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Case Mod - Complete Beigemobile - Dell Rebuild and Update (Final pictures Page 3 June 19, 2019)

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by Brett89, 4 Mar 2019.

  1. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    :lol: No one has ever spent more love and attention on a single Dell bracket. I think the most thought I've given one is picking it back up because I missed the recycle bin on the first toss.
     
  2. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    I would wholeheartedly agree. However, I feel it's one of the few areas I actually need to do something custom. The rest of the case was kind of a gimme with some trimming. Which is reasonably square, so I'm pretty proud. But, I wanted to try and make this part of the case what I really designed and thought about. However if I mucked this upcoming assembly up, it'd be time to make some custom stuff to hold the front onto the case.

    [​IMG]
    So building upon the previous post, I had it reprinted and made the extrusion in longer. I flipped the bracket so the flat side, which is the reverse of mounting side, this proved to be an issue. Cutting this with my oscillating cutter proved to be difficult as it just shook the PLA. My hands were somewhat numb from the vibration. Cuts weren't terrible, just more pushing the blade through than I wanted to do.

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    Cutting this PLA smells a lot better than the ABS, that's for sure! Albeit, it does melt a bit more, as evidenced by the plastic stuck on the blade.

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    Here's a lovely staged image of me adding more PLA to the bracket after I measured once and cut once. Honestly, I bought this in 2013, and forgot that I had it. I could have used it to fix the other bracket in the background. However life had been happening in the meantime so I probably wouldn't have been able to do it anyways.

    [​IMG]
    This a picture of the repair and addition of PLA with my original 3Doodler, it worked quite well! I printed more plastic to this and then cut/filed it down to be square. Conveniently, the clear PLA was leftover from last time I used it and the white just started to come through at the end. I used the heated tip to help smooth the plastic. It worked quite well to shape things and trim excess.

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    I painted it Rustoleum White Sand, it kind of matched. I don't really mind though as you can't see it. I wish I hadn't at this point so you could still see the neat plastic additions.

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    I had just glued the bracket in this picture. I used a combination of gel super glue and liquid for areas that didn't immediately glue. I tested it with a scrap piece of PLA and ABS, it was very strong and I couldn't break it readily.

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    Here's the final article, much more airflow and room for activities. I picked up some 6/32 1.5" stainless screws to replace the existing ones. They didn't bind on the radiator thankfully, otherwise I had some stainless washers to space the screws from the radiator.

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    The AIO is mounted, on the new bracket, and placed within the case. The graphics card will still fit, but it'll be just a bit closer to the AIO.

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    Here's the front with the new bracket. I may cut out the imprinted circular area, or just leave it. I would like some more airflow, but at the same time the bare case is pretty floppy, to put it technically. I also have to contend with the fact that the front bezel really limits airflow. I may do a combo as there's still a minor amount of trimming I need to do with the steel onthe other side of the case. But it's really getting there. Just get a fan around the CPU to blow some air on the northbridge and I think it's done until something breaks.
     
    Last edited: 14 May 2019
    kim and wolfticket like this.
  3. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    :lol: Using one of those saws on something not nailed down. Your best bet was that carpet knife.
    Dell cases have great airflow -If you use a 2000+ rpm fan like they did.
     
  4. hayate89

    hayate89 What's a Dremel?

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    Mmm the PSU in old Place
     
  5. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    Yeah, that one's on me. I just need to buy more clamps or a vise, wink wink nudge nudge grin grin say no more, say no more. I do like the control those saws have though, when the parts not moving with the saw... the PLA ended up being pretty hard so that'd be a real pain to cut with that knife. If I put a fan with enough CFM I wonder how loud I can make the case whistle.
    In all seriousness temps didn't seem bad or abnormal. Northbridge was a bit hot for my liking, but that's apparently the case with this chipset, so I'm looking at ways of getting a fan cleanly mounted to blow some air on the NB.

    Yeah, definitely don't see them like that too much anymore, unless it's a realllly cheap case. * stares at server case in the corner*
     
  6. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Get some ABS hobby sheet and make a Dell duct from the outside fan. ;)
     
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  7. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    It's a tempting idea, really reminds me of the bright green hood my old Dell Dimension 8300 had. I could mount something to that blank area by the fan too, be it a duct and fan, duct or just a fan. This comment has given me a fresh perspective though, thank you!
     
  8. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    Hey BT, quick update here with some planning and sketching. Less time I'll be standing in front of the workbench scratching my head though.

    So I've thought about how I wanted to do this NB cooling. I was tempted by a big NB tower cooler, but it'd be a tad unwieldy and relatively expensive compared to the rest of this build. I considered a ducting solution but with the area I would have to mount a fan, I didn't want to cut into the case in such a visible manner to just mount a 40mm fan. It'd also interfere with the "Eric" on the back and the 5 digit service tag sticker.

    I considered an angled mount for a smaller fan, but didn't want to make it seem like an afterthought, even though it would have worked. With vertical clearance in this case being tight I couldn't get a fan bracket that mounts above a graphics card. I did buy a PCI 25mmx92mm fan bracket to cool a RAID card in my server case, but that wouldn't work here since it's thicker than the slot and that'd run into clearance issues with the graphics card. I also wanted this not be board specific.

    The whole point of me doing this case mod in my mind was to make it not look like it was updated to be a more current standard, but to make it do just that. I still want the sleeper look, even if it's not the bees knees for hardware.This bit of the project log is a bolt-in adaption to improve the computer, but not critical to my build in my opinion.

    As a result of these deliberations, I bought a fan almost immediately... and then realised my plan wasn't as foolproof as I thought. It does at least have a connection that will work out of the box, rather than having to wire one. I thought it was a bit thinner, but then I realised what a 25mm thick fan would do in that space, and that this one was 33mm. Fan dimensions are 97x94x33mm.

    [​IMG]

    So here's a rough plan of the fan bracket that I sketched out. It shows a rough plan of how it'll mount to a PCI dust cover, and then how the bracket will mount to the fan. Fan is roughly accurate, enough to make a rough plan, but nothing is scaled. When I just draw stuff to fit, I enable myself to think without the constraints of reality, that way I can run into all sorts of fun obstacles when actually trying to carry out the plan. It should clear the sound I/O panel, and mount above the GTX 970. I've got a quick sketch of how the bracket will be cut out of the existing Razer packaging from my Diamondback anniversary mouse.

    [​IMG]

    And here's what I have so far. I'll need to get some #6 nuts, probably nylocks, and if I'm already running an errand to the hardware store, I may as well get some shorter bolts for the dust cover. Jury is still out on which pci dust cover I'll use, i have some Antec ones that have a perfect color match but are slotted rather than having hexagonal holes. Slotting seems more fitting than a more modern hex pattern.

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    In this older image you can begin to imagine how it'll work in the space. The slot I've mentioned before is not used on this case with this board, and is directly inline with the northbridge cooler. So by keeping it tight to the graphics card I should be able to get something to work!

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    The fan gets here on Thursday, so I'm pretty excited to put this together and plug it into the case. Aside from final assembly and testing, the list is definitely getting down there for the case.

    [​IMG]

    This tape measurer is about the same size as the fan, and it fits with room to spare all around. So here's hoping.
     
    Last edited: 19 May 2019
  9. hayate89

    hayate89 What's a Dremel?

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    this radial fan work?
     
  10. Pretizx

    Pretizx What's a Dremel?

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    crazy work:jawdrop:
     
  11. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    At least paint it bright green. :lol:
     
  12. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Nah, we're talking dell internal part green. Gotta keep with the 'theme.'
     
  13. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    So you know how everyone loves how loud 1U networking equipment and servers are right?
    WELL LISTEN UP BROTHER, I'VE GOT A DEAL FOR YOU.
    [​IMG]
    DO YOU LIKE THE SOUND OF JET ENGINES?!
    BUY THIS SUNON FAN AND YOU CAN HAVE THE NOISE (98 dB, maybe) AND 30.5 (!!!) CFM FOR WHATEVER YOU WANT!
    [​IMG]
    YOU WANT IT TO COOL A HYPERACTIVE NORTHBRIDGE?
    ITLL BE THERE!

    Seriously, it's loud.
     
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  14. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    And now we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

    [​IMG]
    Due to my improved bracket, the faceplate no longer fit. Whoops. So the front clasp needed to lose it's top. I cut it off and adhered a piece of the plastic from the front bracket to the clasp. It is much more rigid now at this point. I thought it would be better to not to have the new bracket cut down. The depth of the clasp is about the same as the bracket so I elected to cut the front panel.

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    Making some new plastic reinforcements with tin snips! Eff yeah!

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    You can see it really increases the thickness of the piece, so hopefully that deters any fractures in the future from removal/use. Plastic was adhered with acetone. Applied by a Q-Tip soaked in it so I only got the part covered in acetone and didn't ruin the front finish.

    Now it's time to finally do some more case cutting. And now that the garage isn't 10 degrees fahrenheit / -12.2 degrees celsius I could get some assistance in the garage with pictures.
    [​IMG]
    Fourth marking of where to cut the steel, ended up a bit more conservative than last marking. I wanted to retain some of the rigidity of the case. I wanted to give some area clear of the mounting points for the front panel, and also keep the stamped areas as those will provide alot of rigidity.

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    Cutting out the front panel, making sparks! Removed most of the cases plastic panels, top was difficult to remove, so I refrained from attempting it for fear of damaging plastic.

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    More sparks, I always do enjoy a picture like this.

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    Got the front panel cut, along with a small nub of metal by the rear I/O panel that the case fan originally rest against, but it's now competing for space a bit too much with the motherboard I/O panel.

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    Here it is with the bracket, and front panel mounted. You can see in the bottom left where the improved bracket causes interference. I'm very relieved it worked out to keep that clasp though, which was entirely by luck. Excess pen marks were cleaned up with the isopropyl, as seen in various images. Pen marks were cleaned up with isopropyl.

    [​IMG]
    So here's the inside of the case, prior to northbridge fan modification. That's not 100% yet due to the aforementioned noise issues,but for looks it's pretty much there.
     
  15. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    Here's part 2 of this update. Didn't want to run into length limits, if that's even a thing.

    [​IMG]
    So here I had just placed the fan onto the metal that would be used to mount it. Just to see what would be a size to roughly cut it.

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    The tin snips weren't bad to use, but they really did flex the metal to clearance the tool itself. Considering this was a flush-mount scenario against existing equipment I elected not to do this.

    [​IMG]
    So I made sure to mark very clearly and got the Dremel out and went to work.

    [​IMG]
    And as you can see by the heat discoloration, the Dremel was definitely involved. However the sides have a foam on the interior that I didn't want to start on fire. So I finished it with the tin snips.

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    Holes marked and punched for drilling to attach the screws to the I/O plate. repeated for the fan mounts. I also filed all the edges to remove any sharp edges.

    [​IMG]
    After some fiddling to get it to fit vertically and move up enough to not be so pressed against the backplate of the 970, I think it's there.

    [​IMG]
    Reinforcement rail along the side panel no longer cleared, so I just popped that off.It was held against th panel with plastic brackets and locked into place with a bent metal clasp. Once I bent that up it slid right out. The plastic is held onto that metal bracket with molten plastic tabs. Hopefully those fair better than they did on my IBM Model M. Speaking of which, I've got another one from 1994 to go along with this case.


    So my to-do list isn't too long here.
    • Quiet down northbridge fan.
    • Potentially clean up some beige speakers.
    • Final clean and pictures, change build tag to complete.
     
  16. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    It sure does, before it had the HOT electronics smell, right before burning where you just feel it's tortured. Now it's just a warm smell.

    I appreciate that very much, thank you!

    In the picture below, it is a pretty intense green. But it's in a newer Dell (don't say that too often about a Pentium 4!) so I didn't want to do that. I don't want the beigemobile to stand out for looks at first glance.

    I know that color, and I know it well. However since it's not a black/gray case, I probably won't for this build. I don't want to clash internals. I'll keep an eye out for a better beige.

    But, here's that lovely duct on my Dell Dimension 2400 that I use for XP gaming. (Looking at you Red Alert 2)
    [​IMG]
     
  17. kim

    kim hardware addict

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    I admire the detailing and the quality of your thread, the care you dedicate to this build is remarkable :clap:
    I am actually experiencing blower's noise disturbances, mine is an Evercool Fox1 but I guess it's as noisy as your's, those fans are conveniant but I finally linked it to a small single channel fan controller to obtain a bearable noise...:grin:
     
  18. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Wish I had kept the 3 bladed 90mm Deltas. We could have a noise-off.
    Top panel: If I remember right, You have to jam up the middle pin really hard and slap the front. :D I was fond of harvesting that gen of cases' plastic 'cause it was THICK.
     
  19. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    Thank you so much kim! It's not as revolutionary or as intense as your built, but I just hope to do a good, quality job on the areas I'm impacting. My ultimate goal is to think, "Yeah, this is factory." Or a factor prototype. Something that was made from the factory/OEM at least. I don't have too much to do as it "worked" as stock but without any finesse and you could tell it was a bodge. I wanted to remove the bodge factor as much as possible with this build.

    You've got quite the memory, because that is just it. I didn't want to jam the the 22 year old plastic though, it does tend to get brittle with age, at least on vehicles. So I played it safe and just left it. I did vacuum the heck out of the after cutting the front panel out of the case though, it stilll boots so I don't think I missed too many metal shavings.

    Excuse my poor manners for this but, I'd like to thank the Bit-Tech staff for nominating this build. Please go and vote for your favorite, even if it isn't this one. I'm just enthralled that I've done enough to merit that. Thank you again!
     
    Last edited: 26 May 2019
  20. Brett89

    Brett89 Minimodder

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    So I previously MAY have mentioned that the blower fan was loud (surprise surprise) My Noctua 7V adapters would just heat up and the fan wouldn't spin though, so my backup to reconcile that issue didn't help. I could have spent 26.50 on a Delta blower fan of similar dimensions, but elected to not do that. (Albeit, props to DigiKey for having them in stock, great place to buy REALLY specific electronic components in the USA.)

    So I picked up a 50mm StarTech fan from a local computer shop, and got to work seeing what I could do.
    Here the fan is, just laid on top of a spare piece of the Razer case. I just put a 45 degree bend in it. I then transferred the radius to remove with a marker. I tried cutting it with the tin snips, but they don't do curves. So I pie cut my way in.
    [​IMG]

    I cleaned up the cut with a tungsten carbide (hard to write that now, thanks to AvE's youtube channel) cutting bit for my dremel. I purposefully didn't take a picture prior, it looked and was a hack job.
    [​IMG]

    So it's just mounted to yet another dust cover slot, albeit this one is from a Dell server (I think), so it's kind of apt, but not really.
    [​IMG]

    I let it idle for about 30minutes, northbridge was warm, but not HOT, and the fan was quiet! So, I'll chock this up as a win. I elected to double down on the slot because this solution works for this motherboard, but I did this so I could standardise the case, and make it work with almost any motherboard, or more than just this one.
    [​IMG]

    Next up is to get my camera cleaned for some final pictures!
     

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