Case Mod - In Progress COMPLETED - Raised from the dead Mod ( 2nd in the June MOTM )

DAILY UPDATE


The last thing i wanted to do before taking everything apart and prep it for painting is to get the GPU back plate done. To sort out its lighting.

So my initial idea was to light the back plate from the bottom right corner so that the light shines towards the end of the case and not in it and also that illuminates the whole acrylic, but seems i made that idea with out the water paths in place and now see that there is not was a cable could pas or fit there. so decided to go the other way. Marked off the center of the GPU core and will place the LED there.





made a grove for the cable and the LED but in this way it only light up the front part of the acrylic, so i made the another grove just to the opposite side of this one and added another LED. In all the work forgot to take a snap of that, but any ways . Wired all that up and will be connecting the back plate to the CPU fan connector, there is a fan connector just up against the PCI-e slot but when the connector is plugged in its just that big that the back plate dose not sit nicely and also the cable is way to bent that this would look nice. Luckily the CPU fan connector is behind the 24 pin cable so it will be all hidden away. Also i sleeved the back plate power cable in white paracord.






Then the first light test with the 2 LED's was just what the doctor ordered, just a nice shine all over. After that had to brand the back plate with the orange S7 logo.






Here i would want to take a moment and thank my very good friend Farystar who actually donated the 5870 to me after he updated his own rig, and he wanted to give the good old GPU another run, and the complete GPU and back plate mod is in his honor!!!





after having sorted all that out, the next step is to paint the top case, and when that's done ill secure the top case the bottom one with rivets and install the unique water cooling setup, and jobs done

 

ahhahah
SSD is nice too with that color schema and logo.



The backplate is good but you should put another layer between the top and the blak one just to cover the light spots

 

yeah the back plate, if i could have i would have as the 24 pin is about 1.8mm above the back plate i cant do anything about it. the 24 in is in a non standard position and what could i do. Ill have my name in light again, but to be true id also loved it if it didnt shine out, i can try to paint the LED's but they will shine true, as i also had to make a grove in the foamed PVC so that every thing fitted inside the back cover and not touch the GPU

 

DAILY UPDATE



With everything sorted out time to take it all apart and prep it for painting


before i paint it wanted to mark out and drill out the holes for the rivets that will hold the top case on the bottom one, 5 in the front and 4 in the back should do the trick, i hope...








and not a day before it was almost finished now it a pile of to put it nicely peaces, after some time and a lot of effort with 240 grid sand paper got all the parts sanded and ready for the white primer








first picture is done with primer at 03.00 in hte morning and the 2dn is now with the first coat of paint and done the PCI slot mount orange to give it some pop, will do another layer of paint, and then off to assembly, cant wait

 

DAILY UPDATE


yesterday started of very optimistically and with the goal of finally putting this puppy together, and being do with it, despite knowing that i still have to solve the issue of the cooler box frames corner L brackets, they were to long at the bottom and had to put the frame together with all the screws to get the exact position of it.


so off i went peace by peace, started off with the feet, went on to hot glue the mesh on the bottom cover, from there wen on to the panels, and putting double sided tape on them to make sure that the white LED's were gonna stick to them for ever. Then assembled the outer frame and put on the door and the mesh, and also tested out the LED's and they give the right amount of light of from out of the case to illuminate the ambient around the case



























after that all was done and being quite pleased with my self i remembered that the rad is screws in on the top part of the double bottom of the bottom case so there is now 2 options, to leave this air cooled or to press undo and take everything apart to screw the rad in first than then start the assembly. But that also is not the only problem as the rad is then to close to the walls of the case i wont be able to screw in the frame, so ill have to put first the 2 sides on and then screw the rad in place and then close up the bottom case, and from there every thing should go smooth



but i had to put the frame up for the measurements for the L brackets, as there was no way to cut them straight i decided to cut them across from the sheets most bottom part to the tip of the L bracket. Because the sheet width is from 16.3 up to 16.9 cm and a straight edge across the bottom is not possible. These cuts will also not be all the same angle but at least they will go in the same theme of things and should look ok. So cut them up, and they are already drying in orange paint






As long as im taking the case apart again i better also paint the spacers, decided to paint them orange so they brake up the white of the mesh on top of them. As i ran out of orange spray today and i knew i would, was in the store on Friday and they did not have any more orange, so now i have to hope and prey that they got a shipment in over the weekend, so i can spray the spacers orange and then continues with the build, as for now im stuck. So i made a bed-O-nails so i could put 2 spacers on one nail and paint them all fast. Dose not matter if they stick to each other as they will not be so seen that the paint job must look perfect, so with no orange they are now only in white primer and waiting.







So apart from painting the spacers the only thing else to do is to put the water cooling loop together. Have to install the CPU block(inho) and to bend some hard tubing to connect the CPU with the water paths. As the rad will go in first hooked it up on a loop and put some medical gauze on the end to filler out any dirt that may have gotten in during the time i was building this as i did not close it's holes with anything. also did the same with the pump just to make sure.

 

Guys,

today i got a great honor, i was nominated by the Bit tech staff for the June MOTM so it would mean the world to me if you liked my build so far to go and vote for me on this link http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=287885


thanks guys and stay tuned for the grand finally in the next few days

 

DAILY UPDATE


Well lets get to it then, still on yesterday debt and yesterday i got a good deal on a Q9400 and could not resist to give this mod a little boost in performance, as every body is so spec hungry these days



with that tested and working very well got on to assembling the this once again So now got my orange spacers and the rad in place first smile.gif and then put the 2 parts of the case together, then stuck on the orange painted LED's








On with the frame and i hope for the last possible time i have to put it together as that is one time consuming job at least a 2 hour job if all goes well. And with all the luck i have i bumped one of the L brackets of the table and it chipped of the aluminum so had to make a new one, and paint it, so i was stuck there yesterday







So today the L bracket was painted and dried and i put it on so finally that all was done. Out with the white mesh on top and the orange spacers are looking nice true the mesh






so to start the assembly of top case i first put some heat shrink on top of the river gun, i may help prevent damaging the paint, it might not but i put it on for safety sake and it did its job no rivet damaged the paint job, so happy with that. I had all the holes pre drilled and just the rivets to be put in and secure the base of the top case to the bottom one. 5 rivets in front and 4 in the back, guess it wont go no where












also instaled the optical drive now as it will be hidden away with the bottom foamed PVC panel





so i got the top case frame riveted and ready to be put together tomorrow. Hope i can also do the hard tubing tomorrow so then ill be really really close to the finish line and beat mother nature at the race to the finish, we have 9 days to go with the baby if it stays on time

 

DAILY UPDATE


started of the day by assembling the top piece for the box. Got in the power and reset buttons and the LED's and the white mesh, so this is only waiting to be put on at the end






need to get the Water cooling done so i need to install the CPU block and also bend the hard tubing to connect the water paths to the CPU block to the water paths


so off to the CPU blockihno installing it onto the mobo and the CPU. Also i have made a hole for a white LED to be put into the acrylic top but now i see that i cant plug it in the fan power connector that i wanted as the GPU back plate is in the way, so ill have to hack the power cable of the GPU back plate to add one more LED to the loop so that it also powers the CPU block LED















Then was time to mount the mobo on the mobo tray and to start the hard tube bending. I must say this is the first real time im doing this, till now bent only one tube if any body remembers back when i still had the old mobo that did not support the GPU and had to change it up





Got the water paths in and took some time to figure this out how to run the tubing, also got my bending set out. After some time of thinking it over and doing some test bends with the piece i bent months ago got a idea what i can do and decided to run the tubing down from the CPU and towards the paths and then up into them. And would do so for both lines and run them parallel to each other.








And the damnedest thing happened at 2:30 in the morning when i was on the last bed of the 2nd pipe. Just wanted to tweak it a mm to the left and it seems it cooled down just enough that it broke!!! Then i throw the rest on the floor smashing it to bits and went to sleep. Even the first pipe isent perfect but in the rush i am now to finish this up, all take it and redo it later when ill have time. And also thinking of 3d printing some pipe bending accessories to make thing easier, as the jig i made is not exactly so useful

 

DAILY UPDATE


now i know why they call hard tubing hard, as its damn hard to bend and make it look good. It really is a art form in its self. I luckily did buy 3 packages of tubing and had one tube left over, so had 7 tries to make 2 good tubes.


so i had the bottom tube from yesterday and went to do the top one. My main problem is i cant bend the tube in a S bend on a cm of length on the straight part and to get even close to a 90 degree bend . The first try of the top tube ended up a disaster and the first bend i made was a mess, and that bed actually cracked and leaked on the first leak test. Also on the first leak test the water paths leaked under the top left fitting what was also a disaster







after that made a new top tube and this time that one came out nice and straight and the last bed up to the water paths i managed to bend it tight but not on 90 degree but more of a curve but id keep that, and together with the bottom tube it looks good. But the problem with the bottom tube is that on the last bend before the water paths is not a good bend and it has a little crack on the inside. It did not leak on the first leak test but over time a crack in the tubing is never a good thing.






So went on to make a new one at first wanted to do the exact same one, but maybe not to go that much down, but half way done i wanted to try to make a curve so it would be similar to the top tube, but dint came out exactly like that. On one side i do like how they cam out on the other hand i dont. They have a unique look but not that clean looking. Will do one more tube in the 90 degree style as the original bottom tube and then will be done with tubing what ever the outcome, at least for now as i have to get this done asap










hooked every thing up and did a new leak test, this time all the tubing holds and also managed to fix the water path leaking issue, have added one more o ring to the bottom of the fitting and now it sits a bit higher and not hitting the acrylic inside the paths what was cousin the leak



if i didn't have to re do the tubing i would be on a good way to the finish line today

 

DAILY UPDATE


As i was to beat up yesterday to go and re bend the bottom tube, did re paint the front and the side panel as that was a must, and also took a snap of all the tubing i miss bend or cut off from the 50 cm long tube






So today went on and made a new bottom tube, it's not perfect once again but ill take it, given the situation at hand. I find it really hard to bend the tubing to a exact length. If anybody has any pointers or if there is a good tutorial im all ears, as i do want to learn to do this properly


after the bending did a leak test for the new tube, seeing it that it held went on to assembling the rest of the water cooling loop







Off to fitting the fitting to the OCN logo water loop and to the pump, and then connecting all the pieces with tubing, added the pump in the end and did a quick leak test of the entire system. There were no leaks found after a 2 hour test. I know its a bit short but what can i say im pressed for time


















With the leak test done, took out the destiled water so i have a dry PC to work with and started to assemble the top case. After the paint job put together the front part and up it went. And so the assembly took part. Did had to do quite a bit of fine tuning all round, as now that the top case is riveted down is a different story and some parts move d a bit. If it was not for the fine tuning of bits and peaces would probably be done already but so had to call it a day as it was pretty late already.






















Cant wait to finally put the orange liquid in its vanes so it will come alive

 

Looks great.

 

Thanks, now stay tuned for the grand finally And if you really like it pls vote form me in the MOTM

 

DAILY UPDATE

So after almost 6 moths ( instead of planed 14 days ) of work every night and a ton of lost sleep and some times also nerves here we are job's a done. And im actually doing the update from the Raise from the dead PC its awesome to be able to do so. its 5.00 in the morning and im still up writing this and admiring the work i have done


** Guys and if you like the build pls vote for me in the MOTM **

so lets get started with the finish


stated the day off by finishing up the back cover with the U rubber channel, cut it down to size, and was just amazed how well that came out, even much better that i could have anticipated






Next job was to install the fan on top of the case that will give a bit of extra air to the PSU and make the case look cool with 2 LED's in it





then secured up the main power cable



Put in the radiator air box, the fans and assembled the cooler box door













Put in the GPU and the back plate, and then put the power cables in place and secured them with the custom cable combs.





And the finally came to be. The filling of the system with the wicked orange coolant. slowly but surly did it. And the OCN flame logo couldn't looked any better submerged in the orange coolant, just perfect. And in the end the fully filled system with the orange goodness












And what else to say, here are the pictures of the finished build, so you can see it whole way round.

 

nice m8. Done at last. Has to feel good S7

 

Thanks man, yeah it is nice to have it all done now

would not mind if you dropped a vote in for me at the MOTM

 

As i was saying this build was a race again mother nature smile.gif and i just mange to finish i in time to have it all ready just before the baby came.


So in that regard despite being a few days late with the picture , here is a big blue bow on the mod in honor of my newborn baby boy



P.s.

Next week ill have a surprise for the final pictures, so stay tuned for that

 

Congratz on the newborn ☺
And on the build aswell.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

Thanks man, been so busy these days that i could not reply sooner

 

Congrats on your new arrival

The build is looking great thus far

 

Thank you very much on both