Case Mod - In Progress FINISHED! FINAL PICS! Project: Custom MM U2-UFO rebuild 24thSep

Unfortunately, with a whole bundle of pics missing, I've had to just go and post the finished pics... enjoy!

 

Hi guys,

My first foray into posting in the logs section! I took quite a few pics of me rebuilding my U2-UFO and thought I'd share them with you by compiling them into a log. It's not as comprehensive as some of the logs I've seen but hopefully it'll still be either helpful or entertaining to some of you

So... First things first, I started out with a standard Mountain Mods U2-UFO case (the older kind, not the new modular version) in a black powder coat finish:


(front)


(back)

You may have aleady noticed but I added a Thermochill radiator/fan gasket to every 120mm fan hole to provide a seal and reduce vibration noise. They can be seen better here:


(inside front)


(inside back)

I also added some custom sleeving to the power, reset and LED cables:





With the case prepped, it was time to get the rads ready for fitting. I'd bought a shedload of M4 socket cap bolts that I intended to use throughout the mod and so I grabbed a 3.3mm drill bit and drilled out every hole on both the PA120.2 & and PA120.3 (as well as the shroud for the PA120.3), before tapping them out with an M4 thread:



Be very careful if you attempt to drill these holes and ensure that you place something sturdy between the 'lip' that you are drilling though and the fins on the radiator (for example I used a metal "L" bracket from ikea) as I've lost count of the amount of these rads I've seen punctured.

With the rads tapped and ready to go, it was time to have a go at test-fitting them (I tried a few different orientations whilst I thought of the best way to organise my loops):


(rear internal)

I also promised I'd give Tom at www.chilled-pc.co.uk a shout for helping me with this custom rear grill. He probably won't remember now, as he did it a long while back but hey, a promise is a prmoise right?


(rear external, with custom grill)

With the rear rad in, I moved onto the front:


(front inside)


(front outside)

I managed to slip one final rad (an HWLabs stealth GT 120.1) in the remaining front 120mm, leaving a perfect mount for the hard-disks:



With all these parts in the front now looked like this:



I'd seen a guy on the Xtremesystems forums, who had made some custom brackets to mount his 2 DDC pumps. I loved the idea and went about replicating it. I made the following with a pack of 4 50mm (IIC) "L" brackets from B&Q (which just so happened to line up perfectly) and an aluminum "door plate" (whatever the hell that is) also from B&Q & some m4 socket cap bolts and nuts:


(rear rad pump)


(front rad pump)

 

Once I was happy with the pump brackets, I tightened up all the nuts and bolts and took them to the garden for spraying. I started off with a coat of red oxide (as the "L" brackets were steel and I wanted to eliminate any risk of rust) before finishing off with satin black:



As sods law would have it, I can't seem to find any pictures of them finished other than once they'd been returned to their rightful place, mounted on the rads. At this stage, I'd also sleeved the RPM wires on the pumps (I'd aleady done the molex's a while back):


(rear rad) notice I've flipped the rad over once again


(front rad)

With the pumps, rads and fans all mounted, it was time to get the other major components in. I moved onto the 5.25" drive bay compartment:


The 5.25" bay section comprises of 2 modified Alphacool Repack Reservoirs (Delrin I beleive), followed by a single MM 5.25" drive bay blank (with added led switch for the cathodes), a Sunbeam Rheobus and an SATA Pioneer DVD RW drive.

Unfortunately, I don't have pics for some of the modifications, as they were performed some time ago and I didn't take pics of my progress .

This pic shows the Alphacool reservoirs with the additional barbs added (top left). I'd noticed during use, that they were difficult to bleed, as the air tended to tap in the top right corner (when viewed front on) which also meant the trapped air was prone to being pulled through the outlet (bottom right, front on). As I wouldn't be able to access the fill port on the lower res anyway, I decided to mod both of them in the same way, with the aim of eliminating the problem. I used an 11.8mm drill bit and a G1/4" tap to make these additional holes. I would absolutely recommend using a drill press for this job as I did it by hand using a variable speed drill and it was challenging to say the least. The clear fittings in the centre are where the UV LEDs mount to illuminate the coolant:



I decided at this point to get the mobo mounted to the removable tray and everything fitted in place:



Whilst I was at it, I decided to tidy up some of the solder joints on my volt modded 8800GTX:


The white blobs are glue from a hot glue gun which helps to hold the joints in place, in the unlikely event I catch a cable.

Okay, here's the thing, I'm pretty sure that I have a shed load of images missing between here and the final, finished shots (yes, it's already done) but I can't seem to find them anywhere. There's a pretty huge golf between this stage and the finished stage so I'm gonna hold fire on posting the finished pics until I can find the missing ones (or until you guys give me enough stick ). Hopefully, it won't take me too long.

 

Okay, I found another couple of shots but I'm almost certain the others are gone for good

It's a real shame as I had some decent pics in there but hey ho, that's life.

Testing out the cathodes:



Playing around with the tubing and loop routes:



For reference, I also found a couple of shots of a standard U2-UFO here:





I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post these without the original author's consent but I have given apporpriate credit and if requested, I will gladly remove them. It might seem a little odd to include these but without my missing pictures it might be hard to show the difference between the original and my own.

 

not overly sure about having a PSU under a rad I'd be too conservative about trying that , but I love MM cases and I like the pump mount on the rad its self good idea

 

Yeah, having the rad above the PSU did scare the sh*t out of me at first but I've had it running there for like a year now with zero problems. If anything it's actually scarier when the tubing and clamps go on and you start filling her up. Seeing liquid edging that close to the fan hole on a PSU sure feels a little odd first time round. Once it's run for a few hours, with no leaks, I'm usually confident that I'll have no problems.

As for the pump brackets, they are indeed a fantastic idea. Unfortunately, they weren't my idea . It was Matias23 from the Xtremesystems forums that gave me the inspiration and I really haven't given him enough credit. His Lian Li was so beautifully put together and he spent a lot of time giving me information on how he achieved it. So Matias23, thanks again dude .

 

For ready-built modular boxes, MM does some amazing stuff. I always like to see builds utilizing these cases.

Nice work, man!

 

WANT

great job man, not usually a fan of cubes but I really like this one. Bravo!
What exactly do those 2 "arch" fans cool above and beside the CPU?

 

Those are mosfet coolers.

 

how much did it cost to ship such a case from the states? in total how much that case cost (not hardware)

 

Thanks dude

Cheers Thacrudd,

as E.E.L. Ambiense pointed out, those coolers are for the mosfets. I dropped the one for the top heatsink in the end as it barely gets warm even under the heaviest of loads

I got mine though www.over-clock.co.uk about a year and a half ago and it cost around £260 delivered back then. A hell of a lot of money admittedly but the case seriously rocks, I love it.

Be aware that they have changed the design since and now they come completely flat packed and need assembling. Whilst this actually gives you more oportunity for modding/customising (as every panel is removable) I haven't seen one up close and thus can't comment on the quality. I'd imagine with MountainMods it's nothing other than top drawer though to be honest.

 

Nice build! Love the neon green on black

 

that is one sweet custom build. Really like how you fitted the watercooling kit in the case

 

is that the Hose or coolant that is that color? be cause i want to use it

 

Beautiful job dude

 

I believe it is the coolant. If you look at the tube all the way to the right you can see the coolant in the tube

 

Wow, i love it!
The paint looks superb, and the green coolant is a great addition!

 

Got to love the MM's matey, nice work

 

Amazing 4 rads? or is it 6?

 

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the feedback

Cheers tribal, that means a lot coming from you dude, I love your work!

As Thacrudd reightly pointed out, it's standard 1/2" Clear Tygon with Feser One Coolant (UV Green)

A Thermochill PA120.3, Thermochill PA120.2 & HWLabs Stealth GT 120. So all in all, just 3. Not sure how you made 4 there dude (let alone 6)