Case Mod - In Progress AlderonnX's Continuum (Cubitek Magic Cube AIO)

Welcome back guys. been a couple of busy weeks, but I did get a little more done. I got the clip mounted for the front panel wires and remounted the front panel switches and hooked them up on the board.

Now I just need to fix the fan connections


I REALLY like this little hub...

Its pretty small


Here it is tucked away on the back of the case...


Now to address those 4 funky watercooling holes...

Sanded up the metal plates...

I covered one side in tape after the first sanding so the case finish won't get scratched...

Then I marked them with a marker and deployed my poormans bench vice.

I squared the holes up and marked it with a punch..

Aluminum shavings... You know those things hurt when you step on them barefoot? take my word for it LOL


Checked my holes after drilling...


Next time I will take more time when I cut these. Those marks were hard to sand out.

After about an hour of sanding. (wetsanded down to 2000 grit)


Prepped my case badges... PM me if you need info on where to get these...

Mounted to the plate...

Next update I'll be tackling this nightmare lol


Thats all for a bit, Got to finish the 24 pin sleeving, then mount the backplate between the board and the front panel, then measure the length of the 24 pin extension I'm Making Out of Lutro0 plastic sleeving.
Cheers, Jeremy

 

After looking at this backplate for a day or two I think I'm going to pull it off and paint it. Its just to much shiney!

 

The only problem i see is with that PWM cable, combining it like that wont allow the RPM signal to be read correctly from each fan.

 

Yeah, thats the one thing I wish this board had is a second 4 pin fan plug. My MSI Z97 that i'm using wile this system is down has 2 fan ports thou.

 

OK, I didn't finish the 24 pin yet... Its about half done... But progress must continue. After I spent so much time on the vanity plates to cover the 4 grommet holes I figured out I didn't like the shiny look. Here it is shiny in case you don't want to scroll back up..
And after...


Heres how we got to that point... I pulled the plates off and masked my case badge.

I decided to use this paint. It claims to not require primer on bare metal and its epoxy base.


After a couple good coats...
This is the other spray you MUST have on my painting balcony... Its a red wasp retirement colony!

Now to get started on the blank space between MoBo and case front.

You may recall the diamond plate I was cutting up a couple of updates ago... (Its reclaimed from a 2002 Peterbilt Mud Flap) Yay free Modding supplies...

I marked out for the holes. I have rigged a 3 bolt setup to hold this plate away from the motherboard tray.

Look its really pricey Stainless Steel fasteners!

The 2 spacers are just right!


Next I used my trusty center punch..

Poor mans bench vise... Also have my modding block... You do have a modding block right? Everyone needs one.

Modding block, This side is used to cut shrink to length. and also to make punch through small cuts with the Dremel.

This side is to drill into.. (saves the workbench)

Annnnnyway... Lol
hers my after holes. I hold a shopvac hose next to the bit when I drill so no pictures of that part. (Modders need to evolve a third hand to take pictures of the things that are about to Injure them)

Removed almost everything from the case.. Protected the case with Green Tape, and marked the first hole.

Bolted the first one in so they would all line up.


Bolted second one

Got the plate hung up

I now have a lot of room for all my Sata Cables to hide as well as GPU cables

I have plans to run the 24 pin power right throu the plate as well. Its also going to get painted and maybe some art Or something on it.


After cuts (no pics, still only 2 hands LOL)

As you can see I have held it with hotglue at a slight angle towards the mobo.



I will be molding it into the plate. I'm going to call this a wallplate... I will also have a Midplate But not from Aluminum.

Thanks, Jeremy

 

OK, so a whole month has gone by and I finally got some time to work on the mod.
And I may have slowed down on the modding but the mess kept growing.. XD


LOL, Ok now on to more details of the build, I was tempted to sell my GPU's and upgrade to GTX 970's but I resisted and kept the ones I had before. I will update the First post as well. So what I do have is SLI GTX 680's... Purchased one used off OCN and one off Facebook.

I did decide to see if I could find a inexpensive 3rd card since I have never played around with Tri SLI. After about a month I was able to pick up a Reference GTX 680... But its a Galaxy Brand and has Only one of those Antec 620's with a Dwood Bracket. Lucky for me I had a couple GTX 670 Cheesecake coolers here that I had purchased thinking I might paint them. Sooo I was able to get the 3rd card looking right.


After some careful heatsink removal


It fits!


This looks like a job for Franken-Card!!

Ah Much better!!!


I also wanted to mold the 24 pin plug in better... Clear epoxy didn't do much.


This stuff stinks!!! But its molds well.


All slicked up and ready for paint..

Thats all for tonight...

 

So the Epoxy is all set. I decided to shape it up a bit.

So I sanded, And sanded some more...

Then I scuffed and cleaned both sides of the wall plate...


Then I sized a sheet of scrap Acrylic...

Traced out the shape I wanted.

Using a dremel and a knife I cut the shape out...


Yay! More Sanding

I had the Idea to wrap the edges in some 1/8 inch wire loom.

After some careful Hot Glue its attached.

I picked up some welding rod the other day.

Just started bending...


Ended up with...

Covered them in more Loom...

Still needs some bending and trim. Plan is to backlight this panel.

Then I painted the wallplate.




Thats where we sit for now...

 

Finally a update!

I got the wallplate finished...






Tested it with my handy dandy tester..


Shot of it installed in the case..
Better closeup...

Then just today I went ahead and wired it all up and started it up... I left the midplate off so I can swap cords and Sata cables around as needed. Now the plan is to sleeve one wire set at a time so I can finish with getting burnout... XD


So I still have this left.

1. cut the window for the side
2. wire up a switch and power block for lights
3. finish sleeving (about half left)
4. Solder and paint a string of warm white LEDs for inside the case
5. Figure out something for that plain front panel...

Look for a few updates as we finish here.

Look me up on facebook if you want more pictures XD
http://www.facebook.com/jeremy.watson.9026

 

Nice job on that Frankencard.

 

Hello Again! I'll bet all 4 people following this build are wondering where it has gotten to... Well I have been using it as my main PC at home and playing games on it as well as other general web tasks and I can't complete this build in its current format. The AMD FX 8350 is noticeably slower then the G3258 based build I was using when this PC was torn apart and its slower then the $450 AMD FM2 build I use all day at work and it is bugging me! I was going to try to use this as a holdover until DDR4 was mainstream and then update but my new plan is to sell off the 2 good EVGA 680's and keep the frankencard. and save the case and PSU for a new build in 3rd quarter 2016. So I'm building a smaller faster build with some of the rest of these parts and this build will return in due time.

Thanks for watching and Happy 2015 to all!

 

Man, All my pictures are no longer loaded.

 

Sadly

 

Think there may be a way round that if caused by the forum update a few years back borking all the links?

 

Getting an "unsigned url" error on your hosting.