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Case Mod - In Progress Dedicated Obsession - 10.03.10 - Sleeving and fan swappin'.

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Hasle, 28 Apr 2009.

  1. Hasle

    Hasle nohasslemods›

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    [​IMG]

    Had to call it something, didn't I?

    Anyway - I recently started piecing together a new system. To house the new merchandise, I purchased a black Lian Li PC-7F. Lovely case, albeit a bit cramped compared to my old Chieftec., and too stock. Way too stock.

    This won't be some overly complex, completely bonkers, 'turn your stuffed pet into a blender'-type of deal, but more of an array of light, classy mods - for your pleasure.

    Some specs, for those of you that care:

    • CPU: Pentium Dual Core E5200 2MB
    • MB: ASUS P5Q PRO
    • GPU: BFG GTX 260 OC Maxcore 896MB
    • RAM: Corsair XMS2 2 x 2 GB
    • HDD: WD Raptor 74 GB 10000 RPM
    • HDD2: Seagate Barracuda 250 GB 7200 RPM

    I hope you enjoy this, and find some of it useful. :)


    I'll start off with a few snaps of the case, and some of the components.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

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    I'll post some actual modding tomorrow, hehe.
     
    Last edited: 10 Mar 2010
  2. DonT-FeaR

    DonT-FeaR I know what a fk'n Dremel is ok.:D

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    nice gear mate
     
  3. The boy 4rm oz

    The boy 4rm oz Project: Elegant-Li

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    I'm liking where this is going already. Nice case and a classy looking PSU and CPU cooler plus your photography skills looks pretty good also.
     
  4. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Nice start. Any renders of where you're heading?
     
  5. pistol_pete

    pistol_pete Air Cooled Fool

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    Nice case. It sure has changed a lot from the old Pc-7.
     
  6. Hasle

    Hasle nohasslemods›

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    Update!

    I apologize for neglecting this thus far. Truth is I've been posting the log elsewhere, and haven't found the time to keep this updated, too. Onwards.

    I found myself having to recycle the DVD burner from my old system. However, the casing was that dull grey colour that characterized all PC components up through the 90's - hardly worthy of the presence of my Lian Li. That was subject to change, though.

    [​IMG]

    Gastly thing. The front of the drive, and the tray were black from the get go, so I didn't have to bother painting those, too.

    Taking a drive like this apart, is quite straight forward. In my case it came down to removing six screws from the underside of it, flipping it over, removing the bottom plate thus revealing the PCB. You need to have the disc tray opened in order to remove the front bezel. You can do this by pushing a small pin or needle into the hole on the front of the drive, just below the tray, or simply hooking it up to a PC/power supply and having it open normally. After you have removed the front bezel, it's simply a matter of lifting the top casing off the drive.

    Depending on the brand of the drive, this procedure might vary a bit, naturally.

    A few coats of primer and some flat black paint later:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    That's all for now, folks. In the next update I'll start constructing a different temperature display. :)
     
  7. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Nice paint job and yes it looks a lot better. :thumb:
     
  8. The boy 4rm oz

    The boy 4rm oz Project: Elegant-Li

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    The drive looks 100 times better.
     
  9. Hasle

    Hasle nohasslemods›

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    Temperature gauge!

    I wanted a temperature display/gauge so I could keep an eye on that new WD Raptor disc of mine.

    I salvaged a Cooler Master Musketeer (ver. 1) from my old rig:

    [​IMG]

    Cool looking thing, even when it's still in one piece. I didn't want to have this obstructing the front of my Lian Li, though, so I took it apart.

    [​IMG]

    Removing the casing is a matter of removing a few screws, and giving it a good pull. Afterwards I removed the three screws holding the white plastic bracket in place, and pulled it out easily. Removing another two screws frees the PCB, but to lift it out of there, you have to bend the 3 and 2-pin connectors that stick out the back, a bit upwards, to clear the casing.

    [​IMG]

    Et voila. The gauges are soldered in place, so in order to remove them, while pertaining the pins, they had to be 'desoldered' - there's probably a better word for that. Anyway:

    [​IMG]

    That brown tube apparatus is used to suck up the soldering tin once it melts. Kinky stuff.

    [​IMG]

    And there you have it. One, free, temperature gauge. Pretty thing.

    I'll finish this at a later date. I need to construct some sort of casing or bracket for it, and something that can hold the LEDs in place.

    That's all for now. Next up, cable braiding! :)
     
  10. The boy 4rm oz

    The boy 4rm oz Project: Elegant-Li

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    I like where this is going ;).
     
  11. SkiDave

    SkiDave Minimodder

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    Looking good! Subscribed :D
     
  12. Hasle

    Hasle nohasslemods›

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    Light cable sleeving.

    I'm still waiting for some fan extension cables and such, so I only sleeved the power/reset button and front LED cables, and the cable on the rear exhaust fan so far.

    [​IMG]
    Some messy cabling.

    [​IMG]
    These are the cable sleeving kits I've been using.

    Not having tested any of the hardware yet, it was time to do a mock up assembly. I spent some time laying out the cables, just to get a feel of how much lengthening, hiding and sleeving I'd be doing. Here's a few pictures of the assembly and first boot up:

    [​IMG]
    All the goodies.

    [​IMG]
    Light cable management.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
    I love this card.

    [​IMG]
    Applied a thin layer of Titan Silver Grease.

    [​IMG]
    Up and running.

    The only cable that's causing me real pain, is the P4 power cable, which is rather short - so short that I had to take the shortest possible route, straight up trough the case to the upper edge of the mobo. Looks silly, so I'll have to do something about that.

    Oh, and I received the main ingredient for my 'mysterious project' yesterday. I'll post pictures once my order from Caseking gets in, and have you guess what it's for. :lol:

    Azazel out.
     
  13. tjay@TJ

    tjay@TJ Minimodder

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    it looks clean...

    nice... :thumb:
     
  14. The boy 4rm oz

    The boy 4rm oz Project: Elegant-Li

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    If you are having problems with the P4 power cable just buy an extension cable for them, that way you can run it behind the mobo tray.
     
  15. Hasle

    Hasle nohasslemods›

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    UPDATE! Stealth and sleeving.

    Heya chaps. I'll just continue this like there was no delay at all. :p

    As you may recall, I spent quite some time decking out my old IDE DVD burner, but I soon got tired of the messy IDE cabling, and threw it in the bin. I replaced it with an LG drive, which is nice and all, but quite ghastly, so that needs correcting.

    [​IMG]

    Instead of modifying it much, I'll stealth it using a spare drive bay cover. It'll receive a squirt of paint at some point, but it's currently too cold out to paint. With the drive bay cover covering the front of the drive, I'll be moving the eject button to the top of the case.

    [​IMG]

    Relocating the eject button requires some soldering and whatnot, so I removed the casing to get a good look at how LG had put this thing together.

    [​IMG]

    Turning the drive around you can see the small PCB that holds not only the eject button and the LED, but also the motor that powers the drive tray, so that'll have to come out, too.

    [​IMG]

    I'll pick this up later. I'm currently running my PC with no disc drive, which I'll probably get tired of quite fast, so chances are that I'll finish this part of the mod in the nearest future.. :p

    Moving on the to sleeving, but first a short list of what I've purchased for the mod recently:

    From MDPC-X
    • 10x Cable Management Clip MEDIUM - BLACK
    • 10x Cable Management Clip SMALL - BLACK
    • 40x UNC 6-32 Screws Black-Oxide Button-Head
    • Pin-Remover Tool
    • 1m Heatshrink SATA - BLACK
    • 1m Heatshrink SMALL - BLACK
    • 10m Sleeve SMALL - BLACK
    • 30x Rivet Dome Head - BLACK

    [​IMG]

    From Caseking:
    • Cooler Master 120mm Fan R4-L2R-20AC-GP
    • 1x InLine SATA Adapter - Angled up
    • 2x InLine SATA Adapter - Angled down
    • 3x InLine SATA Cable - Transparent
    • 20x LianLi Thumb Screws - Black
    • Bitspower Thin Temperature Sensor
    • LianLi Plug Covers - Black
    • Sabotaz Spray Paint - Signal Black
    • Sabotaz Spray Can Caps - 14cm spread
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Not sure how good this paint is, but I liked the look of the can, and the interchangeable spray caps. :p

    [​IMG]

    This was the state of the innards of my system before I commenced this overhaul. I didn't like that LianLi grill on the rear exhaust fan, nor the fan itself, there was too much cable clutter, and those red SATA cables stuck out nastily.

    The first thing I did to resolve these issues, was to replace the rear exhaust fan, and get rid of the grill.

    [​IMG]

    I chose a fan that was somewhat identical to the one cooling my CPU. I wasn't able to get one exactly like it, without LEDs, so I settled for one with some subtle dark blue lighting.

    [​IMG]

    The cable had a fugly brown connector, so I replaced that with a black one.

    [​IMG]

    I could have added some heat shrink, like illustrated in the background, but the sleeving sat quite snugly on the wire, and close to the connector, so I kept it clean.

    [​IMG]

    That helped a bit. You can see the new fan's been installed, and I've replaced one of the old, red SATA cables with a black angled one, which is for the DVD drive in the top of the case. I have also removed the two empty hard drive trays, mainly to improve the air flow from the front intake fan. And I'm sorry for the poor pictures, but it had gotten dark outside, and the lighting in my room is sh*t for taking pictures.

    [​IMG]

    This is a massacred SATA power cable, which was too long, and had two additional connectors that I have no use for. It will be powering my DVD drive, but before it'll be allowed to do that, it needs a makeover.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The final product.

    That's it for now. Hopefully I'll get more done during the weekend. :)
     
  16. Hasle

    Hasle nohasslemods›

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    PICTURE UPDATE!

    Just a few shots showing the current state of affairs. :)

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

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    [​IMG]

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    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  17. llPsyCholl

    llPsyCholl What's a Dremel?

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    Can you not just solder on 2 wires to the PCB and then solder them til at new button instead of moving the PCB?.. Think that would be easyer for you mate.. =)
     
  18. Hasle

    Hasle nohasslemods›

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    I won't be moving the PCB, I just want to remove it from the drive to be able to work on it properly. :)
     
  19. llPsyCholl

    llPsyCholl What's a Dremel?

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    Arh okay, my mistake.. :duh: But nice build you are working on.. :thumb:
     
  20. Hasle

    Hasle nohasslemods›

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    SKETCHY!

    I've been focusing mainly on the minor details so far; cable sleeving, drive stealthing, fans and whatnot. The main reason for this is that with the cold and wet weather we have here currently, I can't get any painting done, and it's not ideal for various sorts of fabrication, either. But when the weather does come around, I need a plan of sorts, so I started sketching something up in SketchUp. This is what I have so far:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The big, round, blue blobs are supposed to be those gauges I took from the Cooler Master Musketeer I disassembled, and the idea is to have them working as buttons. They'll be recessed in tinted acrylic mounted beneath the top plate, and the 'reset', 'power' and 'eject' text will be back-lit. :dremel:

    Not sure what to do for the side. A window of sorts, maybe. Any ideas, peeps?
     

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