This mod is sponsored by: Great thanks to Tom for setting this up. (use of on-site CNC cutter) Great thanks to Tobias Brinkmann, director of marketing (120Gb Apex SSD hardrive) Great thanks to Joan Lunny, Public Relations Executive for sorting this out. (2Gb 800Mhz Ballistix Tracer Ram) Great thanks to Nannini & Mark Potter from Nanopoint UK (Tagan 900w Piperock (modular) PSU) Great thanks to Kathrin Bachmann, director of marketing and communication for sorting this out. (Roccat kone gaming mouse). Concept This time rather than make a case from scratch (which is hard and expensive on a small scale, nevermind for a full size gaming pc) I'm going to be going the boring route and modding a stock case. Here are my crude hand drawn designs (can't use sketchup): (Btw those are meant to be flames, I did these in about 5 minutes however when the case is cut I will design proper flames) The dragon has been in my sig on various forums for a couple of years now, I vectored it myself in flash 8 and pretty much identifies the "EvilNeverDies" alias. This is going to e my signature gaming pc. Case Mods: - This pc is going to be motion sensitive ie. will be turned on and off using a motion sensor, one wave over the top of the case will turn it on another off (first in the world that I've seen) - There will be lights on the bottom of the case that will pulsate using PWM (pulse width modulation) -There will be LED's under the mobo that are also PWM controlled and hopefully should glow in sync -I am going to mod speakers, a monitor, a mouse, a keyboard and any other peripherals to match the case -The dragons eye will act as a red on/off LED -The HDD activity LED will be expanded to a bank of about 8 LED's that will be posistioned along side the plexi that makes up the dragon so the dragon flashes with HDD activity, which (as I'm using a raptor which are LOUD) will make it seems as if the dragon on the front is growling -I want a USB smoke machine so that now and again smoke comes from behind the dragon but as of yet cannot find one - Mirrored acrylic will line the inside of the case so that 4 white cold cathodes can be used to light up the window so it can be seen through (not sure if enough light will penetrate without the mirrored acrylic, plus it makes the inside of it look shiny) or they can be turned off so just the dark tint acrylic can be seen. -I plan to cover the mobo with black tint acrylic as to keep it neat and tidy looking. More idea's to be added in due course, constructive criticism is always welcomed (big idea's I like, I like the challenge) Components I'm using most of the components from my old gaming rig (which still have plenty of life in them) as to reduce cost. Case Lian Li V2010B: In Black. This will act as the base of my mod. Disk Drive: Lite-On LH-20A1S, It's the usual dual layer 20x DVD writer really. I don't plan on modding this as it's going to be stealthed. I only mentioned it so someone doesn't point out I don't have a DVD drive . RAM: 4Gb of DDR2 800Mhz Crucial ballistix tracer RAM. 2Gb provided by Crucial the other 2Gb was mine from my old gaming rig (what can I say, I love those flashing LED's!) with standard timings of 5-5-5-15 (loosened due to overclock). CPU: My trusty G0 stepping quad core Q6600 (2.40Ghz stock). Currently stable on a 3.6Ghz overclock (Fsb 400 so 1:1 with my ram) with a thermalright ultra 120 extreme (both lapped). Graphics Card: Currently a strange subject. I sold my old 320Mb 8800GTS as Ati implied they'd sponsor me again. So I'm currently on my old X300SE waiting to hear from them (no gaming atm, I'm getting WoW & tf2 withdrawal symptoms ). HDD: Main: 120Gb OCZ Apex SSD hardrive. Damn that's fast! =D Storage: 500GB Western Digital Caviar, SATA, 7200 RPM, 16Mb buffer. Motherboard: Asus P5Q-E, great overclocker & crossfire compatible (so that may be an option in the future). PSU: Tagan 900w piperock modular PSU. Construction I'm using a Lian Li V2010B which I managed to get for £125 as B grade stock: This thing is huge! It completely dwarfs my old trusty Antec 900: Here's why I got it B grade: you can't see anything can you? well there is a tiny (approx. 2mm) dent in the grill, oh well all the better for me! I then preceded to strip all of the anodised coating off the aluminium ready for filling then spray painting (you may wonder why I removed the anodising, I could probably paint over right? well the finish of paint is all in the preparation after all, and I want the filler to bond solidly to the aluminium so I went for the harder route of stripping it all down). To do this I tried to sand it but the anodised coating is incredibly strong, so I went with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to strip the top coating off the aluminium, sodium hydroxide is a powerful alkali (basically it's corrosive, like acid but a bit different, I'm not going to bore you with chemistry) that is found in most oven/drain cleaners here in the U.K so I went and bought some of this stuff: See sodium hydroxide: That's the old style box, it now comes in a new orange bottle (still called oven pride, got it from Tesco's) although anything containing sodium hydroxide as an active ingredient should work. The over pride was actually a pink goo stuff (Ghostbusters 2 goop would be the best way to describe it) that I had to smear all over the surfaces, then wait for about an hour whilst periodically attacking with a scouring pad. After washing the goo off and letting the panel dry you get this: Now the remaining anodising sands off easily (may take several applications of the sodium hydroxide to get it completely clean) in a powder like form. Here's the finished top panel: *edit - a couple of months after finishing this step, I learnt it was completely unnecessary when using acid-etch primer (special aluminium primer). I strongly suggest NOT doing this, it's messy, costs a lot and is a waste of time but should you wish to know how it's done, there you go.* Also I've decided the motion sensor will lie under a piece of tinted acrylic here: I'm going to move the IO ports to the front bottom of the front panel. After completely stripping the case of it's black anodised coating I started filling the various holes I didn't need (activity LED holes, watercooling holes (it's all going to be internal), On/off button and the reset button). I filled it with this (it has flakes of aluminium in it and according to the propaganda it was supplied with "it's like replacing metal with metal, what can be more permanent than that?" so I thought it'd work pretty damn well): And I ended up with this: I think I used too much filler >.< (I'm filling all of the front in to make it smooth so the dragon can be cut into it, I'm going for a minimalist style on this one) so now I'm stuck sanding it all down flat with this orbital sander: Bear with me now, I was getting bored so this is going to be getting a little, shall we say bitty? PSU Mods Right here's what's going down in tagan town: - Fan changed to red LED - Cables braided white - PSU sprayed white - Black tint acrylic windows PSU in original condition:
Braiding: For this I used a sunbeam PSU modding tool set thingy & some white braid and heatshrink (can't remember the sizes, when the logs complete I'll make sure everythings a lot more accurate I just don't have the time for details now.) Here's where I got up to. Thankfully all of the molex/sata connectors had been black so far and fitted in with my theme quite nicely. However when it came to the PCI-E connectors: a quick rub with some 400 grit and a few coats of black later: tadaa! Now for the hardcore bit! - Paint job (White) - Changing fan LED's to red - Black tinted acrylic windows Now I have a confession to make, this PSU doesn't work anymore. My PC broke down a while ago (the PC I was going to put into this) and wouldn't start up, I thought it was a motherboard issue (the motherboard smelt of burnt plastic) so I RMA'd it. Whilst it was away and I had some PC downtime I thought I'd mod the PSU (you know, as I wouldn't be needing it everyday) so I went ahead and did all this. Needless to say it ended up being the PSU at fault (I think it might have blown out my Q6600 as well =() so now I'm looking for a new tagan I can put this cover on so all my hard work won't be ruined. Before: First I removed the cover and all the stickers: Then I saw this section: And I had a crazy thought "huh, looks like a window" "wait a minute, if I cut that out..." so the idea for a window was born (no use, just thought I'd do it for teh lulz and becuase I can) So I cut the indented sections out with my trusty dremel-a-like: Sanded it down, painted it white (400 grit sandpaper used between each coat) and sprayed with some clear laquer. Then I used 3mm black tint acrylic as the windows (I used heavy duty double sided foam tape to hold it in place). Here you can see how see through the black tint acrylic is: Glamour shot of the cover: Mod pr0n! The finished article: Be fantastic if it actually worked! For the fan LED's, all I did was find some matching red LED's (3mm) and swap them out with the blue ones that were already in there (I couldn't buy a new fan as it's a 13.5cm fan - awkward size means availability of red led ones are limited and it's a very quiet fan so I quite wanted to keep it in there). Unfortunately I can't show you the LED fan as the PSU decided to die on me. I'm not sure how I stand on getting it returned as the warranty has been voided because of me opening it when I thought it was my motherboard at fault (doh >.<) Anyway that's the PSU done! Keyboard Mods Here's what's being forced upon my new Logitech G15 (hey look I actually bought a piece of my computer!): - White spray job - LCD lighting being changed to white (LED mod) - Underkey lighting being changed to red (LED mod) Surprisingly of me I didn't take a before picture so you'll have to do with a google imaged one: Painting: First part of the keyboard (palm rest) painted: Next I took apart the front of the keyboard to remove the grey section (pops off really easily from the underside of the keyboard - mind you there are about 30 screws in this keyboard!): This is how it looked afterwards: Sweet! Then I went through the laborious process of changing over all the LED's. This is a long process so I won't document it completely here, I do plan on making a guide though at some point (I have enough pictures to do so) either on here or on my website when I get it up and running (or maybe both if your especially nice! =P). I changed the screen LED's from orange to white (makes the screen much more readable) and the underkey lighting to red from orange: Underkey lighting: (oooo keyboard nudity =P) Fitted all together: (those are my sexy hairy legs holding the keyboard there, I cropped out my boxers =P) Keyboard done! Mouse Mods Very little needs doing to my roccat kone (programmable lights Cheesecake!) - Paint job (white yet again) Before: I pulled apart the mouse (praise goes to roccat here for making it a very easy process, only 2 areas had to be masked off as they couldn't be removed without breaking the parts) and went ahead with spraying it white. First thing I had to do is remove as much of the rubber coating as possible (trusty 80 grit!) then apply some special plastic primer: then using very thin layers build up the colour gradually (if you paint it too thickly it flakes/cracks off - I learnt that the 4th time sanding and painting this mouse) using 400 grit between layers. then you might end up with something like this: All re-assembled: And lit up!: Mouse done! Btw all the painting is done by me, in my dad's garage, using Simoniz white primer & Simoniz clear coat laquer. I hope to update soon with finished braiding pictures (need more braid), completed keyboard and mouse mods. Sorry it's taking a while guys (college stuff).
Ok well I marked out and cut hte motherboard tray for some better cable management when I do finally get the case done: Before cutting marking out where holes should go cut! not sure whether I'm going to spray the interior white or just shine up the aluminium, thats gonna be sorted at a later date
+1 I also would love to see this. I dont know if I would have the balls to do so, I love my G15. Best keyboard ever
If I can do that to my G15 anyone can =P just requires a steady hand with a soldering iron I've got a domain name and hosting sorted out so I'll try and get a basic guide up there (I have no coding experience so it'll be fairly basic, might just make it on the forum and export it to my site when I get around to it) I took loads more pictures than I bothered to show so I can use those.
Quick Question Hi I was just wondering if you could measure the distance between the top of the motherboard and the top of the case. I want to mod a case but don't want to get a case without enough room. I'm wanting a case where I can put a 360 rad in the top, this one looks good. Thanks for your help. o nice mod by the way
The Mouse looks absolutely horrible, not finished etc, looks very rough. Probably had trouble painting the grippy surface of the most though.
what a great looking mod and that mouse looks bad @$$ especially the white with black accents nice job
Quick update on progress - I'd say about 1/2 way through now I lined the motherboard tray and the upper section (the section which holds the motherboard, HDD's and all that other gumbo) with 3mm mirrored acrylic, so that when the lights are turned on it appears brighter (as all the light is reflected off the mirrors around the internals of the case)..... and also because it looks SWEET! (It appears blue because the protective film hasn't been taken off yet) Now those of you who've been paying close attention to this build log (a.k.a. none ) will realise that i'm planning on putting a triple rad in the bottom compartment. "But Evil!" I hear you cry "that's where the HDD racks are! whatever will you do?!!?" well being the resourceful (read: cheap) modder that I am, I didn't want to resort to buying a HDD cage that fits into the existing 5.25" drive bays (also I like the noise dampening features built into the stock HDD racks) so I drilled some holes, and attached 2 of the removed HDD racks into the bottom drivebays using rivets: TADAA!!! Then I used a special acid etch aluminium primer from halfords (£12 though - ouch!) and some simoniz white primer coupled with a few layers of simoniz clear laquer to spray paint the back and bottom of the case (the case is only in 2 parts, top and front are connected as are bottom and back): I liked how the black fan grill looked with the white body of the case, gave me a much better indication of how the black tint acrylic and black vents will look when I get the sides and front back from Chilled PC who are doing some CNC cutting on it. PC as it looks now (MIRRORS! =D): Watch this space as there's not much more of the body work to do, then its wiring up the motion sensitive switch and the watercooling!
I'm sorry, I hadn't checked this thread in a while: @Digitalize-: I am 100% aware the mouse doesn't look as good as it would do straight out of the factory, I have OCD and that fact that sometimes I can't get a mod to look as good as the idea I have in my head can drive me nuts, I sanded down the mouse 7 times because I didn't like the way the paint looked on it and used a further 4 cans of spraypaint and this is as good as I can get it too look, it was because of the grippy rubber coating, but I know in myself that I did the best I can so I have no regrets over it @Steveo: this case won't hold any radiator at the top of the case I'm afraid, there's no room whatsoever, I think that the silverstone TJ07 (or whichever one everybody's modded recently is - there must be hundreds of those same cases all over modding sites) has room for a double in the roof, maybe even a triple if you mod it a little @disturbed13: thanks man, glad you like it btw I promised a G15 LED change guide, I'll write that up imminently
