Case Mod - In Progress December project - unnamed

It's about time I re-boot this.

I would have wanted to do like a Christmas calendar with daily updates, but I got off to a late start as I spend most of yesterday sleeping, because I send my family out of the country so I can have the whole house to myself (that's the way to do it the right way!).

You have maybe seen my earlier thread: https://forums.bit-tech.net/index.p...re-7970-x58-extreme-xeon-corsair-800d.346817/

I never got around to do any actual work due to have 2 kids, house, work, wife and a life.
If anything then now is the time when most of that is out of the way for a while.

Today is just a little intro, then tomorrow I expect real work to be done.

 

1st of December

Sorry I'm starting little too late, forgive me

 

2nd of December

A few pictures of what I'm working at







Oh boy its going to be fun to build!
-see you tomorrow for real work

 

3rd of December

Have to do some preparations, as I have collected quite the selection of parts over the past months intended for this build.
So today I have sorted and cleaned up the table I intend to use for the final build.
Actually, if you look closely, you can already see some of the case panels I have painted already




By the way, the monitor is my Black Friday buy, a 24" FreeSync 144hz 1ms 1920x1080 curved AOC monitor - would have been pretty stupid if I could not run freesync now I intend to build a crossfire setup.

 

4th of December

Today I have sanded down a little of the paint I did in the summerr on one of the sidepanels so I can start to lacquer it. Just given it first layer today but its not totally even, so will have to sand it down more when cured and give it more.

Normally a 800D case is just a huge matte black box, so to paint it with blue metallic paint and black flames, plus engrave my avatar logo and its already going to be a pretty special case.



follow along for more crazy ideas

 

5th of December


I have today assembled the motherboard, since I one time at summertime completely cleaned it so it shines as new.
One of the extra things I've done, is to lap the chipset coolers for best possible performance.


For my big surprise, the primary block had a LOT of scratches there can only come from the manufacturing process, I would not guess it to have been disassembled before.
Same can be said about the watercooling block, must have been pretty uneven, as after at few turns on the mirror with some fine sandpaper, toothpaste and water it has sanded off a fair bit in the sides but almost nothing in the middle.

Beside that, I have an old case I sometimes use as a test bench, its a Bitfenix Neos, one of the absolute cheapest ATX case I can buy around here.
I have today started to temporary build the system in there, as I actually dont know if any of the hardware is working... If its dead it will for sure change my plans...

Last but not least, Im still lacquering the sidepanel with flames, I think it will need 4 layers before its what I wanted to achieve. It will take me a few days to finish.


I hope I tomorrow will get time to sort and start painting all the little parts of this huge case, specially the drying of the paint is one of the more boring tasks in a mod so better get it out of the way early on.





Follow along tomorrow for the next "episode"

...by the way, if you want to see the bigger pictures, go and find me on Instagram



C ya!

 

6th of December

So sorry there was no update this day, I was feeling not too well and stayed in bed most of the day.

 

7th of December

Still not feeling too well, but I pulled myself together and sorted most of the parts out I need to paint, god damn there are a lot of parts in an exploded 800D case!
At least I dont need to paint all of them, because not all will be visible in the final build.
I have painted some of them the first round of white today, I think I need 3 layers to get the results im looking for so it will take a few days.

About the sidepanel I have been working on, I give up, my initial goal of protecting the graffiti flames I did is reached, but the lacquer itself is turning out almost like in drops, looks unique but not really as intended but I dont know what to do so will just buff it and leave it as is. You will see it when I have buffed it.

 

8th of December

My energy is about to be back, så I think I will end up doing a lot tomorrow on the build.

Today I have painted again, I think im about done with the first parts of the case that has now turned white.



The backside panel is still super annoying!
I really dont understand the droplet like effect I have made here, that was not intended at all!
So I decided to sand it down as much as I possible could without ruining the paint job.
Am now trying a different laquer and so far it looks a lot more even. I will not give up until I'm satisfied!
The big picture is the new laquer drying



The 3 smaller pictures are before, when I buffed it and the droplets just came out even more...
Cross your fingers that this side panel quest is soon to be done.

 

By the way, for those who might not have looked in the original thread - the build has kind of a theme, its very car inspired. It will beside that feature 3 water cooling loops, 2 graphic cards in CrossFire, X58 motherboard, Xeon CPU, UV lighting, real carbon fiber (damn it was expensive) and a whole lot more

Follow along tomorrow where I hope to really start this and my plans for the day is assemble the case (now in white) and hopefully get most of the parts installed in the test rig to see if they actually work.

 

There is actually quite many views here 1 week after the thread(s) started.

Bit-tech.net - 197 views
Tweak.dk - 316 views
Overclock.net - 232 views
Linus Tech Tips - 252 views

I promise it will soon get much more interesting

 

9th of December

Im getting real tired of that stupid sidepanel.... Today I went out shoping and came home with 2000 and 2500 grit sandpaper (to add to all the lower grits between 600-1200 I have been using som far), a special blue wax and some scotch-brite pads.

After an extended amount of hours I have now ended up with this:



I am not doing more than this, enough is enough. My arms are pretty tired of shaving down lacquer (no I have not been using a machine for any of this) - so in the end I have not tested hardware today, am too tired.

But I have assembled the first steps of the case!



The Sprite bottle is to try and show how enormous an 800D case is, not sure I succeeded... Its huuuge


Wait and see what the next thing will be, I have quite a few mods in my sleeve for this build

 

10. December

A picture say more than a 1.000 words



Sorry I was totally AFK yesterday.

 

11. December

After I started my day today at 6am and came home at about 8pm I feel pretty tired. So I have confirmed today that my day tomorrow will be busy with a lot of work regarding the front panel.
I have a piece of real carbon plate I need to mod, a fan filter and a light up button (vandal switch) there seems to be about 2mm wider than the hole it was intended to fit inside.

So follow along tomorrow where I no doubt will have a lot more to show, I promise

 

12. December

Today I have actually done as promised!
I have actually been working on the project and done good progress.

I have played around with my real carbon fiber plate, installed a vandal switch and installed a lot of things to the front part of the case.
Inside though its still as empty as the other days.





I dont expect to do much tomorrow, but lets wait and find out

 

13. December

Like I said, did not expect to do much this day...
Did not really feel like modding after a 12hour long day away from home and then coming home to every modders favorite kitchen table full of tools and mods:

 

14. December

Look carefully at this sidepanel, because I suspect this will be the last time you see it like this

I hope to get some good work done tomorrow and do some hardcore mods with paint, metalwork and glass!

 

it's taking shape... you might finish it for christmas

 

15. December


I see now I can actually not totally finish it before christmas, some of the last details are getting a little stuck in the post, so will not arrive until late december or in the new year. Damn it...

But never mind, I will still be able to turn it on long before that, it will just not look totally as pretty as I wanted it to.

Anyway, I have done some good work today.g.


I started the day by bending some alu plates for a psu shroud, never done it before but i guess it turned out ok.



I have mounted 2 of the 3 radiators



I have mounted motherboard and one of the grapics cards, plus I have screwed on the super nice silver barb fittings
If anything then this is actual old school to use barbed silver fittings.



Also, I have cleaned the chrome front panel so it looks pretty damn nice imo...
The real carbon fiber plate give it that extra magic and really makes it stand out.





Not sure if I will have so much time tomorrow, I have a ton of things to do before its soon to be christmas, but lets see if there will not be a minor update

 

it will be up and running before christmas yes, but there are some little details there are not arriving until later so when all is done I will update it with some final beauty shots