Project: Lian-Li PC-V2000B Tower of Power

Hello all and welcome to my Tower of Power ( name subject to change ) project.

For this project I will be using the lian-li pc-v2000b case. I wont post a pic of the original case ( since i didn't bother to take one before modding ) but i will put a link here to the newegg.com website where i got the case.

I specifically bought this case for the large amount of space available to work in an unmodded state it was in.

The pics i have posted are all resized down to at most 800 in either width or length and the appropriate ratio in the remaining side. All pics are less than 110KB so should be relatively small.

To start, i went and bought some good quality cast acrylic windows from frozencpu.com, it came with some rubber padding for the sides:



I traced out the lines for the window with some sizing mistakes seen in the picture below but overall a level outline



This is where it got really tricky. For some dumb reason, I proceeded to cutting out the hole for a fan with, get this, A DRILL!!! Boy was this a big mistake or what. I thought that i could just drill many holes and sand of the edges. HAHA would have never worked look what happened:




Well after that dissaster I didnt buy any more acrylic online and went to home depot and bought me some good ol plexiglass. Was cheaper too. This time I tried using a tool that resembles a jigsaw but doesnt have a guide. Its more of a dremel sized tool with a jigsaw bit on the end. After using this tool this is what happened to the plexi:



At this point I bet most of you can already tell this is my first mod. But I don't quit. I went and bought my self a good jigsaw and the cuts were clean.
This is the door cut out:



and this is the door fitted with the plexi, the window has a 120mm hole in it:



Now that i had gotten used to cutting the case up ( which took all of 3 hours to go through all that door ) I decided to go for the top of the case and put a window there as well.





Now on to the back of the case to remove the grills that came with the case to protect the fans. The original grills covered up a lot of the area and would have forbidden air to go in



After 7 or 8 hours cutting, messing up, and multiple trips to home depot, i decided it was enough and put the rest of the machine together. This is my only pc and needed to get some work done and write up this project. I still have a ways to go but so far its lookin real good. these pics were taken without flash to highlight the blue lights inside, check it out:











The things I still need to do are:

1. remove stock hard drive cage
2. think of new design for new cage
3. implement the design to a working piece
4. paint the case??? hmmm
5. add design to other side of case???
6. water cooling???

the list may be out of order but you get the idea.

You can see the parts in the computer in the signature. the cd and dvd are just your "standard" dual layer dvd burner and cd burner. One part I WILL be upgrading is the video card. I am using a card i got a looooong time ago a radeon 9200. I have word that the x850xt pe will be out soon, in a matter of weeks. I am really thinking about getting it but i am not sure. Any help on this?

 

I forgot to mention, I need help with my cabling. Inside is a mess and i would like to really clean this up to look neater. this is a side view



Also I didn't show the original cage which I want to remove and replace. The cage has plastic rails for the hdd's to go in and lock in place but if u notice, the holes on the side of cage really can't allow much air to go through especially on the seconf row of hdd's.





In the last picture the space is for a 120mm fan, all the fans btw are 120mm thermaltake fans with a max output of 93 cfm's.Except for the 2 lower 80mm thermaltake fans with max output of 72 cfm's. And the cpu fan is a thermaktake jungle512 90mm fan with max output of 87.7 cfm's.



With all these fans the computer stays at a comfy 21 degree celcius



I have a cooler master aerogate III with 4 thermal probes stuck in diff parts of the case. One is on the closed hdd to the fan on the cage. That temp reads around 21~22 degree celcius. The second probe is on a hdd on the second rack in the cage and that reads 28~29 degree celcius. I dont like that. The third is in between the ramsticks and that reads 27~28 degree celcius. The last pobe is hanging freely in the case and it reads 26~27 degree celcius. I am really concerned about the temp inside the case. I wouldn't want any part to die because it overheated. I am doubtful about water cooling cuz i dun like water near any of my components and if i mess up its all over.

I will hopefully have a design for the new cage some time next week. I am thinking about a sideways design with the length of the hdd to be along the length of the case with an open area behind the hdd for the fan to blow adequate air behind it.

 

sleeving your psu and fan kabels woul help a lot its mutch cleaner than

edit:



Greetz,
Thomaz

 

interesting work there Silenced`. I'll look into implementing something like that to my case

 

Maybe you could recess the CCFLs a little in the front. Having them pressed up against the front of the case makes it look kind of bug-zapperish... The ones inside laying on the deck could also be mounted to the ceiling of the case or stealthed. I did that with my V1000B.

And like others said, sleeve the cables. Maybe toss in some 90 degree molexes to neaten up the hard drives?

With a case that size, you should water cool. The case could easily accomodate it, and get rid of some of the fans.

Just my 2 cents... Lots of potential here

 

your CPU temp is wrong because 21°C with a P4 and aircooling....

 

your cuts arent straight
are you using wintercooling, air cooling with open window

 

You should run as much cables as possible around the back of the motherboard tray. There they would be invisible, so they wouldn't bother you

 

For the love of god use masking tape when cutting in a $300 case!

*stares at aweful scratches*

 

You might want to think about a file, you can pick them up at alot of places, and you could really use it to smooth out the cuts.

Also, use masking tape around where you're cutting, it'll prevent scratches.

It looks like it has some serious potential though.

 

Why aren't you using the CD stealthing things? They really help a LOT with all of the LL cases.

By the way, macro mode would go a LONG way on those closeup shots.


For cable management... wow... where to start

Put the audigy drive at the top and use some sorta tape to run that cable along the top of the case maybe, on the edge of the window. And fold it neatly to do it, not just push it over.

Sleeve all wires.

Put opticals at the bottom and get a shorter rounded cable. Or use a flat cable and cut a slit under where the drives would be so you can run it underneath the dividing plate, and like the audigy cable find some way to tape it up so it remains out of sight.

Have cold cathodes do indirect lighting - make it so you don't see the cathode itself. Right along the edge of the dividing plate thing would probably work well. Run the wires in a similar fashion.

Zipties or cable tiedowns go a long ways. As does sleeving wires.
Sleeve all wires.

Gotta head out to the movies but if you want more cable management tips let me know

 

This is my first project and i obviously don't know what I'm doing. That's why I put this log up. So that being said...the comments and tips received so far have been awesome. This is actually the second computer I have had, the first died a whiles ago but i didn't mod that one, and in the first one I had sleeved some of the cables. The way this case is caught me a bit of guard.

Also as i had said earlier, I threw the components inside the case cuz i needed to use the pc. Heck I don't even like the way it looks inside the case but for now I have been working with the pc as is to ensure i get some work done.

I see that the problem is mostly in the power supply cables. I see that there are some modular power supplies, you know the ones where the cables can be disconnected if not being used, and if any of you know a good modular power supply it might help a bit more than sleeving. I would go with sleeving if I have no other choice.

Ah yes, the last pic I showed has a rather large undulation on the top left of the cut. In order for me to be able to fix that i would need to file close to the corner to make it look smoother but since it is so big it might look awkward.

Also on the last pic, the lights were all moved to the front of the case as you can see in the dark pix. But now that I look at it, they do look kinda bug zapperish. They will try to be stealthed on the side of the case up against the top and bottom close to the window.

Almost done, bare with me. The LONG LONG Ide cable that is in the case was taken from a pile of cables i have and thought it would look cool. It kinda almost does but it is definitely too long and the lights aren't even bright. It will be removed the next time I am inside the case.

The comments have been great. Ya'll been a big help. Keep firing the comments this way.

Any word yet on the state of the x850 xt pe? I would want the case to be a clean home for the arrival of the vid card yet I dun know when it will be in stores.

 

so far, its really starting to come together, i like the CCFL's in the fornt for the fact they appear really nicely through the grill, i also thing that window will be nice, keep it up!

 

Yeah I was gunna say.... that computer would be incredible if it wasn't for that PCI 9200 lol

Just throwing out some ideas, not saying that it looks bad It's the case I want so it's got that going for it already.

IMO sleeving and zipties will help more than a modular PSU (you can zip down any unneeded lines and the visible ones will look better), but most modular PSUs are sleeved at least in some sense anyways. The OCZ modstream and Ultra xconnect are anyways. FrozenCPU has a modright or something which I've used and is pretty good although way too loud for my liking, but a good price. The Antec is also a good choice although I don't think the cables come presleeved.

 

I'm crying right now



you just spent, what $300 american on that case, and when you cut it, you didnt use masking tape!



There are scratches everywhere



ohh stop making me cry

/me looks at PC-60

i feel better now

 

Hey he could have just turned the thing on, I know when i do a cold boot my temps will say in the teens.

JEEVES

ps i get 23c on my w/c, never scene it go over 24.

 

I haven't seen coldboot temps that good with an XP mobile, there's not a chance with a prescott.

 

Ok well you got the $$$ as we can all see

thats awesome...and you know how to use them....thats great too...


BUT

you have to work on the presentation....a lot....go to homedepot and buy some split loom (wire coverings...much quicker and just a clean a sleaving if done correctly) and a huge bag of mini cable ties...get some good CDs and case of you fav. drink and go to town on that bad boy... you will be amazed at the difference!!.

 

You said your harddrives are 28-29 C and they are overheated? Huh. Is your computer on frost? I think those are good temperatures, if room temperature is 21-23 degrees. Harddrives can be about 40 degrees and they dont mind much about it. Those are great temperatures, or your program is wrong.

 

Yeah with a fan right next to my hard drives they're about 33c and one in a poorly ventilated mobile rack gets to about 50c. Doesn't come close to my graphics card at a house-heating 100c+ at load though.