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Case Mod - In Progress Project: Blue-Hellfire Feb 2 Stick a fork in it...its done!!!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by CobraMods, 5 May 2008.

  1. CobraMods

    CobraMods Gettin there slowly

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    tis weekend and i have had time to play a bit over the last few days.
    first off mr postman brought me a nice gift on tuesday.
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    picked it up from a place called specialist paints. while it was a bit pricey at £12.99 a can it was well worth it because i had planned to use this colour from the beginning. if your in the UK and need some funky paint colours check them out http://www.specialistpaints.com/.

    so with paint in hand i had to start laying down the colour.
    laying down light mist coats till i got the colour i wanted
    i started with the PSU
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    moved to the HD
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    then i figured i would hit the keyboard surround and wrist rest.
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    mmmm candy
    now on to the case
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    after this dried i grabbed the airbrush again and some white, need to make the flames pop a
    bit so some highlights were in order.
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    then it was time to cover it all in clear
    and shazam!!!!
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    hehe i like it =o)~

    reassembled the keyboard once the paint was done
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    yup like that too heh

    last lil pic for this mornings update is the HD after i peeled the masking off
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    cya in a day or 2 with more fun stuff.
     
  2. Anti-Hero

    Anti-Hero What's a Dremel?

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    Wow. Nice painting skills!
    Is that done with air brush?
    Awesomeness!
     
  3. CobraMods

    CobraMods Gettin there slowly

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    all done with a combination of air brush and spray can
     
  4. CobraMods

    CobraMods Gettin there slowly

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    figured it was time to drop some bits in this thing for a test fit. i know i will have issues to deal with along the way so lets hop right into the fire =o)
    first i fit the power supply, i know from the dolphin rig that i have a clearance issue even before i start because of the "slightly bigger than normal" cpu cooler so i will do the same thing i did on the dolphin box.
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    start the top screws for the psu and then use 2 thin square nuts as spacers for the bottom of it.
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    cant really notice the tilt from the front but it makes everything all snug and cozy.
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    more lil skulls to hold bits together hehe
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    then check it with the side window frame on to check visibility
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    that works for me =o)

    ok so next i temporarily throw the motherboard in there so i can check other things for clearance
    motherboard fits in fine, so then i bolted up the HD in place to make sure it didnt hit the vid card or mem cooler
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    looks like clearance to me so far.
    now with the side panel
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    now we have been kicking around ways to keep the vid cards cool for the machines here since we picked them up a few weeks ago.
    the card:
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    decided on these lil things
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    should handle all our cooling needs for the vids
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    first up had to lay on the mini chip coolers.
    sticky thermal tape anyone?
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    next we check clearance on the card for the mounting plate....
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    hmmmmm
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    looks like one of those capacitor thingies does not wonna play nice
    tis ok... have dremel, will trim.
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    should be close
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    yup winner!!
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    now is where i ran into a bit of trouble.
    fitting the card to the mobo the new cooler was hitting on the memory cooler(racker fracker #@!!#^*)
    sorry for the lack of pics of the problem. just kinda got on with rectifying it before i remembered the camera .
    in short i had to trim some of the lower fins off the vga cooler so it would clear the memory cooler.
    so i cut right about here
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    till i had removed enough for both coolers to live in harmony =o)
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    lil straightening of the fins and some colour on the bare metal areas and we are back moving forward with the fitting
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    ok lets see what the whole deal will look like once its fit in the rig
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    side panel in place
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    yep i can work with that
    on the agenda for this week. shortening and tweaking the wiring from the PSU
    fitting the front panel covers to the dvd drives
    wiring the switches for the front of the case
    that should be enough on my plate if ya also figure in the 50 hrs a week i work at my normal job lol
    cya as soon as i can and thanks to anyone who has been following alont and posting, its what makes the project log portion more entertaining.
    take care till next time
    =o)
     
  5. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Thats a really nice mod on the VGA cooler.
     
  6. CobraMods

    CobraMods Gettin there slowly

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    as long as everything fits and does as it should i wont complain. even taking off that bit of fins shouldnt matter much as i dont overclock the cards at all and the case itself has a ton of airflow through it.
    back to tweakin...
    cya in a bit
     
  7. CobraMods

    CobraMods Gettin there slowly

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    Broke everything down again to start final fitting,
    installed the case fans,
    shortened wires on the PSU
    removed unneeded wires from same PSU (wifey was a bit leary about me cutting bits off it =oX)
    working on sleeving everything i can and snapping pics along the way.
    should have a decent update by this weekend
    tis almost done, that means its nearly play time.
    i can use this new one to plan my next mod lol
    cya in a few days with pics of all that i get done
     
  8. CobraMods

    CobraMods Gettin there slowly

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    ok i had an eventful few days or workin on hellfire =o)
    i installed the fans in thier rightful places and did a bit of wiring cleanup on the PSU.
    first the sata cables that came on the PSU were way too long. so i cut em heh
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    luckily they came with nice little push type connectors which made shortening them rather easy.
    just popped the side caps off of the mid way ones and pulled off the connectors.
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    then i cut the wires near the PSU so i could keep the Last plug with the pins n stuff so they had a finished look.
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    i soldered the wiring back together and covered the connections with shrink tubing and sleeving.
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    overall it looks alot cleaner with the shorter wiring there.

    once those were shortened i cut all but one molex plug off the PSU. all the molex powers is the lighting so i had no need for the 5 extra plugs

    now it was time to sort the lighting wiring out.
    not so many pics for this as i was kinda on a roll and with the finish line looming near i didnt really feel like stopping every 3 mins to take a pic (sorry)


    for the front fan controller i didnt want mine to light up like a christmass tree , wifeys is a bit bright in my opinion.
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    so i hit em with the same candy blue overcoat to both tone them down and blend them in a bit.
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    i think they will look good when installed.
    got all those fitted and snapped the front panel on.

    tricky bit here was i now had to affix my front dvd drive bay covers so they sat flush with the front panel.i needed to find a spacer to make this achievable.
    did some lookin around and found something just the right size for what i needed..
    swiped a few pens from wifeys desk (shhhhh)
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    dissassembled and trimmed down they will work fine as spacers
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    temporarily affixed then with some superglue.

    once in place i ran a bead of epoxy along the top and bottom of them to make sure they were permanent.
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    once those were set i started mounting the lighting
    i used one ccfl on the front edge to light up the flames
    but i needed something a bit more to set off both the front turbine intake and the top skull vent cover.
    i found a set of these on the net..round ccfl fan grills.
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    they only had em in 80mm so i will make due as usual.
    i started by disassembling them so i had the bits i needed.
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    luckily they seemed to be just a press fit and came apart easy.
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    pulled the light rings out.

    using the 2 larger ones for this mod and saving the 2 smaller ones for my next project.


    positioned the first ring on the backside of the front turbine fan and epoxied it in place.
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    the top fan since it was in upside down position cause it is exhaust i had no framework to affix the lighting to.hmmmm
    cut a piece of mesh down to bridge the mounting holes in the underside of the fan and then epoxied the light to the mesh.
    did what i needed and things worked out well

    wifey picked me up a few skull keychains from the bay that she was hoping i could use in the build.. me never wanting to dissapoint the wifey just had to find something to do with em =o)
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    heres the top 4 that will protect my ex fan grill

    that left me with 2 more
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    one for the front turbine intake
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    and one for inside the case just as an accent piece.
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    with all lighting in place it was time for testing them out
    what would a day be without a bit of drama.
    get em all wired to my switch and turn them on ...hmmm only the front ccfl tube is working, nothing from my 2 light rings...grrrrr
    a bit of this and a bit of that later and come to find out the lil effin resistor box for the round ones was bad.. glad i ordered 2 of them when i got em.
    swapped out the converter and now they are all purty.
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    heh i like it =o)

    now it is time for final assembly ( yes i actually said final assembly)

    all hdwe went in without much drama


    yep winner!!
    got everything all installed and back together.

    here is the finished product..

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    stick a fork in it. i am callin this one done.
    overall i did what i wanted to do. i have a decent case and a rig that can play any of the games i want it to with little or no fuss.
    i am doing some benchmarking tonight to see where it sits and i will post screenies of that.
    i already have another project on the horizon but i plan to take about a month before i really start on it so i have time to play with my newly finished toy.

    thank you to all who have been following the worklog, i hope i havent dissapointed too many of you in the build but at the end of the day i am happy with the results and i have learned alot from everyone on these forums during the whole build process.
    most off, thank you to Wifey!! for putting up with me while i left pc bits all over the house hehe.

    heres a bit of a spoiler for ya
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    early plans are shuttle,home server with about 6 hd's improved cooling and lighting and double as a monitor stand on my desk, and of course some air brushing on that one as well.
    wish me luck and see you all in a while with this new one =o)
     
  9. InferiorPlanets

    InferiorPlanets Worshiping the SilverStonehenge™

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    Love how it turned out Bro! The CCFL from the fan grill behind the skull is a great touch. Beer's on me...
     
  10. CobraMods

    CobraMods Gettin there slowly

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    ty much bud. next one should start in about a month then i get to do it all over again =o)
     
  11. InferiorPlanets

    InferiorPlanets Worshiping the SilverStonehenge™

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    I'll be watching for it Bro! :thumb:
     
  12. CobraMods

    CobraMods Gettin there slowly

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    ok someone recommend me some good benchmarking software.
    the only one i have is SiSoft Sandra and either i dont know how to use it properly cause all i get is a text output file with specs for my machine or i need a diff app to give me a graphical representation of the benchmarks.
    help!! lol
     
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