computer & i.t. projects
Retrofitting a PC tower from the late-90s so that it stays true to its claim of being NEVER OBSOLETE.
I had enough spare PC components that I thought it would be fun to put together what is known as a sleeper build. Essentially, a computer that looks like it should be running Windows Millennium (or older which in this case, no pun intended, was running Windows 98) on the outside, but could easily run modern software. The CPU was a spare Intel i5-6600k and the GPU was a scavenged AMD R9 290x.
The photos below show a before and after from left to right (except for the last two photos, those are just pictures of the final build). The big changes I had to make to the case were the addition of new fan holes to increase the airflow since the biggest difference between PCs from the 90s and modern PCs is power draw and the resulting heat generated.
One notable thing I had to do for this project was paint-matching. The tower was missing a module that would've fit in right above the floppy disk drive, so I decided to grab a front-panel I/O hub to fill it. But, in order to match the aesthetic, I had to re-paint it. What I discovered is that my local paint shop does not offer custom paints in less than one gallon increments. Long story short, if anyone is looking for paint that is of a grey/off-white color, that happens to match retro PC towers quite nicely, let me know, I have about 3.99 quarts.
I had enough spare PC components that I thought it would be fun to put together what is known as a sleeper build. Essentially, a computer that looks like it should be running Windows Millennium (or older which in this case, no pun intended, was running Windows 98) on the outside, but could easily run modern software. The CPU was a spare Intel i5-6600k and the GPU was a scavenged AMD R9 290x.
The photos below show a before and after from left to right (except for the last two photos, those are just pictures of the final build). The big changes I had to make to the case were the addition of new fan holes to increase the airflow since the biggest difference between PCs from the 90s and modern PCs is power draw and the resulting heat generated.
One notable thing I had to do for this project was paint-matching. The tower was missing a module that would've fit in right above the floppy disk drive, so I decided to grab a front-panel I/O hub to fill it. But, in order to match the aesthetic, I had to re-paint it. What I discovered is that my local paint shop does not offer custom paints in less than one gallon increments. Long story short, if anyone is looking for paint that is of a grey/off-white color, that happens to match retro PC towers quite nicely, let me know, I have about 3.99 quarts.
Hopefully you've already taken a gander at my previous project because this one is a follow up to my 90s PC Tower Retrofit project.
Obligatory TL;DR
I upgrade to an i7-12700k and an RTX 3080ti. Case couldn't handle the heat, so I poked a bunch of new holes and voila. Photos at the bottom, enjoy!
In my previous project, I decided to convert an old PC tower to fit modern parts; I happened to have spare components so that's what I installed. But, recently I've been itching to upgrade my daily-driver PC, and I felt bad because I put a good amount of work into the sleeper build but never ended up really using it; it was more of a display piece.
So this time around, I decided to go all-the-way; I was determined to stuff top-of-the-line parts into the retro case: I got my hands on an Intel i7-12700k as well as an Nvidia RTX 3080ti. Well, this truly ended up being much more of an endeavor than I had initially signed up for.
These components generated so much more heat than the previous build that I had to make some pretty significant changes, again. I cut out a portion of the front panel bays to make room for a micro-ATX motherboard. I ended up adding a second bottom intake fan to feed the GPU fresh air. I re-positioned the front and the rear fans to sit on the outside to make more room inside the case. I added perforations to the top of the case (as shown in the sixth picture) to allow more passive air flow. Then, I discovered that the air within the case would saturate with heat using a standard air-cooled heat-sink; so, to avoid that, I needed a compact solution that could exhaust the heat generated by the CPU directly to the exterior of the case: I had to buy a dedicated single fan AIO water cooler (I had no idea these even existed). But, where was I supposed to mount the radiator for my fancy new CPU cooler?
It was then that I decided to abandon my hopes of maintaining the sleeper build look: I had to cut a giant rectangular hole in the side of my case to make it work. Even with having done that, the case was still struggling to vent out all the heat now coming from the GPU. Since I had already made my choice to mutilate the side panel of my case, I elected to keep going, this time, with a wild idea that I didn't even have much confidence in.
I had observed that most of the heat buildup was focused on the side panel, specifically at a section that lined up with the GPU's heat-sink. My hypothesis was that my case was too narrow for my setup; even with all the air going into my case, there wasn't ample room for the heat coming off my GPU's heat-sink to circulate and eventually vent out of the various holes and exhaust fans before building up next to my GPU, quickly causing it to overheat. Perhaps taking a similar approach to my CPU and pulling the heat directly off my GPU and immediately spitting it out of my case was the answer; but, I didn't have any space for a custom water loop, so I had to get creative.
Thankfully I didn't have to look far; although uncommon for enthusiast PC builds, 40mm fans are quite popular with rack-mounted servers; these servers need to stay relatively thin while maintaining optimal temperatures, and these fans were perfect for my needs: the thickness of my GPU was just about 40mm. I started by cutting three new holes into the side panel, aligned with the GPU. I then mounted the 40mm fans, and, to my surprise, it worked! But, I ran into one last hurdle.
Even with all this effective new cooling in place, after extended usage at full power, my PC would still overheat. The final step I had to take to rein in the heat was to tweak my CPU and GPU power settings. This is where I actually got really lucky; I had won what is colloquially called the silicon lottery for both my CPU and GPU. This meant that both components exceeded the specs listed on paper and could actually perform the same using less power and therefore generate less heat. Reducing the power draw in this way is known as under-volting.
The end result was, as a couple of my friends have taken to calling it, a Frankenstein (or if we're being pedantic a Frankenstein's Monster); but, its my Frankenstein's Monster... or does that just make it simply my monster? That doesn't really have the same ring to it if I'm being honest. With that said, I'm really happy with the build; there are definitely some steps I can take to make it looks like a sleeper build again, but its got its own charm this way. Plus, it's now my daily driver!
Obligatory TL;DR
I upgrade to an i7-12700k and an RTX 3080ti. Case couldn't handle the heat, so I poked a bunch of new holes and voila. Photos at the bottom, enjoy!
In my previous project, I decided to convert an old PC tower to fit modern parts; I happened to have spare components so that's what I installed. But, recently I've been itching to upgrade my daily-driver PC, and I felt bad because I put a good amount of work into the sleeper build but never ended up really using it; it was more of a display piece.
So this time around, I decided to go all-the-way; I was determined to stuff top-of-the-line parts into the retro case: I got my hands on an Intel i7-12700k as well as an Nvidia RTX 3080ti. Well, this truly ended up being much more of an endeavor than I had initially signed up for.
These components generated so much more heat than the previous build that I had to make some pretty significant changes, again. I cut out a portion of the front panel bays to make room for a micro-ATX motherboard. I ended up adding a second bottom intake fan to feed the GPU fresh air. I re-positioned the front and the rear fans to sit on the outside to make more room inside the case. I added perforations to the top of the case (as shown in the sixth picture) to allow more passive air flow. Then, I discovered that the air within the case would saturate with heat using a standard air-cooled heat-sink; so, to avoid that, I needed a compact solution that could exhaust the heat generated by the CPU directly to the exterior of the case: I had to buy a dedicated single fan AIO water cooler (I had no idea these even existed). But, where was I supposed to mount the radiator for my fancy new CPU cooler?
It was then that I decided to abandon my hopes of maintaining the sleeper build look: I had to cut a giant rectangular hole in the side of my case to make it work. Even with having done that, the case was still struggling to vent out all the heat now coming from the GPU. Since I had already made my choice to mutilate the side panel of my case, I elected to keep going, this time, with a wild idea that I didn't even have much confidence in.
I had observed that most of the heat buildup was focused on the side panel, specifically at a section that lined up with the GPU's heat-sink. My hypothesis was that my case was too narrow for my setup; even with all the air going into my case, there wasn't ample room for the heat coming off my GPU's heat-sink to circulate and eventually vent out of the various holes and exhaust fans before building up next to my GPU, quickly causing it to overheat. Perhaps taking a similar approach to my CPU and pulling the heat directly off my GPU and immediately spitting it out of my case was the answer; but, I didn't have any space for a custom water loop, so I had to get creative.
Thankfully I didn't have to look far; although uncommon for enthusiast PC builds, 40mm fans are quite popular with rack-mounted servers; these servers need to stay relatively thin while maintaining optimal temperatures, and these fans were perfect for my needs: the thickness of my GPU was just about 40mm. I started by cutting three new holes into the side panel, aligned with the GPU. I then mounted the 40mm fans, and, to my surprise, it worked! But, I ran into one last hurdle.
Even with all this effective new cooling in place, after extended usage at full power, my PC would still overheat. The final step I had to take to rein in the heat was to tweak my CPU and GPU power settings. This is where I actually got really lucky; I had won what is colloquially called the silicon lottery for both my CPU and GPU. This meant that both components exceeded the specs listed on paper and could actually perform the same using less power and therefore generate less heat. Reducing the power draw in this way is known as under-volting.
The end result was, as a couple of my friends have taken to calling it, a Frankenstein (or if we're being pedantic a Frankenstein's Monster); but, its my Frankenstein's Monster... or does that just make it simply my monster? That doesn't really have the same ring to it if I'm being honest. With that said, I'm really happy with the build; there are definitely some steps I can take to make it looks like a sleeper build again, but its got its own charm this way. Plus, it's now my daily driver!
In an effort to take back control over my own data, I grabbed myself a NAS and decided to break my dependencies on certain popular cloud services. Below you'll find an ever growing list of tasks and services that I've chosen to self-host.
photos
Like most smartphone owners, I used to rely on the default photo backup services offered by my device. In this case, it was Google Photos since I use an Android device. I had finally reached a point where Google offered me the choice between deleting photos from my cloud storage or subscribing to a paid tier of Google cloud storage. Instead, I opted to migrate all my photos to my NAS. Thankfully the NAS that I use is from Synology which offers a built-in photo cloud storage solution. The added incentive here was that I could finally also backup all the photos I'd shot on my DSLR to a cloud service. In the past I would just back them up to a portable hard drive since I didn't have enough spare storage from Google to store both photos/videos taken on my phone and photos I had taken on my DSLR, but now I can backup everything.
There was one road bump, after years of uploading, downloading, and transferring photos across devices and servers a bunch of my photos did not maintain their timestamps. To solve this issue I had to manually look through every photo I had, and, relying on a third-party tool, I was able to batch write EXIF data to the photos to provide each photo with an approximate timestamp.
The transition was pretty smooth afterwards, Synology's photo server tool has a client app for mobile devices and supports automatic backups. Now I finally have a truly unified photo/video storage solution!
There was one road bump, after years of uploading, downloading, and transferring photos across devices and servers a bunch of my photos did not maintain their timestamps. To solve this issue I had to manually look through every photo I had, and, relying on a third-party tool, I was able to batch write EXIF data to the photos to provide each photo with an approximate timestamp.
The transition was pretty smooth afterwards, Synology's photo server tool has a client app for mobile devices and supports automatic backups. Now I finally have a truly unified photo/video storage solution!
email archive
Originally my plan was to self-host an entire email server from which I could migrate all my accounts to, but, after doing some research, I discovered there's a lot of hurdles involved with self-hosting an email server. The challenges can range from poor spam detection to having to gain recognition from other large email hosting companies; in this case, any emails sent from my server could go straight into the recipients spam since it's not coming from a recognized source.
So, I shifted my goal, I instead settled for hosting an email server that served to backup all emails I received. This was a much easier objective but still not without its difficulties. Simply put, I wanted my server to download any and all emails received by my various personal and professional accounts. The protocol I had to use is called POP3 fetch. The problem I ran into was that Google was not very happy with an unknown service attempting to download emails from its server, the solution ended up coming down to taking two more steps. I had to register my email server with Google's postmaster tools and add an app password for each of my Google accounts which is done through the Google account settings.
Now, every email I receive is backed up to a server that I, and only I, have full control and access to.
So, I shifted my goal, I instead settled for hosting an email server that served to backup all emails I received. This was a much easier objective but still not without its difficulties. Simply put, I wanted my server to download any and all emails received by my various personal and professional accounts. The protocol I had to use is called POP3 fetch. The problem I ran into was that Google was not very happy with an unknown service attempting to download emails from its server, the solution ended up coming down to taking two more steps. I had to register my email server with Google's postmaster tools and add an app password for each of my Google accounts which is done through the Google account settings.
Now, every email I receive is backed up to a server that I, and only I, have full control and access to.
Drive
In a similar vein to my pursuit of a self-hosted cloud photo storage service, I also wanted to be able to host my own file storage solution. I ran into the same storage limit when using Google Drive so I had to be picky about what I left in the cloud and what I would delete. I couldn't truly use Google Drive as a way to easily sync files between my devices. Thankfully, yet again, Synology offers their own version of Google Drive. It was a pretty seamless transition too, now I can easily transfer files between my devices or even keep them synced up to the most up-to-date version in the case of documents and notes without relying on a third-party server.
adblock
I was starting to get tired of being able to block ads while browsing on my desktop but still seeing ads whenever I switched to my phone or tablet. To solve this problem, I decided to run PiHole on my NAS and redirected all of my internet traffic through it. The challenge here was that I had to educate myself about running applications within containers. Since there isn't built-in support for PiHole on a Synology NAS, I had to run PiHole in a container which took some time to figure out, but a kind fellow self-host geek on Reddit was able to give me some pointers on how to properly configure my container.
streaming service
If you've ever wanted to digitize or store all your legally obtained/produced movies and videos, this is a fun one to do! There's a few options out there, but I settled for one called Jellyfin. It provides a simple, straightforward web and app UI for streaming videos to any devices. All I had to do was upload all my media to my NAS and then install and run Jellyfin in a container. Once running, I was able to make an account and start streaming! Jellyfin even provides accounts and permissions control so it can be shared with multiple users.
search engine
Well not quite, what I actually ended up doing was self-hosting an instance of the open-source project SearXNG. It's not actually a standalone search engine; it's what's known as a metasearch engine. Instead of crawling the web to produce results, it aggregates results from other search engines such as Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, etc. It's a good way to add a layer of anonymity to web browsing since it obfuscates the end user from the search engines. It also removes search engine ads from the results which is a big plus. It offers a good amount of customization so I can dial it in just right for my needs.
This was definitely not the easiest setup. I had to do a good amount of digging to find the right guide on setting up a SearXNG container that would run on my NAS properly. And, in order to customize its looks, I had to learn more about navigating containerized processes so that I could tweak certain application files.
This was definitely not the easiest setup. I had to do a good amount of digging to find the right guide on setting up a SearXNG container that would run on my NAS properly. And, in order to customize its looks, I had to learn more about navigating containerized processes so that I could tweak certain application files.
Complete pc backup
In lieu of setting up a self-hosted file drive system, I decided that I might as well schedule regular full PC backups. Again, Synology offers a service to do just that! Now my computer backs up to my cloud server on a regular cadence and I don't have to worry about losing data from any unexpected system failures *ahem* crowdstrike *ahem*.