Case Mod - In Progress Prodigy Casemod : Final 08-21-2013

After a little Introduction of my work done till now including a bit of an overview over my watercooled LianLi A05 here is what I´m up to at the moment.

Please excuse some spelling mistakes and other grammar stuff, I´m from Austria (skiing no Kangoroos, that sentence I used quite often in the US of A) 34 Years of Age, I´ve a nearly 3 year old son and I´m a Software Engineer.

First of all, Big Thanks to Bitfenix Germany for giving me the opportunity to work on their marvelous Prodigy case.

As the Project title will make you guess it will be another boring Red-Black-White styled R.O.G. Themed casemode, as there were allready so many average ones, and a view good ones.
Well I´ve to live up with that, and I can only give you my promise that I´m going to do my best.

Well wait a moment, R.O.G. Themed Build in a Prodigy someone might ask, just to be certain, it´s going to be an ITX build, no crappy crunched in Asus Gene something.


It wasn´t my plan to do what I´m going to do in the first case, because I was following the EVGA Z77 Stinger itx boar since the first rumors and previews. Thx to twitter and EVGA´s Jacob
As there is no sign of a release Date, I went back to things I knew, so it had to be tha Asus P8Z77-i Deluxe.
As the casemod is ROG themed I´m going to mod and style the Mainboard as good as I can into something that Asus should have done by themselves.
Making a propper Z77 Maximus Gene ItX.
Now what´s that for a name ?

As this will task will take some time do fullfill in a propper way, I really havent looked in specific hardware details, like choosing a CPU,GPU, Ram and cooling.
I just took the stuff I got cheap and the rest will be decided when it´s time to make decisions.

So the Hardwarelist at the moment is quite short, an nothing like Fixed

Mainboard : MAximus Gene IX (P8Z77-i-Deluxe)
Ram : second hand 4gig Reaper Kit
Cooling : second hand Corsair H50

The second mayor Part of this Project involves the second name-giving Item, a White Bitfenix Prodigy.
Speaking of that, I think there is no need to bore someone with Pictures of a fully assembeld Case or an unboxing story.
But what I can tell you is what I´ve in plan for the case.
First of all Windows on both sidepanels. With a mainboard orientation like in this case you have to show gpu and cpu side.
I´ve allready marked the maximum size for each window, which is limited by the PSU Housing/Mainboardtray




Next after that the Tray will get some opening on both sides to the PSU , on top to reduce contact chances of a cpu backplate to the tray, and towards the front I´ll open the tray for more access in case of a modular psu and its plugs.

After removing the top and bottom Wobblebars (pls. tell me a propper name for them) a really cute case was left. Really like that



Apart from the remaining holes which are found after removing the bars.

I just did that as I have an idea to follow which ended in a small 3d sketch :

The first draft of my top wobblebar replacement.
The cut out will be done to fit the original Mesh cover to keep a littel oem style.
Heightwise I´m planing 2 types.
Type A, the slim one with about 30mm in heigt, to house and hide 2 fans which would be for an Aircooling setup, a below mounted Radiator, or a top mounted slim Radiator
Type B woulde be about 50mm in heigth and would house a top mounted 45mm Radiator.

What can be mounted for the top, Can also be fitted as a replacement for the bottom wobblebars.
To keep it simple that would only work as a Case Feet bracket with an option for Additional IO Ports which would look somewhat like


or a 3.5" fan controller/Aquaero, or just a simple Mesh. So many options to look at.

While on cables and stuff, I really don´t know if this will be a sleeved build, Custom crimped cable lenght is a fixed point, no extentions, Hopefully I can find a solution for that ughly USB3 Header which is really short and I really don´t like the Idea where it should be plugged into. Well same thing is for the usb 2.0 ports on the Asus board.

Finally there will be the question in which direction this build will go.
As planed in a sleek, simple surfing office system, or as as expected in a full watercooled high end gaming rig, to replace my Gulftown system.
Time will tell...

 

Very interesting concept indeed ... Sub'd

 

Mainboard arrived at home.
Tried to make some nice pictures of the delivery state.
Seems like lots of work to do for me

 

Did the actual possible mods.
Cleaned the Coolers
De-Stickerd the Mainboard, oops void the Warranty after 2h of ownership
Removed the useless Wifi





Color Change of most of the blue parts of the Mainboard seem to be undoable without a soldering Iron, which is a mayor setback. Colorcoding with a permanent marker seems not to be the option I thought it would be.

Time to get some Ideas while sleepin.

 

You could try to "disassemble" a permanent marker to reach less accessible parts. Or a less adventures way, get some model paint (from Revell or something alike), a precise brush and lots of time and patience.

 

The de- stickered board is beautiful!

 

I'm planning a prodigy build next so I will be following this one closely I believe in you mate

 

Wait, ROG colors are red and black, and this motherboard is blue, so you are going to paint the coolers?
And the moded board is looking great!

 

I don´t think that I´ve got the patience or skills to do that, so that that the outcome would look somewhere near the quality I would like to have it.

Thanks alot to both of you

THAT was the Original plan, but at the moment it looks like it´s not going to happen.

Need to do a reconcept of the color scheme but there arent so many options avaliable.
Silver/alloy are quite dominating next to blue. The white of the case itself is the next huge impact on the design.
When not adding a 4th color I´m quite limited with my options.
Getting the silver out of the equation would be probbably the easiest Task, but on the downside of that, the silver parts are the ones I like best at the moment.

The plain silver from the caps in combination with the cleaned Heatsinks are quite pleasing

 

Looking good, will be watching as I have a Prodigy case that I might mod in the near future

 

Changed the Title because a R.O.G. styled P8z77 won´t happen.
I´ll focus first on the metal work, and the mods done to the case.

Future Hardware decisions in case of color choice will be done afterwards
<sorry>

 

Dear Bit-Tech

Did some work on the CAD system.

Primary idea was to get pre-production Ready sketches for the windows, to get some quotes for them.





Last, but not least, a closeup of a set of Replacement feet for the Prodigy.
For an aircooling Setup this might be a Final revision too



Should give the case a more stable stand on the table, and a little reduction in height.

enjoy

 

Liking the renders dude, keep up the good work!

 

Tried the new ram sticks on the new mainboard...



Seems that we have slight problem/issue for the support stuff :-(

 

Yep, either they are a tad wonky, or im drunk! (And I am not a drinker. lol)

 

The Stinger has less space between the Ram slots than others, On the Asus z77 itx it looks good.
Testfitted my Radiators, 240x45mm in top, 140x30mm in front.
With a modfront the 120mm fans of the top radiator will fit inside, when I can move the 140 rad 5-7mm down compared to the actual Position.
Finally it might even be enough space to fit my Aquaero5 below the 140 rad.

 

Thats gonna be the final loop


Rear view, left and right of the Psu there will be holes for Quickcouplers (VL3N) to keep my Mora working at home



Pwm Laing in its new home, some of the mobotray is missing



Gpu Side, Ductaped hose goes out to the vl3n coupler, all the rest seems to be clear



Coming from the vl3n quickcoupler up to the CPU waterblock (hopefully in a nice bend ) from the waterblock the fluid flows to the gpu near radiator entrance. As I´m using tygon leftovers, I had to cheat a bit from the rad to the res




Plenty of space for the Aquaero, because mounting the top rad with one hole offset.

 

looking god mate, i await updates eagerly

 

Interesting placement of your res and pump! Did you look at EK's 140 res/pump top?

Also, I love seeing a white Prodigy with that Asus board. I'm still working on modding my own and seeing a lot of the ideas I have mirrored here is kinda eerie. lol

 

I also own a Series one EK Xres/DCC Top. The new one looks thempting as I´d prefere the smaller Plexi cylinder of the "100" and has an input in the backside.
Probably I´ll order a Plexi tube from the "100". With the actual solution I´ve far more options and I allreday had all the parts