Gh0s7 L3mUr
30-06-2002, 11:01 AM
Well I'm posting this thread as I have a few ideas but am either not 1337 enough to be able to make 'em or will probably not get around to it.
The first idea is by far the hardest to do (if it's possible at all).
It came to me when I was thinking what I could put in my full tower when i get it. The usual ideas came to mind, lcd, reobus etc...
It then came to me how about the two in one. A touch screen which showed whatever you wanted it to - for example cpu speed and temp etc - but you could also bring up a screen with your "fan controls". The ideal solution I could think of was to hack a PDA. Other extensions of this idea followed... You could purely use the "touch screen" to play your mp3s - the benefit would be no drain on your actual system when listening to music, the part I couldn't work out as far as this sub idea goes was how to creat an iterface between the pda and a dedicated IDE HDD (as your not going to want to have to be limited in space).
Other ideas relating to the Touch Screen were, it would be very cool if it could be hidden horizontally in the case (in a FDD slot for example), and have it come out and then down if a botton was pushed.
Other benefits of a touch screen would include the ability to change the look of the screen (as opposed to lcd where you have just one back lit colour and that is it). Using pda Linux you could (with the knowledge and skills) write the the nessecary programs for it to control a range of things from your cold cathodes to fans to play music to anything you can imagine.
Idea two
Using multiple (regular) lcd panels next to each other (sort of like how they connect up lots of screens to make one big visual display), and installing in a case panel in order to have large visuals stream across. Again I have no idea as to how to do this or even if it's possible.
Idea three
Now we start getting a little more acheivable in my ideas. This one was what I came up with while thinking about Phase Change.
The idea because the setup requires so much space, why not weld together two full tower cases. If you used aluminium cases it would be easy to make a new custom front bezel for the new case. You could install you components in the left hand case as you normally would and then install the phase change in the right. You could have windows on both sides with lights etc.
Idea four
This came out of thinking about idea three and what on earth coutld anyone possibly do with so many drive bays. The first thought I had was to install a drawer. It's been done but can still be a useful thing to have. The next thing I came up with was Stealth CD cases.
If you used aluminium cases and bezel. You could custom make one or two CD cases out of aluminium so that the back end of the case was exactly like the empty bay covers. You could put castors in so the case slides in and out easily. Any by using metal you could use those little cabnet magnets with the springs at the abck to hold the case in place while it is in.
The benefit of something like this is you don't have your cases with $1000s worth of CD's sitting on the table during a LAN (makes no difference with the likes of L3 but public LANs with strangers can be a bit different). And when you want to remove the case to get a CD all you have to do is push on it and out it pops.
Out of all the ideas the last one is the one I have the best chance of actually being able to do myself. But as I don't have (nor will be able to afford to buy in the near future) an aluminuim case, I thought I would put it out for others to do, as I think the aluminium case would look the best.
Well flames, comments, laughs?? :D
The first idea is by far the hardest to do (if it's possible at all).
It came to me when I was thinking what I could put in my full tower when i get it. The usual ideas came to mind, lcd, reobus etc...
It then came to me how about the two in one. A touch screen which showed whatever you wanted it to - for example cpu speed and temp etc - but you could also bring up a screen with your "fan controls". The ideal solution I could think of was to hack a PDA. Other extensions of this idea followed... You could purely use the "touch screen" to play your mp3s - the benefit would be no drain on your actual system when listening to music, the part I couldn't work out as far as this sub idea goes was how to creat an iterface between the pda and a dedicated IDE HDD (as your not going to want to have to be limited in space).
Other ideas relating to the Touch Screen were, it would be very cool if it could be hidden horizontally in the case (in a FDD slot for example), and have it come out and then down if a botton was pushed.
Other benefits of a touch screen would include the ability to change the look of the screen (as opposed to lcd where you have just one back lit colour and that is it). Using pda Linux you could (with the knowledge and skills) write the the nessecary programs for it to control a range of things from your cold cathodes to fans to play music to anything you can imagine.
Idea two
Using multiple (regular) lcd panels next to each other (sort of like how they connect up lots of screens to make one big visual display), and installing in a case panel in order to have large visuals stream across. Again I have no idea as to how to do this or even if it's possible.
Idea three
Now we start getting a little more acheivable in my ideas. This one was what I came up with while thinking about Phase Change.
The idea because the setup requires so much space, why not weld together two full tower cases. If you used aluminium cases it would be easy to make a new custom front bezel for the new case. You could install you components in the left hand case as you normally would and then install the phase change in the right. You could have windows on both sides with lights etc.
Idea four
This came out of thinking about idea three and what on earth coutld anyone possibly do with so many drive bays. The first thought I had was to install a drawer. It's been done but can still be a useful thing to have. The next thing I came up with was Stealth CD cases.
If you used aluminium cases and bezel. You could custom make one or two CD cases out of aluminium so that the back end of the case was exactly like the empty bay covers. You could put castors in so the case slides in and out easily. Any by using metal you could use those little cabnet magnets with the springs at the abck to hold the case in place while it is in.
The benefit of something like this is you don't have your cases with $1000s worth of CD's sitting on the table during a LAN (makes no difference with the likes of L3 but public LANs with strangers can be a bit different). And when you want to remove the case to get a CD all you have to do is push on it and out it pops.
Out of all the ideas the last one is the one I have the best chance of actually being able to do myself. But as I don't have (nor will be able to afford to buy in the near future) an aluminuim case, I thought I would put it out for others to do, as I think the aluminium case would look the best.
Well flames, comments, laughs?? :D