Case Mod - In Progress CM Sniper Mod - Apr 16. UPS delivers goodies.

Pictures of front panel tomorrow. 200mm blue LED fan in lower portion and 5 X 5.25 optical openings up top. Not a small case it is.

john

 

I've seen reservoirs commonly now a days. For me I have my modded GPU+Kuhler's radiator with a fan + shroud in it. My case is the small NZXT Beta EVO classic case with not a enough room.

Others I've seen had a huge fan controller that takes up 2 bays worth.

Otherwise I've seen people just create a new front and hide the bays.

 

Fan controller is built into top panel with LED On/Off switch. Is a really well designed case.

john

 

I'm watching

about the 5.25": I use one for a docking station for an external hard drive.
But that can easily be handled otherwise, so in your case since you have no apparant need for 5.25", I would just choose between:
1) covering them all up;
2) add cooling (radiator? fans?) or part of the cooling (res?);
3) put some kind of screen/monitor there.

just some ideas...all depends on personal preferences

 

As to the docking station - that is covered by the eSATA port in the top panel?
A bay res is a cool option.
There is always the option of a 200mm radiator using the lower 200mm front fan? They do make such an animal.
Or a vertical 3 X 120 or 140mm radiator mounted in the space between the optical bay and the motherboard? Mounted somehow.

Much flexibility there is. Plan some more we will.

john

 

Having owned a CM sniper for the last 2 1/2 years, I can say this statment couldn't be more true.

With the drive bays, if you don't need the 5.25s, perhaps you could remove them alltogether, and put the HDD racks in their place, and sort of 'suspend' them from the roof of the chassis. Then below that you could put a 200mm rad and pump(s)/res...

Good luck with the mod, mate. I'll be watching this with interest.

 

Bay reservoirs can be a pain. If you use one, you will need an extra barb for attaching a drain line.
You might want to add an additional T-line somewhere convenient. You need a place for the pressure to go when draining/filling. you also won't need to dump the rig on it's face that way. (Although attaching it with longer tubes is an option.)

 

Following and nice mobo btw.

 

If you already own good external drives there isn't a lot of reason to keep an internal one around, I barely use disks anymore myself, and if you have a eSATA drive the speed advantage is almost nil. some people think external drives are ugly, but IMO removing the drive from your front panel makes the build look way cleaner, more of an improvement then an external drive you pull out on occasion is a detriment.

I would scrap the bottom 4 5.25" bays, and put a nice looking cover over the remaining one, whick you should probably keep around just in case. With the extra room you free up you can put in a bigger reservoir and all the pluming you need t make it easy to refill.

My rig has two hard disks, but if I had the money it would have as many as the case could hold. RAID arrays are about the best thing you can do for a computer's performance, and backup is always important. That being said; I'm a bit of a pack rat when it comes to videos and games, so my capacity needs are above average (luckily I can't justify buying more hard drives at these prices). You're probably fine with a single SSD and a single 2TB hard disk (no real reason to get something smaller these days) but leave room for a second of each should you feel the need to expand later.

You could also move the storage drives behind the mobo tray, thanks to the extra space provided by the side panel. This plus scrapping the 5.25" bays opens the entire front of the case for whatever you feel like, even if you just leave it open the airflow advantage is huge.

 

Time to examine the top panel wiring.



Nice tidy circuit boards and wires bundled by function.

Daisy chain for 4 fans to the speed control and the fan LED Off/On switch is long!



Hmm...

"Much paracord in your future there will be"

john

 

bright. Even in the daylight.

 

lovely fans and scary cable.

tame the cable monster....

 

Ugh ohh Cables, you should get YODA , to sort them

 

That's a lot of big air movers.

 

Man could build a hovercraft with those fans!

Wind tunnel?

john

 

The farce is strong in this one. Much training he has missed. Too old.



Yoda

 

The FARCE is strong ?!?! But on the build : so far so goooood. and stop Yoda from commenting. Or let him do the work !

 

Mesh window looks perfectly done John nice, I've never actually tried to do this with mesh before, all the bends look perfect.

 

When you have all the time you want, you can take the time to do it right.

Great work. I'm not normally a mesh user, but you did an excellent job there.

 

Cooler Master made the mesh window on the side. I just sprayed it pink. Cabin fever. I am cutting the clear plexi replacement now - slowly.

john