Project Lament - Cenobite PC (2005)

    Where to start?  I think it was sometime in 2003 that I held the contest on CaseModGod to see who could create the best 640x480 CMG desktop background image, the winner scored a 6" LCD monitor as the grand prize.  The following picture was one of the contest submissions that did not win and I thought I had in fact forgot about it, but unknowingly it somehow remained in my subconscious.

    I came up with the following rough sketch for a HellRaiser computer and the final design sketch follows it.

    After coming up with the rough draft I sat down and thought about how making a 'monster' PC could best be accomplished, the final design sketch was thrown down quick in pencil...

    Here is a video work log if you care to see the creation of the monster...

    Below shows the result of over a years worth of labor, other than a few minor aesthetic changes it looks just like the original design sketch.   I modified a hand truck to make transporting it easier and I made a HellRaiser box mouse pad and custom background images for both monitors.

    A close up of the mouse pad I made for the mod is shown below, I sacrificed a Screamin' HellRaiser puzzle box model for the cause and glued it onto hand cut acrylic that was shaped and vinyl dyed black beforehand, all things considered it works quite well for mousing.

    The computer mod is detailed to the point of anality, below shows a head shot taken at QuakeCon2005.  The head was hand sculpted and painted with a top window formed by baking flat acrylic in the oven and then etching a brain pattern on the inside, there was a lot of trial and error work involved in making it.  The head has four stripes of Glo-wire wrapped around it, the eyes are keyboard controlled to move left and right with another button that lights up the eyes UV and a Laser-Pod that shoots a tri-pattern laser array up onto the brain etch and out through the top window.

    The next picture shows the chest section, installed are a CDRW/DVD slot loading laptop drive, a 6" TFT LCD monitor that acts as an independant secondary display and the water reservoir with a red LED as the heart of the beast.  The chest section is held in place by four screws and can easily removed in one piece, the upper halves of the arms are speakers that also can be easily removed... this is a fully self contained and entirely upgradeable computer.

    Below shows the belly of the beast, an oven formed acrylic window allows for a full view of the motherboard and components, three different types of red LED lighting gives the guts their varying levels of glow.  The memory for the machine scrolls 'Project Lament' and other system information, water is pumped through the spring covered lengths of blue tubing to water blocks connected to every heat generating part and the power button is hidden inside the HellRaiser puzzle box.

    The back is every bit as detailed as the front and has a recessed handle installed between the shoulders to make lifting and moving it easier.  There are two red LED rocker switches installed on either side of the handle that control the lighting in the abdomen, in and around the head and the spikes that run up the back of the arms.  The radiator for the water cooling is mounted into the left shoulder blade and the power supply is mounted in the right, there is also a ventilated pump access area in the small of the back near the base (not shown).

    The next picture shows the lasers shooting out of the head, the laser patterns swirl and move as they shine onto the ceiling above.  Check out the complete nine page project work log to see the build from start to finish..

    And finally a front page shot of the head...

Hardware:

CHAINTECH "7NIF2" nForce2 IGP Motherboard

AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 400FSB Processor

Corsair 1GB PC3200 DDR XMS Expert Memory

Asus GeForce 6200 128MB DDR Video Card

Western Digital SE 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive

COOLMAX 400W CX-400B Taurus CX Power Supply

LCD 6" TFT-LCD VIDEO MODULE with Brackets

Slim Line Slot Load CDRW/DVD Combo Drive

Water Cooling:

Eheim 1048 Pump

Asetek Pump Control Unit

Fass-o-Matic Tank (Black)

Fass-o-Matic blue LED kit

Innovatek innovaRadi-D

Innovatek CPU block

Innovatek GPU block

Innovatek HDD cooler

Innovatek northbridge chipset block

Innovatek anti kink springs

Danger Den fill port

In-line flow meter