Scratch: Portal: The Companion Cube Mini PC! - Overclock.net

Frozen-Q · 06-12-09

Updates!

8/21 - Working on the case panels
8/22 - Motherboard tray done
8/27 - Acrylic cube finished

Well, while I wait for my panels for the Absolute Zero case to get laser cut, I figured I should start on a new project while I'm home over the summer. My girlfriend loves the case I built from scratch from her before, but I personally just didn't feel it turned out how I wanted it to in the end. On the other hand, she is obsessed with Portal...most notably the companion cube. I thought about buying a stuffed companion cube for her just as a gag gift, but, a whole computer is just how we roll around here.

Tonight I am going to make some computerized 3D models of how the finished case would look when finished, order some material, and get started next week.

I want this case to be relatively small, just large enough to hold a psu and two hard drives in the lower half of the cube, and a micro-ATX motherboard in the upper half of the cube. I believe I am going to have the little white disks with the heart on it raised off the surface with a hole under it for a concealed fan. Should be a nice way for ventilation while keeping it looking nice. The inner cube, without the corners, is going to be made entirely of dark gray smoked acrylic. The corners I think are going to be made from wood. Sanded down real well, primered, and painted a flat light gray.

Parts for the Rig, so far:

500W BFG PSU
320GB Western Digital Hard Drive
2GB (2x1GB) Kingston HyperX 800mhz Ram
XFX 9800GSO
Not sure on the motherboard CPU combo yet

**coffeejunky** · 06-12-09

Subb'd
Want to see how this turns out

oliverw92 · 06-12-09

subbed, sounds interesting!

LiquidForce · 06-12-09

subbed

This is going to be interesting seeing how you build the cube

Thedark1337 · 06-12-09

subbed, didnt someone do a case mod about portal a while back?

oliverw92 · 06-12-09

yeh, was pretty epic, gonna be a hard challenge to live up to!. His was a companion cube for decoration though. I want to know where the cd drive will be on this

Frozen-Q · 06-12-09

Well, actually, my girlfriend has a good external drive. So she doesn't really want an internal one. Which in fact is good for me because having to put one on here would really just mess up the whole design.