Case Mod - In Progress [Project] Goliath - COMPLETED 19/09/09

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Introduction:

For many years I have worked, played, laughed and loved my pc, I’ve invested money and more importantly my time into this for all intense purposes is just a box, but when can it become more than that ? For something that engulfs so much of my life I want more, so I began my first major modding project “Goliath” although I had undertaken all sorts of minor mods in the past this would be my first what I would call “Major” Project. This is actually the Second Version of My Project Log as after reading Zen and the Art of the Project Log I decided that my current log just didn’t cut it and certainly didn’t communicate where I was coming from and why, it was random sporadic, basically I didn’t have a clue .. but like all things im learning..

Quicklinks:

• Introduction & Part 1: Chassis Shaping
• Part 2: Chassis in Black
• Part 3: Crazy Braiding
• Part 4: Drive Shroud
• Part 5: Fan Controller Mod
• Part 6: The Great Grilling
• Part 7: The Long Grind Day 1
• Part 8: The Graphical Grilling
• Part 9: In the End
  
  

Inspiration/Design:

My first thoughts for goliath were scribbled on the back of some old paperwork during my day I knew the name would be goliath, (ill explain why later) but what exactly did I want it to evoke? The key points of my scribbled ideas were: Science, Black, Sleek Ominous, Power, Japan, Glow. So what I hear you saying I want a scientific black Japanese power box ?? well not exactly, so I started looking around doing some research on my key points and found some eye candy inspiration

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I found this building (a hotel in Dakota USA.. I think) it started me off thinking about blue light and the whole obelisk look that I was gunning for but I found the gloss finish look too .. well I don’t know but it wasn’t what I was looking for, what I was looking for needed to be something from the future, I kept looking and for a while found nothing, until one day there it was staring me in the face a Kitchen !, (yes I have taken my tablets and no I haven’t made the worlds biggest typo) there it was a kitchen magazine of all places where I saw a brilliant new inspiration for Goliath

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This designer kitchen reminded me how beautiful matt finish metal looks, that’s the future look I wanted without the tacky look that’s mostly applied to glossy “futuristic” items, something was missing from the scene though, knowing that all is fine and well in black but most of Goliath's life will be spent in the dark .. so I needed some light that fitted the look, I wanted to avoid garish reds and greens not my type of future colours, for me blue light is so soothing

I remembered new scientist articles I had read over the years and the thing that sprung to mind was Cerenkov Radiation, which I remembered was blue, when I did more research I found out that that type of radiation is electromagnetic.. Perfect it just seemed to fit the whole premise of my design for a powerful obelisk

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This was defiantly the combination I wanted, sleek black powerhouse something that you imagined made a ohmmmmmm sound, as to sort of subtly hint at its massive power.. Ok maybe I'm going a bit of the tracks here.

My final consideration in design was the fact it was all a little out of touch with humanity, I'm all for cool out of this world alien technologies, but to me the heart of the stuff I dream of is all made by us, I want to marvel at the achievement of man not of an alien, so I needed something earthly to bring everything together, and if its discovered in millions of years they wont mistake it for an alien artefact.. lol

The other key points on my original scribbles had got mostly lost as I got carried away with sexy radiation and brushed metal, what on this earth do I love ? (other than my gorgeous wife to be) the answer was simple Heavy Metal !, and my favourite band is Trivium, there’s another reason for this choice, there artwork has a very strong Japanese design element and the typography is so smooth and sharp at the same time, I defiantly wanted to integrate this into the case somehow .. But subtly I decided I was going to use the Main logos and parts of the Typography to design some elements of the Case

Example:

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Part 1

Chassis Shaping

Note: as I am using pictures I took before I decided to reformat my log and wise up on how to write a proper log, my shots aren’t up to spec however as I have no way to shoot them without striping my case that’s not going to happen, so bare with me till part 3 when I start shooting better shots and making this log worth the space it takes up !

After many years of love for the company I decided I would base my design for Goliath on a PC-71

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This was surly the starting point for my design, it’s even been in use for the past several years as my main PC, but now its time for a makeover! The thing that troubled me with the case was its bare interior as it is plain aluminium (see above), and more me that wasn’t such a winner for this design I was going for, so I settled on powder coating after researching my options I felt anodising the internals would be overkill as the outer is already beautifully done so, not to mention the runners on the chassis would become very worn over time from removal of the side panel, so I decided on a hardwearing of finish Satin Black Power coat

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My next step was to strip down the case make most all of the hard modifications to the case I’d want before powder coating, my first consideration was the placement of a water pump as I intend to use water-cooling on my setup, I’ve settled on an XSPC Reservoir top with UN Support Bracket, I’m decided it best if I placed this in my floppy bay as in most PC’s this is a vastly unused Area, I started with my dremel cutting down the drive bay as it was to narrow to fit the bracket and pump.

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Above are 2 shots I’d taken of the Cut-out on the Floppy Bay, which will allow me to centrally align the pump (from a front view), the next cut-out would be the 5.25’ drive bay, which sits directly above the floppy Rack … *crosses out floppy rack* Water Rack

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The above shots show the marking a cutting I made on the drivebay, the hatched area shows the minimum I needed to cut to clear the pump, I wanted to make a flowing line, so I used the hole cutting adaptor for my dremel and cut out a semi-circle, when I turned it over I saw it smiling back lol ! I must be on the right track the hardware is even happy! I then proceeded to cut straight on each side and file down till I was left with the resultant cut drivebay

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You can now see the pump mount neatly centred, so that step was complete, also note the black rubber trim will not be present after powder coating the next step was the Motherboard Tray!

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I first started by marking up where I wanted my holes; I decided I wanted 1 for the power 1 for PCI express and one for SATA, once dremmeled out, I filed off the edges for a smooth hole, my current worry however is seeing that ill be fitting a new X58 board, I’ve noticed that some are slightly wider than usual, so il have to be carful in what I pick, as I began Modding based on my current AMD board, which later I have no decided to upgrade to the Intel i7 platform, so this may get interesting ! lol, that’s what I get for being gun-hoe with the dremmeled though lol

Below is a shot of my case all sad and disassembled, before being sent off to the powder coaters!

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Stay Tuned for Part 2, Return and Re-assembly !

Love and Metal

Luke

 

Nice work so far.

Any chance to see the sketchup models?

 

this should be interesting i think - Subscribed!

 

hey there pariah, I have some basic sketchup models, that i will include in my next update, also thanks for subscribing Rasmusanden

Stay Tuned for Part 2 !


Love and Metal

Luke

 

thanks

I LOVE metal. Especially when used properly with other materials and colours

 

Subscribed.

Interested to see another take on this case

 

really nice seeing another pc71!!! its what mines based around 2..... its amazing how light the case really is. only thing im not hapy with is the desishn of the usb headers at the front.... but other than that great case...i'll be watching this with great interest!

 

Part 2

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Part 2

Chassis In Black:

Well the Chassis Arrived back from the powdercoaters, in its sexy billion part satin black finish, i was like a kid on xmas day, i was like oo look at that peice .. ooo look at that peice, .. i know i know its all one colour but ooooo look at that peice .. *keeps takin the pills*

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well alot of parts takes alot of re-assembling, i didnt really think through how long 40 billion M3 button/tapertop black oxide hex screws + wahser + lock washer + nut would take to assemble ......... lets say 3 hours is being kind for an estimation lol, but on i worked..

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so as you can see in the last shot its lookin pretty good, im happy with the outcome, although i wouldnt call it strictly satin black more a low gloss, but hey it still rocks and only took 24 hours !!, so far im really happy with how solid looking its comming i had some concerns about maybe my workmanship being not up to par, but i think its ok, (you all might think otherwise of course lollllllll)

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the next step was to add, some new case feet, from all the way across the pond thank you bill ! from MNPC Tech, your products are second to none and since it came from the states and had to be powder coated it was here in under 2 weeks... astounding !!, anyhoow the above shots show both the feet and the nuty combination of washers i have to use to make them fit !, i will spray the washers at a later date with some other small hardware, il also trim down the bolt so it doesnt protrude so much.

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Another part of my Order was some of bill's brilliant billet handles (try saying that 10 times fast !) he also had them powder coated for me .. more satan than my damn case ! lo, but it looks good, ive had to leave it on hand tightend for now, as its from overseas its all imperial hex heads which i dont have here, but i can borrow from work so all is good, the workmanship on these products is just brilliant, id love to work with bill someday !

the last thing bill sent me was free of charge cos hes just that kinda guy !

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what a shirt, now i can mod with pride !! i guess i could really class this as my first sponser* !!! lol

*not official endorsed by MNPC tech just me talkin crapola !

Further Design and Ideas:

Anyhow interms of layout and design i know Voluntary_Pariah was askin for some skecthup models, they arnt quite final yet but will do for now

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at least you can get an idea of where its all going, the cdrom is not going to be a standard it was just a block i had laying about, il let ya in on that when the time is right, also the fan controller is not as shown, but more an indication of location, see below a mockup of some apliques id like for the window, thoughts are always welcome !

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Till Next time !!

Love and Metal

Luke

 

thanks for humoring my request

Are you going to get the window sand blasted? Or just use a transfer style thing??

P.s: Really digging the black satin look. And your right about the handles. They really fit in with the rest of the case.

 

Where did you get the powdercoating done mate? I've used Standeasy / Bettablast in Shiremoore for my bike, cost me £30. Thinking of taking the internals of my Lian Li V1200 there and getting them done black.

 

looking sweet with the powder coating!

 

@voluntary_pariah: your very welcome hehe, im intending to have it as an applique, although im going to invert the design and have it on the inside of the window, if that makes a sence, as i still want the refrlective gloss of the perspex on the outside

@christopherGreen: hey chris, another newcastle lad nice to see !, i had my powdercoating done at www.elitepowdercoatings.co.uk, they were good price and good service, there bassed in newcastle and do pickup also, nice bunch of guys, ask to speak to james he will sort you out, tell him luke sent ya ! lol

@ rasmusAnden: thanks for the support man, more to come !!

some more updates ltaer this week im expecting a shipment or 2, il keep you guys posted !!

Love and Metal

Luke

 

if i do decide to paint my case i'll give them a shout mate, where in you from then (im in north shields).

 

well most of my parts have arrived this week, just waiting on my grill, part 3 will be posted this week !

 

Part 3 Crazy Braiding

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Part 3

Crazy Braiding

hello there, welcome to my next update, its been a while since the last one, due to the fact ive been traped in a hole cable braiding, cable braiding is by far the most painstaking process of the build todate, bt is by far the most rewarding, u bougjht all different shapes and sizes for all sorts of tasks, and overall things went well, i also thought it would be good to share my cable braiding technique as basics are always good, like my karate teacher used to say "basics basics basics", he had alot of statments like that .. maybe he was part parrot, i dont know anyhow i better shut up before ninjas decend from the rafters and slice me like cheese

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my first task was to braid the 24pin motherboard extendor i got, this serves 2 purposes, 1 to obviosly extend the length of my powersupply connector but also to make it portable, as if i get a new psu the adaptor can be used on the new PSU,and be marvelled at on a new shiny PSU, i wasnt lieing when i said this was a slow painstaking process, as due to my anal-retentivness, if it wasnt right it was ripped off and started again, anyway the process

Cable Braiding Mini Guide:

Step 1: Remove your connector and place heatshrink on the wire FIRST, many times have i put my braid on the cable first only to find i can fit the heatshrink over the braid from the other end without destroying the briad lol

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Step 2: stretch your braid to the length of the wire and cut, if your making braid for several same length wires its good to cut them all in 1 go as not to interupt your flow when braiding, same goes for heatshrink, when cutting is concerned for the smaller wires i tend to avoid using the hot knife as it ganks up the ends and makes it hard to slide over any connectors, and heatshrink can be difficult to slide over, (if you use 3.2mm on 3mm braid as i am) but also looks unsightly through the heatshrink onces you heat it and contract it


Step 3: imagine your a little worm, and you need to crawl along and eat a wire, thats exactly what your gonna do, slide on the first 10mm or so over the connector then grab the next 20mm between your finger and thumb, then slide your rightmost hand (assuming your braiding right to left) and compress the braid, now nip with that hand, grabing the connector, and let go with your left, rinse and repeat, following the connector through the braid till the end, at some point halfway you may also want to stop and slide that heatshrink you applied earlyer to the wire, over the braid, as its considerably easter to do then the braid isnt in its final resting place.

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Step 4: next were gonna do the heatshrink part, this is where my step perhaps differs from others, first i lightly braise the heatshrink and let it shrink slightly, then with the tip shrunk (but not completly allowing it free movment over the wire)i gather up the braid behind the connector and push the braid along the wire into the connectoras far as it will go, once you have done this, the results will be much miore pleasing, and durable, if you just turned on the heat and shrunks it as close the te connector as you could get it, the moment you move or bent that connector the heatshrink will start to slide, and a little bit of cable would be shown, its not much, but certainly a good thing to avoid if you can right ?

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nice and Even

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Step 5: Questions

Is connector finished ?

No - Go to step 1

Yes - Go to step 6

Step 6: sit back look at the clock and realise how much time youve wasted, but it was all worth it right look at the new shiny connecto you just made that took you 4 hours .. *twitch* tee heeeee

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Anyhow, on with my log, next i began braiding everything else in sight, which took considerably less time, in a relative sence, in total i probebly spent 17 hours braiding over 2 days, so first up i braided my pci-express extensions and 4 80mm fans i purchased for the chassis

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I also purchased some black connectors for the fans and fan extenders:

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then I cut my fan extendors to aproximate length, this is for the radiator fans:

from this ,,.................. to this

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Waterpump + Power Adaptor:

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Then i braided a plethora of other cables that i wotn bore you with pictures of, but needless to say i braided alot

the more interesting ones to fabricate were my CCfl light wires and the power button, as i am running 4 CCfls in my system i had to work out where the inverters and lights were going to go, i decided on the upermost conrners for the lights, with the inverters on the bacside of the motherboard tray and 5.25 rack respectivly, the second shot also shows the switch positioning

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the wirefabrication didnt take to long but required a little forthought, so the finished product has 1 power termination and 1 switch to control not 1 but 4 CCFLs

*warning put on sun glasses:

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The powerswitch, was my next concern, as i have a new shiny delrin vandle switch with blue ring light, i braided it together with my power LED as i spliced the wires over both terminals, for the powerlight shines on the ring and LED, im working on some way of dimming the light on the lightpipe on the front of the case with a light filter or such, to take the glaire away that it currently gives off, there are no powered shots yet but there will be in time

here is a final shot of all my connectors:

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so in total i have:
4 fan extenders
4 pci-e extenders
1 CCFL Megawire
1 briaded USB header
1 fan power controler
1 reset switch
1 speaker
1 psu extender
6 temperature probes
4 80mm fans braided
1 powerswitch/powerLED
1 power splitter
1 fan controller power adaptor

theres probebly more somwhere lol ive braided that much i forget whats done and whats not lol !!

anyhow thats todays update done !!

Enjoy, feel free to comment, or quiz me

stay tuned for next time !

Love and metal

Luke

 

great work on the braiding

i thought i had seen a project with this name a while back
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=98831&highlight=project

 

och didnt ever see that hehe, i have my own reasons for calling my rig goliath rather than just the size hehe

i had a laptop once and my stepdad was putting on the os and just called it david (his middle name) for the network name of the laptop

when i sat it next to my pc and saw the name david i instantly thought goliath i.e david and goliath, so thats my story behind the name lol currently david is broken .. lol but goliath is more important to me right now lol

love and metal

luke

 

Looks good so far..and good start!

 

Man the braiding look sweet.
nice work, the powder coating to.

 

man, i just luuve sleeved cables!

good job on the braiding!