Project DEEP PURPLE (The Introduction)

So...today is Indian Independence Day, which means, much like in the U.S., everything shuts down. Yay for a day off in the middle of the week. Anyway, I was planning on a nice, boring, easy day off. However, the mailman came yesterday (Monday) and brought me a BIG box from the boys over at New Egg! HOORAY! It had (among lots of other things) the last part I needed before I could start my painting:

I love ordering OEM parts...for one it's way cheaper, and for two...well...pictures speak louder than words:

Yup...this is the badboy I've been waiting on, my Samsung DVD/RW with Lightscribe (lightscribe rocks...no more CD markers...EVER!):

Beyond that, my hard drives came in:

Twin Seagate Baracuda 200Gb, 3 Gb/s SATA's that will be hardware raided to keep my stuff running *nice* and fast. :eek:

A couple of Gb's of Patriot DDR3

OH! OH! I love unpacking big boxes...my sexy vid card came in. And I must say...even before I get to using the card, XFX wins one award in my book...not only is it a cool box design...

But it was one of the most difficult to open cardboard boxes I've ever laid hands on. LOL Anyway...here's what it looked like inside:

The card has an odd, but nice looking, metal facing screwed to the 'window' side for all to see, covers up all the unsightly capacators and such for those of us with windows. But...alas, it won't last long, it's going to be the first thing removed so I can fit my NV78 on it (if it ever gets here).

And the really cool looking, almost alien themed (green/black) {Oh...did I mention that one of my prime reasons for going with an XFX card was because it was built onto a black PCB?} card:

My PSU came in as well...and as much as XFX won the award for most interesting box, Rosewill gets the opposite, most subdued, basic box. But, to me, it's nice:

Opening up the box gave me a true feast for my eyes...this is a BEAUTIFULLY made PSU...the finish on it is amazing...I put my copper Zippo on top of it just to show how deep the reflection is:

One major failing, the sticker is on the 'window' side of the case...so...no one would ever be able to see the beautiful finish! But...since my case mounts the PSU vertically...it's not an issue anyway... :( Shame that no one will see any of this PSU besides the fan. (Which will be switched out in a later post to the purple ones I bought.)

Anyway, it's of course, a modular power supply, with a large amout of power options, all well labled:

The veritable octupus of included cables, all very nicley loomed (I wasn't expecting that, the photos on the site showed bare cables):

Even the ends of the looming are done very attractivley:

Well...that rounds out that box. Next post will be the 2nd phase of deconstruction...I love taking stuff apart!

Cheers,

MF

So, as I mentioned, my box of goodies came in yesterday. So instead of going out partying like any sane guy would when he's got the next day off, I finished the screw-and-pressure-tab deconstruction on the case. (In preparation for drilling out all the rivets tomorrow.) So, here we go:

With so many things left to do, I didn't know where to start...so I started with an easy fan removal from the radiator cage. I noticed that TT was even smart enough to put a small plastic gromit on the cage to protect the fan wires...I'm more and more impressed with TT as days go.

If you remember from a few posts back, the expansion ports are retained through spring pressure, these springs needed removal as well. Just thing copper things, removal was easy:

And there we have them:

I moved my attention to the front bezel, first popping out all of the filtered panel covers:

And taking them apart:

Next are the wings on the front bezel. Simply held on by a couple of little brackets on each wing:

After the wing was off, I noticed that they had put little stoppers on them, padding and all, to keep the case from being ding'd or scratched by the wings...awesome!

Now I looked at the power tray. I popped the plastic front off the metal housing and looked inside to figure out how to pull the buttons out:

A screw and a couple of pressure tabs later, and here we go:

That left the metal housing for the LED's, Power and Reset buttons. Lots of plastic pressure tabs later, and we have a metal box ready for black paint:

Case feet:

And a couple screws later:

The window also had to be removed, first step was popping out the door latches:

Yup, these latches:

The pressure locks all popped out really easily:

And voila! No more window:

One window, ready for...well...nothing that i can think of. LOL

And that leaves me at about 10:00 p.m., with a case ready for the drill bit, but that's not happening till tomorrow...I don't want my house filled with aluminum shavings and rivet bits...so I'll be doing that work outside.

Cheers!

MF

Okay...so I said I was done when it hit 10:00 last night and I had taken the case apart...but...now that I have so much stuff in, I just *had* to do something else... :D

So I looked around and thought, what can I actually *do*? Then it hit me, I've been doing so much deconstruction, maybe I should put something together.

The only real thing I had that I could put fully together, and have totally ready for installation, was my HardDrive waterblock. And this was an absolute nightmare...we'll start with some obvious problems...

First...on the dry-fit, I realized that DangerDen can't measure tygon tubing very well:

Yup, the piece they gave me was about 1 1/2 inches long, but, with a standard sized 3 1/2 hard drive in there...it requires a 2 1/4 inch piece of tubing...so i cut one from the big length I bought earlier. No problem.

Then, as I started screwing it together, and...the screws they gave me were all about 1/16 - 1/8 inch too long...they but up against the ends of the HD screw enclosures before they are tight...so...the whole thing was, um...floppy.

I had a look around the house for anything, and immediatley realized I needed to look in the toolbox for washers. And, well, I had none. So, what does a modder do when he can't find the exact right part...yup...make them. See, I've been doing wiring (car stereo's, computer power lines, etc) for years, so I've got a huge collection of different wire splices...and in my toolbox I saw these:

Yup, they look like washers to me, after a few clips. So, out of my supply of about a hundred...i grabbed 16 (figure 2x per screw for thickness), and went to snipping.

In the end, I had these:

They fit into the screw recesses like they were designed for it, and gave me just enough thickness so I could have the whole assembly nice and tight...if you look dead inside the recesses, you can just see my makeshift washers...but...since it's going to be inside the drive cages...no one will see anything!

So, here's view, complete with the proper length of tygon and the tygon tube-thingies to prevent leaks:

Just for fun, here's the piece of tubing they gave me laid i place...yup...just a *bit* short :?

Just to see...I decided to try and slide the whole assembly into the case and ran into *another* problem. The drive bays in the case are not designed to accept multi-bay-sized items. See, each bay has a support jutting out from it for the drives to rest in, so the weight of each device is not fully supported by the screws...however, this stops a multi-bay-sized device from fitting in.

So, tomorrow when I get it all taken apart, I'll be either cutting or bending one of the sets out so this can fit.

Cheers!

-MF

So...after all that, it hit me that there was still one thing I could do for prep before I went to bed. I had to drill holes where the pump would mount to.

I'm going to mount the pump to the same drive-bay that holds the power button...something like this:

So I marked, and quickly drilled, then sanded the top smooth:

It's always better to drill *before* you paint...glad I rememberd this part.

Also, because I hate looming loose floppy wires...I had to spin the power lines. Looks much more tidy, and makes it way easier to loom later.

Man write something more it so torough i love it and the case man !!!!!!!

Quick sneak preview...it's now late wednesday evening...and I've got every piece that I've purchased put back togetehr and in the case. :eek: I'm in the process of editing pictures and i"ll be posting my lot entries probably from work tomorrow...if I dont' get to some of them tonight.

I really did intend to take breakes to do the log as I was doing work (drilling rivets, sanding, modding, painting, putting together, etc.)...but...I just got on a roll and couldnt' stop myself...

Anyway...since I have nothing more I can do to the case for now (just waiting on my NV78 to get here, and I gotta order my neons)...so I should be able to do an entry or two before I go to bed tonight.

Cheers

-MF

It's coming along nicely!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brouhaha

It's coming along nicely!

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Thanks for that. :) I've finished editing all my photos for all the work i've done to date...but it's midnight and I have work in the early a.m.

I promise...on my first smoke break, I'll at least get one big entry done on the deconstruction.

Cheers!

MF

Welcome back to project DEEP PURPLE! :)

This installment will cover one of the most fun 3 hours I’ve spent outdoors in a long time…that is the rampant destruction of a pristine computer case. Yup, I’m moving this to an outdoor venue mainly because I don’t really feel like walking on aluminum shavings and rivet heads for the next 6 months. (I spend a lot of my in-house time barefoot).

Anyway, without further ado, I’ll start by saying that, overall having gone through the process of destroying this case I am absolutely impressed with TT’s build. There were so many cross-connected pieces adding to overall structural strength you’d think this was designed for some absolute abuse, not just a life sitting on a desk.

Not knowing where to start, I figured I’d work top-down, for some reason it made sense to me. So I drilled out every rivet I could find attaching the ‘roof’ of the case to the body (all in all, about 13 or 15 rivets):

And ended up with this:

Leaving me with a neat looking rectangle of metal:

Now, as I mentioned before, I’d been dying to figure out how to remove the top plastic fascia…and, there it was…lots of pressure tabs (again):

Which readily popped off leaving me *more* pieces for painting:

From here I just sort of went all over trying to figure out what to take apart next…this case is full of cross-connected pieces and stabilizer bars…that…I really didn’t know where to go…so here’s some pictures of the process…though 2 days later I’m not sure now exactly what they are from. :)

The main cross-bar:

And it’s rear connections:

It was at this point when I stopped to look at my drill bit (my first time doing any rivet work is now, either assembly or disassembly, so it’s a learning experience)…and had to think of a way to clean this up:

A bit of reverse spin, with some channel-locks and I was back in business.

First up with a clean bit was a small artifact left from the top of the case…the PSU mounting bracket (also used to hold the rear-mounted HD cage which I wont’ be using):

My next target were the drive bays (nope, I didn’t’ pull the main cross bar off…figured it gave some good stability for drill pressure). These things are home to more rivets than I cared to count:

Next was the little lateral cross brace that connected between the motherboard tray and the main cross support:

Another half dozen rivets later and I’ve got a free motherboard tray:

Leaving me a still very recognizable skeleton…and a few dozen more rivets to go:

At this point, I realized that there was a *lot* of new surface area that I’d been exposing, and that quite a bit of it would not need painted…so marking some of it would save me time (and paint).

The final drive-bay housing removed:

And I’ve got just four pieces to go (front, back, bottom, crossbar):

The front removed very easily, and was marked for paint/no paint:

Removal of the crossbar left me 2 little pieces. Now…before anyone thinks how easy this process must have been…I’m about 2:30 into work here, and it’s HOT outside. LOL I’d been sweating like a fiend…just drilling case parts.

And…all done:

What an adventure…it felt so nice to actually start doing some real work on my case. Next up...some actual (get ready for it) MODDING! :eek: YAY!

Cheers for now!

-MF

Purple and black are two my favorite colors and the armor is one of the only cases I like. GL with this project, it looking good so far. When I was considering getting it, I was curious about the drive mounting rack, but now my questions have been answered ;p.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by meticoeus

Purple and black are two my favorite colors and the armor is one of the only cases I like. GL with this project, it looking good so far. When I was considering getting it, I was curious about the drive mounting rack, but now my questions have been answered ;p.

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Stay tuned...I've got more info on the drive racks coming...you may find it interesting before you decide whether or not to buy the case. :)

Thanks for reading!

Cheers,
MF

Welcome back to another installment of DEEP PURPLE!

Today I’ll be covering a couple of the miner (though, they probably are my biggest) mods to the case.

First is the installation of my ‘under-the-trap-door’ DangerDen Fillport.

Step one was marking where it would go. I would have preferred it be dead center underneath the door, but, due to all of the media-port holes, I had to move it some so it would actually have *some* contact with the case once the hole was drilled. I used the bottom nut from the fillport for positioning and marking.

Some initial Dremel work, and I’ve got a (very) rough hole, ready for smoothing:

Can you tell it’s been a few years since I used a Dremel. :)

Smoothed out the hole a bit, made it a bit more round:

Some smoothing of the top and bottom, getting rid of the burrs. I love working with aluminum…so easy and fast to sand.

And I realized that the hole is too small…so I had to redo the entire process with the hole considerably larger (see…I measured off the inner diameter of the nut, threads and all, Yup…I’m blonde in spirit, if not in genetics), and voila:

Oh, and a recap from yesterday…I couldn’t put this picture in because TBCS limits us to 25 pictures per thread…

Here for all of my modders to witness, is why it’s always important to wear proper safety gear. See, when drilling yesterday…this happened…and somehow it put a nice chip in my safety glasses:

The other small project I had to complete before painting was the removal of two of the supports from the drive trays to allow me to install my 2-bay tall harddrive cooler (remember the issue I had above?):

First, I counted and recounted, then marked, and recounted to ensure I was cutting off a matching pair, in the proper place, before I paint and reassemble:

Then some quick work with the cutting wheel…well, not easy, it was a pain in the butt…

Followed by some sanding to smooth it down, and this side is done:

The other side, with the much longer drive support (see one side only had about 1” long ones, the other ones had about 3” ones) I decided not to dremel, as it was a complete and utter pain in the butt. Instead…I had the ingenious idea of using a small hammer to flatten it out. Unfortunatley, it didn’t work out *quite* as well as planned…but…in the end…it’s not visible, it’ll be painted black…and…well…um…it worked. LOL

Okay, so it’s not bad at all, and honestly it’s fun to use hammers.

That’s all for now, next up paint prep and priming!

Cheers

-MF

Yup, another post for today, as I’m trying to catch up on all of this weeks work. And it’s been a lot. :)

Next in the process was painting…but first I had to go through the effort of prepping my room for paint. Basically, all I did was attach (with small nails) a huge drop cloth 3/4 up the walls on 3 sides of the room to act as a back drop. Any other paint dust shouldn’t really matter:

Now, I first gave every piece a nice warm soapy bath…scrubbing everything down and quickly sanding all of the pieces so they would more readily accept paint. Then I laid out all the parts on the paint-boxes (so I could paint, then move a full box at a time for drying):

Wow…that’s a lot of pieces needing paint…and some of them need it on two sides. First up was priming every piece…don’t fret over the pictures…the room was oddly lit, and I took many of the photos while the paint was still wet. :) So a lot of it looks uneven, due to the wet paint (just some examples…not all the same photos from above).

Of course now I’ve got to break posts…since I’m limited on photo numbers and on text length. Before I go, I’ll say this…I *way* underestimated the amount of paint I needed. :( That said, I only get one coat of each paint (prime and final). I may have my folks send me another can of the purple for some recoating on the external parts…I hate only having one coat as that means that I can’t sand and final like I wanted to.

Cheers for now!

MF

It is looking great so far modding.fan, I cant wait to see this when it is finishedl. :)

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Originally Posted by Custom

It is looking great so far modding.fan, I cant wait to see this when it is finishedl. :)

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You think *you* can't wait...just try standing in my shoes...it's sitting on my dining room table right now just mocking me with the ferocity of 10,000 FedEx employees.

:D

Back again with more updates to DEEP PURPLE!

So I left off with my pieces nicely primed. I’m a sped, and didn’t take any pictures of the quick sanding I did on them…but…it’s just sanding between prime and paint…nothing fancy.

For what is really only my second experience in life with a can of spray paint, I think I did alright. Of course I had a spray paint respirator, and I had lots of airflow in the room (big filter a/c filter mounted into the open window to prevent dust, and the exhaust fans running in every room in my house to draw air out through that room). I’m big on safety…residual of my military training…they beat it into us. I also set myself a maximum of about 15 mins in the room at any given time.

So, without further ado…my work in painting…again not many pictures…but it gets the idea across. Painting isn’t much of a project to get verbose on, so the pics can speak for themselves. Again, many of the pictures were taken when the paint was wet, so it looks a bit odd, the dry parts look, to my untrained and somewhat colorblind eyes, fantastic! (With a couple exceptions that will be noted.)

First, the gloss black accent bits and the internals:

Drive faces, filters, and buttons:

The Mobo Tray:

One of the drive-bay’s, the case bottom, and the front part of the case:

Both parts to the back of the case and the top:

And the other drive-bay and more accent bits:

After plenty of drying time (mainly because some of the pieces needed to be flipped over to receive purple paint), I swapped out parts to a more permanent curing location (namely the laundry room, where they would be undisturbed for the rest of the night) so I could paint the rest of the parts with the purple:

The outside parts to the back of the case:

The top and bottom of the case:

The front bezel:

The Wings:

The front door:

Lots of the little accent bits:

That basically wraps up all of the painting. There was one problem with the painting that came up primarily due to my impatience. You know how it is… Anyway, on the wings, I painted the ‘outside’ of them and gave them a solid hour to dry (the paint suggested 20-30 mins to be dry to the touch). I flipped them so I could paint the inside, another hour later, when I picked them up…some of the paint came off. :( Worst part is I’m totally out of purple paint so I can’t touch up till I get my folks to send me another can. But, it’s a couple of minor spots so I’ll live.

Anyway, here is what the whole thing looked like spread out on my table again after all the pieces had ample time to dry (no wet paint on the redwood table!). :eek:

Next will be what we’ve all been waiting for…putting it all back together…and then finally starting to put in pieces!

Cheers for now!

-MF

i have to say: very nice work! looking very purple! :)

but wait.. u should make sure the paint is hard enough.. and maybe even clear coat it for protection.. i painted a case; seemed nice enough; didn't coat it; paint eventually came off when moving it.. bad.. new case; moved it around; paint had no clear coat (not glossy nor matte); got scratched again.. i hate that.. learn from my mistakes :) use some protection ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dgrmkr

i have to say: very nice work! looking very purple! :)

but wait.. u should make sure the paint is hard enough.. and maybe even clear coat it for protection.. i painted a case; seemed nice enough; didn't coat it; paint eventually came off when moving it.. bad.. new case; moved it around; paint had no clear coat (not glossy nor matte); got scratched again.. i hate that.. learn from my mistakes :) use some protection ;)

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or cover it when youre moving it :P j/k

good work man :)

And we have purple! Wheee!!! Nice progress man.

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And we have purple! Wheee!!! Nice progress man

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lol...i like this guy. The mod looks cool man, nice paintjob. Look forward to seeing it re-assembled.

-Dave

This is lookn great. The colour is not for me but everyone is different. I would have got a black with purple/cherry flecks in it. Like car paint on the mazda 6.

Thanks all for the encouragement. I'm loving working on this thing. As for recoating adn clearcoating...unfortunatley I dont have access to the same paint (I bought it in the states, but i'm back in India now)...so i'm stuck with some of the paint mistakes that I have...but over all, I'm really happy.

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

This is lookn great. The colour is not for me but everyone is different. I would have got a black with purple/cherry flecks in it. Like car paint on the mazda 6.

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I'm not yet experienced enough to do multitonal paint, only what comes in a can. :) The color doesn't quite come out right on the 'puter. I'll do some pictures of it all when it's done out on a sunny day so you can see how it really looks...it's great!

Welcome back to what is officially the most exciting (at least for me) part of project DEEP PURPLE! That is…putting it all back together.

I’ll do this in a few parts, first I’ll put the case back together, then I’ll start putting parts in, modding them as need be on the way. On assembly, all parts were put together much like they were taken apart. Rivets all went in the normal way, and since I was working on it alone, I really didn’t get too many pictures of me actually working. But I’m hoping that by watching the order I did it you’ll get the general idea.

First, I started with some of the smaller bits to clear some table space. Namely:

The power bay front cover:

Then I did all nine of the bay covers:

I put the springs all back in place on the inside of the motherboard backer:

And the expansion bay covers:

I put the door back on the trap door (the door is the same purple, but the flash is a bit overpowering, even post processing):

Then put the top assembly back on the top of the case:

Putting the feet back on the bottom rounds out the easy work on putting it back together:

Now the fun part started. I first attached the back wall of the case to the bottom with 3 rivets:

And *THEN* I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to drill my mounting holes for my reservoir. DOH! I had, however, dry fit it enough times that I knew exactly where it would go, and was able to do it at this stage:

And now my mounts are all happily installed:

Next up was the inner mount of the front bezel:

Followed by that all crucial cross member:

For those counting…we’re at about 10 rivets by now.

The drive bays were next:

And

(I also have the lateral support bar in as well.) Putting me to a total of about 30 rivets now. My rivet gun is getting a workout today.

Motherboard tray:

I missed a picture of me putting in the power supply housing onto the top, but it’s in there. As is the top (and the ATX backing plate):

And that’s all the riveting that it took. All in all…62 of them…yes sixty two!

Front door just for looks:

And the front bezel, filled as well as I could for now, with wings:

The top for looks:

And my DD Fillport:

I think that’s all the space I have for now…but you have no IDEA how happy I am that this thing is coming together. Next, putting in parts, and putting stuff together.

Cheers!

-MF

nice.. very pro looking :) awsome to see such a nice case taken to a higher level!

Okay…so…on my last part I said it was the most exciting…but…I lied. :) We are now getting into the “cream of the crop” of any real build…actually putting crap together and installing parts!

So…I’ll be putting in commentary where I can, and I’m sure this will be broken into a few different posts…but let me say this. I had no idea really where to start (don’t’ get me wrong, I’ve built more computers than I can count, but I had so much to put into this thing, and so much to do, that it felt daunting).

That said…it’ll seem like I’m flitting around a lot, but, to me it seemed like quite a logical order. But to me logic is way different than it is to most people. Anyway:

First is a quick dry-fit of the mother board. I plan on looming all of my cables in here to *just* the right length (by doubling the cable on itself inside the loom) as to have minimal amounts of excess cabling draping around to obscure the view of all my nice parts.

Fan #1 (and radiator) loomed (I had to hand hold the fan in the case, rough measure where the fan would plug in, and then do the looming…fun). By the way, this rear exhaust fan will be plugged directly into the motherboard on the CPU fan plug.

And heat-shrunk:

Fan/Rad combo number two, this is the one that will be in the front drive bays, and will also be plugged into a fan mount on the motherboard:

And mounted in the cage for drive-bay mounting. It’s upside down right now (the ports will be on the bottom)…but it works like this for a photo:

Mainly to test fitting I mounted the tool-tray, DVD/RW, and the dual HD Block. You have no idea how happy I was to finally be sure that I modded out the right parts on the drive cages. :)

And yes, before anyone askes…I’m an idiot and forgot to take the housing off of the DVD/RW and paint it black to match. It will happen in the future I promise! LOL @ ME!

I dropped in the radiator cage, and put in the pump (not affixed) just to test-fit, for a case with this much room…I’m running out of free space fast!

At this point I said to myself “SELF” (bonus points to the first response to catch that reference) “why not just install your waterblocks on the MOBO and put it in for good?” So, here is the installation of a northbridge waterblock:
A clean chip (you’ll recall I removed the heatsink way back on page one or 2):

Once again dry-fitting the block:

Mounting screws in place (measured on the bottom so they wont’ be too long down below, but won’t be huge up top either):

The block, and my coolermaster goo:

Forgot to shoot the goo on the block, but, here it is in place, all secured down and happy. QUESTON! The instructions didn’t tell me how tight to put the screws in…I put them to what I thought was a reasonable amount, the springs are to about 50-75% their regular size…any advice?

The CPU worked nearly the same way:
Four mounting screws:

Dry fit:

Coolermaster gave a cool semi-sticky plastic thingy for me to do to get a perfect square of processor goo on the block…neat huh?

Smear it on

And take off the plastic for a perfect amount of goo:

Slide it down and NO! Someone didn’t look closely on the dry fit. :(

Yup…the block is sitting unhappily on a few capacitors. I freaked here…thinking I”d have to order a smaller water block…then I though…hum…it’s less than 1/8 inch, maybe if I pull the block off (and of course clean it up for regooing), loosen the 4 posts, angle them all just a bit off to the side, slide it back down, and *then* tighten the posts back, it should work right:

And…whew…I was right. It’s all tight, secure, and not crushing any capacitors. Yay!

Drop on a couple of ram chips and the motherboard is ready to go back into the case right?

Maybe not…

I’m out of space for here…so I’ll continue this on the next post.

Cheers!

MF

Continuing on with the installation of parts:

I figured there was one last thing I should do since I had the MOBO out and handy. I figure I’d mount the two exit pipes on the CPU block.

First, measure and cut the tubing for the Y-Joint:

Yup, lacking any better tool, I used my friends disgustingly sharp Emerson knife…and it cut the tubing like…well…a knife through soft butter.

Anyway…secure the tubes to the Y-Joint, and lock them down with tube-clamps:

And install them onto the waterblock, securing again with tube-clamps. I don’t want any leaks. I’m told that these clamps aren’t necessary, but…better safe than sorry in my book.

Since I’m at a point where I’m looking at power, lines, looming, and wire management, it only seemed logical that I needed to turn my attention to the powersupply now.

Well…the first thing was the (supposedly) easy replacement of the blue fan inside it with a purple one. First, opening the supply.

This PSU has more stickers on it than any piece of equipment has a right to. Quality checks, burn-in checks, everything.

And anyone who has tried to remove a sticker knows that sticker adhesive is more stubborn than a mother on family picture day. Awesome solution…Zippo Fuel and a cotton ball. Zippo fuel will eat through the paper and adhesive in a matter of seconds, literally, it’s awesome:

A few screws later and I’ve got a fan separated from the PSU:

Quick note, the wiring job inside the PSU is nice and clean, very easy on the eyes:

Now I ran into an unexpected problem. The purple fan has a 3-wire, 3-pin lead, the PSU only two. Problem 2, the pruple fan’s wires are 2x silver 1x copper and I have no idea which of the 3 are positive, negative, and speed monitoring. So..what do I do…look at another 120mm fan I have in another computer, compare the colors, cut a wire…and hope. Okay, I was sure when I cut the wire…but…now to do some splicing.

Wire splicing is easy for me, I’ve been doing small electronics for years (care stereos, computer stuff, etc.) So, putting the end from the original fan onto the new one is a matter of cutting wires and stripping them, splicing them, and cleaning it all up:

A bit of heatshrink and it’s all purty again:

Tuck the splices around the outside of the fan, plug it in, case it all up, and there it is, happily installed into the case:

Motherboard, and the rear radiator/fan combo installed:

And yes, the fan is plugged in, I measured the cable so well that it’s basically totally invisible, totally behind the radiator. Yay!

Next, quick run on the SATA cables, just testing for fit, and they fit great!

The P4 12v line to the motherboard:

And I’m already keeping track of excess wire length up at the PSU end:

Seems like a logical breaking point for posts, so I’ll sign off here, and continue shortly!

Cheers!

MF

So, back to more wire management and parts installation.

It occurred to me that some people may not have done wire looming, and might not know what it means when I say ‘doubling the wire on itself’ before I mod.

So here is what I mean…measure where the cable/wire/whatever needs to go from and to, add about half an inch just in case then do this with the wire to shorten it:

Slide your looming down:

Then tie-wrap and heat shrink:

And then install:

Did the same thing with the LED’s for the power bay:

And unfortunately I did the power and reset buttons as well:

I say unfortunately because I had to cut it all apart on the power and reset buttons because they had to be fed into the bay from the front, and *then* loomed. But I got it all done anyway, and here is my bay:

Complete with front panel:

Now keep in mind, this is also where the pump will mount to…so it’s not done yet. :)

Due to some factors beyond my control, I had to readjust where I wanted to put the pump, it’s not up top, but on the main tray now:

SATA Cables, the speaker, the front fan, and a 2-port power line dropped down. The end port will be for the pump, the one hanging here…it’ll be used to power the neons. No extra cabling remember.

Now for the fun part…okay it’s all been fun, but this is what I’ve been waiting on for a long time. Running the water lines.

First line is from the rad to the CPU. Don’t worry about the photo…it’s not kinked or flattened. No flow restriction here:

The exhaust from the CPU to the HD Blocks:

HD Block to the other rad:

Attaching the T-Line to the pump intake, this will connect to both the fillport and the reservoir:

Installed the pump. Connected a line from the output of the pump to the northbridge, and got the output line from the rad ready to go into the reservoir:

At this point…the front is finally full. Nice to see *something* complete:

Dropped the fillport line:

And the resiviour in and installed. This basically ends the amount of tubing I can do. For those of you counting…there is one big part missing. I haven’t yet gotten my videocard waterblock in yet. :( And even when it comes in (should be this week), I still have to wait…since I’m out of hose clamps and had to order more.

So I did some more line management and power running. My neighbor stopped by and insisted that he take some pictures of me actually hands-in the case…so just because I said I would…here’s the back of my head and some of the case. :)

And there we are…all caught up to Thursday afternoon, as of the 16 of August.

It’s all going great, but, unfortunately, I’m stuck and I’m sad. I want to get this thing up and running! ARGH!

Cheers for now,
MF

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dgrmkr

nice.. very pro looking :) awsome to see such a nice case taken to a higher level!

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Thanks. :) I'm doing my best with what little experience I've got. It's turning out better than I actually expected.

Cheers!

It is coming on really well. :D
Does that CPU block support S775?

very.. VERY nice....
ive been waitin to see this near completion since you started postin about it.... looks real good

Quote:

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Originally Posted by b4i7

very.. VERY nice....
ive been waitin to see this near completion since you started postin about it.... looks real good

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Thanks! :) I'm really *really* happy to report that my video water block came in today. I'll be installing it, along with the plumbing for it tomorrow. I, unfortunatley, am still short 4 hose clamps...so no filling and leak testing it until they come in. But...I can finally get that last bit of work done!

Log entry on it should be up tomorrow. I'm *so* excited! Kills me that i have to wait until probably friday for the hose clamps, then I'm giving it a solid 24+ hours of leak testing (remember the atx-power-jumper from page one) before any power goes to anything outside of the pump. No blowing up my brand new baby!

Cheers

MF

I love the look of the case. The purple is a really cool color.

Glad to hear the waterblock came in. I can't wait to see this thing running!

I just checked on this, last time I looked you didnt even have the case, nice progress, keep up the good work.

Well now, I’m back again after a bit of work on DEEP PURPLE to give you another installment. :)

As I said, my video card waterblock finally came in. And the boys from DD did a great job on it, it’s beautiful!

Anyway, it came with all the required screws, gromits, washers, and even a very thin set of instructions:

Looking through the top of the block does worry me a bit. It looks like there are still some small artifacts from the milling process inside…I’m hoping they aren’t loose and won’t kill my pump…that’d ruin my day fast. But it still looks great:

The underside, complete with polished contact points for the memory and the VPU.:

Step one on the installation is the removal of that bar that was just put on for looks:

Then the factory heatsink and fan come off:

A bit of rubbing alcohol and some cotton swabs later, and I’ve got a really nice looking clean VPU ready for a new batch of heat transfer goo and a waterblock:

I put the heat-transfer goo from coolermaster on the VPU and on the RAM chips where they contact the waterblock. (I’m hoping that I was supposed to put it on the RAM…it just made sense.) Then I flipped it over and carefully lined up the holes before making contact. I started with the outside 5 screws, saving the four internal ones directly around the VPU for last:

I pre-preped up the mounting plate that keeps pressure on the VPU with all the gromits and such:

All happily screwed together on the back:

And mounted up complete on the front:

The card slid right into the machine all happily:

Water tube from the rad to the card:

And one from the card to the northbridge:

And all back together.

Now, one thing that is half relief, half upsetting to me is the southbridge. If you recall from page one, I had initially wanted to put water block on both the north and southbridge chips. The block I ordered for the south bridge wouldn’t fit, due to capacitors around the board and I almost ordered a new one. But for some reason I didn’t. And, now I’m really half glad that I didn’t because I’d have had to take it off and go back to the original heatsink anyway:

So…from this point I’m only waiting on my last box to come on with 4 more hoseclamps before I can fill it up and leak test it. They should be in next week sometime, I’m hoping by Thursday/Friday so I can leak test and then do all of my software installs! Hooray!
Cheers!

MF

It looks great, not to sure about the purple but otherwise amazing job keep up the good work. :)

Hello again all...

Nothing really new to report, but I thought I'd make a quick mention of a problem I ran into a few days ago that I forgot about until I started cleaning up my disaster of a table...

So...remember when I got my radiators in? And I said that DangerDen had thought of everything...well they missed one thing.

A while back DD changed their thread pattern on their radiators, to a much more standard pattern...can't recall the number...but it's a much more common pattern.

Anyway, they also have the new barbs out (you recall the extras I bought with the first shipment, just in case)...well...it was a great thing I had the extras with the new thread pattern because DD screwed up. The barbs they sent me with the radiators were the wrong thread pattern for the radiators. How funny huh?

So...word of advice, if you order DD rads, be sure you ask them to test-fit the barbs they send you so you get the right ones.

Cheers for now, more news when/if my hose clamps come in this week!

-MF

Hello again, and welcome to a very depressing edition of my log for project DEEP PURPLE. :?

So, as we know I've been waiting on my hose clamps to come in so I can finish sealing up, and fill the cooling loop.

Well, they came in, and the first of my two major problems popped up. I mixed the red and blue PC Ice liquids and have some odd results.

The liquid turned to an opaque brown color when looked at via direct light. When held up and looked at through back lighting, it's a beautiful crystal purple...but when you look at it front-lit...it's brown. :( It's not contamination...there is no sediment or anything that could filter, it's just an odd refraction of light. And I'm not sure how to fix it. I'll leave it in and see how it looks when I get the black lights behind it. It may still glow purple...and that's what I want. (Pictures to follow...haven't loaded them yet.)

Anyway...on to my big problem...the one that makes me want to cry...

I went to start on software installs last night...and...well...NewEgg sent me a dud video card.

On the initial windows boot screen pixels were blinking on and off like crazy. Having never worked with a PCI-Express system...my initial thought was: "Windows is using an AGP base driver...and it'll solve when I geet the real driver installed."

Well...about 40 minutes into installing...the screen went black.

I rebooted, and heard the windows boot sound...so I know the rest of the computer is working...but the screen is black. :( So...I get to go through the multi-week RMA process. It'll be a good test of NewEgg though, since I'm an idiot who didn't keep any of the packaging for the video card. I'm hoping htey'll send me the new one, and let me return the old one in the new one's box.

/sigh

Ouch. Sorry to hear about the video card. On the bright side, we should get to see just how great newegg's service is. Good luck

If newegg don't replace it the card will be under maunfacturer warranty contact them if newegg don't cooperate.

Nice water cooling set up to bad about the colour. You could always buy clear water cooling liquid and add purple food dye to it. Some food dye is fine and doesn't affect the water blocks.

Heres a guide I found comparing different purple coolant additives there are actually some out there.

http://www.wc101.com/reviews/Additives/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by meticoeus

Ouch. Sorry to hear about the video card. On the bright side, we should get to see just how great newegg's service is. Good luck

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Well, NewEgg said their standard policy on returns is that they need all of the original packaging. However, they did issue me a 'one-time exemption' to that, so they are taking the card back and sending me a new one. YAY!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by simon275

If newegg don't replace it the card will be under maunfacturer warranty contact them if newegg don't cooperate.

Nice water cooling set up to bad about the colour. You could always buy clear water cooling liquid and add purple food dye to it. Some food dye is fine and doesn't affect the water blocks.

Heres a guide I found comparing different purple coolant additives there are actually some out there.

http://www.wc101.com/reviews/Additives/

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Thanks for the info on purple dyes. I was thinking about going that route with a bottle or two of clear PC Ice and some purple die, happy to have some research behind it now. Thanks!

I'm glad that NewEgg is accepting my return...as soon as the new card comes in...I'll be trying again. This is becoming the most involved, and for some reason difficult, computer build I've ever done. And I've not even gotten around to software installs yet. LOL