Associate
- Joined
- 28 Jul 2004
- Posts
- 396
Well, this has been going on for a while because of my job, probably do about 1 hour a week on it 
The Case
■Model: PC-Q08
■Case Type: Mini Tower
■Dimensions: (W) 227mm x (H) 272mm x (D) 345mm
■Volume: 21.3 L
■Body Material: Aluminum
■Net Weight: 2.73KG
■Expansion Slots: 2
■Motherboard: Mini-ITX / Mini-DTX
System Spec
■Intel Core i5 2500K ‘unlocked’
■ASRock Z68M-ITX HT (Intel Z68)
■Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) PC 12800
■Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 64MB Cache x 2 (Raid 0)
■Gigabyte GeForce 550Ti 1024MB
■BeQuiet Pure Power 630W Modular PSU
■Samsung SH-B123 Bluray Optical Drive
Watercooling Kit
■EK DCP 4.0 Pump
■Koolance Slim 140mm Radiator
■EK Supreme LTX CPU Waterblock
■Swiftech MCRES Micro Rev 2
■Masterkleer Hose Pack 15.9/11.1mm
The Tools
Majority of what was used:
My favourite, the riveter:
Powerdrill and dremel:
Cutting the case
Cutting into a high-quality Lian Li case is always makes me nervous. First up, the case is carefully marked up with masking tape so I can draw my plans out and double check everything. The masking tape also protects it from scratches.
The Jigsaw
Now it’s time to attach the fan grill and drill the fan holes and rivet holes. Rivet holes are 3mm and fan holes are 4mm. The grill has been tapped onto the case to keep everything accurate.
When drilling any hole into such a soft metal it’s always important to mark up with masking tape around the drill holes to prevent any scuffing when the drill punches through.
Spray Painting
Some of the internals of the case are unfortunately supplied in a polished aluminium state. This is great if you get the Silver version of the case, but if you opt for the Red or Black then it throws things out a bit. Out came the enamel spray can. First up I had to sort out the newly cut front fan-hole.
Hard Drive Bay:
Watching some paint dry…
The shiny result!
Mounting the radiator
With the front grill now riveted onto the case, I can now mount the fan and radiator. I will at a later stage spray the rivets black. For now that is just a minor task when grander things lay ahead!
Phoybia 140mm HoneyComb Grill:
140mm Radiator mounted:
Inside:
Hard Drive Bay
The way the drives are meant to be mounted – attached underneath the optical drive bay – meant they took up too much room and restricted airflow through the radiator. I decided to attach the hard drive mounting bay straight onto the side panel. The pictures explain it better…
The optical drive bay had to be slightly ‘adjusted’ – it can still take an SSD Drive, a definate future upgrade:
Rivet holes drilled:
HDD Bay riveted and home 2 x 2TB Drives:
Front Panel
Because I’ve removed a lot of excess stuff from the front of the case I can no longer attach the Power/Reset buttons and the USB 3.0 + Audio ports. Some dremel action and a bit of drilling will sort that out!
The original full fat panel:
The now slimmer panel:
More to follow…
If you want to see the larger photos they are at: http://pcmodder.co.uk/?page_id=94
The Case
■Model: PC-Q08
■Case Type: Mini Tower
■Dimensions: (W) 227mm x (H) 272mm x (D) 345mm
■Volume: 21.3 L
■Body Material: Aluminum
■Net Weight: 2.73KG
■Expansion Slots: 2
■Motherboard: Mini-ITX / Mini-DTX
System Spec
■Intel Core i5 2500K ‘unlocked’
■ASRock Z68M-ITX HT (Intel Z68)
■Kingston HyperX Genesis 8GB (2x4GB) PC 12800
■Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB 64MB Cache x 2 (Raid 0)
■Gigabyte GeForce 550Ti 1024MB
■BeQuiet Pure Power 630W Modular PSU
■Samsung SH-B123 Bluray Optical Drive
Watercooling Kit
■EK DCP 4.0 Pump
■Koolance Slim 140mm Radiator
■EK Supreme LTX CPU Waterblock
■Swiftech MCRES Micro Rev 2
■Masterkleer Hose Pack 15.9/11.1mm
The Tools
Majority of what was used:
My favourite, the riveter:
Powerdrill and dremel:
Cutting the case
Cutting into a high-quality Lian Li case is always makes me nervous. First up, the case is carefully marked up with masking tape so I can draw my plans out and double check everything. The masking tape also protects it from scratches.
The Jigsaw
Now it’s time to attach the fan grill and drill the fan holes and rivet holes. Rivet holes are 3mm and fan holes are 4mm. The grill has been tapped onto the case to keep everything accurate.
When drilling any hole into such a soft metal it’s always important to mark up with masking tape around the drill holes to prevent any scuffing when the drill punches through.
Spray Painting
Some of the internals of the case are unfortunately supplied in a polished aluminium state. This is great if you get the Silver version of the case, but if you opt for the Red or Black then it throws things out a bit. Out came the enamel spray can. First up I had to sort out the newly cut front fan-hole.
Hard Drive Bay:
Watching some paint dry…
The shiny result!
Mounting the radiator
With the front grill now riveted onto the case, I can now mount the fan and radiator. I will at a later stage spray the rivets black. For now that is just a minor task when grander things lay ahead!
Phoybia 140mm HoneyComb Grill:
140mm Radiator mounted:
Inside:
Hard Drive Bay
The way the drives are meant to be mounted – attached underneath the optical drive bay – meant they took up too much room and restricted airflow through the radiator. I decided to attach the hard drive mounting bay straight onto the side panel. The pictures explain it better…
The optical drive bay had to be slightly ‘adjusted’ – it can still take an SSD Drive, a definate future upgrade:
Rivet holes drilled:
HDD Bay riveted and home 2 x 2TB Drives:
Front Panel
Because I’ve removed a lot of excess stuff from the front of the case I can no longer attach the Power/Reset buttons and the USB 3.0 + Audio ports. Some dremel action and a bit of drilling will sort that out!
The original full fat panel:
The now slimmer panel:
More to follow…
If you want to see the larger photos they are at: http://pcmodder.co.uk/?page_id=94