Case Mod - In Progress *** PHINIX AURORA *** - 12/10/14 - Grand Finale !!! It is done...

Understood about not forcing creativity....

Hmmm... Your sketchup Photos not showing up for me, atm

 

You don't see them? Hmmm... I added them to bit-tech gallery, should work ok.
AAAAAh, now I know! It was private album! I changed it to public.
Sorry about that

 

I worked on that middle part a bit and I think now it's a lot better.
What do you guys think?

 

I wuv it

 

The front grille design definitely looks better. I can't wait to see it in the flesh, so to speak.

 

Whoah! There's some optical eye-screwing going on with the diagonals. -maybe my eyes are just that bad, but...
Are you continuing the stripes on the face around to the sides? You really should.

 

Thanks guys, so front stays like that

You are right, on flat image it looks a bit funky

Where? What do mean? Do you mean continue this theme on case side panels?

 

Looks awesome bro!

 

Cheers! Your Grey Matter is looking cool too

 

Update time...

After designing that front panel I sent sketchups to Tom from Chilled PC and here is what I got last Friday.




Aluminium bits CNCed nicely. I also bought a blue acrylic sheet for all external work.
It's frosted blue, so will look cool, when lit up from behind.

I went to my shed yesterday (it was already dark after 3:30pm) and drew and cut out main pieces for front panel. Apologies for low quality photos, I used my phone...












Then started to file down and sand all edges. I still need to polish them nicely.
Next will be mounting front panel to the case.

I'm thinking how I'm gonna mount it. I thought I could add 3mm gap between main front panel and those acrylic and aluminium bits and squeeze SMD led strips there.
It would be a lot easier, just to glue those strips to main case panel and then screw down blue acrylic and aluminium layer on top...

What do you guys think?

 

Like the artist's rendition of you in action, there. -Are those boobies in the middle?
-Yeah, ,do the raised front thing, with a 3mm box of black(blue, whatever,) around the edges, so you don't get any light bleed.
Earlier, I meant not necessarily to copy the theme to the sides, but line up anything that runs to the edge of a panel with something on the sides. (hey, it's still gibberish!) -Anyway, I figure you know what you are doing.

 

No boobies there
Those are hearts! My daughter drew some stuff on that huge carton (covers 2m aluminium sheet), most of them are love hearts for her daddy

There are also starts, man on the moon and me cutting something on the work bench with jig saw
it's just all upside down.

About that panel - I actually wanted to leave that gap around - I like light bleed - of course controlled bleed. I don't know yet what lights I'm gonna use - white or blue. This acrylic is frosted blue - pretty dark without light. White could be good to bright it up and bring the color up, blue could make up by giving nice bleed around too.... Thing is I don't have blue leds, only whites...

 

Maybe get a RGB led strip from HK for peanuts? Comes with a dimmer and all, and would let you to pick the perfect brightness and shade to go with the rest of the build?

I'm for any put-together-solution that doesn't involve visible screws.

 

Awesome! Can I ask how much Chilled PC charged you for the front panel?

 

RGB leds are interesting idea, may try it out.
Front panel aprt with aluminium and acrylic will be screwless outside, I will use double side tape.

Cheers Tom
Well, to be honest I do not have exact price on this one. I've been working with Tom many years now and I have special prices for his services - CNC cutting, powder coating, materials etc. Most of the time I pay him after couple of jobs all together.

 

Lookin real nice Mike, and I LOVE that font you chose.

 

Thanks Bill
I actually drew it myself - I was after a big letter font but none of those I found were near what I wanted it to look like, so drew those letters myself. They look ok I think, nice and bulky, also like mirrored A letter Glad you like it too

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR Everyone !!!

Christmas break is always a good moment to spend some time on modding project
Between holiday feasts I managed to do some work on Aurora, yay!

Wires... I bought myself a nice crimping tool while ago (most expensive hand-tool I have), so this job wasn't that hard I have to say.
I have made 24pin cable, 2x 8pin gpu cables and 4pin CPU one.

I prepared everything and started to cut 24 even pieces for ATX cable.
Christmas tree obligatory photo




When got all cut up, I pushed them through those holders I made before.
Just to see how it will go on...






Then took out pins and started to crimp them, one after another...






..all 24 wires done, ready to be pushed in the nice blue plug




Done!
I will mount it at the end, when the case will be powder coated. This extension will be mounted permanently, so it won't be bale to come out.
I decided to do this so all cables will be custom made and easy to use with any PSU in the power cage. I won't need to mod the PSU to make it match the whole scheme.




Now, 8-pin GPU cables...




16 even pieces of wire... my little daughter was a great helper in cutting those




Done card plugs side and pushed through the acrylic blue holder (it will be mounted in power cage right below the card's power sockets).





Now other side plugs... pins ready to go...




Crimped...




...and done!






CPU 4-pin power cable was easy, 4 pins done in no time.
This is how it's going to be routed. I need to drill some holes for P shape wire holders on those corners. However I don't have other side plug, will need to look for it later...





This is it. Good time spent on wiring, when watching some movies
Tomorrow - back to work! Festive time is over for me
Soon, another update, stay tuned

 

Lookin' good.

I can't believe I'm the first one commenting on your latest update - are people still on vacation or what?

 

Beautiful cable work! Will you be sleeving them or leaving them as is?

Nutman, only finished hols last weekend myself and the internet backlog is... massive doesn't even begin to describe things