There's a slight problem in that you won't actually see the fan, so painting won't improve much. That said, I may well use it in another case, so what colour do you reckon?
Uni exams start next week so I've been busy studying lately, but did some work today. I have a tripod now so pictures should be clearer I got the wiring worked out for the HDDs. I don't like how the power wires are coloured, but they're too spread apart to sleeve, so what I'm going to do is either heatshrink, or sleeve them all individually, more on that soon. I also put some siliceous washers on the HDD screws to help cut down on the noise. On the motherboard tray where I cut the hole for tubing to enter and exit the case I needed a cover, and the original one I did was a bit rough, so today I started work on a new one. Here's the hole: Now, the cover is going to be multi-layered (perspex and alu), similar to the fan controller. First thing I did was mark up a scrap piece of perspex. A minute with the dremel and a file: I didn't feel like working with alu today because it really does take effort, perspex is way more forgiving, but that's started now. The corners will be rounded. Next I marked up another piece of perspex. Cut it out, and look where it fits (not perfectly yet, mind you): It serves two purposes; to make the 120mm fan on the rad only draw air from the bottom, and to form a foundation for mounting various sockets, extended from PCI cards (eg sound). From my sound card which will be in the bottom PCI slot, I want to wire in four extension phono sockets for each of the 3 output channels and one for mic. So I got some 2 conductor shielded wire, 4x stereo phono sockets and 4x stereo phono plugs. So basically I'm making 4 extension leads. I did one tonight, and will finish the rest another time. I got a chrome grill for the PSU fan, but now I can't fit the PSU through its hole in the back of the case :\ One last thing, its just a perspex shroud for the rear fans, for no reason in particular other than to suit the theme.
Last time I left you with 2 pieces of perspex for the rear of the mobo tray, and I thought it would make more sense to combine them into one piece. This is where its going, in place of the previous two pieces. Fan holes cut: The other side needs covering too: I started on the aluminium section as well. Upon further thinking, I've decided to go back to the original two piece design. Having the radiator removable without being fixed to the two exaust fans will make removing the watercooling easier in the long run, which I will show soon. I have my last uni exam tomorrow, and after that I have 5 weeks holidays, so expect lots of updates.
So its been nearly 2 months since I updated, way too long IMO. Everything's sorted out now, so back to modding. Sorry :/ I've done a big upgrade, and as a result some of the plans I had now have to change. Not a problem really. New components arrived last week, as well as a new PSU and waterblocks today. The system right now comprises of: AMD A64 San Diego 3700+ ASUS A8N-SLI Premium 1GB G.Skill BH5 (F1-3200BWU2-1GBGH) Leadtek PX7900GT TDH Audigy 2 ZS Pioneer DVR-111D Seagate 200GB IDE (boot + apps drive), 80GB IDE (temp drive), 2x250GB SATA (storage drives) Enermax ELT620AWT Liberty 620W Here's the current setup while I get to work on the case. The only parts I kept from my old system was the 80GB IDE drive and the case. I also picked up a Swiftech Apogee and MCW60 to replace the Zalman blocks. I bought 40xM3 40xM4 and 12xM5 button head allen bolts off ebay which I'll be using throughout the case. With the new components come alot of new/updated plans. The IDE drives are the system mission-critical drives which won't be removed often, if at all. To save space in the removable HDD cage, I've relocated the IDE drives to the 5 1/4 inch bays, housed inside Zalman HDD coolers. Not only will they keep the drives cool, they'll cut down on noise (these drives will be in use most). Now there's room for another two SATA drives in the removable rack. I've bought some shorter SATA cables because the controller is basically right next to the drives. You can see them in the first pic, not sleeved yet. Here's the 80GB drive installed (the 200 is on my desk until I get the system installed inside the case). The 200GB will go above the 80GB, in another Zalman HDD cooler. Above the 200GB will be the fan controller, and above that the Pioneer DVD burner. The two blank drive bays infront of the HDDs could very well house a LCD, I'm open to ideas *hint hint* *nudge nudge* *poke poke*. I'll be making a new false floor exactly like the original (no logo, just solid), as well as a false roof which will hide the top drive bay/PSU area, with holes for ATX/12V/IDE cables. It'll seal the 5 1/4 drive bays off from the rest of the case, with the 2x80mm fans sucking air out the top of the case to keep the HDDs/fan controller/DVD burner cool. With the new motherboard I have to scrap the old pump bracket and come up with a new solution. I've got something in mind which seems easy to implement and be easy to remove/alter. A bonus of this mobo (which is quite excellent IMO) is that it has onboard serial, so I can hook my LCD up inside the case, rather than running wires out. I have a few hardware mods to do, namely volt mods for the RAM and GPU. Both will have dip-switches so I can undo them at any time if necessary. I've scraped alot of ideas I had for the rear panel of the mobo tray, which will all be replaced with simpler and more efficient designs. The Enermax Liberty PSU I'm running now is modular, which is excellent, but I don't like the included add-on wiring so I'll be making my own custom looms for it. It's also really quiet which is a bonus. That's about all I can think of right now, I'll get more pics happening in the coming days.
Excellent work, but the sheer amount of fans scare me. Will it not end up as a very loud case? Great work, looking forward to more!
Lol, There are too me- 2x80mm intake 2x80mm exhaust 1x80mm random fan (thermaltake) 1x120mm fan. I have 1x120mm Yate Loon (5V) exhaust fan in my PC, and thats it. And I still find my PC a little noisy. ! Great work none the less.
Sorry about the delay, I've been busy with uni again I was going to update yesterday but I forgot to charge my digicam batteries, so I left it for tonight. This would have been even earlier but I went out for a few hours of pool. The only work I'm showing is the beginnings of the new radiator + fan + shroud mounting bracket. I haven't been satisfied with any of the ones I've created yet, so I spent some time thinking and came up with something simple, and effective. Also I have to redesign the pump bracket, which I have a fairly good idea for already. More on these next update, I'm really keen on getting the watercooling installed. I've decided to ditch the fan controller, because its way too big for what it does, and IMO a waste of space. So I have three empty 5.25" bays, which are going to house a blue backlit, white inverse, 320x240 pixel graphic LCD (a perfect match for the 20x4 MO character LCD ), which runs off the parallel port. I'm going to make my own fan controller, probably a set of hidden switches for off/7v/12v. So what the hell have I been doing all this time? Sorting and organising the piles and piles of crap that I've collected over the years Its still not all done *sigh*, and what I'm showing you guys is only relevant to this project. I love these boxes Wiring box: Sockets/plugs/headers/random box: This is my favourite box: Its got 50x3mm blue LEDs, 20+ 5mm blue LEDs, heaps of resistors, diodes, the buttonhead allen bolts + nuts, DIP switches and the Lian Li screws that aren't in use atm. I used to store all my tools in the drawers of my desk, which wasn't pretty. For my birthday my parents bought me this: Suffice to say, I'm now alot more organised The top drawer is for measuring, drawing and other precision equipment. Next is hand tools: Electronic stuff (messy): Dremel + clone: I splurged a bit at Dick Smith the other day, and while there picked up this multi-angle vice: I haven't used it for anything yet, but once I get working again I'm sure it'll be handy. Other new things: 2x Antec fans for the top of the case, the ones currently installed don't match and blow different amounts of air. More black sleeving: A big spool of yellow wire (to replace the green I'm currently using): On the topic of wire, you can never have enough spare: That's it for tonight. I'm sick of making promises and not living up to them, so I'll just leave it at that
i have 2x 80mm intakes 2x 40 or 60? fans on my hdd 2x 80mm pci slot coler for vid card 1x gpu fan 1x 92mm cpu fan 2x 80mm on psu 1x 80mmintake on the top and my case is realy loud!
heres my temps while browsing and itunes ect Temperatures: Motherboard 32 °C (90 °F) CPU 43 °C (109 °F) GPU 41 °C (106 °F) GPU Ambient 38 °C (100 °F) SAMSUNG SP0812C 35 °C (95 °F) not sure if good or bad :/
Really great work. I'm amazed so few has writen positives in this thredd. 5/5 and I tell that you have my taste for case and perfection. Edit: I would if modded the project turn the HDD around so the metal plate was facing the holes of the HDD cage. Good Luck!
