I was thinking about sleeving this PSU with silver sleeving and black heat shrink. But I found the the Corsair individually sleeved cables are on sale(till feb 28th). They don't have silver so its a toss up between white and black. White Black The white has been growing on me. What do you guys think?
Marquee - fantastic work!!! I'm also just starting a Mac Pro mod (with several G5s under my belt) and this is really looking great! Any update?
We just moved into our first home and the project has to be on hold for at least anther couple weeks as we settle in. But in this time I will be ordering my parts I need and wait. There will be anther rad, fittings and wiring.
Modding in the box / Visit from the holy spirit of Steve First off, I moved and now I am settled in. My new modding area I think is looking good, all though I have to now mod inside of a box so I don't make mess every where. I went back to work on the front IO. I rounded the corners and the edges. Before pic Quick trim All done. This whole modding in the box thing is not that bad after all. I also toke apart the front fan intake. A boning knife worked great for this. Two free 38 mm thanks apple. I was sitting there one day trying to figure out how to get the colour on this case. Powder coating, anodizing, or should I paint it my self. All three methods require me to take off any plastic to I started with that. After getting those out, I was pissed off. There was still 26 screws left to take out, to take this thing apart. I used my anger as fuel and went to town on those screws. Here are some of the hardest screws to take out are. Thanks to the cut I made for the PSU it was easier this time. I manged to strip to screws. One of them after came out with a pair of pliers, this little screw was in such a bad place I had to drill it out. Slowly started coming apart ^ Any one know what that means?
They're simply manufacturing marks - I've seen the inside of a few G5/Mac Pros and they have all been different and apparently nonsensical (i.e. not related to lengths, material thickness or any other obvious measurement). So have you decided what kind of finish you want to go with? Anodizing looks the best in my opinion, but limits your options in terms of color choice a little. How's the condition of the case? This would be a good time to sand and fill any imperfections! Don't forget if you're anodizing, the rivets that hold the inner shell pieces together are steel and need to be drilled out. I put my case back together without re-riveting and it's just as sturdy, so no worries there.
The state of the case is really good. It sat under some ones desk for a couple of years so just needs to be washed before I send it out. I am still now sure how I am going to do the colour. But this is the colours I want to do for the out side of the case.
Well of course if you're wanting a glossy finish, you would have to anodize and then coat on top AFAIK. Your best bet would be painting or powder coating then. Are you going to do the strip too?
I am still not sure what method I want to do. I got a great quote from powder coating guys. Plus their colour range is crazy. Did you say the T8 screw mounts were made of steel. Did you remove your screw mounts before getting it anodized?
Corsair single braided wires / second rad mounting So I got a special delivery. My second rad arrived and it was time to bang out the final place for it. As I have said in the past this case is a lot of planning out before any cuts are made. Since there is no normal mounting place for a 240mm rad I made one on the floor of the case. I also received a Corsair single braided cables in black. I got to say that I was looking forward to getting these in but now that they are here I am really disappointed that the cables look like cheap plastic. The braid on the wires is very cheap looking and I can see through the braid up close. So when I got the second rad I tried some ideas I had for mounting it. One idea was to mount it on its side on an angle. This method would help blow air to the back of the case. But it was going to be a nightmare to connect the tubing to the first block. So I settled for mounting it flat to the bottom of the case. As you can see there was some filing to be done to the cuts that was made. Filed it down with two files, then sanded with 80 grit, 150 grit, and 800 grit. Mounting the beast. Here is a shot of the lines that will need to be connected. I am thinking 30 degrees would do the job. or maybe a dual rotary 60. As you can see here I have a line that will go the CPU from the first rad. Its going to be tight in this case. Just over 5.5cm for the motherboard, mounting and water blocks.
Motherboard tray Design So I spent the better part of the last two weeks measuring the case and transferring those points into Sketchup. That was the easy part. The hard part was then transferring that file into PDF to print 1:1. It took me forever to figure that part out. So here is the first print of the motherboard tray. When I am done with my work the file is going to be sent to David at thelaserhive.com. David is then going to place the motherboard standoff points on the tray and cut it from 5 mm acrylic in neon green. This is what David's trays look like. Motherboard tray This was the first model I made. I found issues with it so I started all over again. This tray is closer to what can be done. I still need to add a bit more material to the top and the bottom of the tray for the screw to hold on to. So over the next couple of days I am going to take the case apart again and fit this paper model. Then make some more changes and print it again.
Taking a road trip to frozencpu (Rochester, NY) this weekend to pick up my order in person. So excited. Massive amount of pure water cooling parts are going into this rig. Including a third 240 rad wot wot.
Oh boy its been a while since I last updated this thread. I am really sorry I have been really busy. But here we go. I toke a trip down to Frozencpu.com about a month ago and picked up what I thought at the time was the last of my watercooling needs for this case. But little did I know at the time I have to make more mods to fit the rad and also the tubing I got had walls to thick. I have thank the guys at frozencpu, they were so helpful and quick at finding the parts I needed. Also it was a super hot day and the building was a nice cool retreat before we got back on the road. So I have to make two more cuts at the top to run the tubing and fittings through. I also need new tubing case the stuff I have now doesn't work with monsoon fittings. I have anther update coming up. The next update should be about the new pump, res placement and the last draft for the motherboard tray. Sneak preview.
Time lapse testing Here is a video that was put together to test an idea. That the Koolance pump base and Bitspower water tank Z 150 fit together. Hope you enjoy Click Here
Reinforced Rad mount So I spent the better part of the last couple hours fixing a problem with the rad mount. There was to much movement on the mounting system. I made a bracket to reinforce that area. Once that was done I started work on the screws that held the plexi glass which the mounting system was placed on. I made a screw cutting rig and started to cut all 10 screws. Once that was done I mounted the whole thing back together. Lastly I cut space for the screws that will hold the front of the case back on. Little more filling and she's done. That is it for now. What do you guys think?
