Project:- Modzart

[G-Dubs]

Summer time is here, and although I planned to start this mod in the spring a few things got in the way, (mostly Mrs Dubs).

First off a big thank you to all who have been following the lead up to this project log in the case central part of this forum.

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18204555

It's taken a bit of planning and inspiration, and the input I've had from you guys has been invaluable. Keep up the good work guys, this is where the hard part starts.

this isn't going to be an uber quick project, I like to take my time and see how things develop. Heck I haven't even decided what hardware is going in yet. The only thing decided is dual loop, perhaps triple!!!

Things got underway early this week with a quick tidy of the workshop (apols if these seen before in old thread)

And then in came the case

And before you get too jealous of the workshop, take a look at what happens when it rains.

Going to be stripping the case right down tomorrow so shold have some more pics to come soon.

Thanks for taking the time to look.

 

[G-Dubs]

thats a big case.

Yup, It's big alright. One of the reasons I went for it is the potential the size enables.mmPlus I cn seperate out the PSU and drives into a different chamber from the mobo and GPUs

 

[G-Dubs]

Wow, i feel quite humbled by all the supprt this project is getting. Many thanks to all, and especially to those who have subbed. I'll try not to let you guys down.


OK so onwards and upwards

Case is now pretty much stripped down, didn't take long, but a bit worried that i'll forget where some of the smaller parts go when I come to put everything back together. Still if you didn't have bits left over at the end it wouldn't be a proper project would it

A few pictures of the strip down.


Front off and hard drive cage out. Lots of 120 fan placements on the front, most of which have filters.

Front connections wiring loom stripped out of front panel. This is a really nice piece of milled aluminium. almost seems a shame to paint it, but painted it will be.

A few aspects of the case

Rear quarter

Left side (Optical bays in top and PSU in bottom

Right side. HDD bays in top (removed as per first pic) and Mobo etc in bottom section

Top rear section, where the 2 rads will go

Roof from the inside looking up. Perhaps some fans on extract in here?

Taking the Perspex and the locks out, had hundreds of these fake rivets to remove. Came out not too bad, but will not be going back in!!!

Perspex windows out, Rear panel, filters and locks etc removed

As always, thoughts appreciated.

 

[G-Dubs]

Any ideas for colour scheme?

Personally I'm liking the silver that's currently there, but the black doesn't suit it imo

Colour scheme is pretty much decided, and as much as I like the grey silver it's just not me. Exterior will be more of an anthracite colour/dark charcoal.

Interior....Well wait and see.

I would go two dual rads and a triple rad at the front

And some more if you can fit them... What sort of hardware you gonna be putting in? I would say you could mod it for an SR-2

Front downstairs there's not a lot of depth so I run the risk of compromising my GPU if i'm not careful. Have given it some thought though.

I always wanted that case, Good luck with the project

Cheers mate. £39 on the bay!!!

 

[G-Dubs]

wow that case is huge it's making me want one!

As some one has already remarked


"That's no Moon"

Keep them pic's coming

Cheers Shadow. Will do matey

 

[G-Dubs]

£39!!! you got very lucky

Yeah he wanted less but I was insistant

Anthracite and charcoal works for me

Yet to source the right colour. Going to be using Halfords paints so it will be an auto colour.

Any suggestions? Want it quite dark, but not black, and not metallic as it's too hard to get a good finish with rattle cans

Looking interesting here dude *subbed*

Stoner81.

Cheers Stoner. Always appreciative of a "subbed"

 

[G-Dubs]

Bit different to a Skeleton Gary!

I can't help but think that it looks like a drinks dispenser, so it's going to be very interesting to see what you do with it.

I was quite surprised at the milled aluminium front, and it looks to be well made all round, although, what on Earth are the fake rivets for??

Have fun!!

Edit: They held the perspex? What are you going to use in their place?

Yeah fancied a change from the Skelly.

Drinks dispenser, bread bin, flip top kitchen bin... Have a look at the start of the other thread, there's some really quite brilliant shops in it.

The doors will be re paneled with either copper or aluminium. New windows and will be cut with new perspex inserts. So all that lot will go in the bin or be saved for another project most likely.

That looks like an awesome case for water cooling, plus it can double as a table to put your cup of tea on!

Still a bit high

Probably the one i was eyeing up, was it collection only, as i was miles away, otherwise would have bought it :L

Could be mate, I got it around Christmas I think. Was for sale in Lancaster if my memory serves me right. In the end he posted it for a tenner which was a bargain. It's got all the fixings and additional cables all bagged up nice.



Should be doing a bit more work over the weekend, mostly measuring and perhaps a bit of cutting.

Remember the old adage. "measure once and cut twice, then give the ruler a poor performance appraisal review"

 

[G-Dubs]

Now chaps, some important decissions to be made.

I'm still undecided on what sort of reservoirs to go for.

Option 1
Bay type reservoirs in the front. perhaps 2 doubles, but this would only leave me 1 5.25 bay. So maybe 1 double that is actually 2 reservoirs in one (XSPC do one)

Option2
Traditional cylinder reservoirs. But where to put them so they can be seen best? i'm thinking leave out the HDD rack and place them side by side there, and but the HDDs into the 5.25 bays by means of an adapter.

Option 3
I'm open to suggestions. needs to be able to handle 2 loops and I want to be able to see it from either the front or the MOBO side.

 

[G-Dubs]

Still think you should build something custom out of acrylic that features mini waterfalls. Remember my picture of a cascade? Ok you might not fit all that in but still. Saw one in another project and thought it looked great all lit in that way that acrylic lights up.

Dual loops. Reservoir either side.

Good to hear from youTealc, and thanks for the reminder re the cascade res. Any chance you could post it up here again for me?

How about citroen meteor gray? (If you can source it )

Looks like this: (I know this is an Audi, but it's the closest colour I could find in google images )

In terms of black, I would quite like something close to obsidian - but that may be darker than you want

I have no idea about reservoirs and know nothing about them

Cheers for the colour Cookeh, I'll look into that one. I may have to try a few out before I commit though (not cheap at £7 a can).

Could do a custom double helix style res spanning the height of the case, with one of the "struts" per pump, and have the rungs have a programmed led sequence so the light flows downwards from the top in the struts themselves... Or am I just being silly

On another completely unrelated note... How much would that cost, as I actually really want that in my phantom now

Don't suppose you could shop one of my photos please to help me get a better understanding of what you mean


Meanwhile, I've been doing a few paint tests this morning to compare finishes and give me an idea of which parts I want to paint what colours.
The idea is to have the interior predominantly copper, although I must stress this is not a Steam Punk Mod. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to do one, but I have nowhere near the skills required for that level of work.
So the interior copper, using a combination of copper sheet and copper paint (for those harder to get at places).

I'm also thinking of using Brass to add a colour contrast in places and perhaps some of the Silver/chrome I have left from other projects.

At present i'm not sure about the Brass. I think it looks too Gold to be honest and I don't want it to look in anyway "Bling" inside.
I've used Plasticote Paints many times before, but never used the Rustoleum paint. To be honest it flows and covers about the same, giving a nice finish, but like the Plasticote it does flow quite thickly.

I'd prefer to use auto paint for all surfaces, but you can't get these colours and finishes in auto paint unless you're willing to spend a fortune on that high chrome American stuff

So here's what I have

Nice day so spraying outside in back garden.

Also thought a few more shots of the case might help people better visualise my options for Reservoir installation.

Res could go in top right area where HDD rack was removed from

All thoughts welcome

 

[G-Dubs]

This was the picture I posted before..

But I think it might be a bit of a squeeze.

Can't find the case mod that had one in there now though. Will post back if I can find it.

Ah yes I remember now. I think you're right it might be a little bit of a squeeze.

I've seen these yank cascade bay res's on you tube though that seem quite nice. Can't seem to find them now though.

Put a landscaped fish tank in the side! Looks big enough lol:

yes thanks very much. i'll make sure i look into that

Could be the bottle of Merlot and a good few Glenfuijiamas, but I actually just sat here and thought "Hey....What about actually having fish in the watercooling loop, swimming in the res, and swimming up the tubes. How cool would that be.

then I remembered the pump.

messy is how it would be.

Very messy indeed.

Need more than a bit of Biocide to deal with that.

 

[G-Dubs]

LMFAO!! I can already see the fishes demise in the pump, and the red coloring the water will carry along with bits and pieces!!!

They ain't gonna be finding that nemo.

not unles they use a sieve

 

[G-Dubs]

The ammonia the fish produce is a much bigger issue!

I would imagine The poop is a bit of an issue also

Just to clarify things Guys. there will be no aquarium.

 

[G-Dubs]

Fail




/unsubbed

Now just wait one cotton picking moment young man. You can't just go subbing and un subbing willy nilly. I have feelings you know

Hang on this is all gv_of_e's fault. he's the one that started the aquarium rumour. Look, he's admitting it.

Get im lads!!!

I feel I should apologise, it seems the conversation was... sidetracked a little

 

[G-Dubs]

I must be one of the few people who actually like the look of this case. Loads of potential! Really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out. Have really enjoyed your previous builds G-Dubs!

I know you probably have other plans but out of curiosity, would a 240mm fan potentially fit in one of those 4x120mm areas?

Thanks ch333z.

If you mean the area et the top rear of the case then yeh. the plan is to have 2 of 120.2 (a 240) up there. Also thinking maybe one of the phobya quad 120s.

should be getting the dremmel out at the weekend

 

[G-Dubs]

You know...if you cram enough gear in there and just leave it running you could actually run some really nice tropical fish. They would have to have a decent temperature tolerance though for when you're on load ...

If there were to be an aquarium theme WHICH THERE IS NOT. With the cooling i'm going to put in here the only thing that will survice is Icelandic Prawns

 

[G-Dubs]

Please do this It would be epic. I also like the idea of one of those helix reservoirs, maybe one above the other?

Like these a lot. may very well use a few. can you pm me where to get them

 

[G-Dubs]

The weekend is very nearly upon us.

Hope to be getting the doors off and cutting them for the windows.
Also cutting some of the hex mesh out to provide better airflow.
may make a new rear rad area panel, not decided yet.
few more paint tests to look at colour combos for fans.
thinkink black housing with copper blades or maybe other way round.
also have chrome which is nice and brass which i'm not too keen on as it looks a bit too much like gold

feel free to chip in with colour combos for fans etc.

 

[G-Dubs]

Having planned some Dremmel action for this weekend I've actually dedicated my time to some paint tests.

Interactive Mod time.
Interactive Mod??? What does that mean? Well it's your chance to have some input. I could do with your collective help in deciding on the colour scheme for the fans.

As you know from earlier posts (what do you mean you haven't read the earlier stuff, you just looked at the pictures). the inside of the case will be predominantly copper in colour. I've tested chrome and brass on discs and have pretty much given brass the boot as it looks too bling, or as someone put it "poor man's gold".

So a few colour combos. The question is which will look best inside the case. Bear in mind these will be mounted on Radiators in the top section. Black of course is the colour of rads, but thinking of changing them to copper also.
Which do you think works best?

1. Black cowling silver blades

2. Copper cowling copper blades

3. Copper cowling Silver blades

4. Black cowling copper blades

Comparison

Final combo will be silver cowling and copper blades, but I'm still waiting for primer to dry.

 

[G-Dubs]

Yeah i'm thinking silver cowling and copper blades might be the one that works

 

[G-Dubs]

Fan colour tests continued
I've tried a few more colour combos this evening. happened past the local hardware and a tin of Pewter caught my eye so thought i'd give it a go. Not convinced to be honest but I'd appreciate your thoughts. Did half cowling in Pewter and half in Silver and then as I thought it was hideous sprayed over it in silver.

So the finals of the colour combo comp

No. 5
Pewter cowling copper blades 9next to copper cowling silver Blades, at present in first place.

No 6 Silver cowling copper blades (thought this might be the one but not so sure now. I've put it next to the other to help

And finally copper copper and Silver silver

So guys do we have a clear winner???


Thanks for the feedback on this so far guys, I've found it really helpful, and hopefully you've had a bit of fun having input into the mod.

@Tealc. I managed to use only 2, they were out of old cases and one had already been painted before when I was trying out combos for the Liquid Skeleton Mod. They'll be saved and used again anouther day.