OpenBSD Journal

Customing your chassis with an OpenBSD case badge

Contributed by grey on from the working our way towards puffy emblazoned neon cases dept.

WIntellect writes:

For anyone who would like to strip away that pre-installed case badge and replace it with an OpenSBD one ~ I've come across scotgold: http://www.scotgold.com/acatalog/ScotGold_Catalogue_Custom_Case_Badges_1.html Scotgold allows you to create your own custom PC case badges, 25mmx25mm (1") in full color at a requested resolution of 600dpi. I created a design for OpenBSD and received them yesterday. I am VERY impressed with their quality and the speed of the service overall. Anyone interested can find my design here : http://www.bsdnexus.com/case_badge.jpg

While this certainly isn't as cool as putting a real fish in your case (correction from Sleighboy: it's a Betta not a blowfish) it is an easier way to show OpenBSD support when a simple sticker from the CD's isn't enough.

(Comments are closed)


Comments
  1. By Sleighboy (64.146.180.98) on http://www.code.cx/

    This comment is about the linked older article about the fish in the case.

    1. The fish is a betta, not any type of puffer/trigger. So all "coolness" is lost, it is just cruel if the fish is kept in for longer than the photo session.
    2. The betta probably hates all that light, at least ALL the time.

    True, people keep bettas in tiny bowls..but just becuase they sell it at a pet store doen't make it humane. Pet stores are horrible examples of pet care. A betta is ideal for this type of mod beucase they don't require much water and are not messy fish (produce less ammonia). However bettas breath oxygen from the air like we do, and the "tank" looked sealed. And that makes sense in a computer case, but not for a betta who needs fresh air.

    Want to be a humane case modder?
    Set up a large group of OpenBSD servers with water cooling, have the water reservoir be a 55+ gallon aquarium that houses a freshwater puffer (or lots of dwarf puffers). You can use a canister filter to drive one of the water cooler systems and you've got filtration covered. Now your servers can heat the puffers water, and you don't need to buy a heater (although it would be a cheaper way to heat the tank). I have not tried this, just theory, but it seems the most humane way to tie in your OpenBSD boxes and a real fish.

    Comments
    1. By grey (207.215.223.2) on

      Thanks for pointing out that it wasn't a blowfish, I've corrected the story. As far as whether it's humane or not, you also make some good points; I would be interested to see if anyone does try out your recommendations instead.

    2. By Anonymous Coward (193.63.217.208) on

      Perhaps you could link a digital thermometer up to a serial port and monitor the water temperature. That way if the fish are getting too cold you could generate spurious CPU activity to warm them up. Not quite sure how you would deal with heavily loaded servers making them too hot though :/

      Comments
      1. By Sleighboy (64.146.180.98) on http://www.code.cx/

        It would be interesting to see how it worked in a real test. Keeping 55 gallons of water at a good temp for puffers (72F-78F) would take at least a 200 watt heater. I don't know how hot a water cooled system gets, even with a radiator. But if you had a glass tank it would help dissipate the heat quicker than an acrylic one. I would think that you could keep quite a few servers cool with 55 gallons and still keep the puffers happy. You could throw in raditors, but they are probably not needed.

        Another solution to water-cooled with fish, that has no Puffy tie-in.. but would be even better for those in non-tropical/desert areas. Setup a large (10,000 gallon) pond, stocked with koi. Then you would have nice and chilly water, esp. in winter months, and no fear of the servers overheating the 10,000 gallon pond.

    3. By PCronin (142.166.161.57) pcronin@... on

      From what I can see of the pictures, this fellow basicly just put a regular old betta tank on a little shelf inside the case. It's not airsealed, he just didn't show it from top down view. Probably just for the picture, but even if it was for normal storage, from the pics of the "control center" further down the page, it looks like it's easily removed for cleaning/feeding. And yes, it's definatly a betta.

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