Scratch Build – In Progress Anima Mundi Redux - March 30th, 2009

Very minor update. I've been battling the blocks on the hard drive side of things for three iterations now. I dont want to waste anymore half inch acrylic, so I have a new plan! Four corner pieces glued to the side panel. I'll clamp it into the case tomorrow and drill and tap the holes exactly where I want them. I will win!

 

Thanks, I like how it turned out. I need to add some rigidity because it's a little on the flexible side at the moment.

 

Another minor update.

I got the sidepanel screwed on. The case is 100% structurally finished minus the pump situation. Next up is lighting and electronics. After that comes edge finishing, then paint and any exterior modifications that I may or may not have planned...

 

Good way to mount the side.

 

So here's a top down view with most of the components screwed in. I need to add a couple of spacers under the motherboard to make things rack right.





Anybody see the issue? Yeah, space for the pump. It's a toss up between a Liang DDC and a Danger Den CPX1. I think I have to give up having a video card, but either one should fit. Perhaps some fancy plumping will let me fit a video card in there, but that has yet to be seen.

The pumps:
Liang DDC with Plexi top
Dangerden CPX1

 

You could still fit a pump and the GPU. fabricate yourself a pump mou t from plexi and attach it to one of the walls of the case. Next to the radiators looks like a good spot.

 

Well what's this? Progress?

Fabbed up the fillport real quick.









Still have a lot of cleanup work to do, this is pretty rough and mostly straight off the drill press/ table saw.

 

There isn't anywhere near enough room next to the radiators. I'm broke at the moment, so I'm going to have to use the 50Z and give up a graphics card. There's a very slim chance some fancy piping will let me add a video card, but that has yet to be seen. I've got an idea what might give me some more room.

 

Cool fillport, I have never seen one like that before.

 

Glad you like it! I just didn't want to spend the money on a DD fillport when I figured I could make one haha.

I've got to get some different length bolts, fill in some holes, shore up the oring so its snug, plumb in the LED's, angle some edges, round some corners, and do a whole lot of polishing. I think the fillport is going to be the first part that gets paint...

I'm hoping to have the water cooling loop completed by the end of the week, which means I need to get the pump mounted, and make the tubing adapters before that can happen. I'm debating adding a drain as well, but I haven't given that too much thought.

 

Looks much better than a DD fillport IMO.

 

Why thank you. Just need to fill in a couple of holes and paint it.

Cleaned up the fillport and mounted the pump.









I realized that since I'm stuck with the 50Z, there is NO way to mount it and still have a video card, so I just said screw it and bolted it to the floor. I think I want to move it over a little to give the motherboard some more room, but I dont think the new motherboard that I just ordered will have any issues.

 

The fillport is looking awesome. Good luck with the pump mounting and the plumbing. Make sure you leave enough room around the connectors for the HDD LED, power LED, reset and power switches. I made that mistake in my mod. I eventually got them on lol.

 

Oh the wiring will be a little interesting, but there's plenty of room. It's all going to come down to the order of assembly with this thing, since everything stacks on something or is tucked behind something else.

I need to fab up some tubing adapters tomorrow, then a quick mock up of the WCing system before I start lighting. I also realized I have a couple more things to do to the motherboard before paint. Sigh...

 

So I attempted to put LEDs in the feet and ended up lighting my bench on fire. It was fun. Something shorted out, sparked, and ignited some papers on my bench. Yeah for fire extinguishers!

Anyway, new feet, new lighting scheme.





Much simpler, and turned out much better than the original design. Four pieces of 3/16 acrylic, cut with a circle cutter and spun on the drill press to shape, smooth, and polish. Turned out well enough. There are still some burn marks from me turning it too fast, but all in all they worked. There will be a little bit of light added to each foot, but nothing over powering.



This turned out UGLY! My rotary table (its a geared, spinning platform for a mill) didn't come in until today, so I had to do this with just my XY table, and even considering that I didn't do a very good job. Which is one of the reasons the top and bottom of this little doohickey will be painted and then strapped to the bottom of the case so no one can see it.










Why isn't that lighting circle centered Mr Endscape? Well kids, that's because one of the mounting bolts would share the same hole with the pump mount. So I moved it just back of center, and bolted it down.




Light! Nothing overpowering, just a subtle glow. Not quite as bright as I wanted (I think I used the wrong resistor), but will still do the job.

 

Feet look awesome mate, love the LED bus.

 

So I finally unpacked my trusty old digital camera and snapped some non cell phone camera pictures. Most of these are just "the state of the mod" photos that dont show any new work. For progress skip to the end.








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Some size comparisons:






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The fill port. I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty proud of how this turned out.








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A little light!











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I had to cut some notches in the feet to accomodate the bolts. The origianal feet were much smaller, so they didn't have this issue. When I initalially cut the first batch of the second round of the feet, I accidently made them larger than planned. I liked them better, so I kept the size.




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The ugliest foot. I burned it, then dropped it. Basically I hate it, and I think the feelings mutual. I'm pretty sure it's sleeping with my girlfriend, and I think I saw it kick my dog.



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So here's the real work I got accomplished on this fine evening.





See that gap? The one between the IO shield (though that's not the IO shield, it's the thing that holds the IO shield correct? Back plane? Back panel? Metal motherboard doo hickey?) and the motherboard tray? Yeah, it's not supposed to be there. I miss measured something the first night I worked on the case, and it gave me that 1/8th inch gap.




So I strapped a motherboard to a piece of 1/8 inch plexi and trimmed the edges until I got it racked correctly.



Glued the pieces together, and TA DA! Edges still need to be polished of course.

 

Haha thanks! I'm beginning to think you're the only one out there following this mod, I'm not getting any response on any of the forums I post this on. I guess I'm not making dramatic enough progress to warrant commentary from most people. I'm down to the nitty gritty little details, so there wont be anything very impressive until I start painting and exterior modifications.

 

It's impressive to me cos I would never be able to do something like that. Plastic work requires a lot of sit down time, very time consuming lol. Looking fantastic. Can't wait to see it all finished.

 

So I painted a test piece, satin black. I actually painted four pieces, gloss black, satin black, gloss white, and satin white. I like the satin white as well, so it might find it's way into the case also. Keep in mind that all the polished edges will be exposed, and most of them will be lit.




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Beveled and polished the PSU support and HD Rack shim. Need to touch up the fill port a bit, as I didn't do a very good job at polishing it.



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I'll let these pictures explain themselves.