The "Bootiful" mod

Initial System Testing

The hard drive box was marked out and drilled to accept the drive retaining screws (which would also retain the box). A slot was also milled out to pass the IDE cable through.



The IDE cable was fed through the slot and the hard drive mounted in place.



The two boxes were assembled together and test fitted into a size 5 football.



After verifying that the system would fit, it was removed for testing. The operating system was installed at this point and started to test how the system would stand up to the heat. Since the PC was to be installed inside the football, ventilation would be very limited.

The system was completely covered in insulating sponge and 3DMark 2001 was run for several hours to heat the CPU. In free air the CPU temperature had varied between 30 – 40°C. When insulated, the CPU temperature rose to over 70°C! Given that this PC was to be run continuously on display, I wanted to improve the cooling to ensure its stable running.