Case Mod - In Progress Project: TJ 180

Hey Guys. I started this project quite a while ago but never posted it here. But now I said screw this. The project is starting to pick up steam now. And I'm very pleased about the results so far. I also think that it is going to be a one of a kind project

Firstly. More about myself. I'm a 16 year old from Sunny South Africa and found my interest in computers almost 4 years ago. I love modding. I am currently busy with another project which I put on hold for a while due to finacial issues. This mod will feature my main rig which consists of the following

AMD Opteron 170 (Super PI Time of 27.72s @ 3GHz )
DFI CFX3200
1GB Muskin Redlines
X1900XTX

Those are the main componants.

Then my watercooling setup consists of:

Swiftech Storm G5
Danger Den Maze 4
Danger Den D5 (Which Sadly Died)
Black Ice Extreme GT 240 Radiator
Alphacool Shuttle Reservoir (Goodness this thing is tiny)
And then 1/2" Tubing

I imported all my watercooling from Performance PC's. Awesome service from those guys.

So the case has went through various changes with diffirent ideas and waterloops and so forth. So I'll take you guys on a tour from the beginning.

So here is the case a few weeks after I got it. Or should I say before I started modding it?

*REMOVED ALL THE IMAGES*

Here's the latest available shot of the case:

 

I decided to make a Plexi cover for the raddy... (Excuse the Phone Pics)









A guy on another forum made these designs for me and I was thinking of making them. But nope. I don't have nearly enough skill.









Here is the Cover at night





And I put some rubber sponge lining between the case and the perspex, still need to file the perspex smaller



This must be the messiest install anyone has ever seen



Maze 4



Storm



Reservoir



I used some food coloring to make it...uhm...bloody?



I got my DFI SLI-DR Expert and immediately ripped my PC apart to put it in. I couldn't use the P180 yet and used a Thermaltake Tsunami (Don't hate me ).



Busy installing it..



Fitted the water for the leak test...does it look clean enough?

PS...that unconnected tubes are going to the GPU waterblock



This must be one of the neatest installs i have ever done.





Leak Test = Success

First time ever that I had with 1st installation no leaks...

 

Building the P180



All Done...Except For The XTX's Cooling...My Mounting Plate was at a friend



So in the process of having some fun with my Opteron I managed to toast my DFI SLI DR Expert. Luckily a very good friend of mine (Aswell as my hardware supplier) RMA'd the board and got me a CFX3200.












Man this board is nice...i wonder if it clocks aswell as the Expert...it better CARL!!!

Applying AS5 to all the spots needed



Look how crappy the stock is...



Then my beloved ATI X1900XTX



The Core...



Mounted The Block



Other Side



Copper Valley



Board Fitted



And Finally In The Case





So in this period there was a stall of about 2 Months

So I stripped the case and watercooling...man check this dust on the RAD..



All taped out...



I ran into some problems with mounting the RAD... :S

I want to move it inside...but seems it just won't cut it..

Option 1: Both Inside...NOT gonna work..



Option 2: RAD inside...Fans outside.

 

So I thought of a better Idea...Raddy on top fans below









The red circle is the bottom mounting hole for my waterblock...so the top one is there somewhere...I think it will fit that way...

Made the cover ready for cutting...which will probably happen in a few days time





I have the worst luck with reservoirs..EVER. My first one had leaks that almost had me in tears.

Now the new one cracked so badly..







And then in this stall I thought of a new name and theme. The case was gonna get Carbon Fibre'd...Hence Carbon P180.

So I ordered all my goodies from Performance PC's and so on. Installed my new Raddy and all was good



Still lots of space left there





I forgot to take a pic of the drawing...but here is it with some dust and holes...





A very very rough cut



Test Fit



One the case





Here is my basic idea for the tubing..I'm gonna try keep this as neat as possible







I dunno if that actually makes sence...but you guys will see soon enough

 

So I went and bought myself some Allen Cap Screws





I bought myself some Carbon Fibre Vinyl aswell...I like



Applied it to my one sidepanel...




*damn that looks crap* High Res Pic To Follow Soon

High Res 2MB

The one sidepanel is COMPLETE



High Res Pic 1 (1.2MB)

That's It For Now Hope you guys enjoy it. Now it is sleep time. 3.30AM here

Cheers



High Res Pic 2 (2MB)



High Res Pic 3 (1.3MB)

 

aw man. not bein' able to afford the real deal sucks dont it?

nice job so far. keep the updates coming, i'm sure there'll be a few following your progress.

 

Heck if I could have bought real carbon fibre that would have been totally insane But yeah. It's so expensive. And cool things like that is so hard to find in South Africa...almost everything cool I want I have to import because we don't have it or it's just too expensive

But thanks for the kind words

I also did the front panel today. It's busy drying now. Will post some more pics tomorrow.

 

Nice carbon but why use not some REAL carbon!! On ebay lot of carbon sheet. Personally i don't like the vinyl stuff. But ok the real carbon will be a hack in to any budget. And that money you spend also on some beers or other gadgets.
But i do like the design!! Looks verry promissing!!
Keep up the good work!

 

People have spoken about using Carbon Fibre for cases before, but have all been let down by the fact that Carbon Fibre can conduct electricity, or something of the sort? By the way, didn't you just defeat the entire purpose of the P180 - silence?

 

Thanks

Well I guess I did. But it's not like I'm gonna have 27 fans in my case...

 

That side panel looks sweet, Im thinking about incorporating that CF vinyl into my mod is it easy to use?

 

Thanks, The sidepanel which is cut is gonna get redone. It will be the same hight but over the full length of the case. I'm also gonna have it lasercut It's pretty easy using CF...Just spray some soapy water on it and then you can easily move it around. Bit a word of advice. Don't trim it while it's still wet...it will move around and cause you to make screw up's like what happened last night to me

Anyways..here as promised. Front Panel

I don't like it...made a few screw up's...will do it over...but this is kinda what the case is going to look like

 

mate, where did u get ur carbon from?

Pass me a link as i need to get some for my project.

 

You can get the stuff for a decent price HERE

 

Looks Nice, thanks for a nice mod, lookin gd!

 

I was going to suggest mnpctech...I got mine from a place in SA. So that wouldn't have helped you...

Thanks dude

 

yeah mnpctech i a known supplier but i suspect the postage cost to be ludacris....ill look for a place in england.

 

Fixed.

Back on topic, your project looks good - nice to see P180's modded as there aren't many modded around.

I'll look forward to updates.

 

Thanks I wanted to make my P180 one of a kind. I was pretty afraid to post this here as the modders here are crazy I love to browse the project logs here

 

Nice to see someone mod a P180, I'll be watching this project for some ideas cause I'm gonna be posting up a project of mine in a few days also with a P180 (silver now, but black after the mod )
what did you use to cut the window, a dremel maybe?