Overclock.net banner

[Complete][Build Log] Building a 20€ LAN PC

33K views 350 replies 48 participants last post by  BruceB 
#1 ·
Current Status:












Before/After:

Complete, overclocked and entered in Mod Of The Month June 2014, got 2nd place!
thumb.gif


Remaining budget: 3,43€

Index:
01 - Cutting the Panels (and myself)
02 - More cutting & test fit
03 - Messing up the front bezel
04 - Fixing things I broke and making the door panel
05 - Making a new power button cable
06 - Borrowing a soldering iron and a quick Change of plan
07 - I made some LED lighting!
wheee.gif

08 - Ridiculous luck - the day I found an E8400
09 - Prepping for paint
10 - Package from Hanse12 & testing the E8400
11 - White paint done
12 - Prepping for black paint & 1st coat of black
13 - Door finished and looking good
thumb.gif

14 - Paint finished, new CPU arrived
15 - A very busy day, AKA: how to kill your GPU
eek.gif

16 - Back to stock
frown.gif

17 - An offer I couldn't refuse (Richie2010's GPU cooler)
18 - GPU backplate, front mesh & case feet
19 - Front Panel done
20 - Carbon Fiber Vinyl
21 - Nominating myself for MOTM
22 - A package from Richie_2010
23 - Testing the (new) new GPU cooler
24 - Installing Windows (Boring)
25 - Assembly I - PSU
26 - Assembly II - MB
27 - Assembly III - HDD, GPU, LEDs and tidying up
28 - FINAL PICTURES
29 - Overclocking I
30 - Overclocking II
31 - Overclocking III
32 - Gaming Performance - AoE2, CS:GO and BF4
33 - Gaming Performance - Dirt3, Skyrim and Crysis 2
34 - MOTM Results and Thanks

The 20€ LAN PC

Hello OCN!

I decided to cobble together a second/LAN PC out of all the old parts I had laying around, then, stupidly, I donated most of those parts to my brother so he could build a PC for our parents (damn generosity
biggrin.gif
).

I was on ebay the other day bidding for things and being immediately out-bid for about an hour, until I was placing bids on things I didn't really want. I somehow won one of These items. Now I've got a MB, CPU and RAM on the way by post, I thought I'd mod a case together.

Here's what I bought on ebay for 14€(+6€ P&P):
Asus mATX MoBo Acer 946GZT-AM mATX MB
Pentium D @3GHz Core 2 Duo E8400 Core 2 Duo E6400 for 2,51€ (+3,80€ P&P)
1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM 2x1GB DDR2 667MHz RAM

Other stuff I bought:
Carbon fiber vynil from ebay 52x152cm for 3,75€(+2,50€P&P)

And what I've got collecting dust:
Kiss quiet 560W PSU
2.5" 80GB HDD Awaiting new HDD from the friend who broke my last one Turns out my friend didn't break it, it's being used now: 2.5" 80GB 5400RPM HDD
Inno3D 9800GT Green Edition

I'm not looking to run BF4 at 120FPS at 1440p, but rather CS:GO at 720p and AoE2 at 1080p, where anything above 30FPS would be a Bonus!
biggrin.gif


The only Thing left to get was a case. However I didn't want to waste Money on something that:
a) might not work and
b) might be rubbish even if it does work
Luckly my uni is throwing out a load of electro-junk, under about a ton of it was an old beige case. I grabbed it up and brought it home:

Someone's artwork on the side Panel


And another shot


Better shot of the front, the right side Panel was in suprisingly good shape

It's got a floppy drive and a DVD drive, weather either of them work is unknown for now. All the stuff for the front USB & headphone/mic Jacks is there, again, unknow if it works or not.
The power button, however, is missing its cables
mad.gif
but I think I can just knock up a new one... maybe.

It was full of water and dirt when I got it home and it made a total mess of the floor, but I got it cleaned up and stripped down and it Looks quite respectable now.


Chassis


Front Panel and left side Panel (notice the artwork is gone)


Some of the more useful bits I stipped out of the case

There was also an 80mm fan and a bunch of screws and MB risers and other Fittings and such which will probably be reused.

OK, now it's mod-o'clock:
The case is far too big. I don't Need any disk drives (just the 2.5"HDD but I can sit that ontop of the PSU) so I'd like to do a cut-and-shut job on this one, un-riveting the front, cutting the case down to size and then putting the front Panel back on.

Here's some pics to give you the idea:

This is the area I want to remove


Showing off my mad MS Paint SKILZZZ

I also want to flip the MB tray to get the PSU at the bottom. I'll have to wait for the parts to arrive before I can do anything else
rolleyes.gif
The only Thing I really want is this case to remain beige!
biggrin.gif


What do you think? Any ideas for (low-cost) mods? Post a reply!
 
See less See more
30
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by REAPER XD View Post

Subbed! Looking forward to seeing more!
biggrin.gif
Thanks! I thought even if it turns out to be rubbish it'll be worth it for the lols!
thumb.gif
 
#4 ·
Thinking about it further, as it's an mATX MB, which (I think) only has 1 PCI Slot, I might be able to remove some from the height too and make it even smaller!
I'm not sure what I'd do about the front Panel if I did that though, gotta think about this some more...
headscratch.gif
 
#5 ·
The MB didn't come today, which is typical because no-one's in tomorrow so I'll have to go the 5KM to the post Office on my bike, probably in the rain
mad.gif


Still, I did find out that the MB isn't an Asus, but an Acer!!!!
rolleyes.gif

It's an Acer 946GZT-AM to be more exact. I've been told the RAM is DDR2 but we don't know what Speed yet.... ....667 I hope!

This board 1 PCI-E Slot (x16) 2 PCI Slots and a PCI-express Slot (the Little ones), that's 4 total. Shame I can't just cut off the ones I don't Need! That is, however, less Slots than the case has, so shortening the case is still on the Cards, it just won't be as extreme as I thought.

Here's what I've been thinking:

Cut these bits out


Hopefully it'll look something like this, but with 4 PCI Slots (where did I learn to Count?!), that'll make it a Little bit taller.


I've been honing my MS paint skills so now I can bring you a fully-realistic computer-generated Image of what it may look like...
tongue.gif



For the front Panel, I decided I wanted to take the height out of the 5.25" bays, I'd like to replace them with modder's mesh but I'm on a Budget so that may have to go by the side.

That's all for now Folks, I'll update again as soon as the MB Comes in.
Thanks for looking!
thumb.gif
 
#6 ·

Package came today!
wheee.gif



What is that?!?! That says 'the super-stylish brand' in german, not sure what the seller was getting at with this one...


The board Looks ok, bigger than I'd expected though. Time to get testing.


It boots to BIOS! IT'S ALIVE!!
biggrin.gif



Best way to check if something works: Linux live CD. Shame no games run on Linux
sad-smiley-002.gif



Running Linux mint (my fav.) from a USB CD drive, man are those USB1.1 ports slow
mad.gif



Running lubuntu (for a Change) with GPU and the DVD drive that came with the case. Now I know that DVD drive works, I couldn't test the FDD though as I don't have a floppy disk cable and buying one would mean spending Money!
I also tested the 80mm fan that came in the case, that works too!
smile.gif



A quick mock-up to Show how much extra space is in the case.

Time to take the Panels apart by Drilling out the rivets and see what we have!


Of course, this wouldn't be a PC case mod if I didn't slice my fingers open on something... ...my fingers and the Corner which did it.


Family shot of all the Panels taken apart. The Panel at the back is the top and right side, the Panel on the left is the front and bottom, on the right side is the back Panel and at the bottom is the Motherboard tray.The case has multiple Panels made from one bit of metal, this is bad because it means it's hard to put them back together again if I cut them up. I'll do some planning today and see what I want to do next. Post your ideas for this mod!

Thanks for looking!
thumb.gif
 
#8 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by REAPER XD View Post

Sweet! Need moar!
biggrin.gif
Thanks, glad you're still following!
thumb.gif

I did a load of work today and it's really coming together now! I'll post an update tomorrow!
 
#10 ·
I wish you well on cutting that to shorten the case, if that is what you are doing at least.

I always cringe when I have to cut things straight (jigsaw)
subbed
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by rRansom View Post

Subbed!
Glad to see someone making use of NOT NEW hardware and actually putting it to good use. + rep to you dear sir!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Truedeal View Post

I wish you well on cutting that to shorten the case, if that is what you are doing at least.

I always cringe when I have to cut things straight (jigsaw)
subbed
Quote:
Originally Posted by LordOfTots View Post

I love seeing actual mods like this, the amount of liquid cooled case labs cases, 900ds, and prodigy logs have driven me mental
biggrin.gif
plus I just love old hardware and ingenuity

Thanks guys! I really appreciate the comments!
thumb.gif


I must admit, although I like seeing a $5000-build as much as the next guy (if not more!
biggrin.gif
), I think there are too few small/budget mods on here!

I've done a bit more work today, I just need to sort out the pictures and post an update, it's really starting to look like I hoped it would. More to come later!
 
#13 ·
Ok, here's the new update:

So far I've cut up most of the Panels, re-made the rear of the right-side-and-top Panel. I'm still thinking about how I'm going to do the front Panel so that the plastic bezzel still fits
headscratch.gif

The only Panel I haven't touched is the left side Panel (the door), I'm going to leave that until I have the rest riveted together and then I can cut it to fit, that should reduce the Chance of me Messing it up! Hopefully...
rolleyes.gif


Here's what I've been up to:

Getting ready to make the first cut with the angle grinder, this Baby cuts through 1.5mm steel like a White-hot katana through butter!
thumbsupsmiley.png



This was the first Panel cut, the MB tray, the fist cut I did, on the right, is rubbish! I'll have to tidy it up with a file later. The bottom cut went fine though and is pretty straight, I'll go over it with a file later anyway to make it a bit less dangrous for my fingers.


This is the rear Panel connected to the MB tray (with press-formed Tabs in the Panels) just to Show how much Needs to be chopped off the bottom. Notice the Tabs at the bottom, These are for riveting the back Panel to the bottom Panel, and there just isn't enough metal to re-build These Tabs if I cut them off, I'm not yet sure how I'm going to connect the back Panel to the bottom Panel.


Showing how much will get cut off, 45mm or about 2" if you prefer imperial
smile.gif



This is the front side of the top-and-right Panel.


This is the rear side of the top-and-right Panel. I thought that this end would be much easier to re-build than the front so I decided to chop this end off when I shorten it.


This is the most complex part of the top Panel that I have to re-make




I don't have a proper metal bender so I had to do the bend with a pair of pliers. I'll admit that it's not as perfect as the original but it fits and the worst bits won't be seen so I'm happy with it!
biggrin.gif

I will Need to grind about 4 or 5mm from the flange though, I made it a bit too Long and it overhangs on the back Panel in places.




Just putting it together to see how it Looks, the top of the front Panel is missing because I'm not yet sure which bit I Need to cut out so that I can riviet it back together again and have the front plastic bezzel still fit.
Otherwise I think it's taking shape!




Some shots to Show how everything fits inside the case. The clearances are good, at the bottom there's about 15mm between the board and the bottom of the case, perfect for the HDD!
smile.gif





Some shots comparing it to my sig rig, that's a corsair carbide 300R which is not huge by any means, just a normal size. This case was originally a similar size.

Next to do: Think about how this is all going to go back together and cutting the front Panel and plastic bezzel to fit then Drilling and riveting the Panels back together.
But I'll leave that for another day, I think I've annoyed my neighbours enough for a sunday!
biggrin.gif


Time to Play some BF4, thanks for looking!
thumb.gif


[EDIT]
I've found a 1GB stick of DDR2 667MHz for 1.61€ on ebay. This PC really Needs more RAM. I've put in a bid for 2€, that'll leave me with a 4€ Budget for the rest of the mod. How hard could it be?
wink.gif


[EDIT]
Got the RAM for 2€
thumb.gif
got a bit stung on the P&P (2€). Still got 4€ left in the Budget, probably for a new power Switch.
rolleyes.gif
 
#15 ·
Try your local PC shop or E-waste Depot. you could easily find tonnes of LGA775 kit that will just be given away for free. i stripped around 40 machines for parts at my Universities E waste depot a few weeks back, i have piles of fans and processors from it, tough someone else beat me to the ram and the motherboards werent that great, and occasionally there can be some awesome stuff to be had, i got a nice working server grade 10/100Mb 24 port switch for free from E waste recently.

just start asking around, otherwise good luck with the build keen to see how it turns out
 
#16 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by REAPER XD View Post

Pretty impressive! You're getting dirt cheap components too haha. Can't wait to see more!
Yeah, I got lucky witht the RAM, I've been keeping a eye on ebay (going on twice a day
biggrin.gif
) looking for ddr2 scince I won the bid for the MB, because I know that even with AoE2 and CS:GO 1GB RAM 'aint gonna cut it.
Most of the DDR2 on ebay is EEC (server) RAM which goes for 1-5EUR. The 'normal' RAM is about 4-10EUR for a 1GB stick/kit atm.
Is DDR2 more expensive where you are? *Thinks about starting an international RAM-trading empire*
tongue.gif

Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro Fail View Post

Try your local PC shop or E-waste Depot. you could easily find tonnes of LGA775 kit that will just be given away for free. i stripped around 40 machines for parts at my Universities E waste depot a few weeks back, i have piles of fans and processors from it, tough someone else beat me to the ram and the motherboards werent that great, and occasionally there can be some awesome stuff to be had, i got a nice working server grade 10/100Mb 24 port switch for free from E waste recently.
just start asking around, otherwise good luck with the build keen to see how it turns out
That's a good tip, I'm often suprised what companies throw away. That switch was a great find! I got the case for this build from my uni's e-waste, but there's not much there, I think I might have been late to the party
sad-smiley-002.gif
there's only another case in there atm.

Got an update coming soon
thumb.gif
 
#17 ·
Ok, I had some time (about 4 hours) to do some more work on it today, got everything rivited together nicely and all the Corners and edges smoothed off to avoid more cuts.
biggrin.gif

Had some Problems doing the plastic bezel though. Here's some Pictures (and commentary):


Marked off the bits to cut. Also getting rid of the bit sectioning off the FDD bay.


I don't own a precision saw or anything like that. The choices were: 4mm Wood saw or 1mm angle grinder. I went with angle grinder, which turned out to be a terrible choice because it just tore/melted it's way through the plastic and made a real mess of the cut.


Here's a Close up of what the angle grinder left behind.


Here you can see the huge gaps left from the cut.
mad.gif



The plan was to use epoxy to glue the front bezel back together again, I've never used epoxy on plastic before so I thought I'd try it out on a couple of off-cuts. Worked just fine, I could even sand it down when it was dry.




Just showing the gaps left in the bezel again.

I decided to epoxy the bezel together in layers because I can't fill that gap with epoxy all in one go.

The first layer, you can barely see the epoxy


The second layer. The thrid layer will go on the back of the join to fill the gap from the other side too.

Some riveting, pretty straight foward, no nasty surprises (yet):

Brackets used to connect the MB tray to the bottom Panel; originally I had planned to put These on the back of the MB tray as shown in the pic. but I couldn't get a pencil into the right Position to mark the holes or a drill in there to drill them. In the end I moved them to the front of the MB tray. It doesn't really matter in the end because there isn't a window.


Shed-loads of rivets on the back-Panel, the top/right-panel was a bit bent out of shape and These rivets helped bring it back in line.

The RAM came today!
wheee.gif


Good idea from the seller to post it in a DVD case.


Linux recognises it! Yay 2GB
thumb.gif

Plus, Linux Mint uses 158MB of RAM!! How light is that?!

This is what it Looks like now:






The next step is to cut the door Panel, this'll be the hardest Panel of them all because no matter which side I cut off I've got to rebuild something. I'll have to do some planning
headscratch.gif


After that I've got to paint it, I wanted to Keep it beige to start with but I haven't got the Budget for a can of beige paint. I do have about 3/4 a can of gloss red and 1/2 a can of matte black left over from my sig rig. What do you think: red or black?

After that I Need to sort out the power button, it'd be a peice of cake if I had a soldering iron but they cost 13€ and that's outside the Budget. I can't find anyone/anywhere that will lend me one either. I'll have to Keep asking around and see if something turns up.I tried a super-gehtto method earlier today: I heated a Piece of scrap metal on the kitchen hob, Holding it with pliers, just as it was getting to temperature my girlfriend came home (about an hour early) and asked me what I was doing with red hot and molten metal on her new and freshly oiled wooden worktop. That put an end to that.
whistle.gif

So, yeah, I'm looking for a soldering iron.

The other Thing is that I went to the local Hardware shop and looked around for cheaper variants of modder's mesh, they had some that looked pretty good, it came in Sheets about twice the size that I Need and cost 4.60€ a sheet. Too expensive. The other Thing I saw there was a mosquito net for Windows that cost 1.50€. I prefer steel to Cloth for the front mesh but if it Comes to it I may use the mosquito net at the front.

Ok, Tell me what you think I should do about the paint, soldering and front mesh. I Need all the help I can get with this one!
biggrin.gif


Thanks for looking
thumb.gif
 
#19 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by REAPER XD View Post

Make the back tray White, everything else black and a clear acrylic side window.
That would look sick! I was thinking about white too, just to have something a bit different. Problem is I don't have any white paint; I've got some clear acrylic but not enough to do a full window (the components don't look all that good anyway!
biggrin.gif
).

What do you think of black inside and red outside?

To mis-quote Mr.Ford: You can have any colour you like as long as it's black (or red).
smile.gif
 
#22 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by BruceB View Post

That would look sick! I've was thinking about white too, just to have something a bit different. Problem is I don't have any white paint; I've got some clear acrylic but not enough to do a full window (the components don't look all that good anyway!
biggrin.gif
).

What do you think of black inside and red outside?
If you keen on making a window cheaply, grab an old scanner, and use the glass panel that you put the paper on, cheapest source of material for windowed panels anywhere, lol, and glass makes it bad ass

I also had great difficulty getting modders mesh type material. i ended up having to buy a 2.4m X 1.2m sheet from some industrial mesh place in mild steel. it was like ZAR 200 (around 14 euros converted) if i remember correctly. i have mesh for the next 50 projects now lol.
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by ThriftyPo View Post

This is actually pretty cool. Pretty amazing what you can build with so little.
Thanks buddy! To be honest I'm a little surprised too!
thumb.gif


Quote:
Originally Posted by REAPER XD View Post

Not exactly too keen on that, maybe you could make the motherboard tray black with red around it? Idk if that would look to good though
Thanks for the feedback, I'm not too keen on black & red for this build either tbh, but I've got to work with what I've got. I've got beige, grey and turqoise emulsion (non-spray) paint, but the finish on that would be rubbish... ...I'll keep my eyes open for paint. I'm going to a car-boot sale at the weekend so maybe I'll find something there.

On the up side: I spoke to the head of my uni's electronics dept. and he gave me a phone number to call about using a soldering iron, I'm not allowed to take it out of the workshop though so I'll have to prepare everything before I ring him. I'll probably make a mini-update out of it.
 
#24 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro Fail View Post

If you keen on making a window cheaply, grab an old scanner, and use the glass panel that you put the paper on, cheapest source of material for windowed panels anywhere, lol, and glass makes it bad ass
Glass would give it that high-quality feel, but this is going to be a LAN box so it's gotta be able to take a bit of a beating
biggrin.gif


Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro Fail View Post

I also had great difficulty getting modders mesh type material. i ended up having to buy a 2.4m X 1.2m sheet from some industrial mesh place in mild steel. it was like ZAR 200 (around 14 euros converted) if i remember correctly. i have mesh for the next 50 projects now lol.
I found some 50cmx25cm mesh sheets for 4.60€ which would have been perfect but my budget is only 4€ so I'm going to keep looking for the moment. If it turns out to be the thing that I really need to finish the project then I'm sure I can go 0.60€ in the red without gettting flamed
tongue.gif
 
#25 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by BruceB View Post

Thanks buddy! To be honest I'm a little surprised too!
thumb.gif

Thanks for the feedback, I'm not too keen on black & red for this build either tbh, but I've got to work with what I've got. I've got beige, grey and turqoise emulsion (non-spray) paint, but the finish on that would be rubbish... ...I'll keep my eyes open for paint. I'm going to a car-boot sale at the weekend so maybe I'll find something there.

On the up side: I spoke to the head of my uni's electronics dept. and he gave me a phone number to call about using a soldering iron, I'm not allowed to take it out of the workshop though so I'll have to prepare everything before I ring him. I'll probably make a mini-update out of it.
Only time will tell! Cant wait to see!
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top