Case Mod - In Progress HP Blackbird 002

A small update -> been playing with AutoCAD a bit, and drafted a new Front-panel button, and will have this CNC'ed from billet aluminium - seeing I can't get this from HP Pretty sad, really, but no biggie. I made 2 different versions, one with the original square buttons, and one with new 3mm round versions.

The dimensions are exactly the same as the original plastic unit, and note the 2x 1mm leds that will indicate power and HD activity. I still need to do some intricate design that will go where the original "hp" backlight logo was - might have this engraved, or go one better and have it lasercut, with some blue lisa-dyed perspex forming the backlight letters.

Will think about it for a bit. Also, I will nmake buttons out of aluminium too, I think - either that or Delrin or something nice.

Anyway, herewith some screendumps of the (Autocad) button-panels.

An isometric of the back of the original power buttons:


and one of the front:


Then, one of the new round buttons:


and the front:


Feedback appreciated.

 

Slotted buttons look nicer IMO

 

Yep, they do - I will keep to the "stock" button configuration, I like it better too.

Herewith the rendition of what the button panel with logo will look like - I hate when Acad doesn't do proper anti-aliasing....bleh. Anyway, the logo is sunk in by 1mm, and doesn't protrude above the surface.

Looking good I think....



and

 

Hello Guys,
Tidying the backside wiring a little - I always hate it when modding, and leaving the backpanel wiring a mess.

Here a close-up of the SAS harddrive cage I'm using - used some of the "excess" cabling/connectors on the PC Power & Colling 1KW Turbocool unit, snipped off the original plugs, and used a 10-pin Molex connector and wired it for the SAS backplane - very simplistic, and very few cables to support 8 drives - neat to tidy this up a little, but you get the general idea.....



Then, here are 2 shots of all the cabling you will see on the backside, nothing else will be visible when opening the sidepanel on this side. There are the main 24-pin ATX, as well as a 4-pin ATX, and another 4-pin Molex going to the top of the motherboard, and all the front/top IO panel connectors, made up of 2x USB, FP sound, 1x Firewire, and a multimedia card adapter, ie CF, SD etc....

Not bad, I guess.....



and

 

Looking good MrBean Really like the way you have integrated that SAS drive cage. Wouldn't mind seeing some HD stats once your RAID setup is in place!

 

Thanx Shogan - and welcome here

I will post some stats once I have another 1 HD, and configured the Raid for my application. I'm not to concerned about the speed though, it's very fast, but I'm more after the redundancy for my applications/databases.

 

Very nice work with the cables Bean, very clean and tidy.

 

Thanx Mate

 

Please don't make the mistake some of my customers do and rely on raid for backup... raid is to keep going when 1 disk fails (or several, depending on your raid type :-D)
It does *NOT* replace a proper backup to other disks/tape/whatever - too often I've seen an entire array cr@p out, either through bizarreness of the controller, or user error (ok, well, who'da thunk 'initialise' means 'erase all data'!)

Anyways, lovely mod you have here and I am jealous of your setup!

 

@ Murtoz: To true, hehe - seen that myself a few times. I have a decent HP DLT tapedrive for back-ups though.......so no worries there.

Thanx for the feedback though, appreciated.

 

Thanks Bean. Keep up the awesome work as usual

 

Heya Guys,
Thanx for all the comments - I'm about to pull the trigger on quit a bit of Bitspower-fittings et al to finish the watercooling loops in a proper fashion - I've used Perfromance-pcs in the past, and will do so again now - although I can get most of the fittings from PcCasegear in Australia, they don't carry the 7/16" that I need/want...so....

Should be a week or so before I get it all......will keep you updated.

edit: Ah, done - approximately $340 USD worth of goodies on the way, now I can finish this off

Yeay. This is what I ordered, hopefully Perf-pcs will post quick, and I might have it by the coming weekend:

Products
------------------------------------------------------
6 x Bitspower G 1/4" Silver Shiny 90 Degree IG 1/4" Adapter (BP-WTP-C39) = $41.70
6 x Bitspower Premium G1/4" "Stubby" High Flow 1/2" Fitting (BP-WTP-C14) = $16.74
2 x Bitspower G 1/4" Black Shiny Rotary Angle Fitting - 1/2" (BP-BSLRI) = $27.90
6 x Tygon 3603 7/16" ID (5/8" OD) Clear Tubing (TYGON-3603-7/16) = $16.74
8 x Bitspower Premium G1/4" High Flow 7/16" ID (5/8" OD) Compression Fitting (BP-CPF-CC6) = $55.60
1 x Watercool Dual DDC-Case Laing Cover (30351) = $59.95
8 x *** NEW *** Bitspower G1/4 Silver Shiny Dual Rotary 45-Degree Compression Fitting-ID 7/16" OD 5/8" (BP-45R2CPF-CC6) = $119.60

------------------------------------------------------
Sub-Total: $338.23
United States Postal Service (1 x 8.60lbs) (Express Mail International (EMS) (5 days) (With Tracking)): $79.00
Total: $417.23


Slow, but sure progress.

 

Did you look at GAMMods Bean? They stock Bitspower also, they are located in Melb also I think. Greig is a very helpful guy.

 

I love Sidewinder but I don't think I can afford international shipping ever again. I missed a few fittings on my first order (when I was in the US) so I ended up paying $40 or so on shipping for a $58 order

 

Heya Guys,
Ta for the replies.

I had a look at local suppliers, but everyone stocks 3/8" or 1/2" fittings, I wanted/needed 7/16"

Ah well, damage is done, and shipped from the USA, so hopefully I will have it in time for the weekend - need to sort the waterloops out, and tidy things up - gotta get this thing of my Wife's dining-room table....you know how it is

 

Well, fittings from PPCS have shipped, together with my new Watercool Dual-DDC top. Jut got my hands on another Swiftech DDC 3.2 pump, so, once the shipment arrives, I can go mad - yeay.

Just contacted Petra's TechShop to see if they would be willing to ship me a couple of Iandh's KillCoils. waiting for an answer, I'm sure they will help out.

Will inform you guys later of my progress.

 

Those KillCoils are pretty neat.

 

So far nothing, but I hope they will ship to Down Under - itherwise I need to find .999 silver somewhere and dump that into the res.

 

Update Ok, my parcel from Performance-pcs has arrived Yeay.

I received numerous Bitspower fittings, all catering for 7/16" hose, so I can finally complete the watercooling, tidy up the loop, and fit the OEM internal baffles to my Blackbird case.

I have also received my DDC dual-watercool top, and had both a DDC 2 pump, as well as DDC Rev 3.2 (Swiftech) I anyway got my 2nd DDC Rev 3.2 delivered today, not that it would make any difference, but, I needed another pump for my Wife's system, so there you have it.

So, nope, I'm not anal, just logical I guess. So, the 2 Swiftie MCP355's have been bolted to the Dual-Watercool top, and I fitted 2 BP 7/16 compression fittings. Looking nice - and will fit much better into the cavities in the Blackbird case, as it has not that much space available if you want to do a decent job of a custom watercooled setup.

The next few night I will do what I do best, observe/look/view/peek at the inside of the case from all angles, and visualize how to best route the pipes, where to mount the pump so it adds rather than detract from the overall aesthetics, same with the reservoir - I have a few I could use, and will decide which one suits the mod best.

Why dual-ddc? Well, I have a dual Xeon setup, HD4870X2 gfx card, 240mm Feser - so why not keep with the dual-theme, and get the Watercool top

Well, that and the fact that this compact setup will fit better in the case, if I wanted to retain OEM baffles, which I did, as they add a lot to the overall appearance.

Check back on the weekend, I will post pics then.

One of these days I will do a last change - once the Thermochill guys release their 140x2 Rad, I think I will mod that into this case - it was build for it......nice, thanx Thermochill!

I have also ordered some KillCoils, and they should arrive by this weekend - so indeed good progress. Last cash outlay needed for a while, so ready to finish this off. Finally, and a few thousands later.

 

OT Jack alert!

Happy Birthday!

Back to your normally scheduled thread.

John

/edit

If you want the pic of birfday possums I'll put it up for you

Hell here it is