit down and I will be posting new material as I process it.

Basically, we took this:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1478.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1479.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1480.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1486.jpg

and turned it into this:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1587.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1586.jpg

By the way, that's Matt at the helm. Those pics are of the unveiling of Kari. Matt, always remember that you have friends.

And so it began​

Well, we were fairly fortunate when it came to the case. Nathanael’s older brother Jacob found this case in a dumpster. We had it carbon dated and it’s from the Paleozoic Era. It was a fully functioning gaming computer, dating back to circa 2001. The case had a window and broken UV cold cathodes. At first we were going to just sandblast the case and repaint it, but ideas started flying around and before we knew it we had a full-blown case mod on our hands. It makes sense to us; why spend the money and build him a rockin’ computer if we were going to scrape by on the case? I’ve done a mod or two before, so it’s no problem to whip out a one of a kind case for dear Mattie. We had to wait for the parts to arrive anyway.

The case started out horrible. The weird orange paint job was one thing, but the previous owner held a can of black about two feet away and put black flecks all over the case, even on the chassis. It gets better/worse. The side panels were screwed on tightly. No, not thumbscrews. Wood screws. The threads were completely destroyed by the wood screws. There are some crazies out there, but that’s why we play on eGO servers, right?

The side of the case used to look something like this:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1474.jpg

That’s actually the other panel, because the first thing I did was cut out a bigger window. See that vague X shape in the middle of the panel? Imagine that cut out with a Plexi window. Tiny, very dorky, window. I guess it was cool for 2001. So were purple power buttons.
To cut out the windows I had a variety of options. Mnpctech.com recommends using a saw with a metal cutting blade to cut the window out. While power tools are a really REALLY cool way to do it, I opted for a pair of tin snips that I bought for $15 bucks at Home Depot. They cut a clean edge, and if you file it down a little you won’t need to use rubber U channel to cover it. I still went with the U channel, however, because it looks good against the Olive Drab green.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1472.jpg

If you decide to do it the way I did it, you need to know two things before you start. One, always cut in the same direction. Two, take note of which way the metal is turned away from the cut. As you can see from the picture, the snips leave one side completely untouched while pushing the other side away from the cut. Keep the metal pushing toward the inside, or you run the risk of warping the whole panel. Also, cut a rough hole close to where the final cut will be. What that does is it makes the ejected metal thinner and much easier to work with. It’ll save your wrists, I promise.

The bigger window looks much nicer, and highlights all of the high-end components we put in it later.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1489.jpg

After I cut the window, I used the cut as a reference to mark on the Plexi. This time, however, I didn't make the mistake of cutting the Plexi too big. On my first mod, I cut the window too big and the panel wouldn't fit right. That's because the Plexi was on top of the chassis at the back when the panel was in the open position. See my mistake? I marked the Plexi boundaries when the panel was closed. I didn't make that mistake again.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/b4b73904.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/e4af0148.jpg

Asleep on the job... It was a long three weeks.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1499.jpg

For a while I'd toyed with the idea of putting a window on the other panel. My goal was to show off the killer cable management I planned on doing (and did). That didn't work out too well though. The chassis and the motherboard tray are extremely close (flush in some areas) to the panel, and cutting support braces just for a window didn't make much sense. So no dual-windows. It sure would've been cool, no matter how redundant. That's just how I roll.

Here is a picture to show you just how close the motherboard tray was/is to the side panel. And can you believe that I squished 1" cable behind there?

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1481.jpg

Also, notches had to be cut in the motherboard tray and in the horizontal support bar for cables to be routed behind and away from the motherboard for a tidy appearance. And good airflow. That's always handy. If I can ever remember to bring the tapes back to college with me, you'll get the in-depth video over everything.


The next major task I began was probably the hardest. The front panel was the bane of my existence during the whole build. What seemed easy at the beginning became a Hellhound from Lucifer's array of weapons and torture with my name on it. Basically (but not nearly basic) we cut the middle section out of the original panel and replaced it with mesh. No problem, because I'm such a crafty guy. WRONG. It was my brilliant idea to use a scoring knife to cut the section out. It's the same knife we used to cut the Plexi, but this plastic was much harder. What the scoring knife does is remove a line of plastic where you drag it. It comes off in nice curly strips. Well, the Plexi was super thin. The front panel, however, is at least 1/4" thick. We were cutting for an hour it seemed.

The body lines were a good guide to follow, but the top had to be cut straight across using a ruler as a solid line to follow.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1478.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1479.jpg

And here's what we ended up with:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1513.jpg

Here's me test fitting the mesh I cut for the front:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1550.jpg

Again, once I finally get cracking on the video I'll give you a more in-depth coverage of what we did, plus commentary.


Continued​

Well, after I cut out the midsection of the front panel and cut a piece of mesh to fit there, I moved on to other parts of the mod. This is where BlackMesaSouth finished school for the break and joined Project Kari. From this point on, most of the dremel work and other cutting was done by him. He works on race cars and hot rods with his dad, so there was no sense in me (the less skilled with metalworking) doing the cutting. It was at this time where Jake (BMS) cut the previously mentioned notches in the chassis for cable management, and he also cut out the holes in the motherboard tray. If you look closely, the motherboard tray has oval shapes that are indented. The problem with my cable management dreams was that the ovals are indented all the way to the side panel. There just wasn't enough room. So, I had Jake cut the whole indention out, and I covered it with rubber U channel from mnpctech.com

A quick side note about mnpctech.com :
That site is really cool. The prices for case mod materials are reasonable and they got it to me fast. They sent the goods via UPS 3 day. Rock on guys, you'll definitely be hearing from me again.

Since I don't have any pictures of the chassis work around the motherboard tray, I'll continue on to the back of the case. The rear exhaust fan was a lone 80mm. The front intake had room for a lone 80mm. While this may have been fine for circa 2001 rigs, it is certainly not for ours. Something had to be done about that exhaust.

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1480.jpg

The above photo is what the back used to look like. It had room for some punch-out holes for additional printer ports and such back in the day. Nowadays, it's USB 2.0 or bust. So I didn't need those punch outs anymore. "Jake, get to cutting!". So we basically cut out the biggest rectangle we could get away with in that area. All that remained of that God forsaken surface was a tab to rivet the mesh on to. This gigantic hole allowed me to mount a 92mm fan there. While that's a really big step up from 80mm, it's still a step. I've used this fan before and it pushes a lot of air and doesn't make any noise. Rock on 92mm fan.

Here's what it looked like after the hole was cut..
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1521.jpg

...and here's what it looked like with the mesh in place.
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/IMG_1525.jpg


The next task was to cut out the intake for the video card. We decided to place the intake down there because we wanted some serious air going into the video card. It ended up slightly overclocked, so the fan is necessary. Rather than cut out a circular hole and drill screw holes like a normal case, we kept with the mesh-everywhere theme and cut a big square, and covered that in mesh, then bolted the fan straight to the mesh. The biggest part of any case mod is the "cool" factor. Otherwise, why would you be modding in the first place?

Here's the intake vent:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/492095b0.jpg

Nothing to it. The front intake was done in a similar fashion as the others. Jake cut a flippin huge hole and we put mesh over it. The mesh for the front fan spans the whole height below the HDD cage, and is almost twice as wide as the 120mm fan. Because we can, shaddap.

Front 120mm fan:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/167ef690.jpg

After all of the mock ups were done we breathed a sigh of relief. From there it was all downhill. We were so excited to be this far that Jake and I made a trip to Wal Mart (thrice) to get the stuff we needed to paint the chassis. The whole job took three cans of spray on truck bedliner, and I continually underestimated the volume of paint needed to completely hide all of that hideous orange paint. The bedliner turned out pretty sweet though.

Bedliner:
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/3f345545.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/fe14db19.jpg
http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l266/buzzerdbait/Project Kari/aa7f2769.jpg


------------------------
This is the point where we lost the still camera. We were working furiously to have this case done by the deadline, and we sort of forgot about the camera. Fortunately, Nathanael was behind the camcorder, so all of the final assembly of Kari is on film. You'll see the videos shortly, so keep coming back!
------------------------
 
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[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEMHZBAfDvg[/ame]​

Part 1
No high quality for now...
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3C_5qfd4_w&feature=channel_page[/ame]​

Part 2
Still no high quality, because YouTube is teh suck. Missing a tape, so the video comes in at about 1:08
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=759EYc5IOu8[/ame]​
 
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I always figured you guys were cool the times ive played with you, but BRAVO gentleman, that is a true friend right there.
 
I always figured you guys were cool the times ive played with you, but BRAVO gentleman, that is a true friend right there.

Thank you. The poor guy's situation gets worse and worse, so something needed to be done. We just wanted to bring a little light into his situation. We're all good friends, and we always support one another when we need help.

Don't forget to check back later. I'm going to Austin this weekend, so Monday morning I should have some of the video posted. This diary is gonna be huge.
 
By the way, I failed to mention that this rig is overclocked. I'll elaborate on that some more later, but after the Beta club convention. The processor is a AMD 5400+ overclocked to 3.1 GHz. Just did not want to go over 3.2 GHz...
 
Awesome! Good work, and good story!
Nice to hear about people doing good things for other people! :D:D
 
None of you know how much this rig needs to me. How much I've been wanting a computer that would do this and do it right. Something that would do edge games, and photoshop/adobe programs well, render anything quickly, or anything else I may want to do -- and KARI will do this well and still have some effort left in reserve! I love all of my friends who contributed to this amazing rig and thank them a million times over. Thank all of you sooo much. Now,

LETS DOOM TRAIN!
 
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I'm the one that made it possible for him to move around on TF2 much easier by buying a shiny black optical mouse. That ball mouse that Nathanel was going to provide really sucked. I know I didn't do all the hard "manly" work (other than giving up on scraping the orange off), but I did my part. I demand credit for that huge cup of hot coco I made for you guys...walking through the freezing cold with it steaming out of the cups..

BUT...

No mention of me.. :( how sad. Lol. "Your Roxyness DEMANDS" *kidding*

Ok, now that I got that out of my system..We love you too Matt. :D You're freakin' awesome, and yesterday was your lucky day. Maybe this is a start to your newly found luck.

Anyway, hope you like that mouse. I probably said that in the video too many times.

"How you like that mouse?" "I bought that mouse."
I dunno, I'm very proud of it and hope it does well in all the games you play.. Hahaha.

I'm very glad you liked the computer. It touches my heart that Caleb, Jake and Nathanel made it possible for you to get what you rightfully deserve.

Anyway, enough mooshy stuff. "GET ON THE POINT" and play TF2! :D
 
Yeah I wished I could have helped but as you know wasn't much I could do. I def. give you kudos though, that is an awesome rig.
 
This stuff doesn't get good until it gets to where I got in on the work. He started when I was still in school and going full swing on the car back home! Didn't get in on it till the 3rd or 4th day I think. That's when all the awesome happened.
 
Now you're in the picture. By the way, I'm consolidating my posts to make one long one at the beginning. Better artwork is on the way.
 
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some of the pics seem to be down on photobucket, id love to see more pics of the final product
 
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