Case Mod - In Progress Project: Lumière Noire by E.E.L. Ambiense - Completed

Awesome work dude. Some nicely designed pieces within the general theme, I'm looking forward to a full case shot to see all these pieces together in the grand scheme.

 

With a ceiling ROFL Personal Joke

 

Thanks, man!

, John!

 

Beautiful designs Jeremy, I call this "Art in Black Monochrome"

 

Thanks, Bill! Glad ya looked in on it. Just wait 'till it's finally assembled.

 

Once again, you've outdone yourself.

Nice new Avatar BTW.

 

Hahah, thank bro! Yeah, avvie needed a facelift, so I figured I'd match it to the current build.

 

April 27th Update!

Okay, guys. First off, I want to apologize sincerely for lack of constant updates. Things have been....odd...lately. Business has been hectic, as well as my normal job too.

Now, about the update. Things have been odd, as I stated above, and a strange series of events has led E.E.L. Ambiense to be in possession of a brand-new, in the box Lian Li A70B tower for half the cost of one. Just...don't ask.

And did I just refer to myself in the third-person?

After much debate and bickering with myself about the project, I've decided I'm going to go ahead and switch this project to the new case. It'll give me a little more "insurance" as far as capabilities go, and I'll be able to split the CPU loop by itself because I'll be throwing in a PA120.2 into the front of the case. So I'll be running a PA120.3 up top handling the northbridge and the VGA card, and a PA120.2 handling the CPU only. I think the only downside is, I may need to use some angle-barbs on certain things, but we'll see when we get there. I may actually need to go to a thinner rad up top, like a Swifty MCR320 or something. Who knows.

I'm not sure if this is a valid thing I can do as far as project logs go, but since all the hardware and everything going in is the same, aside from the actual model case, I don't see this as an issue. I will, of course, have to go back to the beginning cutting-wise for the case. But that's not a problem. Actually having time to do it is.

After it's all done and modded, I'll probably go back and edit this entire log removing the older 'revision' of this build.

Here's the case, all brand-new n' stuff. I'm unboxing it to make sure UPS Man's 'handywork' didn't, uhh...rupture anything.





Taking the side panel off, you can see why I decided to go with this case instead. And if not, then just continue to read!



Nice case! I love Lian Li. I can admit it.



Here's the front panel. Nice.



And as it breathes it first few breaths of life, I begin to strip parts of it off rudely and without remorse. Just excuse those things installed in the bays. I was measuring things.



Overall, it's a gorgeous case for anyone to use just stock. But for me, that's not good enough. I've got to make it look like I want it to look. Now, here's an early mockup of what I was planning on doing to this case.



Things may change; things may not. Who knows. I've got some more stripping to do before I cut on the case, coat the chassis, etc. I'll update when a proper one has coagulated enough to do so.

Now, on to other things. The board. Okay, yeah.

The board stock is nice. But again, I don't want it like that. So....I stripped all the stock cooling off.



I decided I'm replacing the stock southbridge with an aftermarket Enzotech sink a bit larger and a bit more efficient. I didn't think the southbridge justified being in the loop, and I hate running massive amounts of hosing.

...and installed. Looks nice. And believe me guys, to those that are considering using anything from Enzotech, go for it. Quality is quite good.



The mosfet sinks needed to go too. I decided on Thermalright sinks for these.



There. All done. Nice! Now, for the northbridge. Okay, I want to add this to one of the loops. The problem is, at the time I got this board, there weren't much of any blocks that fit this chipset, and the ones that did I didn't care for. I sent an email to Eddy over at EK Water Blocks to see if he had anything in the works for the DFI boards. He didn't. So, I got an idea.

I had a couple of these EK chipset blocks laying around.



Since DFI decided to be a bit different and only use two mountpoints for their chipsets on the boards, I decided I'm just going to make a new top for one of these blocks. I measured it out and it looks like it'll be plenty of room for error. Plus, it'll be fun!

So I started designing and came up with this.



Measurements are pretty damn close. I'll tweak things a bit before I cut it, but it should work. I was thinking of cutting it out of 3/8" black acrylic, which should give it plenty of strength for mounting and it'll be nondescript and stealthy.

Now, the CPU's block. I decided to ditch my old EK-Wave I was using for a higher-flow unit. I was going to go with Eddy's Supreme block, but decided to go for the proven D-Tek Fuzion.



Nice! But-- It's not good enough for me stock.



Gunmetal looks soooo cool.

-------------
Until the next update, I got nuthin'.

 

wasn't Lumière the candlestick from disney's "beauty and the beast"?

lol

 

I'm not sure; Disney died for me when Eisner took over years back, lol.

"Lumière" is French for light/illumination/etc. Basic meaning of the project name is "Dark Light".

 

Ohhh.. A70. ...wise choice

fyi: I can get a set of my machined case feet anodized Black for you.... Just PM at tmn forums, I'm going to anodizer in the morning to have another set anodized blue for the Simpsons PC

 

looking good EEL

 

Wow, this is an awesome project! That's a great looking case ya got there and you're doing amazing work making those different parts. BRAVO man, mod on!

 

A70 rawks! Thanks, Bill! I'll PM ya @ TMN in a bit.

Thanks, bro! I'm glad you could look in on how the project's going.

I appreciate the props, man! Glad ya looked in on it.

 

Top notch, as usual!

 

Thanks again, man!

 

April 29th Update!

Alright, guys. I got a little bit of stuff done this evening, but I gotta bolt soon. Got some...uhh....stuff...to do! Yeah.... --Don't look at me like that!

Let's see where we're at, shall we?

First off, I received my brand-new PA120.2 in the mail today. Proceeded to take it out of the box and double-check my mockup measurements for where I'm slapping this beast into.



Yeah! This is great! Measurements are pretty damn close! Now, let's lay it in the case to check the fan-hole line-up and-- D'OH!



Actually, in all honesty, I knew that going into it. I wouldn't expect a case manufacturer to adjust designs to fit a rad's footprint. I wish they would, but that's a whole different issue. Besides, Thermochill's rad footprint is weird compared to everyone elses'. No biggie. I'll just have to make a new plate to mount the thing onto, that's all. Oh, and for the record, the fan hole spacing do not line up to Hardware Labs-style (Black Ice) either.



So I measured and measured and measured again. I set up a stencil for where I need to cut, holes I need to drill, etc. Here's what I came up with. Pretty straightforward.



You know, I really want to check the measurements again. Just to be safe, right?



And it looks great to me! I have like a millimeter or so to spare, so it's plenty! Let's hack this sucker up!

*snaps fingers and magically it's cut*



Presto! I don't really need to clean it up totally, as it's getting covered with another plate anyways. Which I don't have time to make right now. And I have to run. Because I'm a meanie. And I suck. Toodles!

-------------
Until the next update, I got nuthin'.

 

Nice work. Can't wait for more.

 

Buddy, I really Impressed with your work and idea. I love this theme, IT rocks. You took care about details. Every thing is perfect. I have feelings that it will turn out good.

You got my vote on The Poll, And I wish you luck to win. You are doing a nice job here.

 

Congrats on another nomination! It looks like you might lose again, too.
oh, and there's nothing wrong with talking about yourself in the 3rd person. Cheapskate does it all the time, and he replies to his self too!
Right?
Right!