Project: Liquidation

[AceX]

Liquidation

OK, so this is the beginning of the project. As you can tell from the name, liquid is obviously involved. Lots of it too. It will have alot of very custom pieces, including a completely custom wiring harness. Also, there will be a water fall in this baby. That's right, I said a water fall; inside of a computer...

So, I started with a super cheapo case from Fry's. Cost $35 and came with a 380watt PSU (Power supply unit). Not bad, but not good enough.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010006.jpg

My first order of business, as usual, was to strip the case to bare nothingness. Took a whole of 5 minutes and it gave me a much better idea of what I am working with.

The next order of business was to get a good PSU. I found this one @ Fry's for about $100. A steep price, but It's absolutely perfect for what I need.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010007.jpg

It's made buy "Ultra" and is a very nice piece. You can select which wires you want to use, which, in the end, will make for a MUCH cleaner setup. As stated before, I will be making all of my own wiring for this system, but for now, I'm going to use the assortment of wires that came with the unit. They include several length 4-pin molex connectors, PCI-E power cables, a 24-pin mobo (motherboard) connection, and a 4-pin mobo connection.

I also picked up a few fun little parts for the project:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010011.jpg

From the top left:

A new Cooler Master Aquagate Mini R80 water cooling system for AMD Socket 754 CPU. $80

A 3.5" bay USB2.0, firewire, and audio connection box. $15

Stainless steel brake line (3/8") from NAPA. $5

PCI Slot covers (black.) $5

Vantec copper RAM heatspreader. (A very nice pice also). $8

I also took some shots of my "workspace." Oh the carnage...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010010.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010008.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010009.jpg

Next, I mached up the CD-ROM drive. I do this every time to make sure that I get the proper wire lengths and also to take measurements for cutting up the metal inside the case.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010013.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010014.jpg

There's about 2" of space between the PSU and CD drive.

Ok, I got the parts mached up for now. This was @ 1am this morning. Now that I look back on it, that was a BAD idea, considering I have to be at work at 11am and I haven't gotten a whole lot of sleep this entire week...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010018.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010019.jpg

As these pics were taken, the PSU started making a strange ticking sound. Come to find out, the fan motor is bad, so now I got to go back to Fry's and exchange that bitch...

More to come as I can get it to you guys.

[crenn]

Another reason the Fan could be ticking, is if the fan doesn't have enough space to spin... I've had it happen once....... To make sure, unplug the radiator unit from the case and start it up. If the fan still ticks, then it's a fan problem.

[public_eyesore]

your not gonna paint the case!?!?

[chris_kalan]

It is not done yet. He is just beginning, doing the dry fit, etc.

Think about it...there's no video card, the case is fugly as hell, and there are two drive bay covers popped off. This is AceX....he'll do it, just be patient!

[marquee]

Looks good m8. If you want more room why not mount the fan on the outside and the rad inside and you will have more room over the CPU. You are also using a loud fan so maybe get a duct the allows you to use a 120mm fan on 80mm hole. This way you get some CFM as the 80mm loud fan with less noise.

[hxcguitarist]

I can't wait to see how this project turns out! I just noticed that your from sacramento...lol...so am I :D hehe :D Fry's is a HUGE store with a large Computer Component section...lol been there multiple times :P

[AceX]

Sweet! What part of Sacto you from?

This case is NOWHERE NEAR the finished product, that's for sure. I'm going to take a month or better for this project. This si something that I am doing on the side when I'm not working on my car.

I returned the PSU. Turns out it was infact a bad fan motor. I got a new one and now the case runs quieter than any I've ever heard... If you turn the fan for the radiator up all the way, it gets loud, but that's to be expected.

The components inside of the case right now are purely for mach-up purposes and will be replaced with new components later on. For now, they will do nicely.

I started creating the wiring. I did a quick and dirty on a CD-ROM power cable and plugged it in. I almost lit my house on fire... Sparks shot out from the jumpers in the rear of the drive... That's bad right? My guess is that it's because the drive is so old. It's got to be going on 8 years or so.

I'm going to spend the next two weeks or so teaching ymself how to properly make 4-pin Molex wire assemblies. I will post up a little "how-to" of this process, which is nowhere near as easy as it sounds.

Till my next pics,

AceX

[hxcguitarist]

lol...i know how you feel about returning something to fry's...lol its a pain in the @$$ lol...sometimes i wonder if the people there actually know what they are talking about :D lol...anyways i'm from the Citrus Heights area, kind of near the Greenback Century 16 Theaters! lol :D and which part are you from?

anyways back on topic :P lol...sparks...house almost on fire...SAFETY!!!!! lol :D and that "how-to" sounds great! can't wait for the next update!

hxcguitarist

[AceX]

I hail from the Natomas area, right next to Arco Arena. I used to go to school right next to where you live. If you're ever in Natomas, check out the In-N-Out Burger. I might be working.

Speaking of which, just got back from work with good news. My schedule is up! I have an extra day off this week, so that means that I can get a little more work done on this project. I think I'll strip the chasis of it's paint and maybe start some bondo work... Wish I had a gas torch so I could braze it. Then again, it is very thin metal...

[hxcguitarist]

cool! inNout burger mmmmmmmmmm :D really good stuff :D

[AceX]

Sorry I ahven't updated, been busy with my job and my car.

About that, I put my newly finished car into a ditch last night. Road was slick, all four tires lost traction and I went straight into the ditch. I was dam lucky to walk away. Had I started sliding a secodn before I did, I'd have hit a big ass oak tree...

[DeMaxx]

Glad you walked away from it... sorry to hear about the car.

[AceX]

Thankfully there's not too much damage to the car. Needs a few replacement parts. Should be back on the road in a few days, but its still really disheartening...

[hxcguitarist]

DANG!!! be careful!!! lol thank god you're still alive... i wanna see this mod completed! :D

[AceX]

Yeah, unfortunately its going to ahve to take more of a back seat than I had originally planned. Now that I have another $600 I wasn't planning on spending...

[AceX]

Copied and Pasted from www.rootcult.com A security information website that is in it's infancy and could use the support of users who know their stuff, or newbies who are just starting to get the swing of things.

Sorry for not updating, My camera has been a PITA these last two days giving me this little bitch about "Card Error" w/e, let's get back to it...

This last Saturday, my dad and I built a work bench area in my room, which I rearranged for the occasion. This will give me a new area to screw with, plus alot more storage space than a comfy bed could ever offer me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010043.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010044.jpg

BTW, that's an 8ft ceiling, with about 12"-14" of space at the top.

So, I got crackin' on my cool little PSU. I decided that I'm going to reuse the one that came with the case originally because of it's compact size and mild power output. I'm going top put it here:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010051.jpg
This will make for additional coolness, but also can make routing the wiring much easier in terms of hiding.

First thing I did was examine the outside of the PSU carefully to figure out what exactly I wanted to do and then finally decided to do some trimming to make way for a window and new LED fan.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010052.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010053.jpg

Next, I had to bend the heatsinks inside of the PSU so that they would clear the new fan.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010055.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010054.jpg

Once both sets of heatsinks were bent, it formed a kind of cage over the board. Kind of cool actually, just wish that I could have polished the heatsinks... That would have been nice...

Lastly, I cut out a recession that was in the top panel of the PSU. Just big enough for the fan too.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010056.jpg

And now, it all lights up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010057.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010058.jpg

Lastly, where would I be without the amzing help of these two:

Woody
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010041.jpg

Patty
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v608/ace95835/P1010039.jpg

They are brother and sister prom the same litter. Got Woody as a pup almost 12 years ago, and Patty a year later. Great dogs. Mellow as hell too, cept for when the phone rings, then Woddy goes nuts for some odd reason...

Found out a few weeks ago that Patty (seen above for those who missed it) has cancer and probably won't be around six months from now. I'm going to be a hopeless wreck when it happens too, so don't be surprised if I dissappear for a while...

[OvRiDe]

Man.. Im sorry to hear about Patty.. We just lost a Dalamation that we got as a pup and died at 18. I know how much of a part of the family they are. Especially since she was older then 2 of my kids. Hang in there.

BTW.. nice work on the PSU...

[AceX]

Thanks, it looks really nice when I set it in the case, like it was meant to be there. I'm going ot be running a few errands tommorrow and am going to see if I can gather the parts that I need for the wiring job for the PSU.

[DaveW]

Hey, don't know if you got my pm or not, but it looks like you have all of this sorted out. Sorry to hear about Patty man.

A suggestion: That LED fan looks cool, but that plan grey paintjob really ruins the effect. If you're going to show it off, why not give it a lick of paint? It would look pretty sweet in there.

Also, EVERYONE PLEASE HEED MY WARNING!

If you're going to do a PSU mod of ANY kind, for the love of God, Budha and Spongebob, make sure you Earth your damn case! If you don't know how, then don't touch your PSU in any way,shape, or form till you know exactly what that means!

That wasn't directed at you AceX, just to anyone you might inspire. ;)

-Dave

[AceX]

Lol, I could only hope to inspire.

Yes, Dave is right. The hole time I was working on this piece, I was grounded and so was the case. This is not something that you just go and do because you feel like it. You have to have a little know-how when it comes to doing things safely.

I am going to paint it, but I'm not sure what color yet, so I just left it bare for now. I'm going to try and use some color shifting paints if I can find the right ones (there's one that goes between silver and blue; or maybe it's white and blue) that I can't seem to find in rattle can form. I definitely don't want to shell out almost $100 for a pint of paint either...

I'm going to be cutting a hole in the faceplate in the next few days and fitting a fan to it, so that should be fun. I also have a USB/Firewire/Speaker panel for the front that I need to find a place for. Problem is that the face, in most areas, is slightly curved, whereas my panel that I purchased is flat.

That's all for now, if I think of anything else, I'll let you know.

[hxcguitarist]

Nice work :) looking great so far!

sorry about patty :( sad stuff when a dog has been with you for so long and then something like that happens...

[AceX]

Meh, crap happens, you got to roll with the punches and all that... Anyway, I've started to pick up alot fo hours at work in the last week, and am picking up even more this week, which means mroe moeny for me :D

Anyway, tommorrow I'll be slicing up the top of the case and making way for a new lighting fixture. I will also try ang get around to wiring my PSU like I want and also, hopefully, mount it permanently.

I also replaced the fan that came with the cooling system with an LED one. I got the cooling system as one of those, "My junk is bigger than yours" things, plus I want more shiny stuff :D

Will post more pics as soon as I can. Hopefully, by month's end, I can get started on the "OMGWTFBBQ!!!" waterfall.

Can't wait,

Matt

[AceX]

SO, I was sick today. That sucks. Missed work. Meh, crap happens (actually, vomit happens...)

So anyway! I went to Fry's and grabbed some pieces that looked like fun. Got a little power distro box, another fan grille, and yet another CCFL.

The power distro. box is a rather nice piece and got it for a whole of $5. Fits very nicely inside a 3.5" drive bay and is facing the inside of the case. The idea is to run a 4-pin molex up to it and use it as my little basis for powering stuff instead of running the cables from the PSU which was relocated and modded.

[MDCS]

You work at In-Out burger and drive a Lamborghini? They must pay a lot better today then they did when I worked at TGIF to help go through College :) Liked your other case, especially the little engine with window. Watching this one.

[AceX]

Hahaha, naw, INO doesn't pay THAT well. I have an '86 Toyota Mr2 with a body kit and lambo style doors among other things> One of only 4 or 5 in the world to have the doors, the only one to use the factory bolt locations for the mod.

My car is teh pimpness :D

Thanks for the remarks to my other case too. Makes me fall all warm and fuzzy inside. The case after this one will be one for a friend of mine and themed after the video game "X3: Reunion" and will be hotness. I plan to do a Corvette themed case right after, or at the same time as that one. By year's end, I should have about half a dozen cases under my belt.

[AceX]

Dam, I hit a roadblack last night when wiring things up: I don't know what color to paint it...

I'll have to think of something, maybe a color shifting paint or something, but it has to go with the blue lighting that will saturate the case.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[legoman786]

um.... how about green? red? yellow? just throwing suggestions

[qoou]

lol! i thought this was going to be a project made from liquidized computer parts from out of business stores. lol!

[onelegout]

I always loved matte black finish with blue lights! :D

[AceX]

Just incase anyone was wondering, no I'm not dead, and no, I'm not done with this project. Been spending all kinds of money on my MR2, so much so that I don't have money for anything else really.

Just an update:

Got all the wiring pretty much figured out. Got a few small things to figure out, then I'll be done with it.

Lighting is all set-up. 3 6" blue CCFL's

Made a custom acrylic panel for the empty spot that the PSU used to occupy and fit an 80mm blue LED fan and new power plug to better accomodate the PSU relocation.

4 Blue LED fans total (1 Radiator, 1 modded PSU, 1 case face, 1 acrylic panel)



I've just been lurking for a little while and watching some of the amazing projects going on and I ahve to sya that I'm impressed as always by some of the new modders and experienced veterans.

Keep it up guys. I'll update again when I get my next pay check...

[Dgurion]

Nice project, Looking very good.. All these people from Sac.. I am from Sacramento also.. Glad to see some local people also modding their cases.. Keep up the great work!

[The boy 4rm oz]

This is going great cant w8 to see the finnished product.

[AceX]

Probably some time close to the end of the month I can have the fram work and everything ready for the custom water fall. Probably another month after that and I'll have the thing made by a pro (Because god knows I want it done right. H2O + Mobo = Sizzle)