Ingraham by Jeffrey Stephenson

Project: Ingraham at CES

Ingraham was officially unveiled January 3rd at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. VIA used Ingraham as part of its Nano CPU technology display and promotion.

The most common question I get about Ingraham’s design is why I didn’t stealth the front panel ports. It was never my intention to hide the fact that Ingraham is a computer. Allowing people to guess that Ingraham is a computer by looking at the obvious clues is much more rewarding than trying to fool people into guessing what it is.

Attendees at CES confirmed my theory by being genuinely proud of knowing that it was a computer instead of having to ask, “What is it?” It was a win. Ingraham was a gift to my wife who is currently using it to decorate the top of a bookcase. Oh well.

Thanks

Finally I also want to take a moment to express my appreciation for the support and equipment supplied for this project that was donated:

• Via technology -VB8001 1.6GHz mini-ITX mainboard
  
• Silverstone Technology -LC02 LaScala mini-ITX case
  
• Crucial Technologies -64GB 2.5in SSD and 4GB DDR2 667 memory
  
• Mini-ITX.com -Adapter cable for USB front ports

As a side note I also created some speakers for Project: Ingraham with some leftover materials. The speakers themselves started out life as Harmon Kardon units that came along with almost every Dell sold during 2000 and 2004 but I built the enclosures out of 3/32in five-ply birch plywood. Most of the body is veneered in walnut except for a 3in strip of mahogany down the front. I added a steel mesh screen from a Walmart trash can I have been chopping up for mesh for years.


The three black strips are part of my initial design idea. New in this project is something I've wanted to do for some time. The gold-coloured lines are actually thin strips of brass inlay between the two different woods. The back panels are raw birch plywood finished with satin brush-on lacquer. The bass ports double as I/O port openings. Lazy? Maybe but I could not bring myself to drilling a tiny little hole for a cable when I got a huge one right there.


The back panels are hand milled to a tight friction fit. Overlap from the walnut veneer keeps everything tight. You can see I went with aluminium bars instead of black in the end. Black looked good as a stand-alone but the aluminium matched better sitting next to Ingraham.