Project: Monolith.

[Omega]

So first things first, let's start with a few confessions. I have never seen 2001: A Space Odyssey. Yes, I realize the monolith is a thing from that film. But I'm gonna go off of the dictionary definition so give me a break.

Secondly, amazingly, despite all my tenure here...

I have never completed a case mod.

I know, I know. I've been a member of this community for eight years and I have never completed a case mod. What the hell is wrong with me!?

Well, time to change that.

Enter the Fractal Design Define XL R2. I decided on this case for it's outright simplicity. So many cases on the market these days have 700mm fan grills and seventeen razor wire features and nine shark fins and, and, and... which leaves something to be desired for those of us who just want a simple, straightforward case.

Stock image...

http://i.imgur.com/bayn2NJ.jpg

Okay, so I don't have any sketchup model or even hand drawings. Why, you ask? Simple: This is going to be a simple, straighforward case mod. This isn't going to be some show queen computer with twenty graphics cards and insane watercooling loops or anything -- just my regular ole desktop PC. It's time to replace my CM Stacker 830, whose power button has, ahem, fallen apart as well as other signs of the fact that it's nearing seven years old.

The case is going to be very lightly modded and have an emphasis on cable management.

So, I've had this case for a day and I've already torn in to it. I covered the side panel in masking tape and drew up a window design. Except it wasn't big enough. I wanted to show off every bit of the case but I was stressing about the mounting. The initial idea was to do a big one-way mirror sidepanel... but I scrapped that, caved in and bought the FrozenCPU window kit with a white border. The case is all black aside from the fan blades of the three fans that come standard, and the hard drive cages. So the white border window was a no-brainer, it will fit the theme perfectly.

However anybody who has a Define will know that the sidepanels are coated in a nasty, heavy tar paper sound deadening. Well, that was tonight's project.

http://i.imgur.com/pfiuWNXl.jpg


So there's the left sidepanel sans tar paper... and

http://i.imgur.com/Ps2uBufl.jpg

here's the case as she sits tonight.


So I'm waiting for the FrozenCPU window kit to come in, as well as three more Fractal Design 1000rpm 140mm fans so I can fully load out the system. I'm looking at getting a multicolor LED strip with remote control so I can vary what color the case is, given that it has not colored accents right now. Mood lighting...

Stay tuned!

[Omega]

Oh and specs are my current rig that's in the stacker 830:

Intel Core i5-3570K w/ Arctic Cooling Freezer i30
Biostar T-series motherboard
eVGA GTX 550Ti w/ Arctic Cooling Accelero Twin Turbo II
8gb of G.Skill RAM
some hard drives and other crap
850W Cooler Master PSU

[TheMainMan]

Looking forward to seeing this come together. I've loved the look of the Fractal Design Define series since I first heard of them and having worked on a Fractal Design Define Mini in a build last year they are very nice and really slick looking in person. Good luck on getting it done, we're pulling for you!

[Omega]

mini-update, got my case fans in the mail today:

http://i.imgur.com/wnQteRd.jpg

Awesome packaging design, plus they have a little extender thingy in there which is neato too.

Also, the last time I had a computer with a top-mounted fan that I left uncovered, I knocked a drink in to it and fried my PC (Rest in Peace, Athlon 64...). So I decided that in order to help protect against that a little bit, but more to help the aesthetic of the mod, I'm gonna build a custom top vent panel.

The plan right now is to build it out of acetal or styrene or something, and have magnets in the base so it can be held on to the case and not require any drilling or something. This will also give me the ability to remove it for fan cleaning and replacement should I so desire.

I'm gonna get dimensions and do a "quick and dirty" sketchup model in a few minutes here, will post when that is completed.

[Omega]

rough sketchup of what I'm talking about:

http://i.imgur.com/ZAaeqWA.png

each of the vent's "blades" is a 1" tall strip at 45*. The whole thing is 2" tall and the leading edge is at a 45* also. The blades are directly above the fans.

I am debating making it 1" tall overall instead of 2", or maybe just over 1" tall with build tolerances and stuff. Magnets to hold it on to the top panel will be located in the outer edges so as not to interfere with the fans. Also I am thinking of keeping the 2" lead-up but with a 1" height giving me an angle of 63* instead of 45* which will look more "sleek". Vent blades will remain at 45*. I've toyed with the idea of having adjustable vents but that's a little above my skill level and desires for this case since it's going to live it's life underneath my desk probably 95%+ of the time.

[Twigsoffury]

why are they called fractal, if they have nothing to do with fractals, the M-set or or benoit mandelbrot?

(just curious)

I like the idea of magnets holding the vent in for easy cleaning

[Omega]

why are they called fractal, if they have nothing to do with fractals, the M-set or or benoit mandelbrot?

(just curious)

I like the idea of magnets holding the vent in for easy cleaning



No idea, just a neato name I suppose.

I was lamenting the thought of having to drill in to the top of the case for mounting because that would mean more sound dampening removal... then I thought, why not magnets? The case is made of steel, after all.

[Twigsoffury]

No idea, just a neato name I suppose.

I was lamenting the thought of having to drill in to the top of the case for mounting because that would mean more sound dampening removal... then I thought, why not magnets? The case is made of steel, after all.


(^_^)

should be cool!

[edit]
oh hey! you ought to add pictures to your review of the case you did!

[Omega]

Super-mini update, ordered the LED strip yesterday from Amazon, ordered a new Corsair PSU today. Fully modular HX750W.

PSU should be here in two days thanks to ShopRunner, but the Amazon order says it'll be here in March... poop.

edit\\

also I'll go take some pictures in a little bit.

[Stonerboy779]

Waiting for pics :)

[Omega]

Waiting for parts!

Anticipating the delivery of my new Corsair PSU and the FrozenCPU window this week, I suppose I should really go to Home Depot and get some cutoff wheels...

[TheMainMan]

Pretty excited about how this is shaping up! Can't wait to see your top piece. Sounds like your Amazon order is coming from China by boat...

[TLHarrell]

How does the design of the top piece keep you from spilling a drink into it again?

And I'd advise not to machine the whole thing out of Acetal... that'd be pretty darn expensive. Acrylic would be cheaper by at least 2/3, and that would still be a bit on the spendy side for something that thick.

[Omega]

Pretty excited about how this is shaping up! Can't wait to see your top piece. Sounds like your Amazon order is coming from China by boat...


I reckon it probably is, though the last time I had an Amazon order the ship time was way the hell off. Ordered mid-Dec, said it'd be here in mid-Jan but it arrived a week later.

Regardless, this project is going to be slow going as I fiddle around in my free time anyway so there's no rush.



How does the design of the top piece keep you from spilling a drink into it again?

And I'd advise not to machine the whole thing out of Acetal... that'd be pretty darn expensive. Acrylic would be cheaper by at least 2/3, and that would still be a bit on the spendy side for something that thick.


Realistically I've stopped putting drinks on my computer, I don't know why I bothered mentioning that but it's more for aesthetics.

Also I intend to make it out of styrene sheet plastic and not acrylic, unless I can get acrylic sheet scraps for cheap/free from the local TAP. That bit is still up in the air ATM. I do have a friend who works at a hobby shop though, so I'll probably be using the homie hookup and also some guidance as I've never worked with stuff like that before.

Oh, and on track, I got a fantastic rectangle today:

http://i.imgur.com/qYvDLvZ.jpg

I chose the RM series specifically for it's quietness. The fan stays off until at least 40% load or if it hits high enough temps. There were some models (Batch <1341) that could have potential cooling issues but I did my homework on Corsair's site and found out that they will modify/repair any if you get those batches for free. Well luckily I got batch 1349 so we're in the clear there.

The cables that come with it suck, plain and simple. They're these all-black ribbon cables and they're stiff and just pretty terrible. I don't even want to take them out of the bag.

Luckily though, Corsair sells pre-sleeved cable kits for all of their modular PSUs on their website. I did the math and for me to buy sleeving and sleeve them all myself (re-using the sucky, stiff wires) would be marginally cheaper, but to do it with nicer wire would be more expensive. So in this regard I'm gonna go pre-mod and just buy Corsair's cables. This should also help me retain my warranty should anything happen.

Also I need to get ahold of Corsair and see if I can remove the specifications sticker from the PSU without any issue, as I'd rather put something else a little less obtrusive there...

[Omega]

http://i.imgur.com/6n66Iz0.jpg

dirty ****ty photo but it gives you an idea of what it looks like in there. That is, Perfect.

The finish on the Corsair PSU matches the Fractal case almost perfectly. Some thoughts now, though:

Not sure if I want to retain that 140mm intake fan down there. I likely will as it should help keep things flowing near the PSU (which is good since the PSU fan will stay off under 40% load), but there's going to be a bunch of cabling down there, causing turbulence.

I think rather than removing the sticker off the top of the PSU, I might bend a sheet of acrylic to form against it, and use some plasti-dip to recreate the rippled black finish effect. I think I'll pick some up at the hardware store tomorrow when I'm getting cutoff wheels and see how close the finish is. I'd like to get rid of the yellow from the sticker on the PSU as well as the top sticker so if I do an acrylic sheet that's all black, I can just get some vinyls custom cut for it (likely just a big plain "Corsair" logo, and the greek letter Omega) to help keep it looking nice and clean.

Also looking at those mobo cables, I think I may need to find some big 3:1 white heatshrink so I can make them a little more color-appropriate....


Damn, and this mod was supposed to be simple "slap it together and call it good".

[Omega]

Okay so the FrozenCPU absolutely-freakin'-huge window kit came in today. I debated skipping out on spending time with the girlfriend to put it in sooner, but I know she'd be mad if I canceled on her. So I went and did that, hit Lowe's on the way home and grabbed some cutoff wheels (and plexi for other things ;) ) and raced back home.

So, here we go:

http://i.imgur.com/RsTEzrx.jpg
re-apply painter's tape to help protect the finish. This was a good idea actually as it helped a lot. There's only one small nick that's barely noticeable as a result.

Lined up the window, made sure it was even on all sides, and off we go...

http://i.imgur.com/2kUqTaa.jpg
So the way the FrozenCPU kit works is it's two pieces, the window itself and the trim "ring" or whatever. Once it's lined up, you mark and drill the holes (this pic is the first hole) and then trace the outline of the inside of the trim ring as your "guide".

I chose this kit specifically for that trim bit, not only because it looks good but also because it allows you a pretty high margin of error. My cuts are not clean, not even close. But you'll see how good it looks regardless.

http://i.imgur.com/ITTOiFh.jpg
Corners cut straight-on for simplicity, and because of that trim ring you'll see why this doesn't matter.

http://i.imgur.com/IhxvLRH.jpg
Almost there...

http://i.imgur.com/gUmaSAg.jpg
This should give you an idea of just how absolutely massive this window will be.

It was at this point too that my back started to hurt and I was getting tired so I stopped taking pictures. All I did was file the edges and re-drill the holes out larger because they weren't 100% centered before. Removed the tape, mounted the window, and...

http://i.imgur.com/UsLRiTJ.jpg

Blam. Look at that hotness.

Oh, you want more?

http://i.imgur.com/yUh8bdP.jpg

ba-blam. So good.

So there you have it. You can see how clean and freakin' awesome and totally fitting this window is here. It's the perfect detail, and FrozenCPU wasn't kidding when they said "this shows off every inch of your case".

I suppose I'll need to really be on my "cable management" game when the time comes...

Oh, and although I paid for it out of pocket I'm still gonna give a shout out to FrozenCPU for making this awesome window kit and making it pretty damn easy in all. Took me about an hour and a half using a dremel to cut it out.

That's all for tonight folks, and thanks for reading.

[billygoat333]

I have to be honest, I haven't finished a mod 100% either since I have been a TBCS member. ambition is the root of all evil, haha. and warranties. Looking good, can't wait to see this finished. I will cheer you on to victory for the both of us.

[Omega]

...So I bit the bullet and ordered my new PSU cables. Should be here the next week or two...

Also the LED strip landed in LA finally so hopefully we're looking at the next week or so as well. Only way that could have been better is if it had landed in Oakland instead... ah well. ;)

[Omega]

oh so i did something


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dccw75DwVoA

[OvRiDe]

I think I just had a seizure.... :P

[Omega]

I think I just had a seizure.... :P

Yeah I didn't expect it to be flashing and so goddamn bright, but I love it. This is gonna be kickass.

[Omega]

Also since TBCS is my home and I like you guys the best (shhhhh) I'm gonna be using this thread as my idea dump and only updating other forums on the actual progress.

So, to that note, the LED strip is stupid long. Like, 16.4ft long. And I see no sense in letting it go to waste. It has a nice rubbery kinda coating on it to protect the LED too, which is nice.

It's looking like I'm going to remove the bottom drive mounting bracket (which is fine because I only have three drives anyway) and put the LED controller down there. I'd like to run the IR receiver to one of the slats that are open alongside the front panel, which may prove to be...tricky. But the receiver is pretty much perfectly sized for that so it'd just be a matter of getting it glued in place. Perhaps I'll cut the wires for the receiver and add a little connector to it so I can remove the front panel more easily.

Anywho, back to the length. The controller will be mounted under the drive bays. The LED strip will then go along the bottom, up the back, along the top, down the front and back to the controller.

I'd then like to run the LED strip towards the back of the mobo tray, up through the big hole there and positioned so that the motherboard is "backlit".

If I still have sufficient left over after that, I have been toying with the idea of putting the LEDs against the chassis behind the front panel so that the light shines through the open holes down the side. All three of these would essentially make the entire case glow whatever color I wanted. Either that, or run them along the underside of the computer.

It would be easier in terms of routing to cut and solder these things so that I don't have to run the strip itself everywhere, as it's not very flexible side-to-side, only back-and-forth; understandably so. Only issue I see with that idea is the fact that I have no idea how hard it would be to scrape off the resin and solder wires on... Perhaps I'll have to buy another length of LED strip just for this purpose. :devious:

Another thought, related: There isn't enough room on the back panel to run the LED strip next to a 140mm fan. There would be, if I ran a 120. For the sake of simplicity, I'll probably get a 120. On that note, if anybody wants to trade my Fractal Design Silent Series R2 140mm fan for your Fractal Design Silent Series R2 120mm fan, shoot me a PM or something and let's talk. Or a similar style 120mm fan with an emphasis on "quiet"... really just for aesthetics, with all the other airflow in the case I'm sure that making sure that one fan matches 100% isn't paramount. So to that note, any low noise, black frame / white blades fan would work fine. Seriously, shoot me a PM.

Aaand another thing, I hate the feet on this thing. They're rubber. It's a big, heavy, bulky computer. I want casters, goddamnit. I'll probably look at my Stacker 830 and see if I can nick it's casters. Would make it a lot nicer to move it around on carpet versus actually having to lift the thing.

[Omega]

Oh, so some boxes arrived today. I've been getting a lot of friggin' boxes recently...

But these ones were neato, they had the Corsair logo:

https://scontent-b-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/t1/p180x540/1656228_10152283797164515_430390969_n.jpg

And within their confines, gold awaits:
https://scontent-a-lax.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn2/t1/p180x540/1970522_10152283797229515_53588936_n.jpg

Literally a pile of modular PSU cables.


The neat thing about this is that these cables are compatable with all kinds of corsair PSUs, so if I decide I want to upgrade my PSU later to something insane like an AX1200i or whatever, I can just pop the RM750 out, put the new PSU in and hook it back up, voila.


The weave is nice and tight, the wires underneath are white too but the heatshrink doesn't "tuck" in to the connectors so there's a little white showing right before the connector on most of them. Not a huge issue, just worth mentioning.

There's less and less reasons for me *not* to move my hardware over...

[OvRiDe]

Yeah I didn't expect it to be flashing and so goddamn bright, but I love it. This is gonna be kickass.

I think they look great too! I don't know if you are aware.. but you can section those and interconnect them with wiring. This is handy if you want to do 90 deg. angles and such. Most strips will have markings on where to cut, and then you just solder some wires. Google should reveal a bunch of tutorials.

[Omega]

I think they look great too! I don't know if you are aware.. but you can section those and interconnect them with wiring. This is handy if you want to do 90 deg. angles and such. Most strips will have markings on where to cut, and then you just solder some wires. Google should reveal a bunch of tutorials.

Yeah I've seen LED kits like this before, I suppose it's just time to read up on it and everything. The only real bit I'm concerned about is getting the plastic resin off of the strip so I can get to those solder points, though I suppose it's just a matter of cutting it down carefully with a razorblade, and figuring out the routing for the best results.

I suppose I should strip the case down now so it'll be easier to figure all that stuff out.

[Omega]

Just placed another order for another box to show up at my house... :whistler:

[Omega]

Okay so I can't not share with you guys.

I ordered an EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked and OCZ Synapse 128gb SSD together off of newegg for $200.

The GTX 660 has the regular centrifugal fan cooler which I know will be loud as hell, so I emailed EVGA asking if I can purchase or trade for the ACX cooler that they offer. The GTX 660 should offer double the performance of the GTX 550Ti that I'm running right now and with the ACX cooler (or even the normal cooler) will look a lot nicer than the 550 with the huge Arctic cooler which sticks out in weird ways. Don't get me wrong, I love the Arctic cooler. It's quiet, and cools fantastically.

Right now I'm off to go strip out the case in preperation to figure out the routing for the LED lighting and get that all situated. GPU porn to come likely Tuesday or Wednesday when it arrives. Stay tuned. ;)

[Omega]

Okay so I know I'm kinda spammy with the updates but whatever, bite me.

Remembered that my old Biostar Puro Hi-Fi motherboard has identical standoff locations to the Biostar TZ77A that I'm running now, so I figured I would use it to line up the standoffs. Then I decided to screw it in. Then I decided to run some cables and test fire to make sure the PSU actually gave power.

http://i.imgur.com/QXeDlJ5.jpg
Here it is in place, cables messy, just to verify power.

http://i.imgur.com/p28RE2u.jpg
Ran the cables behind. This is gonna look *good*.


http://i.imgur.com/lClWACe.jpg
And although it's dirty and blurry, this is vaguely what it'll look like with the i5 setup in there. Obviously it'll have it's back panel on and it'll have a GPU and everything too.

The Corsair cables are nice, but still kinda stiff. The 24pin ATX connector is harder than all hell to try and get to click in to the mobo, which is a bit concerning. The 4pin worked fine on this one. Cable management is going to be interesting behind the scenes given how tight everything is.

The Fractal 140mm fans are so quiet that I don't think using the built-in fan controller on the front panel will be necessary. Still, I think I am going to splice the wiring together so I can run all six fans off of it just for simplicity's sake. Wiring definitely is going to be the big challenge here... I want to hide as much as I can, but I still want to have plenty of the nice, sleeved white cables showing. Also it would be nice to get some cable rakes so that the wires don't get twisted or weird, and stay nice and straight and orderly. More money...

[TheMainMan]

Looking nice, the black and white is a great colour scheme! Good to know that Corsair sells pre-sleeved modular cables in case I ever get around to working on my main rig and the AX850 in it. Might want to check the ratings on your fan controller before splicing all the cable together as the amperage draw from fans can add up quick.

Coming together nicely, keep it up!

[Omega]

New video soon...

[Omega]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRRnvZeNatc

So there's that, and this:

http://imgur.com/a/rFPlb

(which is an image gallery of some of the different colors).


Today I stripped out the motherboard, removed the drive bays, all the front panel wiring, PSU, basically anything that might be in the way, and mounted the LED strips. I got the ones that will sit behind the mobo and the ones behind the front panel as well, but I need some 4-wire ribbon cable and probably an hour or two with the soldering iron to get them all wired up nice and proper.

Also the adhesive that came with the LEDs kinda sucks, so I'm going to look in to different double-sided tape, likely that really awesome 3M all-weather outdoor rated stuff, which I've used to stick badges back on to my car and have held for 4+ years of rain, dirt, sun, and wind. So I think they should hold some LED strips inside a computer just fine.

If anybody knows where to get a spool of four-wire ribbon cable (preferrably red/green/blue/black so I can keep everything color coded), I would be pretty grateful.

Mod on!

[Omega]

http://i.imgur.com/TOhpMWO.gif

Twice now I've had to deal with OnTrac's bs... Package was supposed to be here today, tracking says it was delivered, but no box in sight. Last time they gave it to one of my neighbors, probably did that again this time too.

God damnit I just want my GTX 660...

[Omega]

Okay so OnTrac got their **** together long enough to deliver my box.

So, here goes...

http://i.imgur.com/XJCQsvJ.jpg

Bam. EVGA GTX 660 Superclocked, and an OCZ SynapseCache "128gb" SSD.

Interesting thing about that SSD though. It's not like a normal SSD, which I learned yesterday. Supposedly how it works is it has two 64gb partitions, one you can access and use, and one you cannot. On the one you *can* access is OCZ's "dataplex" software, which watches the files and stuff you use most often, and then writes that to the half you *can't* access. What this means is it essentially acts as a 64gb hard drive cache, giving you SSD speeds for files that are on your hard disk drives. People report less than stellar performance when trying to use it as a normal SSD, but report fantastic performance when you let it do it's thing and act as a cache. Plus the software will constantly watch and adjust what is cached depending on usage. So that's neato.

Okay, on to the GTX 660. Not much to talk about here though really. It's a kickass card that will well outperform my GTX 550 Ti. Only complaint is that, as with pretty much any reference nVidia card, the stock cooler sucks and I already know it's going to be louder than all hell. Just like the GTX 550 was. So I'm going to have to look in to other VGA cooling solutions (naturally, the Accelero I already have doesn't fit 660s, but does fit 660Tis... goddamnit). On the other hand, I do love the big, solid, menacing look of the reference cooler... sighs

[Omega]

Grrrr...

GTX 660 worked fine for ten minutes. Then black splotches and messed up textures everwhere. Contacted EVGA for warranty replacement.

On the other side, those ten minutes were *awesome*. I'm liking the Kepler architecture a lot more than I liked my Fermi card. Plus it automatically de-clocks itself and throttles back power use while at idle, which helps keeps temps more reasonable at idle. Even with the reference cooler on there, it was doing about 35c idle, 65c load. Compared to the 550 which did about 50c idle, 80c load on the stock cooler, and about 30c idle, 50c load with the Arctic cooler.

The stock cooler is still loud as all hell though, which is no bueno. So I think a Prolimatech (sp?) cooler with dual Fractal 140mm fans is in order...

[Omega]

So I sent off the GTX 660 back to EVGA for my RMA return. (enough acronyms for you?)

Decided I may keep the Synapse but I wanted a normal SSD as my boot drive. Newegg is running a killer sale on Samsung 840EVO SSDs right now, so I nabbed a 240GB one and a 120mm Fractal fan which is necessary to run the LED strips along the back edge, instead of the 140mm fan.

A few days after putting the strips in, they fell out. The adhesive they come with is utter crap. So I bought some really high quality 3m stuff (automotive exterior grade...) and started taking the adhesive off of the strips. I also got a good length of RGB LED strip wire so between those two things, I hope to have all the strips positioned, hooked up and 100% operational by the end of the week.

I think I'm going to remove the 140mm fan from the bottom of the case, and possibly make a PSU cover for down there. I also want to look in to buying some LutroO cable combs to keep the cables nice and neat where they do poke out. If I do make a PSU cover, I want to look in to some way to mount the SSD to it as well. Gotta show it off. ;) I may also make a drive bay cover for the 5.25"s up top to make it looks a little cleaner.

The GPU runs cooler than the old 550Ti out of the box (hooray Kepler!) but it's still loud as hell. Assuming EVGA sends me another 660 back (and not something else, they are known to occasionally "upgrade" customers on RMA returns), I've been looking at the big Prolimatech cooler, which can take dual 140mm fans. Would be a nice way to keep everything super cool, and super quiet.

Overall I think that's pretty much everything I'm gonna do. I've abandoned the top vent idea, really just looking for a fairly neat, minimal case with good lighting.

[Omega]

Another update.

Cut and stuck the new adhesive strips. Figured out where the ribbon cables for the LEDs are gonna run. Soldered the first "long" one in place, and realized my initial measuring and everything didn't account for the ribbon cables. I'm going to have to make some adjustments to the lengths of the LED strips to account for this.

Soldering it down was a PITA and the ribbon I'm using is also really stiff. Doing 90* folded bends works, kinda. The heat from soldering softens up the plastic coating enough that I can bend them, but the wires inside shift and pull while doing so. I also didn't account very well for where to run the cables to and from the strips under the mobo so that will have to be part of my adjustments. It looks like it'll be a tight fit, but I should be able to pull it off.

I need to invest in a hot glue gun, I think. I would like to fill the area around the solder joints with hot glue before heatshrinking over them, to help protect them more. Especially the ones under the motherboard. I would hate to short out my mobo against my LED strips, though it might be interesting to see what color that would produce on the strips :lick:


On the other side of things...

EVGA sent me an email saying that my RMA return is coming, and should be here on Tuesday. My Samsung 840EVO SSD showed up and I re-installed my OS to it. Running it off of SATA 6.0gb/s and it's stupid fast. Standby mode may as well be "on" for how fast it gets to login, and a full boot doesn't take that long either.

I have decided that I do really want to make a PSU / HDD bay cover to help channel airflow in the bottom section of the case as well as show off the Samsung SSD. It's a very beautifully made and finished little piece of hardware, so why not make it a focus? I have a sheet of plexiglass laying around that's about 2x2 that would be perfect to cut and bend to shape. I'm still a bit on the fence about it though.

And since I haven't in a bit, have some pictures.

http://i.imgur.com/Jn6ktlD.jpg
Welcome to the PC Modshop, AKA "my workbench". I know it's messy.

http://i.imgur.com/jIxBUFu.jpg
The two different ways of stripping wires. The one on the left is my normal stripper, the one on the right is the one I bought specifically for this. I wanted to keep the exposed bits as short as possible, to retain cleanliness and flexibility.

http://i.imgur.com/v1RI7DD.jpg
Comparison of my strippers. The black pair can strip the whole ribbon at once but it's a little less precise. The grey pair is more precise, but can't strip short enough lengths.

http://i.imgur.com/48sadmC.jpg
A trimmed end of the LED strip.

http://i.imgur.com/6lKd6ih.jpg
New adhesive backing in place, it's already more solid than the old crap. This also gives you a good idea of exactly where the LEDs will be. Along the outer edge for overall light, under the mobo for glow, and behind the front panel vents for glow there too. When they're all wired up, they'll run in sync. Ignore the placeholder 120mm fan poorly mounted there until I can drill new holes for the proper mounting.

http://i.imgur.com/nDwR5YZ.jpg
The two long ribbon cables. The LED controller is going to go in the bottom drive bay, then the light strip goes around the edge of the case. The end of the first strip is at the base of the backside of the front panel. Then the ribbon cable will lay flat along the underside of the fan mounts, turn, lay flat along the back edge and then up through that grommet to the under-mobo lighting. Then it'll go through the strips on the mobo, and out the top grommet. The second cable will also be folded and stuck to the top edge of the case before coming out the hole in the front for the front panel connectors, folded flat against the case and soldered in place.

The strips on the interior are going to be the most difficult because I can't do them in place. The ones on the front panel I'll have no issue soldering while they're on the case and then simply using some hot glue and liquid electrical tape to seal up.

[Omega]

Well after dicking around for an hour and a half trying to solder up the rest of the LEDs yesterday, I gave up. I got all of three things soldered, all of which decided to break instantaneously.

So I've scrapped the mobo lighting and behind the front panel and I'm just sticking with the perimeter lighting.

Given that was the last thing I was waiting on really, I just went ahead and moved my hardware over.

All the room behind the motherboard tray was really nice for all the cables. Wasn't easy, especially behind the drives, but I got everything to fit and be fairly well hidden. Plus, all but one of the fans is being run right now off of the motherboard and the fan controller on the front.

Anywho, have some ****ty pictures I just took with my phone for ****s and giggles.

http://i.imgur.com/bZnHocn.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/GPE4Dfb.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/yvF8w1P.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/BeCcqbg.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/mSRFA7U.jpg


Hardware specs, for the interested:

Intel Core i5-3570K
Biostar TZ77A mobo
EVGA GeForce GTX 660 SuperClocked
8GB G.Skill RAM
Corsair RM750 full modular PSU w/Corsair sleeved cables
Samsung 840EVO 250GB SSD
OCZ Synapse 128GB Caching SSD
1TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
250GB Seagate Barracuda HDD (soon to be replaced by another 1TB)
5x Fractal Design Silent R2 series 140mm fans
1x Fractal Design Silent R2 series 120mm fan


Computer is fairly quiet at idle but the stock cooler on the GPU is louder than all hell. Luckily, Arctic just updated their GPU coolers with a few improvements and most importantly, support brackets...


Above all though right now I'm just really happy to have a case that I can finally say is actually modded. I know it's just a side window and fancy lights, but it's the first time it's been more than just fancy lights for me.

[TheMainMan]

End result looks great! Bummer about the rest of the LED lights. I like the full panel window more and more as I continue to look at it. Might have to think about going that big myself.

[Omega]

End result looks great! Bummer about the rest of the LED lights. I like the full panel window more and more as I continue to look at it. Might have to think about going that big myself.

IT's like rocking with your sidpanel off, but quieter and cleaner looking ;)

[OvRiDe]

Looks great! Sorry about the LED strips, that sucks, but it still looks fantastic the way it is now.

[Omega]

Looks great! Sorry about the LED strips, that sucks, but it still looks fantastic the way it is now.

I agree. Honestly these strips are so bright that they saturate the whole case even without the other bits. I would still like to have the ones in the front panel for a little more lighting there, perhaps I'll revisit that some time since it's not particularly hard to access. Though now there are a bunch of hard drives and fans and cables in the way of the old routing path :p

Next upgrade hopefully is going to be a VGA cooler. I have been looking at AIO W/C stuff in 120mm and debating mounting the radiator down on the PCI slot covers since the GPU is so far away from any other normal fan mount.

[Twigsoffury]

I agree. Honestly these strips are so bright that they saturate the whole case even without the other bits..

Why not use a pot or rhetostat to knock off your desired voltage, take a reading of what the voltage is at the particular brightness you want. and solder in a equivalent resistor ( or just leave the knob lol)

[Omega]

Why not use a pot or rhetostat to knock off your desired voltage, take a reading of what the voltage is at the particular brightness you want. and solder in a equivalent resistor ( or just leave the knob lol)

the strips are adjustable brightness out of the box. Buttons on the remote ;) Plus I can turn it on and off.

It's not "too bright", and I like that I can adjust it. Computer stays on at night so it's kind of nice to choose a color, find a good brightness and then go to sleep. Last night was a dim purple 'cause the girlfriend was over and she likes purple. Usually it's blue.

[TheMainMan]

IT's like rocking with your sidpanel off, but quieter and cleaner looking ;)

I guess that's why it appeals to me so much, my side panel has been off for months now ;)

[Omega]

I guess that's why it appeals to me so much, my side panel has been off for months now ;)

I ran with the sidepanel on my Stacker off but decided to at least set it against the case cause of my dog :-P

[Omega]

Okay so what's a decent gaming rig without good controls?

In a few days I'll be receiving a CM Storm Quickfire Pro keyboard with Cherry MX Brown switches, a Grifiti Fat wrist pad, and a SteelSeries big mouse pad. Final pictures of my battlestation will be posted once I receive all that new goodness and tidy up my desk for the camera. ;)