Case Mod - In Progress Feeding Frenzy: November-11-2009 video card fan installed

New pics up on the ATX loom.

 

Forgot to mention that my dyed silicon gaskets faded to a reddish color. So I just got in some real black fan gaskets.

 

Yay on ATX loom

I had one of those magnifying visors. Those things truely rock

 

Nicely done, very clean wiring. I've been trying to avoid thinking about mine too much, just because it IS such a tedious process. And if I ever end up ordering an Aquaero I'd need to start over - always a problem with having a "working mod"... you always end up needing to change stuff along the way.

Where'd you get the black fan gaskets btw? I'm thinking I may have to pick a couple up.

 

Opti-Visors are the hot ticket when working on computers and all things that go snap, crackle, pop.

 

Thanks for the nice words on my wiring. Wait till you see the rest of the wiring. I got Sharka to get them for me. He also stocks them now as well and they run about $7 a piece. They are roughly twice the thickness of other gaskets I have seen elsewhere.

BTW, I haven't sent your poster yet as I have been getting side tracked looking for a new car. Anyway I packaged it up today in a round tube and will mail it tomorrow Priority mail.

 

Love the look of the wire management.

Just wondering, what car are you looking at? huhu

 

OT

Thanks for saying so and I am probably going to get a 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo Sedan. I think it has something like 220 HP and a top speed of about 150 Mph.

This is what it looks like inside, but the one I'm buying is black with grey leather interior:

 

Looking good TN..
Your project is really coming to life..Lots of original stuff going on in that case..

 

Okay time for another small update as I worked on the SLI power connector last night. I think you will like this different look in wiring as I wanted to test out my theory before tackling the PSU connector wires. Here are the tools and materials I needed to do the mod. I picked up some 25 foot rolls of 18 gauge multi stranded wire in black, yellow, and red colors. The gold pins I got from A.C. Ryan. Some of the cheaper PSU's use 20 gauge wiring, but this is for a PCP&C Turbo 510 SLI and I want the best.











The heat gun needs it's own pic as it is the size of a big hair dryer. The little tube looking thing is a deluxe molex round pin remover. If you ever plan on doing this kind of work I highly recommend that you get this item. It makes removing molex pins a snap.











One of the first things I realized was that the stock cable loom wasn't going to be long enough. Since I had to splice and solder wires it was a question of where to do it. Sometimes it is easier to make things new rather than trying to just do an add on. This was the case here and I decided to make a new loom and solder directly to the PSU or close the the board. So the first thing to do is cut the wires to length.











After crimping the connenctor it is time to attach the sleeving material (black of course) and prepare for heatshrinking it down. Here you can see the connector before sliding the sleeve to it's proper place.











Here is the finished look on the individual wires. I decided not to put a piece of heatshrink at the back end as it would have impaired the flexibility of the wire.











Here is the finished connector. I really like this method over using plain heatshrink as it looks very nice and I can ascertain the color of the wires at a later date by close inspection.












This pic shows the bigger sleeving material that covers all four wires and is secured by a small piece of heatshrink.











The next set of pics shows the finished mod. Now you can see why I drilled and tapped those holes in the back of the case. I am using some more of my buttonhead screws here so the only thing you see on the back of the case is a pair of screws that look somewhat like the stock rivets. These are the smaller cable clamps and are secured through the use of black (of course) hex nuts.































Well that is it till later today when I have a chance to work on the 4 pin ATX power connector.

 

Thanks for saying so and glad to see you back from creaming alien life forms.

 

This looks very professional:



Well done (as might be expected from you)!

 

I wish..Nothing but (real-world) work as of late..BUT, it pays the bills..

 

Thanks for saying so! I like it so much I have decided to make a new HD loom up with the same design and the rest of FF will get similar appointments.

 

This looks great!
No idea in hell why its only got 4-stars. Something is wrong in the world!

 

Thanks for saying nice things about my humble project again.

Well if I had to hazard a guess I would imagine that someone is taking this A.C. Ryan Worklog contest too serious. After all it isn't about the glory or the money, but about having a good time and doing what you like to do. However, I have noticed a trend lately that the more popular projects have been getting downgraded a lot. Then again perhaps it is just some really critical purveyors of modding skills and work.

I rate threads based on a variety of factors and tend to give high marks based on what has been done and what I see as coming done the line based on previous work. I also believe that people are encouraged to excel in their projects by high marks so I like encouraging people as well.

Edit:

This discussion thread is rated at 4.29 with 7 votes and my project thread is rated at 3.92 with 13 votes. So who cares? I think we would have better honesty in this ratings system if peoples votes were seen. Then people could get some better feedback as to what they might do to raise their ratings. This would help make for better projects IMHO.

 

I wish I had the time and money to invest in modding a computer the way I have seen so many people do on Bit-Tech (to busy gaming when i have free time ).

Yours is the one I've followed more closely than any other just cause it is such a great project & log

I can't understand why people would give it votes to bring the score below 4

Keep up the , cause it really is looking great

 

The money part is getting me down at times, but fortunately I have a decent computer to game and work on so I can always just put it away for a while when I get discouraged. I do understand your issues though because when I used to UG it was a mad dash to get it all installed and up and running within 24 hours max.

Well thank you for saying so.

I have no idea, but I wish they would give some hints so I could make a better project.

 

My thoughts indeed. I considered doing a similar thing but I wasn't sure how the "joining section" would look.

Just ignore the ratings, most people I think don't bother, and a lot are just closet trolls downgrading a project as nice as this.

 

I got some new toys coming from Austria this week. The fun one is this little cutie:









AFAIK, Sharka wasn't able to get any of these or the AquagraFX 7800 coolers as they screwed around to long with their ordering. I ordered mine the first day they came out, but I didn't want to hold up my last shipment so it should be here in a week or so. One bright spot is that Sharka dropped the price on the Aquaero VFD's from $280 down to $170 USD.

Now I got to drill more holes in my case.