Hey there folks! I just thought I would go ahead and start a project log for my newest case mod labeled "Aqua Stealth". The mod started months ago, but being the lazy bum that I am I never really got things moving....until now. This mod will feature the case from a Sun Microsystems Netra NFS150 and a nice custom 1/2"ID watercooling system. I'm looking to complete this mod before March 18th as this is when I plan to feature this case at PDXLAN 4.05. The design for this mod is based on the Stealth Bomber. The actual computer components may not be top of the line by todays standards, but it runs all current games with no hickups and in great detail. Anyways...on with the component listing.... *NEW*AMD Athlon64 3500+ *NEW*MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum 1-gig PDP/Patriot PC3200 Ram Cas2 ATI 9800pro 128MB R360core/Hynix memory - XT bios SoundBlaster Audigy2 ZS *NEW*Western Digital 80GB SATA HDD Maxtor 120GB IDE HDD (w/sata converter) MSI CD/RW MSI DVD-ROM Ultra 500watt PS Cooling: *NEW*DangerDen TDX-64 CPU waterblock DangerDen Acetal topped Maze4GPU AquaXtreme 50Z-12DC DangerDen Dual-120 HeaterCore *NEW*DangerDen Dual-5.25 Acrylic Resevoir DangerDen Fillport (remote fill for resevoir) Masterkleer 7/16"ID tubing Anyways, here is where my mod started off. A trip to a local electronics surplus store brought up the Sun Microsystems Netra NFS150 server... Interior of the case when foam encasement was removed Stripped interior Collection of water cooling equipment Leak testing of water cooling equipment (resevoir not yet constructed) Newly trimmed front doors Test fitting of heater core with mock-up shroud/housing I'll update this thread with more pictures as things advance. Comments and critisizms are greatly appreciated.
Keep it coming! Respect the design, though. Wouldn't like to see this turn into oneof those flame ridden monsters. You might want to get rid of some of the nice pastels though...
Most of the case's design will remain and no flamage will be added to this mod. Not a big fan of flame paint jobs. Oh...and the main colors of this case will be black, gunmetal and red.
Looks pretty sexy. Not so sure about boxing in the radiator like that thought. Kinda restricts airflow, which kills the reason why you have a radiator.
Thanks for the complement. The radiator is actually not boxed in. The 'box' that you see is actually a fan shroud. Here is a better angle...
2/17 UPDATE! Well today I set out to paint the DD dual-120 Heatercore and to dye the white parts of the 2 Evercool 120mm aluminum fans. For the heater core I used 3 coats of standard flat black enamel spray paint followed by 2 coats of clearcoat to give it that nice smooth and shiny black look. Here it is outside hanging out and dryin off after the 1st coat of clear. At the same time that the heater core was drying, I disassembled the 2 120mm aluminum fans and taped off the motors and spindle hole. I then hung them from some nails off the roof's eve and applied 3 layers of Plastikote back vinyl dye. Here's one of them swingin in the breeze... After everything dried off, I pulled them inside, and reassembled the fans. I put some bladck electrical tape over the back of the fan motor to cover up the spindle hole. Mmmmm....nice glossy black... After those small projects, I decided to carve up the case some more to allow some internal space for the DD Fillport and to the 90 degree bend that will go into the resevoir for filling. Here is the slot I cut... ...and here is what the slot allows... Overall I'd say its been a productive day. Tommorow I'll be working on mocking up the interior panels of the case along with some mock up computer components using foam board and poster board.
I think n0ll4k is right you know, i have read that the fins should be masked off before painting the rad. I think you might have problems with keeping temps down now. Rich
That case is made for that radiator, looks a perfect fit in the front there Any plans on powder coating the chasis of that beast of a case? As for painting the radiator, it's paintable no problem, it was discussed in this thread.
2/18 UPDATE Well today I popped my MSI K7N2 Delta-L motherboard out along with most of everything else and did some test fitting of the watercooling equipment. As you see the DD Delrin topped Maze4GPU looks right at home... The Swiftech MCW6002-A gets the same treatment... Here is the motherboard with all its cards and new cooling equipment... Whilst the motherboard was out, I made a mock-up of it and the cards so when test fitting I don't mess any important stuff up. I really didn't like the way the blue Swiftech mounting bracket looked, so I changed it to a more suitable color. ...and lastly I thought the dull looking Swiftech MCW6002-A needed a little sprucing up. Yea you can see fine scratches, but you will hardly notice them when its all installed. This is after the sanding/polishing and getting a nice coat of clear so it doesn't turn ugly colors... Tommorow I work on test fitting the mock-up motherboard on a motherboard tray and aranging things within the case. I'll also be designing most of the bracketry and interior paneling.
This looks to be promising. I love the case, should be big enough for a full ATX right? Nice work on spraying the mounting bracket of the waterblock as well!
Well I've been a bit sick and stressed as of late and havn't made much progress with this casemod. Sadly, I won't be finished with it in time for PDXLAN 4.05 on the 18th. I've got all the parts, its just that there is too much fabrication that needs to be done including some plasma cutting of the 1mm thick steel side panel. Anyways, I'd like to share what I completed today. I've finally got the heatercore shroud completed. All that needs to be done is attaching a bracket to the side of it for mounting the CD-RW/DVD drive to and for the whole shabang to be painted flat black with a flat satin clear coat. A shot of the front showing how the HC shroud is riveted to the case frame. The spacing to the left of the HC is for the CD-RW/DVD drive to be mounted verticly. A side shot showing how much space the HC shroud takes up. I built it this large so it hides the CD-RW/DVD drive from view. A shot of the HC shroud internals. A shot of where the DD dual-bay resevoir will be mounted. Test shot of the front with the doors loosly attached. A large decorative sheet of styrene will cover most of the face except for the HC, CD-RW/DVD drive, resevoir, power/reset buttons and lighting/fan controls. Here are the pair of Aerocool HB-101 HDD heatsinks and 3 red led backlit Compunurse temp. monitors that will be implemented into this case build. A close up of the aluminum fins and heatpipes of the Aerocool HB-101 HDD heatsinks. A free sample of decorative perforated 20ga. sheet metal I got from a metals company in Woodburn, Oregon. I'll definatly be updating this more within the next few weeks, but for now I need to make my CoolerMaster WaveMaster case a little more presentable for PDXLAN 4.05 this Friday.
very nyce do you anticipate that the paint will do much to the heat transfer ability of the radiator? i mean afterall it is 5 coats...
The paint was sprayed across the tip of the fins, not down into the fins. So any loss of heat transfer due to the application of paint will be minimal.
