Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Der_Meister - custom alu case *Epilogue Nov 8th, 2007*

Final update part 1 – inside pics – post 2/2

Continuing around the mainboard. Here’s the ‘cpu fan’ cable. The Aquastream pump controller converts the pump frequency to an RPM signal, that can be connected to a mobo fan header. It is ideal, since the Asus boards stop during the POST and the user needs to press the F1-key if no cpu fan is present. Lots of Asus-users report problems with this function on the Aqua-Computer forum. It works perfectly in my case.


The remainder of the cables coming from the psu are nicely hidden behind the mesh cover I made.


The mesh cover for the mobo and the mesh heatsinks of the RAM go well together…


The 5 RCA lines fit nicely underneath the vid card support. When looking at them like this, the text-labels are visible, when looking from an angle (like it normally will be) the logos disappear behind the RCA plugs.


The 4 SATA cables. Two lead to the hard drives, the other two to the optical drives. They all go through a 2-by-2 cm hole. A big difference with IDE cables!!! The usb-cables and wires from the Bulgins come out through openings in the fake bottom right where they need to be.


A bit more zoomed in on the upper half of the mainboard. The vid card and its support are nicely aligned, no bending of my vid card. The PCI-E cable is routed through the vid card support of course.


A look at the RCA cables leading to the otpical bay, as well as the cover for the LCD.


The RCA’s and the flowmeter…


And another one, which is slightly out of focus. I love the end look of the flowmeter…


The wiring of the optical bay, a real cable spider…The SATA and floppy cables come out of the cable tunnel at the right place. The IDE to SATA converters make the drives a bit longer, luckily I made my side panel for the optical bay long enough!


Another one. Those IDE to SATA converters: best 9 euros I’ve ever spent. A whole lot less of a hassle than buying SATA drives and resoldering the wires for the remote leds and power buttons! The only ‘problem’ is that there are two green leds on the adapters, you can see I put some tape over them to hide them.


This pic gives an idea of what you see of the optical bay wires when looking at the case from a normal point of view. Nothing much, two small bits of heatshrink and that’s about it.


The whole RCA area. No text labels visible from this angle!


Another one of the mainboard. I can’t get enough of it…


And to finish this part, a close-up of the CPU block, no air bubbles in the water!


I’ll get the next part up asap, I promise!

 

jokkos kudos to you man. you've done a terriffic job planning and executing this case. the final product looks awesome and the detailing is great. I'm looking forward to seeing more projects coming from you

 

the only issue I see, is that the rear casefan is an intake; the air would go straight in, and then get exhausted by the psu.

Aside from that though, brilliant work. It's been a long time coming, and it's almost finally done.

 

best case mod i've ever seen

 

chrrrr beeep 2 much detail ...emergency shutdown!

btw good work!

 

It's amazing when the inside is a piece of art. I'm looking forward to seeing the outside.

 

Is that a flow meter or flow indicator? I am looking for a flow meter just to see how much flow is occuring not that the flow is hapenning. (just to measure the flow) I really like what you have done here. You have a great tallent. What a fine job. (did you get that flow device on the net?)

 

holy ************

you kidding me !!!

 

Hi, it is a flow meter. It puts out a signal (pulse) and that is read by the Aquaero unit. It can also just be connected to a 3-pin fan header on the mainboard, it is an rpm-signal.
It is an Innovatek flowmeter (link)

For your info, the flow in my loop is about 95 l/h

 

OMFG!!! WOOOOOOOOOW I'm stunned :O This is incredible! Really I can’t find words to explain. Dude you work is AWESOME!!! Every little detail is fixed!!
Maan I can’t wait for the next pics!!

 

o ya, totally awesome man, i agree with jegerjon. i can't even wait to see the rest. You have been inspiring, very and have inspired me to do a full major mod. Good on ya man.

 

dude its been a long time coming (nearly a year or something silly like that) and i have been here from the start watching this mod
in a way i am glad it is over (see what it looks like) but now who is going to go crazy into detail!
i think you should start another case mod maybe a mini der meister unless you want a little break lol
hope the comp works out for you and doesnt break after all that work lol

 

dam man. thas nice.

i have the same ram!! and mobo!!

 

Well done, I love the cleanness of the wiring and using the jacks. And the mesh. I love it all. How much do you think this whole mod cost you?

 

I just love those cables! Great case.

 

Truly amazing job. So many little details and different things all crammed into one case, but you make it look so good and so organized! Seriously impressive work jokkos!

 

Thanks,
the cost? That's not easy to say.

If I only count the materials used, I would say about 400 euro.
The watercooling comes to about 650 euro.
All the small stuff (RCA's, stickers, bolts) comes to about 300 euro as well.

In all, I would say 1500 euro without the new components, watercooling included in the price. With the new components: about 3000 euro. That's about $ 4000 at the current course. Oh well, it was so worth it.

 

Great--machine! congrats on it's FIN:

 

Final update part 2 – outside pics – post 1/2

Here we go for part two.

But first: thanks for all the nice comments, it’s really rewarding that you all love my work!


The outside pics then. You’ll see that the evening was catching up on me while you browse the pics.

Anyway, here’s the front in all its glory.


A closer look at the lower part.


Even closer. By fixing a double frontplate, the Aqauero’s buttons are flush with the faceplate. Perfect. (I noticed later that I didn’t wipe the Aquaero after removing the protective plastic, sorry!)


A close up of a part of the switch panel. The sticker is perfect quality…so glad I found that company!


A bit higher on the front, we have the 5”…


And all the way up we find the optical bay and Aquatube…


A closer look at the Aquatube you say? Why, of course! Here you go:


Looks great in the front huh? Here’s another one with flash, nice reflection!


Behind the mesh that is attached to the optical drive covers, there are stickers that have a distinct pattern. With the flash, they clearly show…


The top:


Closer view.


The fillport, it’s a love affair.


And a close-up of one of the radiator fans.