Readers Drives - Moto PC 2007

Posted at: Wednesday 31st October 2007

Motorcycles and PCs aren't exactly similar, but this didn't stop Paul Edwards creating a stunning PC based on Yamaha's 50th anniversary YZR-M1 Moto GP.

Unlike a real bike, the PC doesn't require petrol to run, although it does need coolant, since the hardware is water-cooled. In keeping with the bike theme, I wanted to mount the Danger Den coolant fill port in the Yamaha petrol filler cap that I'd bought from eBay and make this a feature of the PC.

To achieve this, I drilled out the filler cap's locking mechanism to form a 1in hole and, using a two-part glue and body filler, fitted the fill port into the filler cap, so that it kept its appearance. This worked brilliantly and allows me to 'fill up' the PC with non-conductive Feser One fluid (which included a special, colour-matched, yellow non-conductive dye, mixed specially by the company), as if I were pumping in petrol!

The chassis was then completely stripped down, and the insides primed and painted black, with various white and yellow highlights to complement the exterior and help to show off the hardware. This was followed by clear coat to protect the finish, after which the case was carefully riveted back together ready for fitting the hardware. The exterior of the case was finished off with a thick, clear coat of lacquer followed by a machine polish and a final wax polish.

As the PC needed to run 24/7, I decided to use a workstation-class motherboard in the shape of a Tyan Tiger K8WE S2877ANRF, to which I added a couple of dual-core Socket 940 Opteron 265s. These CPUs have more than enough power to run the applications I would be using.

Installing the hardware and water-cooling components was pretty straightforward, and I opted for the minimalist look and kept the hoses as short and neat as possible. This worked well, considering that the system is a four-block loop.

To keep the hose routeing to a minimum, I wanted a radiator with an inlet and outlet at either end of it. HWLabs came up with the goods by fabricating an X-Flow GTX 240 radiator for me, which I fitted to the base of the Stacker case using a Danger Den shroud. To top it off, I dismantled and painted a couple of 120mm Yate Loon fans in matching colours, to which I added Yamaha tuning-fork logos.

My initial goal was to capture the Yamaha motorcycle theme and somehow replicate it with a computer case. This was no easy task, but overall, I think it worked well, and if I'm honest, it turned out better than I expected.

However, there's no rest for the wicked, as the saying goes, and Cooler Master has supplied me with its latest Cosmos case for another project. It's back to the drawing board!

Specifications

Motherboard: Tyan Tiger K8WE S2877ANRF
CPUs: 2 x Socket 940 AMD Opteron 265
Memory: 4 x 512MB OCZ 3200 EL DDR ECC Reg/dual-channel
Graphics: Gainward GeForce 8800 GTX Ultra Golden Sample
PSU: Antec True Power Quattro 850
Hard disk(s): 2 x 74GB WD Raptors
Cooling: 2 x Danger Den TDX A64 blocks, Danger Den NV8800 GTX block, Danger Den Aqua Drive block, Laing DDC 10W pump, Alphacool Dual Plexi reservoir, HWLabs Custom Made GTX X-Flow radiator, 2 x Yate Loon D12SL-12 fans, Tygon tubing, Feser One Liquid