Project: A Cramped LanBoy; Minor Update Jan 31st 2007

Veery dangerous to have that PSU fan sticking out like that, all it takes is one bug or a little bit of water and then the PSU's fried, and then it might fry some components too.

Just turn the PSU around.

 

It's definitely going to be guarded with a mesh cup, and possibly (but not likely) a filter. Anything falling straight down will ricochet off the cup. Therefore the only worry is horizontal projectiles that can fit in a 4* 6 mm rhombus-sized hole. Fluids won't be kept anwhere near the system. If there's a fluid flying towards the system, it can attack through the blowhole as well.

 

I just cut the pencup and left 4 pieces a little longer bent em out and screwed it in place

 

Hey you wouldnt happen to be the same nismo from metku.net would you?

Sorry for the thread hijack.

 

Yes im the nismo299 from metku.net

 

Alright, so I was home this weekend so I sanded and polished the panels. I took some pics but they didn't come out too well so I'm going to wait until I wax the panels before I take any more pics.

I learned a lesson the hard way.

Even thought I was working with super-fine grits, I used too much pressure. In some cases I completely took off the clearcoat. Next time, I should apply more color coats, sand everything until fine, then apply sufficient layers of clearcoat and then sand very lightly.

I used Turtle Wax polishing compound after 1000, 1500 and 2000 grit paper. So now my panels are EXTREMELY flat and polished. But the painted surface is not completely uniform. Bad Stu, BAD. I get mirror reflections at certain angles, but only soso reflections from dead on. I plan on waxing the case soon, which should give it a deeper, wetter reflections, and hopefully this will detract from the blemised paint job. I really don't have the time or work area to lay new layers of color or clear coat, so I'm going to leave it as is. At least I know what to do better next time.

Also, I have some swirl marks. I'm pretty sure it's from the 1000 grit paper or something. To completely remove surface damage, each higher grit must remove three times the material as the step before. Well, that's a metallurgical rule so it might be a bit too excessive for here. I'm not sure if rubbing compound would have helped here. What I don't get is that I see swirls. It's the faintest of swirls, but still. I think this is coming up from when I sanded the panels prior to the last coat before clear coating.

In either case, I know what to prevent for next time. At that point I'll probably use acrylic paints or similar airbrushable paints so that I gain some flexibility in work environments. My soon to be wife probably won't let me work in the apartment, and I can probably get away with working in my parents' backyard on a weekend morning, but if I use spray cans I'll stink up their basement whereas an airbrushed paint job won't lead to propellant fumes.

That's just a verbal update. After waxing, I'm going to give up on the panels and work on the water cooling and lighting.

 

looks nice the paint is cool but did you think of using the zalman water cooling tower http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=206&code=021

 

I did consider that Zalman model, but there were a few things that drove me away from that idea.

1. I move my system around at least 2-4 times a year. For the next few years, it's going to be on the order of 1-2 times a year, but I need everything self contained.

2. Cost. I picked up an Asetek HD cooling kit for pretty cheap. The HD block is on the shelf, but for the price, the tubing, reservoir, radiator (with bad paint/powder job) and pump came at a decent price. I picked up some FluidXP and a CPU block. I'm not looking for extreme performance - I was/am looking to get my hands dirty with water cooling and gain some experience from it. There's no sense in spendling 3 times as much for my 1st time implementing a water loop.

Besides, where's the fun in doing things the easy way?

 

Ok, so here are the photos of the painted, polished, and waxed panels. They didn't come out as well as I had originally hoped for, but I'm relatively pleased seeing as how this was my first painting project.


Post-polishing.


[EDIT]I don't remember which photo this was, but imageshack lost the digital image or something as there is an X in my "My Image" list. If it doesn't come back eventually, I'll upload a new photo.[/Edit]
Post-waxing.
It's not as "wet" a look as I would have hoped for, but that's probably partially due to having rubbed most of the clear coat away. I'm getting pseudo-reflectivity, but at pretty absurb angles.

The top panel (painted red) is much more reflective but I had a very hard time photographing it.

 

Nice to see, cant wait to see the internals!!

 

a pencup cant protect against water! mwaahhaha

 

One of these days I've got to reorganize this thread and some of my images, but possibly when I'm finished.

Anyways, I've been trying to figure the little things out. Some of my tools are still at my parents' place so I can't do everything immediately. This is good because it gives me time to think things over.


This is how I decided to mount the paperclip cup to the PSU. I have some anti-vibration mounts which look slightly better than a protruding screw or nut. I have a red fan guard which succumbed to some bending so that the cup can mount directly to it. I plan to either epoxy or gorilla glue the cup to the fan mount since it now fits flush. The fan mounts are intended to grip onto a little more than a loop of fabric and case panel so I'm using some conductive foam for additional thickness.

The advantage of this is that I can remove the unit from the top should I decide to further modify it. The fan guard is raised a little bit so if need be I can easily implement a filter.

 

Looks great, but if you can, stick a dust filter in there too.
Dust gets everywhere, and i really don't think its good to have lots of dust in the PSU.
The colors looks too bright for me, but it is your mod, not mine

 

Hmm. I like the pencil cups as they aren't too worn-out quite yet. I think it could looks nice to have one or two of them in the suck-hole in front of the case. Usually I HATE fans (especially led-(and especially blue led-)) in the front panel but a pencil-cup in front of it might look nice... Like a high-performance air filter in cars

 

The pencil cups were bought with the mod in mind, as was the little cup, but after thinking about how tall they are, the taller pencil cups have been conscripted positions of pen-holding duty.

I have some plans for the front but need access to some more of my hardware and tools before I can finalize anything. I'm also experimenting with different lighting situations but haven't found anything I like yet.

This is how the case looked originally. The whole front panel is off for now and the door is probably going to be left off when all is said and done. I do plan on keeping the front translucent grid, and am thinking of lighting it red or white.

 

I'm still acquiring more parts. I still have a few more tools to acquire as well (larger file set and a heat gun), but I'll be able to continue with large portions of the mod in a few weeks. There's also a good possibility that I won't post in such small steps anymore since it's been what, eight months since I began.

 

Like this mod so far.. i have recently done something similar in installing a full watercooling kit with a PA160 in a fairly Small Lian-Li PC-65.. there's always a way to do stuff in the end, even if it doesn't work out perfectly.. reservoirs can be annoying have had to mount mine on top of case. Good luck and that is pretty good modding/painting so far.. i need to do mine since its not really modded a lot in terms of looks (http://tinyurl.com/y3wcjl)

 

Yours looks nice too. My problem is that I'm trying to do way too much all at the same time. The radiator is going on the back and I just got a Swiftech RadBox to improve airflow between the fan and the radiator. I'm also going to need to secure the radiator since its extension from the case is going to exert a LOT of torque onto the case. Whether or not it'll effect things in the long run is a risk I don't want to take.

I'm planning on reconstructing the entire front part of the case. I've considered salvaging it, but the faceplate is silverish painted plastic and I've removed too many features for the "holes" and drive holes to just be covered with plexi.

I also have a lot of lighting components to introduce BUT I want to do so in a subtle, classy way where nothing is washed out. I want there to be several lighting options. Cathodes for all-out UV and/or blue wash goodness, and plenty of uber bright LEDs for spot illumination.

Thanks everyone for looking, I promise I'll have updates somewhat soon. I just have too many deadlines coming up soon that I can no longer ignore.

 

bump... project dead??

 

Not dead. I'm in the middle of research projects, coursework, and helping my woman plan our wedding, so there's not too much time devoted to the comp.

Everything was dismantled again since I fit the mobo and vid card with their water blocks. Before I connect or test the water loop, I need to make the structural modifications to the case.

I appreciate your support though!!

I'll post some teaser photos within the next day or so though. Once I have a lot more photos, I think I'll create a fresh, much more concise tread.