Project: Little Rascal (A Modified Lian-Li V300)

Nixeh · 6 Jul 2006 at 21:49

I finally decided to start modding my Lian Li V300. Some people might ask why... as it is a nice case, which it is true, its a gorgeous case, but can be greatly improved on in places, and this is what i plan to do.

My plan is to modify the Lian Li V300 case, so that it can accomodate a full working Dual 120mm Watercooled system, and a full 9" Gfx card (which was sadly overlooked by Lian Li :rolleyes:

)

I have already composed a review of my intial thoughts of the case which can be found here.. Nixehs V300 Case Review

Right enough of the babbling and on with the Project Log. I got some cutting discs for me trusty dremel today and instead of do all the modding in one go i decided to post it bit by bit as it might inform people about the good and bad points of this case and obvioously the moddability of this case.

I decided to strip the case down to its bare chassis, removing the majority of the bezels, fans and mounts and the accessibility port for sound, usb etc etc at the front, and this is what i got.

Here is a closer picture of what i plan to be removing today. I havent decided on whether to remove the just the floppy drive caddy, or the bottom cd rom caddy aswell.

All i need to do is make room for the dual radiator and fans, and also the space needed for the 9" graphics card (X1900XTX)

Nixeh · 6 Jul 2006 at 21:50

As i found out, the fan mount is detachable, which is going to help me a bit later, as i will definetly have to alter it to accomodate the mounting for the dual 120 rad.

And after about 15mins of careful hardcore dremel action, i managed to roughly cut out the floppy drive... heres the wreckage.

What you see here is the bottom part of the floppy caddy.

Removing the floppy caddy on its own opens up a hell of a lot of space.

I still wonder why Lian Li put the floppy drive space into this case. Ok so there might be the odd few users out there who use the space.. but most of us dont. And i think if they removed it, it would be the best case for sff'ers (if you dont mind the slightly larger footprint).

This pretty much concludes my project log at this moment. Obviously i have to do more work, but ill get round to that in the coming weekend, especially when i finally get the radiator ordered.

Nixeh · 6 Jul 2006 at 21:50

Also before i go, i noticed one thing that i have to modifiy around if i decided to remove the cd rom caddy.

This is the bottom most support of the HDD, now ive had a look and im sure it will be stable without it, but im not sure what it would be like for stabability and also if this will help absorb any vibrations.

Anyway, hope you like my first log.

Feel free to leave comments, and suggestions and constructive cristism.

Nixeh · 6 Jul 2006 at 23:51

Ah yeah, knew i forgot something.

The spec is what im running in this current system which is as follows:

Opteron 165 @2.5ghz
Biostar Tforce 6100m9 Skt939 Motherboard
2Gb Gskill ZX DDR Ram
X1900XTX (Sapphire)
320Gb Maxtor HDD
500Gb HDD (which will replace my failing 160Gb HDD)
Hyper Modular 580w PSU (Blue)
NEC DVD Burner (currently black bezel which will need replacing)

Watercooling:
Dual 120mm Black Ice GT Radiator
Custom made or Cd Rom bay Res
2x120mm Akasa Amber Fans
1x80mm Akasa Amber Fan
2x40mm Fans

Not sure on what CPU and Gfx blocks to use yet.

All this will be running on my Dell 2405fpw

Nixeh · 7 Jul 2006 at 00:44

Yeah i was thinking of mounting a 120mm on the side instead of the 80 as i do have 4 120mm fans laying around, all akasa ambers.

Not sure about the space at the rear of the case for the HDD's, but with the cdrom removed, i could possilby have a duct on the side which will suck in and blow over and expell out the rear.

Nixeh · 8 Jul 2006 at 11:43

Yeah on the tforce, gotta retry pushing it further, did have problems pushing it beyond 2.5 but it got a bit dodgy, but i think that was me doing soemthing wrong with the overclock settings.

Nixeh · 20 Jul 2006 at 14:15

Heya guys, small pdate.

Just to let u know why theres been a lack of one. I am shortly going to holland for a lan on the 3rd of august until the 8th and im not sure if i should do the watercooling before as i dont know what will happen to the pressure within the tubes.

I will be though either tonight or tomorrow, modify the front fan mount to accomodate 2 120mm akasa amber fans.

Pics soon to come.

Nixeh · 30 Jul 2006 at 15:16

Well this is what i was going to do, but i thought, it might be best to wait for the radiator to be purchased. As its a tight fit, if i put the mounting for the dual fans in the wrong place i wont be able to get the radiator mounted properly.

But dont worry i will be ordering my radiator before i go so it should be here when i get back so i can get the mounting holes positioned correctly.

Nixeh · 25 Aug 2006 at 10:59

kk i will be ordering the parts soon.

What iam wondering though, is a reservoir actually needed. As i can skimp on this and then i can have an extra hdd in this case or maybe 2.

Sorry for delays, cash became a prob as i had to spend £100 on a seasonic PSU.

But theres going to be a lot of small customisations going on. Ive found recently im getting a lot of vibration coming through the case, and yet to find the problem.

Also whats the best tubing to use, im still torn between 1/2" or 1/3"

Also theres the plan of putting a crossflow fan at the back to make the push-pull configuration a lot more effective

Nixeh · 27 Aug 2006 at 18:54

Still waiting for the stuff to come into stock, its really annoying me though.

Im still stuck on a name, not sure if i should stick with Little Rascal or go for something like SilverStorm or something like that.

Any suggestions?

Nixeh · 27 Aug 2006 at 19:41

Well ive got a bit of a dilema.

Whatever i call it (most likely Little Rascal), i dont know where to put the name on the front.

I have 2 places where i can possibly put it.

At the bottom where the inputs are

as i will be scrapping these from the front and most likely repositioning them on the back above the psu as theres enough room. But then how can i fill in those holes? I was thinking bondo, but then how do i get the same seemless brush alu effect on the bondo.

Or theres in the middle above the Power and reset switches.

The black part is stuck on and can be removed quite easily, and i want the Little Rascal cutout of the case then have a lit blue acrylic behind it. Im not sure if i will need more space, so i might have to move the power and reset switches down, which gives me the same problem as the input cutouts.

Im still torn on which would look better.

Either way im still going to have to cover up the input mounts one way or another.

Any ideas guys?

Nixeh · 29 Aug 2006 at 10:46

Gamefreak dont forget about decibles aswell.

and to answer sandmaster, i have 2 plans really. I plan to see if i can mod the current bracket so it can accomodate the 2 120s, but this means it will be only joined to the radiator via 2 screws, hense why i wanted to know which out of velcro and adhessive pads would be better to hold it down.

This still doesnt deal with the power and reset switches, but lucky enough the cables can be bent without making the connection unstable 90degrees so they face down and go under where the radiator would be. To help it be flush still i have cut a slit approx 5mm wide going down for the cables to be hidden in thus dealing with the cable problem.

If this doesnt work when ive finally got the radiator or the bracket is too unstable as i will have to get my dremel out to open the bracket up a bit as their are peices from the 80mm mount that will block airflow for the 120mm, then i will be making a custom mount out of acrylic that will be fixed a bit further forward then the current mount sit, and will make sure it can house the power and reset switches.

I also decided the other day that if i have the project logo (still in design) at the bottom then i will most likely get a VFD that will go down the centre where the black column is at present, which would mean that i might have to move the power and reset futher down the bottom anyway.

Nixeh · 1 Sep 2006 at 14:45

It is that simple.

Cut it completely (which means you cant use the floppy bezel so u have a hole.

Or cut a section out of it.

Thing is i cut it all away, but the support that links the bottom most part of the caddy to the front of the chassis is connected to the bit i cut off. Now im not sure if this is causing slightly vibrational noise but when i get modding i will be attaching the bottom of my modded caddy to the front chassis with a bracket just incase.