I was busy this afternoon updating my LAN gaming machines (Windows Updates, Norton updates, Adrenalin 24.12.1 updates and things of this nature) and while waiting in-between updates, I started assembling what I think will become a new build in early 2025 - my Plant Rack Mod, or a better name might be 'Green-With-Envy'. I do like catchy names for my custom builds you see.
So, what am I talking about? Well, a few months ago I bought my wife a new plant rack for her orchid growing hobby, this time using LED illumination as opposed to the old florescent tube lighting. I bought the new rack from Amazon, and you can see how that went together here. Anyway, I just cannot throw anything out it seems. I had an idea that I could use the old plant rack pieces (minus the florescent tube lights, which I took to the dumpster) to make a smaller assembly that would hold an open-case computer. As for the new computer build, I have only a CPU (AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D), a few 1 TB M.2 drives and an open frame test-bench case. I will need to procure all the other parts, meaning PSU, RAM, motherboard, fans, and LED lighting too.
But as for now, I am only checking out what I can do with the old plant rack to make it into a sort of case configuration. These early pictures show you my idea, but it could easily change in the coming weeks. I might want to cut it down in height. I will need to figure out how to mount some shelves, perhaps plywood or something else I might have lying around my storage room.
Tell me what you think of this idea and what comes to your mind as I proceed into January 2025 with this build. It could easily take a few months, so it's kind of a back-burner mod. I don't need another computer, that's for sure. But I just can't help myself when the creative juices start flowing.
Ok, all my parts that were in transit arrived on my birthday (27 Jan), so I was pretty excited about that. Today, on the 28th of January, I was able to spend the afternoon building up the brackets to hold the AIO radiator and that went very well. I'm getting pretty good at bending metal and then drilling holes with a countersink to attach the bars to the radiators (similar thing with my Wine-Cool build last year). I managed to carry the open-case build up stairs to our music room and place it onto the lower shelf of 'Green-with-Envy'; my mounting screws still lined up and it was secure.
I connected the DP monitor cable and the PSU cable. I pressed the remote power button....and nothing. Ok, I figured right away it was the PSU switch that was turned off. I flipped that switch and hit my power button again....and yes! We had a successful boot into the BIOS. That's such a good feeling, you know? Anyway, I got Windows 11 Home edition loaded, using an old Windows USB install drive and a Windows key that I purchased online for about $31 USD. So far everything is running well and I still have lots of software to install and / or tweak. I did a bit of gaming via Steam and that went well.
Down the road a bit, I will finish the shelves with some type of varnish / stain to protect them from water damage. For now, I have plastic on the shelves and there are several plants there that will enjoy the 12-hour LED grow lights.
Today my 23" x 23" plastic shelf liners arrived. I received a four pack but I only needed two since there are only two shelves that hold the plants. They fit perfectly, and I didn't need to trim them at all. This is better than the plastic bags I had on there to protect the wood until I can finish the shelves once the weather warms up. Green with Envy is running well.
I added a sign to the top shelf so everyone would know what I called this mod. I also have the name being displayed on the Lian Li AIO display, but it's hard to see it down there. That's one reason I moved the radiator forward so that you could see the AIO display. It's the thought that counts, right?
