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Case Mod - In Progress BeyondTheMind - ESW2

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by beyondthemind, 20 Dec 2015.

  1. beyondthemind

    beyondthemind What's a Dremel?

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    It has now been a few years since my last project and I have for a long time been eager to start something new. However, I have not really had any inspiration, but when I saw Cooltek W2 for about half a year ago, the ideas began to flow immediately!

    A big thanks to Fractal Design and Skapamer.se that has chosen to sponsor my project!

    The goal of the construction is to have a quiet PC with a clean design. The theme is black with touches of white and red. Nothing that stands out perhaps, but I like the combination and will therefore use it. I want to be able to see the components in the anterior chamber but without making the whole room lit up by the LEDs. The cables I do not mind being visible, but then they have to look good and be nicely set! I'll also make a little special solution to easily control the lighting and fans, but without ruining the clean appearance. The project is expected to last about two to three months.

    Planning - Nothing is not written in stone, but the plans so far are:
    • Improve air flow by cutting out unnecessary metal in front of and behind the fans
    • Modify/build power controls for lighting and fans with voltage monitoring
    • Paint the details and components in black, white and red
    • Maybe build my own HDD cage and use instead of the one that are supplied with the case
    • Sleeving of cables
    • Replacing the LEDs and other details so that they follow the color scheme
    • Custom decals/vinyls

    The hardware is not the best you can get your hands on today, but it is adequate for my needs. It consists of:
    Motherboard: Msi 970 Gaming
    CPU: AMD FX6300
    GPU: Sapphire R7 370 4GB Nitro
    RAM: 16gb Crucial BallistixSport
    SSD: OCZ Agility 3
    HDD: 2x1TB Western Digital in RAID 1
    Cooling: Kelvin S24 and fans from Fractal Design

    Now we'll start with some pictures of the amazing Cooltek W2 case!

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    Brushed black aluminium, mmmmmm!

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  2. beyondthemind

    beyondthemind What's a Dremel?

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    Update 1

    The first modification I will do the case is to improve airflow, and in this update it will be for the radiator that is gonna be placed in the bottom. None advanced really, but it will make a big difference in cooling performance. Let's bring out the tape and multi-tool (this is actually not a real Dremel) and start cutting!

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    But I discovered quite quickly that it was not enough to cut off just the grille, much of the panel was still in the way of the air flow. And since I also want to keep the air filter it was a bit difficult to get it tidy and good looking. But after a little bit of planning and some more cutting, filing and grinding it turned out really good!

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    The result! Here I also painted the edges with a so-called color pencil that is actually used to repair scratches and stone chips on the car, very convenient because I do not plan to paint this part of the case.
    The radiator in the photo is only provisionally mounted and therefore looks a little obliquely.

    That's all for this update! I will cut off more steel in other places, including for the 80mm fan that is gonna be mounted in the front. Pictures of it will probably be in future updates!
     
  3. beyondthemind

    beyondthemind What's a Dremel?

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    Update 2: Fractal Design

    A big thanks to Fractal Design which is sponsoring me with Kelvin S24 and fans out of their Venturi series.

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    Really nice fan! First, I had planned to paint them partly white or red, but i think the gray and black colors alone will make the building more attractive. I think it could be too much of the red and white details otherwise. I do not want it to look like a candy cane ;)
     
    Last edited: 10 Jan 2016
  4. beyondthemind

    beyondthemind What's a Dremel?

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    [​IMG]

    Uppdate 3: Sleeving and soldering
    In this building I am going to sleeve as much as possible with paracord. I think it looks better, the cables will be softer, and it is easier to do heatshrinkless sleeving.

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    Here i have started with the sleeving. About half the 24-pin cable is finished and I have also started with the fans. I lika heatshrinkless sleeving, but on some of the cables i of course need to use heatshrink, for exampel the fans. But because paracord melts onto the cord i don't need to use much heatshrink for it to be hold in place.

    Instead of the standard heat gun, I use a gas-powered mini-heat gun. Highly recommended, it is much easier to both shrink the heatshrink tubing, but also melt paracord with. With a lighter, it's easy that it gets burned, but with this tools it gets just warm enough.

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    The fans are done! The fans having PWM control had both red and black paracord as the cables would not fit in a single color. I also see here that it had been too much to paint fans.

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    The 24-pins and 6-pin extensions are finished. I chose to run with extensions so that I can replace the power supply in the future without having to redo all the sleeving.

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    Here I have started the construction of the fan and lighting controllers. Here I have started the construction of controlling the fan and lighting. It is a fan controller for PCI slot that will be modified. For example I'm going to solder on extension cables for the potentiometers so that they can be mounted in the case. You will also be able to monitor how much volts each channel outputs.
     
  5. beyondthemind

    beyondthemind What's a Dremel?

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    Update 4: Construction of the controller for cooling and lights

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    Update 4: Construction of the controller for cooling and lights

    Finally! After a few hours of work I've finally finished my control to control the fans, pump and lights! My goal was to have a central point in the chassis where everything could be connected, but to control it on the back of the chassis. I also wanted to be able to monitor each channel volts, but only two at a time. This I solve using the existing multi-pole switch that initially controls the fans. You can now choose which of the two channels you want to see, and even turn off monitoring entirely if you wish to do so.

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    The first thing I did was to build the module for monitoring and solder the wires. They need no additional power supply, it is enough with the volts they get from the power controller, very smooth. Then I check the length I needed, sleeved the cables and soldered them onto the control. I also removed the the mounting-ears of the monitoring modules and painted them black.

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    Then I replaced the white plugs with long sleeved black cables and connectors so that it becomes easier to connect fans etc. Then i sleeved the extensions to the potentiometers and soldered them to the board. They where also painted partly black to blend in better.

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    Assembled, tested and ready!
     
  6. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    :thumb: That's a promising start. Your heavy use of duct-tape troubles me, though.;)
     
  7. beyondthemind

    beyondthemind What's a Dremel?

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    Thanks! That's only because I don't want to scratch the surface when I'm working with the case ;-)
     

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