Hey there, after running my i5 7600K and 1060 GTX for several years, it was time to treat myself. After around 20 years, I’m back to a Radon & AMD setup with a 9800X3D and a 9070 XT . Since my loved Lian Li V2010 isn’t quite suited for modern hardware anymore, I needed something new. So, I did what any sane person would do: I spend a lot of time and money on modding a case . I planned to go for Lian Li again and ordered a Lian Li V3000 Plus. However, I needed to return this case. The quality of my unit was poor and having it on hand, showed some design flaws, I didn’t want to deal with. After checking out the current offerings, I ended up purchasing an Antec C8. After having several Lian Li cases the past 20 years, I never expected to end up with an Antec. But here we go, let’s do a proper fish tank mod. Before I’ll share the first pics, I need criticize basically all case manufactures despite Lian Li. It is 2025 and people have 3D printers, LASER cutters and small CNC mills. Get real and offer 3D files from you damn cases. It is unbelievable to me that only Lian Li offers 3D-files of their cases online. I asked Antec and Phanteks, if they would provide 3D-files but they still live in 1999 and said no. Since 3D LASER scanners are dirt cheap nowadays, I really do not understand their point. Anybody can copy your case with ease if they want. If you provide files or not. Anyhow, the last weeks I was working on the design of the C8 and today I installed the first parts. I started with the feet. I replaced the plastic ones by installing CNC milled adapters. With these I could mount the actual feet. The adapters and the feet were manufactured by JLC. I went with the adapter plates as it allowed me to have the actual feet four times as the exact same part. Bringing down the cost per piece.
Yes, let's do so . For the top of the case I designed an acrylic cover plate and another CNC milled aluminium part. This part holds two 120 mm fans and places them a bit lower as I won’t install a water cooling loop. For the side intake, I designed a similar solution. In the main chamber there is an acrylic cover plate. On the back side I installed CNC milled aluminium plate, which holds the threads to screw it together and holds two 120 mm fans as well. For the bottom I designed an acrylic cover plate too.
More details from the build: On the bottom I replaced the original filter and installed a bracket which allows me to use a DemciFlex filter. I use those for a long time and I am very pleased with the filtration. For the VGA intake I have three Noctua fans which I made way more pretty by ordering custom hub decals. In front of the fans, I placed a custom bracket for an aquacomputer LED strip. The same bracket and strip was also attached to the top. Since USB 4 front connection is not present on the C8, I attached a bracket on the side which allows me to access both USB 4 ports of the board. On the front I installed a design element, which is attached with magnets. It is made from 3D printed parts and acrylic plates. On the side I installed a cover to hide the cables and as you can see, the 2 side intake fans got a DemciFlex filter as well. Due to the upload limit of 10 images, I show you in another post, what the 92 mm Noctua fan is for. And to bring it to an end. The side panel got an acrylic panel as well, allowing better air intake and making it way sexier. Behind the cutouts for the PSU and the 92 mm fan is another filter.
Thanks. Speaking of stealthy, did you spot the GPU support bracket? I'll continue with some more details. As shown, I put a 92 mm Noctua fan below the PSU. One could assume that fan is installed to cool a 12V high failure cable but it is not. AMD thankfully went with 3x 8-pin. The fan is placed to bring some air to the auqacomputer octo. It handles the 11 fans of the system and therefore I thought giving it some air stream won't hurt. The custom bracket could hold a second octo. And I needed to fix the RGB strip. Aquacomputer was clever to embed some magnets but they do the bare minimum. The connector cables puts too much strain on the strip so I fixed the input sides with zip ties. The sides which were cut off came lose too. So some 3D printed caps came to the rescue.
