Project : Black Ice (reborn)

w3bbo

w3bbo

w3bbo

Man of Honour
Joined
14 Nov 2005
Posts
10,679
Location
Up North
A m8 showed me his abandoned case recently which saddened me :

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The frog was not included btw as it was too heavy to post lol!

As you can see I'm gonna have my work cut out with this one but it would just be plain wrong to let a case like that go to waste. Apparently it was being used as a door stop of all things!

I'm not setting myself any time limits with this as I have a lot on atm but with a bit of elbow grease and a little investment (lots of time & little money hopefully) I think it's got potential to become a half decent build.
 
Well the first job is to give it a strip it down and give it a damn good clean as its covered in grime and little spots of rust. Then it'll be off to the powdercoaters, hopefully just for the internals as the exterior appears to be in pretty good shape.
 
Well I've got nothing to lose really as the case only cost £6.79 (delivery!) lol. Rather than spend an obscene amount of money like my previous builds I intend on doing this one more on a budget...although like most bdugets its hard to stick to them but I'm off to a damn good start lol!
 
1 month on and the case was stripped down, sanded down and sent off to the powder coaters. There are also a few plans for a little fabrication which will allow me to fit a 5" screen aswell as some other bits and bobs. I gave Welshtom an idea of what I wanted so lets hope he can restore this case to its former glory, with a little extra buff to make it all worthwhile.
 
Powdercoat internals

So the case finally came back from from the powder coaters and I was very impressed with the outcome. The case is starting to look a little more like a PC case than a garden ornament graveyard.

After a quick wax and polish here's how she stands at the moment:

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Modded front panel

The old A+ looked tacky and not in keeping with the look I'm aiming for so a new panel was made. The material used was from left over LianLI modded window panels so was an exact match of the colour and texture and looks like it's 'meant' to be like that. Vandal switches (both white atm) were also added.

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Braiding the loons

I'm a big fan of Yate loons and the D12-SL12 are the perfect balance between CFM and noise imo. Obviously they are black but I hate to see bare wires so these, like those in my previous builds were braided.

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I might swap out the connectors, or maybe just paint them black too but I'll come to that bridge when I cross it :).
 
Rad Mounts

I plan on having a PA120.3 in the bottom but it wouldn't fit without modding the case so the PSU would fit vertically instead of horizontal. So once again my 'supplier' came to the rescue and made a custom backplate for the PSU so I could do just that. However, I forgot to ask him to whizz up some brackets to hold the PA on its side aswell as lifting the PA up enough to be vented by the side panels. Not having the time (or inclanation) to go out and buy some pre-made brackets I thought I'd have a go at making my own. Heres a few pics of how I got on with the bits and pieces I had lying around in my tool box.

Bracket plates bent to size:
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I then attached the bent plates to some L-shaped brackets and sprayed them. Even though the Yates are quiet fans I wanted to ensure there would be no rattling of the case after fitting the rad+fans so I cut a little motherboard packing out to place under the brackets:

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Here they are fitted to the case which needed to be drilled - hopefully I measured this right!:

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Filters

Fan filters are a God send for those of us who don't like heavy maintenance and so I stuck some on the rad fans along with a neoprene gasket to give a good seal.

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If anyone is wondering, I set the fans up in Push configuration. Numerous 'experiments' have been conducted by others and tbh I have tried both myself without noticing ANY difference whatsoever - just my observation as I'm sure there is some law in physics that should dictate which way fans are supposed to go for best performance but in my own 'tests' I couldn't find that one way was better than the other.

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Lets see if my measurements were right;).
 
Radiator Fitment

Looks like I got it just about right - You don't thik I would have posted pics if I got it wrong do you lol?).

Front
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Rear

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PSU fitted

As stated previously the PSU now sits on its side thanks to the custom bracket. I also gave the PSU the once over with a spraycan as it was starting to look a little battaered after numerous builds in the past.

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gt_junkie said:
As ever - really enjoying the progress w3bbo.

Particularly like the picture of the front with the vandal switches. :cool:

gt
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Cheers m8.

Might have something extra planned for the plate - maybe some engraving or something as it looks a little plain - dunno yet, might leave it as is.

setter said:
Nice braiding on the fans, i use a couple of those same yates in my case and the bare wires dont look that great. The black braid really tidies them up:)
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Yup, I hate the braiding part as it is real tedious and finger cramping but worth it in the end.

p4radox said:
Good work. I like this project.:)
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Thx.

Mr Kingston said:
very nice build so far, what watercooling u gonna be using ?
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Funny you should ask :cool:

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Thermochill PA 120.3
Swiftech (Laing) DDC Ultra 18w
EK Mosfet 790i P1
EK Mosfet 790oi P2
EK SB 5
EK VGA(SB) 790i
Swiftech GTZ

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I don't think I'll be going with the EK res tho, looks a little puny.
 
Yup, that was actually the 2nd version this one was a 'trial' run for. The one on the bay is a v2000b, this is/was an A+ BLACK PEARL...Oh and this only cost me £6.79 (delivery) :D
 
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