Thanks for all the comments. The shrouds are 10mm thick, which I'm pretty sure I read somewhere as sufficient to avoid the 'dead spot' with the fan. Of course I could be wrong still the lighting looks good and I reckon 10mm is better than nothing. Some more pics to come.
Update As you have probably guessed by now I've been going at this for a while! SO far I've spent a month or so on the work plus a lot of pre-planning. Those of you familiar with the Akasa Eclipse case will know that the frontage does not do justice to the case..... .....solution....... mod it! Having read as many painting guides as I could find I went to work with the the bondo, wet and dry paper, primer, paint and gloss. This is not easy . However the end result is pretty satisfactory... I had to bend the grill plate to fit the shape of the case. This was made much easier by using the 5.25 faceplates as mouldings to clamp up to. It worked out well, add in a trip to the chrome guy to fit the theme. I added the mesh to 'hide' the space between the front panel and the case. The switch panel hasn't worked as well as I'd hoped........... the polished aluminium still has scratches visible, I think I my need to take it to the chrome guy too, what do you think? Also I'm not sure about the blue tinted plexi, perhaps I should use clear plexi decisions, decisions. Forgot the money shot, chromed metal jacket containing an Aquastream Rev 3.0 mounted on two layers of rubber (car mats can be very handy) with the 'barrel' at inlet painted to match the chrome. So that's pretty much where I'm up to. Next steps: 1. Get the switch panel chromed 2. Order cooling blocks, tubing and water additives 3. Mount the hard drives ............... something a bit different planned for these 4. Decide on where to put switches - in switch panel or in 3.5 bay 5. Mod, mount and wire in the Aquero blah blah blah........ so much to do, so little time..... Comments and suggestions welcomed.
Certainly is, well worth the money. It cost me £40 for the two grills, Aquatube mounting grill and the FMJ for the pump.
The logo is still visible , although much less so than before. PS. Newcastle is a fine city, I'd love to move back home
Very nice so far, I really like where your going with this. Keep up the good work. As for the front panel, you should go with some clear plexi and get the brushed aluminum chromed. I think that would look much better.
Looks really nice so far! Your setup will be stupidly close to mind when it's done, except for the case. Where did you find a BIP rad with G1/4 fittings? Mine's 1/4NPT... although they're probably all sold with british fittings over there. I think you should just leave off the plexi altogether on that front panel thing. It seems to give it a bit of a premod type of look (note the black one). Still, awesome start! Keep it coming.
Firehed, thanks for our feedback, glad you like it so far - spooky that it's so similar. Leeum and Fr0z3n thanks too, I was pretty nervous about posting the project. I thought so too, I've already cut the clear plexi, it'll need all the holes drilling, dremeling etc. I'll definitely go for the chroming. I got it from Overclock.co.uk the fittings are from Aqua computer in Germany. Take your point about the premod look I'm just not sure how I can get the desired clean finish for the ports at the bottom, the switches and LED housings are no problem. Any ideas?
Hey Leeum, just saw you're from Northumberland, I know it well.... lived in Longframlington for a few years, my Mum and Dad are still there.
I don't think the blue acrylic lookd premod, I don't think it matches the clear acrylic in the rest of the case though. Always liked the effect of the acryllic over something as a dress up piece.
I agree that the switch panel needs revising I'll fix up a clear plexi version for comaprison. It may be a while before I can get the chroming done - I've got some ideas for some other items and it's better value to get it all done at the same time. Off to sand down the paint job on the FDD / card reader front
Looking FANTASTIC! A quick question, I see you've used dome nuts (I'm making an assumption really) on the fan-spacer-rad assembly, how did you get the other end (the end you tighten with a screwdriver) into/through the holes on the 120mm holes on the rad? Have you got extra long ones going right through the BIX, coming out the other side for the spacer & fan? Nice work, loving the black/chrome look! I reckon if you go with blue tinted plexi over the front panel, you'll be creating a look & feel of Shuttles (which isn't neccessarily a bad thing) but for continuity, you may have to use the same coloured/tinted plexi for the other external chrome bits. And for things like the res plate & rad fan grill (on top of the case) that'd be quite hard to pull off well, so leave the plexi off.
Thanks for the praise Ebola One. Well spotted, I did indeed use domed nuts. The key was using some M3 studding, purchased from A2A4 Fixings . The studding was cut to length (boy does it get hot when you Dremel it!!! Nice threaded blister aquired here ). I tapped the mounting holes in the shroud, screwed in the studding, through the shrouds and the mounting on the rad into a carefully positioned bolt. I wanted to avoid the risk of drilling / screwing through the rad fins and potentially causing a fracture. It was pretty fiddly, but well worth it - those rads ain't cheap. I've had a few problems posting tonight, anybody else experiencing difficulties
There is some good work going on here! Especially as its your first mod, it'll be a hard target to beat for the future. Going be following this one closely
