Case Mod - In Progress Making an InWin 928 to be quiet!

Hi folks,

I want to share with you my current work, transferring this:



into this:

 

Starting off with the specs:

Hardware:
Intel Core i9-9900KS R0
Asus ROG Maximus XI Extreme
64GB G.Skill Trident Z RGB DDR4-3600 CL17
PNY Quadro RTX5000
1x Samsung 970 PRO 1 TB
1x Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1 TB
be quiet! Dark Power Pro P11 850 W
InWin 928 Big Tower

Watercooling:
EK-Velocity Intel RGB
EK-Vector RTX 2080 RE RGB (modded to fit RTX5000)
EK-XTOP Revo Dual D5 PWM
2x aquacomputer aqualis PRO 880 ml nano
1x aquacomputer MPS200
2x Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 420mm V.2
1x Alphacool NexXxoS ST30 240mm V.2
12x 140mm Wing Boost 3 ARGB PWM fan
2x 120mm be quiet! Silent Wings 3 PWM
Bitspower fittings and tubes


I build this one back in mid 2019, so first we need to go back in time...

 

When the case came I was a bit shocked about its size



Here it is next to an O11

 

At that time I experimented a little bit with Pelletier cooling and considered adding it to the loop



I managed to get the loop temp below ambient in idle, but once the 9900K went to full power, the Pelletier draw more power and became inefficient



So finally I discarded the idea. But it was a nice try anyway

 

So I decided to beef up the cooling capacity of the InWin 928 a little bit, because despite its size it can host "only" two 420mm rads.
I added a 240mm rad on the back of the mobo tray.



It is a rough 25% increase in cooling area and probably not worth the hassle, but the heck with it...







I added a 1mm thick sheet of acetal on each side of the mobo tray, in order to hide the huge original cut-outs



I also had to sandwich some pre-shaped aluminum with the thickness of the tray inbetween those sheets, because otherwise some fittings were just in the air.
The original cut-outs are quite big...

 

A first test fit...so far so good



I wanted the loop as clean as possible, so much of the loop is hidden in the case




The original fans have been replaced, as they suck. Imho, all case manufacturers should stop to equip their cases with pre-installed fans and sell the cases at a lower price.
Who the heck does not replace their ****? I do not know how many noisy, crap looking fans I have flying around my shop. What a bloody waste




I wanted to integrate the RTX5000 in the loop and that required a good amount of research, which cooler might fit.
Well, at the end of the day it is a reference design, so basically any RE cooler would do...with some tweaking.

I went with an EKWB cooler, but it needed a completly new cover, since the power connectors are oriented differently on the gaming cards.
This was a bit tricky, because all the cooling channels are in the cover, not in the metal cooling plate. So a half day of measuring, re-mesuring and drawing was required.
But at least the cooling plate fitted the PCB and that was all that mattered.

I also made a new inlet with 4 ports and new RGB logo and a nice looking back plate.

For whatever reason I can't remember, I have not made a single picture of this...

 

I moved the location of the two PSU cages a little bit, so they are closer together, which gives a bit more room for the cable management.



The dual pump is not necessary, but a single one look a bit out of place in the huge cage



Finally I added some acetal covers on the bottom. The HDD trays are still removable which makes revisions to the cable management more easy.

 

And here it is:

 

Turn on the lights

 

1,5 years down the road, however, my enthusiasm for the case is gone, and am I left with what bothered me from the very beginning - the noise...
The InWin 928 is a masterpiece of a case and I still like the design, but it has a major flaw - at least for me. It is basically an open design, since there are considerable gaps between the aluminium frame and the side panels - otherwise no airflow.
With 14 fans inside, spinning at a meager 500 rpm, there is a distinctive hum.
Under load...well figure yourselves

No problem when you are gaming, but when you do CAD work half a meter away from the beast - tiring to the least.

Most likely I can improve this with Noctua or be quiet! fans, as the Alpenföhns are not really the quietest ones - although significantly better than the OEM InWin fans.
But the look so pretty

Covid lockdown gives me plenty of idle time, so I decided it was time to change.

I did some research which case would do better and I finally ended up with the be quiet! Silent Base 802.
The design is a bit dull, but I like the modularity, the complete dismountability, size and relatively good bang for the buck.

First action, complete disassembly, measuring and re-modeling in CAD.
I used a white one for this, way easier to take measures.
I kinda liked the black and white theme, but it would have looked a little bit out of place, so finally I went with a black one...



Got some help too....

 

The prime condition was that I want to carry over the hardware 1 to 1.
Even though it is soon two gens old, it still is a hell of a good CAD rig.
My software is single threaded, so core clock is all that matters and the 9900KS gives a reliable and stable 5.3 MHz. I won the silicone lottery - for a change - yeah!!!
So no reason to change, new CPU, new mobo, etc...

Also I want to salvage almost all of the cooling hardware, pump, fittings, fans.
Only the res and the rads need to be changed, the current ones simply don't fit in the smaller case.

Lastly, I want to carry over the overall look with the vertical tubes, mainly because I do not want to touch the GPU cooler...

 

First part to be made was a bracket for the aquacomputer quadro and farbwerk. I f..king hate Asus Aura and Fan Control, so I want all fans and external RGB to be managed without it.



A 6mm aluminium plate with two 5.5mm deep recesses



This fits perfectly to the SSD bracket of the case



Hold in place with 3M sticky tape, done. The recesses are necessary because the cut-outs in the brackets are deep drawn and have a collar - and because there is not sooo much space between the mobo tray and the side panel.
This has a 10mm thick anti noise foam on the inside. So to fit all the connectors, every milli helps...

 

Next came the pump bracket.
This has to be a two piece design - otherwise you can not put it in place.



The pump has anti-vibration mountings, which need to be secured with M4 nuts. The bottom ones can not be accessed anymore, once the bracket is mountet, so the pump need to be installed to the bracket first.



The middle floor has a 8mm deep draw, so you cannot swivel the pre-mounted pump and bracket in place, hence the two piece design...

 

The covers on the floor above the PSU are a snap fit and a bit flimsy for my taste. So I decided to make a new cover out of 8mm acetal.



I wanted to have an RGB gadget in there with an iluminated plate and a logo cut-out in the acetal. So i milled it down to a remaining thickness of 1.5mm, in which the logo should have gone.
But see for yourselves...



The acetal got warm, the thin layer bended a bit...and got sucked up by the endmill...
Should have known better and fixed this area with double sided tabe beforehand

Gone too far by now to do it again, so I decided on a different solution.



Wasn't the last hickup though. The bottom hole was not supposed to be there
At least the location pegs turned out fine...

 

The test fit is ok.



Drilled out the hole and turned a mating plug




Sanded acetal is a fingerprint magnet. It also does not really match the black colour of the case.
So I just put some vinyl on it.







That's quite allright

 

This also has the benefit that you can plot all sorts of things in the vinyl.



Not what I originally intended, but it has to do for now...

 

This isn't really a case mod. Sorry. Only a few parts to make. Apart from a few holes in the PSU floor for the fittings, the case remains untouched.
Need to make a matching reservoir and that's it.



I need a custom one, because the available ones are either 240mm or 360 mm and I want mobo height, 305mm.
Also, the mobo is E-ATX and it covers the pass through cut-outs for the cables.
Behind the res are 5 openings where you can place HDD drive bays.
Cables can go through there, but I need an opening in the res for this...



Need some grooves at the back as well, because those HDD openings have collars too.

That is the current state...

 

You are making custom parts. That makes it a case mod.

 

Bottom half is finished.



It gets RGB from both sides, the strip on the right and the mobo on the left.

 

The res is finished.
It is a three piece design.

I made a frame from 3mm acetal to hide the o-ring.



Then I milled a matching recess in the acrylic....



...and taped them together before drilling and cutting to size.



This worked quite well.



The sides are all painted black, so the RGB will hopefully just illuminate the water.



The frame is a bit elevated above the acrylic to give it a more 3D like look