Case Mod - In Progress Project: SpeLL7 (COMPLETE 7/28 - FINAL PICS POSTED)

The mobo is very well presented, looks bloody nice too lol. The Bloodrage looks very much at home in your case .

 

Sweeeeet!

 

Under normal circumstances I wouldn't feel good spending all these money you've spend - but in this case - OH BOY it looks sweet, and I wouldn't regret it for one second!!! Keep it up mate

 

Thanks all you guys for the comments.

My RAM is out for delivery as we speak, and I also have some odds and ends from McMaster on their way for another last minute mod that popped into my head.

What is really cool about the BloodRage only having three RAM slots is that I can reuse my Corsair RAM fan since it fits 4 DDR2 slots with ease- no "re-modding" of a 6-slot DDR3 specific RAM fan needed.

Still need to find a CPU- got a lead on one at [H], so we'll see.

 

now that just looks freaking awesome in there... well worth the dosh even if it was just for the looks! great build to. been lurking around this post for ages but now could'nt hold in the excitement! great job dude

 

Wow

Hi, i just went through your worklog and i signed up just so that i could say that your cable management is amazing, so is the finish on all the parts you built. Its Awesome!
Must admit that the bloodrage is pretty sweet in your case
Im a noob modder and just finished modding my first case, wish mine had that kind of finish...
Well anyway im eager to see the finished product. Good Work there mate!

 

That looks perfect.. Foxconn is making some sweet MB's..

 

Yeah it is really good to see them taking on the big manufacturers like ASUS and Gigabyte.

 

I'd say they're aiming pretty square for DFI with the 'uber-enthusiast-ness' of their boards since the Mars/Blackops came out.
Great lookers, all of 'em

 

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

I had a day off from work today and spent most of it in the garage. Kind of a mixed bag, got some things done, ran into more than a couple problems, cut my finger with a utility knife, you know, average stuff. It had its share of good and bad.

Sorry there's no pics in this "update". If I had stopped to take them, I would have gotten a lot less done than I did and honestly, there wasn't a lot of really great pictures to be had, although the amount of wires and molexes sticking out of the top of the L are somewhat amusing.

The Good:

1. I got the Velociraptor in the case, FINALLY. As I said before I needed to get all bay devices in before the L, which is the big stumbling block.

2. I got 2 strips of LEDs wired (there is a "bad" associated with this one, look below for it).

3. Got a LOT of wiring inside the actual L and am in pretty good shape in that department. I would advise anyone thinking of doing a similar mod to not even consider it without a modular PSU. I can't imagine how I would have gotten 90% of this wired had it not been for pre-running 2 Corsair 4x molex PSU cables in the L.

4. Light switches are about 75% done. I didn't expect these to be as tough as they are. I'm having a lot of fun polishing up my soldering skills </sarcasm>.

The Bad:

1. The LED strips are the cheapest, crappiest pieces of **** I've ever bought. PPCs should be ashamed stocking these things. The wiring is awful, hanging on by a thread in some instances. Regarding #2 in the "good" section... the reason I only got 2 LED strips wired? 2 of the 4 strips actually burned up- the magic smoke came out of their molexes and fused the red and black cables together. I was using a test PSU so nothing bad happened to my main PSU (or the test for that matter), but still... Upon closer inspection I saw one was wired backwards! The red was where black should be, and vice versa. I actually had to cut off all the wire from the 2 good ones and resolder with wire I trust. I don't know what gauge this crap is, but it's literally like 4 strands of cheap goldish wire, as opposed to mine, which is like a dozen strands and bulky.

They are made by Logisys... avoid them like the plague. Now I'm short 2 strips of LEDs and need to find an alternative. GAHHHH!!

2. I had an idea to make a cover for my RAID card out of black acrylic to better match everything. The card has a fan on its heatsink so I was going to make a cut out for that as well as the SATA cables. I spent a large amount of time measuring, drilling, sanding, etc only to have the edge crack while cutting on the scroll saw. Cursing, I made another one quickly from scrap acrylic and put it on the card. I didn't like how it looked. F**K. A couple hours down the drain.

3. I attempted to paint my DVD-RW... it came out like crap. I think it's because it's too cold in the garage (dropped back into the 40s today). I tried to use a space heater but it's still globby looking. I'm going to have to sand it all the way down and start again on a warmer day. I can't afford any delays at this point.

4. I didn't make it to the powder coaters like I wanted to for the mesh front. Just not enough time in the day.

5. This wiring has been a real challenge. The only way I could get some things in was to rest the L on top of the motherboard tray and solder wires a little longer than necessary. The power for the hard drive rack was very tricky. I wasn't expecting that at all.

So, while I'm happy at the progress I did make, I'm pissed that the day went so fast and I didn't get more done. Like has always been the case with this mod, things took a lot longer than they should have and there's still a lot to be done.

Thanks for reading my rant.

I probably won't have updates until the beginning of next week what with Easter and everything.

 

I'm sorry to hear about your bad day. It sounds really annoying with the burned-off leds, and all the time you had to spend on all of your cables.

About the painting - yes you are right. The paint always turns out better if it's hot while it helps the pain dry faster.

Good luck, I'm looking forward to see your update in pictures

 

Good news, bad news...
Modding is like living , good and bad, so take your time, relax, and do it again
The mobo it's perfect for your case, respect for the colour combo, it's fantastic!

 

I sent you a PM for when your mood improves.

john

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. Did you think of making your own LED strips? You could always look into getting the modules of pre soldered surface mount LEDs, I think they are called Piranha LEDs.

*EDIT*
Here, I found em:
http://www.b2bchinasources.com/showroom.php?c=7911&f=5&p=0000050409
They also make pre soldered ones on PCB in sets of 4 and 8 LEDs.

 

I could easily make my own, I just wanted to save the time and hassle (lol) of having to solder each one, put in a resistor, solder the next etc.

Guess that didnt work out so well in the end, .

 

Probably the best PC-343B mod I've seen, even beats VirtualRain's RainMaker.

 

+1

 

Mokey Mokey & Omen: Thanks! That means a lot, Rainmaker is an awesome case.

So this morning I decide to visit Corsair's website to get the dimensions of the HX1000 for another last-minute idea I had, and I see this.

http://www.corsair.com/products/dominatorgt/default.aspx

WTF WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING? WHO IS TOYING WITH ME? Newegg didn't have this available when I bought my RAM...



EDIT: Just saw this: "* Available only at the Online Corsair GT Performance Shop". Guess that's why Newegg didnt have them. Not liking the $380 price tag though, I'll pass... no matter how hot and wonderfully matched they are to my case and BloodRage...

 

Damn, I thought you would have known about those, otherwise I would have mentioned them, very nice RAM though. While we are on the topic of colour matching, have you seen this Enermax Revolution 85+ PSU?
Linky:
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=75588
Review:
http://anandtech.com/casecoolingpsus/showdoc.aspx?i=3452&p=1

 

That Enermax looks nice... definitely in line with the color scheme. I'm not too worried about the HX1000, the blue label has been covered with 1.5" electrical tape to "black" it out so it's not visible. I'm also planning a PSU cover that runs right up to the base of the L so it could be hot pink with neon green accents and it wouldn't matter because it's getting covered up.

Yeah, I didn't know about those GTs until this "chance" event... as nice as they are I can't justify that price right now.