Case Mod - In Progress Project Proteus

Project Proteus

Hello there! Welcome to my buildlog. I've been working on this project for quite a while now (bit over a year) but it's almost finished and time to show it to everyone. It has also been a while since I was active on this forum. Here's a small reminder of what I did before.



Now why have I been working on this for so long you might ask? The reason is that a couple of months after I started planning everything out, I moved from the Netherlands to Sweden to start working for Ubisoft Massive, very exciting! I've also moved another time within Sweden and there's hasn't always been space for pc building. But nonetheless I continued building, slowly that is.

A bit more about the project then! Why Proteus? Proteus is the god of constant change in nature. Mods often have a very strong theme or style. You look at the mod, see the theme and look away, there's no change..
With this mod I want to change that, I want the theme to be flexible. To do this, I will place a monitor inside the case, behind the motherboard. By playing different kind of video's or showing images, the theme of the mod can change on the go. If I combine the monitor with some RGB lights, I can fully change the appearance of this mod (at least, that's the idea)! Hence the name "proteus", there's a constant change in the nature of this mod.

Next to that, I really like wood (check two of my previous mods) so I'm going to upgrade the front of the case with some nice hardwood! I'll add some lighting to it as well. I think that the Lian Li PC-A77F is a very solid case and it allows for some strong shapes. It's my favorite case of all times btw and I picked it up second hand a long time ago.


And last but not least, I would thank the sponsors of this project for helping me realise it! A special thanks to Dave from Alphacool and Katharina from be quiet! They truly helped me to bring this project to a next level! More about the sponsors soon but here's a banner!

Specifications
Lian Li PC-A77F
Intel Core i9 7920X
Asus x299 Prime Deluxe
HyperX Fury 32GB
PNY RTX 2080
be quiet! Straight Power 11
be quiet! Silent Wings 3 120mm PWM high-speed
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB
2x WD Black 1TB (These are getting a bit old..)

This is the case!


I'll post more about the watercoolig in another update. I think it has been a rather long update but don't fear, the following will be filled with images!

That's it for the intro, thank you!
Ian

 

Creating new panels for the case

It's time for some building. I know that, in order to support the monitor, I need to get rid of pretty much everything that's inside the case and replace it with custom panels. Since I also want this case to support watercooling, I need place to mount radiators. I'm going to use a 360mm in the top and a 480mm in the front of the case.

I created the designs in 3d, translated that to 2d so that I could have them made out of plexi.
I also created a design for the front of the case. The classic front consists of many little mesh covers that can be removed if you want dvd drives or whatever (it's a classic case alright). I knew that I wanted to replace this with wood and I already found some pretty nice hardwood for it but I'll show the front conversion in another update. Here's an image of the design so that you can get an idea!



With all the panels being cut from plexi, I still wanted everything to be sturdy. This is why the biggest panels that will replace the motherboard tray, are made out of 10mm plexi. The piece that's holding the motherboard is 3mm and so are the radiator parts.

Radiator panels. The one on the left will fit nicely in the top of the case. The front one needs some mounting holes but those will be figured out upon fitting it inside the case.




Replacement for the motherboard tray. The bigger/thicker pieces are supposed to give the case rigidity and make sure it doesn't all break once I lift it.


The monitor will be squeezed between the two panels. I'll have to see if it needs something else to keep it in place or whether or not this is going to be enough.


All the parts. They will be painted black.



That's it for this update, more coming soon! Next I'll show you the first steps of creating the wooden front!

Thanks for watching and let me know what you think of the idea, designs and process so far!

 

I don't know why, but it smells quite good !

 

Well, one thing that I know for sure is that this wood smells amazing!

 

wood holy wood..

 

Paint it black? Boo! It feels like a crime since the cutter got the edges so perfect.

 

I just love wood. I just HAVE to use it in every build. I promise you, it's not an obsession (or is it?)

Haha I know! But the idea is to keep the colours of the case black. I think it will help selling the overall idea and I just like dark builds

 

Wooden front panel

Oh do I have a big update in store tonight. It's about 30 images of how I replaced the front mesh with wood. I'll be short on words and let the images do the talking for me. They might not all be in the right order because there's a lot of them, I'll do my best. Grab a cup of tea, sit back, and scroll!

The wood! Not entirely sure what kind of wood it is but it looks pretty


Cut to the right shape. I decided to get away from the original design just a little bit. This design is inspired by the more recent Lian Li Lancool One. I thought that would be a nice touch.



Dry fitting the wood, I had to do some customisations to the front panel for this, I'll show those in a bit.


Ready for some woodstain!




Adding mounting holes.


Here's part of the front panel. The wood would not fit with those in place so they had to go!



Ready for paint.






And time to put the front panel back together.




We're still missing a part though. I want to light up the opening in the front. For that we'll be adding a piece of frosted plexi behind the wood. This should give us a nice and even spread of the light.




And here it's mounted behind the wood.






So the LED strips we're going to use for this are given to me by Alphacool. They're part of their sponsorship for this project. I'm very grateful for their help!



Snug fit!


And a final picture.


After compiling all of these pictures I came to the conclusion that I completely forgot to take a before picture... Well, I guess you have to look at the previous update if you're curious.

I'm rather pleased with the result, I think it looks stunning and very classy. Now lets make the build as good as this!

Let me know what you think!

 

Looking good.

You could have saved yourself some trouble and not tapped the frosted plexi. When screwing two items together you typically only want the bottom piece to engage the screw. The top layer the screw should pass though. Then when the screw is tighten it pulls the top layer down as the screw is drawn into the bottom layer. If the top layer is tapped then it moves with the screw and a small gap potential can form and no matter how tight you turn the screw it will not pull the top layer down.

 

Thanks! And that's actually a very good point. I've been doing it more often in this build and I'm not sure why But that's something I'll definitely remember for the following builds!

 

The monitor

Hello and welcome back! Sorry for the radio silence, the last two months have been rather crazy.

Anyways, I thought I'd post a little update again showing the monitor that I'll be using. It's a 22 inch one with a resolution of 1680x1050 I believe. Why not 1080p you might ask? I simply had this one laying around.

I ordered a little pcb from China which should power the monitor and allow me to turn it on and off. Not very difficult to use and it works perfectly. Only thing I need now is a good power adapter but for now I'll use the one for my laptop, which apperantly works.

The bare monitor was a nice grey colour, but we want it to be black! Here are some pictures for you.




Taping the screen because I don't want any paint on that surface!




And painted.


This little setup will make the screen work. I'll come up with some 3d printed bracket to hide this somewhere in the case.


And it works! (Yes I know it's still grey in this picture )


But it's black in this little teaser!


Alright, that's it for now. This all should look pretty cool once it's in the case!

Let me know what you think!

 

Nice acrylic work mate!

 

Thanks! First time for me doing it on this large scale.

 

Preparing the frame

Time to prepare the frame so that we can fit the monitor in it! I started by painting some parts. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of this but here is the end result.






That's starting to look pretty nice! Next up, remove the existing panels from the case!

With panels.


Without panels! (You might already notice a new back panel, we'll get there!

Now that it's empty, we can start adding panels!




Now it's time for the backside! I designed the panel, keeping the original design in mind. Hoping to do it some justice. My friend Mike aka MP-Customized helped me out with cutting the panels. Thanks for that! Here some pictures.



Time for some extra holes!







Time to start bending the corners so that I can mount it in the case.



Lets mount it here, in these existing holes. Easy does it!






And now with everything together! Including some panels where I'll mount the radiators. I still have to drill some holes for those and cut some metal away.



Oh yeah, did I mention this update had a lot of pictures? Well there you go, all set for adding the monitor. I suppose that's the next step. Thanks for watching and let me know what you think!

 

Alphacool

Hi, I'm back with a very exciting update! For this update I would like to thank Dave Alcock and Alphacool because without his help, this build would not have been brought to the next level. And now, I hope it does!

This will be my 3rd watercooled build but the first time using chrome tubing, which should be interesting. I'm hoping that the chrome will reflect the lighting from the monitor in a nice and good looking way.

So let's get started with the huge package that I received from them, followed by a list with some products I'll be using in this build.




And here are the components that I will be using in this mod:
- NexXxoS ST30 480mm radiator
- NexXxoS XT45 360mm radiator
- Eisblock XPX CPU
- Eisblock GPX-N
- Eispumpe VPP755
- Eisbecher 250mm resevoir with a satin tube
- Brass Black Chrome hard tube
- Eiszapfen fittings

I tried to make some nice videos for some of the bigger products in which I give a small impression of what you'll get when you buy it. I am by no means a professional product videographer but I did have a lot of fun! Check them out!







Let me know if you have some pointers for next videos. I'm pretty sure I can improve haha!

Now here are some pictures that I made of the fittings.






And one picture of the reservoir that I was pretty happy with!


All the pictures and videos have been taken with my Samsung Note 9 but if you have feedback, let me know! Trying to step up my picture game here.

That's it for now, once again a big shout out to Dave and Alphacool!
Let me know what you think!

 

Building some more

Hi, it's time to get the radiators into the case. For that I need to mount the plexi panels that will support them. I also want to make some more space in the top for air to go through. The original case has 2 120mm fan exhausts on top. There's 2 separate holes for that which I dislike and I want it to be one larger hole. So lets get started with that!

The original top.


Taping and sawing on the bottom to avoid any damage.


Tadaa!


Now I need some mesh, if only I still had some from a very old casemod I did back in 2009. Oh wait, I do! It needs paint, obviously.


And all done!


Alright, that looks a lot better and more fitting to the case I think. Now it's time to actually mount the new inner panels to the frame so that we can test it with some hardware and the monitor itself. Lets start with the top and go from there.



Added rubber rings in between to hopefully minimize any noise.







I had to make some cuts so that the mounting panel for the upper rad would fit. It now fits nicely in the top and there's plenty of space to bolt it into place!



And now with some radiators!



That's it for now. It's already starting to go somewhere don't you think?
Let me know what you think!

 

Lets try that monitor!

It's time to add some hardware to the case, get the monitor in there and take it for a testdrive. I'll throw on the front panel of the case for some extra sweetness. I'm pretty stoked about the result, as always it's much cooler in real life but also my pictures and video are crap so I'll make sure to get some better shots of it once the mod is finished!

Lets mount some hardware!



I made a little bracket for the PSU but it's not the exact right measurements so I'll 3d print a new one.




This is the new top!


And the front panel. I really like the wood!



And turned on the monitor. So far it's just some Youtube stuff but I'll see if I can create nicer video's and images for it. But the looks are pretty exciting if you ask me!



That's it for now. Next step would probably be some 3d prints to mount the hard drives, the PSU but also the PCB for the on/off and reset switch because I ripped the old mounting point out! Stay tuned for more and let me know what you think!

 

3d Printing

Alright, lets 3d print some things! I need a replacement for the on/off pcb bracket, a bracket that holds the PSU up in the right place (mainly the right height) and also some sort of cage that will hold the 2 bulky HDD's that I'm still using. The last one I would like to combine with a spot to mount the pcb for the monitor that contains all the buttons to turn it on/off and set the settings.

I'll start with the print to support the on/off buttons. This one is mounted to the same plexi panel as the front radiator since it's already in place and this was the easiest way to mount it.

My initial design.





And of course I had to sleeve the cables.


I came to the conclusion that I had to rotate it 180 degrees.. Meaning that the cables didn't fit anymore so I cut out a little piece. This thing is hidden away in a dark corner anyways so it doesn't really matter.


And onto the PSU bracket thingy. I had to print it in 4 pieces since I only have a small printer (15x15cm). But it does the job! I just have to be a bit creative with my models.


Filling the seams with some weird glue. I have to find a better solution for this.



And now printing the HDD and monitor pcb cage. Printed this one in 2 pieces and they came out nice. I made a previous version for the HDD cage but it was too thin. I'm making everything a minimum of 5mm now, helps it to keep its shape a bit better. Everything is printed in PLA btw.


This is how it will fit.






Everything will receive some primer and black paint to hopefully reduce the printing lines. Not that it really matter because I will mount everything underneath the midplate. If you have any PLA finishing tips, do let me know cause I'm searching for a good way to make my prints smoother.

Thank you for following and let me know what you think!

 

great ideas and build as well

 

Thanks a lot! Will post another update soon!