Project 'Hour Glass'

[flaremods]

Lo all. I'm new to the forum so I thought I would introduce myself with my personal mod that I have just finished.

The skeleton for this mod is a Sharkoon rebel9 Value case.

If anyone has any feedback please post it and also I apologise in advance for the bad picture quality as i have an old camera.

Enjoy.

Sponsors

Be cool! Be Aerocool! Click http://aerocool.com.tw to go to their website!!

Click http://ekwaterblocks.com to go to EK Waterblocks' website!!

Crucial, The Memory Experts
Click http://www.crucial.com/uk/ to go to their website


The rough idea for the mod:

Here is a picture of the first set of supplies to arrive:

The case:
(The two front fans that are installed at the moment are only temporary as Aerocool are kindly sending me 4 silver turbine fans and a Modern-V fan controller )

So lets get on with the modding....

First all the wires and LEDs in the front bezel have to be removed:

Naked bezel:

Making the new bezel with acrylic:

 

[flaremods]

Sanding down the acrylic so it fit perfectly took so insanely long!!!!

Acrylic on the bezel:

Finished Acrylic before being glued in and moulded with fibreglass filler:

Measuring out the cutting line for the fan ducts on an old CD holder. (Talk about recycling )

Cut out fan duct with a cut down the middle so it can fit perfectly onto the edge of the fan hole:

Cutting it down to size now that I have a measurement:

The two fitted fan ducts:

The clean join:

I then set about sanding down one side panel so it was ready to be sprayed.

I need a bit of advice here as I have these 2 really nice aluminium fans:

The problem is as you can tell by this picture that the ugly fan guard on the back is obscuring most of the fan. So do I hole saw it and then fibre glass filler the edges so it is solid or cut it with a dremel. I’m looking to try and get the same effect Bill Owen got with the Harley Davidson mod.

Here is the stage that the mod is at the end of the day:

I bought myself some speed epoxy so i can glue the new bezel together.

 

[gt_junkie]

NM

 

[flaremods]

Here is the bezel now glued together along with my hand :

I left this to dry for a day and then stated sanding both the fan ducts down and I also got as much excess glue as i could have the front of the acrylic:

Finished fan ducts:

The bezel as it is at the moment:

I wasn't at all happy with the quality of the bezel so after a cup of tea I got down to some hand sanding:

I also touched every join up with some more superglue and filled in some gaps with it too which took about 4 hours to complete :

I then sanded down all the excess glue and put the bezel back on the case to see the better quality:

The problem with acrylic is you can't see where the surface isn't perfect so I got everything ready so I could do a quick coat of primer so i could then work out which areas weren’t up to scratch:

I know you can't see this from the pictures but there are some deep scratches on the acrylic and there are some lumps of glue in certain places.

 

[flaremods]

All my sponsorship items came today straight from tiawan from the awesome people at Aerocool.

Here it is

I love those fans



A few weeks back I asked the grounds keeper at my sixth form collage whether at some point I could use the drill press, and he said no for health and safety reasons but that he could do it for me if I told him what to do.

So here is the bezel with the LCD screen in:

I then masked up the side and top panel and worked out where I wanted the grounds keeper to cut:

Cutting the two holes;

The finished holes:

It never goes perfectly though does it :S. I realised that after cutting out the first fan that the bar across the drive bay holder was blocking the fan, so with no delay the jigsaw came out:

We then got down to drilling the holes for the fan screws:

After the top panel was done I measured and drew out the style for the side window:

Then the grounds keeper got to cutting:

The finished Window (before it was sanded down):

 

[flaremods]

I wanted to see how everything looked turned on so I plugged it all in and powered up . I was quite surprised to find that it was very, very quiet but still absolutely freezing in the middle of the case (granted there are no components in it yet.)

Then I got dismantling the case so I could hand sand it so it would be ready for priming. I have done this for all the panels even though I only have a picture of the side door partly done as the camera died. I was surprised how many bits there actually were so far:

 

[flaremods]

First off wow, the delivary time of Crucial is amazing, and I’m not just saying that as they are my sponsor. So the ram came:

Temporary instalment in my aging mobo:

I never knew they had LEDs at the bottom as well



I then got another parcel on the same day, I feel special . It’s from EK:
Such a good phone

Daaamn that’s packed

OK maybe not so packed:

The parts then:

CPU block:

GPU block:

Acrylic top for the pump:

 

[flaremods]

Barbs (was sent 2 to many, but I wont complain hehe) :

Tubing:

Some extra CPU plates:

All the watercooling stuff so far:

[

With barbs installed:

The GPU and CPU blocks look fantastic. Everything looks amazing, only one drawback, the pump manual is only in German .

A quick assemble of the Acrylic top and the update is complete:

Screwing back up:

 

[flaremods]

Wow, I just finished talking to Paul Lockey from XSPC about whether it was possible to get the X20 150mm pump/reservoir with just the res. He said it wasn't possible but that he would check the RMA's in the morning as he was replying to my email 10 minutes after me sending it at 9:30 in the evening!!

So the morning came and sure enough he checked and there was only one suitable one there. He said he would send it straight off to me on first class post for free!!

Thanks a lot Paul, and wow XSPC have great service

Here’s the pump: http://www.xs-pc.co.uk/150pump.php


Now on to the main bit. My case came back from the sprayers. I’m not 100% happy with it as there are blemishes and small lumps on some of the surfaces. So on to the pictures:


First of, the price of the paint job:

The case then:

The custom front bezel:

Two blemishes:

The dominator ram cooler:

 

[flaremods]

But before I fully get underway, a way back I asked you all which side panel you preferred, well now that I’ve got it back from the sprayers you can really tell how it will look.

So A:

Or B:

Random shots:

The main bit .

So after I got the case back I took it straight back to the grounds keeper to pop rivet the roof back on and glue the side panel on with clear silicon:

the side panel is now finished. The grounds keeper doesn’t mind doing this kind of stuff for me as he likes making shiz for example his Daleks :

So when I got home I had two parcels awaiting me:

My UV blue 3/4 coils and some worm clamps.


I then got back down to some modding (or assembling ):

Putting the U trim back on properly:

Putting the front fans in:

 

[flaremods]

The roof fans with the temporary rad installed as I still need to flush it out:

The front minus the bezel:

Putting the back fans and rad on (I haven’t decided if this is where I put the rad or if I install it on one of the front intake fans) :

Wiring up the front bezel again:

The front bezel:

 

[flaremods]

More pictures ...

I’ll start with some parts:

Sanding down the panel so the side door could close.

I also picked myself up some deionised water to flush the rads out with.

 

[flaremods]

So… on with the build.

Cleaning down my Q6600:

The surface of the EK supreme, looks, well, perfect:

Back to the building and the changing of my GPU cooler:

 

[flaremods]

 

[cje]

Holy bejesus, must have taken you ages just to take all those pics. Looking good. Forgive me if I missed this, but what's the system specs you gonna put in it?

 

[flaremods]

Starting to hose and wire up (btw the case has absolutely no way of cable managing as the side panel has about 2mm clearance from the whole case):

Filling the case up:

The case 99% complete. I just have to re do the window a bit and change some screws on the top. I hope you like it:

 

[flaremods]

 

[flaremods]

Thanks all.

 

[gt_junkie]

Nice 'mahoosive' build log there flaremods!

However, just a friendly bit of advice, i'd remove the competitor link/details if i were you. OCUK no likey!

gt

 

[flaremods]

I've got some more pictures of the finished mod if anyone is interested. BTW I'm sorry if there is a bit of 'ohh update time' every now and again in it as it was copied and pasted from another forum that I am on .

I just wanted to show my worklog on here before I start posting .

Thans all and comments and questions are welcome