Project: Citrus G5

Nope, all is well. Sata is what i wanted to begin with. Impreved speed and this HD has 16mb cache. Plus i needed the space. PVR functions for the sat card take up 1.5Gb/hr and would fill the little 30Gb drive in no time.

Plus, now i'll be able to use that 30Gb drive to get the 1800+ duron system in my closet going. Which btw will be my 4th computer :) That'll be my next mod i think, if all goes as planed, it'll be modeled after the concept case on the TBCS_TV website header. (yeah thats right! someone's got to make that frikin sweet case!!!)

Picture update!

I havent made much progress besides mounting the fans. A new problem has come up aswell, the sata connectors for the new drive stick out further then the IDE & molex ones do so i have to redrill holes a little further out and use stand off's to get the front of the drive above the little lip that i had it against. This should improve cooling aswell.

I also found out that the dvd rom drive im going to use is also a cd-rw which is a bonus allthough i probly wont burn anything on it.

Here is the areo cool fan mounted in its housing, the bare happauge win nova plus satellite card, the new WD Caviar 250Gb sata2 drive and the acoustic mat's which i'll use to cover the blemishes on the inside of the case.

Here are the new AC Ryan fans. I'm not terribly impressed with the UV lighting but through the orange plexi it looks awsome.

And lastly, the orange Bulgin 16mm switches, one dot and one circle.

I'm going to try and make the mounting plate for thies today. It has to be large enough to cover over the old switches and front panel connectors.

Thats all for now!

Looking better by the day, and I'm curious as to what your thoughts are going to be on the vandals.

Mounting plate is done!

I used a piece of aluminum that i had kicking around and marked out my design. I basicly just eye'd it up and took measurements to ensure it was straight. Then i did my rough cut with the dremel.

After the piece was cut and could lay flat on the case i took a rough estimate of the position of the switches. I would have like to install some usb ports here aswell but the length of cable on the usb ports is about 5" so it wouldnt even reach the front. Oh well... Here i am cutting the aluminum with a wood boaring bit (works like a charm). I used a 5/8 bit cause thats what size the switches are. It turned out that the holes were a **** hair too small so i had to file it out a bit. I am wearing a work glove because that aluminum gets damn hot while cutting and i dont have any clamps.

And here is the finished product! The holes are a fraction off center which i think actually looks good.

Next step is to epoxy the plate to the case and drill through the old power switch. Then wire up the switches.

nice work looking good hope to see more soon!!

Another step done.

I was going to drill more 5/8's hole in the case but the old switches and screw holes would have prevented the bulgin nuts from sitting flush.

So screw that noise! I just cut out a section big enough to fit the switches through but small enough that the plate will cover it all. I'll file this smooth and clean up the hole a little before i mount it.

Here is what it'll look like once i epoxy the panel into place.

Now im afraid i have to hack apart a perfectly good case and salvage the power/reset wires for the switches.

As allways, more updates as they occur!

... oh snap that sucks good luck looks good tho

Switches are all wired up!

Nice mounting of the switches mate, nice job.

This is probly my last post for today. I've epoxied the switches in place aswell as the new female power socket on the rear of the case. I would have taken pics but there is no point.

Well since i did all that i desided to work on the interior wiring. Luckly i had lots of zap straps for the little harness i made. I really lucked out as there seemed to be just enough length from all the diffrent wires to reach thier destination. I did make one small mistake but its more of an incovience then a problem. I didnt check which molex line i ran uptop and i ran the line with the floppy connector on it. I was thinking of just cutting it off but it could be usefull for future mods. My alternative is to either hide the floppy plug or redo the harness. Here is a pic, obviously im not done and most of the visable loose wires will be hidden under the mobo.

I had to add an extention sata adapter because the straight back design on the PSU line was hitting the back of the case. The fold down type is the only one that wouldnt make me remount the HDD.

[edit]
Ha ha! you can see the shaving cream lid i used to make the radious for the switch plate in the pic! lmfao

Small update today. Not much new work done today but im getting ready for paint and rounding up supplies.

The other day at work i was able to snag this beauty.

I know, wtf right? Well look whats inside it!

Thats a 6v LED rail! the lights are a bit confusing though. I've seen red led's before and thies arent red. I've seen orange led's before and thies aint orange either. Its in between the two. Oh, well! its good enough for now and add's tons of light. I'll be able to swap the led's at a later time for another mod. I think i'll just use some double sided sticky tape to place them where i want them inside the case. They work off the 5v molex connector to i'll have to fancy up the test plug i made so it looks pro and go from there.

I tried to buy some primer today but i bought the wrong stuff based off the kid working the paint department. I bought a can of special purpose Krylon Epoxy Enamel primer. it says it works for everything but after i got it home i realized this is the wrong stuff. The can reads "For best results, use a primer" WTF? this is supposed to be primer! Anyway, i'll take it back tomorrow and see what else i can dig up from a couple diffrent stores.

Big update!!!!

I won poker on friday so i had a few extra bucks. Here's what i bought! I totally forgot black paint for the cd drive cover and the seperation plate. I'll have to get some next time im out.

So the first thing i have to do is remove the anodizing from the exterior of the case. Well the easy-off is messy stuff so i have to mask off the case.

Paying attention to the little details.

I found the best method was to use my sanding sponge while the easy off was still bubbling on the case. This is such a messy method. For anyone trying this, strip the parts enough so you can rinse them under the tap or shower.

After most of the easy-off is off or crusted up, i began sanding. I love how easy this was to sand. I spent about 3 hrs sanding with the sponge block first, then i moved to 240, 320, 400, and finished with 600 grit paper. I used a small square of each. Tons of extra! Here is the fruit of my labour!

I was so disapointed to find out the apple logo is an inlayed piece. It might work to my advantage though. It might be ghosted in the paint.

Thats all for today! If all goes well, tomorrow i'll remask the case and get some zinc primer on it.

I like you idea alot. You have to do something crazy inside the case with all that extra room though!

/sub +rep!

OOOOOOOOOOO, can't wait for the paint job.

Looking great, +rep & sub...
________
EXTREME VAPORIZER

i didnt get around to the primer yet. I bought some spot putty today to fill the little imperfections. I wouldnt even have thought about painting it if the exterior didnt have what appears to be a dremmel gouge in it and big, deep, ugly grind marks on the side panel. However, it turns out i got the wrong putty for how im doing thing. I bought the UV Activated stuff because it was a but cheaper. As soon as i got it home, the sun passed and some clouds started rolling in. So heres how im trying to cure it.

That was the best waste of perfectly good cammera betteries. I just left the pieces by the window so the sun would get to them in the morning. All dry now :)

[edit]
Duh! I totally forgot what i wanted to tell you guys. At work today i found a surveillance cammera. Its just a stationary unit on a nifty mount and a BNC connector. I also spotted another one on the wall but i didnt have a screw driver to take it off properly so i'll get it another day. The one on the wall is a dome style cammera and appears to have swivel and tilt controls. I'll know more once i make it disappear :)

Now im going to look for a PCI-E BNC card :) Home Theatre & Security!

Hahahaha. Very nice dude.

Major Update!

First things first! It's got some paint on it! I started out with primer.

Here's one that shows how i reattached the loose corners of the case.

I should have bought some regular primer aswell. This Zinc Chromate stuff is incredibly see through. I've almost used my entire can of orange just on the case body and there are still some spots that i see through to the aluminum. I guess there really is no substitute for thicker enamel.

First coat of orange. Very thin layers!

Its coming together now.

This would be a nice effect if i didnt plan on adding more orange and covering it up.

OMG! Look at the sheen on that sucker! This is actually a very nice orange. Much nicer then i originally thought.

I did thies so quick that i didnt take any pictures of the process. Here's a shot of them in my oven curing.

I've finished painting for today. I'll add more orange some time through the week or next weekend. I also have to do the side panel and then clear coat them.

Oh, i cant connect the video cammeras to this computer unless i sacrifice either sound or satellite which aint going to happen! The security cards for PCI are anywhere from $5-$50, the ones for PCI-E start at $260 and average is $1k. I only have one PCI-E slot available now so i might just put the cammera's on my main rig.

Wow that is a wicked sick color orange. Keep the updates coming :D

Very nice orange colour. Great work.

Lovin' the color, man! Cameras would've been neat; still will be, unless you get caught on film removing the dome... :D

I was hacking all the wires to everything i could see and im fairly certin that i cut the alarm wires long ago :)

I'm going to do some more painting this weekend and i hope to have the orange coat finished. I dont know about the clear yet. It depends on how everything goes.

I also ordered an Abit AirPace WI-FI PCI-E1 Wireless Network Adapter 802.11B/G 54MBPS http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...nufacture=ABit
its the only one i could find thats PCI-E and inexpencive.

Small update, no pictures today.

The shipping was really quick on the wireless card and should be here tomorrow. I've also added the second coat of orange to the case and it covered all the little spots i was concerned about. Allthough i'll have to sand it down a little because of the little puff's and dirt that floated onto the case. I might need to apply a third coat of color if i sand a little too much. Im starting to second guess applying the clear coat myself. I dont want to get any dirt or anything on the case during this step but i cant help it when painting in the carport. During the week im going to call around and see what it'll cost to have it cleared by a body shop or somthing. If its too much, i'll just have to do it my self.

Can't wait to see the case with it's second coat.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

Can't wait to see the case with it's second coat.

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I agree :)

You wanted pictures? IDK, looks the same to me but that might be because i've been staring at it for over a week :)

I guess there was a slight delay on the wi-fi card cause it didnt show up today. Soon though. I also managed to get myself a security cammera card today. Its a bit old and i believe its only 60FPS and PCI. Oh well, its going into my gaming computer. I might build another system around this thing :)

The paint looks much crisper and brighter than the first coat, nice work.

Well i've hit the mother load at work, sorta! I managed to snag about 25-30 ft of d-sub cable! This means i should be able to run my projector in the proper direction insted of having it face my sofa. I also got somthing like 50ft of rca speaker cable and 25-30ft of monsterish(thick cable) video cord. And... about 50ft of headphone cable (3.5mm mini) and also a long length of network cable, probly 30ft.

My wi-fi card arrived today also but i wasnt home so i'll pick it up on my way home tomorrow.

Man that's a lot of cable haha. Hope you put it to good use.

im lovin this project....keep it up!

Well, more good news! My micro machine wi-fi card is in my hands. This thing is so tiny, its about 1.5 inches high and about 2.5 inches long. I guess its all good, it hardly blocks the fan on my video card. This is a bad pic, i've said time and time again, my cammera blows goats for rice! You can also see the ram sinks i put on the satellite card, when i tested it out it was hotter than a flame thrower!

I also scored a WD Caviar 200GB IDE drive. I'm going to investigate weather or not i can incorperate it into the case. I only have one IDE connector on the board and the cable wont reach to where i have the other drive. So i might have to mount it under the cd drive. If i cant figure out a solution, i'll put it in my gaming rig for a total of 1.2 TB. :)

Well there is no way i can get the extra HD in the case. If it were SATA insted of IDE, it'd be no problem. I've allready got a 250Gb drive for this so that should suffice for a while. I've also bought some coax cable for the satellite system. I'm unsure of where i should mount the dish for it so i'm looking into making some sort of stand for it that i can place on my flat roof. I've also added my first coat of clear to the case. I'm going to have to touch up the side panel because as i was spraying, a drop came off the nozzle and landed right on it. Tremclad you damn cork suckers! What a piss off. I just got finished painting about 5 min ago and im super busy today. I'll get some pics up later today.

Cool. Can't wait to see the clear coat.

Its unimpressive right now. I need to sand it a little and give it a good buff.

It might not be noticable but there is a drop on the side panel.

You are right lol. It looks slightly more brown than orange but once you buff it the colour should come out.

Thats just bad lighting, i had to find a nice spot in the house where my cammera could see the sheen. Its as orange as the earlier pics. :)

I'd like to dedicate this post to my adopted little brother Matt aka LordNed. Be The Miracle My Friend, Be The Miracle...

Behold the future of computer case mods, i give you Citrus!

Dual purpose! Also works as a vanity mirror to keep you looking uber leet during thoes fly by the seat of your pants gaming sessions.

One led pointed at this masterpiece will illuminate even the darkest of basement dungeons.

Now, just take a breath and pick your jaw up off the floor. I'll be back to explain what you've just witnessed. Untill then, Happy Modding!

That colour turned out great mate. Fantastic work. Now you can fill it lol.

Last night i went out to CanadianTire and browsed around for some stuff, wasnt really looking for anyhting in peticular but i did have a plan to stop by the wax, polish section in the automotive department. I picked up some polishing compund and I was super intrested in this powerball thing from Mothers $28.99. Then i seen a 8" orbital buffer for $29.99, well hell! I bougth the cheap buffer. When i got home my plan was only to test it out on the side panel. Well it turned out so well that i imeddiately continued on and did the whole case. Thats why there isnt any pictures of the progress. I'm also thinking of taking the buffer back now that i've used it and saying its broke so i can get my money back :)

On to current affairs!

I've started to apply my noise pads. OMG! its going to look awsome. Here's the first pic of the first pad. I had to cut away a little bit so my fan would sit properly against the case devider.

As you can see, the fit is perfect and looks awsome!! The fan is slightly resessed in the foam. Sry for bad pic.

Just as i thought... Its indredibly hard to cut the foam perfect before its put in place. This wont bee seen but it still sucks. I'll have to think of somthing better when i do the big piece under the mobo.

Next is cutting the foam where the fan screws into the side of the case.

It is so much easier cutting the foam after its stuck. Look at the fit on this beauty.

Thats all i've gotten so far. Stay tuned!