You might have seen me around the forum and asking about things for my scratch build that I'm planing. Well I'm still planing that one. However since I haven't done any modding for 4 years or so I thought it might be a good idea to start small and do some practice first. Since I was still rather young last time I hope that my skills have improved somewhat through motor control activities and knowledge after watching many project logs. So I thought that I should start with brushing up my old Lian-Li PC-71 that have served me well for almost 8 years. The name might change later on in the project when I know better where it's heading but Dragon Li seamed good since we have both the Purple and the Elegant Li in the logs so I though I should follow the trend for now at least Since I have been building it how it is now over a period of 3-4 years I thought I should start with bringing you all up to speed by posting what I have done so far. Since I don't have to much time today I though I should start with version 1.0 of this that I had for some time before I got water cooling. Later I will post version 1.5 where I add some water cooling. Though I can tell you in advance that version 1.5 is not as documented and I don't have any pictures on the finished one since they where on a disk that crashed with many of the log pictures so they are lost to the world Though I will take a picture of how it looks now before I take it apart just to show you how it looks minus the water cooling. Even though it looks rather much like 1.0 atm. The pictures is somewhat in chronological order though I have been jumping around in tasks allot and doing different things I guess you could say I was multithreading but only did one thread at a time That's me in a nutshell Even took some pictures now to fill in some of the mods I did before so don't worry if you feel like you missed some step along the way Version 1.0 Uploaded April 9:th 2011 Version 1.5 Uploaded April 19:th 2011 ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ So let's start with some pictures then. Let's start with showing you my workspace where I did most of the work on version 1.0 That would all turn into this: But that's not related Later on I was doing some modding at my parents house too when I was there during the summer vacation. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well on to the the victim here shall we the case. Ohh the beauty I still remember the wow feeling when I unboxed it So her is the obsidian beauty And some inside pictures Oooh it's so shiny. Stripped This was an idea that I had for handle on the case. It's a plexiglas blue LED light decorations with really strong LED:s. I even Bought a 3 and 2 mm aluminium piece to strengthen it but unfortunately that idea came to a end since it fell down on the floor while working on it and shattered ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ So what did I have in this baby then? Feels rather weak now days but it was a good board when I bought it North-bridge cooler removed oh behold the nForce2 wonder Let's add some better and foremost more silent alternative. There we go much better. While I was at it I decided to attach some small aluminium heat sinks I had laying around. In hindsight I should have saved those for a later use since those chip probably didn't need any extra cooling and now they are on there very good since that 2 component thermal glue I used is rather strong ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ So on to some The first victim for my newly bought Dremel was the side panel that I believed needed a window so the components could get some sunlight. Wouldn't want the components to live in the dark would we... They might go blind if they did Didn't have access to any good marking tape and I honestly didn't think of using that since in my mind paper would be much better to draw on. My mind plays a few tricks on me sometimes. So here was my first problem started to cut on the side but the paper wouldn't want to stay in place for long so I had to solve it somehow. So I cut out the paper piece and glued it onto protective film that was on the plexi. Here it the big window all cut out. Then put it on the side to draw out the cut. Almost done. Just some fine tuning on the edges. All done and the rest of all the Dremel blades I used up doing it If I only knew that pushing the blade down would only eat blades and make it hook on and cut the sides it would have been better. Why couldn't I had seen Bill Owen's Dremel tips earlier Well the wrong cuts didn't do much in the end since I was going to use a rubber strip around the window. The type where it actually holds the window too. Here you can see my first big mistake If you look on the left side you see that the rubber strip is very close to the edge and I would have to remove the little aluminium piece that's used for putting a padlock on the case to be able to close it. Not a big loss but still a mistake. What I did was that I measured out the window on the side and then cut the plexi after that measurement but since the hole needs to be slightly bigger then the glass to fit the rubber strip it became to close to the edge The fan holes is cut out. Here I was bad on the measurements as well and the fan grill I was going to use had to be pushed under the rubber strip ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ So we will need some good cooling in this beast as well, though dust is a problem so I attached a fan filter to the blue LED fans I had bought. I also added some rubber rings to stop vibrations from the fans. Attached to the front. First fan was easy to attach but the second one was more difficult since I used M4 screws with screw-nuts on them. I had to use a small pliers through the hole that's for the front USB ports. Was very tricky. From the front. Did the same on the back fans though I didn't have any more fan filters at this time so got that later. I also removed the original fan grill and attached wire grills instead. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ You might have wondered about the small window on the side? Well here it is. Got one of those transparent covers to put on my PSU Didn't feel like the gold colour was for my case so I wrapped it in a mirror film. Added a 92mm fan instead of a 80 for lower noise/CFM. Also replaced the other fan with a red LED fan so that I could control the fan speed. Also got a nice dragon fan grill to it and under the power input there is a lock so I could turn of the green wire and hinder someone else to start the computer Was hanging much on LAN when I was that age Didn't like the black fan so I wanted to replace it. Though didn't have any other 92 mm fans except a aluminium fan. Though I wanted LED:s in it so I had to make my own LED lights in it. Let there be light. Attached to the acrylic top. Reassembled the PSU And testing in the dark to see the red glow ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ I also wrapped the 5,25 bays in that mirror film though then I had to remove it to do a better job and then reattach it. Didn't have any rivets though but I had a tap bit so I tapped the holes for M3 screws and then I cut them of and made a small slice in the top so I could use a flat screwdriver to attach the 5,25" cage. I later removed that since it didn't look good after you used screws to put in the 5,25" units. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Finally my graphics card arrived A Radeon All-In-Wonder 9700 Was brand new and was on backorder for almost 2 months Well can't leave it stock can we So I found some Florescent pens that I thought I could use Here you can see the start of the tracing of the board. Have a picture later on on the finished result but would be a spoiler to show it now As you can see I also added extra heat sinks and a temp sensor on there as well. Removed the heat sink to put on some Artic-Silver instead of the stock thermal paste. Since the heat sink was attached with plastic rivets that I had to destroy to get it of I had to improvize so I used M3 screws and some rubber rings for isolation and vibration dampening. I also got this idea when tracing the circuit board on the GPU card. I painted the PCI slots and used the florescent pens on the motherboard too ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Felt like I needed some better light on the fans since the stock ones was just to faint and was more turquoise then blue so I got those CCFL rings to put on though they very much too bright for my taste so I took them apart and sprayed the inside with transparent paint in matching colour. And the result was really good In the dark they give a really nice light not to bright and much more vivid colour. Well I also wanted to be able to turn of the lights so I replaced the ugly turquoise LED:s in the fan and then attached the new CCFL rings on there. Had to move the fan filter to the outside instead since it didn't fit on the inside any more. I also heat shrinked the wires together for a nicer look. Not that good actually looks way to plastic but I was young and stupid. Though I got wiser along the way ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Then of to mod the HDD cage First I removed it from the bottom with a drill. You can also see the mirror plexiglass I added to the bottom. Here it is. You will see why the Velcro pads are there later on. Added a layer of silicone for vibration "stopper" Fitted it into place. And attached it with plastic rivets. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Earlier in the build I had attached the back USB ports to the back air intake but didn't like how it looked since I didn't do the best job so I was thinking of a solution. Then I figured it out. I make a small window there with some engraving on it. So said and done I took out my trusty Dremel and started Started with the engravings. Done with the engravings. Not the best work but for my first try ever on engraving something I'm satisfied. It will be on the back anyway so not many people will see it. Used a rubber strip to hide the rough edges. The result. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Here I decided I would like to have a top window as well. So out with the Dremel again and do some more If you wonder about the shape I thought it would be a good idea to put two 80 mm fans first so and put the holes across it so it would match the other 3 places where there where 2 80 mm fans in the chassis. Though that meant I had to remove some of the chassis frame to be able to fit the rubber strip to attach the window. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Next step was to do something about those boring black feet that was on the bottom. So I thought I would put some light in them to give them some colour So out with some more plexi and do some drawing. Four pieces cut out. Drew where the LED:s were going to be and cut out holes for them in the plexi. Made some holes for the wires. Soldered some LED:s yo wires and attached them with silicone to the plexi and the plexi to the feet. Looks good And even better in the dark Unfortunately I accidently used too high voltage when testing before this picture so the red LED burned out though the blue survived and it's to much of a hassle to fix it since they are really stuck to the feet as it is To get some more light under the case I also added a blue El strip and some LED:s there too. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Found a running LED array in a electronics shop that I I wanted to use somehow you know like the Kit light in Knight Rider. SO I made another small window in the front. And added some engravings to it. Still got the same site but it's really badly updated and I did it for a school assignment so not that good. Working on a better version atm. but it will take some time. The site is also just in Swedish. Will make a English version in the new site. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the running LED. I ran into some problem with 8 blue LED:s and a running LED circuit board burning out and never came around to fix it
So now I'm starting to reach the end of version 1.0 and soon I will go for the cable management system that I came up with But first I wanted to mod my DicitalDoc 5 fan controller so time for some There was a 3,5" bay here that I didn't need so I simply removed it. And then some black paint and a piece of plexi that's only painted on one side. Also did some switches to control the lights in the computer. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ At some point I can't remmeber when I managed to break the acrylic top I had on the PSU so I had to make a new one. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ Finally I got to the cable management and installation after over 2 years of working on this case. Didn't work on it all the time but you know how it is when life comes in the way and you don't have any time over for modding. So this is my first attempt on cable management. Sure did some cable tie fixes in my old computer but nothing like this. I knew I wanted to have as few visible wires as possible so I figured out a way to put the wires form the PSY behind the ATX plate and out in the middle support bar. Not so very good looking and some way I though heat shrink was a god way to do it. Can't remember why but I should have know of sleeving if I had heat shrinks in that amount. Well I can't remember and most likely so don't any of you either Well a month later I had changed that and now it looked like this instead. I also fixed the Power and reset wires with some sleeving. Here you see what the Velcro in the HDD cage was for. Drivers for the CCFL I have in the computer. This space also makes for some nice wire management Some more pictures of the cables behind the ATX plate. Well I was not that knowledgeable as I am now on electricity. Running all components on a single molex can't be very good for stable current Though it worked for most of the time. Think it broke once and I had to get a new one at some point but got the same model. So I didn't have to redo to much. Had to mark the different wires so I knew what wire went toe what light Well at this point my NF7 and socket A was very outdated so got myself a new socket 754 board Made a custom power cable for the SATA disks. And attached them with matching SATA cables that I actually got with my Raid card I bought since I had moire disk then the motherboard supported. First time I saw 90° connectors. Made the cable for the 5,25" units shorter and sleeved it. Not the best sleeving job I must admit but I was in the process of learning. The top molex is for the fan controller and is attached with super glue though the bottom one didn't stick though don't have any other picture when both of them are on. I also flipped the HDD cage 180° to hide the cables And some more cable management. No I just need to attach all the light and fan wires to the right place. I can tell you it was some difficult job in that tight space So finally the moment you have been waiting for while reading this post The finished version 1.0 of Dragon-Li Even have Gollum and two dragons guarding my precioussssssss..... Hope you enjoyed the road so far. Have to fix the pictures for version 1.5 and have to do some school work as well but stay tuned
Been having lots to do latley mostly school but also completing my plastic computer and destroying my graphics card Well anyway I'm going to fullfill my promise and show you some of the version 1.5 work I have done. Even though there haven't been so much interest in my thread Well hard to compete with all the superb modders here on Bit-Tech and this is work I did long ago in my youth when I haven't yet evolved my sense of precision and artistics. Going to give it my best shot on version 2.0 though and see if I can jolt your minds some way The beginning work pictures are all old pictures and unfortunately the pictures of it finished with the water cooling installed and half the work log pictures is MIA and I removed it when I upgraded to AM2+ and PCI-E graphics and the blocks weren't compatible. So I took some new pictures before dismantling it to put the hardware in my plastic computer. I'm sory about all the dust but since I had a negative air pressure because two intake fans stopped working a while back so my fan filters didn't filter all the air as they should have Still ahd good temps so never took the time to fix it. Well here you go Dragon-Li Version 1.5 What inspired the start of this mod was to have water cooling both for the looks and for the cooling/noise properties. Well my old power supply wasn't going to be enough to power a water cooling system. Especially if I would be over clocking anything. So said and done I bought a new power supply with my cooling system. Well I should say at the same time since I bought the cooling system in parts from different vendors since it was somehow cheaper So I choose a Mist power supply on 500W. Or Cooltek as it's sold under as well. Really liked it's black matt colour and it had a 120mm fan instead of all the others that had a 80 mm at that time. This power supply had a PCI-E power cable but I didn't have a PCI-E card that could use it yet but I knew I would by it eventually. So I decided to hide it in a box and use that box to do some cable management feature. I had also made a new side window to put the 240 Black Ice radiator I bought since it didn't fit in the top window and didn't want to make that bigger that it already was. As you saw in v1.0 I had to remove a part of the frame to fit the rubber strip and didn't want to remove more of it. That didn't seem so good for the structural integrity. Though I realized I probably hadn't thought that through completely since when I fitted in the PSU I noticed this. Well to fix that I had to remake the PSU mounting plate to allow a vertical mount of the PSU. So I made this: It's a newer picture so it's years of accumulated dust in there Then I made a polycarbonate mount for the radiator: And put on some aluminium fans on it. Unfortunately some pictures of the process here is missing Will show picture of the finished result in the end don't worry I promise I will show it there So the next step was some modification on the main side window. Because of the water cooling I decided that the two intake fans I had there wasn't needed any more so I redid that piece and while I was there I wanted to do something special with it. So I removed a part of the locking strip for the rubber strip that holds the window in place. Then I took a red EL-wire and put inside the rubber strip to illuminate the whole thing. I also redid the compartment under the HDD cage a little and removed the CCFL fan rings since one of them broke and was weird to have just one. Put some extra dust filters in it's place instead. I also replaced the powerconnectors in the middle support frame. Before I used normal molex now I got some real 8 and 10 pins molex just like the one they use on PCI-E cards. I also got a new fan controller to automatically control my fans for the lowest possible sound level. The one I got was from mCubed and their t-Balancer. Really good device but unfortunately this version don't have support in Win 7 so can't use it any more Then I had to redo most of the cable management since I got that new power supply This time I used all the wires instead of just running it all on one molex Upgraded my storage as well with a new 1 Tb drive. Though since I had turned around the HDD cage and ran the cables there 90° the cables wouldn't fit through the side any more. So I cut part of it away to make room for the cables. In retrospect that was a bad idea since the last hard drive would actually hit the T-Balancer making it impossible to get in the HDD cage with 6 drives so I ended up placing the last hard drive in the external 3.5" bays. Here I also decided to replace the two front 80mm fans with one 120mm to lower the noise/airflow ratio. So I just put on a square piece of plexi on there and took out my 120mm hole saw The hole is cut out. Placed a 120 mm aluminium fan there. I also added a fan grill on the outside. And this how it looked in the dark. Then it was time for some more cable management. As you also can see I replaced the top window because my friend wanted the transparent florescent strip I had there and since I already had the main window I though OK why not. I also didn't have enough to cover the radiator window any way and couldn't fund any more in any shop I also took the opportunity to replace the actual window since the old one had allot of scratches. Here is my new temp display I got and in the background the two hard drives I had to place here since there weren't enough room bellow. The flat cable is for the water pump monitor. And the system disk with Zalman's heat pipe cooler. To match the other hurricane fan grills I had I put some similar on the back intake fans. And here is the finished v1.5 pictures. First a few inside pictures. The new AM2+ board with my boring air-cooler. Water is so much prettier My mirror floor showing my graphics card. That is now unfortunately broke as you can see in my plastic computer thread Placed a red CCFL behind the ATX plate to give a nice red glow from there. A overview of the inside. Here is the small radiator side window with he chromed hurricane fan grills. The same side from a distance. A view from the top. The small window that used to show the PSU but now I jsut put a UV CCFL there to llok like some sot of power cell or something The rubber strip is missing a piece since it fell of and I couldn't find it again The mirror floor with the side on. The red strip doesn't come of as good as I first intended but never came around the change it. Just to lazy I think From the side. And to finish it here is the whole thing with and without flash. And that was it for this time. Hope you enjoyed some of it at least and I will return with some new modding on my v2.0 as soon as I get the time to See you around the forum until then
Reserved I was planing to hide the pictures so you need to click a link to see them to allow people to scroll past them faster but I don't know what tags you should use for that. Anyone know how?
As i see that you did this just to dust off your modding skills, i wont be too hard To be honest, overall, it's not my cup of tea, but it seems that you haven't forgot your skills, and it seems to me that you are ready for your scratch build. Btw, exactly how big is that case? It looks pretty spacious.
Haha no this is just what I have done before The dusting off haven't even started yet The dusting off is v2.0 of this mod. That was the old me when I just did things without any planing whatsoever and just went on a whim and hoped it would look good afterwards When I'm was looking on my old pictures I sometime thought why the hell did I do that for? Well after 5 years of maturing and broadening my views and understanding of modding I will now start to see what I can accomplice. Have already started with some ideas in my mind going to sit down and do some stuff in Inventor next week after Easter and try to get out the ideas to a finished sketch. Also find a local company that have a CNC that I can do some acrylic parts in. And yes it is very spacious, the outside measurements is 210x595x595mm so a very large case. If I want I could actually fit a 480 radiator in the top. There is even a mod here where a guy fits a SR2 board in the same chassis. Well with some serious modification that is, but it still fits in there. So keep tuned in and I will start building when I get back from my parents house after Easter
