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Case Mod - In Progress Project: Rogue (NZXT Rogue SFF) It lives! Aug 13, '08

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by craigbru, 28 Feb 2008.

  1. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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    I've got a little more work done on the top panel, so I thought I'd get a few pictures up.

    The first thing I had to do, was cut about 12mm off the top rear of the case. I needed this material removed to resolve a fan clearance issue. Who knew that six 120mm fans could take up so much room? ;-)

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    Next, I used one of my grill templates to mark out where all the holes needed to be.

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    A little time with a hole saw made quick work of the aluminum.

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    With the help of a little JB Weld, the two top pieces were joined together. Here you can see the top panel sitting on the case.

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    Here is another pic with the fans in place. Now I've got to get the missing strip in place, and tomorrow I can get it sanded, cleaned up, and get the wiring for the fans figured out.

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    Speaking of the wiring... I mentioned something about not needing to unhook wires when I removed the top of the case. Well, these little things are going to help me achieve that. I've got male and female spring contacts.

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    I'm off to bed for the night, but work will continue tomorrow!
     
  2. _-..zKiLLA..-_

    _-..zKiLLA..-_ What's a Dremel?

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    looks sik so far. nice work. whered u find those spring majiggy's?
     
  3. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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  4. _-..zKiLLA..-_

    _-..zKiLLA..-_ What's a Dremel?

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  5. E.E.L. Ambiense

    E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic

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    Beautiful work and execution, man.
     
  6. Fozzy

    Fozzy What's a Dremel?

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    So are you using the negative pressure model for cooling the radiators by forcing air through them by making them the exhaust and not having fans directly bolted on?
     
  7. Realiks

    Realiks What's a Dremel?

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    it will be cool inside but a bit noizy i think
     
  8. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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    Exactly. That's the idea anyway. The case will be pretty much sealed with the exception of the radiators and the fans. Cool air will be drawn through the radiators and pulled out the top. I chose the Sanyo Denki Fans because of their very quiet performance, and their strong 'air pressure' abilities.
     
  9. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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    These fans are supposed to be some of the quietest of their kind. They also take very kindly to undervolting. I'm hoping that since I have 6 of them, I can undervolt, and still maintain great pressure and airflow.
     
  10. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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    Update time! I've been a busy guy, so I thought I'd share the fun with all of you. There's no sense in waiting, so I'll jump right in...

    Last night I was too tired to dremel, but I still wanted to make progress. That left me with a few different things I could do to pass the time. I ended up choosing the one that seemed the most fun. So, enter the Via Epia Pico-ITX integrated motherboard... Just to recap the purpose of this board, it will be a dedicated download and storage box. It will reside inside the Rogue, and be networked both by wired and wireless. The 10.2" widescreen belongs to the Epia, and the whole thing will be controlled by a program called Synergy. This will allow full control of the box, without the need for a dedicated keyboard and mouse. The Epia system is something that can be left on at all times regardless of whether or not the Rogue is on. There's really not much sense in leaving the Rogue on to suck down power while I download stuff overnight...

    So, let's get on with the pics. Some of these may look familiar, but for the sake of continuity, I am reposting them here. Putting the Via system together couldn't have been any easier. I only encountered one problem, which I will cover below.

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    The Epia will have 2 hard drives attached. There is a 40 GB laptop drive for the OS, and a 750 GB drive for storage.

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    In this picture, you can get an idea of how small a Pico-ITX board really is. It's not much bigger than a laptop drive.

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    It's getting 1 GB of memory...

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    And a 90 watt power supply...

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  11. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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    Putting the system together is as easy as dropping the memory in the slot on the rear of the board...

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    And plugging the cables in to their respective jacks. It may not be pretty right now, but it will look much better in the case.

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    Time to fire it up!

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    A quick trip though the BIOS...

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    A little while later, and I've got XP loaded, and all is right with the world... with one exception... the 750 GB drive is nowhere to be seen. It's not showing in 'My Computer' or the device manager, so it's time to reboot. Well, it wasn't showing in the BIOS either. A bad drive? Shouldn't be, it's brand new. So I try 2 more drives and they all have the same problem. Crap, I'm thinking, what do I do now. There's no setting that I seem to have forgotten, but I still can't get any SATA drive to show up. Well, time to troubleshoot. I started with the first thing I noticed, and that was the fact that I couldn't hear the drive spinning up. So, it must be a power problem. I pull out my tester, and sure enough, no power at the plug. I pulled that SATA connector apart and reseated the wires. I then restarted the computer, and the problem was gone. Woohoo!

    [​IMG]
     
  12. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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    Tonight I got a little more work done on the top panel, in addition to playing with the Via system.

    Here is the completed top. All the edges are filed and sanded clean. It's also got the holes drilled for the fan wires. It's almost ready for paint, but I've got a few more things I want to do first.

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    I want to keep everything neat and organized, and this little piece is going to help me do that.

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    A few minutes later, I pull this out of the metal brake.

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    A little dremel work.

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    Finally! This is a cover for the fan wires. All wires will be hidden and routed to the front through this.

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    More to come!
     
  13. Attila

    Attila still thinking....

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    Wow craigbru., don't know how I missed this, two pc's, LCD and watercooling,
    all in that small case! Excellent work! :thumb:
     
  14. jokkos

    jokkos too busy to mod *sigh*

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    excellent work on the wire-hiding strip

    I've been interested in that same pico-itx board for a while, but I've always wondered: how loud is that fan?
     
  15. Burnout21

    Burnout21 Mmmm biscuits

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    you missed the TEC cooling lol!

    there is alot of stuff jamed in such a small case. feel ashamed of your project oldnewby (joke your project is great)
     
  16. papeniglio

    papeniglio Minimodder

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    Really sure to use Synergy? I've tried it a couple of times (both with Win-Win PCs and Win-Tux PCs), but I had many problems: moving from one screen to the other caused the PC with keyboard/mouse to crash... Hope you have a better luck, then please write down a great Synergy tutorial!! :thumb:
     
  17. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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    That's completely understandable. There are so many awesome mods going on in these forums right now. I visit everyday, and it seems like there's always one that I couldn't believe I didn't see the day before. Thanks!

    Thank you! The fan is virtually silent. It's only slightly above the ambient sound in the room, and I doubt it would be heard at all if it were in a case.

    I've been trying to make time to work out lately. This thing is going to be a little heavy... :D (maybe not as heavy as wood though!)

    For everyone that has problems, there are others that have none. I know that the 1.3.1 release has been working on Vista, so I'm hoping all goes well. According to the project forums, there is a 2.0 in the works. If I can't get Synergy to work, then there is an alternative.

    http://www.inputdirector.com

    I'll definitely keep you updated with any successes or problems I encounter. :D
     
    Last edited: 19 Mar 2008
  18. Fyve

    Fyve What's a Dremel?

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    It's so beautiful! :jawdrop: Great idea about using the pico itx board for those long downloads that take all day, really cuts back on power and noise, so you can actually sleep with the computer in the same room. Is the big hard drive connected to the pico board also going to be connected with the main computer, so you can actually use those big downloads (sorry if you already answered this)? You really thought of everything, so awesome!
     
  19. jhanlon303

    jhanlon303 The Keeper of History

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    I have a Pico stashed for a special project for my lady wife Marilyn (Tiffany lamp). Don't tell her!
    Did you ever see such a box full of stuff for such a little board. Just great. :clap:
    Via Epia has some cool stuff:D I always enjoy opening a new one. I'm weird:D
    Mod on, I'm watching this.
    John
     
  20. craigbru

    craigbru Cramming big things in small boxes since 2006

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    Thanks, you're too kind! :blush:

    The pico system will be networked directly to the Rogue, as well as my home network. All information being stored on the pico's drive, will be accessible at any time, by any computer on the network. It seems that the more I mod, the more I want to add, although I couldn't imagine what I'm missing at this point. The project has changed some from when I started. In fact, the pico system, and the TEC cooling weren't even considered when I started.
     
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