Case Mod - In Progress Project: Way of the Warrior - Update 5/05 - Status Update and Things to Do

Way of the Warrior


They were called "Sohei", the greatest warriors of feudal Japan. Originally they were monks of the great temple Enryaku, built in the year 788 among the cypress groves of Mt. Hiei to protect the emperor's new capital of Kyoto from evil spirits... But the pressure of constant attacks of marauding samurai intent upon the treasures of their temple forced them to take up arms, and eventually the sohei abandoned the teachings of the Buddha to follow a path of war.

And it was a bloody path. Masters of war, the sohei priests were mercenaries who fought constantly, leading the armies of conflicting samurai lords in furious combat. But the greatest rivals of the sohei were the warrior monks of Nara, and their terrible feud lasted centuries.

In this great age of Japanese civil wars, the sohei became corrupted by bloodshed and ambition. The power and prestige of the sohei led them down paths of gluttony, debauchery, sin and death. In their pride, the sohei began to dream of themselves as the masters of Japan. Unlike the samurai lords who were careful not to bring their wars to the capital, the sohei sought to control the nation with the dual levers of their religious influence and their military might. By the 1400s the monks of Mt. Hiei were raiding precincts of Kyoto belonging to the very samurai clans that had once preyed upon them.

It was then that the Shogun Nobunaga ordered the destruction of the Kyoto temple and its inhabitants. An unholy alliance of their bitter enemies, the Nara monks and the armies of the Shogun, finally defeated the sohei, leaving the survivors dispersed, powerless and in hiding.

At last a new temple was built in Kyoto upon the ruins of the old, and the monks came home. Forbidden to practice their warrior arts openly, the monks returned to an outwardly tranquil way of life. But secretly they preserved the martial tradition and created a hidden order of shadow warriors. Today the sohei uphold a white banner in a tri-color war wagged across oceans, across time. Locked in a struggle with the black warriors of Nara and the red of the Yakuza, the sohei have sworn a crusade of righteousness in a world grown hostile to such nobility.

Ana Ishikawa is an outcast of the sohei, a renegade from a society of renegades. And Shi is her story.

Born of a Japanese father and American mother, ten year-old Ana Ishikawa witnessed the slaying of her family. The Yakuza left a coin with the Shi kanji on it, which means death. The child is spirited away and raised by her grandfather, Yoshitora. Shrouded in secrecy, Yoshitora trains Ana in the ways of the Sohei. However, Ana's life becomes one of constant inner conflict between her programmed mission of revenge and the Christian leaning she secretly harbors. With her conflicted soul weakened, this vengeful obsession consumes Ana's very being. Ana becomes a master of martial arts and weapons as she transforms herself to Shi - the living embodiment of Death.

Shi is a comic book created by William Tucci, that has run for over ten years with a variety of publishers. One of the most treasured series in my comic collection, I jumped at the chance to do a case mod theme based on Shi and her story. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.

[Excerpts from Shi: The Way of the Warrior, www.crusadefinearts.com and Wikipedia.]

This mod is on a pretty tight deadline, so things will be moving fairly quickly. This will be my entry to The Mod Shop's Comic Challenge. Also I do not have much in the way of a room or space to spray paint, and outside in Colorado, the weather is quite changeable and it is very dry and dusty. So this mod will be constructed with a minimum of additional paint. This doesn't preclude the use of other materials do get the effects desired, however. I am reposting this from my start on another forum, now that I have some progress to show.

 

Way of the Warrior

Hardware to be used:

ASUS PK5-E/Wifi motherboard
Intel E8400 CPU
eVGA 8800GTS 640mb videocard
G.Skill 4Gb (2 x 2GB) DDR2800 SDRAM
Creative Labs X-Fi Extreme Gamer PCI
Seagate 250Gb SATAII hard drive
ASUS 18x DVD-RW
Corsair HX520 PSU
I-Rocks X-Slim Keyboard
Razer Pro Mouse



Case, Parts and Materials (subject to adjustment):

Mountain Mods TwiceSeven case, white powdercoat
MNPCTech aluminum case feet
Swiftech ApogeeGT Waterblock
EK Nickel-plate 8800GTS waterblock
Black Ice Stealth 240 radiator (black)
Swiftech MCP-350 12v pump
Feser-One 3/8" ID UV red tubing
Feser-One UV red F1 cooling fluid
4x120mm Blackfire4 UV red fans
2x80mm Blackfire4 UV red fans
2x120mm Yate Loon D12SM-12 fans
Bitspower DDC Mini Water Tank for Laing Pumps

Krylon primer flat black
MNPCTech vinyl film
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Six Channel Multi Fan Speed Controller
ACRyan AcrylPanel black
ACRyan AcrylPanel clear
ACRyan MeshxPanel Hexx black
Kikboxes 120mm Laser Cut "Tribal Ying Yang" Grills - Black
Chrome Anodized Case Handles
Nickel-plate power and reset switches
5mm white and red leds with chrome fittings



A little bit of a delay for updates. Was sleeving the fans and after looking at the ACRyan Blackfire4s, the stock uv red sleeving is rather cheesy and I wanted them to be consistent with the rest of the case. I stripped all that off, including the zip ties they use to secure the sleeving instead of heatshrink. Unfortunately, there was no plan for that many originally and an "emergency" materials order was placed with Performance PCs. That should be in the mail tomorrow I think. The rip off artists at Micro Center in town wanted $30 for a standard Tech Flex sleeving kit, and they didn't even have true black in stock.

More updates soon, have the Zalman fan controller disassembled and drive bay marked out for drilling. MNPCTech c-strip is going around the fan cuts and a few other goodies.

 

Way of the Warrior

Here are the rough sketches for this project. Bear in mind some of the implementation may change depending on how it comes together.

The color scheme for the case is white, black and red with some shiny silver accents. Although some of the graphics on the case may have some additional colors, the overall effect will be in the main scheme. I thought long and hard about this, and the duality of Ana Ishikawa's character is embodied in the white and black motif: her dual heritage, the turmoil between the Shinto and Christian faiths, life and death, and the desire for good weighed against the desire for vengeance. The red is blood, anger, desire and passion, and the silver is... well, bling. ;P









This is the fan grill for the 120mm fans (four on the case other than radiator) in black. You'll notice it's the Kikboxes grill!



There will be some surprises perhaps not outlined in the rough sketches. Definitely plans for nice case feet (yay MNPCtech aluminum case feet), a special treatment on the case handles and a bit of a different take on the window etch. I'm so hyped about this project right now, it is really my first full case mod project. Before this I've only added a couple ccfls, installed an aftermarket cooler and added a window-etch sticker on a pre-mod case. Must admit it has been pretty fun doing everything so far. Your ideas and suggestions are welcome always, although being a girl, I'll probably do exactly the opposite!

 

Way of the Warrior

Yes! Actually some progress on the mod this weekend. First, thought I'd take a quick shot of my workspace... well worklackofspace is more descriptive. But it's my area and I don't have to pick up things and put them away in between work sessions. Despite appearances to the contrary, this update is not a blatant product placement for Diet Dr. Pepper. However, if they wish to send a few months' supply, it wouldn't be turned down. ;P



One of the first things I did was tape up panels, both for protection and ease of marking. This is the Zalman fan controller I'm using, which will be modded into one of the 5.25" drive bay covers to match. The face is covered in tape and the blue plexi fascia of the controller has been removed to use for marking the various holes for drilling.



Post-marking of the bay cover, with one of the ACRyan Blackfire fans going into the mod. Note that the stock wire sleeving has been removed.



Here is the removable motherboard tray that comes standard with the Mountain Mods TwiceSeven case. It comes nicely powdercoated in white to match. One thing I've noted is that MMods is very accommodating to non-stock requests. If there was more time and I had the inclination, it would have been possible to custom order a black powdercoat tray instead. The stock white suits me fine for this.



This is the u-channel I ordered from MNPCtech to finish off at least the two 80mm fan holes in the motherboard tray. Following that is the after picture with the u-channel applied.





This is the ACRyan HexxMesh in black which will go on both the 120mm and 80mm fans. I've cut it for the two 80mm fans in back. Nice new tin snips made it a quick job.





I test fitted one of the 80mm fans with the Hexxmesh in place. Not too impressive without being lit in all its pinkish glory (ew!). Although the 120mm have the black tomoe fan grills, they aren't currently available in 80mm. The 120mm fans will have both Hexxmesh and the fan grills to finish them off.



Once that was done, the case bottom was taped and marked for drilling. As you can see, these are the feet that will be used instead of the stock 1/4" clear plexi squares that are supplied.





Next up is another new toy... a cheap heatgun.



After reading the instructions thoroughly, it was emphasized that one should not use this as a hairdryer. They gave an example of what could happen:



Narrowly avoiding a bad hair day, I sleeved up some fans, switches, the pump wires and leds, using my heatgun. They'll never resist my heat ray, muahahahahaha!





Two other things to note in the photo above, the Swiftech MCP-350 pump which has had the top replaced with a Bitspower acrylic res and the fan has had the sticker fitted with a vinyl piece in black. That should look more finished on the top mounted radiator.



Last but not least for this evening, a bit of a teaser for the next update. These are some materials that will be used to add some detail and bling in a couple places.



Hope you enjoyed the update. There should be another tomorrow. With any luck the tardy USPS will deliver my package of sleeving, etc. so the rest of the fans can be tidied up. As always, comments and suggestions are quite welcome!

 

Nice setup bro love the Mountain Mods cases. keeping eyes on this.

 

I think it would look cleaner without that black rubber stuff around the two fan holes. With the black stuff on there it just looks a bit of a bodge job.

 

oooooo a mountain mods case

I like the white with black lining. Red lights might be a bit too much in places, but i'm definately curious to see how it will end up.
I agree with the above post on the u-channel though. It really could (and should) look a bit better. Maybe it helps to put the strip heater on it when you apply it, so it stretches to the bend you want it to have?

Otherwise, good luck on this project!

 

Wow! most people pick up the kit as they go. I call typical winter stockpiler here. Are you one of those people who only comes to town for ammo and salt? I agree on the U-channel. You may need to find a way to glue it in place.
-Don't dis Spector's wig! some say it leaves it's perch at night to feed! Others claim it has been seen purchasing airline tickets. Just in case, you should get some shampoo blessed and don't answer the door for a week! I've heard crosses have no effect.

 

Any reason you went with the apogee over the fuzion? Also are you watercooling to overclock or just keep things quiet?

 

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. As far as the u-channel is concerned, I wasn't entirely pleased with the look. So I'm mulling that over at the moment.

A good portion of the components for this mod have been in my possession for some time. I had planned another mod (like nearly six months ago) with a game theme, but was having problems getting some hi-res artwork from the company. When The Mod Shop competition came up, I jumped on the opportunity, making use of much of what I had. The deadline for this contest is April 22nd.

As for overclocking, possibly a mild one but I'm more interested in keeping down the noise overall. I had the GT available for a price I could afford at the time, and think the Fuzion was out of stock from the seller. I would have preferred going with the Fuzion or even the EK Supreme I think it is.

More updates later tonight.

 

looks pretty cool

good planning too

 

Regarding the u-channel Scirocco, the stuff Hank sells that has a small amount of 'adhesive' in the channel works quite well. I've used it occasionally here and there, and it doesn't seem to recoil at all. Available in psuedo-clear and black. Clear would look pretty good with the spots your using at, IMHO.

Edit:

She's a lady, man!

 

Looks very interesting...
I'll also keep my eyes on this one

 

LOL sorry about that.

SWEEEEEET A CHICK MODDER I WANT A G/F LIKE THAT. BUT HAY DONT WE ALL.

 

It's a Colorado tradition Cheaps - Rendezvous Coming down from the "hills" when spring arrives. 75 degrees today and tomorrow and 45 degrees with snow Wed. Gotta love Spring.

Great start on a great case. Always like it when a mod has a theme.

Mod on - I'm watching
John

 

Looks good so far, you don't see too many white cases around so this is a nice change of color.

 

Thanks, guys! Um... I come bearing Oh... My... God! news before my update later this evening. I accidentally got a sponsor...



A huge thank you to Crucial for the sponsorship, sending me 2x2Gb of the totally awesome



I saw the mention of them a bit ago here on Bit-Tech and thought they were great. I happened to catch a review on 3dgameman Friday night and the little lightbulb went off... These would look awesome for this build! Knowing they weren't readily available and not really expecting even a response, I emailed Crucial to find out if they would be possible to purchase. Needless to say, I was shaking and jumping up and down when I received a reply, asking for an address and letting me know they'll be sending the RAM to me! (Similar response to what most women do when they get flowers or jewelry... I must be touched.) Wow, and I didn't even have to show any leg or promise a first-born male child. Wonder how a mini version of these would look as earrings...

Anyway, back to work and an update late tonight.

 

LOL nice work on the ram.

 

Alway love a nice MM build

 

Have you got any photos and that of your Superclocked Custom MM U2-UFO Horizon? I been thinking about getting one.