Planning PC case grow- First time!

[fishing time]

I'm planning to build a PC case for growing masterlows, because they look so cute! Stealth is an issue so I'm trying to make it as light tight, odorless and like a computer as possible. I'm even toying with putting an old laptop minus the screen in the side so I can plug a monitor in and turn it on, but that doesn't seem worth the effort.

I'll be starting to collect parts next week, but I'm so excited that I'm writing up some plans now.

Case- I'll likely get something about two feet or slightly less. I think this will be just fine. I'm going to a flea market in a couple weeks to get one.

Lighting- Planning on using a 3 socket vanity fixture (like the kind you put over your mirror in the bathroom) or 3 clamp lights with the reflectors cut down to fit in case. With Y adaptors with gives me a maximum of 6 lamps which out to be more than enough. How many watts in CFLs are appropriate for this size of space anyhow?

Venting and Odors- Passive intake at the bottom front and 2 computer fans at the top in back. On the inwards facing side of the fans I want to put some sort of home-brew carbon filter. Should enclosing a quarter inch or so of activated carbon in something and taping that over the fans do it?

In the end I'd like to get an ounce per run- coming out to just less that and 1/8th a week, perfect for smoking up a couple friends on the weekend
The first run I'd try make some seeds as reserve, so I'd try to cram in 3 plants which puts the probability of getting a female and a male at 75%.

More later on.

 

[Jam Master Jaco]

from what I've heard Masterlow is a great micro strain, very potent.

For your cfls you should get 65 watts if you can, but the biggest I've seen at wal mart and home depot are 45 watts, but they should work to. go check at the thread in this micro grow forums "red greenery's DIY something something" fuck it i'll get you a link...

*edit* http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=31605
From the sound of it your setup will be very similar to his. And if you just simply scrap your plan and follow his to the T, you'll pull over 3 ounces

 

[fishing time]

I have looked at the red green rubbermaid, and it's nothing short of amazing. Maybe at some point I'll graduate up to that. No reason I can't use most of the parts from this in that. Three ounces do have some appeal!
I suppose an ounce would be a little bit ambitious in this but I can try. Maybe I would get more for the space if I grew in large cups then as soon as they were sexed transplant to one large container that would fill the whole bottom. Maybe that would allow more root room because there'd be no wasted space between plants.

By the way Jaco, I love your Towelie picture.

 

[Mr_Micro]

Congrats on your decision to try PC case growing! It is quite do-able for sure, and I think Master Low (or any other Low Rider varient) would do quite well in a space less than 2 feet tall. If your planning on going with CFLs for lights you shouldn't have any problem keeping the heat to a minimum with one or two PC fans for exhaust.

I do have one thing I'd recommend though... if you can spare the cash, go for one of
these cases instead of your regular old 20" PC case. Low Rider would work fine in a 20" case, but if you ever want to grow out any other strains in your case you'll be damn glad you had that extra 6" of growing space. Right now I only have 10" of available growing space in my 20" case, thus the reason I'm switching over to a 26" so I can have 16" of growing space instead.

It will also be much harder to cool a 20" case compared to a 26" one. I know it doesnt sound like a huge difference in size, but it really does make a big difference when it comes to keeping the case cool. Mind you I am growing with low wattage HPS lights and not CFLs, but I imagine the heat generated by four 45 or 65 watt CFLs would probably be more than my single 50 or 70 watt HPS light.

Oh, and one more little tip that might make it easier to lightproof your case and give it reflectivity at the same time. Check out this stuff called "Reflectix" . It's really inexpensive and is a fast and easy way to lightproof and add reflectivity to the inside of your case. Just pick up a roll of that and a roll of reflective foil tape and your set


So yeah, good to see another person getting into the PC case growing scene! Best of luck and keep us updated man!

 

[fishing time]

Thanks for the tool tips Micro! That insulation looks good, much more sturdy than the standard space blankety stuff.

As for the case, I'll keep that in mind. Definitely not going to drop 75$ on a case tho. I'm going to a electronics flee market in cambridge on the 17th and I expect I can get something like that only with coffee stains for about 15 dollars.

Afterthought:
do you have any ideas or things that have worked for you for air filtering that doesn't take up too much room inside the case? I like the Red Green filter but obviously that's enormous, and since all the carbon is laid out flat would be in the way of the lighting, even if it was scaled down.

 

[Mr_Micro]

Yeah, I hear ya on the price thing. It is on the expensive side for sure... but then again, all those Mills Pride growers pay $100 or so for their cabs so I suppose it's all relative. For now I'm sticking with my 20" cases and seeing if I can pull off a decent grow with em... my temps are averaging 85-88*F most of the time though, but I suppose thats the price I pay for using HID lights in such a small space. If the 20" case ultimately fails me, then I'll switch over to a 26".


But enough of me babbling about my grow, you were asking about a carbon filter right? I posted a few pics and an explanation of the carbon filters I use for my PC cases in another thread before, so instead of reposting it again here, here's the link to the thread -----> Click Me!

My Skunk #1 (Sensi Seeds version) and True Blueberry plants are starting to get pretty gnarly smelling and the carbon filter is still working great, so I'm thinking the design is pretty solid.
Hope that helps!

 

[Saabotage]

120mm fans. You will thank me later!

 

[fishing time]

Thanks for the pics of your filter Micro! I'll make one just like it, only stick the whole thing on the inside of the case I think.

Saabotage: 120mm it is! I found one that's 17 dba for 38cfm! that should be plenty right?

As far as the lighting goes, tell me if I'm crazy but I heard that you should have between 80 and 100 watts/sqft. At just over one sqft in a case, shouldn't i be looking at say, 2 45s? That seems a little low to me, but I don't know.

EDIT: ha ha strike that just found this thread http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=34066

 

[Mr_Micro]

No worries Fishing Time, hope that carbon filter design helps you out. The downside is that it is only suited to 80mm fans though, for 120mm fans your gonna need to go with a bit different design. I was originally planning on putting it on the inside of my box too, but it ended up just taking up too much precious growing space and wouldnt quite fit over the fan. Plus I really didnt want to risk getting any of that activated carbon powder/dust residue on my plants.

If you can find a case that will allow you to use 120mm fans I say go for it. You'll get much better cooling ability overall. Unfortunately despite my best efforts I couldn't find a way to use 120mms in either of my cases (without serious hacksaw work, and even then it probably wouldnt have fit) so I had to go with 80mm ones.

As far as the CFM of your fans go, I personally wouldn't go for anything less than 50cfm. 80 cfm or more might work better (depending on your situation), but most of those are so noisey (around 55 dba) that they'll drive you crazy as soon as you plug em in and will totally kill your stealth factor.

In most cabs the usual forumula for cooling is 1 cfm per watt with HID lights I believe. This has held true for the PC case grows I've seen as well, but then again those were also HID grows. Even though CFLs generally run cooler than HIDs, when you cram a lot into a small space such as a PC case your going to get a bit more heat buildup than you would in a space with a larger volume. So I'd imagine that in a PC cab the "1 cfm per watt" rule would probably change to something in the area of "1/2 cfm per watt" when using CFLs. But then again, I'm kinda talkin out my ass here, so the best advice I could give would be to go with at least one 50+ cfm exhaust fan and see how it works out for you.


For the noise level, a good rule of thumb is to keep the noise level under 35 dba and your cases will sound just like normal computers. If you look on Newegg.com , Thermaltake makes an awesome 80mm fan that pushes 52 cfm and only produces 19 dba of noise. They come with a heatsink that you can just throw away, and are a little on the pricey side, but if all you can fit in your case are 80mm fans than I think these are best compromise of power vs. noise.

When I was working on my cases I tested out six different kinds of fans and these were my hands down favorites. I tried swapping them out for some of the ultra noisey (55 dba) 80 cfm Sunon fans and actually only ended up with a 1/2* temperature difference. So all in all I think the Thermaltake 52cfm/19dba fans are about the best you can get in the 80mm department.



And oh yeah... please don't think that I'm trying to tell you what to do, or how you should build your cab, or anything like that. Building a cab is a very individual thing and you should do what works best for you and your situation. All I know is that I ended up wasting hundreds of dollars putting together my cabs because I bought and tried a lot of stuff that didn't work... and then when I found out it didn't work I had to go buy a whole bunch more stuff and try something else. So I'm really just trying to give some friendly advice that might help keep you from wasting a whole shitload of money like I did.

Once again though, best of luck on your PC cab Fishing Time! Keep us updated

 

[fishing time]

And oh yeah... please don't think that I'm trying to tell you what to do, or how you should build your cab, or anything like that. Building a cab is a very individual thing and you should do what works best for you and your situation.

Hey.. If I didn't want advice I wouldn't have asked. I think if I get a pc box going successfully, I'll move up and try doing a filing cabinet cab. Again total stealth. just take out the bottom and sides of the top drawer and you can pull the plants or plant right out to look at it! It's even got an inconspicuous lock to stop curious hands.

 

[Saabotage]

If you can find a case that will allow you to use 120mm fans I say go for it. You'll get much better cooling ability overall. Unfortunately despite my best efforts I couldn't find a way to use 120mms in either of my cases (without serious hacksaw work, and even then it probably wouldnt have fit) so I had to go with 80mm ones.

Acctually I use 2 normal PC fans and (1) 120mm fan. The normal pc fans are 1 intake and 1 exhaust (power supply exhausts' also) & the 120mm fan as an intake. I also use a server case that has holes predrilled in them. If no holes are their. drill some. their not too big the one i use has bearings in it instead of the way the little fans are. its alittle louder, but wAY more air moving!

 

[pothead82]

Hi there Fishing Time,
I really like your idea on a PC Grow. I would stick with Mr Micro advice and try to keep the heat down on your case and maybe put use some extra cash on those 50+ cfm super silent fans and build the carbon filter with it. If it is supposed to be total stealth the two major concerns are noise and odor.
I really think you would not regret geting a 26' case, and it doesn't need to be an expensive one, you can find them cheap, but thats up to you maybe in the future. If you do try a 26' case maybe instead of using Master Low or any Lowrider variant, you could try to grow some female seeds. They would save you time and money because they are 99% guaranteed to be females. Doing some heavy LST and SCROGing the shit outta them you could defenetly increase your yeld and your turn over time.
Good luck and keep us posted!!