I've been lurking around these fora (is that the plural for forum ) for some time now gathering tips and ideas for my next mod. Inspiration has been supplied in bundles, primarliy by Nexxo, Modsquad, Piloux and Gnome - but of course there are the countless others contributing to the threads. This is my thrid and by far most ambitious mod, it's also the first time I've had the courage to share I look forward to your comments on my work so far and your input into the remainder of the project. I am building a top notch gaming machine that'll I'll also use for some photo work and some video editing - purely amateur. I've been lucky enough to come into some unexpected funding and therfore have a generous budget. So here are my thoughts. I'm building a rig based on an FX-55 in a Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. I'll be using the small bore German gear from Aqua Computer in an Akasa Eclipse case. I'm an aqua virgin and I'm sure I'm gonna need your help Sorry about the poor quality - still getting the hang of resizing for the web! The project is underway already - are you interested to see more?
So no interest, well I'll carry on regardless The first job was to measure and cut the top panel to accomodate the Aquatube and first radiator / fan assembly. As all good little modders should I measured / measured again and then cut . I found my jig saw was easily the best option to get a nice cut, quickly followed by a good deal of filing and sanding. Once the grills were attached things started to look a lettle nicer Nice but still not quite the factor I was looking for. A visit to the chrome shop would sort that out! Drilling the holes to attach the assemblies was a pleasure with this beast Fortunately my mrs. is very understanding
pics aren't working for me, maybe thats why nobody replied? Sounds like you'll have some awesome hardware in it though.
don't want to sound like an affiliate but, http://www.imageshack.us may suit your needs for the time being? I notice you are using Geocities. Most services like Angelfire/Geocities don't allow 'hotlinking' anymore. That's could be one of the reasons your pics don't show up. Curious though..
SC4mpi, just checked out your log (again), awseome stuff It's got me thinking that my two BIX rads with 120mm fans may not be enough to cool so many chips. I'm trying to keep the whole thing contained in the case. Despite it's size it isn't proving easy - as I'll show in a minute. Like you I'm going SLi, if I can get them I'd like to go with 6800gts, I might just passively cool the chipset and therfore just cool the processor and GPUs on my loop. When the time comes I'll be debating the routing of the water loop.
Okay, so now the pics are sorted, on with the log. I decided early on that I wanted to keep the whole thing self contained . Partly why a chose such a cavernous case! Space restrictions therefore meant insufficient room for a dual radiator so the only option was to go with two; one in the front and one at the top. The first thing was to make a couple of shrouds - Nexxo educated me to this. And so began my adventures with Plexi. I found the jig saw was pretty useful here too. Again loads of sanding followed....... then I discovered my wife's mini blow torch (for melting sugar on creme brulee etc.) Well it does a sterling job of 'glassing' the edge of cut plexi. A couple of blue LEDs and some sleeving .......et voila
Once I had two LED enhanced shrouds completed, it was on to the assembly. I've read quite a bit about the issue of painting fans causing problems, noise etc. but I must confess I've never experienced this........ perhaps I will this time. Without going into the details I primed sanded and spray painted 'chrome effect' three Papst 120mm fans. Add a couple of silicone fan gaskets, to dampen vibration and a couple of the electric blue BIX rads and the recipe is taking shape.........
Thanks tm36usa, praise from you is praise indeed. So I guess you want to know how the rad assembly and Aquatube fit together with the top........... kinda nicely I'd say. Add a trip to the 'chrome guy', a la ModSquad and things are getting bling. The fingerprints will of course be wiped away Sadly the pics don't really do justice to the shiney finish. Believe me it's The MB tray in this case is sweet too........ more shiny Note the square cut out for easy access to the back of the MB when mounting blocks - that's when things will get a little scary for a newbie like me.
And so the modding continued. The bottom of the case was very boring and needed something to make it more interesting and to fit with the theme. Time to get out some more plexi.......... I want the this rig to be as quiet as possible so I added a layer of 'underfloor rubber' .......not sure if it will help or not!? I also wanted the plexi to have a really shiny look to it so I used some mirrored film on the backside of it. The kind of stuff used to mirror or black out car windows. Add in the illuminated shroud and overall I'm pretty happy with the effect........ Put the top on and things are starting to shape up nicely........
it rox so far Only discrepency is the fact that the acrylic shrouds are fairly thin, meaning your not really getting any benefits...
What are you talking about. It lighting up blue is enoungh of a benefit... Deadly App is right though, you really should try to make the shround thicker but you dont have to.
