Thanks for explaining the quick grips! As for cable management, when it comes to modders, the more extreme the better!
7-20-09 Wall Mount Case installed....And the wife likes it! So, I left off with a hole in the wall, and a back box that finally fit after scraping away the backside of the wall because someone had to install double thick drywall. With the box in the wall, I could pull my wires up from the basement for power, network, cable, and antenna, (power pulled seperately). Picture also shows the power supply cabling being fed through the garage cut holes. (I do need to work on my machining skills) With the power wires run, I can now drop my hard drive cases into the bottom. I only have one hard drive in this case. Pic showing the scoops from the hard drive enclosures lining up to accept an 80mm fan ...and the fan installed. The power supply has a bracket attachment which allows it to clip into place so I don't have to hold it while securing it with screws. Motherboard, and accessories on motherboard tray.... Motherboard and power supply installed. Pulling the stiff coax was a real bear. This case is not the nices to the upper ports on cards, and I used 90 degree pieces for the top tuner ports. The coax was bent in ways it shouldn't have. If I had to do it again, I would have gotten some looser coax, or some threaded. Installed the enclosure and the top fan. Forgot a couple cables for wireless receivers and audio to the tv. Some wire pulling tools and a little patience and all was good. All the cables to the motherboard were connected before putting the motherboard in place, with the thought that there wouldn't be enough room up there. Suprisingly, I was able to connect the usb just fine. The audio was unfortunately blocked by the stiff coax twisting everywhere, but I got it in there. I am not to worried about the cabling to the left side of the case, as that will be covered by the optical drive. I also need it there to connect to the optical drive for power when I put the top cover on. I got a slot SATA optical drive for this machine. I didn't want to use the ide adapter bracket. I pealed the sticker off the drive, and found some Rowlux Illusion film to place between the drive and the cover. I contacted Rowland Technologies to get some samples of this film a while back, as I thought it would be a cool backing on this cover, or even the frosted white cover. The samples came in handy here. I wanted to keep it simple with the horizontal lines that matched my venting look. So every slim drive I could get my hands on for the past year has been examined to see if I could identify any standards in sizing and hole placement. I made these covers with the results, and wouldn't you know it, the drive I got in doesn't have any side holes??? Very odd. Luckily, the two back screws do hold it in place pretty well, along with a little adhesive tape along the top edge. All thats left is the optical drive connection, and the attaching of the cover. Power up, and were off! Very glad I used a slot drive for this. To be honest, getting rid of the large party house speakers, and the tv stand really opened the room up. The wife actually likes it and is very happy. So a geek project that makes the non-geek wife happy, I call that success. I know, I still have some dusting to do. A nice part is that I don't have to worry about the kid some day climbing up on the tv stand and knocking something over, at least in this room. The lack of wires really made this a clean install. Now I can let the wife paint some designs on the wall to fill in the voids of white space.
That looks very nice. But no more led-fan on the cpu cooler? :'( How much noise does it make? What does it look like seen from the couch?
Trance, Haakon. T, JaccoW, La carrotte d L'o, Krog Mod, Connection|Closed, and Don't Fear, thanks for the great comments! Haakon.T, the wifes approval was the products test JaccoW, I didn't have a cpu fan on hand that had LED's built in. I am fitting to outfit this one with LED's shortly. This thing definately needs a little more light inside to counter the dark tint. The fans that I have in there now are cheap 80mm's, and they are loud. I plan on getting some better, and quieter fans soon. I'll get a recliner pic soon for ya!
I absolutely love this project. The finished result looks amazing and very profesional. I showed (the final) pictures to my wife and she too gave it the thumbs up. You are appealing to the masses dude. On another note that baby stroller in your last picture looks a little bland, a pc in that would be a neat idea!!! jk of course
That looks so professional. Omg. You made sure to comply with standards, right? Cause with Wires in the walls from TV's if you do it wrong I think your insurance can decide not to pay you if it was an electrical fire or something. [Gizmodo]
Thanks! I'll save the stroller mod for the kid Thanks skreenname. And thanks for the link. I definately did this incorrectly and will need to rethink this one. Thanks again! 500MPH, Talledega, and WolfandAngel, thank you for the comments I did try out the frosted cover again just to see what it looks like with a running system, and was actually impressed. The frosted cover really deflects the minimal LED fans, and the tubes really bring out the light. Now if I can only find matching fans.
wow that really did come up well. the frosted cover doesen't look too bad all setup but i'd imagine watching a movie, etc at night might make it less so. the cover of the DVD drive made a huge difference. congrats on a well done project.
The frosted drive looks a lot better than I imagined it would, but I prefer the black. I would like to see a mirrored one if thats possible.
