Discussion thread link. I’ve only been finished Moondust a couple of months and already I’ve got the itchy jigsaw fingers again... I’ve had a 64bit rig in the pipeline for a while now; I only got the motivation to start work recently when I received my Custom PC prizes for being featured in the magazine. The prizes included a case, PSU and various Intel hardware which will be used/ sold to fund the project. The original plans included a Lian-Li PC-71 however when I received the prizes I had a change of heart. The Enermax case was much better than I expected – the build quality is great and the case has some lovely details. Hmmm, what’s in the box? Here she is… First impressions are good – it sports a stylish front bezel which has nicely crafted mesh bay covers and is surrounded by loads of brushed aluminium which will polish up a treat. It also has a blue backlit LCD at the top which monitors the case temperature, fan speeds etc. It’s slightly let down by the splatter paint finish but I’m sure that can be sorted out due course. The case was supplied with a meshed side panel, I’ve contacted Enermax and they’ve agreed to exchange it for a solid one to accompany my tribal designs. The lockable front panel swings open to reveal the 120mm intake and the drive bays. Inside the case has much less room than I first thought. You can also see Enermax’s patented ‘wind tunnel’ which is imo… pointless – needless to say it won’t be staying. The case also has a 120mm blowhole at the rear. The front of the case has a pretty sweet aluminium cover on the variable resistor which controls the speed of 4 fans in the case. The Enermax logo – another nice detail. Ok… enough blabbering about the case, time to start work. First job was to make some space to accommodate a BIX3 in the case; the first plan was to mount it to the top panel but with the PSU installed there was a serious lack of space towards the top of case. Instead; the HDD cage was drilled out which freed of space along the centre brace… you can see what’s coming now can’t you? Here’s a test fit with the radiator – near as damn perfect! From another angle. With the fans installed I’ll most likely loose the first two drive bays which may or may not pose a problem, we’ll have to wait and see. I then snipped the pre-stamped grills on the 120 in/ outs with tin snips. The jagged edges were then filed and sanded with some wet n’ dry, job done The rear blowhole. That’s all for now… see ya folks
I got it for free as it was a prize. They're selling for ~£116 at OcUK, pretty fair for what you're getting. Just a pity it isn't all aluminium.
it's gotta be said it's a nice case. i'm looking forward to more from the project already, nice name where did you come up with it
Have you noticed that the innards are the same as the Silverstone TJ06? Does it say who the original manufacturer is anywhere on the chassis? EDIT: Whoa! It looks much nicer in you pics than the OcUK one! Having seen moondust, I'm looking forward to this! ch424
howdy leeum i really want to see how this turns out.... how come you can come up with names all the time 2 of my projects are un-named at the moment (wavemaster and server) so damn you boyo!
How did you get the name "The Glass Prison"? A Dream theater song perhaps?? DT is a sweet band Nice job sofar, looking for some quality work from you
Snazzy thus far. Whereabouts are you planning to stick the HDDS though? I mean, there is room above the rad, but that'll be a bit of a pain. Along with that, how is the cabling from the PSU and such getting down to the mobo - there's clearence to the sides of the rad i take?
ch424: Haven't noticed that, who came up with the case first Silverstone or Enermax? Cheers for the heads up tm36usa: First thing I do when coming up with a project name is have a scout through my Winamp playlist... just hope the mod turns out as good as the song lol Tulatin: Good point, the plan is to use a Danger Den Aquadrive which will hold 2 HDD's. The only problem is, once I've fitted the fans to the radiator I'll loose about 2 drive bays, that may or may not cause a problem - will have to see Cheers for looking and for the feedback
is your next mod going to be the sequal to this and be called this dying soul then the next one the root of all evil
I’m still here and have been making alot of progress with this project, just don’t have much to show in the way of pictures yet However, I’ll do my best in taking you through what I’ve done to the PSU. Here’s the Enermax Liberty PSU I’ll be using – another one of the CPC prizes The contents of the box. The PSU itself. Fits in well with the colour scheme of things, the gold fan grill will have to go though What happens to new stuff? Yep, it gets cracked open As this rig will be using a mains powered pump, I decided to get the PSU fitted up with the ole internal pump relay again. I had to pick up a relay, some wire splices and diode from Maplin to put it together. Here’s the relay all wired in. You can see on the left where I’ve spliced 12V for the relay coil. The relay hides at the rear of the PSU, it’s secured by a double sided pad Once that was all tested and working I got the PSU braided up in UV orange, it’s tedious work but well worth the effort imo. The result of a full day’s work. I’ve yet to add a chrome grill to the fan The PCI-E power connectors. The ATX connector. I sleeved the 4 pin connector seperate incase the PSU ever gets re-used in a different rig. I’m aiming to get a good couple of updates up over the next couple of weeks. Until then, mod on
Nice case! With the wireing, you should use heatshrink on every separate cable, will be looking damn nice! An example from a log to a buddy(Norway, but you'll survive;p): Link Just look at the pics Will be looking forward to more updates!
although sleeving each one is a good idea, it means if you make a cockup you have to resleeve alot further up, and it also reduces the flexibility of the cable by quite a bit, i know this because i did it ages ago.... looking good leeum, let me know how that psu performs
frodo: Yes thats a drawback, but it will look much more nicer then. If it's not a big deal if they are flexible, then its a good idea.. Did it myself to..
After removing the HDD cage to accommodate the BIX3, I knew I needed a new method of mounting the hard drives. I figured it would be nice to use Danger Den’s new Aquadrive in the mod. However, once the radiator and fans were installed, space in the drive bay cage became a major issue as it left two bays unusable. To create some space I removed floppy drive cage. After jotting down a few ideas I made a cardboard template for a bracket which would hold the block along with two hard drives. This is what I came up with. I fired away the dimensions of the bracket to coolmiester who agreed to give me a hand. He cut and bent the 2mm alu bracket on his sheet metal bender (making an awesome job) and even dropped it off for me, cheers dude I then finalised the shape by hammering several of the bends as the metal bender isn’t designed to do full 90 degree ones. Test fitting the Aquadrive The Aquadrive alone weighs a tonne nevermind adding the weight of two hard drives aswell. I drilled 4x 4mm holes to secure the bracket into the case. I then sanded the whole bracket down with wet and dry ready for machine polishing. The front end of the case with the bracket installed. Closer view. From the back. I’ve yet to secure the block to the bracket, to do that I’ll use the strong automotive tape once the drives are fitted to the block. Closer view. More progress soon
