Case Mod - In Progress Project: Dominator (Lian Li A05-B) updated 10/20/08

Thanks - hex mesh makes a nice change on the standard round hole mesh.

Thanks.
They told me they are looking for a distributor in the US

I would love to feel sympathy for you, but after South Africa lost twice to the Aussies in the Tri-Nations, I'm not gonna . (rugby for those that wonder what I am on about).

I hooked one of the fans up to another PC. Nanoxia makes 2 models of 120mm fans - a 1250 rpm and a 2000 rpm. I have the 2000rpm. At 12v it generates a lot of noise, but it is all wind noise, no mechanical/wining noise and it moves A LOT of air. At 5v it still moved quite a bit of air and was almost completely silent. Very impressed so far.
One thing I noticed is that the magnet in the motor is fairly strong - enough so as to stick the fan to the case and make it stay in place when held upside down.

 

Yeah sorry about the Rugby mate lol. Never been a big follower but a great sport to watch. I really want to get me some of those fans lol. Perhaps later down the track I will source some and replace all of my fans.

 

Don't worry - this project is still alive!!
I have not had much time over the last few weeks to work on this project due to a variety of reasons but regardless I still managed to make some progress inbetween.

First off - relocating the power extension cable:
This case has the PSU at the front of the case and then have an extension cable that runs from the right-front of the case to the left-rear. Those of you that owns this case will know that the extension cable aimlessly snakes it way along the bottom of the case from the front to the back. I decided to relocate the cable from the front-right to the front-left and then to run the cable behind the mobo tray to clean up the interior.

So first off - the cable has a hole/bracket at the front to the right of the PSU. I replicated this hole on the left of the PSU:







Next up was to plug the hole on the right that is not needed anymore. For some reason I did not take specific photos of this but you can see the result in some of the other photos I will show today.

And the next was to shorten and sleeve the cable:





Then I put this work aside and moved on to the next. Those of you that can remember that far back after so many beers will remember that I dumped the idea to use the swiftech reservoir. Well, I decided to use a res made by Bitspower and so I needed to make a new res mount bracket. This is what I came up with. Not sure if it will be strong enough to hold the res filled with liquid and with the tubing installed but I like how it turned out:

First use a hole saw slightly smaller than the res to drill holes through 2 pieces of acrylic:



Then start sanding it into shape. Note how the outer edges of the curve is slightly thicker that the rest of the arms - this is to grip the res:





And then the sanding continues until the end result:



Next I stick strips of these rubbery tape onto the inside of the arms (the contact between the res and brackets):



And the final result - for now. The brackets still needs to be installed onto another piece of acrylic that will be mounted to the case:



Then the time has come to do a test fit so that I could figure out the pump mount, tubing routing and cable management and also to ensure I am not missing anything. So I grabbed the hardware that is going to go into this case and started putting things together.

First I installed this Enzotech cooler on the uncovered mosfets on the mobo:





Then installed some green tubing:



Putting it all together



Note the power extension cable and P4 cable routing behind the mobo tray:



PSU sitting on the bracket to ensure it routs air over the radiator:



Trying out different tubing routings:





So at this point the net result was I knew where to install the pump bracket, how to do the cable management, tubing routing and most importantly - I have not missed anything. So that left me with attaching the pump bracket to the case and then POWDERCOATINGGGGGGGG!!!

But slow down boy - lets work on that pump bracket first:

Take the bottom piece of the pump bracket and drill 2 holes:



Then extend the holes onto the case and install some clinch nuts:





Test fit:



Now we are ready for powdercoating - some final shots of the naked case. Enjoy it boys as this is the final time you will see it in all it's nakedness...

 

That's looking great, you have done a lot of work.

 

Powdercoating....

3 working days after I dropped my parts off for powdercoating, the powdercoater phoned me - parts are ready for pickup. Unfortunately I could only pick it up this past Friday.

So with minimal words on to the photos of the case after powdercoating. All previous photos where taken with my cell phone (really!) . But today I have nothing but quality shots for you (taken with real Canon camera ).

OK - shuttup and show some pics already!





















Teaser shot of the back of the mobo tray - I am currently working on a cable management solution and part of that required the mobo tray to be modified. Stay tuned for the final solution.

 

That just looks fantastic! I'm can't wait for another update, it's going to interesting to see the finish product. I'm still planning mine, unfortunately fair too busy to start anything yet.

Great stuff, keep it up dude!

\m/

 

Wilco

I have been steadily putting it all together over the weekend and took a TON of photos. It's about 50% assembled right now. I will upload the photos between work and post often this week until I am up to date with photo's

 

More photos of the powdercoated product:








Glory shots of the radiator:






















Case assembled to the radiator:








More to follow soon....

 

The powdercoating looks fantastic! I'm normally not a fan of green, but you manage to pull it off very well. The black and green color combination looks perfect!

 

Thanks sir! And thanks again because it was your metal bending work on Rogue that gave me the idea for the radiator cover.

 

I love it, I have a A05B myself and I have a black green too theme (DFI and nanoxia fans) , powdercoating is really cool and your mods are perfect too, keep going

 

Nice work!

 

I really am spoiling you with updates!
Here's the next batch of photos I uploaded:







Installation starts - installing the mobo tray with mobo:







My attempt at artsy photo:



I love it when a plan comes together! It makes me proud when careful planning results in screws fitting this well:





Shot from the rear with power plug installed:



Installing the PSU and fans:



















OK - I may have gone overboard on the photos - but there you have it

 

more pics please!

Shame the corsair branding on the PSU wasn't green..

 

Wow man, i watched the topic with admiration. This is one of the most cleanest job i've seen.

 

Where's the photos? No good telling me about it without showing it off!

Thanks!

Wilco - more to follow tomorrow
I am still trying to figure out how to turn the orange into green...

Thanks - the trick is to wash your hands often then the rest just falls into place

 

de-badge the PSU? or steath it?

 

I love how that radiator turned out. I also love the simplicity and cleanness of the mods you performed. Powder coating looks fantastic. I can't wait to see everything installed.

Nice pics BTW.

 

F@#%ing amazing!!!

 

I have to take shots of it before swap in my new project (apple G5 case with grey, white, and green theme)