Category: Computer Stuff

Swing for the fence

So here’s the map mural side after distressing the crap out of it. She likes it like this, but there’s a Horde shield I was planning on adding. (see the next pic)

Here it is with the Horde shield my buddy Rob Mrowiec made with his 3D printer. Just sanded the top surfaces and like it like this. (temporarily taped on since I lost the glue gun)

I went a little nuts with the Dremel and etched the window

Here’s the front with the Horde symbol Rob Mrowiec made with his 3D printer. Sanded the surface and thought it looked awesome just like this.

The red lit fans aren’t doing exactly what I wanted them to do, but looks a lot cooler than this pic.

Here we are all lit up – kinda hard to get the full effect with the shop lights being so bright.

I put my thumb over the camera flash and turned out the shop lights – looks pretty cool.

Top down with the blow hole fans.

I don’t know… I like it better with the Horde shield.


More Progress!

Finally got a chance to redo the map mural on the side panel (correctly aligned and everything). Gotta have the case done by the end of the weekend though, since Blizzard’s been so flaky with their new expansion pack release date. It gets crazy from here.


We’re Off!

Here’s the metal side panel all taped up ready for some paint.

Here’s my first run at the WoW map mural I had stuck in my head. This is just the background art for something special I have planned as the main feature. But, I screwed it up and forgot which side was ‘Up.’ (hint: the bolts on the bottom secure the panel to the back of the case, so it’s 90-degrees off)

I decided to etch the World of Warcraft logo into the window, which turned out OK… but it’s a little lonely out there by itself.

Finally got the machine fired up and loaded with Win10 and WoW. I love the red lights, and it’s actually pretty quiet, considering it’s missing its side panels at this time.


World of WarCraft Computer

So I pretty much blew my wife’s stimulus check on the gear to build a super hot-rod gaming computer for her. I decided to make it WoW-themed and hopefully, a little over the top. Fractal Design makes awesome computer cases, and I’m hoping they’ll like it enough for their case mod gallery when I’m done.

Here’s the gear:

Fractal Design Focus mid-tower case
ASUS TUF B450-Plus AM4
AMD RYZEN 7 2700 8-core CPU
G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GBx2
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Crucial MX500 1B SATA III SSD
Thermaltake Toughpower GX1 500W power supply
Lite-On Super AllWrite 24X SATA DVD+/-RW
Rosewill RDCR-11004 Data Hub


Drive Side Quarter Panel

OK – done with breakfast and already had the Sharpie out scribbling on the car. Top line is where the new quarter panel section will reach up to. Other lines are where I’m going to cut using the plasma cutter. Here goes nothing.

Got the big piece cut out, and cut off the bad piece of the outer wheelhouse as well. Looks like the rust is mostly staying low on the car – which is good. Gotta burn through some stripping wheels now.

After more trimming and cleaning, I finally got the outer wheelhouse ‘section’ test-fitted in there. Also used the pneumatic flange tool to ‘step’ the car’s sheet metal to accept the new quarter skin and stripped the paint.

I got the new wheelhouse section trimmed up and welded in, along with the trunk drop-off (after test-fitting the quarter section as well). Finished up with some seam sealer and Rust Bullet on the places I’ll never see again.

Different angle – also cleaned all the old undercoating and stuff from the inside of the wheel well. Just gotta stick the quart panel section on now (next weekend’s fun).