Cardboard Box Computer
Note that this faithful machine which has served me from 3/21/2003 to 1/16/2004 is no longer being used as a server.
Version 1.2
| Cardboard Box 1.21 | ||
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Pentium 166MHz (Socket 7) | |
| Memory | 96MB Total | 64MB EDO DRAM, unknown speed |
| 32MB 66MHz SDRAM | ||
| Hard drive | 40 GB Samsung, ATA100 | |
| CD Drive | 8x/4x/32x CD-RW | |
| Network | Wireless, 11 Mbps (802.11b) | |
| Power Supply | ~150W Dell proprietary + lots of masking tape | |
In the summer of 2004, I fixed up this thing some more. First I put in a wireless network card, then I took out the small, slow hard drive and installed Windows XP on the 40 GB one. Now this machine really rocks.
Version 1.1x
| Cardboard Box 1.12 | ||
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Pentium 166MHz (Socket 7) | |
| Memory | 96MB Total | 64MB EDO DRAM, unknown speed |
| 32MB 66MHz SDRAM | ||
| Hard drive | 2.5 GB Western Digital, ATA33 | |
| 40 GB Samsung, ATA100 | ||
| CD Drive | 8x/4x/32x CD-RW | |
| Network | 10/100 Mbps Ethernet | |
| Power Supply | ~150W Dell proprietary + lots of masking tape | |
In April 2004, I moved the components of Cardboard Box 1.0 (described below) into Cardboard Box (Portable) 1.1, which is half the size, at 12 x 9.6 x 6.1 inches. There is also a additional 40GB hard drive now, bringing this computer almost up to par with an iPod. It is labeled portable because the parts are fixed in place and will not shift around and destroy each other during light movement. In fact, it survived the entire Science Bowl 2004 trip, including round-trip airplane travel, for five days.
Minor upgrades and improvements followed, most notably a CD-RW drive and a cooling fan.
This machine is currently used for playing MP3s, doing my math homework, and downloading things from Kazaa.
Here's some pictures, with descriptions following:
The CD is for size reference. Next to the fan on the left is an Ethernet card and a sound card. There is also a built-in sound card, with the jacks just under the CD, but it really sucks so I put in a better one. The bottom right is the power supply.
If you open it up, it's a mess. This is shot from the same angle as the previous photo, with the top opened and the front (the nearer side) of the motherboard lifted up. The motherboard is mounted upside-down. The green thing on the right with the things sticking out is the Pentium heatsink (there's no fan), and this ordinarily rests on the purple cardboard. Under the purple cardboard (it was the box for an Ti4200 from XFX; now it's cushioning and insulation to prevent short circuiting) is the power supply. Notice that the power supply is still the rigged Dell one, with masking tape holding together those colored wires. Under that hard drive at the lower left, there is another hard drive (not visible), and then below that is the CD-RW (also not visible).
Version 1.0
| Cardboard Box 1.0 | ||
|---|---|---|
| CPU | Pentium 166MHz (Socket 7) | |
| Memory | 96MB Total | 64MB EDO DRAM, unknown speed |
| 32MB 66MHz SDRAM | ||
| Hard drive | 2.5GB Western Digital, ATA33 | |
| Network | 10/100 Mbps Ethernet | |
| Power Supply | ~150W Dell proprietary + lots of masking tape | |
There's no removable media drives (CD, floppy, ...), keyboard, mouse, monitor... or anything else not in the picture. The Ethernet wire is all that's necessary to control it.
Total cost for this thing: a dime and about 4 hours, most of which was spent on rigging the power supply.
Look at the convenience of this design. There are only two wires coming out (although it would have been better if they came out of the same side; the size of the box restricted this possibility) and there is plenty of space left inside. Of course, the real benefit of this and the only one I care about is how much it cost.
For size reference, note the Ethernet wire on the left. From this angle, the plug on that wire is a bit bigger than a phone jack. Also my foot is in both pictures, showing you how [not] well I set up these shots. In the picture above, the box is 15.2 inches from left to right, 12.9 from upper to lower edge, and 6.9 high.
Take a look at the view of the inside. The motherboard (large green board) was a piece of crap (~1995) that Pat didn't want. Being a crap collector, I took it. The power supply unit (top right, gray box) was another piece of crap of Pat's. It came out of his Dell computer. Back when Dell sold that power supply, they were rigged in such a way that it was unusable in a normal machine (it would actually catch fire if you were to try). See the masking tape? There's actually at least 17 wires that had to be cut and rewired. The last important component is the hard drive (shiny thing on bottom right). I don't even know where I got it. All I can say is that it cost me nothing. The cardboard box cost me nothing either; I found that in the closet. And the masking tape, that probably cost about a dime.
Last updated December 11, 2004.
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