Case Mod - In Progress Project: Elegant-Li

Project: Elegant-Li

Hi all. I have been out to of modding game for quite a while now. I try to pop in when I can but it is nowhere near as much as I would like. I come to you all with a new project. Something that I have been planning and pondering for the better part of 8 months now and actually started just before Christmas 2010. I was planning on having this project finished by now but since Uni finished for the year late last November I have had set back after setback. The most major setback being work with a close second coming to a project car I purchased, an AE86 Toyota Corolla Levin . Well enough excuses for now, lets start with some background.

Background:
I originally got the idea for this project when one of my friends fathers asked me to build him a new desktop. He gave me $1000AUD and 1 week to bring him a quote and a build running PC, I delivered his request in little under 4 days. When searching for a nice budget case I came across the Lancool PC-K series of cases. For the size and the price the cost was quite cheap and from what I could gather online they were a nice reliable chassis. I ended up choosing to make the build in a Lancool PC-K58 and knew straight away that I had chosen the right case for the job. With tons of space for all the latest hardware, relatively good looks, good cooling and a great price I knew straight away that I had found my next project case but there were a few things that bugged me about it, the plastic and the weight. I knew at the time that Lancool were pretty much a budget version of Lian Li so I jumped on the Lian Li website to find which case they modeled the PC-K58 on, that's when I found the Lian Li PC-P50. I settled on this to be the perfect case for my new project. A relatively roomy case without being too large and made entirely out of aluminum were a few of the qualities that swayed my decision.

Design:
This project was initially going to be a complete white project called "Snow" but after receiving the Lian Li and just seeing the quality and beauty of the brushed black exterior panels I couldn't bring myself to paint it. I then re-named the project "Elegant-Li" and decided to keep the exterior as is while making a few structural modifications and painting the interior white.

In terms of modifications I have a few up my sleeve. I'll be performing the standard mods such as a case window and adding a false floor but I will also be doing a few extra things that I will keep secret for now.

As with my last build (Lexa), i will be incorporating a water cooling system into the design. It won't be over the top and I wont go into the details right now because I haven't finished working out the details yet.

The colour scheme as stated above will be a black exterior with a white interior. I haven't decided between black, gray, or white cable sleeving yet but that's not a major issue. The water cooling will consist of either a single or duel loop (still haven't decided) with dark blue coolant.

The entire interior will be lit with the help of a few pure white LED strips.

For those who followed my previous build you would know that I'm not one to put my thoughts to paper as picture form very often. Here is a teaser of how (I hope) this project will turn out.


Sponsors:
Speedy IT Services!

http://speedyitservices.com.au/
Speedy IT is a local IT group run by a good friend of mine who I met through my Uni degree. Speedy IT Services specialize in PC repairs and website design but also sell hardware, software and watercooling products. I helped Paul (the owner) get things going and it is great to see the busines take off in the local market. When Paul decided he wanted to build his first water cooled PC just under 12 months I helped him get everything organised from the ground up and to repay me he agreed to be my sponsor for this current build. Since then Paul has become a supplier for a lot of high end water cooling gear and is the only retailer in South Australia that actually sells this high end gear to the general public.

That's all for today, call it a teaser. I hope to get some actual progress shots up tomorrow night. Until then.

Happy Modding.

 

*Steals the front seat*

 

*pushes KidMod off the front seat*

 

* slaps both kids around the head for being cheeky, puts them in the back seat where they belong and sits down in front seat *

 

*Pulls out knife and threatens djzic and fingers*

"What the hell are we doing!?"

*Tapes himself to front seat*

"Oh forget it!"

 

* Is glad he doesn't need a seat. You can see a lot more if you're standing on your toes. *

 

Damn it...

 

*bursts through roof and uses the latest jetpack to hover over every other noob*

 

*just standing there... watching....*

 

*black wings crossing the street in the middle of the night somewhere near J's house. AnG3L is near the people whisper and suddenly a loud voice says "MOD ON BUDDY!!". Silence covers the scene once again while the black wings crossing the street again barely visible....*

 

What the hell!?

Guys, stop being so immature, it's my front seat.

 

isn't there a whole front row?

 

Quiet up front please! K thx.

 

*subtly boots everyone off front row and fills seat with coats*

See what you've made me do?!

Oh, and me watch!

 

* Goes searching for this as a torrent as his live presentation enjoyment is obviously ruined now *

 

*Burns coats and spreads fat arse out on the front row while mars- bar- man buys mars bar*

 

Thanks for the support guys, I'll hopefully have something for you soon.

 

Ok, sorry for the delay in the updates guys but the start of the new University year has kept me pretty busy for the last few weeks, I had a lot of preparation to do.

Even though I have done a bit of work on this project I am going to start the updates right back at the start.

Lets start with the un-boxing .

Well here is how the case arrived at the post office for me:

As you can see it was wrapped nicely with no signs of damage.

How nice of them .

A shot of the box itself:

At this point I was quite excited to tear this box open and admire the case until I saw this:

They had sent me the wrong case . I ordered the bog stock Lian Li PC-P50 and they sent me the higher end model with flashy lights, a black interior and a case window. I was quite angry about this, a simple mistake to make yes because the only differentiation between the two cases is the sticker on the box. The company I purchased the case through dispatched a courier to exchange the incorrect case with the correct one. I have to give PC Case Gear props though, they made the exchange very quickly and hassle free, the didn't complain and they were very apologetic, a great bunch of guys.

Here are some pics of the case as it was straight out of the box:





The entire construction of the PC-P50 is aluminum excluding 1 piece, you'll see it in the second picture of the case, where the Lian Li badge is mounted. I have always heard of the quality of Lian Li cases but never expected it to be as good as it was, everyone should have the pleasure to work with a Lian Li case at least once.

Well that's the un-boxing out of the way, now we can look at some goodies I purchased for this project .

 

Soon after receiving the correct case I received a few bits and pieces that I intend to use in this project:

What we have here are 5x 120mm Noiseblocker PL-2 1400rpm fans, 1x 100mm Scythe 1000rpm fan and 2x Scythe Himuro drive bay HDD coolers.

A shot of the Noiseblocker fans:


A shot of the Scythe fan:


And a few shots of the Scythe Himuro coolers:





Well the fans are pretty self explanatory, to move air but the amount of them is due to them being on sale . That's also why I settled on the Scythe Himuro, it looks awesome and does what I want it to do, it was also 2 for the price of 1 lol.

Next up i'll be stripping the case.

 

I like your choice of case , will be interesting to see what you do with it!