Hi Bit Tech! Okay so its been about 6 months in the planning. I've totally ditched the previous case, it was just in too poor a shape for me to spend time modding - at the end of the day I'm a first time modder, and this things gotta look good if its going to sit on my desk. I set out to find another case. I could have just gone out and bought something watercooling friendly, since this is my first watercooling project too, but nothing caught my eye. Not only that but the budget was somewhat limited, so I couldn't just drop £200 on a Temjin. I put the word out on the bit tech forums, and the illustrious Nimbu came up trumps with this: A Yeong Yang server cube. I was instantly in love, she's a bit dusty, but just has so much potential. I had better not screw this up! The main aims of this build are 1. To try my hand at proper modding for the first time 2. To try out watercooling for the first time 3. To make as quiet a rig as possible. I'd like to thank firstly Nimbu for hooking me up with the case and also Nate at E22 for providing an amazing bespoke flanged Rad grill. Head over to his store to find out more! I'm going to need a lot of help along the way, but that's what you guys are here for, right!? P1020689 by Penderyn, on Flickr P1020685 by Penderyn, on Flickr IMAG0066 by Penderyn, on Flickr P1020686 by Penderyn, on Flickr P1020687 by Penderyn, on Flickr Full set of photos here Now. As I said, I wanted something a bit different, and this is most definitely it. The Yeong Yangs stand out feature is that it contains two separate compartments! One for the Motherboard and one for the PSU/Hard drive etc. This brings up so many interesting possibilities. As I've been planning a WC build for some time, I've slowly been buying up second hand WC parts from the marketplace, and also, on evil bay. Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr A double 5.25" bay reservoir with blue LED Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr A 360mm Stealth RAD Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr A Swiftech Pump and head. (boring!) Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr After deciding that blue would be my theme, I bought a few new additions to the stuff I already have: Five Aerocool Shark blue LED fans P1020700 by Penderyn, on Flickr I swapped my white AM3 compatible block with Tundra for a black EK block. P1020696 by Penderyn, on Flickr A (totally pointless but blue) RAM cooler P1020697 by Penderyn, on Flickr A fan controller - with blue LEDs An awesome Silverstone drive bay converter from Evil bay - with inbuilt (blue LED) fan. P1020698 by Penderyn, on Flickr An MSI P67A GD65. I got this for £30 - its the non B3 version, but since I only have 3 SATA drives, I shouldn't be affected by any dying SATA port issues. Also, if water sprays everywhere and it blows up, its not the end of the world. P1020693 by Penderyn, on Flickr Now this is where things get interesting. I thought, instead of just doing what people would expect, and having a cool WCing setup with mobo on one side, and PSU etc on the other, I'd really make use of the fact that this case has two compartments. So I bought.... this P1020702 by Penderyn, on Flickr - A Zotac ITX board. Came with a 4200+ (AM2, dual core 2.4Ghz) CPU, onboard Wifi, an inbuilt Geforce 8200 and this.. P1020701 by Penderyn, on Flickr - A Scythe Big Shuriken. Why? I'm going to mount the ITX Mobo on the opposite side of the case, as an always on, low power, silent, XBMC media player/server. Its going to be linked to my projector and TV. A 120w Pico PSU and adaptor is on its way! The CPU will be my current one, a 2500k (don't see the need to get anything faster). I will also be using my current hard drives (all 2.5" drives, 1 x 500GB 5400rpm (media), 1 x 500GB 7200rpm (games) and 1 x 128GB Crucial C300 SSD (OS and BF3). I still have to get hold of some Blue RAM and a GPU. On that note..... so far, even though it looks like I've got a load of kit, I haven't actually spent too much since its pretty much all either second hand (in fact, it is ALL second hand). This is good because while I have a passion for hardware and computers, I don't have an limitless bank, and I think its important to be frugal and live within your means. Unfortunately that attitude does mean that I can't currently afford a new GPU. While I do have a EK Universal block, I eventually plan to go Full Cover, but the thing that's holding me back from doing that with a 570 is the paltry 1.3GB of vRAM. So, over the next 6 months or so I'll be saving up for one of the new generation GPUs from either AMD or Nvidia and a full cover block. While I have no preference either way, this time around, I'll probably end up buying NVidia, as their performance is currently better than AMDs in the main game I play - Battlefield 3, but we'll wait and see! Anyway, I've probably waffled on enough for the time being, so thanks for reading if you got this far. I'm going to need a lot of help with this one guys, and you'll see various questions popping up here and on the modding section. Speak to you soon people of the best forum in the world!
To do list * Dust off/Clean up everything * Remove front panels * Remove current soundproofing * Fix Door * Replace LEDs w/Blue ones * Remove front GPU mounting plate * Decide on radiator placement * Clean out Rad/CPU/GPU Blocks * Cut out radiator hole * Decide on placement of side panel * Tap and drill mounting holes for ITX board * Cut out backpanel for ITX board * Sand down case * Prime case * Spraypaint case+Blanking plate+Rad grills x2+5.25" mounts * Install Noise dampening foam * Install Watercooling hardware * Leak test for 24hr * Install other hardware * Clean fans * Latest firmware for C300 * Configure bigNG * Latest firmware for P8Z68 Deluxe * Tidy Cables * Reformat Things I need: Dremel + metal cutting disc Jigsaw + metal and Perspex Blades File Workbench Soldering Iron Blue LEDs 2x 2.5” -> 3.5” bay converters 1 x 2.5” HDD (any size) 8GB of Black DDR3 2 x 92mm fans 1 x 120mm RAD (for front) 2 x T Junction fittings for draining and filling EL cords for tubing 3 x SATA blue cables 42cm x 30cm Perspex panel for side window 4 x blanking plates 1 x Spray primer paint 1 x Spray paint – black mcubed BigNG 8pin exentsion PCIe extension GPU+Full cover Plexi EK block AcoustiPack ULTIMATE PC Specialtech order Fansis Washable 92mm fan dust filter Silverstone 120mm Magentic Fan Filter Wire tidying mounts BitFenix 24-Pin ATX Extension 30cm 4x 1/4" Thread 90° Rotary Compression Fitting for 1/2" ID - 3/4" OD (13-19mm) Tubing : Silver 5xmale to male xspc fittings Coolant - Phobya ZuperZero - UV Yellow rubber lining 2x 90 Degree Elbow Fitting with 1 Male and 1 Female 1/4" Threads : Silver Nickel Phobya 1/4" Thread 50mm 1xmale and 1xfemale Extension Socket : Silver 1x Bitspower 1/4" Thread Crystal T Fitting with 3 Female 1/4" Threads : BP-TB-CL 1x 1/4" Thread 30° Rotary Thread Extension : Silver
I can see this being a real inspiration for me, because I'm currently setting up my plans for my first computer mod. I must say that it is quite intimidating at first. Mad props for taking the first steps. Cant wait to see some updates! And like jhanlon303, I'm a sucker for cubes. haha
Sweet another YY Cube!! I lost most of my original photos in a HDD death years back but heres a quick one of mine from years ago. Was my first real PC case and first modding attempt. Many years on I liked it so much I bought one as a server lol. Watched ebay for weeks looking and finally landed one. I'll be watching this one to see what you come up with. Also nice to see you're having a go at the watercooling at the same time. Funny enough the YY case was also my first to be watercooled - spooky
Oh shame! I'd have loved to see how that ended up! Those are some....errr subtle colours! Are you sure you can't find any pics of it complete? From what I hear these were very popular with modders upon their initial release in 2003 or so, but out of the reach of many because of their price. I'm lucky with this one in that its basically stock, and the only real thing wrong with it is that a small piece of the door 'axle' needs replacing (should be easy to do) Also, Dynamis, you might well see the return of your non B3 GD65 board here. You think the SATA ports are dodgy? You said your drives were falling off. You remember what ports you were using. I have a load of silver compression fittings, but the more I think about it, the more I want to get darkened silver versions. I knew this WC lark couldn't be done (well) on the cheap. The shopping list: 120mm Rad for the front 120mm fan bay. A GPU + Full cover waterblock An 1155 CPU (i3/Celeron etc) 8GB DDR3 RAM in Blue An SSD or 2.5" HD ~30GB+ in size Soundproofing (or some tips on where/what to buy)
Cool, thanks guys, I've added a 'To Do' and 'Things I need' list. Does anyone have recommendations for a cheap and cheerful jigsaw + cutting blades for metal and perspex. How about this one? Also, might need a drill.
SWEET ass case man, I LOVE cube cases ! I will most likely be flying to gatwick or stansted roughly two monts, and have a 120 mm rad i do not use You can buy that if you want. Would sponsor most of my flight lol
Yeah unfortunately I had 2 drives die in a matter of days apart and lost about 160gb of stuff. Thankfully the family photos where on DVD and never found any other copy of my pc mod work Can't really remember what ports I used, I try a few different ones. I didn't reinstalled when I got a b3 replacement and I haven't had it happen once since the b3 change so sure something wasn't quite right. Unfortunately the YY cube I have not was rescued from a mod attempt from eBay - not a very good one too. I'll post a pic up later to show you what to avoid it had 3 windows cut when I got it so ended up putting 3 panels in there to block the panel up sold again. Also didn't come with the drive rails for the optical drives and only 2 hdd cages so had to do a bit of fabricating work Great cases tho, very solid something you don't always get with some recent cases. I do like my cubes tho, got a mountain mods UFO-2 duality now
cant say how happy i am to see a Yeong Yang server cube getting modded they are one of my all time favourite cases and always wanted one. cant wait too see how this rig turns out man!
Blue Caldera (massive update today!) Giving the whole dusty case a good clean.... Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr And removing the sound dampening using my housemates hairdryer..... its funny how you end up spending your evenings sometimes Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr Unfortunately left behind shedloads of sticky glue Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr But I eventually got it clean Untitled by Penderyn, on Flickr The next part, is to start seeing where things will fit and planning cuts etc.
I don't think I even knew that you could build your own computer when these first came out! I'm very lucky to find an unmodded one, they must be few and far between by now. I'll do my best to do it justice.
Yeah I'd have to agree there - very lucky indeed. Most had the expantion card support removed and big holes everywhere. I think a lot of 120 & 240 rads were used modding these babies for watercooling. What sound dampener are you planing to use? I used Damplifier Pro car audio stuff, works a treat but very heavy (I'll have to weight mine for you all to have a laugh at). Is the spray paint on your check list to shoot the inside? Are the blanking plates you need the PCI slot ones? I've got some almost mirror finish, polished ones you can have if so...
