Project - I bet it will fit

I have just been told that I will get my case top back from the metal prefabrication place next weekend. I am aiming to get a lot more done then.

I have also had some EK compression fittings turn up with a handful of black rivets and some nice Masterkleer UV Blue Tubing.

I will be posting some pics tomorrow and may well outline my idea for the door. :D
 
There will be some big updates very soon.

I had to change the design of the top of the case to get the look right so it has taken a bit longer than I wanted it to. I am hoping to get the case top done in the next week or so though.

I have had these turn up though. :D




 
Sorry it has taken so long for any updates. :(

I have a few pics to show though. ;)

I saw on another project log a while ago, someone (might of been w3bbo) made some stand off's to hold a SSD and to make them fit in with the rest of the case they just covered them in heat shrink. I needed to make some supports for the front of the case as where it was attached to the HDD bays it could no longer reach. So, I have rather blatantly copied someone else's idea (wish I could remember who so I could thank them properly though) but made them a little bit longer, 65mm to be precise. I looked everywhere for some sort of stand off that was the right length (and within budget) but ended up going for ones that were 30mm and cutting 5 mm off of another one. So 2 30mm stand off's and a 5mm bit together made my 65mm and then covered them in heat shrink to make them look a bit nicer.

Well, here are the stand off's without heat shrink. The gray stuff is metal glue so that they would hold in place properly as the centre section was a bit wobbly.


once I had sanded them all down and applied some heat shrink they looked like this.


So I put them in place just to check that everything was good.





I wanted to hide the cables from the PSU because although I have a modular PSU, there are some connections on it that I dont need. So, I thought it would be nice to build a small extension for the PSU. That way all the connections are hidden on the PSU. I just need to figure out how I am going to mount it where I want it (it should look like it is floating).



Now, I have asked on several forums what would be the best way to make the top of the case so that it looked how I want it to. The only really sensible suggestion was to weld a new piece of steel in to the top holes. Well, I tried to find someone that could do it for me but everyone was just saying that the metal was too thin to weld how I wanted to. So, I had a piece of steel made up that I could just bolt under the case top and then started to build up the surface in layers of aluminium so that the case top and the new section would be in line with each other. There is still a bit of work to do on it but it is starting to look how I want it to.






I also made a start on cable braiding. Thing is I really dont like the look of heat shrink on cables (just my personal taste). So, I am going to try to do it without showing any heat shrink (or as little as possible).

The next update should be very soon as I am off this week. :D
 
Well, I finally got the top of the case to look how I want it to (before I have it sent for powder coating). The clearance between the 140mm fans on the top rad and the motherboard ram slots is literally 4mm, so I am glad that I spent so long measuring it up now.



This is the steel frame that will support the rad and be bolted/riveted to the case top



This is the ali top to make the case look a bit better.



Case top with the steel in place


With the ali and rad in place


Then I found the proper camera so stopped using my phone :D




Told you the clearance was tiny!





The front rad however, needs to be dropped down by about 5mm as it is only just encroaching in to the space that I need for the res. No big problem as I did not drill the mounting holes for it anyway (I just used the holes that were already there for mounting a 120mm fan) but there might not be enough room on the mounting bracket to drop it down by that much so I might need to fabricate some mounting brackets for it out of ali.

If you look closely you will see that the two brass studs dont line up with the holes as the res is sitting on the rad.





I havent done much cable braiding yet but this is my first time doing it.
As I have said before, I cant stand the look of heat shrink. So I am going to give it a go without using any that is visible.

So far I have these two done.





Next will be the side window, but I am still waiting for samples of acrylic to turn up so I can chose if I should go for a coloured one or not.
 
Just a quick update.

I have had a look at the front rad and found that the only way to drop it down by 8mm was to make my own mounting bracket for it.
So I used some 1mm ali that I had, put a 90 degree bend in it and cut it to shape with the dremel that has been used so much in this project.

This pic shows the 120mm fan holes that I was using



This is part of the mount that I made



And now everything is lining up nicely.




At the moment the mount is held in place with some bolts but I will be replacing them with rivets once everything is powder coated. :D
 
Right, I was planning on just getting everything powder coated black but now have the option to have any colour I want as a normal paint as I know someone that can mix the colour for me and put it in to spray cans.

So, as the internals are going to be blue and black what would you do and what colour?
 
I have been keeping an eye on this thread and your progress is coming on great and looking forward to see what other problems arise lol:D, like the fittings of barbs and the limited space you will come across, just as I am doing with mine, it's a right mare to get things just right and take loads of fiddling

One thing though mate is this part of the forum does'nt get much of a look in so I wouldn't worry too much about reply's, I don't post as much as I should in here but I like to browse the pictures as I am sure many more do so don't be put off posting and updating as you go, look at it as a personal thread that you can log all your progression into:)

Oh and I would stick to black for the internals of the case, wish mine was black.
 
Sorry about the rant, had some bad news and did not handle it very well. :(

Any way, just the one pic today and that is of the bracket that I made after I riveted it in place.



I think that I have decided on a colour but it will mean doing the braiding again. Not a big deal as I have only done a few of them.

Now, bear in mind that this might change again, I am really tempted to do the whole thing with a base coat of metallic black with a slight blue fleck at the bottom fading to a red fleck at the top. Also, putting both red and blue LED's in the system so I can switch between the two colours depending on my mood.

Or am I being a bit ambitious?

Now, strange as this might seem, I don't really like doors on cases.
"Errr, why did you choose a case with a door then?" I hear you ask.
Well, I like the look of the rest of it and figured that I could do something about the door. So I am planning a few mods to the front so that the door will be locked shut and you will still be able to get to everything. Once I have decided on the res to use I will be in a better position to design the front.

Lastly, is there any real need for a monitoring system to keep an eye on water temps? I am toying with the idea of putting an LCD on the front somewhere but cant really decide
 
colour sounds good, wether it will actually look good is going to be down to the finish with metalics, personaly I like matt black and would stick with that, and usually one fan colour would look better overall

As for temp monitoring, realtemp should keep you covered and it's tottaly free and less wiring inside, I have seen them lcd's for temp and they look a little tacky imo, you could get a fan controller with temp display, lamptron do some nice one's, just got myself a lamptron fc5 v2, can change display colour and have either temps or voltage displayed in the lcd
 
Thought I would post up my idea for the front of the case.



I am still deciding on a few of the components and placements of them, but so far I think it will look something like that.

Just in case anyone did want it, here is the google SketchUp file for download.

Let me know what you think and what you would change.
 
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