Project: Pure {Stage 2 Under Way} {Update 31/07/04}

Project: Pure

You can read through the compleate project log or jump to sections using the links below.

Rip it out Powersupply
Painted Shinny Drives
Re-Installation M is for Mesh
Update Time


Who

Pure Class is the first computer i've ever built by myself. Everything was put together, all softwere installed by myself. The case however had been stock and boring. It was time to smarten it up, to match the rest of the case. As a student, money and time are issues so this may take a fair while to compleate. Some creative thinking will definitly be required to get all the necassary equipment and materials.

Why

As I mentioned earlier I've got a cheap case. And I plan to turn it into a case worth seeing. A case which hopefully others will like but more importantly I will like, will be quiet and cool.. I will be working with a little microcontroller chip called PicAxe. PicAxe will be a large part of this case. Hopefully running most of the LED's using CPU/RAM/HD usage for patterns (You will see) . Currently, i'm trying to get it to interface with the standard PCI or Serial Slot on the motherboard and act as a data logger

Themes that will be present in the project are:
- Fine Mesh to stealth and vent a multitude of components
- An industrial Feel
- Blue and white colour scheeme but not in your face blue, subtle blue.
- Watercooling (This may take a while - Student money, you know)

What

Below are the system specs and bits an pieces that have been put into this case.

Hairong H832Y
Athlon XP Barton 2500+
ECS Group L7VTA Mainboard
756 Mb of PC3200 DDR Ram
Gainward Geforce 2 MX400
Thermaltake Volcano 11 + (Will be watercooled in due course)
60gb Maxtor Hardrive
Aopen CD/W/RW Combo
Sunbeam Tech 5.1/2" Silver Fan Controller
3x Coolermaster 4 LED Blue Fans
1x Panaflo 80 mm Lowspeed fan
1x Sheet of Auto Mesh
1x Vantec Sleeving kit (Black)

Assorted Blue and White Ultrabright LED's



I will add other components and hardware as the project progresses. If your ever curios as too what i've used in some part of the case, refer to the above list. It should be there.

 

Stage 1

Rip it out

Prior to starting this mod, I had been running the computer in the case for nearly 5 months. So before I could start modding it, I had to rip everything out!!! Let the fun begin.



The case came standard with only 1 80mm Exaust and 1 80mm Intake fan hole. Now this wasn't enough for me. I need air flow through the case.. Firstly I want a quiet but cool case and low noise but high airflow this meant i needed more lowspeed and bigger fans.



I started with the front 80 mm intake fan. After Sketching out where i would be cuting the holes I went at it with a jigsaw.



I thought that they were pretty good holes for a first time using a Jig saw. You will also notice how I chopped off the righthand lower 3 1/4" drive bay supports. This will become evident when I install the WC as the custom brackets will attach to the case using the Hard drive Racks.



At the back I was busy getting ready to saw out the existing fan hole grill and cut another directly above.



These cuts were a bit rougher because of the smaller holes made turning the blade harder. However all the cuts (Front and later) will be covered with Black Fan Hole Gasket Trim when I get a hold of some.

After that was all done I headed out to the garage to do some Painting

 

I masked up the areas I didn't want painted and then painted the rest

Powersuply

While that was drying I went backinside to mod the rest. Starting with the powersupply!!



The powersupply is the standard 400W one that came with the case. I started by taking the top off (Stuff the warrenty ). First thing I did was swap out the standard low cfm loud fan. I replaced it with 1 Panaflow H 80mm fan.



While I had it open I got out some sandpaper and started tearing of the boaring beige colouerd paint. Leaving it with a cool partialy sanded feel.



After that it was time to crack out the mesh. Its standard auto mesh from Repco



After measuring 3 times cutting and bending once I had this cool looking PSU.
Unfortunatly for me the screws the psu used to hold the cover on to the psu were too small for the mesh so I had to make a trip to the hardware store. I got a pack of small washers. As I was screwing the last one in, it slipped through the mesh so I had to undo them all to get it out

At the same time the psu was in pieces I decided to use blue sleeving and molexs to tidy it up. Pictures later.

I called it a night and went to bed but the next morning...

 

kewl! not original, but kewl!!!

 

Dont you think your Video Card will bottleneck your computer?.

 

Painted

After a few layers of paint its was brought out into the light to harden and dry compleatly.



I've really happy with the finish considering its my first real use of spraypaint.



Another angle.



This shot shows the contrast between the standard silver (Roof) and black paint. I didn't paint either side or the front face.

After the pain was dry it was time to put it all back into the case.



Oh dear . Luckly some things were labeled. I never new a computer could make such a mess. People get a dog not a computer, dogs are much tider.

 

Oh yes definitly the video card is rubbish. Just what I had lying around. Will be buying a new one hopefully after the watercooling, LCD screen, New Hardrive, More ram..... Oh dear.

 

Shinny Drives

As I was getting ready to re assemble my case I noticed how good the sanded side of the psu look.What else in the system could be sanded???



Why the harddrive of course. After i'd spent 10 mins carefully peeling of the stickers I attacked it with sandpaper . Not want to go to a to fine a finish I left it roughish.



After i'd finished staring at the pretty hardrive I decided to have a god at the CD too. Again after peeling of the stickers I used coarsish sandpaper to sand away the stock coating.

NB I only sanded the ares that will be seen.



Despite using fairly coarse sandpaper the finish on the drives is not to bad - nice reflections.

Painted CD Face



While I had the CD drive out I also decided to paint the face. The finish isn't as smooth as i'd have liked but you have to look closly see the imperfections.The paint is acutally silver flecked, the photos don't really show this.

Now satisfied with the shinney bits it was time to move onto the re-installation.

 

Sweet dude what sort of sidepanels is it gona end up with?

 

Not sure yet, there will definitly be a window in one, maybe mesh not perspex, I'm going to have a play around.

Its nice to see another kiwi too. We seem to get around.

 

Re-Installation

Time to get everything back in the case, and working.



This picture not only shows the Motherboard mounts back in but the finish of the paint.



One thing I really like is how cool the purple PCB of the motherboard and red PCB of the video card look against the black of the case.



I mounted the two rear fans and gave them a small test run. They aren't purple just the room lighting. They work good too



It was time to put in the Powersupply so in it went. Notice the nice blue tubing... hehe common but still effective.



Here is another angle.

Was time now to re-add the Optical Drives.

 

Other bits installation

The CD drive install fine it was the Sumbeamtech Rambus was a problem. I got it mounted properly but being rather silly i'd wired up one of my fans incorectly and on testing it shorted out and Caught FIRE!!! The potentiometer caught fire.... I unpluged it and put it out quickly.

The culprit was a shorting wire in the cabling of the fan. Luckliy the other 3 channels of the Rehobus were still ok. As I have only 3 fans this is fine, still gave me a massive fright.



This is what both CD and Rehobus looked like once mounted.

As i'd taken out all faceplates a while ago they were all now scratched. Not wanting to put them back in I decided instead to Mesh the front spare bays Including the floppy drive bays.



I decided to do the floopy drive bays first so after cutting out the mesh it was bent carefully (with the help of my dad, 2 person job). After a bit of beating and bending it fitted perfectly.



Here it is from the front angle. I didn't have to use screws or anything. It is hooked around. I love the look.

With the floppy drives looking like a million dollars it was time to try the larger 5 1/2' bays.

 

paint is lookin good comin together well ...

dont let these guys give ya a bunch of crap that you aren't doing anything original, it seems to be goin quite well for your FIRST mod. Don't bite off more than you can chew to start with then move on from there for the next mod.

I do understand that you are on a limited budget, but i would suggest investing in a bit more sandpaper for those drives.

Guessing you were using 100 grit sandpaper (looks like it)
If you get some 200-220 ish grit and sand perpendicular to your previous sanding direction, then hit it with very fine 600ish sand paper in the opposite direction of the 220, then hit it with a little rubbing compound you would be surprised how mirror like those drives become.

Would prolly take 45 mins to an hour hand sanding and polishing and like $15US.

Keep up the good work bro

 

Hell! Go up to 2000 grit and then use some metal polish

 

I'd sure think so. Maybe not as much as my MX420 in my XP-M 2600+ @ 210x11.5 (will go further) with everything else good too but yeah, it won't help. But I'm hoping to order an x800Pro this week (So my wallet will hate me... oh well, that's what pricegrabber is for)

It looks nice! I really like that mesh stuff on the PSU. Same with the sanded look... it'd probably work well for a fake brushed aluminum if you went all the same direction.

 

M is for Mesh



The top mesh was a bit hard as it require longerbends, but after a bit of work (Again help from my father) I managed to get it flattened out.



Some of you may remeber the rather ugly hole in the front. This hole is preperation for stage two so I decided to mesh it off aswell.



This time I had to screw the mesh in. Using two screws and rubber washers to stop vibration.



This is a shot of all the mesh. I'm really happy with how this bits turned out. Now for cable managment.

 

Cables Cables Everywhere



I spent a good amount of time and effort into tiding these cables. I'm going to buy some blue round IDE cables soon so that will look even better.



Heres another shot of the case from a sideon perspective. Gotta Love the mesh

I've been fiddling with the camera and night shots. Heres my best two shots.





There is a high resolution image of it sitting on the table. I didn't include it in the page becuase its 1000x1000

http://img78.photobucket.com/albums/v258/xoddoza/large.jpg

 

Thanks for the kind words, i'll probably have another go at the drives on a rainy day soon. Would look good, better probably

 

Stage 1 - Completed

So thats all I have for now. I'm working on the PicAxe chip and it interfacing with the computer.I'm also saving up for the Water Cooling gear. So expect more from this.

I'm really stoked with how its turned out so far. Please be honest will all comments, gotta learn somehow.

If you have anysuggestions for a project name then speak up... I'll run a poll of likly names later.

Thanks.

Xoddoza

 

Nice mod, the brushed look might looked less sanded and forgot to paint if you got a wire brush bit for a drill and brushed the surfaces properly.
But otherwise I like the mesh and the crispness of the case overall