Project: Fallen Angel

w3bbo · 7 Jan 2011 at 23:02

Motherboard tray:

Here's how the tray looks in situ:

Tray removed and cleaned with IPA to remove and grease/fingerprints that may affect adhesive:

Template cutting:

Removal of bubbles. I was gutted with initial application due to the severe bubbles that wouldn't budge, hardly noticable in the photo but it looked like woodchip wallpaper so these had to be 'popped' with a pin; very therapeutic truth be told

:

Motherboard tray mount holes: Odd shapes which made it extremely difficult to get the edges right but looks ok:

Next up: Cutting the cable holes and pci slots!

w3bbo · 7 Jan 2011 at 23:18

How ******* fiddly was this to do?!:

Outcome worked out well though:

Most of the bubbles have been worked out now. There are a few slight 'bobbles' but these are the screw holes which I'll be leaving covered for the now:

All, done (for now)

w3bbo · 8 Jan 2011 at 00:15

No, the top panel was removed to make access easier. Thats anodised red (see pics in first post).

w3bbo · 8 Jan 2011 at 00:18

No. All will become clear when I post the 'money shots' lol.

w3bbo · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:18

Managed to get a fair bit more done today.

Base of case.

I was undecide whether to go red vinylwhich was the original plan but it look a bit 'flat' and didn't work really well so I went for carbon again:

I came across a few probles thanks to LianLi's excessive amount of screw holes which made the surface a little uneven in places. It's pretty much masked by the carbon but noticable close up. A few pin pricks and a heatgun made the job a hell of a lot smoother though.

PSU bracket.

In hindsight the whole job would have been so much easier had I had a pop-rivet gun but I havn't got one to hand at present so I had to cover everything in situ which took a hell of a lot more time (more thn it would just going out and buying a rivet gun!).

The vent holes were easier to cut than I imagined thanks to a scalpel but were still a little fiddly to manage a clean cut.

PCI BAckplate. I was really dreading this part as there were so many holes and rivets as well as rolled aluminium to cover it was always going to be a nightmare. Depsite drawing a template, you can see what I was up against:

The Vinyl is pretty much like a large section of sticky tape so you have to be real carefull of creases or worse, it folding up against itself. Once in position though it was a case of using the heatgun to spread the stretch the vinyl into position and de-bubble the piece:

More to come...

w3bbo · 8 Jan 2011 at 17:25

Next up, the HD tray.

A doddle to do after the pci backplate:

The HD brackets themselves would be nigh on impossible to cover effectively in vinyl so these were sprayed 'rampage' red

:

Might get a bit more done tonight, hoping to get the 5.25 trays sorted. Alcohol is calling though so perhaps best I put the scalpel down for the night lol.

w3bbo · 8 Jan 2011 at 23:33

Looks stunning in the flesh, really pleased with it. Tbh this little project is coming along better than I thought and I'm enjoying the vinyl even though it requires oodles of patience, Just hope I have enough left for what I have planned

.

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 15:19

setter said:
Yep, the vinyl does look like it's akward to work with, bit like wallpapering on a smaller more intricate scale, and boy do i hate wallpapering lol. Are you gonna go with 140mm fans on the cooler? Considering trying a few on mine, but it's a case of finding good 140mm PWM fans, ive unfortunately used up all 6 channels on my fan controller.

No, I'll be using 120mm fans for the now as The OCZ Blades will interfere with 140mm fans I reckon.

gary996 said:
Looking great. The vinyl work looks first rate

Cheers. It was a pian to do but worth it imo as the interior looks very nice now.

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 17:35

Managed to get quite a bit done today.

5.25/HD racks:

These were easy enough to do however I won't be making all of the cutouts as I prefer the 'stealth' look. The only holes that will be cut in these are for what I need (Blueray + HD racks).

It's all coming together nicely now. Here's some shots with the mobo tray in place:

Next up, a few little details....

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 17:47

Details:

After spraying the HD racks red and liking the look I went on to do a few more little touches:

I was gonna use some plain black rubber edging for the cable cutouts but thought I'd give the stock ones a lick of paint:

...and while I had my overalls on, I painted the thumbscrews to match the build theme:

Here's how it looks thus far:

That pretty much finishes the internals for now. There might be a few more little touches here and there but I don't want to over do it. Simple but effective is the way forward now.

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 19:48

Lol, I get bored easily. I made a few quid of it as it didn't really cost me anything to build and it got the attention of potential sponsors for future builds so it served its purpose well.

This build is easier to maintain and is designed to be my 'main' rig to use while playing with other projects as using a laptop as a main pc is a pain! Easy to maintain and test parts out as well as upgrade while being easy on the eye.

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 21:25

Agreed

Cheers m8y. Hows my baby? Hope you're taking good care of her. She needs watering

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 21:40

Electrics first lol. I'm sure you'll do her proud

. Happy as muck with this case now. Can't believe I almost got the HAFX instead

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:30

Thinner than selotape and just as sticky!

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 22:33

setter said:
Tbh mate, the lian li looks better, far better looking case than the haf x, im a little biased as i own a lian li. (a70f), kinda fancy carbon covering the mobo tray, bit bland with the standard aluminium finish. Theyre beautiful cases, but for the price you pay they should be finished in black internally.

Yeah, I love older LianLi's, the v2000b was an absolute storming case. The newer ones are a bit tinny though so I hear with very thin aluminium? I still don't know why lianli don't come with black internals tbh.

The motherboard tray is an absolute doddle to do tbh m8, go for it!

w3bbo · 9 Jan 2011 at 23:04

It's cheap enough unless you get the Di-Noc (which admitedly is more authentic) but if you want shiny then this is the way to go. It is VERY tricky to apply around rivets etc but for flat pieces then its a doddle.

w3bbo · 10 Jan 2011 at 16:08

Darkzy said:
Looks good mate .. love the carbon fiber

Subbed

Cheers

Biffa said:
Looks great w3bbo, PC-P80 owner myself. Lots of fun to work with, and for me the largest case I had worked with.

Cheers m8. I've not actually installed anything yet but yeah it certainly fells roomy. It was never going to be as spacious as my old MM cases but I'm liking it thus far. I've always been a fan of LianLi's and this one is no different. Perhaps the only case I would go for now is one of the Tyr(?) range. They looks especially nice but very expensive!

w3bbo · 11 Jan 2011 at 08:14

schizo220168 said:
w3bbo,are you on another forum under a different name ?

just seen this build on another forum and wondered if someone else is taking the spotlight from you ?

Ic3man on XS? Other than that I don't go by any other name.

w3bbo · 11 Jan 2011 at 08:39

Muel said:
Looking good dude, will this be a Sandy Bridge build then?

No. X58 still offers more power for my needs (and more reliability it seems!). I'll be skipping the new cores until X68.

schizo220168 said:
yeh thats the one.

thought someone was using your build as there's as your name was different.

No worries there m8. It does look odd and I have asked Jupiler for a name change to who I'm known as in the UK

.

w3bbo · 11 Jan 2011 at 21:57

The potential for water is there I guess. No doubt it will be converted in the summer when temps are an issue again...sigh. I'll be happy if temps stay below 80c for now though.