Case Mod - In Progress Project: LEXA

Another update guys.
I put the switches on hold today but hope to play with them tomorrow .

Instead today I did some painting.
I went to my local hardware store and got a can of flat black enamel paint, was just expecting to find matte black but anyway tell me what you think.
Here are the two painted side panels:

The smudge on the top left of the windowed panel isn't visible, the camera flash just picked it up.
Here is the panel with all the plastic stuff and lock installed from the inside:

And the outside:

I also primed and painted the PCI covers:


I also changed the plate on my Swiftech MCW-60 to fit my 8800GTX, here is a step by step tutorial.
Here is the standard block:

A pic of the adapter plate:

The dismantled water block, you pretty much just remove the 4 allen bolts and it falls apart:

The old plate on the left, and the new one on the right:

The block reassembled with the new adapter plate:

Complete with all the screws and barbs ready for mounting:


Well that's all for now, hopefully another update tomorrow. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

No more painting today guys, I decided to finish my PSU cover.

I gave you a glimpse of the cover a few posts back and as you can see there wasn't really much done.

It was basically just a piece of cut plexi but a lot has changed.
This morning I went down to the hardware store and got the required bolts and domed nuts that I will be using to mount my plastic bits, as you can see there aren't many there, I will need at least two more packs of each before this mod is done.

Now onto the PSU cover.
Here's the cover with the holes drilled for the mounting bolts:

These are what I will be using to mount some of my plastic bits. I got these from an old Meccano kit that I had when I was younger. For those of you that don't know what Meccano is, it's basically like LEGO but instead of using plastic blocks it uses nuts, bolts and metal panels.
Here is a pic:

Here is the plastic piece wet sanded and with the mounting brackets installed using those cool domed nuts:

A side on view:

And a view from the back:


You guys remember that dust trap cover I made a while back? Well today I also mounted that with the new screws and domed nuts.
Here's a pic:


Sorry about that first pic, I uploaded with the wrong resolution but you get the idea .

Well I don't know how much modding I will get done tomorrow cos I was kinda hoping to do some of the homework I have that's due at the start of the new term which is Monday. I hope to at least get those switches sorted out if I have the time. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

First update of the new school term yay lol.

Well I have already been swamped with homework (year 11 blows!!) so I haven't been able to do much but I had a free 10 mins and decided to mount my two switches that I will be using to turn the CCFL's off. They are the same switches ! was having the problem with the LED's and no I haven't had a chance to fix that problem yet.

Ok enough talking, on to the pics.
I am mounting these switches on a FDD drive fascia so firstly I masked one up and marked for cutting:

I started by drilling two holes:

Because dad didn't have a big enough drill bit I had to use my Sontax rotary tool and a grinding attachment to make the holes bigger:

Here is the completed hole with a switch installed:

The other hole is drilled and the second switch installed:

Finally here is a pic of the switch lit up so you can see what it looks like in the on position:


Sorry about the bad pics guys.

This part of the mod took about 10 mins with the longest part being marking the holes up.

I want to get the majority of the plastic work (mounting and cutting mesh) done during the week and a little bit more on the weekend. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Ok guys, finally the picture update.
Over the past weekend I really got stuck into my case. I did a bit of painting along with some plastics work and now basically the only things left to do are mount the plastic pieces, finish painting the case and then hardware/water cooling installation and cable management. I'm aiming for this weekend or next weekend at the latest for completion.

Ok to start things off, here is the case with everything stripped from it i.e radiators, fans, reservoir etc:

Here is a pic of my work space in my dad's shed. This is what the case looked like after a few hours of drilling:

I'm not kidding when I say a few hours of drilling. Most of the rivets were put in on an angle causing the drill bit to skip across the hole and making the original holes larger, I need to use bigger rivets when I put the case back together but anyway back to the pics.
I couldn't get any painting done on Saturday or Sunday due to bad weather, was raining heavily all weekend but I painted the pieces I could after school today.
Here is a pic of the calmer part of the weekend and the painted pieces:


The pieces I painted are the supports for the PCI cards and the mobo I/O panel, the support bar and that small piece is another support prop that connects from the case floor to the rear panel, dunno if that does much but it was there so I painted it

Time to attach my cut, sanded and drilled piece of plastic to the support bar (sorry, no pics of the cutting, sanding or drilling process).
To start off, here is a closer look at the support bar:

The piece of plastic that will be mounted along with my trusty screwdriver:

The mounted piece of plastic, looks pretty good to me :

And now with some lighting:

I know the last picture is pretty bad but you get the general idea.

Well it doesn't look like a lot but basically at this stage of the mod all I am really doing is attaching pieces before painting. I hope to have an update mid week and then hopefully another one on the weekend if everything goes to plan. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

As promised here is the mid week update, looks like completion this weekend may be a long shot, definitely next weekend though.

Ok so I start of with the read panel of my case and prepare it for mounting the PSU plastic cover.
Here is a pic:

And the drilled holes:

While I was working on the panel I also decided to paint it.
Here is the painted panel:

Once the panel was dry I inserted the rubber grommets back into the radiator pass through holes, I also added a piece of fan hole cover to the part of the panel I cut to make room for my 8800GTX.
Here are the grommets:

And here is the fan hole cover attached to the cut part of the case:

I know the paint looks a bit grey but this is only because of the camera's flash, I assure you it is black.
Next is mounting the PSU cover, so here we are.
The mounted PSU cover:

And from another angle:


I will try to get some more plastic work done this weekend along with some painting, I ran out at the end of painting this panel so back to the hardware store. Once again sorry for the grey looking paint, it is just the camera flash. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well guys time for another update, we have had shocking weather all weekend so very little work got done so today after school I started modding.

I painted the top of panel of my case (you have all seen painting before so just the completed shot):


Now for something new. My local hardware store didn't have the rivets that I needed o put my case back together so I sent dad on a mission . He came through, after work today I got a 100 pack of rivets (should be more than enough).
So here are my rivets and the rivet gun:

Because I had some free time (and because these two pieces were completed) I decided to start to re-construct the part of my case (the rear panel) that was completely modded and painted.
Here are the two pieces ready to be re-joined :

And here you go, joined back together:

Here is a shot from the back so you can see the rivets:

And to cap it all of I inserted the PCI covers into the slots that won't be used and secured them with my cool bright blue thumb screws.
Pic:


Today I also nearly completed mounting the HDD cover, well it is mounted, just need to cut the whole in the mesh and plastic to allow the cables to pass through. I should finish this tomorrow after school and will post pics as soon as it's done. After this is done that only leaves 6 more pieces of plastic to mount and a few pieces of mesh, the I can finally paint the rest of the case (I have painted all that I can at the moment). More tomorrow...I hope . Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Time to continue on from yesterday's post.

Today I finished my HDD bay cover and pretty much finished mounting all my other plastic pieces. Here we go.

Ok so here we have the piece of plastic that is my HDD bay cover (all sanded, polished and drilled):

Here is the piece of mesh I cut to cover the gap in the plexi, I have painted it black (from original silver) and have cut a hole to allow power and SATA cable to pass through. A tip for people using a jigsaw to cut mesh, don't. The teeth on the blade get stuck in the mesh holes and will bend and warp your mesh, believe me, I had to flatten my piece of mesh out after trying this way. I ended up using the cutting disk attachment for me rotary tool, worked perfectly, no warping, just a hell of a lot of sparks lol .
Pic:

Here's a random picture of the screws/bolts and nuts I will use to mount this piece:

I will be attaching this piece by using 8 bolts with 2 nuts and a spacer per bolt. As you will see in this picture there is only 4 (left hand side) bolts set up. This is because I can't insert the other 4 without taking the front of the case off and I am not ready to do so at the moment.
Pic:

The plastic and the mesh before the installation of the mesh:

The completed panel, looks quite good I think :


Time for the installation of the panel.
Spacers installed on the bolts:

HDD cover installed:

I front on pic (looking through case window):

A pic looking through the plexi to my HDD:

And finally a picture of the panel removed and under UV light:


I also got stuck into mounting the other pieces of plastic.
Here is the rear cover for the CD drives:

And here is the inside floppy bay cover and also the inside HDD cover (big gap is for mesh):


I also mounted one of my 10cm UV CCFL's to the case support bar, fits perfectly, well after some grinding of the mounting blocks anyway :


Sorry that first pic is smaller, must have uploaded it wrong lol. Also you may notice that the inside CD drive cover looks crooked, that is just the hole cut in the plexi, you wont notice it when it's covered with mesh.
Well that's all for today, may be some more tomorrow but I doubt it, I have to right a whole essay that is due Thursday (only a draft) lol . Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Ok guys, I finally have a worthy update for you. Sorry it has taken so long but we have had some real heat here in Australia (above 30*c for the past 2 weeks) and it has been too hard to work in the heat in our shed.

Ok, so just like the HDD cover I have completed the other side of the HDD cover plus the Disk Drive covers.
Here are the pics of the Disk Drive covers installed and finished:


I know in the second pic the cuts look really crooked but they aren't...well mabye a little but not enough to notice, it's just the picture.

Here is the other part of the HDD bay:


As with the Disk Drive cover the cuts aren't crooked, it's just the picture.

And to cap it all off here is a picture of all the bay covers installed so you can see what it's all gonna look like when it's done.
Pic:


To cap off this post I am going to give you a progress report, well I'll show you a progress report . What best way to report progress but with pictures lol.
Here is my case so far with everything installed how it will be.
Side on:

PSU cover, support bar and radiator:

Disk Drive cover:

PCI slots and radiator:

Danger Den fill port:


It has come to my attention that I may need another radiator in my system so I intend to see if I can get a Black Ice Stealth 240mm radiator to mount on the under side of my case. Looks about time I got myself a sponsor . Well that's all for now, hope to have some more updates later this week before exams next week. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well guys I have decided to go for the Black Ice Stealth 240mm radiator with or without a sponsor, at only $95.00AUD it is cheaper than my 120mm Black Ice Xtreme.

Today I wanted to see if the radiator would actually fit in my case but first I had to re-attach the case feet back onto the case.
Pic of the re-attached case feet:

Next I drew up the exact measurements of the radiator on a sheet of paper and cut it out so I can use it as a template.
Pic of the template:

I know the template looks a bit big but this is the exact dimensions, the fans I drew on are a bit small and throws you off a bit.
Fitting the template on the floor of the case:

As you can see the template fits with about a 1cm gap at the PCI slits which needs to stay there due to the way the case feet are mounted.
The template with a fan on it:

Two fans fit comfortably in this space but this may lead to another problem that I will elaborate a bit more on in a minute.

The only downside of mounting the fans like this is as follows:

The pump doesn't fit where I intended to mount it. Damn you say? I say challenge .

Here is my solution.
I will make a small platform out of the plexi that the pump will sit on, this elevates it off the case floor and above those fans.
Here is a mock up I did quickly with some scrap plexi I had:


That's not all of my problems though lol.
Take a look at this pic:

This is a pic of the rear case feet. See the curve of the plastic? This may make mounting the radiator a bit more difficult. It actually won't fit unless I cut part of the feet away. This will also mean strengthening what is left of the plastic case feet because this computer will be heavy once the water loop is filled and the hardware is installed. That's all for now guys, I have to work tomorrow after school and Friday I have a driving lesson (woohoo almost have my license) so probably no update until Saturday night or Sunday. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well guys a very minor update for this weekend. I have had a few problems which I will elaborate on later this post.

Well I have finally rebuilt the front of the case after fixing up the majority of the cabling a few months back. everything went back together as it should and it all works great, looks cool with the cable sleeving also .
Here is a pic of the assembled case front:

And here is the rear of it with as much cable sleeved as I can:


Ok so now on to my problem.
The rear of the NZXT LEXA has a plastic plate which looks like this:

This plastic plate is meant to make the rear of the case perfectly symmetrical with the front case fascia. Due to the way I have mounted my radiator the plate doesn't fit as it should.
Pic:

As you can see in this picture one of the support bars is in the way of the radiator.
This is your problem you say! Oh no no no, this is a simple problem to rectify, my problem lies with my tools.
I measured and marked what parts of this plastic plate needed to be cut:

I then proceeded to go to the shed to cut of the troublesome support bar with a cutting disk and my Sontax rotary tool. I power up the tool and nothing happens. Hmm, I check that the power at the socket in on and try again, still nothing. I try spinning the cutting disk with my fingers and it bursts into life but only for a second before I smell this weird smell and the rpm's of the tool gradually drop to nothing. I tried everything to get this crappy thing working again. I blew out the vents with the air compressor, this made it better but it still died eventually.

So it looks like I have to go see if I can go get it replaced under warranty but I doubt that. Dad being the efficient man he is sent the receipt to the tax agency along with other stuff so he could get his tax return tallied. This a real problem because this thing didn't come with any warranty slip so looks like I am stuck. I can't do any work on the case with out this tool so the mod will be on hold for a while. Unless the place I bought it from will swap it for a genuine Dremel , but I highly doubt this .

There is some good news in this though. I have ordered my HWLabs Black Ice GT Stealth along with another 2 metres of tubing and should have them by the end of the week. I'll keep you guys posted. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well bad news guys. Firstly the place I ordered the radiator hasn't responded to my payment so I need to give them a call and see what's up. Secondly the place I brought my Dremel knock off from won't replace it due to them not stocking them any more and the fact I don't have a receipt. The receipt would have cost $120AUD to get back from the tax accountant. There is good news now though. Dad brought me a brand new genuine Dremel 300 series and I also had my last exam today so I intend to spend tomorrow modding .

Now it's time for pics of my new toy .
Here is the nice a new box:

Here is the case, the blue box on the side holds the accessories:

A close up of the box, not a lot in it but I have all of the attachments from my broken knock off:

And finally here is the Dremel 300:

A close up shot:


I hope to get a lot of work done tomorrow guys, in between my driving lesson. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Ok guys, a small update of what I did today.

Lets rewind a bit. You remember the rear plastic plate of the case?

Well Today I cut it to accommodate my radiator:

Here it is installed:

And a side view:

Perfect fit, will look even better without the finger prints

Well that's all for now, may have an update tomorrow. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Ok time for a picture update. Officially all oh my schooling for this year has finished so after school I got right into modding.

I started by removing my plastic panels and dismantled my drive bays.
Here is a picture of the process.
Un-riveted:

Dismantled:

From here I removed the front intake fan housing because I needed to do a bit of work on it.
Here is the removed housing:

Due to me using a 3-pin power header on this fan I decided to drill a hole in the housing to make the routing of the cables easier.
Here is the fan (just a stock Cooler Master one my friend gave me):

And because I had some rubber grommets laying around I thought I may use one.
Pic of the housing and grommet:

Now to find the correct drill bit. This one fits perfectly on the inside of the grommet so I will use this as a base and step up the bit size if need be.
Pic of the drill bit and grommet:

Hole drilled (I needed to go a few bits larger for the correct hole size):

Grommet installed, perfect fit:

Now to have a look with the fan installed:

Fits perfectly and makes cable routing just a little bit easier.

On to the painting.
First coat of primer:

And the final coat of black with the grommet installed:

Looks pretty good if I don't say so myself.

That's it for today, with this part of the case dismantled I can finally finish the rest of my plastic mounting, tomorrow perhaps. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well guys I am having a hell of a time trying to contact the place that sells the HW Labs radiators here in Australia. Every time I call the phone just rings out and they aren't returning my emails. I figure they may be on holidays or moving store, they may even have closed down.

Well enough of the sad stuff, on to the modding .

I completed my disk drive cover today and I am quite proud of how it turned out, nothing went wrong haha.
Here is the piece of plastic I started with, I had already cut it to size and just had to add indents for rivets and extrusions on the case.
Here is a pic:

Same piece of plastic but with the protective plastic removed:

Pay no attention to the top left corner of the plexi, I slipped with the Dremel but it's ok, this part is covered by the top of the case anyway.
Now installed on to the window side of the drive bays:

It fits perfectly.
Now here is the support bar:

Plenty of room.

While I was doing this I also drilled a hole for the HDD thermal sensor and of course it isn't complete with out a nice rubber grommet.
Here is the hole (middle top, under the slit):

And now with the grommet installed:

Now doesn't that look much better.

Well that's all for now. I needed to keep myself occupied today, I have my driving test tomorrow and I am a bit nervous lol. Hopefully tomorrow arvo I can get the window side floppy bay cover installed. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Finally the update I promised guys, I know it's not a lot but I worked everyday the past week so I haven't had any time for modding.

I have completed the FDD cover.
Here is the piece cut, sanded and drilled ready to go with an assortment of mounting bolts.
Pic:

The exposed piece of plexi:

Installed with the disk drive bay cover:

A shot of them both together:

Now with a bit of UV light:

I know the glow looks a bit "blotchy" but in reality this plastic glows under any light and I have plenty of light in my case.
And finally a shot with the rear cover for the disk drives:


Looks quite good together I think but I think something is missing. I have an idea that I am looking to try out and hopefully it turns out. I think you guys will like it. Well that's all for now. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

YAY, I have heard back from the place I ordered my radiator from. They HAD moved stores and changed their website so that's why they didn't receive my order (I sent them an email a few days before Christmas inquiring about this). I am going to place an order when they start again in the new year (Jan 3rd I think).

Also I would like your opinions on something. As I was looking at the site where I will be getting my extra fans and grills etc. from I found that they had got this radiator in.
Alphacool NexXxos Pro II REV.2 Radiator (240mm):
http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod6172.htm
What do you guys think? Have any of you used this radiator or know anyone using one? This place stocks the HWLabs Black Ice radiators also but don't have the 240mm Stealth (I will have to ask about that when they open early Jan). Ordering the radiator from this store will save me a credit card surcharge and another postage bill. The radiator is also about $10AUD cheaper than the Black Ice Stealth 240mm but doesn't come with fittings, with the fittings they are about the same cost (fittings are $4AUD each ).

Anyway onto the modding. There is very little for me to do until I get my radiator because I can't paint that last bit of case until the holes are cut for the radiator fans and I can't mount the pump until the radiator is mounted.

I have however almost finished mounting my second to last piece of plastic.
Ok so here is the victim for today :twisted:, a piece of plastic cut to size and sanded correctly:

Here is how it will be mounted:

I will be using these small brackets to hold the piece of plastic in place:

Here are the first two brackets mounted, I have mounted the bracket on the existing screw holes from the outer disk drive bay and floppy disk bay cover.
Pic:

Here is another or the brackets mounted directly opposite the other two, I had to drill this hole:

And the final one installed on the HDD rack directly under the bracket shown in the last pic, once again I had to drill this hole:

Here is a pic of all the brackets installed in their correct places:


I haven't done any more to this piece of plastic or the last remaining one due to me running out of the screws I was using so no more work with plastic until I get some more.

I was however sidetracked by a little side project.
This is my ASUS EN8800GTX:

I was originally going to remove the plastic shroud from the fan and aluminium fins thinking it would yield better cooling until I found that two of the mounting screws were under the GRAW themed sticker (which is directly stuck into the default Nvidia one by the way). I scrapped this idea and after cleaning as much dust from the fan and aluminium fins of the cooler moved on to my next idea.
Sorry about this blurry pic guys, my camera doesn't like extreme close ups lol.
This is the a pic of the very edge of the PCB (furthest away from the DVI ports):

If you look in the center of the picture above the three capacitors right next to each other you will see the fan cable. Just above that is two little chips about 1cm squared, I have no idea what they do but due to my computer not being in a case I did a bit of poking around while everything was running to find "hot spots" and believe me when I touched these chips I burnt my finger tip quite badly.
Before I can get started on my mini mod I had to detach the fan cable so I could get in and around those little chips.
Here is a pic:

I had a little look in my bits box and found these Zalman RAM sinks. These were originally from a cooler I got for my 6600GT and due to it only having something like 4 RAM chips on board I had 4 left over.
Here they are:

I was originally going to mount the RAM sinks length ways (they are rectangular) so they would get better air flow from my side mounted case fan. Because the default 8800GTX cooler is a little bulky it was a little hard to do it this way so I settled with putting a single RAM sink across both of the chips.
Here is a pic of the sink installed:

The fan cable plugged back in:

And finally the card installed back into my system:


Even with this single RAM sink covering both chips the temp of the chips has dropped significantly at both idle and load. I don't have any actual temp readings but my trusty finger does the job . This is only temporary until I get my water block installed, then I will use two of the remaining 3 and cut them to size so they cover the whole area of the chips (at the moment there is about 3-4mm of chip showing each side of the RAM sink), I will also mount the RAM sinks to get the best airflow inside of my case.

Well that's all I have for now guys. I hope to get some more screws before New Years so I can finish mounting that plastic. Once again sorry for the blurry pictures, it's my cameras fault, not mine. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Well I was lucky and managed to go to the hardware store and get the screws later on today. Once I had them mounting this piece of plexi took only about half an hour. So enough talking, lets get modding.

Here are the screws I am using (there are more, these are just the ones I need):

Sorry the pic is from so far away.
Here they are cut to size and with the ends touched up by the Dremel:

This is how I am mounting the plastic. First I put the screw through the bracket and tighten it until it stops moving with a nut, I then put the piece of plastic in place and hold it there using dome nuts. I do it this way to make the plastic easier to remove while in the system.
Here is a semi-side on picture of the set up:

The protected piece of plastic installed:

Here is the plastic installed with the protection removed:

Now I know what your thinking, you are all think why is there a huge gap between the disk drive and floppy drive covers well here is the answer. The very last drive bay is where my reservoir is situated. Due to it being shorted than a CD drive I decided to leave it out of the disk drive cover and make a seperate one.
Here it is:

It is made out of a piece of mesh, it's not done yet. I still have to drill holes and install grommets for tubing pass through along with mounting holes plus I have to fix up the cuts and spray the silver mesh black.
Here is a shot of the CD and floppy drive bays almost finished:

Looks pretty good in my eye and it will look a lot better once I finish the reservoir cover and paint the drive bays black. I also have to do a few minor adjustments to some of the plexi pieces to make them sit flat and line up straight. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Sorry there hasn't been an update for a while guys. I have only 2 weeks of holidays left before my final year of school starts and me and my friends are trying to make the most of it.

Anyway, all that said I have actually had time for modding (well only today actually lol).
Ok, see this gap:

This is where my reservoir is to me mounted, it isn't as long as a CD drive so I have decided to cover the cap with a piece of mesh and cut pass through holes for the tubing.
Here is the piece of mesh cut to size and holes drilled:

Test fitting, fits perfectly:

Bolted on to see what it looks like:

Mesh painted and installed, sorry no pics of the painting:

A shot of all the drive bays installed, nearly finished YAY:

A lighted shot:

This whole top section is almost complete. I still have to paint the actual drive bays black and trim down a few pieces of the plexi to get it to sit right.

Next we move on to some painting.
Here is the victim:

This piece is the very front of the case, it helps support the drive bays. It doesn't really need painting because it won't be seen but you can't paint a case and leave a piece out .
Here is the painted piece:


After this was painted I thought that I may as well re attach it to the front fan bracket.
The front panel, fan bracket, dust trap, screws and grommets:

The fan bracket fitted in place:

Riveted together:

Grommets installed:

Dust trap and screws installed so I don't lose them:

A picture of the lot:


That's all I did today. The end is getting near, all I need to do is get the radiator and mount it and get some fans and a few more bits and pieces. I also have to make a plexi pump platform so I can fit the pump in the case. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

No replies? I'm heartbroken lol.

Well today was my brothers birthday so I didn't get much work done so before his friends came over I put together the case that were done for some progress shots for you guys.
Here are the pics.
A side on view of the entire case:

All of the drive bays:

A close up of the optical drive bays:

A close up of the HDD bays:

The PSU cover and radiator:

The expansion slots:


Getting really close to completion now. Let me know what you guys think, suggestions are always welcome. Until then...

Happy Modding.

 

Ok guys, here are some pics as promised.
Here we have my mobo tray:

I need to make a cut so I can rout cables, here is a before shot:

And thanks to my trusty Dremel, here is an after shot:


Now onto the painting.
Here is a shot of the primed mobo tray:

And here is the painted mobo tray:


And finally some construction pics. I have attached the rear panel, mobo tray and front panel together, looks quite good in black.
Here are the pics.



And here is a pic with the top panel installed...just cos I can lol:


I still haven't got my paint yet so I haven't finished the alterations to the drive bays, I hope to get them done soon. Until then...

Happy Modding.