Case Mod - In Progress Project: Blue-Hellfire Feb 2 Stick a fork in it...its done!!!

Ok been reading the forums for a while now. actually brought myself to register a few months ago and actually add some input here n there.
now I figure it's time to move another step forward and start an actual project log.
Be warned from the onset that this is gonna be a looooonnnnngggggg build.
Also the quality of some of the pics wont be brilliant but all I have to work with atm is snapping shots between a tempermental vivitar 3mp camera that eats effin batteries like candy or my N95 with the 5mp cam on it. I will do the best I can with pics and try to give you as much detail as I can. also being in England atm i dont have a dedicated mod area, i am betting this is the main reason i get the evil eye from wifey when i talk about working on it lol. The project tends to follow me into whatever room i decide to sit in to mod that day, kitchen, sitting room, back garden, hell even wet sanding in the bathtub isn't off limits.

Technically I am building 2 PC's, one for me and one for the other half. internals will be identical but she doesn't have allot of care for the exterior modding aside from paint.
so mine gets the surgery to make it the way I want..hers just gets some lipstick and a new pair of shoes.
Knowing from the beginning that the budget will be a limiting factor since all the components will be bought in pairs ( if they aren't identical spec hdwe wise wifey says I can sleep in the back shed for a while till I come up with a good excuse for the deviation =oX)
we start out with a budget case bought from our friends over at scan, a Sharkoon Rebel 9 economy edition



this will serve as a good canvas for me and sufficient room for the hardware we are considering.
My goals for this build are as follows:
increase ventilation through the case
add a side window
add internal lighting
try my hand at wire management
pull out the airbrush after 17 years and see if the hands still work
lastly, come up with matching systems that will last us four or five years.

While I know I am no where near as good as some of you in sketch up, I did try my hand in it to see what I could come up with.
Here's the basic results:


these depictions give me a good idea of how I want my layout to be. Mind you the color scheme isn't picked yet aside from my determination to use blue in it lol.
Placement of the lower intake and upper blow hole should give me the airflow I am looking for.
When coupled with the turbine intake on the front panel and the dual 80mm exhaust at the rear I think there should be plenty of air moving through the case.

First things first...
deconstruction:

off comes the front panel


followed by the front usb io panel

then the power and reset buttons


leaving me with a bare front panel to play with


Now onto the fun bits:
i hit Wickes(for those in the states Wickes is like Valu home center..smaller more personal version of home depot) and picked up some cheap clear plexi
I know this isnt top of the line mod material but its cheap and cheerful and foots the bill for what i need to do with it.
off i went to grab my trusty razor knife...scored a strip of plexi and placed it over the edge of the coffee table ( makes note..wife really doesn't appreciate me modding in the sitting room) after a bit of downward pressure *POP* the piece snapped clean off scaring the crap out of the 2 dogs in the process.
this piece will be the filler for the bottom portion of the front panel.



i started out using araldite(5 min epoxy) to hold it in,

once the epoxy set i got paranoid and followed up with super glue down the joint as well simply because i didn't wanna get halfway through makin this front panel and have the seam go pop and have to start over.
once the new insert was affixed to the front panel i had a bit of a rummage around the local Sunday market and found a cheap hole saw set (more on its quality later)
i chucked up the largest diameter hole saw in the drill and marked everything up.
i would love to tell ya that i took 10 different measurements, made sure all were spot on, crossed them all with Einsteins theory of relativity and then only after putting on all appropriate safety gear including gloves goggles and steel toed boots, started drilling.
i'd be a lyin **** if i did, truth be told i set the front panel in place back on the chassis. marked out where the center of the stock 120mm fan cage sat and freehand marked the center point for it (Gasp).


then i grabbed my custom specially made turbine intake port unit ( shhhh i know its just a Cd sleeve but its all fun =o)~)

marking the ring to cut off the end was kinda easy..lay a sharpie marker in the table and spin the cd sleeve against it for the straight line.

end was removed with trusty dremel tool and cutting disc.

checking the diameter against a 120mm fan

looks close enough for me. the sleeve is a bit wider than necessary but i will make small filler panels on the fan housing itself so it wont be noticeable.
i then reversed the placement of the mounting panel in the chassis to give it a bit more depth and set the front cover back on the chassis with the cd sleeve through the hole so i could mark where to cut it.
i know i will prolly get beaten severely for not having a pic of that process but to be honest, when yer on a roll its hard to remember to snap pics of every step you take.
once i had everything sitting flush, i marked the intake with a fineline marker again and cut it with the trusty dremel again.
i sanded the interior and exterior of the cd sleeve to give the adhesives something to "bite" onto. i figured that had to be better than leaving them ultra smooth so things pop off later.
i set the cd sleeve into the front panel and grabbed the araldite again

cant ever say i waste things... what was a scrap cd sleeve top is now a pallet for mixing epoxy, hehe

this one i epoxied from top and bottom. the followed up with a fine bead of super glue as well to make sure it never comes off.

wow from this angle the tube looks alot longer than it actually is..

thats where i will leave this one for now. i have quite a bit more to write but wife is tellin me we have to go shopping for a bit.
/me mumbles as he shuffles away
cya in a bit

 

haha, your writing style is great. Looks like you are off to a good start, can't wait to see more!

 

Wooo a sharkoon rebel.

I wanted to get one of the rebel 12 economys and mod that, just because its huge and cheap. So lots of room for error and I wont cry if I mess things up.

I will definatly be watching this, btw I love you fan duct idea. Would be great if you could somehow make it moveable, like using 3 bay bezels fixed together that can be moved around in the available 9 so you could customise the cooling, or add another fan duct if you needed to.

 

Looks like a great build with lots of potential. Will the wind tunnel be directed over the gfx or cpu?

 

DaveVader, once i get the thread caught up to current i will drop to weekend updates till completion..should be enough to read till then hehe.
Matticus, i was lookin at the Rebel 12 as an alternative but it was too big and wouldnt have looked right with the plans i have. would have been a ton of wasted space for both me and the wife and since i havent had the chance to dabble in water cooling yet it would look empty.
cl0ck_ed, turbine will mainly direct flow over a side mounted hard drive then combined with the lower 120mm intake port it will allow all the inward flow necessary to cool this rig.

 

front panel

rackin frackin effin didnt save the damn page n firefox errored and couldn't retrieve the 1.5 hrs worth of update i just did and have to redo again .....bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
OK now that that's out of my system,lemme get back to the front panel.
when we last left our caped crusaders ....oops wrong show.
a quick hop to Halfords brought me back with this

English bondo!!!
eh it suits a purpose for now. i know the front panel was never meant to be a "one fill then done" project so i popped open the can, grabbed a mixing pallet ( technical name for a few paper plates )
and promptly got kicked out of the house into the back garden =0/
apparently the wife doesnt share the same affinity as i do for the smell of body filler.
undeterred i went ahead and layed on the first coat.


Note to self:Use masking tape to keep body filler out of areas you dont want filled moron!!
now i got to do the fun and wonderful job of sanding the first coat down so i am close to where i wanna be.
this is after sanding the first coat.


i needed to find some flat drive bay covers as the curved mesh ones that came with the case wouldn't fit the idea i have in my mind. after lookin at the 6 machines in the house i only have one that will work as a donor..shamefully its mine and not one of the wifes or either of the daughters =oX
luckily it is the box i am replacing with the PC i am building so its not too painful to rip things out of it.
so pillaging i went, i took the first drive cover and super glued it to the top slot of the case. i want this area clear inside the case because i will have the blowhole in the top panel and i wont want the chance of it being able to hit an optical drive once they get installed.
time for more body filler to blend it all together


some more sanding and time for coat number 3


thats after a bit of sanding and just before i drop on the first coat of primer.

after coat 1 of primer

some of you might remember a short time ago when i was asking about help with a fan controller.
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=149929
r4tch3t offered help and suggestions for modding one to turn it into something i wanted.
problem being...me and electricity are kinda like oil and water so i kept looking.
luckily i am a persistant SOB sometimes
e bay came through for me in a good way.



nice thing about this one is that the pots come off the end of the pcb now at a 90 degree angle so i can fit them into the side pillar of the front face plate.
first thing i did is dismantle the fan controller and use the faceplate to layout and mark my holes
then i used the actual pcb pots to double check and make sure they were all gonna be center.

then i loaded up the trusty drill with a small bit for guide holes and *POOF* i got thrown out in the back garden.
apparently the sound of the drill was drowning out an ever so important episode of Judge Judy =o/
eh no matter, i went ahead and drilled my holes and snuck back in the house. hehe


just about now Judge Judy was ending so i grabbed my dremel to help me remove some of the excess plastic on the back of the face plate that would allow me to flush mount the fan controller.
plastic removed it was time for a test fit.

then i threw on the knobs to make sure they would look the way i wanted from the front once assembled.



winner!!!!!

eh for now thats where i am gonna leave off on this update.. nice day and more to go dremel cut saw fill and sand.
possibly small updates during the week but more than likely looking for the weekend for major posts.
till then
cya soon =o)~

 

Man, this is looking great. I love the fan controller placement.

 

awesome, I have had a similar idea with a fan controller, very similar infact. Looking real good, cant wait to see the end result!

 

one other nice thing about that fan controller is that its not very deep and when its installed it hides itself entirely in the front panel.even with the front panel installed on the chassis theres still a 2mm gap so no chance for a short anywhere.
thanks for takin the time to read through this everyone. all comments are welcome
as it sits now the shopping list for this build looks like this

already purchased:
Sharkoon Rebel 9 economy
Generic 6 Channel fan controller

Still need to acquire:
Asus P5KC, iP35, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2/DDR3 1066/1333/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX
520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300, Yorkfield Core, S775, 2.5 GHz, 1333MHz, 6MB L2 Cache, OEM
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800MHz), Unbuffered, CAS 4-4-4-12, DHX
Zalman CNPS9500-AT Intel LGA775 Aero Flower Cooler
250 GB Seagate ST3250410AS Barracuda 7200.10, SATA II, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 11 ms, NCQ
512MB BFG Tech 8800GT OC, PCI-E 2.0, Mem 1800MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, Streams 112, 2x DL DVI-I
2x LiteON DH-20A1S-18C Black 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8 / -RW x 6, DVD-RAM x12, SATA Black
2x Sharkoon 12" Blue CCFL 2in1 Kit x2 CCFL Tubes
2x 120mm Akasa AK-174BK-S Black Case Fan, 3 Pin, Sleeve Bearing Ultra Quiet (17dBA) Retail Package
2x 80mm AKASA Auto Thermal Sensor Black Fan, 3 Pin Ball Bearing
Saitek PK 02AV Eclipse II Wired Keyboard, BackLit Purple, Red + Blue Keys, USB 1.1/2.0, Black

as i mentioned at the beginning this is a budget build x2 so as we scrape together cash and get new bits you will see them get added little by little

 

I had the same idea about a year ago, modding a cheap rebel9 to keep costs low. Mine ended up a scrap, but you've motivated me to re-attempt the mod. Subscribed
Don't want to hijack your thread but if you're interested I could post some of the idea I came up with to hide cables with just a couple of cuts here and there in the optical/hdd cage.
And why don't you use a 120mm fan at the back instead of the two 80mm?

 

ideas are always great but prolly best link em off this thread for viewing as i dont want it to stray off topic.
i plan to revamp the io tower hdd cage anyhow so i will open another can of worms when i get there =o)
i elected to go with the twin 80's at the rear as they fit into what i have pictured in my head atm for the final product.
as we all know ideas tend to evolve and twist at every turn so this might even change in the future

 

got home from work last night and had a look at the back panel for the case.
decided i will end up changing the rear exhaust to a single 120mm fan rather than the twin 80's
will mean a little bit more work to obtain the look i want but hey....thats what we are here for right? lol
this weekend i should have pic updates on the main side panel and prolly either the top or bottom panel of the case.
cya soon

 

to any mod.. can ya please remove the "just starting out" from the topic...thanks

 

Can't you just edit your first post

 

ty bud..didnt look in the advanced functions bit to see where i could change it. much appreciated =o)

 

got the same case.. but only with watercooling

 

i appreciate input and ideas but please refrain from adding pics to my worklog. its to keep track and follow along my current project. not an advertisement for your own work. there are threads available on these forums o do just that =o)

 

little harsh damn, well looks really sik so far. i like it

Subscribed

 

lol @ harsh..in retrospect i guess that came out a bit on the strong side.
i did a bit of back panel modding last night cause i think the stock panel was kinda ugly and full of too many holes.
i will add pics on saturday and show a few more of the things i have done so far.

 

not harsh at all, 100% fair, you have to be curteous (sp?) with this type of thing, and posting your own pictures is not. Even if you are new to the forum, that is no excuse.