Alder's New Case!

[Aldersan]

So, after much debating (and swooning over images :P) I finally broke down and decided to get the new case I had been looking at:

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2011/09/thermaltake-level-10-gt-snow-edition.jpg

The Level 10 GT Snow Edition!

Unfortunately, camera's aren't my favorite pieces of equipment, so I don't have a whole lot of pictures, but I got a few from where I'm at now :D

So, what do you do when you get something new?

Well, I suppose the proper answer would be to take lots of pictures for a worklog :whistler:

What did I do?

Start putting things together!

Here's a pic of my mobo in the case, was working on cable management at that point. As you can see, this case is AMAZING when it comes to cable management. (side note, I did move that white SATA cable, so it doesn't stand out as much :P)

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/4550/dscn0466vg.jpg

And a while later, I get to the point where I'm basically at now:

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/6752/dscn0467n.jpg

I suppose I should explain a bit :banana:

As it's fairly obvious by my waterblocks, I use water cooling :D In my old case, I had a nice big 360 rad up in the front of my case. However, there's just no room in this pretty new case for it, and its too pretty to cut up :( So, I have new parts on order! Got a 240 and a 120 rads coming, and a new reservoir for the top two 5.25" bays (it houses my pump inside it :D). Hopefully that should be here tomorrow or Friday, so I'll get that together (and try to get more pictures too :P).

My plan is to mount the 240 rad right up top (the case actually has a nice big hole designed for a 240 :D), with a 120 at the rear panel (HOPEFULLY internal, I don't like things sticking out the back :whistler: ), so that fan in the back is actually just sitting there, and the two wires across the top of the mobo that look so ugly are leading to two fans that I had sitting in the 5.25" spot, while I was fan testing lol.

Here's a shot from outside, doesn't my painted cpu block look so nice? :D

http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/1543/dscn0468w.jpg

And one more, showing one of my favorite parts of the case:

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/697/dscn0469i.jpg

And now, a small review of the case!

Not everyone may agree, but I really like the sleek look of the black/white. The original Level 10 was ridiculous, and the Level 10 GT was rather bland and (to me) rocky looking, but the white of the Snow Edition really makes it stand out and look great!
As I said previously, the case has amazing cable management. My old case wasn't much smaller, but had only a fraction of the cable management possibilities, and when as much of the wires were hidden away as possible, the back side panel was a PITA to get on! This case, I had no issues! I laid it on its front, spent about 20 minutes messing with cables, and using the included cable ties, I had it good to go in no time! The back slid right on with no problems, and no bulging!
Another thing I enjoy about this case is the I/O/PCI positioning in the rear of the case. Most cases that I've seen have that part recessed into the case, to account for the L in the PCI bracket. This case, however, has it flush with the back. For the L part of the plate, it has a small plate extending out where the screw that holds the PCI card goes, and then over the top of that it has another (removable) plate, which helps hold the cards securely. I think having it flush gives both the inside and the outside of the case a nice streamlined look, and I enjoy that bit!

Phew, what a novel!

Will update when my parts come!

(EDIT: fixed images lol)

[AmEv]

I agree with you on the color, too. Makes it stand out, almost reminiscent of the beige era.

The most ridiculous part about the original L10? The price!
I mean, $800 for THE CASE??? Come ON!
Almost every other case is less than $200.

Now, if they got the original GT for less than $200, that would be awesome.

[Aldersan]

Lol I agree, the price on the original L10 was ridiculous, completely. The GT is still expensive, but from the experience I've had with it, I'd say its worth it. We'll see how it works when I finally get the dang pc running :P

[billygoat333]

Lets get that mother up and running and folding! :D

[Aldersan]

Heh, it was folding before I got my new case, hence my 20k+ days :P Will get it folding again as soon as its running :D

[billygoat333]

well you know what I mean :p

[Aldersan]

nope! :P

[Aldersan]

Update time!

I'm posting from my pc :D That should tell you how things went.

So, without further ado, pictures!

Tubing and rads and res/pump setup:
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/4372/dscn0470tm.jpg

I think it looks good! The white of the tubing offsets the black of the rads/fans/case interior.

I purchased the slimmest rads I could find (that would have decent performance, of course!) but I forgot to check where the fitting holes were in one of the rads, so it just BARELY fits (sucked putting it on too :P)
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/3900/dscn0472b.jpg

Here's a picture of my res, in my last case my pump was just sitting around, and I decided that was too ugly for this case, so I got the res that you put the pump into it :D
http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/7361/dscn0471y.jpg

On a whim, I had decided to include one of those Phobya valves on the bottom of my GPU block, because that was the lowest point. Boy did it make draining easy! Definitely worth it.
http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/4380/dscn0473h.jpg

Here's a couple shots with the door closed:http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/1684/dscn0474x.jpg
http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/3097/dscn0475b.jpg

For this last pic, I tried to show how the fan gives the white tubing an underglow. The pic isn't amazing, but it does sort of show it. However, I think I might want some white cathodes soon :P
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/8020/dscn0480x.jpg

So, I installed all the tubing, rads, pump, and res, filled it with water, and turned it on (just the loop, of course :P). No leaks, first time! :D Pump was loud, but once I got most of the air out, it quieted down and now I can barely hear it :D So much easier to do with this build, last time I had my res in the middle of the case, and the pump at the bottom..lotttssss of air bubbles everywhere :P

So, everything's working fine, my temps look fairly normal, if not a bit lower than my other case :banana:

Just a few small things I'd like to do: (but maybe not so soon :P)
Get some lights!
Get a new LED or two for my res (unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention and snapped the wiring off of mine while trying to situate it in the drive bays :(
I've got a small piece of white acrylic I still need to mount to the top of my video card (see the project Reality Bytes, post #31 to see where I got the idea, credit to Xperiment!)
Right now I'm using a PCI slot fan controller...and I currently have an empty 3.5" drive bay..hmm, I smell modding time :D Just need to find the right size drill bit for the knob.
Silly thing for this last one, the L10GT comes with 2 USB 3 ports on the top of the case, however there's one small issue: in the L10GT case, the ports are USB 3 to USB 3, you have to route them out the back of your case and plug them into existing USB 3 ports. That wouldn't be a problem for me, I have plenty of those!...But wait, the L10GT Snow Edition case has USB 3 to the 19-pin header..I don't have any of those :facepalm: So, maybe see about getting a PCI card to get some use out of those USB 3 ports up top.

Well thanks for reading my second novel, let me know what you think with lots of comments :D

[SXRguyinMA]

looks good man! I love the contrast on that thing!

[Aldersan]

Thanks!

Preview :D
http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/2809/20111021220336929.jpg

EDIT: Also, my buddy got a hold of a cheap ps1 screen, so time to see what I can do with that! :D

[Aldersan]

So, I finally got around to installing that acrylic today! Here's what I came up with:
http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/7222/dscn0481tn.jpg

I like it! The first character gets a little cut off, but other than that it looks good!
http://img843.imageshack.us/img843/1012/dscn0482q.jpg

Here's a couple from the outside, including one with the lights on. I love how it gives the window'd area a "closed off" feeling!
http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/8245/dscn0483n.jpg
http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/9951/dscn0484k.jpg

Let me know what you think!

[Snowman]

looks awesome

[Fuganater]

I did the same thing on my Project: Rage and I think I will continue doing it. It makes the mod look soooo much cleaner. I like what you have done but I'm not a fan of how your loop looks.

[Aldersan]

Yeah, I wish my loop could have been a bit cleaner but I was having issues with kinking, and didn't have any of those anti-kink wraps on hand, but regardless I think it turned out well :D

[Fuganater]

I have TONS of black ones for 5/8" OD I think.

[SXRguyinMA]

that panel looks sick!

[Aldersan]

Thanks! I was originally just going to do the acrylic plain white, but then my gf came up with the idea for the writing, it turned out great!

[TheGreatSatan]

Check back in November, I'm getting the Level 10 Snow Ed for FREE

[Aldersan]

Oh yeah? well...poo on you!

[SXRguyinMA]

yea well I got my Level 10 GT for FREE too and I don't have to wait till November lolhttp://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/sportrider12584/Smilies/deal.gif

[Aldersan]

But hes getting snow ed for free..snow > regular :P but this isn't taking into account your modding skills either :P

[AmEv]

[pointless rant, was frustrated, not thinking straight]

[TheGreatSatan]

yea well I got my Level 10 GT for FREE too and I don't have to wait till November lolhttp://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l11/sportrider12584/Smilies/deal.gif

Actually, I have too many mods going on right now, so I told them I don't want it till Nov. Anyway, no more crapping on this thread.

+Rep for all the pretty white inside the case:banana:

[Fuganater]

I envy ALL of you!


People are practically GIVING you things! It almost feels that I am being ignored.

TGS, you HAVE done a major help for me, and I thank you greatly for that.
Other TBCS mods have promised me other things, but at the current rate, I'm not getting it any time soon, if at all.



I know, sponsorship is how you get the stuff. However, I'm in a Catch 22. In order to get parts, I need sponsors, due to a lack of funds. However, you need some hardware in order to sponsor.

I have read some advice on sponsorship, but none have given me sufficient information as to what to (not) say.





I don't mean to offend anyone; I just felt like I needed to vent. With being Autistic and dealing with a HORRIBLY CRUDDY public education system telling to (direct quote) "You just need to grow out of it and become 'normal'" AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!


*sigh* Feeling somewhat better now. Still needing hardware, though.

PM me

[Aldersan]

Woo thanks TGS! Got me my second green box thingy :p

[AmEv]

PM sent, Fuga.

[Aldersan]

So, I've done some work over the past few months.

I ordered a few square feet of some white carbon fiber vinyl, that stuff is awesome! I covered the visible sides of my PSU in my case, as well as putting some on my mouse and keyboard. The PSU was basically solid black, in a black case, and the white gives it a bit of contrast and character, even if you only see it when it's open :P As for the keyboard and mouse, they were both solid black with blue LEDs, so I figured making them black and white with blue lights matches the black and white case with blue lights! :D Pics will be up soon.

I'm still trying to decide what to do with the huge empty space next to the PSU. Right now, my cable management is awesome, so there's just a giant gap there. I tried putting a fan there, which it's made for, but it seemed to add a LOT of noise. Maybe it was simply the fan I was using, but I'm using my good quiet fans already for the rads.

If anyone has any ideas, TELL ME! I love constructive ideas/criticism/anything really :D

My friend managed to grab me that PSOne LCD screen, but he hasn't been able to ship it out to me yet. As far as plans for that, I want to put that in right underneath the headset holder, in the black mesh area. It "should" fit, but I'll know more once I get the actual screen. I picked up a car adapter for the screen, that converts it from 12v to whatever the screen needs (too lazy to look it up) so I can hopefully figure out how to just pop a molex plug on instead of the car port thingy, to power it. As for displaying stuff...still working on that :P I've found a few guides for hooking it up to vga, and I've got a few VGA to DVI converters since my 580 doesn't have VGA lol. If possible, I might try to use an old crappy graphics card to run that screen alone, but I haven't honestly messed with using two cards for two screens without SLI enough to know how I'll manage that.

But anyways, another novel written! Will make a shorter post in a bit, with some pictures of it's current status.

Let me know what you guys think, comments make me happy!

[Fuganater]

Try making a PSU shroud that covers the entire bottom of the case using some 1/8" acrylic. You can hide all your cables in there. You could also pick up a cheap WC kit and go to to town!

[Aldersan]

Lol, ALL of my cables are hidden except for the 2" or so that each cable has to travel to one of the holes in the back plate. I thought about covering up the whole bottom, and tried doing a quick and dirty mock-up with some cardboard but it just didn't look right to me. Maybe I'll throw a mock-up of doing a shroud like that in one of my pictures when I get home.

And if by WC you mean watercooling, it is already watercooled. If you meant something else, clarification would be great :D

[Fuganater]

Ya i meant watercooling.

I blanked on the case you had. You can make a shroud but its really not needed for that case now that I look at it. The window is super high. The only way to take up that room is to get a pump res combo and put it there on top of the shroud.

[Aldersan]

Yeahh and that's why I'm blanking on ideas lol, I've got the pump/res dual 5.25" bay combo already so that takes care of that, it just drives me nuts that I have so much empty space in there XD maybe I just need to get another 580 to take up more room :P

[Neodymium]

Its very nice! :up:

[Aldersan]

Picture time!! :banana:

First, here's a couple shots of the front that I never got before, with the PC both on and off so you can see the LED's in the reservoir. It's actually pretty cool watching the water swirl inside it, and it makes neat patterns on the wall behind me :D

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/4994/dsc00601c.jpg
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/2233/dsc00602wf.jpg

Here's the black mesh area where I'm "planning" on putting the PSOne screen, if I can make it fit.

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/5205/dsc00607h.jpg

Here's my keyboard and mouse, both off and on. I think they match my PC quite nicely :)

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/5600/dsc00603nv.jpg
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/2536/dsc00604uq.jpg

And here's a pic of the bottom of the inside.

http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/5954/dsc00605uk.jpg

The PSU is covered with the white carbon fiber vinyl on the visible sides, which makes it stand out nicely. However, right next to it is the empty space that I feel so blah about :facepalm: It's pretty clear from this pic that cable management isn't a problem AT ALL with this case (thank god!), and like I mentioned earlier, I tried putting a fan here but it more than doubled the case's noise levels, to my untrained ear of course :rolleyes:

Well, that's my progress so far! Let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions go for it!

[Neodymium]

Very cool reservoir setup :D I like your keyboard!

[Fuganater]

maybe add a 120 or 140mm rad down there? Push/Pull config.

[Aldersan]

maybe add a 120 or 140mm rad down there? Push/Pull config.

Maybe, but I'd have to redo my loop and find a new place for my drain valve if I did that. I may try to pick up a quiet, low RPM fan for that bottom section, just to create SOME airflow while keeping the noise at a minimum. It just surprised me so much that the fan I was using before, an Aerocool shark fan, which usually didn't seem loud to me at all, created so much noise. However, we'll see. Of course, speaking of redoing my loop, if I had the funding I'd like to get some more white tubing and some of that anti-kink coil in white, and redo my loop in a much tighter and neater fashion. Oh, how I wish I had money to spare :P

As for plans:
STILL waiting on that screen :( when I get home from work tonight I'll probably check out that car adapter and see how difficult putting the molex end on it will be, as well as dig through my cable boxes (I tend to hang on to every cable I come across, because if I don't have a specific type, chances are high that I will need it :P) and find a VGA cable to mod for the screen itself.

Also, I'm thinking about looking at some CCFL's or LED strips for the inside. While the fans and reservoir give the outside some nice light, the inside of the case is rather dark. I'd have to experiment with that a bit to decide, right now I'm trying to figure out if I'd be better off going with a longer CCFL/strip or two smaller ones.

I DID finally manage to pick up a few black SATA cables with a 90 degree angle plug. I used those for my BD and DVD drives, and used the one white cable that was previously used, for one of the two HDD bays I didn't have a cable in. I only had 4 cables, and had 3 storage drives and 2 optical drives, so I had previously decided that my DVD drive was the least importance. Anyways, now both my optical drives are hooked up, and I have 4/5 of my HDD slots hooked up :D I probably won't bother hooking up the 5th slot, because my motherboard only has 6 angle'd SATA slots, and one in a really awkward vertical position, so instead of making my cables all messy, I'll just leave it be, I discovered that under/inside the HDD cage area is a neat little hiding spot, so I probably won't use that tray anyways :P

I'm getting a lot of light bleeding out around the reservoir, because it's not flush with the sides of the case. I took off the tool less latch thing, and screwed it in on both sides to make it firmer (and quieter!) but I may need to figure out a way to stop the light bleed-through..maybe paint the sides of the reservoir black? Or find something to put around it and make it snug? I dunno yet for that.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

[Neodymium]

I may need to figure out a way to stop the light bleed-through..maybe paint the sides of the reservoir black? Or find something to put around it and make it snug? I dunno yet for that.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

Try some caulking around the bleeding edge, then paint it black...it might help...also, you can scrape off caulking if you decide to do something else...

any other type of non-permanent sealant might also work...good luck..

[Aldersan]

Did some brainstorming on the light bleed through topic, here's what I came up with:

I remember reading in a work log that someone tried using aluminum foil around the edges of some plexi to help distribute light. They were having trouble with it not being sturdy enough, but since the sides of my reservoir are quite a bit bigger than some edges of a sheet of plexi, I was thinking that it might be a good idea to try that with this, it would both help block the light bleed through and give the inside of the reservoir more light diffusion, and would be easier to secure.
That was another thing I noticed, the LED's were mostly shining straight through instead of defusing their light more evenly, so I may try frosting them, anyone have any tips on how to do that?

Thanks in advance!

[Neodymium]

Just take a fine grit sandpaper and go in circles on the LED...that should do it...

[Aldersan]

Just a tiny update, was bored at work and came up with what I want on the PSOne screen, whenever I finally get it lol.
Using Rainmeter and ForceX and a bunch of other stuff, and several hours customizing and debugging, I came up with this:
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/5379/rainmeterresourcemonito.jpg

[Aldersan]

Unfortunately, I've come into a problem. In order for the VGA mods to work with the PSOne screen, you either need to have a video card capable of csync (most ATI cards, very few NVidia cards) or make a csync composer mod...all I have are NVidia cards :( So I'll have to see what I can do..

[Neodymium]

Which cards specifically? If you know, then you can post right here in the wanted section ;)

[Fuganater]

what app is that SS?

[Aldersan]

Its a rainmeter skin, originally ForceX system resource monitor, that I changed the coding quite a bit to make it look like that

[Fuganater]

Can you PM me the code?

[monkeyfun]

very clean build! I really like the plate with the japanese on it.

Out of curiosity, who made that CPU block you're using?

[Aldersan]

It's a Watercool HeatKiller rev 3.0 that I painted black and white, it turned out nice :D
I just finished redoing my loop, just working on getting as many bubbles out as I can now, before I close her up again for the time being. Got a lightbar installed, damn that thing is bright :D and I'm about to test out the fan, so expect an update in an hour or so with pics :D

[Neodymium]

Waiting :D This should be good...!

[Aldersan]

Okay, fine, update time :P

I picked up some "pearl" colored anti-kink coil for my loop, since Fuga didn't like how my loop was before, so I used that and cleaned it up, just a tiny bit...

Before:
http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/9587/dsc00606z.jpg

And after:
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/4281/dsc00608w.jpg

So that was the major change.

There were two other smaller changes, one was I picked up a "corner" LED lightbar to give it some light..I ended up with a bit more than "some" light lol but I like how it turned out, here's a pic from the outside:
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/4554/dsc00609gk.jpg

The second change was that I picked up another fan for that bottom area that was bugging the crap out of me lol. It's a noiseblocker like the rest of my fans, but I picked up the one with the lowest rpm. I didn't need a whole lot of cfm, just wanted some more airflow, and most importantly ITS QUIET! No longer is my case a wind tunnel if I have a fan in the bottom slot! :D Even on full speed, my case is hardly louder than before. Very happy with that one :)

So yeah, that's where I am now, just dealing with a loud pump/res (until it gets most of the bubbles out, the res/pump combo has a habit of being fairly noisy lol).

Pretty much the last things to finish in my case are the LCD screen for the side panel, and fixing the LEDs/bleedthrough on the res. Hopefully I'll get both of those next weekend, but who knows :whistler:

Anyways, comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

P.S. How do you like my loop now, Fuga? :banana:

[Neodymium]

Very nice!!!! I like the way the anti kink came together...:up:

[Fuganater]

I like alot :D

[Outlaw]

Nice, definitely like the after pics of routing. Though I don't mind the mazes either with the kids. lol

[billygoat333]

Looks much cleaner. Very nice!

[Aldersan]

Alright small update:

Things left to do and status on those:

PSOne Screen: both the screen and the graphics card I needed for it are in the mail, hopefully should have them soon. Once they get here, the real fun shall begin!

Case Badges: TLHarrell is going to be making me some really sweet acrylic case badges, that I will light up with some LEDs :D So, a shout out to him and his business, White Light Laser Engraving :D The sample image he made for me can be found here. (http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7003/6838930781_fdbabf430b.jpg) So for this, I picked up a bunch of LEDs, and will be experimenting with them as to placement, and other uses for them. I may try to leech some power off of the fan's touch connection on the door panel, to put some LEDs on there instead of having the light bar above the window on the case frame.

After those are done, I should be finally able to call this case closed :D

[Neodymium]

Eagerly waiting to see :D

[Aldersan]

Minor Update:

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/9901/dsc00624du.jpg


Got the screen, and got it in place! Just waiting on the video card now to see if it actually works! :D

Also, I decided to name my pc Myrmidon since it sounds awesome and no one else has taken it :D

[TLHarrell]

Send me the sizes for the screen frame and I'll cut you a little .06" black bezel to cover the fugly edge.

[Aldersan]

Okay, minor update, no pics yet though sadly :(

I still haven't been able to get the screen working, will keep trying. I did figure out a way to hide the cables fairly effectively though. For powering the LCD I took a Sony PSOne Car Adaptor, the version that had the power brick, and I cut off the cigarette lighter part and swapped it with a molex connection. Works like a charm, but the brick was bigger than a cable :P. So, I moved all of my drive's down a tray, and put the brick in the top tray, along with the excess cabling for the screen. It's a perfect fit! I had to remove the connection bar in the back of the tray area, but it was simply screwed on and was no biggy at all. I was also able to remove the button from that particular tray, also just screwed on, so now no one can pop the tray out and screw up the wiring :D Much happier with how that turned out, especially considering since I only have 4 Sata cables for 5 bays, now one isn't being left unused! :D

The case badges have been made, and should be here this week, again, a big shout out to TLHarrel and White Light Laser :D Here (http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/422716_250929944984719_145363072208074_561764_1952 784572_n.jpg)'s a pic he took of them for me, can't wait to get them wired up with LEDs! My plan is to light AMD and NVIDIA green, MSI blue, and OCZ and Corsair white. Not sure on the order yet. If you look on the previous update's pic, underneath the area where the screen is, there's a small flat recessed area between the screen area and the hard drive trays, and that's where I want to put them.

Along with the case badges, I also want to mess with the wiring a bit for the side panel fan, and reuse the door to case touch contacts, and wire some LEDs into the door panel to get some custom LED lighting that doesn't light up my whole desk like the current light bar I have in does lol.

I also ordered some Gentle Typhoons to replace my rad fans, if I like them I will paint them black and white to match my color scheme. They should arrive this week as well.

With that, I should have been done with my pc, but of course, TLHarrel spread his bad influence on me and has me thinking of other possibilities lol.

These are:

Taking off the aluminum faceplate from the rad, as well as the faceplates from the drives, and create a solid plexi panel for the four drive bays. For the window to the res, instead of being a rectangle I'd probably have TL cut a hexigonal pattern like the mesh in the rear of the case, and also etch Myrmidon into the panel to the right of the res window, which would be lit by white LEDs inserted into the res in the pump side. This would give a custom and very clean look to the front of the drive bays.

Creating a solid black plexi panel to go around the screen. While my first cut wasn't bad, I ended up needing to shift the screen up about 1/8", and this left a lot of open space at the bottom in the mesh, which looks really bad. Also combined with the fact that the screen bleeds a lot of light around it, and that you can see the circuit board behind it, really makes me want to clean that up a bit.

Creating a covering panel for my motherboard, like the Sabertooth P67 has. The initial plan right now is to use smoke colored acrylic, and etch a pattern into it and paint the etchings white, so they give some detail. We still have to check clearances and things like that, but this seems like a cool idea.

Let me know what you think! Comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

Alder

[Aldersan]

Minor(ish) update!

Fans and case badges came in today! I got the fans in, and tested them! I had also messed with overclocking settings yesterday and they helped my decision.

Noiseblockers @ 4.0ghz folding: 47C
Noiseblockers @ 4.2ghz folding: 51C
Gentle Typhoons @ 4.2ghz folding: 47C

Since the new fans brought my temps back down to where I liked them before, even with the new overclocking, I decided to keep them. Thus I painted them and reinstalled them!

Power off:
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/822/dsc00641xv.jpg
Power on:
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1994/dsc00642xf.jpg

TERRIBLE pics, I know, but when I finish the build I'll attempt to get some much better pics.

As far as other things go, the fans came with the PERFECT adapter for my door fan plans: it was 3pin to 3pin(yellow only) + molex. This was exactly what I was planning on needing :D The yellow 3pin on the 200mm fan actually controls the LED color instead of the speed like normal, so I plugged that back in to the fan controller on the case, and plugged the molex in. With the molex feeding full power, I then put some resistors on the fan wiring in the door panel to lower the speed back down to where I had it. Now I have full power going to the door and can use that for LEDs, whenever they arrive! :D

And that brings me to where I am now. Waiting for more parts! :P

[TLHarrell]

Good to see you got the fan wiring sorted out so you can use the door contacts.

[monkeyfun]

Nice work! I really liked the cover plate with the japanese nice clean accent to the case.

[Aldersan]

Thanks monkey! It's nothing close to your level of modding, but I think it's still decent :D

As for a tiny-update:

The world seems to be against me modding! My LEDs were actually supposed to be delivered Friday but I was out grabbing lunch at the time and so they left one of those stupid notes saying I had to pick it up today :mad: But, no biggy right, just one more day to wait?

Wake up this morning, I get a call saying I was supposed to be in at work at 7. Apparently someone had forgotten to write it down on the schedule I was given. So, I'll be working all day today, and can't pick up my LEDs until Monday.

TLHarrel and I have been working hard on measurements and designing the front and side panels, so I should have those soon. Still haven't decided on the motherboard cover yet.

Also, I seemed to have burned out the LED color change switch on the case (lol) and so I'll have to rewire the front fan for blue LEDs seeing as they no longer turn on anymore. The side fan turns green, but if I leave the LED wire unplugged then it turns blue too. I may decide to switch them both out for white, we'll see :)

[Aldersan]

FINALLY! An update with pics!

I got the case badges mounted and LED lit, and I replaced the LEDs on the front fan with white ones. Here's some pics:

Case badges:

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/1706/dsc00649by.jpg

I apologize for the crappy picture, but it's the best the camera could do :(

Front fan:

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/1742/dsc00654mx.jpg

I really like how they both turned out. However, because the front fan looks so good with the white, I'm thinking about redoing the side fan's LEDs as well, what do you guys think?

Comments and suggestions are, as always, mucho appreciated!

[Outlaw]

Looks awesome.
Yes. do the fans to match. Take no shortcuts. If i can ever get mine done, those badges would be a cool addition.

[Fuganater]

Very sexy looking case badges.

[Aldersan]

Another update with pics!

I got the side fan LEDs swapped out, sort of. The old ones were like super glued in, so I just drilled some new holes :D I like it much better in white.

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/3887/picture1oh.jpg

I also got the case lighting LEDs on the door mounted and wired. They add a good amount of light! :D

Here you can see the white painted Gentle Typhoons better.

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/5503/picture3eh.jpg

Here's a pic aimed more downward to show the light spread.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/8061/picture4ui.jpg

This pic really shows how the white LEDs in the fan go with the white light inside the case.

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/8061/picture4ui.jpg

Almost done now! Just need the new panels from TLHarrel, but he's got a busy schedule so it could be a while :P

Thanks for reading, comments and suggestions are always encouraged!

Alder

[AmEv]

*drool*

[Aldersan]

*drool*

Not on the computer, please :whistler:

I'll take that as a compliment though :D Thanks!

[Aldersan]

Teeny tiny update, that requires only one word and one number to describe:

RAID 0.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4769/dsc00655ev.jpg


:D :banana:

[Outlaw]

Those look too small. I think you need to send them to me. lol

[Aldersan]

Okay, so after Fuga yelled at me, I decided I should do a bit more work and get a small update!

I finally got the panels that TLHarrel made me installed.

Side:
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/517/dsc00656ka.jpg

The solid black looks MUCH better than that crummy mesh cutting job I had before :whistler:

Front:
http://img542.imageshack.us/img542/8471/dsc00661k.jpg

I removed the covers for the drives and the res, and replaced them with a single panel. The drives are now stealthed, and the res has a cool new window! :D On the right, in the space where there aren't any hexagons in the pattern, it actually says MYRMIDON, and was originally going to be lit up, but it didn't work out so well, so I may just paint over that with white lettering later on.

Here's a shot showing the stealthed drives and buttons:

http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/6428/dsc00664ks.jpg

And another with the bottom drive opened:
(ignore the grotesque amount of fingerprints on the panel, I was having trouble getting the top drive cover to stick properly and allow the drive to close, I'll get those cleaned up later :whistler:)

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/2287/dsc00666dn.jpg


So that's where I am now! Getting very closed to finish, hopefully should be able to pick up what I need today with a trip to Microcenter, and unless TL works his magic and comes up with some super awesome fan grills for my inside fans, I should be finally finished!

[Outlaw]

Looks pretty sweet. When should i expect it at my door? lol

Looks awesome.

[TLHarrell]

Loving the stealthed drives. Came out really clean.

[Fuganater]

awesome plexi work bud.

[Aldersan]

All the props go to TLHarrel, I simply measured every distance I could and bam, instant fit plexi! :D

[TLHarrell]

instant fit plexi!

Hmmm.... maybe I should use that...