Case Mod GAME HARD, FOLD HARDER - april 19th 2013 some mid-project photos

[Hukkel]

The purpose:
Because once you start modifying PCs you need another shot time and time again I have decided to build something for myself this time. I have made previous builds for others. One modified but still held back due to money concerns. This time it is for me and no cutting corners. I did want it to serve a purpose. For this build I am completely removing two purposes of my regular family PC. Which is gaming and folding. Especially folding will be the big purpose. Most of the time it will be used for folding 24/7. The build title is an adaptation of a line one of my sponsors uses. KFA2 uses "Play hard, game harder", for this project I have adapted it to "Game hard, Fold harder". Which basically means this build can be used for heavy high resolution high FPS gaming, but for a larger portion of the day it will be used to aid (medical) research through folding using software of FOLDING@HOME and B.O.I.N.C. The high end hardware will serve both purposes very well.
At a later point I will explain more what folding is all about for those that are not completely up-to-date with the term folding. I hope to promote the cause that is folding to a large audience with this buildlog.

The plan:
The plan is to completely modify a Silverstone TJ07. The theme will be completely black with orange accents. The shape that will be used a lot is that of the hexagon. About every panel of the case will see some sort of modifying. But it won't be a screaming build. It will be tastefull and have a clean look. The build will be using a i7-3770k (at first at least), overclocked to what the custom watercooling loop can handle. So max overclock for a 24/7 working system. It will feature the famous Samsung low voltage overclocking ram (also OC'd to the max) and two or three Nvidia GTX670 cards again under water and max overclocked. All wiring will see full custom sleeving. There will be multiple windows (with engravings). The cooling hoses that will be in sight are going to be made of acryl / plexi tubing. That is if it won't hamper the cooling performance too much. I don't want to spoil everything yet since that takes away the fun for me. I will update the thread in a chronological way. I want to keep some stuff a secret to hopefully surprise a few members.

Execution:
I have started the build a few weeks / months back. I didn't want to start a buildlog untill I could keep the thread flowing for a while with updates. I am not done with this build/mod yet. It will take a good amount of weeks to finish it. Sadly I am not a millionaire to buy everything day 1 .

First things first. The cse itself. I bought it used (because it was cheap and because I was going to modify it anyway). So here are a few pictures of her. Look at what the previous owner did.

The complete front full of ugly stickers, a big touchscreen fancontroller and knobs. YUCK. An additional top fan for who knows what reason. Holes in the top mesh and glue to fix it :facepalm: he case was even missing one of it's casefeet. How can you lose one of those?















Next update: cleaning this baby up. Looking at the damage done and fixing her up.

[Hukkel]

Lets first show a few pieces I will be using I received at that time. I had more photos of stuff, but I decided not to use that and other hardware instead.

I got this in a trade, a nice, clean looking Scythe 12 fan controller. This should work great with my radiator(s). It should be able to power them and keep them quiet enough. I love the style of it, really fits my case in my opinion.



A brand new XSPC dual bay reservoir deisnged for a D5 pump.
This is going to look and work great for this build. And I sooo like the look of it. Not screamy with the faceplate on. Space saving yet powerfull.



I found a store in my 4k inhabitants town that does powdercoating. They overcharged me like crazy in my opinion asking 100 euros for powdercoating the internals of my build. But I didn't feel like travelling for it and I wanted to get it done.







But before I could bring the parts to the shop I had to strip her completely clean including drilling out almost all rivets.



The sun was shining, the parts were in. Time to do some assembling. To much loose parts, time to combine it.



Here are some pictures of her current state, I haven't fitted the sidepanels yet because I want to use thumbscrews for that but somehow the sidepanels have holes big enough to fit those wide fanscrews. So the thumbscrews I had didn't do the job very well. I have ordered other thumbscrews but now I have received (few weeks after these photos) a big pile of black 6-32 screws in different lengths with washers and nuts I might just go full screws and washers on the backside.







TUNNELVISION 8-)



What I didn't make pictures of is the two front bay covers I removed the stickers from. They look like new now and ready to use.

Parts that are on their way to me now:

- some Alphacool fitting, D5 pump, 16/10 hosing, black 6-32 screws;
- new stock top mesh and about 5 front bay covers (take a look at what that animal did to its poor top mesh :mad:

[Hukkel]

What do we have here.... a package. I like unpacking



This is how one should pack this stuff, quality.



All kinds of stuff; 2 new case feet, a mobo backplate with an extension part and combs. Beautiful combs :drool: Some screws, clips for cables and a huge bunch of bay covers. Oh almost forgot, a hexx PSU plate with dustfilter.







NUUUUU moar tunnelvision



Showing the difference between the standard one and the new hexx one.



A few more pictures of the motherbord. I think it truely is a work of art. Companies should give us such mobo plates standard in high end cases.











Everything installed. My case had one dented foot and one was missing so it was very unstable. Now it sits exactly right.



These aren't really flashy parts or updates. But I think in the end such parts make the difference between a nice mod and a great mod. The sleeved cables will be presented perfectly this way.





Time to give those 3 heads and the mobo spacers a nice black coat. No one sees them...but I know they are black :flipacoin:

[Hukkel]

I will leave these here. They're renders of the grills I designed to be used on this case. They will be lasercut from plexi. Each grill will have about 3 plexi layers and a layer of dustfilter. The top one will lose the most outside small pieces of hex so only full hexx will be there.





The very kind people of Coolermaster I had contact with and I explained my goal. They agreed I needed something powerfull but efficient. So they offered me a Silent Hybrid Pro 1050W. Now who in their right mind would say no to that? Not me anyway!

























I used to be all Corsair when it comes to PSUs, but I have come back from that. Recently I have been working on sleeving PSUs for others and I have seen quite a lot of different brands and I have really started to respect Cooler master for their PSUs a lot. I still don't understand why their Silent Pro Gold series has such a huge bundle of non modular cables. But their recent M2 line up is amazing value for money. And this Silent Hybrid Pro series is exactly what we want from them. Fully modular. No silly colours. Complete package. Strong single rail performance. That amazing brushes aluminum panel around the fan. 80+ Gold certified. And last but not least the 5,25 bay panel to have access to a fancontroller for both the main fan and the added fan power connections. I mean you get extra fan power connectors and a fancontroller with your PSU. A lot of builds can use them because there aren't enough fan power connectors on the mobo itself. I am very pleased with this amazing piece of tech.

Thank you very much Coolermaster! And thank you Marco for being so kind to sponsor this project with one. It is an amazing help.

I will post more pictures once I have fully sleeved the wiring to match the build.

[Votick]

Looking good. Sub'd

[Editor22]

Welcome to BT Tim

That MB tray is totally

[Hukkel]

Originally Posted by Votick

Looking good. Sub'd

Thank you, hope you will enjoy the buildlog

Originally Posted by Editor22

Welcome to BT Tim

That MB tray is totally

Sup Nate

Thanks man.

[ASPHIAX]

Dude !
Good to see you here !
Looking forward to the updates !

[Hukkel]

Originally Posted by ASPHIAX

Dude !
Good to see you here !
Looking forward to the updates !

Thanks Asphiax!

Good to see you as well.
I will keep those updates coming no problem

[Hukkel]

One big update coming right up!

So I received the custom grills and they are :drool:

The package arrived from Portugal. Ricardo did an amazing job. Here is one assembled and one in pieces. Each grill is made up from 3 plexi pieces and a dustfilter. Plus a bunch of screws to keep it all together.













It is actually completely flush with the sidepanel. The round edges on the panel itself make it look like otherwise in the picture, but it is.

The fun thing with these grills is you see more orange the more diagonal you are looking at it. Looking at a 90 degree angle you hardly see any orange. I absolutely love them.

















Finally started on the top panel one. Again it consists of 3 plexi pieces with a dustfilter (and a spare dustfilter). The other plexi plate is for measuring the hole that needs to be bigger on top of the case as it originally house 2*120mm fans and I want it to house 3 and maybe a radiator. Not an easy feat since it is 4mm thick aluminum. One extra strong grinding wheel was completely gone after 4 cm. So I brought out the jigsaw again. Like a knife through butter. Spent about 1 hour filing the hole to the correct shape and fit. It is being fitted from the inside like the original. But with extra strong holding points near the 5,25 inch bays.















A few pictures of all 3 grills in. The top one NOW isn't flush with the top. It will be eventually. And that looks WAY better. At some point a rad might hang from the grill making the top sqeeze the dustfilter flat and making the grill lower into the case. I also have some washers to use if needed for an extra 1,5 mm. I am even more happy with the top grill than the side grills. In real life it looks absolutely amazing. Later on with better lighting I will get my neighbour with his SLR to make far better pictures. But for now you will have to do with this sadly. Sorry.

[jrs77]

These grills are very sweet. Especially as they're orange and black

[Psyance]

Those grills are stunning

[dream1]

Hi looks realy great Where did you get that mobo tray.

[Hukkel]

Originally Posted by jrs77

These grills are very sweet. Especially as they're orange and black

Thanks a lot, I agree on the orange

Originally Posted by Psyance

Those grills are stunning

Thanks, I am very happy with them.

Originally Posted by dream1

Hi looks realy great Where did you get that mobo tray.

Thank you. They are from www.coldzero.eu. He also lasercut my designed grills.

[dream1]

Tanks that mobo tray is cool i like it very much.

[Hukkel]

Yeah I like it as well. Really well thought of and he usually makes them custom to your motherboard. At least the expansion part. So all the holes are in the correct spots. He can even put in holes for reservoir mounting all for the same price. You ask, he delivers.

[Pranja]

That case now looks much better. Great work-nice done.

[Hukkel]

Thanks you Pranja. I hope to show you much more in the very near future.

[KoSoVaR^]

That looks haaard !

[Hukkel]

Originally Posted by KoSoVaR^

That looks haaard !

Thank you... I guess