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Modding Shiny LL PC6070

Discussion in 'Modding' started by indigo_prime, 25 Mar 2004.

  1. indigo_prime

    indigo_prime What's a Dremel?

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    I originally posted this across on the PC Format Forums and a few other case galleries. Apologies if you've seen it before, comments welcome from those that havent.

    OK, I've been promising a few people that I would post some pics of my latest case modding activities so without further ado, and with death to any 56k'er who dare tread here, some info on the pictures as we go along.

    The case is a Lian Li PC6070. Not liking the dull brushed aluminium look, I took to the case panels and door with wet and dry sandpaper, a huge bucket of soapy water and a lot of time. I went from 180 grit to get rid of the brushing on the aluminium, down to 1200 grit for a fine finish. The panels and door were then polished up with Brasso and Silvo metal polishes and soft cloths to bring out the shine.

    The front of the case (behind the door) was covered with a sheet of carbon fibre effect sticker to compliment the top and bottom door brackets. Drive bays were left as aluminium for contrast. Although I already had a black CDRW/DVD drive, I didnt like the way it broke up the clean lines, so fitted a Lian Li 5 1/4 inch CD bay cover, which was money well spent.

    The bottom bay has a 4 way fan bus, made out of a spare Lian Li 5 1/4 inch bay cover. The orginal mounting for the fan bus was a rather tacky painted silver, but half an hour with a power drill and a little patience and it now matches the rest of the case. The LEDs are two colour red / blue depending on how fast you run the fans. I've only got two fans connected at the moment, which are fitted on my 'custom' fan bracket which you will see further down the thread!!

    I also replaced the standard plastic power and reset buttons with aluminium anti-vandal switches. Purely for looks, I dont expect anyone to start hanging around my case and writing their names on the sides!!


    From the left side....

    [​IMG]

    The front door.......

    [​IMG]

    The right side.......

    [​IMG]

    At the top........

    [​IMG]

    Front door open. You can see the Lian Li CD drive bay cover and the slight modified standard blank drive bay cover which was drilled to fit the fan bus onto. Also visible are the two aluminium switches I fitted to replace the plastic ones. A little drilling and sanding was needed to open up the switch holes to the right size to fit them.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Opening up the side panel reveals the guts of my machine. It looks a little crowded at first, but thats mainly because of the dual 80mm fan bracket that I fitted in front of the graphics card. The fan holder is supposed to be mounted using the screws from the PCI/AGP slots but due to the size of the 9800 Pro, this wasnt possible. So, I knoked up a custom bracket from a 17cm angle bracket, drilled two holes through the bottom of the case to fit it, 3 holes on the upright to mount the fan holder and the result isnt that bad.

    [​IMG]

    This is a shot of the fan power cables which I chrome sleeved myself. *Always* write down which way the wires go into the little plugs before you remove them :D

    [​IMG]

    Now with the fan bracket out of the way, you can see a Zalman ZM80C VGA heatsink. This thing although a little heavy is an absolute angel at cooling a hot graphics card. I do have the standard Zalman fan to go with it, but it just didnt look the part, hence the dual 80mm ones now.

    [​IMG]

    A shot angled towards the front shows my home made power molex cables which power the two HDDs and the 9800 Pro. These are fed through a hole that I cut in the mainboard tray to keep as many wires as possible out of the main part of the case to increase airflow. The hole was trimmed with edging rubber to stop any risk of wires being cut through ona sharp edge which could obviously screw the whole system up!! Unfortunately, due to a slight shortage of the chrome cable sleeving, there are still a few unsightly standard colour wires poking about. Once I get a little more time together, I'll get some more and finish the job.

    Yes, that is a bog standard black ribbon cable on the HDDs, much easier to fold and bend to fit onto the RAID controller than a rounded IDE. I used one rounded IDE for the 60 GB *archive* and CDRW/DVD fitted in the 5 1/4 inch bay slots.

    [​IMG]

    So, we reach the end and heres a shot of it sat on the desk beside my lovely Sony HS73 17 inch TFT.

    [​IMG]

    Before anyone asks where the window, cold cathodes, LED fans etc are........IT DOESNT HAVE TO LOOK LIKE A FOOKIN CHRISTMAS TREE TO BE A MODDED CASE :shock:

    Finally, the system specs.....

    Lian Li PC6070 Case
    ASUS P4C800 Deluxe Mainboard
    Intel P3.0C 800 Mhz FSB
    1 GB Corsair XMS3200LL TWINX RAM
    Hercules Radeon 9800 Pro 128 MB
    Creative Audigy 2
    Dual Maxtor 120 GB 8 MB cache ATA133 HDDs - RAID0
    Single Maxtor 60 GB 8 MB cache ATA133 HDD - Archive
    Plextor Combo CDRW\DVD
    Heatsink is a Vantec Aeroflow with YSTech Tip Magnetic Drive Fan
    Sony HS73 17 inch TFT
    Logitech MX700 Cordless Mouse
    Microsoft Internet Keyboard
     
  2. coorz

    coorz Miffed

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    :eek: Looks absolutely fabulous! You must have some sore arms and elbows from sanding that thing :p
     
  3. kill_me_quick

    kill_me_quick Big and Blue

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    Very nice, i do rather like the shiny silver, and as you said it doesnt have lights to be modded.

    I like your screen to, very tasty although i know people don't like the shape but its personal preferance. Well apart from the little beige thingy at the top of it.

    nice modding

    Watercooling for a next step?
     
  4. Stickeh

    Stickeh Help me , Help you.

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    thats the biggest toaster ive ever seen...
    still i love it, very different and it looks very cool.
    and as i said, wouldnt really look out of place in a kitchen!
     
  5. indigo_prime

    indigo_prime What's a Dremel?

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    erm...mic holder, been meaning to get rid of that since I got the new one :wallbash:

    Thanks.

    Since working on this one I've picked up a few little skills like sleeving cables properly, drilling holes straight (almost!) and the patience when things dont go exactly as planned!! I'll be going all out on the next case with a big budget.

    The case will probably be a PC73 SL, the bigger brother of this one, unless something just as stylish comes along. I'll be paying to have it chromed next time, the wet sanding took a hell of a long time to do and professional chroming will give a much better finish to the panels right gtom the start of the project. Watercooling is a definite and I have ideas in mind on how to rig it together 'a little different', but the plans are all in my head at the moment.
     
  6. Twilighted

    Twilighted What's a Dremel?

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    That is spectacular. Sleek, futuristic (whatever that really means), and undeniably impressive. Unique. I'm just rattling off words that come to mind. Maybe you'll start a new trend of windowless cases!
     
  7. TekMonkey

    TekMonkey I enjoy cheese.

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    Yep, that looks really amazing :thumb:

    Very "fingerprinty" :D

    You should do the same thing to that keyboard tray you have. (BTW, at first I didn't know what that was, I thought it was a DVD player or something :hehe:)
     
  8. Dragosoft

    Dragosoft What's a Dremel?

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    Geez thats nice! I think i do that too :p
    Cheers! Keep up good modding :dremel:
     
  9. kevplus2

    kevplus2 What's a Dremel?

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    [​IMG]

    :thumb: very nice. have you considered hitting it with a cotton wheel (on a drill) and some polishing tripoli for that deep flawless shine?
     
  10. Hippo

    Hippo Pre-dates 5.25" Floppies

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    Very VERY sexy, some good long hours have gone it to doing that and the outcome is great :thumb:

    I must admit thou the first thing I thought was toaster :lol:
     
  11. coorz

    coorz Miffed

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    I think next up is that helmet, that would look incredible at a LAN party. A shiny LL and a helmet to match :cooldude:
     
  12. SWFREE

    SWFREE What's a Dremel?

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    quote : "Before anyone asks where the window, cold cathodes, LED fans etc are........IT DOESNT HAVE TO LOOK LIKE A FOOKIN CHRISTMAS TREE TO BE A MODDED CASE :shock:"



    :duh: ...but does it have to look like a toaster?
     
  13. DaSuperFly

    DaSuperFly What's a Dremel?

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    What's wrong with chrome toasters?

    I like the effect you've achieved, I've always wanted to polish my shuttle cover to chrome finish but i'm not sure it'd match anything else i had!
    Good job :thumb:
     
  14. indigo_prime

    indigo_prime What's a Dremel?

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    Im surprised at how many peopel in different modding forums have said that my case looks like a toaster :hehe:

    One thing I'd like to know is How big is the bread where you lot live ??? :D

    I've had some very positive feedback in a number of forums and Im glad it has been so well received. I have seen stuff way more stunning than my case and the ideas for new projects just keep coming. I guess I can truly say that 'I am a modder' :D
     
  15. stoned penguin

    stoned penguin What's a Dremel?

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    oooooo shiny........... :eeek:
    i like it beautiful work :thumb: :clap: :jawdrop:
     
  16. coolmiester

    coolmiester Coolermaster Legend

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    MMMMMmmmmmmm SHINY

    That looks fantastic indigo but can i just say you might want to try getting your hands on a drill mounted lambs wool polishing mop and some very fine aluminium buffing compound or soap just to give it that final depth and lustre as it would really show all the hard work off to the full but thats not to say it looks outstanding as is!

    you certainly spurned me on to try the same on my Wavemaster.........time permitting

    Good job :thumb:
     
  17. indigo_prime

    indigo_prime What's a Dremel?

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    Ive finally found the drill attachment and poishing pads at the local DIY store, dont know how I didnt spot them before!! I've been using Brasso and Silvo metal polish to shine it but thats just because I've had years of practice polishing stuff with that, being a soldier and all :D

    If anyone knows of a really great metal polishing compound that can be used with the rotary polishers, I'd be glad to hear about it.
     
  18. bootupbuddha

    bootupbuddha grunge modder

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    I'm Hungry

    Can it toast bread? :hehe:
     
  19. kevplus2

    kevplus2 What's a Dremel?

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    you got the cotton buff pad right? there are 2 kinds...a tight knit (look at the side you will see a tight spiral thread) and a loose knit. the tight nit wirks better at first, using the brownish compound and then switch to the white rouge (called tripoli). lastly, switch to a loose knit buffing wheel with the white tripoli. remember, when polishing, the faster you can get the wheel going, the better. bench grinders work well, but if it catches your piece it will shoot all over the place :eeek: so be careful not to catch a leading edge

    you can find the compounds (in a round stick) at any home depot. they shoulda been where you found the drill adapter and the buffing wheels
     
  20. Confusitron

    Confusitron What's a Dremel?

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    That really is a beautiful piece of work. The black accents really look nice with it.
     

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