Case Mod - In Progress Sui Generis: A Corsair Obsidian Build (tweaking side-panel)

Well, this is a semi-moved semi-fresh thread regarding my current Corsair Obsidian 800D build, entitled Sui Generis (latin).

After being bitten by the modding bug over a year ago after installing a water-cooling setup into a 3D Aurora 570 case, I have been contemplating and dabbling in some simple modding here and there with freinds cases, PSU's and various bits and pieces here and there.

When I first laid my eyes on the Corsair Obsidian 800D, my attention had been grabbed firmly by the dangly bits and pretty much rivetted to it.

After some thinking, planning and manipulation of PhD time allocation, I decided that it was time for me to build a new machine, one that warranted the use of good-quality parts and the investment of plenty of time. As such, I came to a rough listing of "odds and ends" as follows;

Well now, unless early new year results in some REALLY nice alternatives, the layout of new build is going to hopefully, look something like this;

• Intel Core™ i7 Quad Processor i7-920
  
• EVGA X58 SLI LE, Socket-1366
  
• Corsair Dominator DHX+ DDR3 1600MHz 6GB
  
• Corsair SSD Extreme X64 2,5" 64GB
  
• Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB
  
• Samsung SpinPoint F1 1TB SATA2 (x2)
  
• EVGA GeForce GTX 285 2GB PhysX CUDA
  
• Corsair Powersupply HX 850W
  
• Corsair Obsidian 800D Big Tower Black

So, the inflatable arm-bands were off and I was out of the shallow end heading for deeper waters.

The idea for this case is to have it as a flagship, of sorts, for the ZiiP Gaming Community of which I am a very content member for the past 4 years. It is also as a potential method of advertising custom builds for those in my area who may be interested in getting one done, but that is just a hopeful plan I have.

What follows this post, is the build to date.

And before I post more, I would like to thank Jester and all the Grey Wolf admins as well as all the other members in ZiiP for their input, all the people here ob Bit-Tech who have shown an interest in the build thus far and to Nils of MDPC-X for all the fantastic sleeving and tips on getting the job done right.

 

One of the main influences for the colour scheme for this mod was that of the Games Workshop Necron race from Warhammer 40,000, of which I was an avid player a few years ago.



This shows some of the influence that they game me. Who doesn't like the idea of robotic zombies that destroy everything for the sheer sake of doing it due to being disgruntled for eons.

One key thing that was to be incorporated into this build was that of the ZiiP logo. Now, currently this is under revision as we are going through another overhaul of our forums and website, so this design is preliminary.



The idea is to have the internal black lettering laser-cut and then to have the outer edge laser-cut from the case side panel. Following this, 1mm green Lexan (only material I have been referred to that is that thin and still rigid) would then be laser-cut and affixed to a green acrylic back-plate with embedded LED's and have the black internal lettering inserted into the recess that is created. This premise of this is to have a nicely (not too bright) lit logo that is completely flush with the side panel itself.

Awkward and annoying to do, but that's what modding is about if the results live up to your goals/aims.

UV-reactive green sleeving was ordered from MDPC-X and it certainly did not fail to impress!

I had to chase the posty down in the car since he tried to bring it to the house and I didn't hear him arrive!

What Nils (the person that owns and runs MDPC-X) does on every package is a little sketch...


A small touch, but adds alot of character to the deal and I commend him on it.

Here is the MOLEX extractor tool that came in it.


And here is the sleeving
There are some offcuts of white and small black as well as UV-green SATA (on the left) and UV-green small sleeving (on the right).
I had the illusion that I had enough...



Shortly after this, I ordered the PSU and the oh-so-lovely yet wallet-hurting case. A week later..


Boxed up case and PSU


All the PSU cables come in a nice sturdy bag and the PSU itself comes in a nice velvetine bag and loads of heavy duty foam packing.


Most of the cables are separate, which will make sleeving that bit easier I reckon.


It has a massive 140mm fan, so that should keep it nice and cool. All the reviews for this one rave about it.


The case has such a nice finish on it. The sides and top are steel and the front is brushed aluminium. The dvd (which I won from eating a pack of peanut M&M's) is there for scale. It's 61cm tall, 61cm deep and 22cm wide.


Up top, it has space and pre-cut grille for a 3x120mm radiator. Very nice touch and it's bevelled into the case too.


Side open. Has a nice locking mechanism which is simply a push button at the top at the rear, press it in, remove the side. Simple, tidy, no thumbscrews. Included with it are mounting rails for HDD's for the lower cage, black SATA2 cables with 90 degree angles and a series connected power cable for the hot-swap HDD bays (connector shown).


There is also another 140mm fan here and there is on at the back of the case too. There is space for a 120mm fan directly below this 140mm. Also it came with an anti-vibration piece for any 120mm fan, mounting screws, cable ties, and a few other bits and bobs.


Front shot. I won't remove the plastic until I am actually putting more parts in and stealthing the optical drives.


Shot of the motherboard tray from the other side, it has a hinged back panel for easy access to apply any backplates for CPU coolers without having to remove the motherboard. At the left are the front I/O connectors.


Rear shot here, loads of space.


My first attempts at the sleeving left alot to be desired, but overall I was quite content.




Shortly after though, things were looking better;
Going from this :


To these:





Once I had the SATA cables out of the way, I was feeling confident and moved onto the ATX cable...

After about 8 of the cables were removed and tagged....



then this happened...



Normally, that isn't so bad once you get the clip out for the end of the cable....

normally....


Then it was followed by this....



Great thing about builds like this, you're bound to learn something new. Mine was patience with small connectors...

The tools for trying to open an old ATX clip


End product of struggling with that damn clip...


In the process...


All removed....3 faults though...


Teaser shot of what the SATA cables look like when attached to the Hotswap board



But then they are covered by this...


I am planning to get some thin acrylic to replace the centre of the cover. Get to maintain the airflow as designed but still get to see the cables

The soldering that had to be done on the cables was a painful process for me as I was kicking myself for potentially destroying an expensive PSU and fouling up so badly, so early on into a build like this. Thankfully there are a couple of electric engineers in ZiiP and their guidance was invaluable.









After the first attempt, I had to go back and re-solder the cables.... to better results.





All 3...


These are the last attempts, just reheating the solder hoping that it would flow into the wire a bit more.

It did....and the insulation too a bit...






With that done, it was back to the PSU and the other cables.

This is the 4-pin addon of the 24-pin (20+4). Only done 2 of them, but one of those was one of the re-soldered ones, damn it was a squeeze and a half to get it to fit. Had to actually slice some of the heatshrink off.



The base of the PSU. I know they are not all even, but it is damn hard to get heat in there without melting other cables or older sleeving. Damn, where the hell did I leave the heatgun...




After having buy a soldering iron, learn how to solder, re-"crimp" the clips, source new clips in case of emergency, practice soldering, re-solder (after some expert advice ) it's done.... but the PSU wasn't finished yet.






Here is the progress on the main connector...


The other side...

 

Sadly, the sleeving that I had already received was not enough and another order went out to Nils who stuck to his word and had sent some additional sleeving since I had missed out of the price drop of coloured sleeving by 36 hours.





This was then quickly bolstered by the arrival of the motherboard and some stuff from Aqua Tuning


EVGA x58 SLI LE motherboard 1366 socket. Going to be putting an i7 920 in it.






The scuffing on the Northbridge is actually just some from the plastic cover, so I got it off it.

I will be replacing the Northbridge and Southbridge and putting a large Water-block on them.

Here are the 1200 RPM Nanoxia (x3) and a 900 RPM, some paired LED's and some temperature monitors with green LCD screens.


I made up some templates for the front bezel optical bay covers to allow me to cut them cleanly for the temperature monitors.

Simple things just measured up and drawn in Sketchup and then printed to scale.









I took one of the monitors completely out of it's housing so that I can see how it will all fit it. I might have to shave a few bits off the casing and use epoxy or silicone to secure the monitors in place, but that's no big deal.

Since the housings come off, I sanded down the front of them to make them flat, rather than the raised triangular facade they have now. Just so that they are more in keeping with the overall appearance.





I decided to sand the bezel down and rough it up as well as to have the "grain" in the same direction as the brushed aluminium.







2 of the screens mounted...



Temperature monitors mounted on the optical bay covers



I filed and sanded down the frames of the monitors. With the flash, they don't look all that good, but in natural light, the sanded finish matches the case alot better. If it comes to it, I will spray them with gloss black paint.


I mounted the fans on the top of the case just to see how they will look.... pictures say it all....


The fan in the bottom right is the 900 RPM, whilst the ones in the top are 1200RPM


Just a nice closeup...




Nanoxia' through the top grille.


All the cables from the temperature monitors. I will be sleeving these, but closer to when I actually have all the components in place (maybe around december).


Bless the mess

The PSU in all it's green and black glory




The 24-pin ATX connector that gave me so much hassle.


8-pin ATX connector. This one was the easiest of the lot, the pins came out so damn easy.


8-pin PCI-Express cables. Finiky, but done.


I really like the colour of the sleeving


IT WORKS!!!

Hot-wired the PSU to make sure it still runs and indeed it does.

Connected up the Temperature monitors, 1 pair of LED's and the 900RPM Nanoxia fan to make sure they all work....


Two of the Temperature Monitors


One of the LED Pairs.




The image is really crisp on the monitors.


Then I added the other monitors. I need to either replace the Molex connectors with black ones, or spray them, Those white ones look terrible.


The mandatory night shot


With the flash on.

Loving the look of the lights thus far. Not too bright and the Fan is incredibly quite. I had to actually put my ear right against the fan to hear anything at all once it got up to speed.

The 8-pin ATX extension cable was completed yesterday evening and I purchased an LG Blu-Ray drive today which I am going to stealth.

Apologies for the change of image posting method. I did copy and paste, if required, I will edit them

Thanks for reading, more to follow soon.

 

Great job , its looking realy good man !

 

Really nice job with the sleeving brother! It happened the same thing to me also and I used my dead Tagan PSU to change the pins!
Good luck with the rest bro!

 

Looking green!

 

This really is looking good...
I so love that case..
Need a new one

Green looks awesome..

 

Glad to see that you made it over here
im sub'd
cant wait to see how it turns out

 

That is some awesome sleeving, and the black and green is a hell of a colour scheme

I like

 

is this case all that then??

need a new one as i've said earlier and may get this week...

 

The case is massive, a pleasure to work with, heavy as sin, well made.

If you don't want to lug it around, then it's fine.

I have no qualms about it being made from steel. The cooling is dubious as I have not tested it out and some reviews are highly conflicting. I intend on watercooling anyway and replacing the pre-installed 140mm fans with Nanoxia ones.

 

No intentions of moving it around.
The price is even not to much of an issues.
Seen & read loads of reviews and they are all different.
Not going to watercool straight away but will early next year.
Will put some extra fans in the top though.
Running Sli at the min and my old case is not good for keeping cool.

Thanks for your tips & good luck with the build.

 

No worries.

Been doing some more sleeving, spray painting the Blu-Ray drive and figuring out how to stealth it. Hopefully some new photos up tomorrow with the motherboard seated in the case

 

stealthing your drive?
blasted! you beat me to it
oh well
thats not going to stop me
post plenty of pics of how you go about attaching the face plate to the drive
so that its stealth

 

Ouu. I'm liking that green sleeving. It's pretty sweet!

 

Here is a sketchup model showing the revised method of doing the side panel logo.

This should certainly make it easier than what it was originally intended to be without losing too much of the original design.

Now I have to contact a few places that can source Lexan in green and matching acrylic as well as own a laser/water cutter

The background block that it will be mounted to is 6mm green acrylic, the ZiiP lettering is 1mm green Lexan and the case panel is 1mm thick steel.

 

looks good..

Well i've just done it....

Order my 800D
& Corsair H50 Cooler
& 3 extra 120mm fans for the roof of the case...

Delivery tomorrow..
Can't wait to see this bad boy in real life.


Will need to get stripping out my goodies from this crap case in morning..

 

Good stuff fella. You'll enjoy the 10 minutes of just sitting there staring at it in disbelief, then 20 minutes mopping up the drool

 

i think your right there..
its been dispatched... so now i wait

 

Hey everyone!

Just thought i'd pop by an give support to Caolans project - Looking real good mate, I know how much thought and prep has gone into this. Real glad to see your making good progress.

As founder of the ZiiP community, its an honour that someone would create a mod with our name on the side. Simply awesome. I really can't wait to see the end result.

I fear however, that my mear presence here on these forums is going to make me contaminated with the "modding bug" - I can feel the urge to get my soldering iron out already!

Can't wait to see the final results mate. You've got the whole ZiiP Community behind you for any help you need