Case Mod Project BIO-A10 by E.E.L. Ambiense - Completed

[jhanlon303]

Probably when he had to box everything up and move to new digs. I did that. "Oh, I remember these" I just found my webcam unpacking a box last month after it went missing for 3 or 4 years.

john

[Balder]

Finding long forgotten things is like xmas, I dont know how many things I'we found in boxes during the years, it's like timecapsules (I found my old dual athlon board with self modded sempron cpu's and had to rebuild it for fun a year ago).

Anyway, awesome looking EEL, keep it up!

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Originally Posted by Foregasm

...I...I...I'm in love...
Stunning work, as always.

Thank you kindly!

Originally Posted by dbradford32

I particullarly like the disclaimer. lol

Hahaha, thanks man.

Originally Posted by stonedsurd

I like the work on the fan controller. Bright lights are the bane of my existence too. I like to go to bed with a little music playing softly on my speakers but the blue LED on my amplifier literally lights up the whole room. I've taken to squishing blu-tac onto it

Thanks. Yeah, I can't stand lights and stuff now either; kind of a turn-off. If utilized in a subtle fashion, it works for me. Just depends on the build!

Originally Posted by Ragequit

Sorry to hear about all your problems, hope things are better now! Congrats on the new addition

Having never read any of your previous logs, i'm not as familiar as everyone else with your work, but i'm sure this thing will be awesome!

Also, love the overall theme of your log, makes reading fun!

Thank you kindly for the nice words and appreciate you poking your head in and checking things out!

Originally Posted by mnpctech

Coming along soo nice and sharing the luv of tried and true Sunbeam rheostat

and great photos too! simply the best.....

Word! Still a nice unit to this day!

Thanks, bro.

Originally Posted by dbradford32

i assume sunbeam no longer produces their rheostats?

Still making them last I checked!

Originally Posted by Cheapskate

Your disclaimer is all wrong. It should say: "Always assume your neighbor is as well armed as you are and that the peace you enjoy is based on the threat of mutual annihilation."
(-and spell check wanted me to switch 'annihilation' with 'titillation'.)

Good stuff, and only too true down in the south here...

Originally Posted by MrWizard

Awesome, entertaining updates as always. I've come to expect nothing less!

Side note: At what point did you did you decide (if you have) that you needed to start keeping an alpha-numeric inventory of all your spare parts & pieces? Seriously Jeremy, you're one of the only guys around I know of who consistently, and without fail uses the phrase "I had a few of these lying around." ...New. In the packaging. Only like fifteen or so collecting dust in a corner.

You crack me up.

LOL, if only I was that organized! It's more like, "oh, another box marked 'w/c gear'....greeeaaat..." and tossing it aside to look at the next. Back when I had a real job and I was building commissioned stuff for people before the total collapse of the economy, I would buy up a few of this or that that I knew I'd use on more than one occasion like pumps, some fans, rads, etc. I have one more Rheobus and that's it on those. Hell, for a while there I was buying up AMS CF-1009 chassis a few at a time to keep for future projects. Still a beaut to this day too. Now, it's just an issue of using this stuff up so I can have some room for new stuff (if that ever happens, that is).

Originally Posted by jhanlon303

Probably when he had to box everything up and move to new digs. I did that. "Oh, I remember these" I just found my webcam unpacking a box last month after it went missing for 3 or 4 years.

john

I wish I could do that with my career!

Originally Posted by Balder

Finding long forgotten things is like xmas, I dont know how many things I'we found in boxes during the years, it's like timecapsules (I found my old dual athlon board with self modded sempron cpu's and had to rebuild it for fun a year ago).

Anyway, awesome looking EEL, keep it up!

Yes it is, unless its a failed project or something that you were too ashamed to O-can it!

Thanks, m8!

[Waynio]

Case feet in a sock.

[skitzab1]

nice im getting a untouched pc-a77f will have fun with that love the detail on the log

lian li cases are like a blank canvas

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Alright, another lil' update.

My son's been pushing some molars out in the back, so he's being "dynamic" with his sleeping habits as of late, so it's slowing my log-updating down a bit. Only thing short of ruining his liver before he's 2 with pain-relief drugs is waiting it out. And that's what we're doing.

On to the update now!

Alright, I needed to work out what I was going to do with the HDD rack situation. And being the packrat that I am, I consulted the pile o' scrap to see if I have anything that will work. I knew when I went into this that I was going to use a triple 5.25 bay insert of some sort, and having cut on 30+ Lian Li cases in the past I tend to keep certain parts, because, you never know.... you may need it some time, right? Well, now's a time!

Lian Li's design strategy is pretty straight-forward; design something awesome and sit on it and basically condition it a bit for years forward. But that will make it a little easier to work out what I need to do. Some of their older removable HDD bays for certain cases, namely servers, were a nice place to grab such things.

I found one I had that used to have a built-in 120mm bracket installed on it with some pop-rivets but it's long since been removed. And good thing too, as I didn't feel like futzing with that right now.



Holds three 3.5" HDDs so that will work perfect. I believe his system has a spinning data drive or two, plus his 2.5" SSD for his OS, etc. I'll just use an adapter for the SSD.

Dug out a dead test-HDD for fitment and installed it in the rack. Works perfect.



One thing about Lian Li's HDD mounting systems; they're awesome. And simple!



Here's a 3.5 to 2x 2.5 adapter, which will hold his SSD and be allowed to be installed in the HDD rack. ...I hope. Let's find out.



I dug out a test 2.5" HDD as well just for completions' sake.



A couple screws to hold it in place in the tray...



And slip into the main rack. Like a glove!



The best part about this kind of rack is even though I'm bolting a new plate over the front of the case, he can still access the tray from inside the chassis to remove/replace/recycle HDDs easily. Hot-swap? Nope. I'd think it'd be cold-swap, since the drives won't be running when he does it.

Alright, next I need to slip the rack into the chassis where it will reside permanently to check for fitment issues or anything nefarious.



Perfect! I think this is going to work.



I needed to test-fit a cheap Yate onto the new plate to see if the fan is going to clear the rack installed, etc. when bolted on the case.



Yup, this is going to work just fine. It's good to know I can still somewhat measure.



You guys remember Winona? My old hotwired test AT PSU?



Yeah, she's still kickin'. I'm surprised with all the abuse I've put her through, but she keeps coming back. Let's fire her up, shall we?



The fan works and everything's looking just fine.

A shot from the back of the case into the 5.25" bays...



Just a few mm's there. Perfect enough for this. Couldn't make me more happy!



That wraps up this update now. I'll be back soon, though. Thank you kindly for tuning in and keeping watch! See you soon.

[Foregasm]

Your work makes me happier than pedobear at a playground. Just letting you know.

[dbradford32]

It's good to horde things!

[jhanlon303]

Originally Posted by dbradford32

It's good to horde things!

Is not hoarding. Is collecting with enthusiasm.

john

[dbradford32]

Originally Posted by jhanlon303

Is not hoarding. Is collecting with enthusiasm.

john

True, now tell my wife why I keep the 10 cases I have taken apart, and hope she understands that... lol I think I have 3-4 cases that have at least the frames... lol and are almost complete...

[Cheapskate]

"cheap" Yate.

They haven't been cheap since people started tossing the name around. Remember getting them for less than $2? Try that now.

I never thought to name my test psu. My portable drives all bet named, though.

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Originally Posted by Foregasm

Your work makes me happier than pedobear at a playground. Just letting you know.

LOL, Thanks! ...I think?

Originally Posted by dbradford32

It's good to horde things!

Like careers! --Wait-

Originally Posted by jhanlon303

Is not hoarding. Is collecting with enthusiasm.

john

It's hoarding. But I guess that's better than whoring, right?

Originally Posted by Cheapskate

They haven't been cheap since people started tossing the name around. Remember getting them for less than $2? Try that now.

I never thought to name my test psu. My portable drives all bet named, though.

I blame Petra's for that one, lol. They're still pretty cheap, but they have gone up in price. I also blame transport costs too. I guess it's a little more costly than it used to be for the Chinese to put them into a t-shirt cannon and launch them across the pond!

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Update time! It's another short one, what with being short on sleep and patience. Like I usually am toward the close of the week. And Friday always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside....with anger and irritation... Perhaps tomorrow will actually be different and it will be clean-sailing until we close at work. ...... Sorry, made myself laugh!

And now for the little update proper.

I needed to start masking off the drive bays so I can drill holes for the plate to be mounted to. Let's do that.

Always mask off your work area. I admit I tend to skip it sometimes when I'm in the heat of things, but it's a bad habit to get into. It's also lazy. It's a sign of a little too much hubris as well, so please, do it. It doesn't matter how many cases you've modded, you're still human. Take the few seconds to mask your work area so you don't end up with skittering drill-bits or hole-saws across your new panel!



I then laid the plate back over the bays to mark out where I'm drilling.



I tend to use a small drill-bit to create a pilot hole when I want to make sure the holes aren't going to deviate too much.



And after all the holes are drilled, I follow up with the larger bit. Then I dropped the plate back on the case and slipped in some 6-32 socket caps I had as that was the closest thing I could grab at the time to hold it on. I'm probably going to use that size too, but may just be button heads. I dunno. I'll figure it out.



A quick little shot close to the res window...




Should look nice once it's full of nasty-looking fluid! And this time I may actually forgo urinating in the res*!
(*Disclaimer: EEL does not recommend using urine in your watercooling loops, although he has been known to mumble about so-called 'watercooling fluids' on the market being remarkably similar to urine with an exorbitant pricetag attached that could easily be remedied with a $.69 gallon of distilled water and a couple cap-fulls of auto antifreeze instead. Your experience, of course, may differ.)

Alright, let's go back to the rad, shall we? I need to do a test-install of the fans on the rad and see where things are going to sit.



Laying some "cheap" cheap low-speed Yates on the rad and installed with a couple screws in each to hold it on there well enough to check it out.



Stock hardware with the rad works great for this.



And dropped back into the case roughly where it will permanently reside.



I also installed some rad brackets on the other side (XSPC) that works really well for a quick solution. I may end up putting some "risers" on them though to raise the rad so it's centered a bit more in the bottom cavity of the case. I need as much room as possible for the side panel's work.

Like this.



I'll be back soon with some more. Thank you for tuning in and see you soon!

[Cown]

Looking good mate

Where do you plan on installing your PSU?

[mnpctech]

Coming along nice! already getting excited to see it finished...lol

[dbradford32]

I don't find Yate Loon fans as being all that cheap... I believe, for a while, delta was re-badging them for their marketability, and the ability to sell their fans at a similarly reasonable price. I think it was a good strategy, except for the fact that a yate sounds far different from a delta, beings that their RPM is much lower... I have a couple yates, and a couple deltas laying around somewhere, that look very similar... I do agree that Yate did sell them cheap, but at this point, any fan can be modified one way or another to get a desired result... Keep up the top notch work EEL!

[Chanc3]

Very entertaining project log! At the start I was all like but your writing style and the project it'self has made me

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Originally Posted by Cown

Looking good mate

Where do you plan on installing your PSU?

Thanks!

Stock spot couldn't get any better.

Originally Posted by mnpctech

Coming along nice! already getting excited to see it finished...lol

Thanks, man! I'll get it done in 6 months or so-- d'oh! I mean, 2 weeks? Yeah!

Originally Posted by dbradford32

I don't find Yate Loon fans as being all that cheap... I believe, for a while, delta was re-badging them for their marketability, and the ability to sell their fans at a similarly reasonable price. I think it was a good strategy, except for the fact that a yate sounds far different from a delta, beings that their RPM is much lower... I have a couple yates, and a couple deltas laying around somewhere, that look very similar... I do agree that Yate did sell them cheap, but at this point, any fan can be modified one way or another to get a desired result... Keep up the top notch work EEL!

Weird! Never heard that one. Delta? Really? They make nice long-lasting ball-bearing fans, not poopy sleeve-bearing models like Yates are.

Originally Posted by Chanc3

Very entertaining project log! At the start I was all like but your writing style and the project it'self has made me

Thanks! I'm bipolar.

[jhanlon303]

Originally Posted by E.E.L. Ambiense

Thanks! I'm bipolar.

PSST! Don't tell the wife. Wait - bipolar? Never mind.

john

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Originally Posted by jhanlon303

PSST! Don't tell the wife. Wait - bipolar? Never mind.

john

LOL. That's just sick, sir!

Let's review the word Bipolar. Bi = Two. And Polar = pole.

Oh man, I have two poles? I'm a mutant! AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!