Case Mod - In Progress Project: Mod in a Week // "Fallout Cause SP" (True Final Picks)

Hi Everyone,

This is the third and final mod of the season for me. I am currently waiting for my philips ambx to arrive for my "AIO AL" (a.k.a. "Nameless" mod also posted on here) and to get my hands dirty on finishing the remake of the horns and other details on "Diabolo" (also posted on here). All three will be on show at the MLP event in Murcia, Spain from the 6th to the 11th of December.

Fallout Cause SP (Slim & Passive) is the succesor to my fav mod of my own creation "Fallout Cause", it was just a paintjob yet it was before I got in to making worklogs and I´ve learnt so much since then that I want to do something new in the same style as FC was.

About the conditions, maybe some of you remember my previous "Mod in a Week" project (a.k.a. Acid Burn), the conditions are the same, Start to Finish happens within a week, starting to day, Saturday 26-11-11 so it will be finished by Saturday the 3rd of December as the latest.

All products needed have to be bought/ordered and received within this period. This of course puts limitations on what I can use but that´s also part of the fun in this kind of project.

I chose to start today as the products from the sponsor for this project arrived.



Informatica Outlets is simply the must go to website in Spain for great deals on hardware and all needed components to build a PC. So thank you very much Informaticaoutlets.com for your sponsorship on this project!

The products sponsored for this project are:

B-Move Slim II M-ATX low profile case



Intel Celeron Dual Core E3400



ASUS EN210 GeForce



Gigabyte G41MT-S2PT Motherboard



Other products sponsored include a memory card reader for the case, a 250gb seagate barracuda sata2 hard drive and an LG CD/DVD rewriter.

As the name of the project suggests, I am aiming for making the whole computer passive, i.e. no fans, which is why I´ve gone for the ASUS 210 low profile silent GPU, and the celeron intel cpu, as it´s a low end basic cpu, it should be the easiest socket 775 cpu to cool without fans, just a heatsink and decent thermal paste. Other products I´ve acquired today for this project are:

Thermaltake Mini-Typhoon CPU Cooler



2x2Gb Corsair XMS3 1600Mhz (I know this mobo supports up to 1333 but its fine, it will help keep the ram cool to underclock it plus I got a simply great deal on them).



Let´s start then.

1st Day - Saturday 26-11-2011

So I´ve done a quick bench-test to make sure all the hardware is working fine and in deed, no problems whatsoever.

Because the B-Move Slim II is a low profile m-atx case I pressume meant for an HTPC, most aftermarket heatsinks will not fit, but I can´t use the stock intel heatsink because it´s cooling power is virtually non-existant without a fan. So I´ve gone for the thermaltake mini-typhoon as I got a great deal on it and it has a decent copper surface that should keep the cpu cool enough without a fan. So I mounted it with Noctua NX-1 thermalpaste, and went on to do some temp testing without a mounted fan. On idle I get 54c, on stress testing, it doesn´t go over 76c now, this are high temps for such a cpu, but remember it´s being passive cooled and the temps are within safe boundaries so I can check that off the list.

Again because the case is low profile, the cooler will not fit even without a fan, I knew this, hell, I wanted this to happen so I could cut a hole on the side of the case to expose the copper which will add to the final look, if any of you have seen my original Fallout Cause, you´ll know exactly what I mean : )

So, 1st, let´s cut the hole:



Now to test it on the case:



Very nice fit! next issue, the cpu cooler´s mounting possition means that the ram doesn´t fit because of it´s cooler, thing is, I like the cooler and rather not have to shave the trimmings off, so, did some measurements, and it would seem cutting off one of the cpu cooler´s pipes is the way to go, so that´s what I did:





Now for mounting tests:







Now as you can see it fits fine but its in contact with the ram stick by very little, my question is, would this affect anything in any way? would it transfer heat to the ram heatsink or the other way round? Should I trim the ram heatsink?

That´s it for today, tomorrow I prep further modification to the case, I am planning on openings and signs of aging and damage caused by rust and the extreme conditions of a fallout post-apocalyptic wasteland.

Thanks for reading! : )

EDIT: Just though I´d add based on a response on another forum, that I was very carefull when cutting the heatpipe in case I needed to weld it back on due to there being liquid inside that evaporates when heating, but there is nothing inside, with a bit of research I found that, not all coolers have this inside, is this normal? I know this is a low end cooler but, normal? thanks!

 

Nice to see you back in action bro! First off all, cutting the heatpipe wasnt the best solution as that will increase the temps, I dunno though how much but it will. Most of the coolers DO include liquid inside the pipes but I am not sure about this model and I dont think that you will run into any problems as long the cpu wont be oveclocked. Also I dont think that the ram will be affected in any way regarding temps so no worries. This is a low profile system so I dont think you should worry so much about temps! I will wait for more updates on this mod!!

 

Thanks for your comment bro! : )

I am a bit worried about it actually, the temps are fine, without the pipe it increased 2-3c in stress tests and about 1c in idle. Looking up for info on the gas and/or liquid in heatsinks I basically came up with it either has some sort of gas or a small quantity of distilled water that when heated it transports the heat upwards via it´s vapor. This said, there is no liquid in this cooler, and judging by the small temp increase I think it´s safe to say no gas either, I know it´s a low end thermaltake cooler but, is this normal? I do have another exactly the same cooler I bought when I bought this one (2x1 deal) so if really needed I could use the other one, but there isn´t as I mentioned any serious sign of a big temp increase so not entirely sure what way to go with this. Maybe a several hour long stresstest?

 

In real life application there isnt such stress like the bench programs so no worries. I think is ok to move on with the build. Next time save the cooler and use the stock one without the need of modifications!!

 

I like what you've done for the passive cooling...I'll be watching this one!

Oh, wouldn't it have been more logical to trim some of the ram heatsink instead of the cooler? You've said you'll underclock the memory anyway...

 

something else you could do to help the temps would be to undervolt your CPU, try to get the voltage it runs on as low as possible, I maanged to get one of my q6600's running on just under 1v in the bios (1v in windows).
It's not much, but as Tesco say every little helps.

 

First of all, thanks for the comments guys : )

Yeah I mean the temperature has only degraded around 3c with that pipe removed so... unfortunately the stock cooler without a fan (i.e. passive) is pretty much useless bro : (

That was my first though, but the ram wouldnt fit even without a cooler at all, I´m guessing the design of the mobo made the ram slots closer to the cpu socket than normal, also the possitioning design of the cpu cooler doesnt help.

Thanks for the tip! Will defo try this and yes, gotta love tesco

 

2nd Day - Sunday 27-11-11

Today is destruction day, I will make all the destroyed sections of the case to give it that fallout rusted out/cannon´d out look. When I get to the painting part I will aid this look by giving a rust look to all the edges and adding epoxy to simulate edges fusing togueter due to rust (i.e. the grills).

First thing however, is to trim that last lip of the memory module heatsink that´s driving me mad due to it being in contact with the cpu cooler, so here we go:







Much better, it´s barely noticeable and it is no longer in contact with the cpu heatsink.

Now it´s dremel time, I have to say I´m surprised at how thick and strong the metal is on this case, specially having in mind it´s a low end case so it´s mostly made out of scrap metal as they tend to do, I went through 2 heavy duty dremel discs in order to complete all the cutting. Once done I plied them backwards for two reasons, first, be it bullets, blunt tools or other, the impact would always be towards the case so it makes sense it´s pushed inwards, the second reason being to prevent sharp edges on the outside.

Here we go:

























And that about does it, I though of adding more as certain parts of the case looked to "clean" if you know what I mean, but I can always add imperfections and artificial damages when doing the paintjob and it´s effects. I think my fav one is the chunk missing from the side that lets you look right in to the cpu heatsink.

Tomorrow I will add similar effects on a small scale to the front of the case obviously very carefully, don´t want to brake any of the hooks that attach it to the rest of the case.

But for today that´s it. Thank you for reading!

 

3rd Day - Monday 28-11-11 - Update 1

Last night while I was in bed I started thinking about the things I should o today and if I should paint the philips ambx that arrived yesterday evening for the AIO AL project or leave that till I finished this one this saturday. While having the AIO AL project in my mind I though, hmm I wander if I could add a screen to this project, I know I cant integrate it on the side because there´s no extra sheet of metal, pretty much the side is what the mobo is attached too. I know I can´t use fiberglass to attach it to it because while it would look decent, it wouldn´t have air breathing, and it would just overheat, not to mention adding heat to the sheet and therefore to the mobo and cpu, so that was a no go, figured I´d scrap that idea and I went to sleep. This morning however while I was looking at the screen and the case it bothered me because I really liked the concept of adding a screen but couldn´t find a way to do it, but I had some spare time so I figured I´d take the screen apart and see if an idea popped in to my head, as I removed the bezel and platform I clicked, mounts! it´s so obvious, why on earth didn´t I think of that before!

So I took some measurements, did some screen hw mounting within the tower checked cable lenghts, everything checks out. So started to process.

First thing, a straight cut wide enough to pass cables through and use them as a grip for the mounting:



Now it was time to make the hole big enough for the bolt to go through, so figured I´d use the dremel to make a small starting hole, took forever to go through that, I hadn´t realised just how thick that sheet of metal was. Once done I took a drill, with the right drillbit on started, took me about 40 minutes to do both holes, mainly because I didn´t want to press to hard so not to go spoil the drillbit, eventually got there and installed the first mount:



added some washers and tightened it up:



Now the second one and a test mount:







Feels quite solid, I think I will add some feet on the opposite side so no stress is on the screwed in side, so I will look for some later on.

Now for a proper test mount of the screen´s psu and chipset:





And it fits perfectly:



That´s it for now, I will post a second update later today.

Thanks for reading!

 

3rd Day - Monday 28-11-11 - Update 2

Gave everything a final sand down, cleaned it up and gave it a coat of primer:







For some reason the image of the primed front part of the case was corrupted but eh, nothing important.

After waiting drying time I applied 2 coats of glossy black, now I have matt black but I used glossy in order to be able to sand it down so fragments will remain a bit shiny which will add further to that used and thrown about look.





For the devices mounting point since some will be seen through grills or holes I decided to try something new, I watered the paint down more than usual (added an extra part of water) in order to prevent it from being a solid color and included an acrilic brown compound normally used for plastic and metal surfaces that imitate wood (I guess you could call it an artificial wood barnish), I ended up quite liking it!







That´s it for today, tomorrow I will be going down to my local paint supplies shop to acquire the colors that I´ll be using and the rust effect compound.

Thanks for reading!

 

Buenas Luciel! Ojalá no se molesten los del foro por postear en español, porque soy un real asco en inglés.

Siempre que veo tus proyectos, reviso, pero este me llamó la atención por el corte brusco de la tapa superior. Para ser sincero, generalmente, como está todo en inglés, me salto gran parte de ella, y al final no leo casi nada. Es para la risa... pero a la larga, si quiere VER modding, es en su mayoría, fotos.

Saludos Luciel!


PD: Español cierto?

 

bet that was fun smashing it up

 

No estoy seguro de si me estás diciendo algo bueno o mal Neotenshi xD pero gracias por el comentario, y si, español ; )

@Shuttlemodder:

Provably more than I shoul´ve

 

4th Day - Tuesday 29-11-11

Today has been a bit slow, this is because I went to buy the yellow I wanted to use for this, and they didn´t have the exact one I wanted in the usual paint I use. So I bought the tone in a paint I´ve never used, it´s still acrilic and is completely fine and compatible with the primer and lacquer I use, it´s purely it´s water/paint/density rations that are different, no idea why. It has ups and downs, the up is that it´s much thicker than the paint I normally use, meaning two coats is enough for a solid color. The down is that it takes 4-5 times longer to dry, which is fine if you´re doing a solid colour, you just get it over with and leave it overnight to cure. But when you want to add other tones on top like I will be doing, it´s annoying because you waste a lot of time on it being ready for the next coat. But aniway doesn´t really matter. I covered the sections I dont want yellow and started painting.

First Coat:



Second and last yellow coat:





Have to wait till tomorrow but the process will be darkening it with a black paint mist so no area has the same tone, sanding it down first to prep for coating and further down to show usage and deterioration right in to the metal. Once done, rusting effects all over the place, more concentrated obviously where there are openings.

It´s easier to show you than to explain it, but you´ll see tomorrow!

Thanks for reading!

 

5th Day - Wednesday 30-11-11 - Update 1

It´s paint effects day!

First I took off all the masking tape used to make the lines and I descovered I didn´t totally cover one of the grates so paint leeched through to the inside of the case. At first I was like, easy fix, just repaint the inside, end of that. But as I looked at it further, I kind of like the effect, it gives the inside a bit of a glow, so for now I´m going to keep it:



What do you guys think? Keep it? or repaint the inside black as it was originally?

Aniway, now the the important part, here you have the outside with the exterior masking tape removed:





Now with the interior tape removed and the first two effects done, darkening of the colour in an irregular pattern and with copper dark red drops everywhere to simulate dirt and other paint degradation/damage:





While that is drying I went ahead and started sanding down all corners and curves in the other part of the case to simulate abuse:



and applied the rusting effect:







Repeated the process with the lcd panel´s frame:







Now that it´s dry, I started doing the rust effect to one of the openings on the side of the case, here´s the first layer:



And the second irregular layer with the second component, essentially giving the final look to the rust on that opening:





That´s it for now, a second update later today, thanks for reading!

 

5th Day - Wednesday 30-11-11 - Update 2

Cold cathodes and wirless keyboard/mouse arrived which I´ll be using (and in the case of k+m, modifying it) on this project.

I continued applying usage, abuse and rusting to the borders, openings and imperfections of the case:





Now the back of the case, which you wont eventually see much off since the screen will be mounted on it but still:



And finished with the front side:





And the top:



Tomorrow I will deal with the front:



Still haven´t decided what to do with it.

Once that is out of the way I will assemble the case to have a complete look to it and see if I feel like changing something or if I have to do any touch ups and so on.

I will also get started (and hopefully finish?) with the keyboard and mouse.

The day after that, which is the final day I will assemble the whole thing and take some final picks.

Thanks for reading!

 

No es malo... solo que tenía la duda de que harías con esos hoyos... Y ahora que vuelvo a ver el transcurso de él, puedo ver perfectamente que harás

Así que ahora, mi impresión es:

 

how do you achieve the "Rust effect" ? do u paint it? or do actually rust it somehow?

 

Looking good mate! Loving the rust effect!

 

thanks guys! : )

The rust effect is a combination of several stages with different tones of acrilic paints and a final component, no idea what its called in english, in spanish it´s "betún". A lot of patience and a lot of failed tries trying to get the ammount of water/paint and right tones to work, but no, no actual rust there ; )