Case Mod - In Progress Project: ELITE (Watercooled Rocketfish) 4/16 Better pics (finally)

Congratz on the new sponsor mate. Fantastic work.

 

Boy 4rm Oz: Thanks man, Alex at Petras told me he would get the stuff shipped out today. Meanwhile, I got my acrylic from Delvies! I'll see if I can squeeze in an update.


I'll be on vacation to Palm Springs this weekend, so have a great weekend Bit-Tech!

 

Update 9/1

Hey guys, its time for another update!

Shut Up the Pump​

First thing I did was small, but it is really important to me. I was pretty disappointed that watercooling seemed really loud due to the pump, even though I properly bled it. Turns out that when I don't mount it directly to the case, the pump is virtually silent. I dug up some of this material to put between it and the case to absorb vibration, and it helped alot! I'll give a dollar to anyone who can guess what this is lol!

Logo Lighting and Radgrill Trim​

This package was waiting for me, which means I have the acrylic to put behind the logo.


When I got the acrylic, I got another idea though. Traced my plans:


Cut:


Holes drilled:


Small details like rounding the edges until they perfectly match up make things look nice


Edges sanded:


I don't want to waste acrylic, so the cutout from the inside of that pice was polished up and will go here:


This is what the logo looks like lighted up:


And the radgrill trim mounted:


Then I attached the front just to see what the case looks like so far:


Progress Shot:




My package with lights is due to come on wednesday, so I'll light up the bottom part then

What do you guys think?

 

Nice, those last few detail pieces really cap off a great mod.

 

Stealth the drive cages and mark it done. One sweet mod. I think I'll put my Rocketfish in the "later" pile! I can't compete with this, just RIGHT

 

The Boy 4rm oz: Thanks man, Im actually really liking the look of the blue trim so I may add it to other areas inside the case as well.

Jhanlon:Thanks for the encouragement, the rocketfish really is a great case to mod. I'll try to get the drive bay plate done soon.

 

Mini- update:​

I didn't get too much done on the hardware side today, but I did want to show you guys what I worked on. I dug up this old PalmPilot that had been a waste of $200 at one point, but has been sitting for years. After using LCD smartie and palm orb to fiddle around for hours, I got the palm to emulate a Matrix orbital display. I'll be modding the PSU to make it run off molex power and add it to the inside of the case soon:

Here's the palm:


And after fiddling its my new lcd display


Also made a cardboard mockup of a small add on to the case, can anybody guess what its for?


What do you think?

 

No idea lol. Cool idea with that old PDA.

 

clever thinking. is the cardboard thing a pci/express card support thing?

 

I thought that but he only has 1 GPU an no other expansion cards. It can't be a SLI bridge cover then lol.

 

Tominated & Boy 4rm Oz : Thanks. And no,its not for pci cards. Wish I had 3 way SLI lol!

 

Got My Package​

Hey guys,

Look what came in the mail today: Thanks Petra's!


Even got a blue pen to match my case. Now thats attention to detail!


And check out that biocide, its not PT_Nuke. Alex sent me some of the stuff he's currently working on, so expect to see some new biocide soon! Can anyone read what it contains on the third line?

Since some of you were worried about the wiring on the bottom portion of the case, I made these: (its what the carboard template was for


Before:


After:


(Sata cable will be replaced with the blue one I just got, and bottom black cable will be straightened. just snapped a quick pic before I left)

I don't mind wiring as long as it looks neat, and I think that piece spaces it out evenly. Not that anyone will ever see the bottom panel without the window covering it, but I just like to make sure I address every detail.

What do you guys think?

 

Ah cable clips. I am going to make some of those maybe, I just bought some chrome plastic ones. Looks a lot cleaner with those cable clips.

 

"Contains Benzal" is all I can make out. Not the best resolution for image enhancement and the printing is hard to make out.
Congrats on the sponsor.

John

 

Nice mod. I like it very much so far. I've been dragged away unwillingly from mine for a while, as I lost a harddrive with most of my pictures to be uploaded.

As for the chemical, I can't tell by the writing, but I would hazard a guess to Benzethonium chloride. It has antimicrobial properties and is soluble in water. Judging by the size of the bottle and the use of only 4 drops, it makes sense to me. Hope it goes well.

 

Boy 4rm Oz: Yeah, making some of those make the cables look much neater.

Jhanlon and Nighttrain: Thanks guys! After taking a closer look I believe it says Benzalkonium Chloride. Would that act like what you described? And I know how you feel Nighttrain, its happened to me before too But keep modding!

Ok, Update comming soon!

 

Hey guys, Time for an update!

Got alot done, so I'll jump right to the pics.

Drive Bay Cover​

As you all know, I like to make cardboard mockups to check my measurements in reality:


Drew my plans:


Finished that cut as well as a small rectangle?


I thought it looked too plain, so I made this boarder. Drew it out, cut, filed, rounded corners,and sanded to 400 grit on sides.


I need the holes to perfectly line up:


Then I made brackets to mount the pda on the back of the panel:



you can see how there's absolutely no room to screw up.


Ahhhh



Polished with this tool:


Hey what's this thin rectangle for?


Used it as a trim for the side


My lcd:


Programmed and ready to go: can you see what it says?


Progress shot:


What do you guys think?

 

All I can say is bloody fantastic mate. A very clean mod, very effective colour scheme. The water loop looks fantastic.

 

very clean looking,well done mate

 

Nice work so far! I like the clean and simple look.
How long to go? What do you have for plans?