Case Mod - In Progress Project: Wet Rarity - 16th MAY 2013 - Revisited, Revamped, Retubed, still unfinished.

PART 1: Once upon a time...
PART 2: Total Whiteout
PART 3: Now in 20% more colour
PART 4: All of my Bits.
PART 5: Now with added Pony!
PART 6: Thrills, bills and coolant spills!!
PART 7: DISASTER ON THE PCI EXPRESS!!
PART 8: It'll be allright on the Light
PART 9: I didn't know you could burn juice.
PART 10: Stitch by stitch, putting it together.
PART 11: Revisited, Revamped, Retubed, still unfinished.


Anyone who mods PC's will get inspiration from anywhere, and if they're like me, get bored of their mods quickly and want to do something new and refreshing. they may also be influenced by other modders or new products and innovations. "Wet Rarity is the result of all these points combined.

Project: Fluttershy by AK71 showed me anything is possible in modding. In a world where PCs are made to look like sports cars, fighter jets, and many other things that scream out MANLY. here's a guy taking the bold step, showing off love for a yellow and pink pony. he jumped into a lions den and walked out intact. respect, he has it.

Now I'm no stranger to the Brony movement, but I've never considered going out and showing it. (and this is coming from a guy that shows his love for Anime/games by driving a car covered in vinyl graphics of an anime/game character)
After following the progress of Project Fluttershy, It got me thinking "maybe i can refresh my PC with a MLP theme". then a particular episode focused on my favourite character, a unicorn called Rarity, and it set my mind off on modding ideas.


All mods start with a blank canvas.. however mine was not blank, This Antec 1200 was modded to fit in water cooling, and an attempt at a 'Mobile Suit Gundam 00' theme. there was graphics to go on the side panels and top, but they were never printed off in the end. the final straw was when both the power and reset switches broke.

Yes, i had to hot wire my PC to start it every time. I also went with a straight repaint, i didn't do any external mods, only internal stuff. nowadays, the holes in the top bug me (being yellow doesn't help) and the wire mesh on the roof fan looks silly. hopefully these are things i can remedy


Inside is another matter. a recent upgrade to a 560ti left me reconfiguring my WC loop to just CPU cooling. but now that a water block is sourced, it will be a single loop of a 2500K and the 560ti. cooling is provided by a 240 rad in the drive bays, and by a Phoyba Xtreme 200 rad underneath the Antec big boy roof fan. this did require some extensive cutting with a Dremel, but it does fit well. unfortunately i could not get enough space to fit a 2nd 240 rad on the rear fans.
Elsewhere, there's a mess of cathode wires, power cables, sata cables and while some effort was made to keep them tidy, just trying to contain the massive bulk of cables proved difficult, even in a case as big as the 1200.
It's only saving grace, was the case fans. all the stock 120mm fans were replaced with Akasa Black Apache PWM fans. they were all chained up together and were controlled by the CPU temp. this kept the case cool, nice and quiet. however, what i did not account for is my WC pump, a Laing DCC 18w.


Anyway, enough waffle, let's start modding.
The main plan of action is this.

• 
  Change stock Antec 1200 HDD cage for something that can fit 4 drives. move front panel box elsewhere, decide if keeping optical drive or not. build a air box/tunnel that covers PSU which will link to HDD cooler
  Re-sculpt the roof panel, adding in vandal switches and a fill port. New front panel, banishing that hexagonal mesh front.
  Change my (green stained) 3/8" tubing to 1/2" clear tubing. Acquire compression fittings for the task. Converting my bay reservoir to a tube reservoir. Acquire the new DCC PWM pump and use Mayhems Aurora fluid. Fit water block to graphics card, acquire and paint a EVGA backplate.
  White interior, White thermal armour for motherboard. Outside, keep the current white side panels, repaint other areas in a nice purple. Undecided if i want to alter the window or not.
  Print and apply vinyl graphics this time.

Now i apologise for not having any sketchup plans of what the finished product will look like, or even a quick 'napkin sketch' but that's because I find it easier to do things on the fly. if it does not fit, then i can see where i've gone wrong, and remake it or scrap and try something new. Sure this may result in a few scrapped ideas and materials, but if you prototype with basic materials such as card and tape. it's not so heartbreaking if you need to scrap it, or break it down to make templates.

bottom line, there's a vision in my head, i can't show it to you, but it's there. hopefully my hands will be able to make it


first stop, the hard drive cage. I have 3 HDD drives and 1 SSD drive. and while it wasn't critical it was secured down, i never liked the fact that my SSD was just placed on the floor of the case, being held in place by the cables plugged into it. so I wanted to fit it in a HDD cage with the rest.


This Silverstone HDD cooler looked attractive enough, the centre curved section I can apply a graphic to later on. I purchased the silver one due to painting it white, it'd be easier. either way, they both come with a rather bright, blue LED fan. this had to go for 2 reasons. 1: I prefer to have any lighting source be switched on/off. 2: Blue LED lights in PCs, I can't stand it. everyone and their mother at some point gets a PC case with blue LED fans, drives me up the wall.

This fan was quickly swapped out with a Scythe GT i had lying around mounted with some anti-vibe rubber plugs. I would have preferred using a PWM fan, and had a really good Phoyba Nano2G i could use, but no switchable LEDs and red and black colour scheme would not have matched what I'm looking for. (I'd seriously recommend them if you're looking for a PWM fan, it's better than a Black Apache)

The front panel got a coat of gloss white, and the mesh inside was first painted white, then painted in metallic purple. it was then installed back onto the cages, then test fitted in the case (i like to put parts together loose, stare at it for a while, and see if any ideas pop in my head for changes. I'm a bit weird like that)

 

Yay! Wet Rarity lives! Nice to see you're going ahead with this mate, and thanks for the praise

Auto sub of course and you are off to a good start. Looks like you may be the first to have a water cooled FiM case mod, Flooterdex is still in the planning stages.

 

Goodluck with the mod! I'm no brony but I'm all for orginal mods!
How did you watercool that gtx560? I'm quite fasinated by it...

Oh and one more thing:

 

But seriously, best of luck mate! Show that case who designs the fashions around here!

​

/subscribed

 

Fluttershy project goes good! now one more MLP themed project... maybe i should take a look on that show?
*scratch head*

 

And hup goes the pony hype Me likey. Make me something totally cute!

 

There's your problem. "Boy band" Gundam is a gateway drug to MLP. If you were properly raised on "Bright-slap" Gundam, this wouldn't have happened.

 

looks very promising and excellent start for the project log, man

seems like you have an interesting setup for the power plugs at the back (dual psu?). could you post some more pics and details on what's involved and how it's hooked up?

best of luck with the mod, will be watching

 

wait a second!!! is this cp850 in this case???? very interesting! can i ask You how it's performs, is it loud? run stable?

 

I Gotta have something to be 'first' with.

the 560ti is not watercooled yet. the crystal block was just a means to reconnect my WC loop together again after removing my last WCed graphics card (a GTX470 if you're curious. it's going to live in the Vortex PC)

Debating on if i need to add a horn on the top panel. aside from that, there's not much you can do to make a box look like a pony... hmm, maybe some really long case feet.....

I grew up with Wing, then watched G, then Turn A. skimmed through the movie versions of MSG. movie version of 0083. CCA. skipped Seed, then 00. couldn't be bothered with Unicorn, and AGE. got Zeta (movie and tv) 8th MS and ZZ to watch

Watched MLP on a whim, wondered what the fuss my friends were on about. Identified with a few characters, got the adult humour. found it entertaining and ignored the fact they're ponies. it was like watching something like Animaniacs, or disney cartoons

There's no dual PSU here, Veletar is right in that it's the Antec CP-850 PSU. a much larger PSU than normal. (that's a 120mm fan on the front of it) that's about the height of 3 5.25" drive bays.
My plan is to make a false floor in the case, that runs from the top of the PSU, to the HDD cage.

the power plugs on the back, are actually toggle switches to power the cathodes. One thing I like to have is lights i can turn off. this can be helpful in removing glare on the screen when gaming, to just being able to sleep at night in the same room as it, without it lighting the room up. they will be removed for this mod, a new NZXT white LED lighting kit will be installed in this case.

As for the CP-850 itself. I've had no issues with it in terms of stability. it's dead quiet and the fan spins slowly and it doesn't pump out a lot of heat. mind you, I've only ever ran 1 graphics card from it. it has modular connections to run another GFX card from it, but not 3 or 4. there's potentially enough wattage to do this, it's just that you'll need to use molex adaptors.

If i could change it, i would. it's rather too large really. the cable lengths are far too long as well. I'm probably going to have to work out how to shorten them down in order to fit in the case, especially since I was contemplating on using braided extensions. (I don't feel too brave about braiding it myself)

 

just glimpses over the thread but you could make a custom res for the horn ... maybe

 

Just an idea for your PSU wires http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=2264 I can always give you more info on how I did my pink ones

 

Another Pony mod?
It will be very interesting to follow this.

 

Total Whiteout


Part 2 - Total Whiteout

I'm going to say this up front. i hate painting anything white. it's such an awkward colour to get to look right.
"So why make a case mod that is predominately white?"
*sigh* anything for the things you love..

So first things first, gut the case and prepare it for painting. problem #1. without attempting to bodge a new WC CPU loop (mostly because I just purged my WC parts of the horrible green Feser 1 cooling fluid), this would leave me without a working CPU cooler/working PC for x amount of time. Didn't really want to buy a air cooler just for a temporary solution, and i purchased my 2500k OEM, so no retail cooler... wait, isn't 1156 coolers the same as 1155 mounting method... yes it is, i have a retail i3 1156 cooler around somewhere, that might do.

Now, viewers of a nervous disposition, or those watching with the family... i advise you to send the kids to bed, because frankly, i'm going to be showing some pornographic filth in the next picture..


Yes, is the sexy Sabertooth stripped naked, exposing it's delicate parts. (the mobo tray is not part of the build, just the boards temporary home)

Method to this madness, access to the TUF thermal armor.

Which has received a new coat of armor, or rather, a coat of adhesive white vinyl. I've been experimenting with the stuff for a while now, and it sure saves me swearing a lot painting it white. Some may call the black areas sloppy, but i do like the 'highlight' aspect of it.


placing it loosly on the top of the Sabertooth, you can see the effect i'm going for here. By the way, those green sections on the heatsinks have now been removed, and will be repainted in purple, as soon as i find a suitable nail polish in the right colour (nail polish makes for a fantastic enamel based detail paint for small details)


While the white vinyl was out, i also decided to fix a previous painting disaster. Ordered a EVGA backplate for the 560ti. painted it and then had a bad reaction from the paint ( I assume some contaminant was on the plate before painting.) so i sanded most of the rough paint down, out with the vinyl, cut to shape and attach.



Oh cock, i have to cut out all those holes....

Anyway, here's a shot of it on the 560ti. the EK waterblock will be added onto the card once i'm ready to start adding the WC loop.



Finally, since there was a brief day where the sun was out. took the case and primed/painted it white as well.

And I swear it was clean and dust free, but doesn't paint just love to show you when you screwed up and left some fluff about, nothing to disastrous.

Anyway, i'm off to get cracking on the externals of the case, so i'll leave you with a shot of the temporary PC setup

 

look good so far! Are you going to paint white radiators on the MB? It`ll be extremely cool!

 

Yay! An update!! Looks like you got a good finish with the paint/vinyl. I wanted to use a Sabertooth in my build just for the thermal armour but couldn't afford the LGA1155 CPU

 

I'll probably cover over the rad sides with white vinyl, leaving the core and endcaps black, mostly due to not affecting the cooling of the rads. have not 100% decided yet.

there's a few air bubbles in the vinyl and not every place in the case is white (only the visible bits are, the rear side is still silver from the last mod) i was going to paint the TUF armor, but tried the vinyl out. it's pretty easy to do, and with a hairdryer to heat it up, it can stretch and mould around things. the big challenge will be the mouse

 

Now in 20% more colour


Using an i3 heatsink for a new generation i5 CPU may not be the best thing for low temperatures.. speaking of heatsinks...


the green sections of the VRM and southbridge heatsinks are removable (sneaky screws in the VRM blocks, glue on the southbridge) and were painted purple. While it's hard to use, nail polish makes for a nice enamel coat, that's hard wearing and chip resistant. While this colour doesn't have the metallic flake the purple spraycan has, i think it's a good colour match.

Speaking of that purple spraycan, it saw more action, and in a big way. but first, since My Little Diva is going to be more valuable, I'll have to deactive the security robot guarding it


Now that he's off, here's the new front of the case

One of the other PC mods i'm starting soon is a TJ-07 build based around NERF guns. It seems 95% of all TJ-07 builds i've seen modded, end up with smooth, one piece front panels. I want airflow for my TJ-07, so it's inheriting the 1200's hex mesh front panels and HDD cages, meanwhile, Wet Rarity here will have a more streamlined front panel.
Debating on the merit of built in optical drives. I acquired an external DVD burner drive, so i may not put a drive in this PC. the Akasa allinone front panel will end up white, i have to keep it because not only is it a card reader, but it's also my only source of front panel USB and audio ports since i scrapped the original 1200 front panel, at the top of the case.

above that is 3 white blanking panels (which need stripping down and repainting again/vinyl coated) and 3 unpainted black blanking panels from the TJ07. unfortunately i won't be able to use all of them and make the front blank, because the 240 rad in the drive bays needs venting for air. so i'm thinking of a inward curved piece of mesh, exposing the tube reservoir mounted in front (so you can see the Aurora fluid in action)


A shot of my old fans, Silent eagles. i switched these out for the Black Apache, due to their PWM control, which wasn't necessary, as the fans never really sped up to deal with the temps.. However they're going to move into the NERF pc, so I'll reuse the eagles. their white blades will help with the mod as well. (however, i can trade my SE 1000's for SE versions, i can keep my PWM control system, that'd be most welcome)
also pictured is the tube reservoir that will be in the mod. it did come from a DDC 140 res top. a lucky buy of a 200 xRes from the market place was the right size to replace this tube on the DDC pump top, and the endcaps from the 200 res makes this small tube reservoir here. it's currently filled with my old green fluid. when draining down, i wanted to find out if the res had more or less volume than the bay res (less would be better) and it turned out to be less, this is good news (aurora is expensive, so if i can use less than 1L will be good. my old loop used a touch over a 1L bottle)


While at a convention, i came across a MLP seller, and saw these lovely embroidered logo pieces. I've never seen an embroidery used in a PC mod, so i figure i can use them somewhere in Wet Rarity.


And i've worked out what i'm doing with the Rads, stay tuned to the next update to find out why they've been taped up like this and more.



Leak testing the 200 tube on the DDC pump top, last time i fitted it to a pump, it leaked due to a bad O ring seal and thus killed a working pump... this time, not taking chances.. she's been in there for a week

 

That's an interesting idea with the embroidered cutie marks... Looking forward to see where they end up!

 

Masking comes off after being shot with some purple. Not too bad looking, but not finished yet.


The white vinyl strikes again, adding a nice finish to the radiators, along with the fan spacers. now if only I can find screws long enough to mount them and the fans to the radiator