V1000+II build photos! (56k get broadband, it's cheap now)

I've been doing a little more work on this rig so I figured I'd take some more poorly lit pohotos for you gentlemen. :)

sleeving3tj4.jpg

I had a go with a Vantec PSU sleeving kit. I originally wanted black but every retailer I tried was out of stock so I ended up settling for blue. The kit was just $7.25 so I didn't expect it to be great but it exceeded my expectations. It took ages to do even with the PSU modding tool set I picked up on a whim.

sleeving5rx2.jpg

Here's my squid-like PSU before I started. There are a ton of cables on this beast and I decided that for now I'd just do the main ones; the visible ones.

sleeving4ut5.jpg

In this shot I'm using a thumbtack to remove SATA power connectors. The SATA cables are definitely the worst, especially the connectors along the length of the cable as you end up half mangling the wire insulation when you try to line it up how it was before.

Under my hand you see a cigarette lighter. I started using a hair dryer to shrink the heat shrink tubing but it was taking way too long. I found that using the lighter carefully 1-3 inches away from the surface worked best.

I didn't really take enough photos at this stage for a few reasons. First It's hard to take photos when you're using both hands to work. Second, there's not a whole lot to see; pry the cable out of its connector, struggle with the sleeving material, etc. I screwed up a number of times, forgetting to put heat shrink on a cable and having to take it all apart to remedy it, cutting a length too short, putting pins back together backwards, and other silly things that generally made me feel stupid.
 
Despite it all, I got done and after quadruple-checking the pins against the ATX standards I inserted it into my machine and fired her up.

sleeving11gr2.jpg

I've redone some of my cable management when reinstalling the PSU. I ended up flipping the HDD upside down to make less of the power and SATA visible when the panel's off. I assume that this won't effect the drive's long-term health.

sleeving12qq7.jpg

I really like how the ATX and EPS12V cables turned out. When installing the CPU duct I tore the plastic sleeving material where the EPS12V diverges from the ATX cable. I suppose it doesn't matter much because the damage is covered by the duct when in use.

sleeving13mz4.jpg

With an eye towards cable management I'll show you the other side so you can learn from my successes and failures in this area. :-p This is the back of the HDD bay. Note the front audio cable stashed away as I'm not using it.

sleeving14pf1.jpg

This is the back of the 5.25" tower. I've tried to run as many cables as possible through this area so as to keep them out of sight when in use. It's rather crowded now so if I don't have them properly arranged the side panel won't attach. That said, this plan is working just fine as the panel closes and the cables are hidden.

sleeving16uq3.jpg

When the side panel, side exhaust fan, and CPU duct are back in place most of my hard work is rendered invisible but I can be confident that my airflow is just about as good as it's going to get.

Thanks for reading. Questions, comments, and criticism are encouraged.
 
That's with the side panel?

Less than £100, un-bloody-believable... all that would cost you around £130 case, £30 EX-33 and £35 for the side panel. So double, basically.
 
nice job looking from the photos couldnt you mount your hdd backwards and take the sata cable up round the back ? the more of lan-li cases i see there more i want one they really do look exelent quality
 
PU7E said:
nice job looking from the photos couldnt you mount your hdd backwards and take the sata cable up round the back ? the more of lan-li cases i see there more I want one they really do look exelent quality
Click to expand...
I tried that but the way the HDD carriages sit in the case there's a lot of room in front of the drives and none behind. If I wanted to mount it backwards I could do so by unscreweing the drive carriages, moving it foreward, drilluing and tapping new mounting hokles, and attaching it.
 
artaxerxes said:
Can you not turn the cages round?
Click to expand...
What good would that do?

If I turned the cages so that the drives entered from the back there would still be no room for the cables. In order to get the cables to all fit I'd have to move the mounting location of the bays closer to the windowed side of the case.

This is how it is now:
nowef2.png


To insert the drive backwards, I'd have to move the cages like so:
laterac3.png
 
Just a random post on a similar subject Billy. I had a play around with my xeon system at easter, trying to make it quieter. I made a funnel adaptor out of aluminium to sit on the Heatsinks which allows me to use two 120mm fans to cool them. It made it a lot quieter. Then i found the GFX card made a lot of noise too...

Ill post some pictures when I get back home if your interested. :)
 
I'm quite interested. I considered doing that with mine for quite some time, though I'd have done it with Lexan. I went as far as buying the Lexan but it got cannabalized for another project before I got around to it and that was sort of the end of it. ;)

What sort of graphics card do you have?
 
Its only a voodoo 3 or something like that (for display purposes only). I had an issue with the card to begin with as I didn't take it into account when measuring the clearances, I ended up sticking a spacer between the funnel and the HS. It is a small card but it is also AGP so placed right next to the heatsinks. The PCI-E and PCI-X sockets would be able to fit larger cards and may not even be affected (I cant remember where the edge of the funnel ended). :) The noise from the GFX card is due to a little 30mm fan revving its guts out to keep it cool.

I wondered about using plastic too but there was no way I could bend it, and the thickness needed would be a lot more than Alu. I think I used 0.4mm grade Alu in the end which is easily strong enough. I riveted it together and put insulation tape on the bits that touched anything to do with the mobo.

Temps stayed pretty much the same with the 2 120mm fans at their lowest settings, I used a nexus and Akasa amber as that was what I had spare at the time. Overall the noise difference was huge, going to almost silent (with a quiet GFX) when the fans were set at their lowest.

I won't be back home for a couple of weeks so will upload some pictures then. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom