Sup guys, welcome to Project :: Kaiten! This project begins out of the ashes of my friend's home power grid assassinating my motherboard (I think). Instead of buying a new motherboard I decided instead to let all of those modding demons in me out and turn the ideas in my head into reality, upgrading performance and cool factor. My orgional setup had a few problems- First, my D5 pump was put in a way that needed a 90 degree fitting. Unfortunatly due to space I had to cut part of it off, and it never sealed well sometimes letting a lot of coolant out. This had to change. Then, temps were a bit to high for my taste with a single BIX with CPU GPU and NB on the loop, with possibility of running SLI down the road. And, my Lian Li V1000 was just not that cool Alright alright, enough talk, more pics! I tend to jump around different parts of my projects, so bare with me. First up, the custom front panel that started it all- I did'nt feel the need to show everyone the blank acrylic panel. Using a coping saw, dremel, and needle files for a couple of hours got me this. Here you can see me cutting out the hole for the CD Rom. Using only hand tools gave me an exactly perfect fit in the case as you'll see later. Messy work >< PSOne LCD screen mounted along with the fan speed controller. I had to punch out the stock holes on both units a tad for the cap screws to fit. I will be tackling the LCD controller board a bit later on. Installed for a test fit. It was a tight fit which is what I wanted. My system was still online at this point, you can see the black faced reservoir under the fan controller. Note the six holes on the acrylic panel match the res The LCD in action for the first time. Obviously...something isnt quite right. I have a proper Matrox Mystique card comeing to me which should drive the lcd right. My next mod is not as obvious. V1000 owners might notice that the cage is installed exactly reverse of where it is stock. I did this to help hide all of the wires and shorten up length of SATA cables. This took all of 10 minutes to mark and drill out the new holes, well worth it I think. Mark and drilling a hole for a Danger Den fillport. No tape I know, bad bad bad... After some needle files and dremel wizardry, the fillport was right at home. Overall shot so far. Now you can see the reservoir mounted onto the front panel using the origional bolts. The origional front was a 5mm smoked acrylic peice so this res should do just fine mounted to this 5mm acrylic instead.This is after my mobo went to the great fab in the sky Nice fuzzy pic of the hole I drilled for LED placement in the TDX waterblock. It will be lit up white. Motherboard cover in progress underneath it? Yes, but this is on hold until I decide what hardware to use after this mod is done. New 2.5cm hole drilled for the output of my D5 pump. I am thinking that I would like to do something different here, so this will probably change.
Now back to that front panel. You can see where I am going with the res and fillport here so I will be able to fill the res from outside. The ovular control board was proving to be a problem until I did more test fitting. I discovered that I could mount it to the rest with a little bit of tweaking. A problem? Never for a man armed with files- Barley noticable, I just made a notch to clear the black controller box on the fan controller. There is zero clearance between the top of the pcb and the case, which made for a perfect fit. Ah, technology sandwich I used a stock drive cover as a bracket to hold this into the case. To mount the PSOne lcd board in I used some very cool aluminum spacers and screws I found at a surplus shop. Mounting of the harness and power converter will come later. Black AC Ryan Radgrillz in place for measuring. Knowing this is an expensive case, I measured 10 times and cut once getting this- Sweet candy Black Ice GTS240 and Enermax Marathon fans? You bet. I tried out the fans and honestly...THEY RATTLE. Not sure if it is because of the magnetic suspension these use instead of ball bearings. I reseated the rotors and they seemed better, but I may not use these in the end. Easy removal for cleaning which is cool The obligatory pic of my modding mascot. Her name is Artemis And my last pic today, a little teaser of things to come Whatever that is, I need a sander/polisher for it. Until next time- Breach
Wow nice work but one thing. Places a piece of acrylic across the back of the lcd to protect it from accedental leeks from the fill port.
Have you thought of using black tinting on the clear plexi. It would be pretty cool to see the front look flat black while its off and then light up when it's on. Other wise very good work.
kaiten, as in "rotation" or the Kaiten program which was basically the human-operated torpedo version of the Kamikaze program? or do you just like the Japanese
I do in fact have a plan for this, it will not stay clear. I am going for kind of a glass interface look to it. I just need to get some vinyls made for the paint mask Kaiten as in the japanese kamikaze subs of WWII, correct. A Kaiten's job was to breach the hull of an enemy ship I am also a march to into my own glorious death type of gamer as well, being a LAN ready rig it seemed like a good name for it. Ill get to modding the sander after I get Kaiten done
Alright, it's update time. Remember the sander? Well, all I can say is Lian Li fans may want to look away And the answer is yes, I am going to polish this beasty Looks like murder in this shot though doenst it... About 1/3 done. Turns out the sander I have has the most uncommon pad you can think of, so it was very, very, VERY difficult and irritating to find any discs for it, or pads to fit common paper sizes. This shot is after I ran out,which is mostly why got delayed the last couple weeks. Unforutnatly with such little options of paper, I was forced to start with 120 grit. Not all bad just means I get to hand sand more. This is after a little treatment with 240. You can see it is pretty scratched up though. some mockup action. I intend to keep the sides some form of black and the center fully polished aluminum After 400 grit, the surface gets a little bit more sheen from 320 before it. This will be a long process, you will see it shinier and shinier in coming updates. To sand I have been going 90 degrees direction change with each grit, you can really see where you missed using that method. Now for something else, I found these little aluminum struts (?) at a surplus store owned by Boeing. Before I got too crazy sanding the bottom, I decided that these would make some nice clean case feet. Some holes and cap screws later I had all 4 mounted. I have since come up with something else I want to do with these, so stay tuned for that Another shot. I like that these are low profile and unobtrusive. I may paint them black in the end but I have not quite decided. I will be putting some little felt pads on them too. That looks to be it for today, but I shall return soon Mod On -Breach
Very nice, you did an awesome job on the acrylic front panel. Never thought to use a HAND saw like that coping saw. keep up the good work!
Those case feet look both out of place but in place at the same time, if you get what I mean. I just don't think they match the style of the case - smooth and rounded. Just my opinion. However, you've given me a good idea as to what I can do to my main rig, so thanks!
really wow my cats name is DJ ya I know lol totally unrelated I felt like sharing =p Anyhow great work so far but Im not to sold on the case feet either, everything else looks great.
