Bottle PC

Something little that one can do with the empty glass bottles.Intro

I already had a powerful computer setup so I wanted something more quiet, small and low power consumptioning to function as a basic home server. I love to tinker with hardware etc. so I wanted to make something quite unique for a case. I have seen many nice and creative cases before but none of them were made out of a bottle. In November I bought an industrial 3.5" SBC board (with Socket370). For the project I selected a 1.5 litre Ballantine's bottle for case. That was the proper size and shape for the task at hand.

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/01_The_victim.jpg
Ballantine's

Prepping the bottle

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/03_After_cutting1.jpg
Cut

I tried to cut and drill couple of similar bottles at home but I realized that my tools are not good enough for it, then finaly a professional glass grinder man prepared the bottle for me. He made two holes: one at the back of the bottle for CPU cooling and one at left side for put in the stuffing.

Hardware

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/02_The_stuffing.jpg
Hardware

I bought an Intel P3 733EB processor, a 256MB notebook RAM, a 40GB notebook HDD and finaly a 60W mini-ITX PSU. The RAM module is placed at the back side of the mobo. A compact flash card slot also situated there, so I could use it instead of IDE HDD.



http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/05_Sidepanel_prep.jpg
Side panel

In the next step I made a new plexi side panel and I fixed the mobo for it together with the power connector and the power switch. The small piece of plexi at the left functions as a "lock". It can be fixed by two small screws and it then holds the side panel in place.



http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/06_Power_prep.jpg
PSU

I made new cabling for power switch, HDD LED and 12V power connector.



http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/08_OS_install2.jpg
Installing the OS

During the OS installation I used a normal IDE cable to connect the HDD and CD-ROM. For normal use I connected the HDD with 44 pin mini-IDE cable so no separate power cable is needed. I put this all together in the office, because my son was born in December and I do not have free time at home anymore. At least during the day time so most of the mod was done at night...

Fitting it all inside

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/11_Final_assembly3.jpg

Almost thereHDD and PSU already installed inside the bottle. Now comes the tricky part on how to get the rest of the hardware components to fit.

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/12_Finished1.jpg
Installation completed

The HDD and PSU panel were fixed in position with a double-sided self-adhesive tape. First I wanted to fix them with screws to be able to replace them easily, but I could not do it because of the very limited space inside and small „service window”.
Powered ON

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/14_Working1.jpg

Up and running

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/15_Working2.jpg

Posing

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/16_Working3.jpg
Posing

You may notice that the bottle cap is sitting on the table top on all these images. More about this on the next page.

Better cooling

At this point the cooling was not good enough yet. After half an hour the bottle was a bit warm so I disassembled it and glued an old VGA card cooler into the bottle neck to help the air flow out. Furthermore I drilled 6 additional holes at the side panel so now the fresh air can flow into the bottle at the big hole on the back side and through these small holes. I drilled out the bottle cap as well so at the first watch it seems the bottle is original, untouched. These little tweaks improved the cooling and the temperature came down.

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/18_Improved_cooling1.jpg

Fan installed to bottle neck

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/19_Improved_cooling2.jpg
Additional cooling holes on the side panel

In use

http://metku.net/mods/whiskypc/20_At-final_place.jpg
Serving

Since that time my Bottle PC is still working well and quietly in the corner of my living room. Perhaps I should start planning on making a cluster of these... Combine the fun of emptying the Bottle with some good company and building a high calculation power cluster. :41: