ATCS 111B-SX2 Restoration Complete (pics)

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Well few months ago I was lucky enough to buy a Cooler Master ATC111B-SX2 for a very modest price.

The price was due to the fact there were quite a few "problems" as in damage and missing parts. I have been doing various bits and pieces along the way while negotiating and awaiting spare parts from Cooler Master (those who have dealt with CM will know this is no easy task!).

Yay the bits arrived today:

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So the first thing on the agenda was the window panel which had a ruddy great scratch across it (or so the seller thought) and a load of stickers on it:

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The stickers came off with ease, a little residue but nothing that cilit bang couldn't deal with, but the scratch? well i was all set on needing to get a new piece of perspex but on doing the fingernail test (always do the fingernail test to see how deep the scratch is) i was chuffed to find the scratch scratched off! so with a bit of soft cloth wrapped over my fingernail i worked away the scratch.

The case was missing drive bay blanks, PCI blanks and all thumb screws. Having removed all the other bits, i found there was no dust filters behind the mesh. So an empty shell which needed a good clean up and lots of foam & velcro pads removing. The velcro ones were pretty easy to just pull of with no residue left but the foam pads were a bit more challenging. You'll see one that i hadn't quite shifted at the time of the pitures:

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My secret weapon in cleaning all the dirt dust and trapped daddy longlegs out was Cilit Bang (BANG! and the dirt was gone!) Cleaned the brushed alu surface nicely as well:

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Now that all the bits from CM arrived it was time to get all the other bits together:

4 x Akasa Blue LED fans (all fans are speed adjustable using a controller, but the two for the front are adjustable independantly)
5 x 80mm fan grills
120mm x 80mm Dust filter
1 x I/O Shield (ok so it wont fit your mobo, but it finnishes it off)

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Now it's time to remove the motherboard tray install Akasa fan with grill on front and back, pop the I/O shield in and the new PCI blanks with thumb screws:

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Motherboard tray Back in place with thumb screws:

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Next up was installing the top blow hole fan and grill:

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Then onto the front fans, with grills on the inside of the case:

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Installation of the 5.25" bay blanks:

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A new dust filter in the mesh and on it goes:

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Sides back on and the new thumb screws in to secure:

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One tenderly loved cared for and caressed back to good health ATC111b-SX2:

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Feel free to comment or ask questions here, via email or MSN.
I hope you enjoyed it!
 
Noni said:
That was from that BENUK guy is it not? Wow, I thought he was selling it for very very expensive.

EDIT- No no, it was from the bay! I remember that guy, bought something off him, very friendly.

That favourite auction site!
 
salami1212 said:
just wondering, did you have to pay for the spare parts?

cheers

Yewen said:
Yes she did.

(Sorry for answering the question Harib0 )


Actually no i didn't have to pay for the parts, However seeing as CM don't have a UK base and the parts came from Holland i did have to pay shipping on them.
 
Dodge said:
That 111 looks terrific. I bought one recenlty, found on our favorite auction site in almost new condition, even down to the original packaging paid £70, nothing will touch these cases for quality. My other machines have the 201 cases (two) and the smaller one, cant remenber the model but is only 3/4 the size of the 111\201.

Will try and post some pics of my 201, all silver stealthed drives with a silver Terrattec sound card panel in a 5 1/4 bay.

Just buliding my son a new machine using a Lian Li case, looks nice until you pick it up!! No match for the Coolermaster. Current Coolermaster cases are a BIG dissapointment.

Rog


Ah you got the 111 with the paxmate in it (it's a bugger to get off so if you ever think about it you either do it or you don;t there's no half way house), The smaller one will be ATC-200 (if it looks similar to the 201, if not you may be talking of the ATC-500), i'm on the look out for either of those next. I need a baby of the family lol

Your just up the road from me, need to get a old skool CM club going!
 
blitz2163 said:
any way to tell which one i have? SX1 or 2?

Which one of what?

If your talking 201 then yes the SX1 is better IMO all round, the top blow hole has slated louvere style vents and the pained top panel comes off, the SX2 the top blow hole is mesh and the top panel is rivited in place.

If your talking the 111 thats a trickier matter, as personaly i cannot spot any difference between an SX1 and an SX2 - posibility may be the colour of the LEDs as the 201-SX1 LEDs are green & orange and iirc the 201-SX2 LEDS are blue, but i don;t know if this is the case with the 111s as i haven't checked it.

Do you still have the box for it? it will say on the box what version it is
 
Atari said:
How did you get in touch with CoolerMaster btw? I've tried in the past with no reply so any help is appreciated.

Email: [email protected]

They can be very slow, but you need to keep emailing them, not every day though otherwise they'll get peeved off and you wont get anything lol


Atari said:
O/T: Does anybody with a Praetorian use the top fan? I find that it makes a ton of noise and doesn't really do much. Is there anything I can do with the plastic frame the fan goes on to try silence it a little bit? At the moment it's unplugged and I've just got the front two, and the back one plugged in.

The top exhaust is on most of the 201 chassis cases and as you say it doesn't make much difference to temps. Interesting to know it's a plastic frame used in the praetorian!
You could try some of the Vantec Vibration Dampening Kit for Case Fan - 80mm (FG-001-VA) they work quite well i have them in my 201
 
Atari said:
Well, I guess I'll get back to the third day of trying to remove Akasa Paxmate dampening mat from the sides of my case. The stuff is the spawn of Satan himself :mad:

Load of people put this stuff inside cases and it totally ruines them.

I've seen countless classic cases going for a song price wise which have had this stuff in them - there is an ATC-500 going on ebay at the moment which has similar stuff inside, shame really as i'd like that case but wouldn't part with £30 for the effort involed in removing the stuff!
 
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