Well lady's and gentleman, here we go. First of, let me introduce myself. I am Stephan from The Netherlands. And this wil be my log of the computercase The Bear. At 22 years of age, I work in a hospital as a radiodiagnostician. (I make the funny pictures ) As the title says, The Bear is a ongoing project, stretching all the way back to 2007. What is The Bear you ask me? Well, it is a enormous computercase build up from one of the biggest cases that where around in 2007. Thermaltake introduced us to the first Armor series. The VA8000B series. The case was, together with the Cooler Master Stacker, one of the biggest cases of that period. But, for what I had in plan with it, it wasn't big enough. I wanted to fit a 240 radiator inside the case, and still have room for dvd drives and a couple of hd's. There was just not enough room in it, so the first mod was made. Instead of breaking things down to create some space, I build a top where it would fit the radiator and fans to cool the thing. The first Bear was formed. To illustrate what it looked like, here is it in action on Campzone 2008. Then, in the beginning of 2009, it was time to upgrade. A list of components: CoolerMaster M850 Asus Rampage II Extreme Intell Core I7 920 Corssair tripple channel 3x2gig 1800Mhz Gainward 4870GS 1024Mb Gainward 4870GS 1024Mb Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB Western Digital 750gig green Seagate 320gig 2x for that time, it was a serious gaming rig. The processor, motherboard, and vga's would all be water cooled. A single 240 rad, dispite being it a Thermochill one, wasn't able to cool it all down by itself. So a little brother arrived. 2x 240 should work quite nice. But then the problem came. The case was too small yet again. Dispite being a whooping 70cm(h)x55cm(l)x24cm(w), it just was to small. So... what do you do next? Buy a bigger case? Build the cooling external? Nope. I bought a second Thermal Take Armor. And this is why. (ohw, before I forget. All drawings are made by MisterG. A verry good friend of my and a fantastisc artist) Jup. If 1 Armor isn't big enough, get a second one, and fuse them together. So, let's start by taking apart the first case. And let's look at how it would be if two of these monsters where fitted together. It is a pretty awsome space that you then create. But, again, I wanted to have a top. So, let the building commence. So, there you have it. Two giant cases, and a top, to top it of A couple of weeks later, the welder called me up. The job was done. I was stunned by the result. It was if like the case was coming alive. I had a, to qoute James May from Top Gear: A warm fizzy feeling between the legs. In the next couple of weeks, I ordered a next upgrade. The two 4870 cards would be replaced by a new one. A better one. This one. And, it was time to paint. So, here we go. A all new Bear, ready to use. Ohw, jeh, I made a mirror mod as well Still, there where things to be perfected. And so it was that another trip to a painter was made. This time however, the outside would be black, and the inside would be red. By the time these pics where made, only the inside was done, but the build-in of hardware was started. This was because Campzone 2010 was strating in 2 weeks from then. And then, the moment I had waited for. The fire-up from the (yet again) improved Bear. So, there you have it. The first post of The Bear. For those who think it is only a gallery post... nope. It is still being build on. The painter did a awful job on the exterior, so for the third time now, it is being painted. This time however, I went for the big guys. A professional car painter is as we speak spraying a nice layer of black and red on it. But there is more. The watercooling shop www.Highflow.nl has agreed to sponser me with the following update's of the rig. A completely new Sandy Bridge system is underway, and the cooling wil be provided by www.Highflow.nl, as will the smaller modifications. Hope you all like it, and hope you will all stay tuned Demolisher, sigining out.
