Case Mod - In Progress First Project log: Blackalicious

Well here goes my thirst thread and my first ever project log, as my thirst language isn't English you will have to forgive me if my English is not always up to standards.

I actually started this project before i decided to become a member and make a work log. So because of this I'll start the log with some retail case pictures (mine was already cut up and spray painted when i started making the pictures) and in some instances I'll use photoshop.


This is the original case i bought a few months ago using e bay. I could not find all the right pictures so some beige version's but it's gives an idea off what were working with.

Plans
- Remove the top back 3.5 x 4 hd rack and figure out some way to mount 2 Zalman HDD Cooler's (ZM-2HC2) and a 140 mm Aerocool Silver Lightning.

- Remove the 2 pre drilled fangards (on the top backside) to provide a better airflow and looks.


- Remove the front I/O and de fan above it And then cut out a 140 mm hole in de front chassis.


- Spray paint the chassis the same mat black colour as the outside.

- Re-route and hide as much of the power cables as possible. I'm not going to be able to clean up the mainboard power cable because of the stupid position of it on the centre of the board. So i will have to sleeve it up as good as possible. A new board will arrive some where in the future and I'll rethink it then.

- Re-route all the other cable's, probes, power, reset, hdd, pc speaker, fan cable's, dvd etc.

- Stealth dvd and burner

- Place the black Aerocool Powerwatch. Beside being the fancontroller it will be used as a replacement for the lost I/O. And ad a multi card reader to the case.

Current situation

Cutup and Spray painted the chassis.



As you can see i used an etch primer before i painted it black.


For the PSU I decided to try out some chrome spray paint B-Lounge had laying around. At thirst I only wanted to spray the grill chrome and the rest black. But being encouraged by the first look of it i quickly paint the hole thing. I hope i wont regret this later on.



First impressions



I mounted the front 140 mm fan with rubber “things” from sharkoon. There are alsow rubber rivets between the fan and de chassis itself.




Test mounted the 1ste of 2 hd's (raid) The second hd will be flipped upsidedown and lined up under it with a gap between the two.





As mentioned earlier I'll mount a second hd under this one and flip it upside down. I think this will look great, especially because the chrome 14cm fan (with white leds) will be mounted behind the 2 hd's.

Ass you can see I was apparently provided with 2 different fan guards. This will be changed.

Well thats it for now in the meantime I'll be preparing the Mainbord backplate for hiding the wiring and test running the just arrived Aerocool Powerwatch.

 

I'm liking big cases more and more. Keep us posted. Good start.
John

 

Nice camera, and that looks like a pretty good paint job.

 

nice panit job. looking good so far.
how are you planing on etaching the 2nd hdd?

 

a little update

Well here it is. The AreoCool PowerWatch.



My temporary setup till the case build is complete.


Looking around in some boxes with old “un”useful stuff I found an idea a had a few years ago. I'm thinking since I have a massive case I'll redo this mod and fit it in.


That did not take me long to think about. Ript out the laser and other electronics. But keeping the tray working. Sawed out the shape needed to accommodate the dvd spindle.


And perfect. This will be used to store blank cd's / dvd's in the case. The front of it will be stealthed like the normal dvd player and burner.


Some fresh supplies.


Even do nobody will ever see this part I'm still going to paint it black. This will hold the on off switch and de reset button


Mat black for Plastic & Plastic Primer


Drilling and cutting holes in de MB tray to route the cable's threw.


Half way, still have to do some cutting and cleaning up.


Thats it again. Thanks for the initial replies.

 

Don't quite get what you're doing with the DVD drive but it looks intresting nonetheless

 

Since I still have 2 5.25 bays left, I'll be putting a smaller version of this spindle in my case. Stealthed. To carry blank dvd's.
What can I say, it's a big tower and I'm not yet using water cooling.

 

those hd coolers look sweet. the case reminds me of the big old AT style cases

 

Wait, a stealthed DVD drive spindle? Nice idea! I can't wait to see how that turns out. Do you think the drive has enough power to actually open such a heavy drive, though?

 

Your off to a great-start!

 

PSU paint

Well the chrome spray didn't really work out the first time. The PSU mesh looks really great. But the rest of it attracted dust during drying and we all know what that means. When I'm talking about dust, I'm talking about a realy small amount of it, even do de rest of it looks good, with the chrome spray even 1 dust particle realy f***s it up.

Basically the whole experience told me what I already knew, spray will never ever even come close to chrome. But I never give up to quickly, so I started re sanding everything for a second try.

I sanded everything except for the mesh down again with a fine grid paper.

 

This is looking really good!

I like the AeroCool PowerWatch, nice one! Any modding on that?

Good luck with the modding!!

 

Thanks,
except from doubeling the lenght of the provided cables I'm going to leave it as it is for the moment. I might change my mind furder on in the build when things come to gether. It all depends on the "total" looks.

 

I´m looking forward to see the finished case! So mod on!

 

a few questions

To begin with thanks for the encouraging replies.
As I'm currently working on lengthening the cable's from the AreoCool PowerWatch. A few questions on temp probes.

- Can I lengthen the temp probe cable's without effecting the readout ?
- What would be the best place for the most exact temp of the CPU and HD ?
The near to zero paperwork from AreoCool tells me to just tape it somewhere on one of the fins from the heatsink.

I'm new to working with "external" temps. Any reaction or link would be welcome.

 

That DVD spindle is agreat idea. It'd be awesome if the spindle stayed inside the case, and the tray just dropped out 1 blank DVD at a time. you'd only have to refill it (opening the case) every 100 DVD's.

Good Work.

 

It depends on the type of probes. I guess it´s resistance probes and then it can be a problem if the wires you will use have an effect on the total resistance (probe + wires). Can you measure the resistance in the probes and the wires you will use. I think the resistance in the wires is very small compared to the probes.

My guess is no! But it´s only a guess!!

As close to the CPU-core as possible! But not so close that you damage the probe or CPU. Another problem can be that your CPU-cooler not doing it´s job properly when the probe is between CPU and cooler.
I use SpeedFan to monitor my CPU-temperature and it´s working fine for me.

EDIT: I checked the resistance in my temp probes from a Cooler Master Aerogate II and in room temperature (+21-22 degrees Celsius) and it is around 9 kOhm so you must have very long wires to effect the result or a extremely sensitive measuring device!!

If I´m not wrong in this, I would lengthen the temp probe, but wait and see if someone has something to say about it. A second opinion is never wrong.

Good luck!!

 

Thanks for the feedback MikeK,

sounds like pure logic, I'll be testing my own probes resistance, wait for a second opinion and do some experimenting with lenghts while waiting for it.

 

Sketches and a little progress

It's a little out of proportion but it gives a good idea of what I'm trying to accomplice. It will also answer some off the dvd drive spindle questions asked earlier.


In this sketch I also drawed the drive bay cover's I'm folding out of an side panel from my old case. The only cable within sight will be the main power cable. Because of the position on the MB.
All the other cable's will tucked away under the MB threw holes in the backplate to their destination elsewhere. The same will be done for the HD's, their cable exit's will hang in front of holes of the backplate.


The heat sink for graphics card. One other thing can be taken off my list.


Primitive tools for beating, folding and cutting my drive bay covers. (Forgot the pop rivet tool)

I made this part from an old side panel.

The left out part will face the backplate and provide access for the cable's.



And that's it again. I'll keep posting.

 

I love big cases as you have soooo much space to work with. Keep us posted!