old full tower server chassis (to mod)

[benji182]

My first watercooling rig - Case to Mod

hey guys, followed a few threads where people have modded these old beige beasts into something truely worth owning and standing proud next to your desk

but i was just wondering if its worth paying money for one?

an acquaintance has one up in his attic he said he'd dig out for me but after i told him what i planned to do he now wants to charge me for it lol.


is it worth paying for see as i'd have to pay for a new case with my new build before uni anyway.


cheers for your time.

 

[benji182]

where would you find one cheap?


he wasn't thinking cheap unfortunately about £50.




i really want one like now so it can be a late summer project to stop me getting drunk every other evening as thats just burning money.

 

[benji182]

thats what i thought. £50 is a lot cheaper than most cases now days despite it being older than me most likely LOL (ok not quite).



i'll keep my eyes open.



cheers

 

[benji182]

got me one - woop!


a few ideas i wanted to get all of your opinions on.

first thing is its fully riveted so everything thats in the case now is in there and not moving. but then i noticed the 8cm space below where the motherboard would go and it got me thinking, if the case were upside down - would it be a better lay out to watercool?

excuse my paint skills but here is a rough idea.

let me know what you would change or if i should do something diff.



note: case is only has room for a radiator of 40.5cm inside the case as its not the greatest for depth but is 22cm wide so could easily fit a radiator (i think anyways).


ps. i've never water cooled anything so hoping this would go smoothly.

 

[benji182]

And, nothign ever goes smoothly.

ever.

awesome - i'm full of confidence lol



rivets sound hmmm.... i don't think its a bad lay out for its size so will prolly leave the case in tact apart from drilling holes for the fans.

 

[benji182]

can anyone please advise me on a filler.


i need to fill in a whole that was left by the old power button on the fascia.



thanks.

 

[benji182]

Car body filler, Plastic Padding or Isopon P38.

cheers for advise - i was thinking upside looked better but then there would be a massive area with just a psu in it and thats not why i got a massive case.


i know how to paint a computer case (never done it but read a few how to guides online and on here so going to practise on an old side panel on monday but is it easy enough to just sand the filler down so its flush/smooth with fascia and then paint over that or will it become flakey and dry out?

 

[benji182]

you're ideas are very interesting and sound rather temping except i ordered my rad, res & fans on saturday day afternoon - D'OH!!


but i've got a new idea that incorporates both mine and yours.


Thermochill PA 120.3 Radiator = 430x128x61mm which is MASSIVE!!

the case looks big but its not as big as you think when you know the size of that radiator.

it would fit in the drive bays but it'd fill everyone one of them, so no hard drives or DVD drive as until you mentioned "having a large raid array" misterPK i had forgot about hard drives me = noob!!

my new idea is as follows: (again ignore my paint skills)


if i were to go for the dual rad at top on the case roof and the uber radiator as well at the front in the drive bays like suggested there would be no room for a CD drive but can you mount a normal drive on its side like in pic below

or would i have to buy an slot loader or even a slim line lappy drive?

i've got a pinoneer 16x16x48 i think so i wasn't really wanting to get rid of it.




the white and grey are mesh - know i've ordered Hex or HEXX honeycomb i think it was not 100% but it looked cool in the pictures lol so was thinking mesh at top on both sides and then a window where the red is of course showing of my non~existant mobo and GFX card but when i get them it'll show them

 

[benji182]

it would seem that the only place that you could mount the .3 is either in the front drivebays making all of them completely un-usable or mount it off the back some how, which to me would seem a better idea. you also need to take into consideration the positioning of the pumps and Res's.

what i would have had in mind -

put my paint skills to shame haha


i mainly bought the case as i wanted everything inside - i was planning on getting a TJ-07 with the rads and PSU at the bottom but though hell no! i want to build it all from scratch as this is my first water cooling and what i'd call a real case mod. as changing fans and adding some neons is a bit cheap lol.

could you recommend either a hard drive caddy like thing (where you screw some rubber thing in each side so its wide enough for a 5 1/4" drive bay or should i see if i could mount the hard drives in a cage like hanging from the top above the PSU.

I know very little about water cooling, but to me a tripple and a double seems to be a bit of an overkill, unless your going for some insanely fast clocking once this is all done.

If you want to keep the .3 in the front and not have the one on the top, why not mount your drive back a bit and at an angle so it comes out of the top of the case? One day I'll do my own mod and use some of these bizare ideas I keep having!

If you've only got one or two hard drives I'm sure you'll be able to find space to put them somewhere, even if you end up making your own mounts.

PK!

the tipple and double does sound over kill to me also and would prolly get the bank knocking at my door as i don't have a job and i've just spent my amsterdam holiday money now but with my bday 2morra hopefully my old gran can keep this project of mine going

the drive bay idea coming out of the case sounds too rad to be true!! if i can figure an easy way to mount it i think i might just do that and mount my dual fan rad at the front lol.

 

[benji182]

my eagle fans and cold cathodes arrived this afternoon along with my HEX mesh. the two 120mm fan filter/grills will be mounted on the underside of my case as i've decided that i'll have two of the sharkoons sucking in air from the base for when i mount the wheels.

the res and rad are on a back order despite being in stock when i ordered.

ETA of 10days apparently so when i return from sailing i shall get started on filling in the fascia holes and sanding it down and preparing the case for some paint.

 

[benji182]

spent about 30mins on each cut out for the windows just filling

but i'm pretty happy with the result so far. just need to spend a few more minutes in the corners rounding them off as the drill bit slipped a few times so wasn't very clean looking.



window/side panel so far:

and this is just to give you an idea of the tubing stuff i'm using on the edges to make them look all nice and neat.

yet to paint still but i managed to get some car body filler today from halfords so i'll start smoothing off the fascia and patching up the holes.



this is the underside of the case as i've decided to mount two of the sharkoons in the base for an intake.

 

[benji182]

Todays update:


My EK Res came so decided to prepare the case for mounting that.

will continue work when i return from amsterdam.

 

[benji182]

the beige is on the way out, do not fear.

I spent most of this afternoon sanding down the side panels and prep~ping them ready for the primer which if I don't have to work I'll do 2morra as weather looks good here.

Then again the BBC weather website said it'd rain in Amsterdam and I didn't once need to wear a jumper


I've got 4x Red 12" CC and 4x UV 12" CC tubes to go in the case so i was thinking red at the top/front (by drive bays) so that red light comes through the mesh without being able to see any of the cold cathodes.
Then the UV cold cathodes around the Mobo area (again out of sight) but this will light up the fluid in the water system and hopefully illuminate my Res. in the front panel but with out showing up the metal case front behind the plastic fascia.

Is it worth painting the front of the case as well as the side panels/top/bottom etc. despite a plastic fascia panel going on top of it?

does that make sense

 

[benji182]

not had much feedback as of late but I've been wondering.... would it ruin the look of the case if i were to add one of those USB/firewire/audio 3-1/4 drives bay covers to the front of the case just to make it easier to plug in something rather than using my monitor?


i had this in mind and would prolly put it where i had the idea of the sideways CD drive (a few posts up).

its not a must or anything but let me know if you'd bother cutting a hole for it or just leave it.









ps. two Dell 24" monitors so thats 8 USB ports on my desk but i don't like the cables coming out the side/underneath the monitors fascia.

 

[benji182]

no - its really odd.


its just ten 5-1/4 drive bays.



well i won't be ordering it right this moment as i'm poor again lol. but a parcel should be arriving sometime today so will crack on drilling the holes for the new power/reset buttons etc.

 

[benji182]

I imagine that the ports can be removed from that 3 1/4 mounting, so it could probably be put anywhere there's even the smallest of spaces. The thing to think about is where is going to be convienient when you've finished the case and you're using it in your room. If its gonna be on a desk (unlikely I know ) then you might be better off with it lower down or on the side panel. If its going on the floor then it might be worth thinking about putting it on the top if there is room.

Keep up the good work!

PK!

i was thinking that and maybe just mounting it at the top of the case. the case is 8mm too tall to fit under my desk when i have the wheel on but since i have to have the wheels on for the fans to suck air in and the fans at the top to blow air out under a desk won't be the best place.

i'm also hoping that it loooks awesome and lasts me a long time, in which case i'll want to be showing it off so it'll be next to my desk most prolly.

Looking good.

What colours is the case going to be?

black exterior with red / UV light coming through grills/mesh/window/random bullet holes the case has a lot of random holes drilled into it from previous owner i guess.

 

[benji182]

I got another small package this morning. my dad has taken all his tools to work with him so i can't work on it until he returns this eve. but i should be able to a bit more sanding and cleaning up all the dust i've made.


pics are as follows:

+ nice red fan grills (to be mounted on top)
+ X-Swing for mounting my hard drives.
+ UV red IDE for my DVD-RW
+ custom Rocker Switch front panel so i can turn on and off the lights as and when i need. they light up red as well when the component is on

these are just an old 4Gb & 20Gb hard drive from a old machine I built but that is how i now plan on mounting the hard drives. Raptor X at the front so you can see it through the mesh spinning up and making noise lol.

 

[benji182]

today's update


got to finish working at 3pm so i spent a few hours sanding down what I'd filled before work. this stuff has a really nice smooth finish that just dusts away.


I've only sanded a little bit on the right of the fascia in the pic but I've done a lot more now

tomorrow i should be able to finish off the fascia for the front panel and get that primed ready for painting (my biggest worry of cocking up).


I've got 1 can of each but how many paint can's would it take to cover a case of this size?

i just remembered in al the how to paint a case guides I've read they've painted a standard size case with 2 cans.

 

[benji182]

woohoo!! more goodies today.


its like christmas all the time here lol.


what arrived:
+ STUPID amounts of cable management braiding, ties, heatshrink etc.
+ two Bulgin Vandal switches for power/reset.
+ more heat shrink (the cabling kit didn't say it included any plus I thought that there wouldn't be much but now i've got enough to cover every bit of cable that I will end up using).
+ and finally my Lian Li PSU back-plate.


with out the PSU back-plate i wouldn't be able to mount a PSU as the old server case had one of them switch out~switch in power supplies.

all good now though.

the switches sleeving looks orange but it isn't, just a slightly different red to that of the sleeving kit.

 

[benji182]

Dont suppose they make those duvet covers in Double do they?

Project is coming along! I'm excited for you. I wish i could be bothered to finish my old server tower.

cheers and the answer is i doubt it.


my mum bought it when I was little as it was when Nigel Mansell's was in F1. 12 years ago maybe..

sorry.