Case Mod Project Impossible Modding - 07/02 Improving

[Mino]

Let's start a new project!
This is my very first time to keep a detailed worklog in english, so don't blame me if my english is poor...
For this project I've made a lot of research and planned a lot of things to do, let's begin!
The main concept is to DON'T mod the case itself :-]
Shocked?
Let me explain somethig, this project is a challenge between me and Antanio, the creator of this beatiful case called CABE. My main goal is to add a water cooling loop inside the case without modding it in the outside. He told me that nobody was able to do that, and I've decidet to try to fit a water loop inside this little case...
Let the picture talk for me : the victim is a Cabe with smoked plexy top from Modd.it :



Rear view :



Lateral drive access :



The guideline of my project are described above :

- No external modding
No outside rad, no extra holes, nobody have to imagine that the case is water cooled!

- Keeping the original look
The Cabe is made from steel , plexy and black trim so I've decided to mantain the same material and colours for the inside.

- Using a lot of italian water cooling gear
Here in Italy we have some guys that produces wb, so I've decided to use the most "Made in Italy" gear as possibile.

Lots of people in all the italian forums helped me with photos, measure, ideas and a lot patience, tnx guys!
But the biggest thank fly out to my wife AralT3, she is the best to support me!

And now, let's take a closer look to the Cabe to see exactly the amount of free space to play with :-]

[Mino]

First of all, the overall dimension are really small, ony 30 cm each side, less than 12 inches...
Taking apart the top, I can see the fantastic mirror finish of the steel, do you agree?



As you see, the fans and the motherboard tray are 45° rotated relatively to the base. This means more work to do, but let's take a look to the device tray :



Even this tray is made from steel, Antanio planned to have the dvd drive accessible from the side of the case, but I need to have it in front, so a little bit of work in this area... As you can see, the two front bay are designed only for short device like fanbus or cardreader. Anyway,, the total number of drive bay is this : 1 floppy , two slot for 3and1/2 device, two for 5and1/2 device , one short 3and1/2 and one short 5and1/4. The other PITA will be the psu, I would like to use my Enermax Liberty but the modular connector don't allow me to use the dvd...



Here is the motherboard tray (fully removable with yust two screw) and the control panel with two usb ports, reset and power button, led, and the mini speaker. I need to modify this piece, is too naked for me...

[Mino]

Let's begin removing the motherboard tray and taking some pics to see how it's polished :



Dont'forget those sexy bay cover :



Starting to remove the device tray to measure the free space for the psu :



Considering the molex and the ide cable, considering that I want the drive stealth, the free space is about 11.5cm , 4,5 inches. Near to impossible to find a good PSU with this measure... The only psu that I found was a poor 180w, chinese brand, I'm considering to keep my Enermax and changing something for the dvd drive.

[Mino]

We will consider the psu issue later, now I want to speak about the fans :



As you can see the locking mechanism is easy, just a laser cutted steel frame and I'll keep this piece.



Here is the temporary fan with the rad, the trick part is to find a method to screw togheter this items :-] Due to the less free space, the rad will be mounted horizontal, but the fan remains at the default inclination , 45°.



A little search point me to Bill, at MNPCTech where I found the template for the fan holes, after a few minutes playing with coreldraw I've print two of this to paper and glued to a piece of alluminium.

[Mino]

And now the cutting :



I've made two of this, for two rad :-] Then I marked the spot for the holes :



I've drilled all with a 4.15mm bit, then screwed together and marked the center for the cup bit :



And now, a lot of patience, grease and vertical drill...

[Mino]

Here is the setup:



The Alu goes hot really quickly, so I've used this piece of ice, is made with an Ikea mould, they sell this to put the ice on the bottles, but why don'te be creative?



Here are the finished pieces, now I have to use a file to smooth all the side :



Some comments about this work? :-]

[Mino]

After about an hour of work, I want to see how they work :



This fan is not the one that I'll use in the mod, it's just a spare fan :-] :



I want to use the silicon pad, so I'll mount it to see the effective dimension. But, a little surprise, the holes in the rad are not ready for the screw! I've made the correct hole, M4, and this is the result :



A bit strange, but is exactly what I have in mind to have !

[Mino]

This is the correct position :



Wow, it fits perfectly! Now let's go on with something different, the paint process of this little part is not so interesting ... Stay tuned for the next update, and please give some comments , but don't blame me for my poor english :-]

[Fod]

freaking awesome case you're starting off with there, this should be interesting to see how you shoehorn all the WC gear into there

[casey_cole]

Yeah, definitely want to see how this progresses - looks wicked.

CC

[rowin4kicks]

that is such a weirdly cool case
i love it
very intresting prject you got here!

[Fox the ripper]

Great Job bro, i love this case,and i believe in you!

Grande rigorè!

[Darkened]

Hey rigormortem, great to see you doing a project log here at Bit-tech.

That case is really looking apart, how many of those are around? Limited edition?

Looking forward to see how you cope with it's limited space and water cooling.

Janne

[Duste]

Easiest way would be to have a 5.25'' Pump/Reservoir combo for the larger 5.25'' bay and then have a slot drive for the smaller 5.25'' bay.

[The_Beast]

sweet looking case

where did you get it???

[Fozzy]

The Mag 2 LE will screw into a G1/4 inch hole like the ones on water blocks then you could use a t-fitting. I'd say you definatly need 1/4inch tubing in that case but you might get away with 3/8th's if you're lucky. I'd say the hardest part is the radiators but you figured that out so....

[HourBeforeDawn]

wow I like the slanted Mobo tray, thats a really neat idea, I will have to think of something like that for the future.

[Mino]

Let's do some reply-work, and wait 'till sunday for the update :-] Some WC gear are arriving to my home :-]

@Fod : integrating all is the major trouble, it's like playing tetris :-]

@casey_cole, rowin4kicks, Fox the ripper, : tnx a lot!

@Darkened : Hy Janne! I'm happy to see your post! the case is not a limited ediction, but is the last of this kind, the next release will be in alluminium, but if you're interested, www.modd.it , the price is near 180 euros... Even I'm interested on how to put all the wc inside :-]

@Duste : yes, this will be the easiest way, but I have in mind to use all the 5,25" bay, one for the dvd, and the other two for two water cooled hard disk :-]

@The Brast : directly from his creator, Antanio, his store is www.modd.it , if you're interested drop me a PM...

@Fozzy : I'll go for 1/4 tubing, now I'm schocked by the price of the Tygon...

@HourBeforeDawn : the slanted mb tray is a touch of genius, I agree!

And now, I'll go to the chrome guy, he's working for me :-]
Stay tuned, more update on week end!

[gvblake22]

Oh wow, that thing is nuts! Looks like you have it pretty well under control and seem to have a good plan thought out. Good luck!

[Tulatin]

That is easily the best looking micro-atx "cube" i've ever seen, and the level of worksmanship you're putting towards liquid chilling it is astounding.