Scratch Build – In Progress Battle Dragon Bag - Update#30 - 9/4/12

Thank you sir, I like my current momentum. a little each day and a bunch of progress on my days off.

 

The True Mobile Desktop, looking forward to it

 

Thank you sir! I have 4-5 days off starting Wednesday so we'll see just how far I get on the case this week. I've even started window shopping for paint.

 

Update #18: Last of the Framework

The Mayhem Coolant concentrate arrived!!! I know it’s called Tharsis Red but I’m pretty sure it’ll be the Dragon’s Blood in this case. Oh and I went out and bought a plain clear hose to show off the liquid.



After I finished installing the pump I notice a slight problem. When I put the risers in the frame to lift the supports off of the main portion of the frame, I didn’t take into account the radiator location… this meant the support for the PSU and the mobo no longer fit in the case when the pump and radiator are installed. I had to cut one of the legs off of the support to even attempt to fit it in.



I cut off a little more so I could see exactly how I needed to shape the support.



I enjoyed do this one over. I got to put some of the lessons I learned with the previous piece into use. That and I just like doodling.



And I like drilling holes with my fancy drill press.



This is the piece without any filing done…



Here’s the new support in the case working just fine with the pump and the radiator.



Next, I placed my mobo and PSU templates in the case to see if they still fit.



And because I’m paranoid, I checked to see if it would still fit in the bag. Yup, it still fits.



Now that, I corrected the mistake, I was free on working on a new piece. It’s time to start working on the video card bracket. First, I had to mod the back plate that came with the Alienware 6950.



I sliced off one piece, but decided to crop even closer to the actual video card.



Then I was distracted with doodling on paper and metal. I’m designing the bracket to work as a mount for the hard drives as well.



My doodles lack imagination but they’re fairly practical. I don’t think I’ll be winning any awards for my awesome sketches.



Here’s the bracket cut out. Technically, this was my second attempt at this bracket. While, I was cutting the piece out on my table saw, I wasn’t paying attention and I sliced off one of the legs.



Next, I set it on the case to make sure the idea will work…



Then I bent all of the various legs. It occurred to me that I might not need all 4 legs, so I chopped on off. Then I cheated by using the 3M tape of the gods to help me get the right placement.



It looks good from the top.



And it looks good from the side.



Another thing that I considered was the upside down water cooling on the video card. I purposely set the bracket at a bit of an angle. I did this to prevent any hot spots on the block if an air bubble forms in the GPU Cooler. The bubble will sit against the acrylic window and not on the block.

For the most part, the frame and all of the supports are done. All I have to do is sink a couple of the screws and clean up some edges.





That’s it for now! Tomorrow morning will start another marathon of case work. I’ll probably have another update later this weekend. Thank you for reading!

 

looking good mate

 

Nice rotary tool you have there bro!!! A lot of filing to do there, but its worth it, the feeling afterwards is a win win emotion!!! Mod on bro!!

 

Thank you!

I'm doing so much filing that I had a dream that I was filing. :|

 

Update #19: Marathon Modding

I am a non-stop modding machine. I think I spent about 12 hours in my basement yesterday working on this case. Most of the time was spent filing, sinking screws, cleaning up the metal. Here’s what the back panel looks like now:



I also worked on installing the front and back polycarbonate and acrylic windows.



I’ll spend some more time tonight sinking these screws as well.



I was nervous about drilling into the back panel. While it was easy and fairly simple to do, I didn’t want to screw up and have to COMPLETELY reconstruct this piece. Making it twice was enough for me.



I really like this picture. The red will stand out even more once the brown protective paper is peeled off.



If you are curious, this is what the case would look like as brushed aluminum:



Next I worked on creating and fitting the back piece. This is the last aluminum piece I have to make. While I still have a bunch of things to do, it felt like I was crossing a milestone.



I used my cheater tactic of using two straight sides of a cut piece of aluminum to line the piece with two of the sides of the case. I attached the piece with a couple of screws and then marked off the sides that need to be cut. After my table saw reduced the piece to the size that I wanted, I put the other screws in on the other side and then file the aluminum into a nice fit.



Now that I have the back piece on, I have to place some of the hardware into the case so I can measure what holes I have to cut out. I start with the motherboard and the PSU.



Mmmmmmm… sexy new motherboard. Not so sexy photography. I REALLY need a decent camera instead of the Olympus Stylus 1000 I’ve been using.



Since I had my new toys out, I decided to get a look at the hard drive placement. The two hard drives will be mounted on the bottom of the video card bracket. I’ll have to place them to either side of the RAM, since I forgot to factor in RAM height. I’m still not even sure what RAM I’m using. I’ll probably just end up taking 8 gigabytes out of my home machine and using them in this case. They’re fairly low profile.



Here’s a view with the video card and where it will be in the case:



Back to work! Tracing a generic area for the PSU was easy. I outlined the outside and then factored in a reduction by measuring the distance in from the screw mount. For the mother board, I used the motherboard stand offs to help me get the correct height of the mother board against the back plate. I used a couple of the standoffs upside down and attached them with nuts.



With the positioning marked on the back plate, it is time to prepare the piece for the jigsaw by drilling some more holes.



At this point I realized I was starting to get tired, so I decided to call it a night before I screwed something up.

Here’s the list of things I still have to do:
Cut the mother board and PSU holes on the back plate
Drill the stand-off holes for the mother board
Mount the video card
Cut a hole for the video card on the back plate
Mount the hard drives
Sink the last of the screws
Fabricate the reservoir
Cut the tube lengths
Test the loop for leaks
Prime coat the case
Detail paint the case
Mod the PSU
Sleeve all of the cabling
Install the CPU and GPU water blocks
Preload the OS, games, and software into the hard drives
Install all of the hardware.


Wow. That’s still a long list. But I still have lots of energy. We’ll see how far I can get before PDXLAN. Thanks for reading! I might have another update later tonight or tomorrow morning.

 

Update #20: Over-Crowding

I didn’t get as much done tonight as I would have liked to but progress is progress.



I evaluated my extras. So far, I’m on track for using everything that I purchased… with the exception of the remote power on switch. It’s pretty cool gadget but it’s a little too big for the amount of space I have left in my case. It’s too thick to mount it under the motherboard or the PSU like I had hoped. Oh well. All of the lights and the switches will be used.

I completed the installation of the risers.



I also completed the PUS and mother board input/output panel holes.



Then I started to stall… First, I put in the PSU and all of the cables I’ll be using for this case.



But that looked ok. So I took out the PSU and installed the pump and the mother board and started with the video card placement.



And that looked ok. So I put EVERYTHING in and started documenting the install order so I could do it again without issues.

Front view:


Front panel down view (sorry about the blurry picture):


Top down view:


I think I have the last of the kinks out of my design and everything (except the remote control) will be installed. In order to cut the video card output hole I have to commit and get that water block installed. That means I have to test my loop tomorrow before work.

To-Do List:

Fabricate the reservoir
Cut the tube lengths
Test the loop for leaks
Install the CPU and GPU water blocks

Mount the video card
Cut a hole for the video card on the back plate
Mount the hard drives
Sink the last of the screws

Prime coat the case
Detail paint the case

Mod the PSU (optional, will explain more later)
Sleeve all of the cabling (can wait until after PDXLAN)

Preload the OS, games, and software into the hard drives (have to wait for the processor to arrive on the 15th)
Install all of the hardware.



Thanks for reading!

 

I can see a lot of measuring and cutting/filing work has been done in here... totally worth it, hope to see this finished this year

 

Good job!!!
I like this case.

And my I suggest something-use SMD LED strips instead cathod lights. Cathod lighs produse heat that you don't want in your case.

 

I think that's an understatement. It will probably be finished late this month or early March.

This will be a fairly bright case as it will have both. We'll see how much heat they provide. I still have a little room to add a couple of laptop fans if I need some extra cooling.

 

Update #21: Reservoir

I started on the reservoir. I mocked up the pieces with foam core and checking it in the case for fitting:





I cut some of the pieces…



And I have begun assembling them.



I’m glad I have a bunch of extra polycarbonate. Two of the pieces I cut were a little… off. So I’ll be replicating them until I get it right. Tonight I’ll work on completing the reservoir and painting some of the pieces.

To-Do List:

Fabricate the reservoir – In Progress
Cut the tube lengths - In Progress
Test the loop for leaks
Install the CPU and GPU water blocks - In Progress

Mount the video card
Cut a hole for the video card on the back plate
Mount the hard drives
Sink the last of the screws

Prime coat the case
Detail paint the case

Mount the lighting for the polycarbonate strip
Mount the lighting for the CCRTs

Mod the PSU (optional, will explain more later)
Sleeve all of the cabling (can wait until after PDXLAN)

Preload the OS, games, and software into the hard drives - In Progress
Install all of the hardware


Thanks for reading!

 

Update #21.5

I am exhausted. I've been owrking 11 hour shifts and then modding.
I'm simply gonig to give you two quick teaser pictures and then more after PDXLAN or late Thursday evening. Please keep in mind, that's not the final color. It is just the prime coat.





Have To-Do:
Cut the tube lengths - In Progress
Install the CPU and GPU water blocks - In Progress
Mod the PSU (optional, will explain more later) - In Progress
Mount the video card - In Progress

Test the loop for leaks
Cut a hole for the video card on the back plate
Mount the hard drives
Mount the lighting for the CCRTs
Install all of the hardware

Can Do after LAN:
Detail paint the case
Mount the lighting for the polycarbonate strip
Sleeve all of the cabling (can wait until after PDXLAN)

Completed:
Prime coat the case - Done
Preload the OS, games, and software into the hard drives - Done
Fabricate the reservoir - Done
Sink the last of the screws - Done
Polish poly-c strips - Done

 

great work. Can we say the end is in sight?

 

Update #22

Wow… so PDXLAN and Emerald City LAN happened. I just realized I was posting some modding drama on Facebook without following up on my forums. This is bad and I apologize but I was very, very crunched for time and did the best I could to keep my audience informed. So this is what you might have missed out on…

The water cooling did not pass the loop test. The reservoir leaked horribly and I ended up cracking the plastic cover on the CPU water block. All was not lost because I’m a modder and I don’t quit. I rushed to make the case air cooled (just for the LANs) so that I could at least show the work in progress. I wasn’t going to win any contests with the current paint job but the computer was functional and semi-presentable.

Here’s the case at PDXLAN. They were force feeding us Mean Bean Monster Energy drinks so most of my pictures were a little blurry. A new camera is on my birthday list this May. Actually my wife is more excited about learning photography than getting me a camera.




Since I cracked the plastic cover of the CPU water block I decided to start a concept piece as its replacement. For some reason I have a bunch of .5” thick Poly-Carbonate in my basement. The people at Laird Plastics gave me an incredible deal for a huge piece for only $20. So I have a bunch to experiment with… Here’s where I started:



I cut the piece of poly-carbonate to the shape of the brace. Then I drilled all of the screw and mounting holes. I held off putting in the water intake/output holes. I wanted to see how it looks before deciding the placement of these holes.



Next, I tested using the Dremel and the little Dremel Work Bench as a router.



When I felt comfortable with the set-up I tried it on my block cover.



Here’s the (blurry) end result. I really like being able to see the pins and fins inside of the water block. I ended up making a couple of mistakes. But that’s ok, as I had intended to redo this block cover after I got my techniques down with the tools I have on-hand. There were two slips: one while routing down the brace and another when making the top oval. Both mistakes are lessons learned.



Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m back and modding! I had a lot of fun at the LANs but it’s time to go back to grindstone! Thanks for reading, updates will return to their regular intervals.

 

Welcome back - nice to see that the setbacks didn't bring you down.

 

Thank you, sir. And the day a problem with a case defeats me is when I lose all four limbs and my manhood to a freak dremel accident. But at least I'll be wearing my safety glasses.

 

Wow. Amating-I really like etching on the plexi.

 

Thank you! I think a CNC laser probably could have done a cleaner job but I like trying this out and hopefully will get the time to do more.