Case Mod - In Progress Project||Oroborous: The Cycle Continues - Mouse and Sleeving Oct 18

The name is inspired from a song on Gojira's album "The Way of All Flesh". The name represents the constant cycle of upgrading PC's in a way. The case that will be used is the NZXT Whisper, and the build will be focusing around silent air cooling and hopefully learning a bit about studio photography (on a slim budget). The end result will hopefully be MDPC-style results (Style, I don't expect to make MDPC!) on a very slim budget of under $75.

So, here is what the mod will eventually look like from the outside.



The main feature is a mirrored triangle with (possibly) some modders mesh on it, I haven't quite decided yet. I didn't want a side window because it lets a lot more sound out and I like the simplicity without it.

The interior will be (surprise) black and white. I like black and white designs because they are easy on the eyes yet still very high contrast. Bright green or blue lights are an eyesore.



As previously stated, this mod will be built around silence to my relatively low standards, yet I still want to maintain enough airflow for a hot CPU and a GPU that can fold 24/7. It doesn't help that this case has terrible cooling - there is only one 120mm fan for the entire top "compartment". The end plan in to add anywhere inbetween 2 and 4 120mm fans. These will be Yate Loon D12SL-12's and Gelid 120mm 1000RPM fans.

Now, what is powering this rig you may ask?

Intel E6850
EVGA GTX260
XFX 680i LT (looking for a sponsorship for a P45 or similar)
4GB Patriot DDR2-800
Corsair TX650 (yep, not a modular PSU. I can make this work! [maybe])
Seagate 7200.12 500GB
Asus Xonar DX sound card
Noctua NH-U12P
LG DVD drive

So, it won't be top of the line exactly. I'm fine with that because I like personality - not many people have E6850's. Potential upgrades would be a new motherboard with a predominately a black colour scheme. I'm looking for some potential sponsorships.

Oh, and finally a bit about me. I'm a high school student from Ontario, Canada with experience with computers and machinery (to some degree). Modding is a perfect match between my love for PCs and tools. I don't have much available to me at home - files, a dremel, sandpaper, pliers etc. but at school I have access to a milling machine and a small CNC milling machine (only good for acrylic really) as well as drill presses and bandsaws. My primary goal for this PC is silence for folding - I want to be able to fold 24/7 without much noise.

So, with that out of the way, let's take a look at the case.








Sadly, thanks to buying used, it does have a bit of cosmetic damage. There is a scratch on the front and on the left side panel. Nothing a bit of bondo and paint can't fix.
I lost most of the pictures from the start of the project due to a hard drive lighting on fire and my failure to back up anything so what you missed out on was the case being disassembled, some of it being painted, the rear fan grills being removed, a 120mm fan mounting in the midplate, and a hole for the 8-pin CPU connector. I also sleeved the 8-pin and 24-pin connectors, of which I only have the finished pictures of.



I decided on a black and white alternating checkerboard scheme because I haven't seen it done before yet it still looks great. Sadly, I cheaped out and went for Techflex so lots of colour shows through. The budget simply could not stretch for MDPC sleeving.



I removed the rear grills because any resistance, no matter how small, creates extra noise and turbulence. They will be edged with some self-adhesive grommet after painting. More on that switch plate later.

Next order of business, a 120mm fan in the divider plate. Whipped out the dremel and....



This midplate will be covered in PAX.mate acoustic foam (along with most of the rest of the case). I cut the fan hole large on purpose so the foam will make the opening that you see, as it's easier to make a clean hole on the foam.

I removed the HDD rack and one of the 2 "pods" - I only will be using 2 hard drives at most. The front bays block airflow enormously.

The other pod simply was in the way of the mid plate fan. The sole pod got a black paint job and the tray got white. This won't be a black with white accents build - it's black and white in equal measure.



Now, the rear 80mm fans. I will be keeping the stock ones as they are pretty quiet and will be absolutely silent (to me, slight hearing loss lol) once at 7v or 5v. I was considering sealing off the PSU partition so those 80mm fans just feed the PSU but I decided against it.

Now, the switchplate. I really, really wanted to have control over the lights and (maybe) sounds in this PC, and nothing looked sharper than these rocker switches from Performance-PCs.

1 switch for the front panel LED stick, 1 for the interior LEDs, 1 for secondary internal LEDs, and 1 for some sort of fan control. I looked all over the case for a good spot to put the 4 switches and considered in the front, on one of the drive bay covers. That could have caused issues with the door and would be annoying to access (opening and closing doors FTL). I finally decided on the grill on the back panel. It was pretty convenient and the perfect size. I had a piece of scrap smoked acrylic sitting around, and I couldn't think of a better piece to use. I started measuring up the space and realized I didn't even need to cut the scrap piece to size! I love it when life lets me be lazy. I have 4 switches so I marked out the internal diameter of the area where the grill is, and then spaced out all 4 holes evenly and marked it.



Holes marked out.



Piece goes here.



Ready to drill. After a lot of fussing to get the hole saw working, we were in business. First was 4 pre-drilled holes so nothing skips off course.



Then the holesaw itself....



It looks great. Worked just as planned. It was ever so slightly too small for the switches to fit in comfortably so I had to file a bit before the switches fit in happily.



Now, a little sandpaper and polish for the edges (1500 grit followed by some green compound) and we have a nice, shiny new switchplate! I used some of the screws for 3.25” hard drives included with the case, which are black, and drilled 4 holes for those to fit through.






And as easy as that, it's done. The wiring still needs to happen (I haven't finalized what I want to control anyways) but that should be pretty quick and easy.



Now, the front triangle-dealy. I had some major issues with clearance - it was not a simple matter of just cutting it to size and slapping it in. There were a few major things blocking it

The bevel on the left side (the whole thing)
The mounts that the aluminum triangle mount onto.
LED light on the front of the case (that comes stock)
Bevel on the right side of the case (only by a little bit, no biggy)
Power LED and switch-box, just the corner

And that was about it. So first (and most importantly) I had to remove the left side of the edge/bezel completely. First I cut a strip up the middle (not sure what I accomplished here, I must not have been thinking straight, maybe it was supposed to be for the LED strip. Either way, it was pointless



Now, with my mind in the right place and a bit of planning, I began to cut the bezel away until it was flush with the face of the panel. This required the use of a dremel w/cut off wheel initially (low speed, high speed = nasty smell and melted plastic goo all over the wheel).




After I finished that I filed it to a uniform edge (sorry, forgot to take finished pics) and moved on to the next task... painting the case!

A huge thanks goes out to Bill Own and MNPCTech

 

interesting
i like your switch idea

 

I love your idea! - simple, clean, awesome!

Sub'd!

/Mork

 

Keep up the good work. It's coming along pretty quickly too.
I'm liking the case myself. It's got a little style already but not so much as to limit your mod.

 

One for me to keep an eye on!

Nice work, so far. Keep it up.

 

One thing I would really like to throw out there to explain the variance between pics and random-ness of the log is that it is my first and I really don't know what to take pics of or how to explain it well I also lost all of the pics of the first half when my hard-drive lit on fire (not as cool as it sounds - I didn't even OC it ).

I really appreciate the support and any tips as to the log-writing process itself would be great (PM if you wish to give me a tip!).

I would also like to point out that the mod itself is mostly done (I am using the PC to type this) but I have been taking my time to write the log itself. It will be going back under the dremel again soon however as I am moving to watercooling hopefully and also changing out the mobo to an Asus Maximus Formula II.

 

The only thing I can suggest is to have a look at some other worklogs. I'm pretty new to the cataloguing of a mod myself so here's how I've set my worklog out. I have managed to subdue my urge to just keep modding and stop between each task and take a snap of the next step. You can decide when uploading them to the PC if they will be relevant and helpfully to the readers.

 

Lovin the case. And welcome to modding. My advice is that you invest in a set of files. I usually buy cheap ones from harbor frieght and throw em away (or loose em) after they wear out. Finish work is what it's all about. Oh and sand paper. You can never have enough 220grit in your shop.

 

You know what my problem is? After reading over the log again, I am putting in WAY too much detail! Next update will be pics with background info.... not "here i am drilling a hole.... oh look here I am drilling another hole..... these are the screws that go in that hole that i just drilled....".

 

You're a quick learner!

/Mork

 

At the very least, reduce the size of the action shots. Your bandwidth allocation will go bye-bye if you drill all your holes in high def. There's nothing wrong with detail.
Nice start, BTW.

 

Teaser of the next update....

 

Oh, you should see the original revision. I had a pic of every hole being drilled, I probably cut out 75% of the pics due to useless-ness. but on the topic of resolution, isn't 800x600 low enough? Should I go to 640x480?

 

Love the checkerboard sleeving!

 

So, the front triangle-dealy. I drilled the holes for it at school, so I don't have any pics of that. All I can say is that there are 5 holes ~1/2" big to mount onto the standoffs for the metal triangle already in place. I also cut a hole in the middle to make room for the LED bar that comes stock (I wanna keep it ). Anyways, here is the piece with the (terrible, useless) protective plastic still on it.





That small triangle was a test piece to see if 220 grit or 320 grit diffused better. I decided on 320.





Stupid plastic gone, washed with water and those drops were left over.



Sanding. 320 grit.





Sanding done. Looks pretty good at first glance....





But not the best at diffusing light. At this point I decided on making an aluminum cover for it, so the light only shines out the edges. Modders Mesh wasn't going to be enough.


And some beauty shots of the (now old) mobo...





I'm getting an Asus Maximus Formula 2.... not a shabby looking mobo at all.

No real pics of the making of this, but here is the top USB thing painted.



It was as simple as taking it apart, masking it, removing the un-needed cables (audio and e-sata) and painting. Turned out pretty well I think.

Next update, well,, hopefully some good pics of the build as it stands. System is installed but I am moving to the new mobo in a few days. Just hope it's nice and overcast tomorrow..... it's been really sunny lately, the light is too harsh.

 

"Final" pictures.... in current configuration.













Next on the list? Aluminum cover for the plexi front triangle (so the light only escapes out the side), longer LED stick for the front (50cm opposed to 30cm, so it goes all the way from top to bottom), and new motherboard (Maximus Formula II).

And who knows, watercooling may happen.

 

Me likey. Watching with bated breath!

 

Thanks!

Poll is up, to watercool or not to watercool?

It would be a 240 rad at the bottom beside the PSU, some sort of EK cylinder res or similar (iandh?) inbetween the 5.25" panels, and an EK Supreme HF or LT.

Vote away

 

Nice work so far. I like the Oroborous name sake, I was considering getting a tattoo or an Oroborous at one stage (snake eating it's tail). The renders look great, I can't wait for more.

As for the water cooling, white tubing, if the interior is black, clear tubing for a white interior with clear fluid and white LEDs.

 

My new motherboard arrived (Asus Maximus Formula 2), I will try to take some pics of it tonight (studio isn't set up at all). It is even nicer than I thought, but now I need to make a place for the LCD Poster to go... maybe on the top panel? Or on the mid-plate similar to the Lamboghini Reventon mod...