Case Mod - In Progress Project BMW Mpower Level 10 - update

Nice choice of colours there. It is gonna be nice.

 

Hi all, Back again for another quick little update for you, this time I have a few quick pictures of the case after it had been airbrushed.






Now to get to work on the windows to replace the standard metal plates, the idea is to have the top one in just black tint, inside the case, but the bottom will be black tint with red UV behind and of course some etching done (the opposite picture to the bmw on the rear).

I love the way the Thermaltake Level 10 has come out in white, TBH it is the colour it should have been from the start.

I will post up some more better pics once the build is complete, but there are a few things to get done first some of which are time consuming (the etch mainly). Also need to source some longish m3 hex bolts in red, but this is proving rather harder than I thought.

 

Well just a quick short update here on the watercooling parts, here is what I have so far, I am debating either a bay res (which is second on the list as I would have to route, tubes to there, or a swiftech micro res, note 100% sure which I will go with, but here is a picture of all the bits minus the res.



As well as figuring out my res options, the only other dilemma is on the cabling inside, I am either going to go with the stock black and all power leads and fan leads ect, or I am going to mix it up, I just don’t want to overdo the white.

I was maybe thinking braiding the Molex, sata and 3 pin cables white, and then Keeping the 8 Pin, 24pin and graphics card Power in black, just to break up all the white. Not sure which way I will go, but I suppose ill just have to braid the connecters and leave the others black, and then decide which way to go.

 

Well after a bit of a hectic few weeks, I finally got some more work done this weekend on the project, although it was mainly layout work and using a template to line things up,



First up, as you can pretty much see I mounted the radiator on the rear, the idea behind this is I want to keep all the watercooling on the motherboard tray, this includes pump, res and such.

I also made a start on braiding the Front panel connectors as I thought it only right they match the case colour. I just have to wait for the crimpers to do the LED one.



So I spent the next two and half hours after that working out placement of radiator and pump. I eventually decided with this layout. I have to order some brackets though to make the radiator fit better and just zip tied it for now until I can get some mechano parts from ebay to turn up.



The pump I mounted to the rear PCi plates, I know I would not need the bottom 3 so this made this actually very ideal for the pump, so that is 2x 120mm radiators, Pump and res all mounted to the motherboard tray.



Also put Rubber rings under the Pump to get rid of vibration, I am still waiting on a few things to turn up such as the lovely Tecnofont nano res, some mecanno bits and a few little pieces, but I thought I would post this to give you an Idea of what I am working too. Until next time....

 

Loving the idea, can't wait to see how it will turn out.

 

I can't believe I missed this. This is a seriously cool looking mod.

 

here is a picture of the 35mm deep 60mm wide and 70mm res



It is due to arrive next week and ill post some more pics of it then

 

Sorry it took so long guys to post another update, had some delays in getting stuff, anyway, this turned up.



This is the tecnofront reservoir from a company here in Europe, they came on board as a sponsor and supplied me with one of these.



The Reservoir comes complete with its own barbs, I presume from this shot next to the barbs you can see how small this baby is.





As well as this turning up I also decided to take one of the radiator pump mounts and cut it up a bit, here is a bit of before and after



I Know of course all these photos are no good without a full explanation into placement, so I did a bit of work yesterday that involved some white paint for the pump mount come Radiator mount and installed the res in its place, I leave you a couple of shots as a teaser for now.



Two coats of white paint and a coat of lacquer later the mount is white and now the front radiator is finally supported properly at last. The next picture of the reservoir also gives you a better impression of how dinky it is.



I think this shot shows really how small the reservoir is, and for this project it is a perfect fit don’t you think?

Ill update some more later this week as I go through the hose connecting options for the rest of the setup and of course the shot of the complete loop sitting on the mobo tray out of the rig.

 

Too bad the pace of the log seems to make people lose interest because it's been so long; anyway, so far it's a very good looking and effective project. Keep going!

 

Yes it has been slow, but the good news, is that is the work I done yesterday, i am hopeful to get what i done today up tomorrow

 

very nice

im so in love with the gpu cover

 

rchiileea, you force a smile, and you make me remember how much I love BMW, awesome design man.

 

Man , w/r is so beautiful!

im folowing ur case!

 

I know it looks very nice in white, think they should go down this route on future cards

 

Well as promised back again with another update for you, Spent all day Wens messing about with the tubing and wiring to make sure it all fits without no issues, also braided the mobo pwr, led and reset switch properly. First up, let us take a look at the res plumbed in.




It was a bit tight, but in the end I was able to put it together without any tubes touching, before we have a look at the layout on the motherboard here is the little treat that makes the Tecnofront Res so handy, you just open out the DVD drive bay section of the case and this is the view you get.



So that makes filling the loop up pretty darn easy if you ask me, then to drain it, it would be just a case of disconnecting a few sata cables, a few fnt panel usb cables and 24pin pwr, 8 pin pwr and of course the VGA power cables.

It was actually quite mad setting this up and thank god I did not put the water in until I had the graphics card setup and this is why..



As you can see the tubing is obviously going to get in the way of the card, to be quite honest it is a minor issue, but one that was spotted in time and only caused a bit of re placing the tubes in a different order. Anyway let me place it in with the graphics card and see how it looks.



Now the loop is fixed to how it should be.



There are a couple of issues though I should point out and the main being the 24 pin pwr cable, I am defo going to get a braided extension for it so I can run the cable behind the tubes rather than leave this one with the unsightly wires on show.



I am actually quite proud that I worked out a way to fit the whole loop on the mobo tray, and I was thinking over time of getting individual braided cables for the Lot, If I go down the BitFenix root I can quite literally have extensions on the USB, Audio, Fnt pwr, reset and led and GPU power connectors so that to take the tray out I only need to disconnect connectors round the back. But that is for another time.



Just a shot to show you that I am nearly there, the top CPU window is getting a sheet of tinted acrylic actually placed in the inside of the case to make it flush.

The bottom window is going to get 2 layers of acrylic, the bottom one red and a layer of tinted in front of that, this will be mounted in the same way though as the original metal plate so that it sticks out and is flues with the upper left of the mobo section. The etching will be done on the red acrylic and if the white lights do not make it pop, I am sure 2 uv ones will.

Ill post some more this weekend

 

Wow- that was worth the wait. The graphics card looks great!

 

Thanks Pal, I think so too, Also got now on route, white BitFenix 24 pin and 8 pin extention, and a few other cables.

 

Not much of a major update as my weekend turned out a lot busier than I planned (in other words misses had me out shopping... one of my top 10 hates that)... anyway the acrylic is cut.



Obviously the two large sections are as I mentioned for the lower section and the smaller section for the upper, the two lower sections will be sandwiched together with the black tint on the outside, I will be mounting these in a similar position to the original and etching the red acrylic with the front of the BMW seen airbrushed onto the back of the case.. However as the top window needs no etching. Let us see how that looks placed in.



As you can see it slightly tints the opening (will be having lights that can be switched on and off). I actually love the way it sits nice and flush to the panel. Hopefully more of the stuff turns up early this week and I can actually get everything setup minus the bottom windows.

 

Just a little update, Etching started on the front panel,

Remeber this is on the back



Then in the front lower window this



P.S the etching is on the inside so that once flipped it gets a better lit up effect from enternal lights. it will also be the right way so that it lines up with the rear of it airbrushed on the back.

 

Nice project, I'll watch this.