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

Cable Management & Wiring – adding more white & blue lights

Hello, time for another update.

Not much to say, I added some more white and blue lighting. I also added one UV lightsource in the top section of the case.

Well, maybe there are still some things to say about the led spots. First of all, I tested out what gives the best effect on the UV tubing: a led spot or a laser led. Turns out they’re about equally effective. I thought I’d mention it, might come in handy to know…


There was but one problem: the led spots are wired up for 5V and I use 12V on all my switches. Obviously, the led spots also have a resistor for 5V. So, I needed to change the leds to my own leds with a 12V resistor on them.

Here’s what one of the leds spots looks like when disassembled, the cable needs to chopped to get the led out (I was too lazy to get the pins out of the molex.


And this was my first version. I thought space would be too tight inside the spot so I soldered the resistor away from the led to put it outside the spot. The collar of the spot was so narrow a bit broke off when forcing everything through. Oh well.


At least it works:


Then I thought about it and decided it couldn’t be that hard putting everything inside the spot. Just some tight soldering…turned out to be pretty easy. So here’ version 2, much nicer:



On to the tests! I added a blue laser led which is actually taped to the 120mm fan in the back. I put a blue spot in the top section, and a UV laser led close to it. There’s a white led spot underneath the bottom panel to light up the plexi piece with the rca connectors, unfortunately it kept moving, it will give more effect when I properly mount it. Finally, I put another one of the led spots behind the psu, it gives a nice backlit effect.

This was just a test to see if I added enough lights, I will of course look carefully for the best effect when mounting them properly. So if some of the lighting appears a bit ‘off’, don’t worry.
Here it is all lit up. The blue circle you see is coming from the middle led of the laser led. I’ll try to get one led to lit up the RAM, one to shine on the CPU block and the third one will shine in the case. This is the plan but I think the third led will shine through the window and right into my eyes when the case is on its desk. So maybe the laser led will be replaced by a led spot later on.


Here you see what I mean, currently the outer led is shining through the back of the window. But the laser led needs to be mounted a bit more rotated and slightly lifted to get the other two leds on the cpu and ram. So the third light will be in the wrong place. I could just mask it of course. Will decide on this later.


The blue led spot at the top. The UV laser led is behind it and above it, but not visible in this pic. The led spot is behind the optical drives so only visible when looking at the case from its backside (which will not be possible when its on its desk).


Apart from the blue laser led, I think the extra lights are nicely positioned. Now there are white accents in the topleft/bottomright diagonal and blue accents on the other one.


An angle more from the backside to show the blue led at the top.


With the UV on, there is now a nice even lighting throughout the case, the top part of the watertubing is nicely lit as well by the UV laser led.


The blue laser led has a lot less effect on the UV plexi than the leds of the 120mm fan had.


Here you see how the UV laser led carries the glow in the watertubing all the way to the top bit.


The white spot behind the psu seems to give only a little effect. But after the photoshoot and when I took a lot of the lighting out, I saw it had also moved. When properly mounted and aimed, it will be more effective.


I’m now waiting for the package with the new core and thermal pads for the vga waterblock. Should arrive today or tomorrow. So maybe there will be another update before the week-end!

 

Very nice Jokkos, I think I prefer the UV LASER, it's more even, looking forward to the next update, with reference to the idea about the contactor pads, you could always insulate them from the case, but I see what you mean about the metal case, it would be very easy to short them by accident , ahh well it was just an idea .

Jimbo

 

Great yob.

 

Cable Management & Wiring – video card & support

Here’s another update. The package with the new core and thermal pads for the waterblock arrived, so I got to do quite a bit of work. I also did a lot of work already on the side panel (measuring, marking out where the holes for the leds need to be, drilling the holes) so this is ready for the main line and the led arrays.

But this one is about the video card.

I don’t believe I ever poster a pic of the waterblock I’m using. Nothing special, just the GF6800 rev. 2 block by Aqua Computer. The power line serves to power a led that lights up an Aqua Computer logo. This will work perfectly in my case and is actually the main reason I’m using this block. Stupid huh…


To install the new copper core, I had to open up the block. I’ve read horror-stories on the net about the rubber o-rings coming out of their positions and how hard it is to get them (especially the big one) back in place…but mine stayed right where they need to be! Here’s a pic of the opened block with the two cores, old (aluminium) and new (copper):


Installing the core was simple enough. Here it is in the block, the alu one next to it.


Next to the horror-stories about the rubber rings, there are also a lot of frightening tales about people that killed their video card while installing this block. Maybe it is because I was careful and ordered the thermal pads before I continued, but I didn’t experience any difficulties whatsoever. One of the easiest installs of a cooling block I ever did actually! But because it needs to be held in position most of the time, I didn’t take any pics.

Here it is installed, some people complain that is bends their video card. Again, not in my case…so I guess I installed it the right way!


And one from the back.



With the block finally installed on the video card, I could finally start on its wiring. But for that, I first needed to know where exactly it will be in the case. So, after all this months, a pretty satisfying moment: putting the mainboard in the case for the first time!


Note that all the cable management holes are right where they need to be…perfect.

The 4-pin atx cable needs to go around the left side to reach its place on the mainboard. I will make sure it’s a bit cleaner in the end.


The 20-pin atx cable extender works well. It doesn’t look like much but its efficient. It won’t be very visible since I’m going to make a small mesh-cover for this area (20-pin, floppy and optical drive cables are ugly as hell).


Time to put the video card in. Again a lot of people experience problems, being that their video card bends a lot because of the weight of the block. Either Asus make strong pcb’s, or those people exaggerate, since it’s clear from this pic that the bending is minimal. It’s there, but only a few mm’s.


Nevertheless the support I made will help to straighten it, stabilise it and most importantly, hide its wiring. First I did a lot of measuring, then I drilled and tapped the holes to install the ‘fork’ that is actually the support for the support.


The support is then mounted to the fork. I designed it this way because I only need to undo those four bolts you see and then I can off the part of the support that is in the way of the video card and mainboard. The fork never has to be taken out.


That’s better…


The power line to the video card and the wiring to its led will go through the three rca sockets in the fake bottom panel and then to the underside of the support.


And two more shots to let you see what it looks like.




I will change the two bolts on the side of the support to less prominent ones (low profile or maybe buttonheads). As you can see from the last pics, the underside of the support is okay since it has the three RCA cables running to it, but the topside is pretty dull. There’s now this ‘big’ square in the case where nothing is happening. I need to come up with something to remedy this. Problably another sticker or label.

Speaking of stickers: I searched for shops that can print labels on vinyl. You know, to get a replacement for the sticker on my logo panel so the UV leds don’t shine through. I first tried to find one that could print on transparant material, but without any luck.
After contacting several shops I finally found one where the people were very helpful. So I sent them my label and they sent me two perfect prints on vinyl. It’s white, so I need to cut out the areas that need to be transparant. But the quality is superb, I tried it with the UV leds and it’s completely solid, no shine through at all.
So if the cutting goes well, that’s another problem that’s solved. And I now have a good adress to have the rest of the labels for the case printed. Technically I could do it myself since I don’t really need transparant parts again, but the difference in quality justifies the cost.

See you soon with some pics of the wiring for the video card.

 

Damn, nice supportbeam for the block. Looks awsome One of the greatest casebuild's I've ever seen. (Might said it before, but I'm saying it again.)

 

superb work as ever congrats.
keep up the good work.

 

Superb, I love it! I guess you better make sure that every motherboard you buy for this case from now on has the primary graphics slot at the very top!

 

Looking very nice, I've been following this thread from the start Glad to say it looks VERY good

 

thanks,

I forgot to mention that I did also do a test-run of the video card in my temporary system. I couldn't do a lot or a long time of course because the waterblock is obviously not cooled yet, but I booted into windows, went into the display properties, changed resolution, changed it back and some other small stuff. All went well so I guess the card is alive and well.

 

good for you so the horor stories didint come to life .
keep up the good work

 

Lovely dude!!

The case is very cool and the cable management is very smart and it looks nice.
How much alu did you use, probably a lot.
One question, are you going to paint the hole case or will it just be the silver alu color.

Keep it going like that

 

Very very nice look.

Keep up the good work.

 

The support for the videocard looks nice Have you already thought about covering the whole upper side of the card? That would also give a nice contrast if you cover the mainboard, too

 

That vid card support is genious, especially with the heavy cards; one more thing i might have to borrow from this project.

 

thanks.

I think at the end there will about 1.5 square metre of aluminium used in the case (not including the frame).

I'm not going to paint it, you'll see later on...

 

Go ahead, that is why we show our work on this forum right?

 

Cable Management & Wiring – video card & support part two

Time for an update at the start of the week-end.

This update is about the wiring for the video card.

I started with the soldering of the RCA plugs and sockets, together with the assembly of the last three RCA cables. In this pic you see all the building blocks of the vid card wiring: the RCA’s, two regular molexes and my beloved terminal blocks.


After the soldering, the time came for a test. And well, the RCA cables were way too long. So I redid them…to find in the next test that they are still a few mm’s too long. It’s just so hard getting them right. So instead of doing them over again, I will make a smoked plexi piece for the fake bottom just as I did for the other panel next to it. It lowers the plexi piece that holds the sockets, and makes the RCA cables fit better. Plus it looks great!

Here’s a pic of the second test, you can see how the alu fake bottom bends on the right cause the cables are too long. I also temp wired the led in the waterblock, and you can see it works!


After the test, I changed the wiring for the led: soldered on a 3-p connector, sleeved it. I took the pins out of the two molexes, soldered on the right lengths of wiring and put them in black molexes. I put the terminal blocks in. Here’s a pic of the work-in-progress, you can probably already see what I’m going for:


I’m going for this! Another wire mess heh…but it needs to be able to move around a bit, since the molexes of course need to be able to be pushed in and pulled out of the vid card.


Now you see why I needed the support to be this size…it’s still very busy in there…

A test-fit. Everything works perfectly.


Time to put the lid on…and POOFFF, where did all that ugly wiring go???


This concludes the wiring for the vid card. I did of course test it thoroughly with the multi-meter, everything okay. This was actually a fun little project, although it did take a lot of thinking to come up with this support.

There are now only a few things left to do on the wiring. It’s about time as well, this has taken three weeks more than I planned!
What’s left:
1) the leds in the side panel
2) changing the remote leds for the optical drives
3) sleeving the wiring of the bulgins (power/reset switch,…)
4) one more piece I need to make for the ‘Der_Meister’ logo that will go inside the case (probably just a 2-led array).

I’m planning to do 1) pretty soon, but not immediately. This means that 2) and 3) also have to wait a bit, since I want to test 1) with the switch and so I have to leave the front panel in the case till I’m done. Finally, 4) will be done later on when I’ve made the inside logo.

Conclusion: I’ll do some other stuff in the coming week or so. When I’m feeling up for it, I will do the leds for the window. See you soon!

 

great work man keep it up

 

hey, nice way to get rid of that ugly wiring.

 

omg, i love rammstein but most americans are ignorant of their prowess. but im glad you are incorporating that into the case and whatnot