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Case Mod - In Progress Passive GTA IV PC by widmod UPDATE: 9.April 2015

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by widmod, 6 Jan 2009.

  1. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    After the problems I started to mount the hardware in a other case i had around.

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    the case with its previous hardware

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    the DVD drives are dummies one bluray drive will be added to the final build

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    the board in its current home

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    everything fits in there

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    trying those memory fans in there but the where much too loud and will not be included in the final build

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    cabling length test

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    i was about to plug a monitor in an start, but wait where is the socket for the VGA cabel? Ok nothing there i have to wait for my graphic card (it has the water cooling block already mounted so i need to assemble everything else first). So i just switched the system on without to check fan noise.

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    i let it sit in there since then and my father brought me to the idea to assemble the system in this case. I may do that cause i was never happy with the cutout on the other case and the motherboard and everything else was much easier to install in here. The negative side is that the material of this case bends much easier and is thinner than from the other case. The path in between would be to cut the backplate and motherboard tray out of this on and integrate it in the other case.
    Most other parts are here now i will post photos of my new shiny graphic card and cora radiators as soon as i get them uploaded (probably today). I also booted the system in the onboard OS by lending a other grapic card from my brother
     
    Last edited: 14 May 2014
  2. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    update!!!

    As mentioned before i'm quite familiar with building the system in and around this case now so i tried how everything fits in.
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    most of the cooling hardware is here now

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    6 coras i came over on ebay thanks to forum member froop for the hint
    need to clean them the seller wasn't able to do so

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    top view: you can see that i marked the position of all the stuff up there and where to cut holes for the wires (need to add a hole or two for the tubing)

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    on the right you may spot the other 1x120 radiator i will install it to have a backup if everything gets too hot

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    thats the backside of my new powercooler hd4850 graphic card. The stock ATI cooler is mounted there

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    The front with the nice already mounted water block. Sadly the card didn't feater any other vendor features on the board the conetors for the ati light or something else where ripped of and filed down. The end of te stock backplate continues over the pcb and nothing is mounted on the other side to hide the end of the card or those ugly screw holes in the backplate. i was quite pissed that the don't mount a custom backplate or added some cooler or coverto the end of the card cause it came at a very high price, but didn't look like a premium card just like a stock card with the normal cooler ripped of and a ek-waterblock mounted instead.

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    everything i have atm together

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    most of the other hardware in the case

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    the hdd and ssd somewhere in there packing to the right :worried:
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    the ssd would fit in here

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    the monster card fits in the case but is longer than the motherboard

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    the orginal front ripped of i have a plexi sheet hand for here (more later)

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    on BD-drive will replace those 2 and the rest will be hidden behind red plexi

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    side view of everthing

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    a long pcb with many solder points was hidden i the bracket, i will cut it down. There is even a solder point and cutout for a serial port. seriously serial ports on the front comtrade?

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    all the switches,leds,usb ports and speaker (which was the hardest to rip out)

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    the two cases: the watercooling with the old one while the hardware rests in the new one

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    the pair of them from the side

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    PSU test with graphic card mounted, i just saw how nice the backplate reflects the motherboard cooler

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    cabels nicley stuffed away

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    the transslucent plexi from the old laptop

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    i may cut the sidepanel down to the edge of the translucent plexi

    more modding and posting of image tomorrow
     
    Last edited: 18 Jan 2010
  3. DeadP1xels

    DeadP1xels Social distancing since 92

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    wow thats some extreme cooling you got going on there :)
     
  4. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    Theasers

    I' m still on this,but don't have much time for modding and even less time to upload all the pictures i made. Modding Progress i far ahead from the worklog. The pc is running and i can play GTA IV and write this post on it. Now i spend too much time on installing and testing new programms and too less time on modding. But enought words here are some theaser-pic for you:

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    running with a installed ubuntu-linux

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    as it is now running on win 7 Ultimate

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    the mashine as it stands now, the res was turned upwards otherwise it wouldn't be at the highest point of the loop

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    the whole setup with my new G15 Keyboard

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    a low light shot to catch the keyboard and other lights, more leds will be installed in the future :rock:
     
  5. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    It's alive

    Hi Guys :D
    The Machine is running since almost two years now, but i havn't updated my Project Log for a long time. I'm still not 100% finished with this project because the front- and sidepanel is not complete. I start here with posting old pics of the modding process to gain motivation for finishing this project. So enough said here are the pics:

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    small watercooling Radiator with fan for heavy Gaming or hot days

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    Res and Pump closeup

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    Mounting plan scibbeled on the top

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    Planning the loop (Res was rotated Later)

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    this stuff will be mounted here!

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    jiggsawing the plexi
     
  6. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    More Pics coming in:

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    here it's will be mounted (hopefully soon)

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    first boot (on air cooling and with a different GPU)

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    loading onboard asus express gate operating system

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    the whole mess

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    hiding the psu behind the case

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    The home of the SSD and HDD

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    good night motherboard

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    the stripped case

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    heavy modding on the PSU cable slot

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    ...and LAING pump hole

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    we have a hole in

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    cleaning up

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    various flavours of files

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    test fitting

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    changes after test fitting
     
  7. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    Watercooling gear

    MOAR pics
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    Motherboard and the cooling blocks

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    CPU and Chipset block, I like this shining copper

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    future mounting position

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    i bought this motherboard because chaning the chipset block is possible

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    awkward mounting holes

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    the rough finish of the chipset block :wallbash:

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    thermal paste on...

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    and mounted

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    closeup

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    moving on to the CPU block

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    mounting gear

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    the destination

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    it's on

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    side view

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    my favourit closeup pic

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    good nigth again dear motherboard :geek:
     
    Last edited: 14 May 2014
  8. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    Cooling Loop

    On with the Case
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    Test fitting the PSU cables

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    ...and the pump (the part on the left is the only thing that will hold it in place)

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    closeup of the pump

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    .. aaand from inside

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    and the res (turned out later that a lying res was a bad idea)

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    starting with the loop

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    the whole top

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    the small 120mm radiator will be mounted here somewhere

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    snip,snip bye bye fan guard

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    the door is open

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    starting with the fan hole

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    ... here we go

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    making openings for the watercooling barbs

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    it fits

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    tubing, barbs and way too much watercooling fluid

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    the shiny stuff

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    the main cora radiator

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    the board

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    ...with the GPU

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    starting with the tubing on the Radiator

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    ...and everything hooked together

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    mounting position

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    ...and holes

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    next: tubing on the motherboard blocks

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    had to shorten those barbs

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    ...before and after ( I later found extension adapters hiding in the GPU packaing)

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    but its working this way too

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    loop test fitting with the case

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    the rigth side panel with the watercooling gear

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    adding more tubes

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    overview

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    holes for the tubes in the backpanel: goal is to be able to remove the whole loop while it's filled
     
  9. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    Even more modding on my case

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    from the back

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    ...and how it will be covered (at least parts of it)

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    cleaning up the front

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    ...done

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    the bare case

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    and finally spray-painting

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    ..in the night

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    ..on the terrace

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    ..she want's to help me

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    getting there

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    the professional paint booth mounting solution

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    dry and inside again

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    starting with mounting the motherboard

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    ...and the GPU

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    the loop is coming together

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    with the fan

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    extending the holes

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    res with fan mounted (was quit hard to get it lining up)

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    all the watercooling gear on the case

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    ready to fill it up

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    filing it up (with a test psu on the pump)

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    should be upright

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    the filling solution (sorry for the bad pic)

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    aaah it's bleeding

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    temporary mount for the res

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    inside pic

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    and a overview with the mounted PSU

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    hooking up a temporary DVD drive for OS installation

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    it's ALIVE

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    Ubuntu starting to install

    more to come...
     
  10. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    More Case modding

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    the back of the PSU with it's passive cooling block

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    an here's how it will be covered

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    the problem

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    the solution

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    protective film still on the plexi

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    planning the PSU mount with the rubber gasket

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    drilling, drilling snip ooooh nooooo, DOH it's broken

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    :duh:

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    solution: cutted it in half and used the lower part of it

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    metal will be a better support for the PSU

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    jig sawed it out

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    looks like it would fit

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    closeup

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    jup it fits

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    how the plates came together on the backside

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    solutios for covering up the backpanel that never where actually mounted there (fan hole would have been added)

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    overview of the back-panel


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    windows is on

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    It's running

    Thats how it stand now, I also have a nearly completed front pannel which is currently not mounted and i can't find pics of it atm
    So enough posting and talking to myself: What do you think? :eyebrow:
     
  11. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    So I'm on it again

    I moved the machine over to a other Place long time ago so i took Pics of that last weekend and mouted the front Panel. I also cleaned up the interior Cabels so Cabel management is much better now

    Some Pictures after Cabel Managment:
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    Moving from a dark Cellar to a well lit room also helps when making photos

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    Motherboard Close up

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    With the Frontpanel on

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    It's less transluescent without flashy Cameras :worried:

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    Closeup with the BlueRay Drive in Place

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    With the front switches mounted I can now use the interrior side pannel

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    Left to do: rework the side panel with filler and paint it

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    some Ideas: Mount the Rest of the Plexi around the case window

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    a shot with a bit more flash

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    the whole setup as i use it ATM (no idea where the dots came from)

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    from a different angel

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    it's glowing somewhere in there

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    the glow and now you can't see the rest

    edit:
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    nested tread in threads photo, a pic of the machine while being used to write this thread

    So that's it, hope you liked it. I'm motivated to go on now :dremel:
     
    Last edited: 22 Apr 2012
  12. rak500

    rak500 Minimodder

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    What sort of temps are you getting with this setup?

    Nice passive build, I must admit I really enjoy those!
     
  13. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    Temps

    I actually have 46°C CPU temp
    43°C system Temp:

    [​IMG]
     
  14. Reconnec7ed

    Reconnec7ed What's a Dremel?

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    That is some brilliant ghetto modding going on there :D
     
  15. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    yes that's my first mod and I probably would have saved some hassel with a ready made case.
    But buying a new case and cutting it up imidiatelly just didn't made sense for me :eyebrow:
     
  16. Evenge

    Evenge Minimodder

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    I was thinking something like you have done but cost would have gotten too high for my budget.

    My friend has A zalman reserator and A 120mm radiator in his setup and I must say it is awesome when his computer doesn't make any sound when browsing web and doing other light work. Well HDDs produce some noice albeit they are in silencer cases, but I don't count that! :D
     
  17. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    yes thats nice
    sadly the laing pump is the lowdest thing atm
    i might get over that by mounting some rubber buffers
    i only hear the big hdd when reading or writing files from it otherwise i use the ssd for OSes
     
  18. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    Thread resurection

    Hi everybody

    another Thread resurection
    I have moved to a new apartment last year together with my girlfriend
    So I have more place to work now and don't need to clean up everything afterwords
    We also have a nice balcony to do all the dirty work

    Recently my pump stopped working so I can't use this Computer until I had done some work on it, a good reason to start modding again.
    Enough words some pics:
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    the leftovers from the coolant under the pump

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    a bit blurry but you can see coolant where it shouldn't be: bejond the O-ring


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    disasembly in the bathroom

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    clearer pic of the malefunctioning pump

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    inside: more spilled coolant

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    closeup

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    coolant in the pump motor: not good

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    the other side: coolant in the pump housing

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    all pump parts

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    even more pump parts

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    the mounting hole

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    testing with the cleaned pump housing

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    Ideas for the side panel

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    fixing a former mod

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    somthing behind: next filler

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    prepearing the side panel

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    first try in painting the PSU mount

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    first layer of filler

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    the other day: THE LAING PUMP IS WORKING :rock:

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    found something i didn't remember i had: USB and esata ports that same with my motherboard, I will replace the one I currently have because they are not working

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    testing mounting positions

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    more filler on the side panel: I'm testing if i can fill the whole outher trim

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    the mounting plate for the USB ports and my loose power switch

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    maybe mount it here?

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    or cut it an add a support?

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    sanded down the filler from yesterday with some sandpaper

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    how to mount that stuff? (switches and ports)

    thanks for watching, feel free to coment :eyebrow:
     
    Last edited: 30 Jun 2013
  19. widmod

    widmod Minimodder

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    Hi all
    did some more work in the last weeks

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    ...also bought a new tool: a codless drill

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    sarted with drilling some holes around the pump mounting hole

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    added a cardboard metall dst collector, but i'm not sure if i'll keep this feature :worried:

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    dremeling off the end that held the pump before (bent in when pump was mounted)

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    off it goes, but leaves more scratches on the top :dremel:

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    Former Res mounts sanded down

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    closeup

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    stated filling the holes with a car metal filler

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    while it was drying i was working hard on converting a slot-cover in a mounting bracket for the front panel switches

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    then sanded the top down

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    prepairing for spray painting

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    paper on

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    same on the back, that happens when one doesn't unmount the hardware

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    there is a radiator somewhere behind this paper pile

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    ..and after painting on the balcony

    next part is comeing soon,what do you think?:confused:
     
  20. Evenge

    Evenge Minimodder

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    I would have disassembled the computer before painting, but that works too. One just have to be precise when covering all those precious components. :)

    End result looks good, waiting for your next update. :thumb:
     

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