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Case Mod - In Progress Project LilyPC by E.E.L. Ambiense - Abandoned!

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by E.E.L. Ambiense, 12 Aug 2012.

  1. E.E.L. Ambiense

    E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic

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    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

    Hello! This will be a quick lil' project for my step-daughter, who happens to be named Lillith, but she goes by Lily. Hence the project name. Creative, right? :lol:

    This is a project based around an old classic chassis, Lian Li's PC-60. I've built a few machines in this very chassis, and it was sitting around and being ignored so I figured, "why not"? Originally, I was going to use a mobo that MSI was supposed to supply for a magazine spread, but...well... I went into that over in the BIO-A10 log at-length. Gist of the story is, MSI is a really terrible company that does not care for their customers/supporters, and I will never again support them or even recommend them to others. No argument about it; simply stating the facts from where I'm standing.

    [​IMG]

    ***update - As of August 27th, the issue has been resolved with Cooler Master due to the exhaustive help, support and badgering from Bill Owen, Antony L., Richard S., as well as some help from Nic - Cooler Master US and the Cooler Master rep that actually has a brain in his gourd - - Mr. Wu from Cooler Master Taiwan who put his foot down and fixed the whole issue. Infinite thanks, Mr. Wu! Your reputation proceeds you, kind sir.

    And it should be pointed out that there was no help at all from the UK team. Shame on you guys! :nono: ***


    There, I feel better now. Must maintain positive output! :hehe:

    Back to the important stuff, here's a mockup illustration to give a rough idea on the looks...

    [​IMG]

    And here's the case itself.

    [​IMG]

    I've used this exact case a few times for rebuilds in the past, so it's had a lot of service under its belt. But this will be it's final "resurrection" if you will. I didn't mod it a whole lot since it was used with low-heat hardware, aside from the obvious power/reset switch replacement mod that everyone practically did to this case.

    [​IMG]

    Let's jump right in. Not a lot for the opening post to the log, but I'm going to move this one along fairly quickly as her B-day is coming up on Sept. 11. Yes, that date, and the same year.
    I still believe she is the anti-Christ. :hehe:

    Yeah, that's an old Seasonic PSU in there. Of course. I may actually keep it and just mod it/sleeve it. Who knows?

    [​IMG]

    The hardware in it is nothing fancy. An older AM2+ setup, etc. Nothing amazing, but then again a mod is NOT about having the latest/greatest hardware.

    I am going to use some vintage w/c gear too, since I have it to use. Why not?

    Let's start stripping her down. I'm going to be dropping a blowhole on the top of the case to increase some airflow in it. Nothing exciting. I'll use the ole jig and holesaw technique like I usually do.

    [​IMG]

    Now, need to bolt the top to the jig using the stock 80mm mount-holes...

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    Drill a pilot hole down the middle...

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    And presto. Whoop-tee-do, right?

    [​IMG]

    I'll be back with some more! Stay tuned!

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: 2 Aug 2014
  2. Vetalar

    Vetalar *learning english*

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    Hmm... new log from eel? And with deadline? And "vintage" LC gear?
    I'll watch!!!
    *runs after popcorn*

    send from my BLADE via tapatalk
     
  3. Burnout21

    Burnout21 Mmmm biscuits

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    Finds seat in front row, puts large hat on to piss those off behind..

    READY!
     
  4. AlderonnX

    AlderonnX Minimodder

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    First.. Err third..

    Cool. ELL I always love budget mods. And I'm sure she will love it when its done.
     
  5. Cheapskate

    Cheapskate Insane? or just stupid?

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    Cool. Please avoid calling the case 'her' this time around. I skipped a bit, and it read like you were turning your niece into a dolphin.

    :eeek:
     
  6. mindfulone

    mindfulone What's a Dremel?

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    Budget.....Detail....E.E.L. :rock:

    'nuff said, sub'd:thumb:
     
  7. Darkwisdom

    Darkwisdom Level 99 Retro Nerd

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    I like the idea, it looks quite intricate. I hope we'll see a nice W/C loop to compliment.

    However, no matter how much a couple of companies annoyed you due to bad customer service; I don't think myself or anyone else on these forums condones such outbursts. We modders owe these companies a lot for backing and sponsorships. We won't get any support if people go around badmouthing them.
     
  8. E.E.L. Ambiense

    E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic

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    LOL, thanks man!

    Thanks, bro!

    Thanks, man, I'm hoping to get it done soon!

    :hehe: Now that's the kind of post I'd expect from you, bro!

    Sweet! Thanks, bro!

    Thanks! I appreciate it.

    I appreciate your stance on the issue, but you need to understand; considering it is my project log, I condone it because it happened to me. I don't intend for that to sound rude or anything, as it's not meant that way but my seemingly endless sarcasm can sometimes bleed over into my serious side, as it is now. I'm nothing if not completely (read: brutally) honest about my piss-poor experience with those two companies so I'm going to let others know about it so perhaps they'll step up to the plate a little better next time so people don't get the mistreatment I received. Again, as I mentioned before, your experience may differ. It was my experience I talked about, as unfortunate as it was. You really have to have the background of it all to really grasp what occurred. The other log really has a lot more info to give you a little more sense of what happened with them.

    Look at it this way; if the mods felt it was inappropriate, the log would've been locked and tossed rather early. I'm guessing the "powers that be" on this forum (you know who you are) probably sympathize with my experience and possibly may even know more than I do what happened in the sense of related experience. :thumb:

    Plus, it makes for great material for laughs! Even if I'm the only one laughing sometimes. :hehe:
     
  9. Pranja

    Pranja Blackwolf

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    Great idea,mate, I hope your daughter will be happy with result. ;)


    Sorry about your bad experience with Cm and MSi, I had even worse experience with some other companies. I just put them on "black-list" and never use their productsin any mod or build.
     
  10. matiss

    matiss Minimodder

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    Looks interesting, I´ll watch :clap::D
     
  11. mnpctech

    mnpctech bit-tech sponsor

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  12. Nutman

    Nutman Never stuck with stock

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    E.E.L.'s busy right now. That's good. I'll be watching!
     
  13. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Noooo not a PC-60! Is nothing sacred!! :(


    ...
    ...
    ...
    ...

    Oh **** it, carry on :cooldude:

    I know some senior management at Cooler Master Taiwan if you want me to pass on your details. Maybe it's just their US office being ****. The TW guy organizes the CM mod competition going on right now so he's into the community and generally a trusted friend of mine.
     
  14. dbradford32

    dbradford32 What's a Dremel?

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    I love the crap out of the older Lian Li cases. This should be an epic build! Let's see some awesomeness radiating from this one, Jeremy! :D
     
  15. E.E.L. Ambiense

    E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic

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    Thanks, mate! I'm sure she will, or I'll just take it and smash it with a stillson wrench in front of her. :hehe:

    Yeah, we all have blacklists for buy or no-buy; my list just grew a bit that's all. :)

    Thanks, man! I appreciate the support!

    Hahah, thanks bro! And ladies & gentlemen, I wouldn't be back here if it weren't for Mr. Mawd-Gawd himself punching me in the kidneys via email or phonecall to get my ass back in gear and moddin' again. Or at least real moddin'. Round of applause for MNPCTech! :clap:

    LOL, I'm tryin' to be, man! Tryin' to crank this stuff out as fast I can. Thanks, man!

    Hahaha, thanks Richard! PC-60 is a love of mine too.

    Bill let me know earlier that he's actually been working behind the scenes on this very issue as well on his end; apparently no one has decided to try to drop into damage-mode yet, lol. Feel free to light a fire under their collective arses, but it's probably not worth it. I'm really kind of past all this at this point; it doesn't bother me-- not anymore. They dropped the ball. Simple as that. Bigger they are, crappier the customer-service is. And they apparently don't hold up their end of the bargain or agreement. They got away with having their name and logo attached to a great magazine and sent nothing in exchange for it.

    My advice to you all out there...if you're looking to buy a good case that is affordable and awesome, and from a company that actually pays attention to their customers....buy a Fractal Design case. :thumb:

    Hahaha, thanks man! I'll try!
     
  16. E.E.L. Ambiense

    E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic

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    Log Update - 8/15

    Alrighty, an update. Let's get this one on the boards.

    I continued stripping down of the chassis into individual parts; breaking down bays, removing panels, etc. The usual crap you're supposed to do, ya know?

    [​IMG]

    Removing the 3.5" bay insert. These things were really cool back in the day, as you didn't have to use the regular HDD bracket down below if you only ran one or two drives. This worked great for that.

    [​IMG]

    Pops out with three screws.

    [​IMG]

    I had installed some of the classic FilterRight filters on the intake fan. I'll probably continue to use it along with the fan itself. Nothing wrong with it and I doubt it's had much use considering. Plus it's a really good fan!

    [​IMG]

    Remember these guys? It even fits the theme I'm going for, so they stay. Gotta use this stuff up!

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    Removing the stock front port assembly... Man, I used to hoard these things. Seems like I was averaging a new one every other day to add to the collection for a while there. I miss those days.

    [​IMG]

    Now I have one more that won't ever get use. :hehe:

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    Alright, that warranty sticker is mocking me...

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    Channel edging. What a great idea at the time!

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    Yeck!

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    Alright, these have to go.

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    And this thing... Who still uses a speaker for posting purposes? Don't be shy....raise your hand so the rest of the class can laugh at you. :hehe:

    [​IMG]

    Bye-bye!

    [​IMG]

    Let's get rid of the frame mount for the HDD rack, since I need some room for the rad.

    [​IMG]

    There we go. Nice and easy.

    [​IMG]

    There, now I have some breathing room to work with. There's plenty, but I'd rather have some room to work with off the bat instead of trying to shoehorn stuff in here and removing knuckle-skin in the process. :hehe:

    [​IMG]

    Alright, the stupid security loop is gone as well. Seriously...if someone wanted your stuff, they'll just take the whole rig, right?

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    Little preview of the rad choice... the classic Thermochill PA 120.1; yes original of course! I'm going to clean her up really well and give her a new coat of color. :)

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    Case front... Stock is boring...

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    Custom-front.... Mod Amore!

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    'Scuse the dust. I'm working here. ;)

    A replacement front USB port candidate. From a Q-07 chassis which hasn't seen the spotlight just yet...

    [​IMG]

    Looks like it will drop in there just fine.

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    Digging into the treasure-chest of forgotten watercooling dreams, I believe this is an XSPC res. I hope it doesn't fall apart when I use it. :hehe:

    [​IMG]

    A quick little test-fitment using a test-optical drive and the res...

    [​IMG]

    And a quick lineup of the front panel. Looks close enough for me.

    [​IMG]

    And a quick test fitment of the top blowhole dressing... Looks great!

    [​IMG]

    She should be really happy with this once it's all nice n' prettied up. Here's to a quick build on this. ...Famous last words, right? :hehe:

    I'll be back soon with some more shtuff to show. Thanks for tuning in!

    [​IMG]
     
  17. E.E.L. Ambiense

    E.E.L. Ambiense Acrylic Heretic

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    Log Update - 8/16

    Update again?

    Let's get to it.

    I needed to mark out where I'm going to need to modify the stock front panel. Let's do that.

    [​IMG]

    Simple tool; a pencil.

    Alright, ready to go. I also marked out roughly where I'm going to need to punch a hole through to allow airflow through the new "blowhole" at the lower front for the rad.

    [​IMG]

    Drilling some pilot holes to make sure I'm right where I need to be...

    [​IMG]

    Almost forgot! Needed to pop off the LiLi badge off the front of the panel so it won't get in the way when drilling.

    [​IMG]

    Pardon this crappy holesaw; I just don't do that many at this odd size so I just haven't upgraded to a more-decent one. It's ugly but it works for what I need it for. Such as this!

    [​IMG]

    All done. Just need to clean up edges a bit with file and it should be fine. Good enough for this kind of mod anyways. I also cut out the space between the stock switches were at and the 3.5" bays to allow room for the fan control rheostats.

    [​IMG]

    Drop the next layer down...

    [​IMG]

    And the third. Everything looks great.

    [​IMG]

    Here's another piece of equipment I dug out of a box; an old Silverstone fan controller. I used to love using these things because they're simply individual pots bolted to a bay unit and the control PCB itself is separate. I like that because I can hide it.

    [​IMG]

    Nice and easy to take apart...

    [​IMG]

    Achilles' Heel being they don't support much in the way of power, but that's OK in this situation. The fans are not high-speed at all.

    One other issue is the rheos have this little tab/lip that sticks out that becomes a problem when mounted to something custom, so I need to get rid of that.

    [​IMG]

    Quick swipe of the rotary tool and it's taken care of. I was going off experience too with these things. It was a problem once upon a project!

    [​IMG]

    Let's do a test-fitment on the front panel just to see how everything is going to look...

    [​IMG]

    Tighten down the nuts a bit, if the nuts need tightening, that is. Do they? :eyebrow:

    [​IMG]

    Pop the knobs back on and dropped in a 16mm vandal switch. Looks good!

    [​IMG]

    And finally dropped in a 22mm anti-vandal switch for the power.

    [​IMG]

    Alrighty, I'll be back again, and soon. Gotta get it done! Thanks for tuning in.

    [​IMG]
     
  18. Vetalar

    Vetalar *learning english*

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    well it's good to live east of Greenwich :) waking up in the morning, take cup of coffee and read fresh EEL's update. work of master!!
     
  19. mnpctech

    mnpctech bit-tech sponsor

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    ^ agreed! .....reserving space to feature this on CMB when it's finished :D
     
  20. bulldogjeff

    bulldogjeff The modding head is firmly back on.

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    Hmmmm I like the look of this, will be watching.
     

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