I have just acquired a video card that is near and dear to my heart.  The Voodoo 5 6000!  3dfx is the company that first got me really into video games and they paved the way for modern graphics cards.  This has FOUR GPU's on it and was the company who invented SLI technology.  
 
At the time of production, standard PC power supplies only had around 200W, and this card took about 50W of it, so they were going to come shipped with a separate power supply to help power the card.
 
Here is the beast:

The card you are looking at is one of approximately 150 cards that were manufactured, and of those 150 only 30 are thought to be still functional... and one is sitting right in front of me.  Don't hate
 
Here is where I will begin this thread:

A CAD model of the card.  Things to cool in black, and things to avoid in red, and the very limited holes in the board. 
 
SUBSCRIBE to this post, so you can watch the progress as it goes along. 
 
*update* block is finished 2 April 2012.

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Thanks for your precious help :)

Subscribed, and waiting to see what you come up with. Should prove challenging for you and interesting for us.

What will prove most challenging will be mounting due to the limited number of holes.

The original heatsinks are the size of the gpu, and were glued on. I have an idea but I will save it for later

Can you post any pics of the original heatsinks? I'm a little curious of what they looked like under those cute little fans.

I can if you really want to.

NVM, I finally found a pic online. Not much too them really.

@zophar :

Little heatsinks + coolers on original Voodoo5 6000 because the card was built in year 2000.

Ya. Sorry you can't post links and all that. Its a new member thing due to spammers. This should be a cool build. I wish that somebody could make a quad gpu card now. That would be pretty sweet.

cool project nate! I recomend a custom backplate to help keep the thing from flexing in the middle with not so many holes.

Gratuitous


cool project nate! I recomend a custom backplate to help keep the thing from flexing in the middle with not so many holes.

sssshhhhhh.... your gonna give everything away too early

nateman_doo

sssshhhhhh.... your gonna give everything away too early

 

trevormacro


@zophar :

Little heatsinks + coolers on original Voodoo5 6000 because the card was built in year 2000.

the age has nothing to do with the heat out put
 
can't wait to see how this turns out

This is going to be a cool one to follow.

G-code for the copper portion is completed.  Getting close to actually cutting some copper.  Still a few days off.

Do you write the G-code by hand or do you have a program write it for you and then adjust it.  I took a class working with some smaller CNC machines and even for cutting out the letter "Z" took over 150 lines of code.  Making some more complex shapes was over 1300 lines.  So do you have a program like Mastercam write the code or what?

ALLLLLL by hand.  I JUST finished writing the G-code for the copper plate (literally a few minutes ago).  I WISH i had a CAM program.  Just trying to figure out how to use the cutter comp (G41). 
 
I have been writing the code by hand with the actual offset of the bit of my choosing, but I want to figure out the cutter comp so that I can simply change the bit diameter to invoke a finish pass by making the bit diameter a bit smaller. 

G-code! I used that at my last job. I wrote the user interface to an automated quilting machine :)

with a CAM program, or by hand?

I basically wrote the CAD software that generated the G-code, or imported it from DXF files. The CAM software ran on our controller. I think it was the same one they used to control the IMAX.

Pimpin'

Wow man that is some dedication.  I have been thinking about asking about a custom block from you in the future, if so I will just give you the G-code so you don't have to write it all out.

That would be swell.  Id still charge you double for not letting me borrow your dewar and making me buy a bigger one  ;)
 
btw, where you been?  Feel like its been over a year since you been around these parts?

Pics in the morning ;)

Here is a basic prototype of the copper board that will touch all the chips.

 
A few minor improvements to a few lines of code and it will be ready to cut.

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how long is that card?  loks huge haha

crazyg0od33


how long is that card?  loks huge haha

 
I think 315 mm :)

I dont wanna derail your project thread here but I haven't been around for a bunch of reasons but I will probably dabble in threads here and there more often.  I'll definitely keep track of this thread as it looks pretty awesome.

Can't wait to see how this comes out! Very exciting project!

can you really get proper contact between the GPUs and the block with those mounting holes? 0.o