PC Build

[OGShaman]

I've been seeing a lot of nice looking PC grows around here lately, and I thought to myself why the hell not join them? This looks like a fun little side project

I've been a software developer for about 15 years now, and I've built many PCs over the years, so I have quite a few old towers laying around. May as well put one to good use right?

Before anyone asks ....

Q: How much do honestly expect to yield in this PC case?

A: Not a single gram! If I don't completely screw this up, and manage to yield anything at all, I will be pleasantly surprised. I have never tried to grow in anything this small. I have other grows that fully support my needs. This is just a fun run.


So I just hollowed out this bad boy. I have read a lot of these threads, and I have a rough idea of how to proceed, but I thought I would show you guys what I am working with and see if you have any suggestions.


It's a full tower. Internal (usable space) dimensions are roughly L: 20.5" x W: 8.25" x H: 22"

Roughly about 1.2 square feet

I know LED is the pretty popular way to go in micro growing right now, but I'm thinking about going PL-L because I have the drivers already. I'm trying to figure out if I can fit 55w bulbs in here. I'm about to pull up some spec sheets on them right now. I'm not opposed to going LED, but PL-L is tempting me because like I said I have Fulham workhorse 7 and 8 drivers sitting here collecting dust at the moment.

Thanks for looking guys. I'll try to keep this thread moving forward.

 

[OGShaman]

Making progress on faking the back panel. I butchered an old mobo. That was actually kind of fun

 

[OGShaman]

This is a 12v adapter that plugs directly into a small fan speed controller and this setup will power and speed control two PC fans.

It saves you from having to cut off the plug on the adapter anyway.

 

[OGShaman]

Completely forgot to mention strains. I have a few beans lying around that I could potentially use for this grow.

Wappa from Paradise
Motivation from Serious
Lavender from Soma
Sensi Star from Paradise
Skunk x Haze from Mr. Nice
Northern Lights #5 x Afghani from Mr. Nice
Afghan Skunk x Afghan Haze from Mr. Nice
Shark Shock from Mr. Nice
MK Ultra from TH Seeds
Original Cheese from Paradise

Anyway, that's as far as I am going to get on day 1. More updates coming this week.

Thanks for looking in

 

[OGShaman]

I made a thing. Though I have no idea how effective it will be. For my larger grows I would never trust a homemade carbon filter, but I am hoping this will work for this PC case.

Only one way to find out. If it doesn't end up working I'll have to think of something else.

I bought this vent cover at a mom & pop hardware store like 2 years ago and it's been laying basement ever since.

 

[Xzibitil]

Hi man, i really liked the carbon filter! looks like a nice job! ill try maybe to do so for my next grow, i have now carbon filter, didnt try it out yet, soon to try.

about the yield, will see after i finish my first grow .

about lights, i prefer leds over cfl's coz of the heat, i tried 50W cfl, and the heat is too
much, the leds doesnt get the box to high temps.

dont know about PL-L, could be good, you need to try and see how it goes in terms of temps.

you can take ideas from my post if you like, i really designed my box to use every inch of space for the plant.

good lock bro will follow you up!


PC Grow Box - 150W LED - Sensi Skunk

 

[OGShaman]

Hey Xzibitil,

Thanks for stopping by. Your PC was definitely one of the PCs I saw that inspired me to try this. Thanks for the kind words, and advice.

Still not sure what I am going to do about lighting yet. I am going to crunch some numbers, and see what I come up with. I have seen some nice PC grows that used PL-L in the past, but I wouldn't mind going LED either.

Today I am hoping to find something like this coupling in a 120mm size to attach the carbon filter to the PC. Then the fan will line right up with the filter. I'm also going to pick up some Reflectix, and start working on the case.

Good times

 

[exploziv]

Looks like a great start, man! I'll follow.

 

[ReikoX]

Hell yeah I love me a good PC grow! I would try to get the PL-L in there if you have the room. If that doesn't pan out, do some COBs. I'm in the same position as you, it's just for fun. But it really is fun.

 

[OGShaman]

Hey guys. Thanks for stopping by

I made some progress on the scrubber this evening. I'm pretty amazed I found one that fits both a PC fan and my scrubber perfectly.

I also got lucky because the store had a $99 Dremel 4000 mislabeled as $69, and the manager let me have it at that price. Score!

Just doing a test fit here. Please excuse my messy work area. I really need to start taking better pictures

 

[OGShaman]

My new Dremel chopped the motherboard tray right off of the back panel with ease.

I also cut the back panel off of a power supply. I'm thinking about running all of my power through this power supply. I left all the wiring intact in case I decide to go that way.

Here is the back panel installed with fake motherboard ports, the power supply, and a couple of operational fan speed controllers.

 

[OGShaman]

I"ve been delayed for days because I ordered PL-L bulbs and socket holders from 1000Bulbs 4 or 5 days ago, and they have not even shipped yet. I am going to call in the morning and find out what the problem is

 

[psyphish]

DIY LEDs might've been the best lighting solution for the small space. Very cool project.

 

[StrangeVisitor]

OGShaman, an amazing project you’ve got there!
Very good looking – you must be hands on handcrafting )) . You have a wonderful pc case to work with – I wish I had one like that.

A few questions if you don’t mind.
Where are you going to put the pll drivers? Are they generating a lot of heat?
Is you scrubber going to sit outside the back panel of the “pc”? How thick is the layer of charcoal and what fan are you going to use to push air through it?
Did you use thermo glue to fake the back panel – the solution is not quite visible in the pic.

Subbed, very interested to see how this project will develop.
Vibes++

 

[OGShaman]

DIY LEDs might've been the best lighting solution for the small space. Very cool project.

I'm sure you're probably right, but like I said I had this fairly expensive driver laying here so I am going to give it a shot, and see what happens. The bulbs and socket connectors are only around $3.50 a piece so it's not a terribly expensive experiment.

I've seen 3 PC grows using these same bulbs here at ICMag and they all did well so I am crossing my fingers

OGShaman, an amazing project you’ve got there!
Very good looking – you must be hands on handcrafting )) . You have a wonderful pc case to work with – I wish I had one like that.

A few questions if you don’t mind.
Where are you going to put the pll drivers? Are they generating a lot of heat?

Is you scrubber going to sit outside the back panel of the “pc”? How thick is the layer of charcoal and what fan are you going to use to push air through it?
Did you use thermo glue to fake the back panel – the solution is not quite visible in the pic.

Subbed, very interested to see how this project will develop.
Vibes++

1. I am going to attach the driver underneath case outside of the grow area. It's just one driver to push all 3 lamps. Assuming that I can fit all 3 lamps in the case, and manage temperatures.

2. Yeah I am going put the scrubber on the back and push air out of it because it's fairly big. It holds about 2 pounds of carbon. Having this thing on the back kind of defeats the purpose of even faking the back panel in the first place because it obviously doesn't belong there. I didn't plan ahead very well when it came to the scrubber. It was just something I built out of things I had laying around the house. Honestly though nobody is ever going to see this PC case anyway, much less the back of it. It's going to sit in my basement where nobody else ever goes.

Also, I have no idea how effective this scrubber will even be. This entire project is just one big experiment just for the fun of micro growing.

3. The only glue that was used was on this panel of ports. I took an old motherboard and removed these ports from the board via soldering iron, and then I super glued them on to the original cover plate.

This back panel I removed from the motherboard tray via Dremel, and then I just attached it back to the case using it's original screws. No glue involved, although it will be sealed up somehow to prevent smell leakage. Probably with silicon. I haven't gotten that far yet because I am waiting to see how my lights fit before I start sealing things up.

You can see the screws in this pic ..

Thanks for the nice comments guys. More updates this week hopefully.

 

[ReikoX]

Stuff on the back is fine. I've only ever got one question about it; where is the keyboard? I opened up my laptop, opened an ssh she'll and said, it's a server.

 

[HuffnPufferfish]

or just if any other excuse if needed to run a pc without anything on it; https://folding.stanford.edu/

 

[OGShaman]

6 days since my last update, and I just wanted let you guys know that I have finally received my light bulbs. I guess my bulbs were back ordered, and it took forever to get them.

I'm back to working on the build tonight. Hopefully I'll have some more pictures up in the next day or so

 

[OGShaman]

My insatiable need for food and shelter has been delaying this project left and right. I got called out of town due to work so I haven't made much progress on this lately. It's a good thing this is just a side project.

I did finally wire up the lights to test them out. I ordered 3 bulbs, and 3 sockets. After waiting about 2 weeks for them to arrive, only 2 of the bulbs and 2 of the sockets worked. The other set was dead on arrival. I heard the telltale jingle of a broken filament the second I took it out of the box. The third socket didn't work even when tested with a good bulb. Figures.

Anyway, here's 2 55W bulbs fired up. A 3000k on the left, and a 6500K on the right running next to the dead bulb. After running them for an hour, I can hold my hand half an inch from the bulb and feel very little warmth. They are painfully bright though. The pic doesn't really do them justice.

I'm thinking my case would probably be fine running just 2 of these 55w bulbs. We shall see.

 

[OGShaman]

Lights are mounted. Time to start sealing up the case.

Pictured here with a dead bulb and socket that I need to get replacements for. I also need to change out some of this hardware. The bolts I have in now are a bit too long, but I used them anyway to test fit the lights.