Case Mod - In Progress REDLINE: 2006/7 Retro PC Mod

Hello everyone!

After being a lurker on here for a long time, I think it's time I finally contributed something. And to make up for lost time, I'm building with the best components and techniques of 2006/7!

Why this time period? Windows XP was in its final year, and Vista loomed in the horizon. To me, this year represents the end of a very interesting era in PC gaming and modding. Builds from this time were zainer and had to take a great many risks due to the lack of off-the-shelf "extreme" parts. Plus, I want it to run Crysis!

Now, a period piece like this needs some ground rules to keep things interesting and consistent:

1. I can only use PC components from 2006/7 or earlier
2. I can only use modding techniques and practices possible/common in the era
3. The build must capture the essence of extreme XP-era PC modding

So right off the bat, I cheat on #1 by using a modern PSU. Power is power, and the peace of mind that my power supply likely won't explode and possibly take out other components is worth it. Plus those supplies are pushing 17 years-old by now!

#2 and #3 are relatively similar. No using things like hardline tubing, CableMod cables, smart fans, 3D printers, etc. #3 is more of a vibe check to make sure I'm not using too much "advanced" knowledge from the year 2023 and attempt to capture the whole picture of what modding was like back then. It's unavoidable, but I'll do my best to remain as period-correct in my theming and fab as possible.

Speaking of theming, you might be wondering by now: enough history lesson! What the heck are you building?! REDLINE will be a loosely car-themed build centering around the color scheme of brushed aluminum and, well, red. I fell in love with the high-end all-aluminum cases of the early 2000's, and thought it fit the "extreme" theme perfectly. Plus, I love cars!




Here is some inspiration I found looking for ideas. I think soft tubing will really help sell the "car" aesthetic.



I found this Zalman HTPC case from 2005 at my local electronics recycling center. It's all-aluminum and certainly looks the business!

 

This has potential. Welcome to what's left of BitTech.

 

Zalman

 

Hello everyone,

Here's a test fitting of all the components to make sure they work. I'm using air cooling temporarily until the loop is complete. Speaking of components, here's what I've got so far:

Specs:

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700
• Motherboard: EVGA nForce 780i
• RAM: 4x 512MB Corsair XMS2 Pro XMS2-5400 675MHz 4.4.4.12 (its got the blinky lights!)
• GPU: 3x Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX in 3-way SLI
• HDD: 2x Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD in RAID 0
• PSU: EVGA Supernova 1000G+
• Case: Zalman HD160
• DVD Drive: A DVD Drive (unless someone has a more extreme idea!)

It's the creme-de-la-creme of 2006/7 technological excess! I'll talk about the water cooling stuff in another post, it's quite a lot of stuff to go through.




I have also completed the first custom plates of the system: The 5.25" drive bay and PSU shroud.





Finished with a ton of sanding and bent on a press brake. The second plate underneath will be painted red at some point.









I added some placeholder fittings on the plate, the real ones will pass through so I can have an outlet hidden from view. When they don't give you any tube/cable management, make your own!

The next step is to make the radiator brackets. Yep, this sucker is getting twin 360mm rads! But I'll talk about that later. Oh, and you can already imagine I'll be making a custom lid for this beast at some point as well.

 

Water jet cuting out of nowhere.

 

I work at my university’s makerspace, which among other wonderful toys houses a metal laser cutter. Similar stuff could be done with a CNC plasma torch (or water jet cutter), but the laser’s a bit more precise. I’m planning on having a lot of fun with it.

 

That's cheating
Good project

 

I was suspecting some kind of shop class when I saw the desk/table setup. I did not expect you to be the teacher/supervisor guy. That IS cheating. -Although taking advantage of equipment at work is really common here.

 

UPDATE:

The next sheet metal parts to make are the radiator mounting brackets. Since this case doesn't have enough room inside to support anything larger than a very cramped 160mm radiator where the exhaust fans go, it was clear that I'd literally have to think outside the box.





I found these beautiful red 360mm radiators from Hardware Labs on eBay. I wanted them to be mounted on either side of the case at a 45 degree angle, mimicking the layout of valve covers on a V8 engine. I designed the segments of the bracket, with the bends being at the intersection points.



I made some small geometry changes to the design before cutting it out on the metal laser. I forgot to mention that the material I've been using is 1.5mm thick 5052 aluminum sheet.



One of the slots didn't cut out all the way, forcing me to spend a bit of time drilling and filing the rest of it out. Accidents happen, even with CNC tools!



Bent and brushed (haven't cleaned the bend marks just yet).



Here's what the test-fit looked like before I added the radiators or fans. Looks kinda like a TIE fighter!



Here's a look at the fans I'm using: Lian Li 120mm fans from the early 2000's. They have four red LEDs each which should look sick reflected off the aluminum.



Mmmmmm yeah I like the look of that!



Here's what the bracket looked like once it was all done. I was able to get a nice brushed finish by using a brass welding brush and going to town. I tried finishing with a fine sandpaper, but I'm having mixed results.

Ultimately, the additional slack I added for the bend radii ended up being too much, and the bracket didn't fit quite like how I'd hoped. I also didn't like how much empty space was visible underneath the radiator and fans, or how far the thing stuck out of the case. Remember, I'm going to need two of these! So compactness kind of matters here. And finally, the thin slots surrounding the "REDLINE" text ended up being a bit too thin, allowing them to wobble and bend a bit too much for my liking.

So, it looks like I'll need to go back to the drawing board on this one. I want something with a bit less "wasted space", with a bit more support for those long slots. Until next time!

 

This is awesome! Love seeing anything retro like this. Triple 8800GTXs looks so great. Work is extremely clean with wonderful craft. Looking forward to seeing more!

 

UPDATE:

The sheet metal work continues! I modified the design of the radiator mounts to be a bit more compact, while adjusting the geometry to be a better fit to the case and reinforcing the vent lines to be more rigid. I ended up going with a squared-off look, which was an original design that I went back to.



All of the vent slot pieces tediously removed.



While we have a press brake, I found this little hand brake to be much more precise. Even if it is a little wonky. Still a pain to get aligned though.



A test fit of the left side after sanding and brushing:



With the radiator installed. Looking good!







I'm pretty happy with how the red shows through the aluminum. With the red fan LEDs on it'll probably look even cooler!



Time for the right side!



Looks great! I'll need to refinish all the metal parts at the very end, but for now the profile is developing in an interesting way.



The next few plates to make are for the pump and right side radiator inlet ports. After fiddling with this automotive oil catch filter I found on Amazon, I found an orientation I think looks best and still allows it to act as the reservoir. The pump is being mounted below it, and it's basically a fish tank pump.





Plates bent and installed. I'm borrowing mounting points from the display PCB that came with the Zalman, but with spacers to push it out for the plate.



Pump mounted! I'll need some modification due to the way the black bracket mounts, but overall pretty good.



I may need to get some actual fittings for this connection, but for now some jankily routed (but hidden!) tubing should suffice.



Don't worry about the plastic-on-metal for that tube hole, eventually these hoses will be shielded somehow.



A final couple shots after taking the case to be vacuumed of all the metal chips.





The next item on my list to fabricate is one of the most complex: the lid. It's a moving piece that needs to mesh well with all the other components, as well as display the interior of the case while both open and closed. I'll post some design drawings for that in my next update. After that, there's still a bunch of sheet metal work to do, so stay tuned. Until next time!

 

I haven't seen an aluminum reservoir used in ages. It's looking great, even in it's awkward-retro way.
I see a couple of Taig micro lathes.

 

Yeah, we’ve got some mini mills and micro lathes around. I’m mostly on the 2D side of things, but I’d like to learn those tools eventually.

I was a bit spooked about using aluminum in the loop, but it’s completely anodized inside and out which will hopefully mitigate the possibility of galvanic corrosion. Plus, it’s a car part and I thought it’d be fun to add more parts meant for automotive use.

 

The plasticizer from the tygon will gum up your waterblocks long before you develop a leak. As long as you aren't rolling with any plated steel fittings you should be fine for at least a decade.

 

That makes me feel a bit better haha. The red stuff is actually silicone water/vacuum line, so hopefully it'll be very stable.

 

UPDATE PART 1:

I finished a ton of new sheet metal parts for the build, most notably the lid!



I started off by taking measurements, and then just to be sure cut a mockup of the lid frame out of thin oilboard.



After making sure everything fit correctly, I went ahead and made the real one out of 3mm thick aluminum.





I also made two spacers that go on top of the hinge section of the lid. More on that later.



Here's a test fit with the metal frame, plastic, and hinges. Everything looks good, except for a small tolerance issue where I made some holes for bolt head clearance on the left side of the computer. I'll have to make a new plastic window because of that.



As a little distraction/teaser, I felt that a build like this needs peripherals to match. So I spent some time trying to find a period-correct monitor locally that fit in. The clear choice was the absolutely behemoth Apple 30" Cinema HD Display, practically the reason dual-link DVI was invented. I had to splice in a custom power adapter, but I'll talk more about that when I (finally) get to peripherals. Still, it feels really bizarre seeing those rolling fields on an Apple device.





I sanded down the frame with an orbital air sander, then went to town and brushed the aluminum with a brass wire brush.



This is the acrylic window, with the protective plastic still attached. I used a soldering iron and a ton of heat-press inserts to give the bolts something to grip onto. Space is really tight in this build, and using regular nuts was not an option.







And here's a close up of the lid installed! I think it turned out great! I was originally going to paint the handle red, but after seeing the brushed look I think I'm going to keep it that way.

 

UPDATE PART 2:

Time to put the finishing touches on the lid. I marked and drilled four holes into the back of the case to mount the beefy aluminum hinges that support the lid. I had to be careful to pick hardware that wouldn't interfere with the PSU, but I think I got away with it.









Hinges installed. I promised an explanation for the spacers, which I illustrate below. Basically, the hinges stick out far enough above the top of the case that some lowering is needed to prevent a gap between the lid and the case. However, since any nuts sticking below the lid would make contact with the PSU shroud, having them be recessed inside the acrylic in the form of heat-press inserts was necessary.





After messing around in Affinity Designer (Adobe Illustrator competitor, where I do most my design work) to find an optimal gas shock geometry for the lid, I settled on a spot that felt like it would give the least clearance headaches. After checking it a bit in real-life, I figured it looked good enough to try. I made a bracket to attach the gas shock to the lid, then drilled a hole in the right side radiator inlet for to bottom mounting point.





Parts fresh out of the laser. I also took the time to make a SLI bridge shroud that looks the part.





Gas shock installed. It has full range of motion, and as far as I can tell doesn't interfere with the GPU. We'll see if that holds true after installing the tubing!









Here's a close-up of the bracket and the waterblock-equipped GPU. It's definitely going to be a close fit.





I also designed a rear fan grille in REDLINE fashion, as well as a DVD drive cover and top plate for the right side radiator inlet port.





I've always wanted to make a custom GPU backplate, and since brushed aluminum is the name of the game for this build, I made a set of three backplates that I then sanded, brushed, and bent.





Above shows the original design of the DVD drive cover, and the reinforced one (similar to what I had to do on the radiator brackets.







All three GPU backplates finished!











GPU backplate installed. I think they will really accentuate the REDLINE theme.

The next step is to sand and brush a few of the plates that haven't received the treatment, as well as paint many of them red to accent the build. I've also decided to paint my grey Noctua exhaust fans, so that should be fun. Overall, the fabrication portion of the build seems to be nearing the end, with the plumbing and wiring very close on the horizon. Until next time!

 

Great GPU backplate !

 

I was just scrolling through your last post thinking this, having the text red in some way would be a nice accent. Great work.

Edit, even painting the inside edge of the text so it's red as you look through it might work without a whole panel being a distraction. Or a red piece of plexi behind the letters.

 

UPDATE:

After disassembling the build for final finishing, I sanded and brushed all the remaining pieces that I hadn't gotten to yet.







I also tapped the radiator mounts for the third fitting that will carry the wiring inside.



Then, finally: the parts have been painted! I used a rattle-can of cherry red, which is what I had on hand. It turned out great, and doesn't need to be too durable as it's behind other sheet metal.













The SLI bridge cover and DVD drive cover below came out especially nice!



Here it is with all the pieces reinstalled:



Now with the acrylic plastic protection peeled off:



Glamor shots!









With the DVD drive cover on temporarily. I also painted the front of the volume knob.




Now that all the fabrication work is done, I took REDLINE home to continue the build. The downside of owning a two-seater: your gratuitously large PC has trouble fitting in the trunk!



Once home, I finished adding waterblocks and my new backplates to the 8800 GTX's. I was cursed with not being able to get three of a color PCB, but I'll make due. (I don't know if I mentioned, but I bought six, and two were DOA)











The cards look absolutely stellar when put together with the backplates, waterblocks, and SLI bridge cover. Next steps are to continue the watercooling progress, followed by the wiring and final assembly. I'll have more on my cooling setup in a future update, though you've likely already figured out that it'll have 2x360mm radiators and at least 3x GPU waterblocks! Thanks for viewing, until next time!