Case Mod - In Progress Project Impossible Modding - 07/02 Improving

Now all the cables are sleeved, it's time to cure the side of the grill with the irrigation tubing :



For the first try it's not too bad, mounting in place :



Side view :



I like it, but now it's time to stop joking , it's time to made the final release!

 

I was searching for a piece of smoked plexy, and I came across this :



The cover of an old Corsair Hydrocool :-]



Marking the cut and cutting with the diamond cutter from Dremel, it's not cheaper, but cut the plexy like an hot knife in the butter!



First piece ready.

 

Second piece is held in place with a strip of double sided tape :



Comments? Questions?

 

nice cover for the res. you didn't want to see the water floating in your res? or why doyou cover it?

 

Hem... It's not the res, only the usb port and the switch...

 

why did you hide that nice chrome bit?

 

Here the chrome is not really cool... I'll show some more chromed stuff on the mb tray :-]

 

Now that the mb is near ready, the rads are ok and the usb cover is ok, test fitting!
If anything goes ok, I'm the first in the world to reach this result...



WOW! It Fit perfetly!



Rad, B3 and video card... And now, more USB madness!

 

My idea was to place a cheapo pci 4 port usb card, but I have only free space for a single pci card...
I must choose between 4 usb or my lovely Pinnacle PCTVSAT... I've choosen Pinnacle...
But I need more USB plug, so , moddin a cheap usb hub :



Here is the hub, without his original plastic skin, I've mapped all the joints to do, then I've begun to dissasemble all the plug, except the mini one :



All without ports... As you can see , it's possible to power up this little boy with an external +5v source, lovely!
Now I need more space to play with :



I've used some strip pin (right term?) , they cost near 1.50 euro for 20 piece.
Don't blame me for the cords color, at home I have only this :-]

 

The sacrifical victim :



An old DIN keyboard "vampire" to hook up an old webcam... But the necessary plug si present, I need this :



Here is the necessary cable, a male white molex with all the pins, and a new uv green molex tha I want to use:



With this tool (I don't know the name in english, can someone help me?) I've secured the cable to the molex then I used a lot of heat shrink tubing to insulate all...
Now I need to build the box for the hub.

 

The only free space that I have is the floppy drive bay, here are the necessary items :



I use only he bare chassis of the floppy to have an idea of the whole space, then I used an old memory card reader :



Ok, it fit, now the 4 port...



My idea is to place the usb port here, at 45° degrees. Strange, I know, but keep in mind that on the top I have the psu, at the same degrees, and even the motherboard is slanted in the same way...
Not that I have some measure, let's build all in alu!
Stay tuned!

 

Crimper or Wire Crimp tool.

This is looking really good. I like the way you are just making it work somehow, someway, and doing it well. Keep it up!

 

that tool is also a cutter


keep up the great work

 

The word I was searching for is wire crimper, in italian is "crimpatrice" so i think is the best :-] I know is even a wire cutter, but the important function is crimping the molex pin, they are really b*stard to join to the wire...

Tnx a lot!

 

Firt, I must say a big tnx to Redemptor, owner of the Project Stardust, that made this big transaltion for me...

Now that the motherboard, the radiators and the usb port cover are ready, has come the time to see if my measures were right. If something has gone wrong I’ve just lost moneys, a bet with a friend and more than all I’ve made a bad figure with you all.



Oh yeaaaaahhh!! Everything fits in correctly!!!



Closeup of the radiator, B3 and the videocard.
And now let’s spend some other time on the usb port.

 

Now that the volume tests have been done it’s time to make everything in aluminium.



After some cuts and biadesive ribbon, here’s the box where will go the 4 usb ports and the memories reader.
Yes, biadesive ribbon…
I use it a lot for my projects when I’m in testing phase. I think that it’s really useful to hold in place all the pieces to be drilled, to take measures and evaluate spaces without the needing of glues that take a lot of time to solidify, and more than all it can be removed in really few time.
Usually I use the classic biadesive for moquettes, the roll that I’ve is of 50 meters and costs about 4 euros, and in four years that I’ve been using it I still havent’ reached its half length.
But let’s proceed talking about its shape. How you’ve seen it’s longer than a normal floppy reader, and has a final part with an L shape. This has been made to simplify the exit of the cables and more than all to don’t hide the bottom of the case that is mirrored and really beautiful to be seen…



Here is how it should look after some cuts and sanding, it starts taking shape and now it’s time to cut the cover….



The cut has been made obviously with the Dremel, and the cover frames with all the other L profiles in the base… Everything fits millimetrically…

 

First fitting test:



There are still a lot of things to do, but this is what i had in mind…
First modify: the usb ports support must be cutted to permict the memory reader’s cable pass through:



The cable seems to be straight, but it’s an illusion! Here’s the trick:



On the cable there’s the anti-disturb ferrite cylinder, so I hide it under the L profile of the usb ports, and it fits in nicely…

 

Now it’s time for polishing, i already know that i won’t obtain a perfect result but never surrender:



How you can see there’s difference of reflection, on the left there’s the steel piece of the Cabe, on the right there’s my polished aluminium piece, not that orrible but not comparable to the original piece of the Cabe. I will decide if to leave it as it is, or cover it with some mirror DC-Fix vinyl.



After cutting the leaning out pieces of the usb ports’ bracket, I’ve mounted all and it’s like I wished it!



Comments?

 

good work on the usb ports...

 

great fiddeling work. the last picture really helped me, witou it the placement of the port looked a bit weird