Case Mod - In Progress Project ZillaPC = Completed

Hello all!

I'm a n00b to this forum and a semi-n00b to modding, but I wanted to get my project on here as people here are really good about posting feedback and ideas. The mod isn't much, but hopefully it will be liked. I'm importing it from [H]ardForum. I'm going to try and keep both logs up to get the most feedback possible. Sorry if the pics seem randomly placed. I couldn't really figure out where to start.

Here is where I left off, a fully built computer:





After this I had declared the project done, other than sleeving the fans and power/reset/LED wires. I went MDPC for some more sleeving. While looking at the products there, along with browsing through the MDPC builds, I became inspired and thought "maybe my computer doesn't have to be just a 'wanna be' afterall'". So, I've started the work up again.

Specs:

Intel i7 920 cooled by Thermalright TRUE 120 Black Edition
ASUS P6T
3 x 2GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600
2 x EVGA GTX 285s SLI
WD Caviar Black 500GB (to be replaced with 2 x Crucial CT256M225 256 GB SSDs in RAID 0 within the week)
Creative X-FI Fatality
Corsair HX1000
Lian-li PC-V1000Z

Cutting a bigger wire routing hole:


Pics of sleeving process (actually very relaxing):






The wires are accumulating!







And now the fan and front panel wire sleeving:

Before (fans):



After (fans):



Before (wires):


After (wires):



And the mascot (my daughters pet monkey, but she's not born for another month, so I've hired the monkey)


I plan on doing a little resleeving of the PSU, cutting up the case a little for cables, paint the red stripe on the 285s, and painting the inside of the case black. Wish me luck!

Until next time,

-TadZilla

 

Looking nice man ,hoping to see more progress on these !!

 

Looking good so far, but you'll need to go above and beyond if you want to make MDPC. Have you thought about a good accent color? I'm seeing purple fans (which are nice, BTW), red GTX's (I know you're painting them), and a blue PSU.

I'm thinking since the fans look great out of the box, you should go with that color. I say find some good spots to accent with purple, grab a spray can, and go for it. You're already painting the stripe on the graphics cards, why not purple? Same thing with the PSU. Warranty is already voided, rip those damn stickers off and put some reacing stripes on it! It doesn't need to be an in-your-face purple, but something that works well with the fan. What about the top fins on your ram as well? Looks like it should come off easily enough, should be a piece of cake to spray that.

Sorry I was a bit long winded there, but if you're looking to have a superb looking PC, even without shooting for MDPC, you've got to make it look like those parts were designed to be in that case. I look forward to what will become of this. Good luck!

 

I will have to agree with Fisher, I think the fans look great, and it would be exiting with a purple theme - not to much purple though, just some hot-spots.

What about the outside?

 

Thanks for the quick comments and compliments!

@Fisher: The above and beyond is what I'm worried about. Since I don't really have any fabrication skills, it is hard to come up with really cool things for the build. However, I am trying to find a good accent color. Purple would be a really good choice. I was also thinking about dark blue, as the fans are more blue in different lighting (I'm working on my photography skills). I bought some MDPC Grand Bleu sleeving. It has the dark, rich blue color I was looking for. I'm going to add some of that in with the black sleeving on the PSU. Thanks for the ideas!!! You're right about the 285s. Those will be either black or a dark purple/blue color. I'll have to see what I can find in the way of paint.

@jergerjon: The outside will remain the same. I really like the black brushed aluminum look. I'll have to find some way to get rid of the Lian-li logo though

-TadZilla

 

My vote is still for purple, though

It's a color you don't see used very often except as faux-blacklights, I think it would help you to stand out from the masses.

 

nice job on the sleeving, good choice for fans, have 4 in my case can't hear them one bit, and yeah for some reason they look purple till you get some pure white light on them...

 

Thought those Noiseblocker fans had Blue blades ?

Purple is a good choice, but then i'm slightly biased

Good luck.

 

Project MDPC WannaBe (9th, November) Update!

Hello all!

Thanks for all of your comments and suggestions. I'm still thinking about accent color.

Now for some pretty pictures (okay, not pretty... I'm not good with a camera):

Shipments from Charles and Nils at MurderMod and MDPC-X:


I love the drawings!




The wares:








This is the Grand Bleu sleeving!




Shipments from Performance-PCs and Newegg:


SSD Brackets for...




...SSDs!












Time for sleeving!


Way I found for keeping the connectors from snagging on the sleeving:




The process (Grand Bleu looks great!)







I'm going to finishing sleeving before diving into the case. I'm still trying to work out an accent color, where I'm going to paint, and where I'm going to cut cable holes and such. I've also thought about water cooling... we'll see about that. Hope you all like the Grand Bleu!

Until next time,

-TadZilla

 

I'll definately be getting that sleeving when I finally get round to doing a mod.

 

Is that a high performance flashlight I see in one of the above pics? If so which one?

Very nice progress so far. If I ever needed to be sold on using MDPC-X sleeving for my next project (I didn't, believe me) you just did it. That red stuff looks SEXY. Time to order up methinks. I need about 4 kits for the project I've just mentioned and another that I'm running alongside it. Lotta sleeving

 

Great work on the sleeving, I need to do that at some point.

 

Nice sleeving skills and I see you got a Klein nibbler. Best nibbler out there for modding metal.

If you want better pics you need to run them through Photoshop or a similar product. At the least you will want to adjust the color balance, brightness, and contrast. I do that with every single pic I post.

 

Thanks all for the kind words!

@Unicorn: I'm not sure about the flashlight, except that it is an LED flashlight, and very durable. Glad I could sell you on the sleeving

@Top Nurse: I decided to buy the nibbler after reading your worklog actually. I agree, best non-powered metal cutter I've ever used! Do you have any tips or how-to's for photoshop? I also need to get a tripod.

Just a small update. I finished sleeving the 24-pin cable.





I've also renamed the project ZillaPC.

Once I get some better lighting and a tripod I'll get some pics of the empy case. I'm hoping to get the case modded and taken apart for paint this weekend. I'm also looking for a powder coating shop near me so I don't have to worry about screwing up the paint, and powder looks better than anything I could do with spray cans.

Until next time...

-TadZilla

 

Your doing a darn good job! I really like it.

 

You should deffinately paint/powdercoat the inside of the case black. Looks way better!
Nice job on the sleeving!

 

very nice job with the sleving, very neat and looks very professionally done

 

Thanks all for the kind words toward my sleeving. I'm hoping to get the rest of the internally connected wires sleeved this week/early next week.

But about the case. I'm thinking about ditching the Lian-Li and getting a Mountain Mods Monticle. It has more room to route cables, has that open look I like, and it can be done in all anodized black (yay!). This would cut down on the modding I would do, which is a plus, but that also makes me feel like this wouldn't be much of a mod.

What do you think? MM, or stick with LL?

-TadZilla

Edit: I added a poll for this.

 

I just think MM cases are bulky and expensive. Also those fan holes asthetically suck.

 

LL Cheesecake. You are modding it to make it yours, the MM makes it too easy.