Hello all,
 
So I've been brainstorming a couple ideas for a custom PCB/GUI to control a couple aspects of my PC since I spend a lot of time with it. The PCB is planned to be mounted in a PCI slot. The plan is to write a GUI in visual studio/C#. From the GUI I would like to have control over my desktops internal LED strips, fan speed, temperature sensing, as well as control over my audio jack.
 
To explain the audio jack feature. So I switch between my speakers and headset often. I use speakers for everything but when I'm gaming I use my headset. Normally I would have to manually unplug the audio to my speakers and plug in the audio for my headset. I currently solved this issue by using a mechanical switch. I have the audio cable from my PC plugged into the "input" of my switch enclosure and then the switch either connects my headset or my speakers to the input. This works but is somewhat annoying to use and sometimes is pretty noisy when switching.
 
The custom card would be controlled with a microcontroller and id like to introduce a level of automation to my desktop. I want my desktop to automatically turn on at ~7:30 and turn off at ~midnight (or run all night during the winter). The GUI would be set up to be an autostart program within Windows and would run a script to open my most common applications upon startup (Steam, Firefox, Spotify, etc.) I'd also like to create fan curves etc in the GUI. In a way the GUI would be the main control center over my computer. Eventually id like to display things like weather, internet usage, ping, etc (things that I have to manually check other websites for). I know there are products you can buy to accomplish what I want but I want to design my own all in one product for myself (maybe others if it works well).
 
Does anybody have any additional ideas of things I could control using the micro controller or GUI? Maybe power monitoring of different components? If this gets enough traction and I don't lose interest in the project I can provide updates. I know this isn't a PC build but I figured modsrigs was the place to post this.