Case Mod - In Progress .○○○PROJECT ROUGE ROBOT, Updated September 7th! Spray Paints/Lights/Braiding!○○○.

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Hi there! My name is Chris going by the alias of llOriginll and I'm a 19 year old student going on to study Architecture this coming September. Computers and gaming and (soon hopefully!) modding are just a few of my hobbies and since coming here I've loved this forum, so wanted to share what little I could offer.

First off, I'm a newbie to all this. I started building my own computer last summer with what money I could make from my minimum wage cinema job and between now and then I started reading CustomPC. In Issue 81 we had that article on modding masterclass so I attempted some very, very bad cable braiding! Issue 82 with it's free shipping lead me here and the rest is history!

This Project Log I'm hoping will be as much about me showing you what I'm doing and you lot maybe telling me what to do? I'm a complete newbie as I said, so my skills and toolsets are somewhat limited but I'm really eager to learn and with your advice and help I'm hoping I can make something I'm -reeeeaaallly- proud of.

Anyway! Current system specs:

• AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 BE 3.2GHz
• Gigabyte GA-MA790X-UD3P
• 4Gig 677Mhz DDR2 RAM
• Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB
• Corsair TX 650W ATX Power Supply
• Coolermaster HAF 922 Case
• Thermalright Ultra 120C & 2 x Akasa Apaches

The system specs I am aiming for:

• AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 BE 3.2GHz
• ASUS Crosshair Formula IV 890FX
• 4Gig 1600Mhz Corsair Dominator DDR3 RAM
• Powercolor ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB
• Potentially a good SSD! Looking at around £100?
• Corsair TX 650W ATX Power Supply
• Coolermaster HAF 922 Case Red
• Thermalright Ultra 120C & 2 x Akasa Apaches

The theme of the system is a red and black with silver accents theme; kinda like an evil robot, hence the potentially temporary name of Rouge Robot xD I do have some rather cool ideas for what I can stencil on the side panel as my finishing touches, but that's a long way off right now!

This mod won't be hugely involved or complex, unless you guys suggest something I can do, as I'm a relative newbie. It'll be more braiding, spraying, powdercoating and getting a good colour theme going.

TO DO:

• Get HAF 922 powdercoated a lovely bright red...
• Order my Asus Motherboard...
• Order my Corsair Dominator RAM...
• Order some NXZT Cable Extender's in black for 24-pin, 8-pin, PCI-E...
• Get some black and red spraypaint and some primer (some advice on what I should get paint wise?) and something to cover things I don't want painted (again, what should I use?)
• Spray top of CPU Cooler Black...Or red?
• Spray ends of Cathodes black rather than the white they are...
• Spray my DVD drive a nice red
• Figure out if I can spray the white fans black or red at all? And spray them so they're colour themed, help here would be good too!
• Spray back plates (those things that fill the gaps where graphics card goes)
• Choose a colour for my front panels that compliments the case... red? Or maybe orange? Thoughts?
• Get some sort of enamel paint to cover any chips I cause...
• Do something to cover up or paint my Corsair PSU red or fully black?
• Get some nice aluminium feet for my case, maybe paint them?
• Cable braid Front panel connectors in black, need some recommendations of size of braid and heatshrink?
• Cable braid fan cables, Cathode cables etc.
• Acquire a heatgun for heatshrink? Advice?
• Need some tools for cable braiding?
• Get other essential tools you guys think I should get!
• Cable manage...

DONE:

• Case Powdercoated a very bright red, looks lush!
• Ordered my ASUS Formula IV mobo, no RAM as of yet but get paid tommorow!

And obviously! Some images of my system as I got my case back, my installed system and the motherboard I'm going to put in it.

I should say, I thoroughly reccomend Holland & Farmer for Powdercoating if you're anywhere near them, really nice guys and didn't blink an eye when I asked them to do this! Asked lots of question and protected all the necessary holes. £40 for my entire system and two side panels.

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This be my case back from the powdercoating treatment, obviously stripped of it's top and front panel stuff that would've melted. Really pleased with the results and the case essentials went back in easily enough, only had a small problem with one tray hole that needed a little bit of force.

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The two side panels are probably my favourite bits of this job, SOOOO SMOOOTH. Looking forward to jazzing up that flat panel at some point

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Here you see why I need some enamel(?) paint I left a sticky pad from holding my cathodes on in the case, and it wasn't burnt away. The patch is minor and not visible but I really want to at least partially cover it! Recommendations please?

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Afterwards I got my system up and running again with my gigabyte mobo and turned it on to see what it'd be like

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I love this viewpoint, seems almost a shame that I'll be covering it up!

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Urrrgh, what a horrible rainbow of colours. There's a reason I'm changing motherboard! And no, I can't be bothered to actually stick those lights down, especially if they ruin my powdercoat!

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This image gives me a little indication of the sexiness that might appear if I can pull this off I can't wait to get my new mobo and RAM in there, it'll give me such encouragement to get the rest sorted!

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As you can see, my front panels as black will look a bit odd! So! What colour should I spray paint them? I'm thinking a slightly darker red but wanted to ask you guys... Also, as it's plastic do I need to sand it, spray it with primer a few times and then spray paint it? Also, what actually is primer? Just white paint or something else? Lastly, can I make it glossy somehow and should I add something extra to make it glossy? Also, that's the extent of my cable management at the moment! What do you guys reccomend for good cable management, and does anyone know if there are any good, thick shiny cable ties out there?

Lastly for now, my motherboard turned up!

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Pretty sure I'd buy it just for the box. AMD boards; cheap, but not lacking in quality packaging...

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My parents thought the fold out panel was nuts, they were like "Why would you want to be able to see it?" Sigh.

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The more packaging I took away the more excited I got!

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Never going to use the sticker, but had to be used in a shot!

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WHHHY WONT YOU TAKE MY OLD RAM, WANT PUT IN

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And I've now definetly got more USB slots than I could ever use, even with a mouse, keyboard, headset, two iPod cables, a webcam and a card reader...

MY NEXT INTENTION

Well! Pretty simple, get my new RAM and motherboard and get it into the system. Then buy some spray paint (but I want your advice first!) and then get those front panels back on ASAP. Then start on the other things I can spray...

This is more than anything a learning experience for me and I'm sorry if I've wasted your time and eyes with my simple modding, I just love this community and hobby and want to contribute in whatever little way I can, you know?

Anyway, that's it for now! I'll answer any questions, suggestions, thoughts, criticisms, jokes etc. personally of course, but for now peace out

Credits:

• Mark.S Deviant Art for Fractal Brushes
• Neale Davidon for Transformer's Font
• Holland & Farmer for Powdercoating Case

 

Thats cool! been looking for a powdercoater near me that will do as cheap as that

look forward to more

 

*drool* sorry *wipes*

 

unfortunately I don't know that much about spray paint, doing my own tests now. But what I do know is:

Primer is an undercoat designed to make paint stick to the surface better. But you should also rub down any surface you put primer on with fine wirewool or high grit sandpaper, just so this can get a good fix. You don't want your paint flaking off.

As for painting on plastic, i'm not so sure but I guess you should still use the same technique so the paint gets a good grip.

You can buy primer, or some spray paints can act as primer. The one I bought is the Hammerite "Hammered" finished. What you should do is apply one coat, let it dry, rub it down, apply another, let it dry, rub it down again and etc.

Then when you apply the actual colour, make sure the primer is rubbed down again, clean, and do one thin coat. And continue with serveral thin coats leaving each coat to dry completely before appling the next. Probably 4-5 thin coats.

Finally you should apply "clear-coat" for protection. Plasti-koat does a Krystal clear finish spray, they also do plastic primer and various other effect paints. check the link: http://www.paintsprays.co.uk/

Quite a long process It will probably take you a few days to do this, leaving 1 or 2 hours between coats and then leaving for 24 hours before applying clear-coat and again another 24 hours for everything to dry properly. It also depends on ambient temperature how long paint takes to dry, if you live in UK and it is cold then it may take longer




As for the front panel colour maybe your suggestion was good; a deeper red. But I was also thinking about a "Graphite Black" but this wont look good unless you have some other elements on the case also using this colour. OR perhaps paint only the outer frame in red and the Grill area leave black or something else?

I tell you what would look gorgeous in the project would be some Carbon Fibre, uuuummmmm

 

I think I did strike out rather lucky in finding these guys, really great people too And more shall come!

Ooo, Carbon Fibre?! (To answer your statements in reverse ) Where do you think that could go? I saw that in someone's project log but I forget whose, it would look quite sexy! But not sure where...

And thanks for all the painting advice, sounds similar to what I've heard Someone I know in RL read my log and laughed at me for not knowing what primer is, sad times But I'll be getting some of that on Monday then! And so will begin the uber long painting process, thank god for the garage.

ALSO!

Two packages coming monday/tuesday! One from scan...

RAM!

You might be tempted to say "Why'd you get the XMP, rather than the BEMP modules?!" Well, although the BEMP models look on the net for appropiate timings, they're like £16 more expensive and you can set the timings yourself! So it's a waste of moolah

And one from Kustom PC, including:

Black thumb screws!
Cable ties
Cable tie holders
8-pin, a 24-pin and a 6+2 pin NXZT Braided Cable extenders

A shedload of black heatshrink and braiding of EVERY SIZE
And an extra right-angle SATA connector, as my cable for my HDD is rather precarious

 

Very nice work, looking spectacular. However, I am afraid I am going to have to confiscate the case and everything in it once the mod in complete. I am sure you will understand...
yet another case mod I will need to keep my eye on.

 

no probs. all good if you have a garage, you may want to stick a heater in there to warm it up a little This weekend is not looking too toasty.

Yea I like the cabon in Osidias project, but that he molded himself which was amazing. Not sure where you could put yours, maybe you could cut out some alu from the side panel and replace it with the carbon? Anyway its probably not worth it unless you mold and mod custom shapes yourself.

a little tip that i learned when sleeving, if your cables are coloured then tape them up with electrical tape (black) before sleeving, so that it doesn't show through the sleeving. This makes the cables a lot more tough and quite difficult to bend and route though.

Also don't know if you know about mdpc-x, someone told me about them and the sleeving is awesome, they also have some other really nice stuff like no comprise cable clips

 

Hah! Well, I somewhat doubt I'd let you steal it once I've finished, I'll probably sleep with it in my bed Actually, when I received my motherboard package I was still sleeping and my dad threw it onto my bed next to me and I honestly just dozed in bed for about two hours with it next to me, so that idea isn't too ridiculous xD

I've ordered me some black SATA cables anyway, but thank you for the advice! Actually, did I order one or two? Ack, only one so I will be using this idea on one of my red ones xD I have a heater in my conservatory so I'll nick that and stick it in the garage, seems like the best way to heat it up a bit! Would I be better off putting that beside the panels or a little further away? Just wondering if it'd suffer heat damage if it was too close

Just gonna upload a couple of pictures supposing what I should do with the front panels, got a few ideas but want to ask and do a couple of shops to see if it looks good.

 

What do we think? I was thinking maybe doing the grill and leaving the panel (and thus the opposite of what Maximus said, sorry!) would look cool so I did a shop...

Please remember I haven't done this yet, these are only photoshopping xD

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But then I thought, why not a little further? So after a bit of testing I came up with this, which I think looks pretty awesome and would be quite complex (more worthy of "project logging!" )

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What do we reckon? Should I change any bits? Those panels come apart easy enough by the way, so it'll be fine to do.

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Put up a bit of a fight to take apart though!

Looking forward to cable braiding and new motherboard and RAM on monday Does anyone reccomend anything for shrinking heat shrink? never had much luck with it before

 

go for it, but try to hide the dvd drive

(like some other brazilian bit tech member did with his blue HAF ,which looks awsome btw)

 

Link? Would love to see any and all HAF 922 mods

 

Dude the read grills look awesome, much better idea!!! Go for it definately!!

I use a heat gun for heatshrink, actually its a paintstripper heatgun, have to be very careful with it though as it gets quite hot! So white the heatshrink is on the sleeving make multiple passes over the heatshrink with the gun so as not to leave it blowing on an area for too long.

Also you probably want to shrink by about 50% and then re-adjust the heatshrink if it moves out of place then shrink it down 100%.


Also can I ask where you got your chasis powder coated?

 

Have a look then - http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=183527

 

Love the red grill go for it!

I kinda thought if you had half red and half black it would look weird but it blends nicely

 

That sounds like a good plan, any idea where I can acquire me a good heat gun? Halfords/B&Q or something I guess?

And I got my case chassis powder coated at http://www.hollandandfarmer.co.uk/ But they're local to me which is why I went to them, just google your home town and powdercoating and e-mail a few guys, it's really easy.

DUDE, that mod -amazing-. If I get anywhere near that standard, then like, WOW. I'll never get it that good xD And the DVD drive idea sounds sweet, although I'll need an extra grill as I'm missing one :/

I think so? Guess it depends on the quality of the job I manage! Going to be hard sanding specific points, but I might just do the whole thing over again? Like paint the black black again

Updates monday hopefully!

 

you got it, even argos i think have them

 

Hi guys!

So, received my RAM today and got cracking straight away Windows 7 is much friendlier with mobo swaps so long as you take a few basic procedures so this was a breeze to keep all my old data and OS install while swapping out the mobo! Very, very, very happy with my new gear!

So, here's the RAM:

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The RAM fan which comes with the Corsair Dominator line; pointless, loud and far too big for my heatsink!

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Here they both are I love those heatsinks, even if they are pointless...

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RAM installed...

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Seriously, anyone got any ideas what I should use this for? :/

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Here I am getting ready for the fun that is the heatsink installation xD

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Right. Here is where it got interesting! With RAM slot A1 having to be used, I could in no way possible ever whatsoever ever like at all fit it with the heat sink still attached. So off it came. And then...it barely fit still. I was thinking "when I turn this on, I'm going to find I've broken the RAM and it won't boot". Buuuuut, I think this might be a different update were this true! It is however very much a piece of slanted RAM I'd like to point out I had checked for this and had established by comparing modules that Corsair Dominator was a good choice for 3 reasons:

• It has Black modules
• The Heat sinks are removable unlike other sets with heat sinks
• I love all Corsair products, seriously...

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Yes, I am terrible at applying appropriate amount of thermal paste, the layer on top of the CPU is thin and spread fine, I just had loads on the edges and can't be bothered to scrape it for risk of ruining it, so I'll wait for it to dry out and scratch it off.

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I decided to leave the other heat sink on 'cause it looks sweeet

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The heat sink does not play nice with fan clips Just had to bend them further up!

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All together and very happy with it all

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Couple of cool shots, these buttons are sooooo awesome.

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THIS IS MADNESS

And finally, some real nice shots with some good exposure settings on my little digital camera

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Next on the agenda!

• Try and get stuff done whilst working 40 hours a week in my "part-time job"
• Buy a heatgun tommorow morning before work
• Wait for my KustomPC package to arrive with all my associated goodies, cables screws & braiding
• Buy some spray paint and primer for the front and for all the little bits I need to do

What do people think so far? All comments welcome, positive or negative! Suggestions DOUBLY welcome

 

Great use of a limited palette. The Black and red go really well together.

Just a thought, are you not able to use the black dimm slots? Cant see for sure but it looks like you could've left the other heatsink on the ram module and you would still have them in ganged mode.
I'm guessin you would have thought of this already but i thought i'd mention it just in case.

Subbed, wanna see how this looks at the end!

EDIT: Just re-read that and noticed 'slot A1 has to be used' why? I'm fairly sure that almost all motherboards allow for retaining the use of dual-channel through either paired slots, don't they?

 

looking nice man!

OMG I would have flipped if that happened to my RAM and Heatsink! I either would have bought another heatsink or mobo out of pure anger. And probably complained to Asus.

What heatsink is that by the way?

 

Looks nice. Have you tried to rotate the HS so it throws air to the back of the case?

Maybe in the manual... Yes! He can put the memory in either pair of slots, i've just checked it out on Asus website.

Looks like a Thermalright or a Noctua.