Huargh....

Been sleeping for on my case mod since 2011
https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/1738405

from like this:



to





Man! Did I let it go to rot.....

What you guys are seeing here..

As of September 2014, my rig:

Intel Core i7 2600K
Asrock P67 Profesional (fatal1ty) motherboard
4x 2GB DDR 1600MHz
2x Nvidia 9600GT 512MB
4+ HDD
Seasonic S12D 750W PSU
Dell U2414h (pictured here is Dell 2407WFP HC, which retired early Aug 2014)

What really re-boot back my old project?

This https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=3323198&hl=
(for future reference if thread pruned, the link above goes to a selling page of MSI GTX680 Lightning at irresistible prices, for me at least)



And further compounded with the viewing of Nvidia Mod 24 (an event to commemorate the release of GTX980, with 3 teams to mod case withing 24hrs, and stream live in twitch)
https://www.google.com.my/search?client=ope...WHcvM8gWPv4LoBg



I got the GTX680 a week back and till now not yet connected...

Okay so the knick-knack paddy-whack is clear up

Where is the current situation on this mod project

Well this is the overview of the case




Close up on the case



take out the 3.5" dvd cage. Lucky the rigidity is not affected
I guess the Exploded right hand / back panel here:



and the bottom panel



And below is the HDD plates for HDD cage



These plates is taken out of another case, since the original was destroyed in a futile effort to do some "mod"




Have to build up from scratch, since without support top and bottom
the plates warp like hell

so the only way is to hold up the top and bottom
and guess what...



tonnes and tonnes of aluminum profiles, free to boot

ALUMINUM PROFILES = LIGHT, STRONG, EASY. THE CHOICE OF MODDERS

This post has been edited by mcchin: Sep 26 2014, 05:18 PM

So my schedule is limited to weekends or late night (11pm -2am)....

so midnite cutting is not possible (apartment habitat)

What was done yesterday the list

1. Raise up the case from bottom panel with standoffs
--a) gotta get some screws
--b) washers
--c) screws and nuts for HDD cage

Some thing Finalized this week end (hopefully)





After a 3 years hibernate, I analysed what really happen that caused the previous project run to fail

1. I overestimated the possibilities of some modifications, like trying to fit the whole unit into this space


I now know it is impossible, and happy with the cpu place on the floor or on the table

2. Thinking too far ahead. Partially everytime i start to do something to the case, my mind wander of to all the future mods to do, while not really finishing the basic mods required before continuing.

3. Find ways to coat all the surface. Paint spraying is not my forte, anyone providing these kind of service? Hmm... maybe going to opt for powder coating the whole case....

Here i go again.. thinking too far ahead...

This is the start of a reboot
Lets hope there is an end to it this time

This post has been edited by mcchin: Sep 26 2014, 06:17 PM

My one day backup pic to google plus almost equals my one month imgur view...







STOP GETTING DISTRACTEDDD!!!!!!
FOCUS FOCUSSS.... FOCUSSSSS!!!!!!!

This post has been edited by mcchin: Sep 26 2014, 05:58 PM

As what Post #3
the addition of standoff to the base to raise the whole case





Why ?
well the original standoff was to raise the base so that I can fit some HDD, screwed to the black board

the spacing is really enough but the plan now changed

I am gonna fit in a dvd drive at the bottom thus need to raise the spacing

but alas, the measurement is a bit off



there is not enough spacing to slot in the drive much less spacing for routing cables and wires

so need to raise more, by using these



left, was the cut off, that i though it is enough, the right is the uncut version

so need to get some longer screws to screw them in

New day new updates..hopefully

New screws



Taking out the old setup


Comparison old and new extender


All fitted in


And the DVD easily fit in, with some space to boot for use in cabling


Short term list

afternoon progress.... fhew...

cutting my old acrylics,


simple man with simple tool


cut some Al profile... sheeeet long-short... LANAAA!!!!! WHERE'S MY CALIPER???!!! wait.. who Lana? When did I ever have a caliper?


Bust out my ol' trusty ~❤~Boschie~❤~


Screwed in One side


The other side


Remove all the drive and it stand straight enough

Lucky I go with the addition of the acrylic plates. I don't see the Al brace can hold the cage unwarped

Still very bendable to a degree, maybe 6 degree? #Bendgate


Light start to go out, shitty Xperia Z camera. How it looked in position


The location of the extra length AL profile


TBC

What the function of the Extra AL profile length


the idea here is
- to place a brace below the metal case (blue)
- screw in two long screw (red)
- AL profile on the HDD cage has the middle straight down. The bottom would be shaved down to a radius (Black)
- Find the way to lock the opposite side to the case
- A simple relatively easy to remove whole HDD cage

Bonus:

Check the clearence


Lucky there is a gap there phew....

Thats for the day/night

see if there is any progress tommorow

This post has been edited by mcchin: Sep 27 2014, 07:01 PM

Some last night updates

Got some AL profiles cut at various length



The special one (Chelsea! Chelsea!)


What exactly is this part?
It goes in here.... perfectly


Close up of the slotting in progress... hnnnnghhh...




Some of the profiles was on the longer side. Need some elbow grease to shave down those millimeters


Reinforcement to the front of the Case


Basically it's to mate with the Special One @hdd cage so to hold it down



Drills some holes through those two profiles and lock the bottom and walla! "Easy Move HDD Cage" (patent pending)


no pic here yet
Taking it slow and steady

Yesterday night was a productive one

Vertical Mobo tray brace installed, the Horizontal Brace installed 2 years back


Front Mid Brace


For strengthening the soft thin metal and hold it back to straight line
   

Back Mid brace


Since we talking about the braces, a set of 3 bottom brace, really strengthen the whole case


The front mid brace connection with HDD cage

THIS NEED TO BE REDONE!

The back Vertical Mid brace


All assemble back for the night


Stuff to do:
1. Cut Acrylic for front
2. Find rubber mat for HDD cage anti-vibration
3. Cut holes on top panel for USB and power
4. Clean all cutting edges
5. Buy New Acrylic for side panel
6. Cut side panel
7. …
8. ..
9. .
10. Paint

It's Tuesday...

3 day weekend and almost nothing gets done...

Partially... I live in apartment and there is not much common area and/or neighbour for the bisingness of the grinder/ drill...

Well, Did get some work done on Monday, but no picture
Basically got some acrylic cut out (a simple rectangle) and some Al connector re-imagined

Today, well with the part prepare and brought to work place
Finally go some professionally cut and drill done, by myself no less

Remember this one?


Shitty drill holes and not level

So got some new replacement (Left Old, Right New)


You can see the old piece have the hole drill out in a sloppy manner, along with several re-drill
While the right pieces wan properly clamped and drill in a level from the edge
All using a milling machine.

Here's the look on test attachment to the HDD cage




The long piece will be riveted to the case
with the shorter piece attached to the HDD cage and held together with 2 screw through them

Then there is the Acrylics

again showing side by side what a proper machined/drilled parts (left) vs home free hand stuff (right) (crack and broke into 2 pieces.. )

Close up


Drill out the corners to facilitate the smooth cutting with an angle grinder


Acrylic installed, mind you this is not the Front Panel, just the Fan Jig/Connector to the case



Stuff to do:
1. Cut Acrylic for internal-front DONE but needs to touch up the edges
2. Find rubber mat for HDD cage anti-vibration DONE (show later)
3. Cut holes on top panel for USB and power
4. Clean all cutting edges
5. Buy New Acrylic for side panel
6. Cut side panel
7. Cut front panel
8. ..
9. .
10. Paint

Next pictures hope to put in some milling machine area pics

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 8 2014, 12:51 AM

As said yesterday
Some little updates on the acrylics and rubber mat/feet


The milling machine, for touching up the edges


Getting a straight edge so to look "professional"


End Product ... ssmmmmooottthhhh


Looks much much better


much better than this ..


then the rubber mat/feet
Any one can guess what this is from?


Pliable rubber, should be good enough vibration isolation



Stuff to do:
1. Cut Acrylic for internal-front but needs to touch up the edges DONE
2. [s]Find rubber mat for HDD cage anti-vibration[s] DONE (show later) DONE
3. Cut holes on top panel for USB and power
4. Clean all cutting edges
5. Buy New Acrylic for side panel
6. Cut side panel
7. Cut front panel
8. ..
9. .
10. Paint

unker.. any leftover gooding part sell cheap2 lar..huehue

Ehh? DUN CALL ME UNKER!!! lol
but a lot of kids at my apartment called unker...

Really, afte I done, not much left over lehh...

Though I might have an 8mm thick acrylic 3' x 4' @ RM230
(I need not much but supplier selling @ 6' x 4')

or maybe I might go with a 6mm 3' x 4' @ RM180



Any way doing some metal cutting

Top panel


Close up


The long holes is for

a USB 3.0 front panel connector

and the square is for USB 2.0 type (not pictured)

Nice hard work!

You should considering buying this dremel saw for you fancy cuts
price I guess between RM370-Rm400 but you can do as many fancy cut as you like..


Keep the update coming man!

I really did considered about getting a dremel and more equipment

but as you can see from the modding of a cheap old case
a RM 300 is quite a number, considering I still have to get some acrylics...

Furthermore, I lack the space area for a proper work place
as most of my drilling is done in my bed room

Very enticing..... but limited budget...

Well the cutting updates!!!

Finnally got some cuts...or drills to be precise. Have to rope in a friends help.


Drill in action


Time to clean up my 2 y.o paint. My ex-workspace cleaning area(now I got someone to be responsible for this area... Tsk...tsk... so unkept )


This stuff is MEK (methyl ethyl ketones) Stronk Stuff, can be considered paint stripper, eats up Road Line Paints like nothing


All cleaned up


Close up on the holes, need serious touchup


With the USB adapter in place



Very Nice! Very Nice!

Now have to touch up the holes, like seriously

Stuff to do:
1. Cut Acrylic for internal-front but needs to touch up the edges DONE
2. Find rubber mat for HDD cage anti-vibration DONE (show later) DONE
3. Cut holes on top panel for USB DONE and power button moved to front panel
4. Clean all cutting edges - For the week ends???
5. Buy New Acrylic for side panel - Search search search!!!!
6. Cut side panel Acrylic - Find the acrylic FIRST!!!!!
7. Cut front panel - OII!!! NO SEE ABOVE??? FIND THE BLARDY ACRYLIC FIRST LAHHH!!!! Then we talk.
8. ..
9. .
10. Paint or..or..or... hear me out... what if....Powder Coat?.... sheet... $$$ $$$

Friday no go
colleague wedding

$$$ fly, next week another...

Got some work done on saTURDay

FINALLY got the shape I want, USB 3.0 panel installed


Inside view:


the back view:


The place where the connector meet the mobo plug, this will be just long enough (might need to find extension cable)


Then onward to the square shape. Need to grind down rounded corner to fit in:

Another USB Header!!! This time a USB 2.0

The internal look (dun mind the bent pin, fixed later)


Both assembled


Internal look


The look from the back



Too bad the USB 3.0 header have blue colour plates
gonna clash with the future case colour

Plus a search online might solve the short USB 3.0 cable
http://www.lelong.com.my/usb-3-0-motherboa...7-01-Sale-I.htm


Stuff to do:
1. Cut Acrylic for internal-front but needs to touch up the edges DONE
2. Find rubber mat for HDD cage anti-vibration DONE (show later) DONE
3. Cut holes on top panel for USB DONE and power button moved to front panel
4. Clean all cutting edges - SEMI-DONE For the week ends???
5. Buy New Acrylic for side panel - Search search search!!!! FOUND!!!
6. Cut side panel Acrylic - Find the acrylic FIRST!!!!! Need buy, but that is maybe next month case liou...
7. Cut front panel - OII!!! NO SEE ABOVE??? FIND THE BLARDY ACRYLIC FIRST LAHHH!!!! Then we talk.
8. ..
9. .
10. Paint or..or..or... hear me out... what if....Powder Coat?.... sheet... $$$ $$$

Sunday comes and gone
not much was done

Morning B-ball

afternoon becomes too lazy to do anything

But whip out the trusty old equipments


Cut with scissor and pump out the holes


Close up


What is the function of the rubber pads?
This is the front of the case:


Along with the rivet heads and the side protrusion, the Acrylic cutout will not sit flat to the front of the panel.

Force clamping will just bend the thin acrylic to the shapes of this protusion

plus having some dampening effect would be nice


Screwed down and close up



All six big screw clamp down and tested to be just.... flat enough



Stuff to do:
1. Cut Acrylic for internal-front but needs to touch up the edges DONE
2. Find rubber mat for HDD cage anti-vibration DONE (show later) DONE
3. Cut holes on top panel for USB DONE and power button moved to front panel
4. Clean all cutting edges - SEMI-DONE For the week ends???
---4a. Prepare acrylic for painting
---4b. HDD cage screw alignment
---4c. Bottom Fan Holes, Acquire fan filters

5. Buy New Acrylic for side panel - Search search search!!!! FOUND!!!
6. Cut side panel Acrylic - Find the acrylic FIRST!!!!! Need buy, but that is maybe next month case liou...
7. Cut front panel - OII!!! NO SEE ABOVE??? FIND THE BLARDY ACRYLIC FIRST LAHHH!!!! Then we talk.
8. ..
9. .
10. Paint or..or..or... hear me out... what if....Powder Coat?.... sheet... $$$ $$$

Man running out of gazzzz...

3 days since last uppie

Well lets get straight to it

Start with Tuesday, took a whole day off from work to do some serious work in

Bottom cutting plan for fan


The on Wednesday at lunch gone out to grab some nuts and screws, and washers


On today Thursday, Test install the screws and nuts, mostly would fit in, though a bit close to the moving edges


The look of the bottom cut out


Assembly of the screw/nuts/washer - Front


And these screws?


It would installed like this

The AL profile would have a hole drilled to the point of the screw, and the length shorten down with the hole is open with a gap to the edges. This is so the AL end can slide in and hole down by the Big black washer

Then at the front, be locked down with the through hole with a couple of screws



TBC next post

The after assembly
as you can see here



Though it seems like there is space to maneuver around
once the fans installed the removal of the HDD (either for servicing, add/remove HDD or moving system)
is very very hard

So the front fan plate needs an opening so that place to enable some fingering of the screws, of course

On another note, projects bracing process is 80% done and only left with this much AL profiles..


ermmm.. wait...




Stuff to do:
1. Cut Acrylic for internal-front but needs to touch up the edges DONE
2. Find rubber mat for HDD cage anti-vibration DONE (show later) DONE
3. Cut holes on top panel for USB DONE and power button moved to front panel
4. Clean all cutting edges - SEMI-DONE For the week ends???
---4a. Prepare acrylic for painting... wait
---4b. HDD cage screw alignment SATISFIED!!!
---4c. Bottom Fan Holes, Acquire fan filters ... 1st half done, 2nd half... eehh ...

5. Buy New Acrylic for side panel - Search search search!!!! FOUND!!! MID of THE MONTH... STILL HAVE $$$ MEH?
6. Cut side panel Acrylic - Find the acrylic FIRST!!!!! Need buy, but that is maybe next month case liou...
7. Cut front panel - OII!!! NO SEE ABOVE??? FIND THE BLARDY ACRYLIC FIRST LAHHH!!!! Then we talk.
8. ..
9. .
10. Paint or..or..or... hear me out... what if....Powder Coat?.... sheet... $$$ $$$

when i see ur place, so dusty...

btw, cant wait to see the outcome

The problem with open air setup with no aircon


In my mind, I keep imagining the end result
but the road to it is filled with tonnes of things to do

sigh... sometime thinking about everything that needed to be done is so tiresome and taxing...

So today we go back to the milling machine


Here's hoping that this will be the last time at the milling,
that is, before getting the 8mm acrylics (which itself entails another round of mad milling)

The Big daddy mill bit (not exactly the big one, but the one I found on my own )


Done!!! or so I thought.My chubby fingers not gonna pass through the gap :sigh:


Add another pass @ 70% more and WALLA!


Should be no problem getting the screws now


Simple mod for today
as the company have Deparaya celebrations

Need re-editing

Another week another wedding dinner... Wait, crap...

Well got some work done in the afternoon

Drill some holes



Manual work this time

Close up of the holes, gotta be proud of myself


Now hafta cut it down to size, all manual work


Aww sheet, forgot to to take a pic, but basically open up the edge of the holes, so this can happen


So when the front screw is unlocked the whole cage can be tilted back to slide out the base from the screws





TBC next post

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 19 2014, 12:11 AM

Then there's the simple mod for the USB


Close up of the USB port, tested stronk enuff to withstand the plug in/out process


Nice didn't interfere with the USB 3.0


Going plug crazy!!!!

A simple update for a simple Sunday

back panel reinforcement




Then more acrylic cutting


OMG need to go back to milling some more..
What is it for?

will give more update tomorrow

Finally got the Acrylics cut ans shaved down


1st edge done by myself
easy-peasy

then this happened


Left the other 3 bars to the pros,


Nice and straight


Yesterday have some free time so brought out the heater for bending acrylics


After some toiling and test, nice...


tbc

Add the top in...


Later on done some modification to make it more streamline


these panel will be painted black to cover up the back panel housing the wirings

at the mean time, some reminiscing

Some old drawings, on a stack of paper been crush over 2 years time:






now transfered to new filing





Basically the concept is still there
but it is cleaned up to simplified to realistically do-able


Stuff to do:
1. Cut Acrylic for internal-front but needs to touch up the edges DONE
2. Find rubber mat for HDD cage anti-vibration DONE (show later) DONE
3. Cut holes on top panel for USB DONE and power button moved to front panel
4. Clean all cutting edges - SEMI-DONE For the week ends???
---4a. Prepare acrylic for painting... wait
---4b. HDD cage screw alignment SATISFIED!!!
---4c. Bottom Fan Holes, Acquire fan filters ... 1st half done, 2nd half... eehh ...
---4d. Sidepanel extension cover (acrylics) SATISFIED!!!
---4e. U-Channel edge trim


5. Buy New Acrylic for side panel - Search search search!!!! FOUND!!! MID of THE MONTH... STILL HAVE $$$ MEH?
6. Cut side panel Acrylic - Find the acrylic FIRST!!!!! Need buy, but that is maybe next month case liou...
7. Cut front panel - OII!!! NO SEE ABOVE??? FIND THE BLARDY ACRYLIC FIRST LAHHH!!!! Then we talk.
8. ..
9. .
10. Paint or..or..or... hear me out... what if....Powder Coat?.... sheet... $$$ $$$

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 23 2014, 04:04 PM

after a silent week
I am BACK!!!

if anyone still reading this worklog

let get straight to the dirty grime

The thin acrylic need some cleaning


close up

Goddammnit, this stuff is hard

after scrapping with a aluminum bar

The goop is clean off by something not expected



The thermal compound cleaning solvent is very good in dissolving the protective layer melted glue

Finished products




so the product is cleaned
Not shiny, its okay, since I intend to paint over these part
if not, Acrylic is easily buffed back to shininess
(not a crack, but some lint )


Then on the same day received this:


can't do anything in the weekdays since have to travel
then got some time off on Thursday and got down to cutting, with just an angle grinder


YEAH GOING FOR THE Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk/Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit CASE LOOK!!!


eerrr.... no, it is just the left overs

this is the parts i cut out

the smaller piece is to replace the HDD cage plates
the long pieces is the front, the square is the side panel

A comparison between the old acrylic (~2.7mm) and the new one (~8mm)


So what will be needed to be done in the coming weeks

1. Clean the edge of the cut piece - Tommorow (or today, saturday)
2. Starts some base coat painting, if possible
3. Get some magnet-screws drilling done
4. PAINT!! PAINT!!! PAINT!!!!!
5. Then install the parts

The closer it gets the harder for me, as always...

the fire is just not there....


Well
I skip a lot of the milling/drilling process pictures
here's the side panel attached, paper yet to be removed


The other side


as you see, vertically on the left side


I got greedy and try to maximised the window size. Forgot to take account the frame thickness and in the end the big screw would not fit in, unless i cut away the frame (because the side panel need to slide in) as you can see the pencil marks

in the end settle for a small replacement holding screw inside and the 3 big screw will be just ornament stuck in for sake of filling up the hole


Some small mods

original


went back milling to open up the middle pocket to bigger size to facilitate easier screw removal


also seen in the picture above (forgot to take individual pic)
is the HDD cage assemble with the new 8mm plates on both end
Now the HDD cage is solid as fark!

A new addition


A partitioning plate to tidy up the cables
This only for sata connector drives

As you can see the 3rd picture the bottom of the plate doesn't run parallel with the body
so have to add in something to push it out

Taddaaa!!!



TBC(pic limits)

Continuing from the previous post

Close up, as usual


if you look closely, between the two screws, there is a hole drilled out
and if you look up from that middle screw hole, you can see I cracked the plate drilling out the hole

Yeah, another one of those lack of foresight fakaps

Still the brace is able to hold the plate in place


Now at least the plate run (almost) parallel with the body


and if you are one of those with keen eyes
I uses a type of clips to hold the bottom part in place with the casing


its a type of clips use to secure lid to a container

which really is amazing it fits so perfectly


Now whats left?

1. Front panel - On going
2. Spray painting - The reason i dread when getting close to the project end
3. Assembly???? whenever that be

BIGGGGGG!!!!!!! UPDATE

One of the crucial process
but before that some smaller updates

Bought myself this

a 1/2 inch drill bit

Done a lot of this


and ...

Finally done this


Close up


If you read from the start, you can guess the function of the holes
if not, then this is it


not much deep here, just around 1/2 the thickness (4mm deep)

Not gonna hold well to knocks dislodging it ..

so.....
The hole here is 16+mm
while the the drill bit above is 1/2 inch (~12.54mm)
and if you notice, the drill bit is flatten at the end and the inside the big hole is another step down smaller hole

what is the use of the smaller hole?
for this....

magnets!!!! HOW DO THEY WORKSS????!!!

I have a bunch of them actually


Fit nicely in the slot


So the plan is like this,
Find a way to stick the magnets to the board (already thinking of clear epoxy
and the board will hold on to the 6 screw heads


continue next post

So basically the front look of the front panel


What is needed to be done

1. Front Panel
------a. Stick the magnet to the acrylic
------b. Bend the top of the front panel
------c. Paint the FP

2. Side panel
------a. Paint or
------b. Apply tint layer + some design

3. The case
------a. Tear down???
------b. Paint
------c. re-apply brace

4. Misc
------a. Buy New Cooler Heatsink
------b. Buy Fans
------c. Drill hole for extra drive slot at the bottom

then end with whole system assembly

Project realization:

Point of no return


A little bit of this


Initial test run, messy transfer to the hold


so changed to using this


tested to work flawlessly

epoxy parts mixed in-situ of the holes

to get this magnets stuck to the holes


and finally get this


Close up, the magnets totally encapsulated within the epoxy matrix


Pushed down as far as it goes, and use counter side magnets to apply constant force to be as flat as possible


So once the epoxy is properly hardened
the holes will be mill again to get the layer epoxy off and get as close to the magnet surface as possible

continue next post

What it would look like



tested to be able to hold onto the screw head with just enough force
while still maintaining ease to dissassembly

Screw stuck to the acrylic board






1. Front Panel
------a. Stick the magnet to the acrylic - [COLOR=red]Done[COLOR]
------a1. Drill holes for Power button
------b. Bend the top of the front panel
------c. Paint the FP or use sticker??

2. Side panel
------a. Paint or
------b. Apply tint layer + some design

3. The case
------a. Tear down braces
------b. Paint
------c. re-apply brace

4. Misc
------a. Buy New Cooler Heatsink
------b. Buy Fans
------c. Drill hole for extra drive slot at the bottom

then end with whole system assembly



The colour scheme in mind right now is something like the Koenigsegg orange + black scheme
something like this


the case would have the whole case (include internals painted brilliant orange
and the side panel be black

could go ferrari red

nothing is certain even at this stage...

Very entertaining..

Keep it up!

Some micro updates
with some big results

Remember this piece?


anything off?

Then this ...


put 2 and 2 together
.....

you have 22... *cricket chirp*


Thank you, I will be here all week.

any way back to the picture,

The keen eyes would detect that the metal (test magnet)in the test acrylic board is gone
and the clump is what it has become, a clump of magnets.


Lucky I tested out on the test plate
*Remember guy, Measure x-time and cut once, here the "x" is >2, I prefer 5 times if permited


The idea is to mill the excess epoxy glue down to bare minimum
to get a flat face and to get maximum magnet strength
(just a tip, real magnets not like movie/cartoon magnets, every thickness in between will reduce the the pull force)
and somehow the magnet brittleness and maybe the cheap-er epoxy doesn't hold up to the mill process

So, it would be seems I have to use another way,
and the "crude" way


to get this


and this


and... this


So now the panel held on much more stronger and solid
no fear of falling off at mere touches

no ending
this is a "micro" updates anyway...


Addendum: Looking back, I would have use a more precise epoxy glue quantity to have it stick to the bottom and maybe the side as well
but there is a fear of not enough to hold the magnets properly

live and learn I guess

This post has been edited by mcchin: Dec 9 2014, 10:50 AM

Thanks for the encouragement

Here wee go again
another side project to derail this one

Jeng JENG JENG!!!!









Whzaat??? you say?

My phone casing modified with Note 2 Qi wireless charger receiver


Open up to reduce thickness


Then this is the Qi charging pad


the insides


The orange part



So basically a Phone holder for my Xperia Z with intergrated Qi wireless charging
Portrait mode okay, still need thinking on Landscape mode

The charge unit to be inserted into the 8mm acrylics ~2mm below surface

the back is the Heatsink to help with the heat dissipation

but the real idea here it to try bending the 8mm acrylic before trying out on the Front panel

Still, this phone stand is still in idea stage....

small info trickling in

big mess, but worth it!


Close up


Should be using this


but this one is not correct to work with


so in the end, use a big drill and grind to desired angle


THE RESULTS!!!


Chamfered edges which is the craze these days

Any new updates bro?

Please la bro.
we need more.
feed us more.

Yes... yes
I trying my best...


Yesterday just done the final mass mill/drill/cut on the whole project

Will later get some pictures in

but now the final stretch is right around the corner

1. Bend the Front panel + take pictures
2. SPRAY!!!SPRAYY!!!!! SPRAYYY!!!! paint
---------> my worst enemey because a) i have no proper spray pain place and b) really bad in spray painting aka impatient

3. then assembly, which itself is a chore....

the place i intend to do spraying.....



sum live cables to hang the case for spray

This is the last drilling done....


the switch added in


now on the heater to heat + bend


and later with a hair dryer used tried to add more heat to the help with the bending...no luck
in the end have to crank from 5v to 12v on the PSU to heat up the board

Bang-Bang..




The whole thing


Here is the problem plaguing my whole life...


bad bend...like bad to the bones..... all because of impatient plus unknown properties of thicker acrylics

see the bad bends and the burnt mark from the overheat of high volts



Lucky for me, the original intention has been always to spray paint the front panel
so the irregulars can be sand paper before spray painting

more pic in the next post

more pictures gallery

Side profile of the unit


the side window itself weigh 1/3 of the empty case

Straight as I want it to be, angle just enough



The reason why I want to cover up the FP with paint

those 6 magnets didnt come out as I expected, but my expectation is very high here.

inside view


the view on the other side




still 1/4 of the way to go, the home strech...

1. Smoothen the FP bend and sand down the whole thing, prep-ing for Paint
2. Remove all braces, label and prep for paint
3. decals/ tint layer for side window
4. Additional accessory:
---------> a. edge rubbers
---------> b. extension wire/cables (Front USB, Power/Reset button, etc)
---------> c. Internal lighting (red or white?)
---------> d. A new CPU cooler
---------> e. Fans (2x140mm Front, 1x140mm Bottom)
---------> f. Cable managements system
---------> g. Wheels on the bottom for movement

Some item/planned ops that is dropped
1. Disassembly of RAM heatsink and repainting
2. Intergrated Qi wireless charging on the top

This post has been edited by mcchin: Dec 19 2014, 09:14 AM

wow lot of work there. good luck and looking forward towards finished build

moar! moar!

Nice..keep up bro

Nice stuff u have there!!

Hi guys

sorry for the no show for almost two months

The whole project was intended to finished up before CNY (HAH!!!)

but CNY come too fast, and the best was to Clean up the current Open air setup ....

Then After CNY, too into holiday mood to start back anything

Chap goh meh come and gone... same, like somehow lost that feeling

Enter March, was no better, with ChingMing around the corner, taking up 3 weekends of the month

Now April, with my birthday past,
Its getting hard to find reasons for the delay

But Luckily!!
Rainy days!!!, recently been quite consistent in the evening for the weather to turn bad

and why would weather be any effect on what I do?

cause its the Point in the mod i dreaded the most,

Spray Painting................. .... ... .. .

any hooo,

rant over,
some pics in the next post
and see if i can start the rusty ol' engine this weekend

Here's how it sits,

1. Basic cut, drill, bend, file, riveting etc is all but completed
2. Assembly-wise, the Case "is" usable, forcefully but i choose not to
3. The dreaded Painting process awaits but...
4. Do I,
----> a: do a shoddy job and just paint the case just like that? or,
----> b: take apart every bracing on the case and paint it separately? or,
----> c: take apart everything, find a Powder coating and my wallet ... or,
----> d: just scrap the whole project and close this thread

what you guys think?

5. Place for me to paint is i choose to DIY painting is virtually nil, as been living in apartment


Some badly taken pics coming, all taken in the event to dismantle all braces before painting



the main back, T brace




The front mid, HDD cage brace




clearer picture




the back mid




the bottom braces, all you see is the rivets



bottom pic of the braces



bottom other side


all these pictures is showing nothing new
as I will maybe use to mark the braces with number to record the positions
as most probably the braces will not be painted over

so until the next update

some current system picture to tide you guys over
   

Oredi seeing dust on the GTX680 cooling fins..


Here is a picture that was, since before CNY 2015




Have to move quick before the onset of grease.... and throw everything down the drain

i wanna ask...where u got the switches from?

what switch?

power / reset switch =)

oth that is vandal resistant switch i bought back 2 years ago

from a lowyat forumer as well limhongwan or something

okies! thanks for the help!

slow slow slow day

weehheelllllll, what do we have here...?

Sand paper in sink????!!!


Super simple setup for "super simple" job



The best sandpaper block i can find



Sanded down the corner to a smother surface


as compared to previous





it seems i lost some of the picture of the whole case sand down....

now all unit is sanded down and readied for Painting...


Now where to buy spray primer...

After a hiatus

I AM BACK!!!!!!!!!

Lets see, what would be my excuse(s)
1. GTX 680 Lightning?
2. CG:GO at RM 15.50?
3. Workload?
4. Life crumbling around me
5. Just lazy
6. All above??

Well installed GTX680 (finally ) and just started to play a slew of games my old 9600GT cannot handled

Then CS:GO happened, and this is from Mar till now.. almost 5 month and chalked up almost 600hrs gameplay




also coupled with work load from my life-paying job
and just a sudden bout of laziness, apathy really, and my life equipment sort of strat to break down around me
(my phone DIY wireless charging is a NG, GPS unit acting up, car start to sputters, line shaft cover broken.... )

things just sort of slowed down

well I did get to go to Germany for a week, all expense paid...

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=3682120&hl=


just recently fixed my GPS unit

and this Case mod feeling is coming back, BABEH!

before anything lets see the setup as it is now..

My Components:
Processor : Intel Core i7 2600k @ Stock
CPU Cooler : DIY Mod from Gigabyte 4 Heatpipes Cooler + Freaking Loud Delta Fan
RAM : 16GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance Light Blue Heatspreader
GPU : MSI GTX 680 Lightning @ Stock
Display : Dell U2414h FHD LCD
PSU : Seasonic S12D 750W
Storage :
---> 2X 256GB SSD (Plextor M6S and Liteon L9s) in Raid-0, Mod BIOS for Trim Support **NEW**
---> 3X 2TB HDD (2X Samsung HD204UI, 1X WD Red )
---> 1X 320GB Seagate
---> 2X 80GB WD Black

Peripheral :
---> El-cheapo Keyboard,
---> Gigabyte G402 Mouse **NEW**,
---> REAL Carbon Fiber Mouse Mat
---> Sony In-ear headphones, very nice for CSGO (bundled with Xperia Z)
etc etc...


well enough chit chat,
you all here for the pictures, right?
a disaster waiting to happened, perhaps?



A disaster you say?
well you're in the right place!

a 5 months open air setup and the system is hocked full of dust!!!!
this is the Graphics and mobo, with fins filled with dust!


then this is above it, all HDD/SSD with the PSU
Active air will kill your system guys...



the back of the system, filled with hanging wires and co...


Any hoo, my road back to finishing this project starts...

on the next post

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 9 2015, 09:33 AM

Here is the start

have to take a Leave on Friday to get self motivated to start


a simple setup, with lots of cellophane tape to bind those newspaper together


closeup,


Parts to spray Base Coat


Self Etching basecoat for steel parts





Sprayed Main Body case with white colour base coat



Some plastic parts test spray



metal top is base coat, plastic parts is white colour
can you all guess what colour I am going for here?


After some time, lets start the Spray paint process!


TBC next post

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 9 2015, 09:32 AM

HUHU~~...

Spray 4 coats of white, and need only one mistake....
have to add more layers again to cover up the mistakes



Another 3-4 layers of paint and the defect is barely able to be covered up

night comes and 1st round of painting is finished


the main body, painted white as snow....


a few layers of paints and the colour is solid


parts solid colour



Front panel


Still some imperfection, might fill up with something for next round of spray



TBC next post

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 9 2015, 09:31 AM

Another day, another zzzzz



Hazy as FK!


Not much happen
today, just laze around

but heres something interesting



its a Firewire External DVD player writer from Acer Ferarri
from here


company have this laptop, and after much abused
the unit finally breath it last breath last year
and now the company going to scrap the asset and I swoop in to get this rarely used gem




the firewire plug, luckily my mobo have such port at the back and the mobo header as well
So Got me self some couple of them mobo headers



Something unused for so long, dunno whether this is grime or just the Soft-touch layer breaking down...

so some methanol and some elbow grease walla!


nice and clean, not so much for the methanol tissue laden with the gunk


This is a slot based drive



Max pic achieved
so TBC next post for the conclusion....... of this week updates

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 9 2015, 09:35 AM

and it fits the ODD bottom slot just nice on the front panel




Wadaya know


then there is this..





Here's the thing
top Picture is the normal spray on 1 side
the bottom picture is spray with a clear coat on the other side

It seems that this clear coat gives a yellow tint to the white...
this won't do... this won't do one bit



So my conclusion for this week and more planning to be had
1. First round of Paint done, Parts are touched up on rough sprays area with Wet sandpaper, so another round of spray paint is needed
2. HDD cage need to be dismantle from current system to be spray paint
----> 2a. More Base coat spray needed
----> 2b. More paint require
----> 2c. What colour for the front panel ?
----> 2d. Clear Coat for all???
3. Clean System
4. Remove the Heatspreader from ram, Spray paint perhaps?
5. Buy Noctua U14s or D15
6. GET FANS FANSSS FANSSSSSSS!!!, also some Fine Fan Filter
7. Clean up the fking ROOM!

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 9 2015, 09:28 AM

bro i think you forgot to set your pictures as public... cant see them laaa

oh...

Thanks for the heads up...

old rant


btw...
if anyone have issue with the picture formating
my apologies while I fine a more permanent solutions

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 5 2015, 10:17 AM

some weekdays updates:

the bane of my system :



The RAM...
Bought this back in 2009???, 16GB babeh...

but sadly the colour clashes with the mobo
and the height makes it impossible to use a dual stack heatsink such as Noctua NH-D15 or Phantek TC14PE
with the fans for-sho overhangs the ram slot and what not...

so IT HAS TO BE DONE!







RIP THEM APART!!!


And some of this


and with the trusty ol' elbow grease, and two hours sitting on the floor



and the RAM now is happy with all the gunk cleaned off
and currently back to running the system




and the heat spreaders?


lets see shall we?

and thats all for some weekdays updates

Phriday's here and I'm stuck at my work

luckily sneak some time to do some stuff




these is all the sticker to the ram heat spreader
remove slowly to retain structure, shape (will it be reused? Dunno...)


here is the stripped Heat spreader
if you look closely, there is a two tone to the anodized layer
covered layer is bluer than the exposed


then the Thermal tape remove and left with the double sided tape

off we go to the Chemical Lab

Today we have two choice
Both is very capable to clean off gluiee stuff


Top is un-touch
bottom is dip in MEK for ~5 sec and wiped off a bit


Hand with the chem, so no pictures until finished and wash with soap and water
Clean as a whistle

TBC next post on the reason of this job

This post has been edited by mcchin: Oct 9 2015, 07:29 PM

Now why I go to the length to Do this RAM thingy

well

Noctua NH-D14/15 or Phantek TC14PE

I could go the way of Noctua NH-U14, but let see how

I have been visualizing stuff only in my head so it can be a bit daunting to get things right

but a video in youtube subscription by Linus gave me a great idea

www.sketchup.com <-- nice beginner 3D program

So apparently Linus did a project build by 1st making a 3D sketch (when I say Linus did, the 3D is done by Taran)
and he found out that there is quite a lot of available 3D sketch of PC Component already done and on the internet/web

So.....


Got a precise mobo as reference
Not my model, but it will do


This Noctua NH-D14 seems good


Then my current ram, with the ridiculous Heat spreader


The Heat sink just fit in nicely

So lets add the ram

WTF!!!!!!
So.. the two item, mobo and HS is spot on to real life scale
the Ram not so, with measurement made in Meters

So with some self adjustment, Walla!


So you see where the problem starts already, right?


Not only the Fans will have issue, the inner two Ram slot will interferes with the Heat Sink as well

Problem can be alleviated with the Use of Noctua D15
but the fan, in push config would still be the same
The recommendation by Noctua to push the fan up higher would spell a problem to the top clearance within the case


So Now the most logical choice to move forward is to cut down the Ram Heat spreader height and while at it, spray to a more thematic colour
That 2nd part of colour changing to anodized part gives tonnes of problem in it self

A check on the net, say anodized part not gonna hold well with spray paint
and it is better to remove this layer before spray painting...

more work more problem....

Hi and good day sir
Cant wait ur modding hardwork to be continued...

To be Honest, I cant wait for TS to finish the blardy project. It like TS doesn't care at all....
oh wai...


work work work
stationed to indo for two weeks threw a spanner in the works

Need to help setup Indo plant...


The hostel I am staying in



well on 30th Oct I AM BACK!!!!!! (pic of Indo airport)

Lets see...

Just yesterday done something....
hmm...
dunno whether to share or not....

awwww what the heck


Some things done before I went to Indonesia

tried painting over the Ram Heat spreader


Not good... not good at all


Direct paint would not really adhere well


Well off with the paint



The idea now is to put a light coat of white base before spraying the wanted colour

which is...






Red, Candy Red to be precise....


Those were test colour on matte spray paint
good enuff for me

So on Saturday did this





and dangnamit!!

Who would have guess... 1 can of spray paint is not enuff

so try to get sum more paint and the shop is closed for sunday.....

This post has been edited by mcchin: Nov 16 2015, 12:23 AM