Mod of the Month - March 2009

Project - Silent fibreglass PC

by riekmaharg2
Worklog: Here

It seems noise reduction is a key theme this month. With the aim of creating 'a silent computer' riekmaharg2 set about designing his own unique custom case with some intriguing and original design thrown into the mix too. Fibreglass was the medium of choice and the case has taken shape very quickly indeed.

Making a custom quiet PC is no small feat, but riekmaharg2 has already created his own large heatsink using a sheet of copper which will act as the final heat exchanger in his Silent Fibreglass PC. There's plenty more custom cooling and other modding on show too, and this is another PC that should look jaw dropping when it's finished. His project log is a very interesting read, so be sure to click the link above.


Clearly off to a good start, this probably comes to the fact that riekmaharg2 has taken his time to get a clear picture of the design first, both with sketches and rendering. Using Autodesk's 3ds Max, the overall shape and colour of the case have been beautifully rendered in glossy black and, dare we say it, is almost PS3-like in appearance. If everything else goes smoothly, this should be one awesome PC to behold.


We weren't kidding that the case was progressing quickly! The basic shape was achieved using foam and a CNC milling machine. The case was so large however, that the foam had to be cut in to sections and each milled seperately then glued together. With the fibreglass shell completed riekmaharg2 soon started to cut it to shape, first by removing the inner section for components.


In this update, the case is really coming along: a circular saw and sander were used to mould the various sections to a smooth finish. The innards have now been fully removed leaving only a bare shell. The top section has been cut out to make way for a large mesh and that bulge in the side section certainly looks rather menacing!


Something we were very interested in indeed is the custom cooling riekmaharg2 has come up with. Using a large sheet of copper, he concertinaed it to cram the most surface area possible into the given dimensions. Further updates in his project log also show the coolant pipe being welded to the heatsink. As with all scratch built cases, some kind of I/O panel is needed. Here we can see the final custom design with two DVI ports, USB, LAN, FireWire and audio ports.

To vote for the riekmaharg2's Project Silent Fibreglass PC visit our forums here.