Now that all our work at TheTechLounge is starting to slow down a bit for Kurtis and I, we are able to start working on modding! HURRAH! Kurtis has already started his case mod and has been working on it for some time. His worklog is located here: http://www.thetechlounge.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1157 I have been planning my "APHEX" modification for quite some time, but have been too busy with other things to actually get started. The case I am going to be tearing apart is Super Flower's SF-301T3-BK. You can check out my review of the case for detailed pictures of what it looks like before the dremel from hell came in contact with it: http://www.thetechlounge.com/review.php?directory=super_flower_sf-301t3-bk_case Anyway, I don't really feel like talking too much about how the case will turn out at the moment, so here are a few pics of what I have done so far. I will update at a later date with all my plans. Definately get your hopes up though, this mod will consist of new aluminum structuring, fiberglass work, fancy chromy stuff and some sleek paint. Oh, and of course the obligitory water cooling. The water cooling stuff is mostly sponsored by Danger Den, a fantastic company with some really sweet water cooling products. As I said earlier, I will go in to more detail later... Fancy logo which has absolutely no point at all except for curing 3 minutes of boredom: here are a few random sketches of what I plan to do. Those scoops that look like they belong to a rice burner will be molded with fiberglass on to the sides of the case. Here is a pic of the case before all hell breaks loose: Kurtis taking pictures of me dremeling: All the drive cages are removed, rivets had to be drilled out. The case cleaned up a bit for a nice purdy pic: Here are the water blocks sent to me by Danger Den. They sent me some other stuff as well: pump, res, etc. Anyway, I'm tired. I'll go in to more detail later.
lookin good slick, seems a shame to cut up such a purdy case, but oh well. ncie to see you're getting free stuff (the waterblocks). heh heh i'm starting a tech site with a couple of mates, bring on the free gear!
Nice I like the mods so far, but I also love the photography...I dpn't know what it is about those shots. Haha I'm crazy. /off topic You're welcome to have my computer guide on your site when it's finnished. /on topic Keep up the awesome work! ~Chrizzle
well, we've got a Canon PowerShot A80 to take all our photos with, and for the shots with white background we have a little studio setup here for TheTechLounge, so that explains that /offtopic as for your computer guide, when you finish it feel free to email it to kurtis@thetechlounge.com and we will consider it for posting. /ontopic im excited to see this mod finished so hurry the fack up brian!
That looks like a good start, and it must be nice to have your own studio! That case is really nice too. I haven't seen to many companies that bother to coat hte inside, but it makes it look so much better! -tf
dang you, i was just pondering ram air intakes the other day. lol, not that I was going to use them or anything. just a thought, but with those you could make a sealed compartment for the PS, use the top as an intake, and then vent out the back like normal.
Most of the really hot components of the computer will be water cooled. The only parts that will need decent airflow is the radiator, the hard drives and the power supply. The top 1/4 of the case will be an airflow chamber which contains the hard drives and PSU. A 120 mm panaflo will pull in the air through the front of the case, over the hard drives and through the PSU. The chamber will be constructed out of aluminum and that is part of what I am working on in the pics in my first post. The bottom 3/4 of the case is mostly water cooled. Air is pulled in through a 120 mm panaflo, through the radiator across the motherboard and out the back of the case with the assistance of 2 80 mm panaflos. All the cooling and airflow has already been worked out before I even thought of fabricating scoops. The scoops on the side panel and the top of the case are purely for looks. The majority of the front and top of the case is going to be made of mesh through which the 120 mm fans for the hard drives and the radiator get their air through.
It has been raining non-stop for the past two days so I haven't been able to do too much. However, I did finish cutting and filing what remains of the top drive cage. I did a quick little diagram in Photoshop of what the basic internal structuring will look like and somewhat clarify the cooling solution. The part of the top drive cage that I have cut up (first picture in this post) is located on the far side of the "Top Cooling Compartment" in the picture. I have a sheet of aluminum here that I will cut up and bend into shape (using a bending brake that is being delivered by FedEx right now) that will complete the top cooling compartment. The hard drive cage (which I will also make out of aluminum) inside the cooling compartment will most likely house 3 drives. So far my plan is that it will be secured by 4 thumbscrews. The top of the case will be hinged to allow access to the hard drive cage which will be removed vertically. The exterior of the case will be quite stylish in my opinion. Of course this is because it is my idea... and I'm making it. The majority of the front panel will be polished steel mesh (as to look somewhat like chrome). Towards the bottom there will be a black recessed area with access to the CD drive and a power switch and a single rheostat that controls every fan. The mesh will not cover the entire front. Black aluminum will cover an inch on the left and right sides. In other words, the mesh will be a very thick stripe going down the front of the case. The top-front corner of the case will be curved, a little over an inch radius. This way, the mesh almost seamlessly continues to the top of the case. About 1/2 to 3/4 of the top will be mesh as well with 1" black aluminum on each side just like the front. There will be a single air scoop on the back 1/3 to 1/2 of the case top. The side panels of the case will have dual air scoops constructed out of fiberglass. The entire exterior, except for the polished mesh, will be painted either a dark charcoal or black to an automotive finish. Kurtis and I have been working with painting and polishing the past few days with some great results. This was an extremely small progress update but hopefully it is a bit more informative as to what the project will turn out to be.
correct me if i'm wrong but isnt it a better idea to have the res as high up as possible, to prevent air bubbles? Is the bay-res clear? If so then thats another reason to mount it as high up as possible, it would create a nice effect i would think.
The location of the res does not matter. Any air bubbles in the loop would enter the res and float to the top regardless of its position. The only time the location of the res matters is when you initially fill the loop with water. When you are adding water, the res needs to be level (or higher) with the pump's intake so the pump can do its job and fill the loop. Once the loop is full of water and the water level in the res is above the barbs, the location of the res makes absolutely no difference. EDIT: As far as showing off the res or water cooling tubes, etc. I don't plan on doing much to make them stand out. I personally want to focus more on my customization and style of the case.
Today I sketched out the rest of the top cooling compartment onto an aluminum sheet. Sometime in the next few days I will drag out the table saw and cut them out. Using the dremel on all these straight edges would be a horrible idea Not sure if you can see it all that well, or if it really matters, but here is the aluminum sheet covered in tape with all the dimensions: I also removed the prefab 80 mm fan grills that were built into the motherboard tray. Anything that obstructs airflow must go! I used the dremel with a cutting wheel to tear out the grill and then used a grinding stone bit to smooth the edges out. Even though the edges aren’t sharp, they aren’t pretty. The bare aluminum peaking out along the edges of anodized black aluminum isn't the best thing to look at. I used some thin rubber "C" molding. Tomorrow I should go to the store and get some glue to keep the molding in place and "flush" against the aluminum (the corners are pretty tight so the molding attempts to bend away from the edge). Masked off the area: This is what it looks like after the grill was removed: After adding the "C" molding I installed two 80 mm panaflo fans using the fan retention button thingies that came with the case: Well, that is it for now...
