Case Mod *** PHINIX AURORA *** - 29/04/2013 - update time !!!

[phinix]

Originally Posted by mnpctech

Any new updates? excited to see what you do next, phinix

Originally Posted by mnpctech

Haven't heard any updates, hope everything is OK?

Hi, I'm here, everything is ok now, thanks for asking

Apologies for not coming back to you guys earlier - I was sick first part of December, then second part I was on holidays, that is why there was no updates. I was visiting our forum on my phone during this break. I worked on few bits at the end of November, but didn't have time to finish it, so didn't want to show half done job, wouldn't be a nice update.
Most of November was no go for me, cause it was raining all the time in Glasgow (weekends mostly) and couldn't go out and use my power tools.

I'm back home now and hopefully (if the weather let me do it) I'll do some more work on things I started and show you guys what has been done so far, this weekend.

I have cut main aluminum backplate that covers whole rear part behind the mobo. Also cut out walls for power chamber and acrylic bits that will support those aluminum bits. I didn't have time to finish them (trim, file, sand, polish etc) that's why I didn't show it before.
Also have been working on some new bits for drive cage - nice blue acrylic "frames" for each drive that will go on each white shelve. Will show that this weekend.

Now, let us all pray for a sunny weekend in Scotland!
...well... dry at least

[Editor22]

praying for a dry weekend in Scotland? I'll help but I'm not sure it will be much help

hope you had a nice time over Christmas mate

[Nutman]

Got no workshop???

[Nutman]

Originally Posted by Nutman

Got no workshop???

Nevermind. I read post #74 where you explain this.

I hope you get money for a good workshop shed soon.

Oh, and got a question/suggestion:

The acrylic bars running through the SDD holders; could they be replaced by acrylic tubes that could somehow be incorporated into the water loop? Would look cool, I think.

[Mankz]

A little progress is better than no progress at all..

[Waynio]

Originally Posted by Mankz

A little progress is better than no progress at all..

I say this to myself every time I update with anything I feel is insignificant but is definitely progress.

Plus I don't really care about perfect presentation for work in progress.

[mnpctech]

praying for a Sunny day for ya!

[phinix]

Originally Posted by Editor22

praying for a dry weekend in Scotland? I'll help but I'm not sure it will be much help

hope you had a nice time over Christmas mate

Cheers I was praying but looks like I'm a huge sinner, cause it was raining today after all

Thanks, had a great Christmas break - we have traveled to Zakopane - Winter capitol of Poland. Nice place, millions of tourists, I love the look of Highlands in winter. It was like a feast mayhem - lots of fantastic food and drinks. Also skiing, horse raiding, kulig (horses and sledges), frying sausages over the fire etc. I froze my ass of one night, when we were on sledges pulled by a horse - it was dark in a woods, -15C, we only had some fire torches - one hour raiding to the place were we could sit down and eat - brilliant thing to do, but I wasn't dressed properly for that temperature Lovely week, it was hard to go back to work

Originally Posted by Nutman

Nevermind. I read post #74 where you explain this.

I hope you get money for a good workshop shed soon.

Oh, and got a question/suggestion:

The acrylic bars running through the SDD holders; could they be replaced by acrylic tubes that could somehow be incorporated into the water loop? Would look cool, I think.

That is a good idea, but sounds like a lot of changes to the stuff I already have. Tubes would be necessary for it and what I have are full rods.

Yeah, hopefully I'll get a new shed this summer!

Originally Posted by Mankz

A little progress is better than no progress at all..

Yep, and here it is!

Originally Posted by Waynio

I say this to myself every time I update with anything I feel is insignificant but is definitely progress.

Plus I don't really care about perfect presentation for work in progress.

I know that feeling. So decided to post all I got right now, without waiting for a perfect finish or better photos. It's good to show something that has been done, even if it's not fully finished - normally I would keep it all on hold even longer, till bigger update, but you guys are right - even small steps are worth to show.

Originally Posted by mnpctech

praying for a Sunny day for ya!

Bill, you must be the same sinner as I am! Cause our prayers were not listened - I had couple of hours before it started to drop a bit
Well, I woke up around noon today Stayed too long last night, doing nothing as always, just sitting on internet, reading stuff, watching some youtube, checking out some updates of projects on bit-tech, stuff like that. I made some sushi yesterday, so was listening to Japanese music whole day
So when went out to do some work, I had just couple of hours before it started to rain. But did some bits and here they are guys!

As I mentioned before I wanted to cover whole rear of motherboard side (actually right side of the case).
I cut out a big L shaped piece of 2mm aluminum and shaped it a bit to fit into the case.
I cut out some L shape supporters for a bottom of the wall.




To mount it I had to use the existing vertical bit that hold motherboard tray - didn't want to cut it out, it is good additional support for it. So to mount this big L shaped wall evenly to the existing part of mobo tray I had to fabricate small support bits. I drilled them and mounted to the mobo tray using rivets - right now they are black, temporary mounts, I have white ones for a final stage.
Here they are, bottom one (at the bottom of the mobo tray) and top one (on the right of the mobo)






Please don't worry about all the scratches and imperfections on the edges - they will all be covered with powder coat later and won't be seen.

Here is how it looks in the case.






Also drilled some holes for small long L shape support frames from photo #1.
They will be mounted with rivets to the bottom of the case.




Here is L shape wall mounted in the case. Now, don't worry about those support bits sticking out or difference in layers of those aluminum sheets - motherboard will cover it all when mounted, so it will all look flash.










Please ignore black screws - these are also temporary - all will be mounted with white rivets and screws at the end.

And here is a back of it. Those small l shaped support long bits are not screwed in yet.
Whole wall is very steady, I'm very happy with the result.










Now, these are 10mm thick opal acrylic bits I cut out before Christmas. I had to polish them and make perfectly even before I use them to mount power chamber walls to it.




Big one is for front bit, small one goes to rear of the case and will hold top wall of power chamber.

Because it rained at the end of the day, I had to stop working with my power tools, so didn't have a chance to cut out one more C shape bit that will go on right side, opposite to the one here on photo.




Small one is temporary mounted with double side tape.






Here is how it will be mounted. Side wall, front and top at the end. It's just a mock-up, so apologies for those gaps










That would be all for now. I hope you guys like this small update. I will get back to it next weekend, of course if it won't rain!
So, till next time!

[jeckulz]

Interesting.
Im not entirely sure of what youre going to do next, so therefore it must be good.

Fault my logic, I dare you

[Editor22]

Nice update mate, your holiday sounds awesome!! Think I'll have to add the Kulig to my bucket list

[Gtek]

Originally Posted by phinix

Thanks, had a great Christmas break - we have traveled to Zakopane - Winter capitol of Poland. Nice place, millions of tourists, I love the look of Highlands in winter. It was like a feast mayhem - lots of fantastic food and drinks. Also skiing, horse raiding, kulig (horses and sledges), frying sausages over the fire etc. I froze my ass of one night, when we were on sledges pulled by a horse - it was dark in a woods, -15C, we only had some fire torches - one hour raiding to the place were we could sit down and eat - brilliant thing to do, but I wasn't dressed properly for that temperature Lovely week, it was hard to go back to work

I went to Krynica last winter. Skiing at -19C almost killed me Not High Tatras, but it was good

Nice progress, anyway

[Attila]

Didn't even know you started a new project. Love the hard drive mounts.

[mnpctech]

haha, I wish I could steal your patience...

*no doubt this would do very well in LL's case mod contest, if only they allowed all models to be entered...pffft

[OcSurfe]

Originally Posted by mnpctech

haha, I wish I could steal your patience...

*no doubt this would do very well in LL's case mod contest, if only they allowed all models to be entered...pffft

ditto,
as ive got older ive seem to lost my patience,
im sure its not meant to work like that!

[marius_mym]

I really like these builds based on m-atx cases and is even better when the case is a Lian Li !
Awesome job so far !

[phinix]

Originally Posted by jeckulz

Interesting.
Im not entirely sure of what youre going to do next, so therefore it must be good.

Fault my logic, I dare you

Challenge accepted!:P
Haha Next step will be close up power chamber, install radiator on the front of the case and fabricate cover for it. Lot work still to come

Originally Posted by Editor22

Nice update mate, your holiday sounds awesome!! Think I'll have to add the Kulig to my bucket list

Thanks! Yep, kulig is a nice thing to do... once you are properly dressed!

Originally Posted by Gtek

I went to Krynica last winter. Skiing at -19C almost killed me Not High Tatras, but it was good

Nice progress, anyway

Thank you!
Yeah, I was in Krinica couple of times, good hills for skying, even better pubs for drinking

Originally Posted by Attila

Didn't even know you started a new project. Love the hard drive mounts.

Cheers man! Yeah, started a new one, couldn't live without modding

Originally Posted by mnpctech

haha, I wish I could steal your patience...

*no doubt this would do very well in LL's case mod contest, if only they allowed all models to be entered...pffft

yeah - it is a shame they only did that for one case!
I guess they wanted to push that model, maybe wasn't that popular from the horde...

Originally Posted by marius_mym

I really like these builds based on m-atx cases and is even better when the case is a Lian Li !
Awesome job so far !

Thank you very much - Lian Li makes some nice cases, good quality and finish. But stock is not for us modders!

[phinix]

Guys, couple of days ago I received a big package from GIGABYTE
Yep, Gigabyte liked my Aurora project and kindly supported it with one of their fantastic mATX motherboards - GA-Z77M-D3H.
Very nice little board - it will keep my i5 OCed 24/7

[phinix]

Guys, I was so glad that new weekend started and planned more work on my case.
Guess what happened?!
It's like a bad spell! First, in Saturday morning it started to snow!
Then after few hours it rained!!!!
I was so pissed off, I couldn't believe in this, so dressed a bit warmer and still went out!
Unfortunately it started to rain even more, I soaked and couldn't work any longer. I didn;t want to damage my power tools on that rain, so packed it all up and went back home
All I did is I cut out, shaped, filed and polished second C shape 10mm thick opal acrylic support stand for power chamber.
S0 here it is: both stands together, new one next to old one (phone made photos). Both same, will be installed on the front of power chamber as showed on that sketchup picture.

I hope I will have more luck with weather next weekend!

[phinix]

A little add to the log.
Last weekend, well, it rained again.... So I did a little work on those support bits.

I'm going to mount them using my old technique - brass inserts in acrylic bits.
I marked spots for drilling on each of them. One little M3 brass insert on top



So I drilled the holes, 14 in total, then pushed all those inserts into the holes...




..and as you guys remember my technique from Phinix Cube project, I used soldering iron to push those inserts into the acrylic.




All done, looks nice, doesn't it?









Cool, they really feel nice in hands, smooth and shiny.

Now, personal moment: just wanted to show what I got for my Name Day from my ladies - nice pair of headphones. Really great, sound is awesome, especially in games - I can hear sounds I never heard before playing on speakers. It is time to re-play all old games now

[Nutman]

Nice technique with the brass inserts. How well do they hold up once you start tightening those bolts?