Bill Owen == Awesome.
Nutman == Raw talent.
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Bill Owen == Awesome.
Nutman == Raw talent.
Thanks, I'm honoured. ;)
i had decided to not sleeve or put uv leds in my latest project, but after seeing the freshness of the black and green sleeving here, it makes me want to do it anyway. this just looks too good.
Well, I also do think that UV lights can easily go over the top, which is why I try to balance them out using blue light - I guess it's a matter of not putting too much of a good thing into this case, as that would ruin it - too much of any good thing can ruin it, really.
But, for my forthcoming scratch build I don't plan to include UV light. Not at this point, any way.
But glad to have have inspired you - stuff like that is also partly the reason why I am into casemodding.
so my question for you is, how did you decide which wires were getting the green uv sleeving? or is it just random wires on each cable?
Well, it became slightly random, but the general idea was that it should be the 2nd wire from the right - in the top row, if more than one row was present (like with the PCI-E, 8-Pin EPS and ATX, for instance). This is still true for the 8-Pin EPS and PCI-E cables, but for the ATX I chose to let the actual green wire (ATX Break) be the one that got sleeved green.
coolio. i was thinking i'd sleeve all my red wires with red and do all the rest black.
Ok, I know it's been quite a while since my last update and I do know that this update was supposed to be the last one.
But, but, but....
SO much has happened to the project that I have to split the final update in two parts. This is the first part...
The fix the problems with the Aquaero I had to move the ATX break from the ATX cable to the power button in the case.
First, I grabbed the ATX break wire that I had soldered onto the ATX cable and then connected to the Aquaero (it's the wire with the green sleeving):
Then, I cut open the green sleeving to be able to access the place where I soldered the wires back when I extended the ATX break wire to run all the way up to the Aquaero:
And then I stripped the equivalent wires on the power button:
Having un-soldered the ATX break wires (I split the wires running from the PSU to the Aquaero and back again into the ATX plug on the motherboard), I re-soldered the ATX break wires in the ATX cable coming from the PSU (without the ATX break wire being complete, there's no way you can turn on the PC) and put heat shrink over the soldered parts to isolate the current:
The re-soldered ATX break wire was tucked nicely away:
Then I soldered the ATX break wires coming from the Aquaero onto the wires on the power button, enabling the Aquaero to send a shutdown signal to the motherboard in case of a malfunction:
Finally, everything was isolated nicely with heat shrink:
And now it worked fine - the Aquaero was able to shut down the PC in case of a malfunction. I have NO clue why it didn't really work with the ATX break wire coming directly from the PSU...
While I was at it, with all the wires and heat shrink, I put heat shrink on all of the 80 mm. fans - as you might recall, I had already done this on all the 120mm. fans, but not the 80mm.:
Also did the other end of the fan cables:
I installed all fans again (yes, the case is pretty dusty):
And, here we have some old photos - because I have noticed that I during the last couple of updates have been mixing both old and new pictures, but I guess the most important thing is to show you what I have done and not necessarily in what order I did it.
So, going back a couple of updates you might have noticed the red sticker missing from the PSU fan, while it's still there in this picture:
Muoahahahaha!
Theeeeeere you go:
As I mentioned in the last update, I had bought a black PSU back plate to substitute the old one, so I installed that one.
Before:
After:
Muy, muy mucho better....
The right side panel has some sound dampening foam sitting on the inside - and frankly, after 3 years of modding the case this foam had lost much of what might have made it look good back in the day, so I wanted to cover it with the remaining piece of carbon fibre foil:
Later on, I have had to glue it on, because the foil doesn't stick too well to the sound dampening foam...
Did you notice the plastic caps sitting on some of the bolts on the right side panel? I have already mentioned them in a previous update...
I bought those from MDPC and had already used some of them here and there in the case and now I was going to use the rest:
I think they make quite a big difference...
Suddenly, I felt like having a nice cup of tea:
Heh, naaaa - seriously: I am boiling water to heat up the tubes prior to attaching them onto the fittings. Once the tubes cool down they sit really tight on the fittings avoiding the needs for strips, clamps or what else that might ruin the clean look...
I filled both loops:
Actually, I think that my plan using black tubes for the long tubes had paid off quite well. It certainly obscures the many tubes running back and forth - it's much less confusing to look at when lit up by UV light:
And then I cleaned up the cables behind the front panel:
If you didn't already spot it, I can tell you that Bitfenix had given me a couple of paracord-sleeved SATA cables from their "Alchemy series" that I was going to do a review on - having done the review, I was allowed to keep the cables.
Read and watch the review here.
Those are REALLY nice cables as you can see here:
Then, I put the cables into the case.
Before:
After:
Ok, once again I have to say that I'm sorry for having to post such a huge update, but I have a hard time finding the time to produce more frequent updates - as I have mentioned earlier the project IS completed and the computer is being used for e.g. video editing and some gaming now and then. I also spend some time setting up my own case modding site: (Hotmods.net), while I am also doing reviews of case modding stuff - and then there's my next project...
As you might be able to tell, I am working on quite a lot of case modding stuff. Let me just say that I'm hardly bored! But the next update WILL be the last for this project. Start looking forward to some nice photos and hopefully a good video, too.
Talk to you later!
that looks sick! love it!!
Ever get the chance to look at your tower while wearing UVA/UVB+ glasses?
Thanks. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA
Hmmm, no - why? Do you think there's some kind of risk using this much UV?Quote:
Originally Posted by Twigsoffury
Oh, well...
I started working on the final update - it's going to be a massive monster, but (hopefully) entertaining to read (and watch) - will definately give you all something to think about. ;)
I need your cable management and sleeving skills. Nice job.
The recipe is: courage, spunkyness, reading lots of articles on how to do it, try, fail, try again, fail a little less, apply band-aid to finger(s), sleep, have bad dreams about better casemodders, fall our of bed, try again, jump up and down because you succeeded (a little sleep goes a long way), then find the humongeous flaw, sit down and cry, have some coffee and some Red Bull, work all night trying like a madman, sleeve for 2 straight days - you suddenly got it!
This is it....
This is the very last update in this worklog.
This is the conclusion of my first project - 3,5 years of modding.
Before I say anything, I would like for all of you to watch this video:
Phew....
It started out as almost nothing, but through the process I've learned SO much. I bought tools, hardware, modding materials, etc., and by now I consider myself a serious, skilled modder with a clue. When I started this case mod I had NO clue what so ever. ;)
Also, I made lots of contacts during this build, creating a network of modding contacts. Always nice to have.
I want to thank everybody who gave input and feedback. I really appreciate it and I hope to be giving you more to look forward to, as I start my new mod, which will be a scratch build.
I've learned that the most crucial part of modding is PLANNING. Don't rush into something without having thought at least 2 times about WHAT you want to achieve and HOW you want to achieve it.
Planning saves time, money, heart ache, injuries and can also turn out to become a really nice part of the modding experience. Really, sometimes planning IS the best part, while the actual job can be rather tedious or just plain mundane.
Oh, and DON'T buy the hardware until you're almost done with the case. The numbers below will definately give you a good idea of what I'm talking about...
Enough talking - let's get to the numbers.
Hardware used during this build, listed chronologically:
Motherboards: 3
---------------
1. ASUS P5ND2-SLI
2. Abit IX38 QuadGT
3. EVGA X58 SLI LE
Graphics cards: 6
-----------------
1. Club3D ATI Radeon 3850
2. Club3D ATI Radeon 4850
3. ASUS EAH4890
4. XFX 4890
5. XFX 4890 Black Edition
6. HIS Radeon 6870
CPUs: 4
-------
1. Intel Pentium D 3.4 GHz
2. Intel Core2Duo E6750
3. Intel Core2Quad Q9550
4. Intel I7 920
RAM sets: 4
-----------
1. Corsair XMS2 PC2-5300 3 GB (2x512 MB + 2x1024 MB)
2. Corsair XMS2 PC2-8500 4 GB
3. Kingston HyperX DDR3 PC3-16000 3 GB
4. Corsair Dominator PC3-12800 6 GB
HDDs: 8
-------
1. 120 GB Western Digital S-ATA150
2. 300 GB Maxtor DiamondMax 9 S-ATA150
3. 500 GB Hitachi S-ATA300
4. 3 x 150 GB Western Digital Velociraptor S-ATA300
5. 2 x 60 GB OCZ Vertex 2
PSUs: 2
-------
1. Enermax Noisetaker II 600W
2. Corsair HX620 620W
CPU coolers: 4
--------------
1. Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 (Air)
2. XSPC X20 Delta V2 (Water)
3. D-Tek FuZion V2 (Water)
4. EK Waterblocks Supreme HF Acetal+Nickel (Water)
Chipset coolers: 4
------------------
1. Thermalright HR05 IFX (Air)
2. DangerDen Maze4 (Water)
3. MIPS ABIT IX38 / IX48-MAX (Water)
4. EK Waterblocks EVGA X58 SLI LE Acetal+Nickel (Water)
GPU coolers: 4
--------------
1. Swiftech MCW60-R (Water)
2. EK Waterblocks EK-FC4000 (Water)
3. EK Waterblocks EK-FC4890 Nickel (Water)
4. EK Waterblocks EK-6870 Acetal+Nickel (Water)
Radiators: 6
------------
1. Hardware Labs Black Ice Extreme II 240 mm
2. 2 x Alphacool NexXxos Pro II 240 mm
3. Watercool 80 mm
4. 2 x Hardware Labs GTS240 240 mm
Reservoirs: 4
-------------
1. D-Tek UV-Blue 5.25" bay reservoir
2. XSPC Laing DDC Reservoir Top
3. XSPC BayRes One
4. XSPC BayRes Two
Pumps: 3
--------
1. Laing DDC-1T RT 18W
2. 2 X Laing DDC-1T 10W
See what I mean?
Since I started this case mod in March 2008, I've bought hardware and changed platforms like nobody's business. It's a really, really bad way of doing it, unless you just like to buy new hardware that you don't have a case for.
I won't even begin to calculate how much money I've spent on this build and how much money I COULD have saved had I not switched platforms 3 times during the last 3,5 years. It's a frustrating number, I'm sure... but Ok, I've also sold some stuff that I got cheap or even for free, so that has certainly helped me finance my project.
And finally, but definately not least, my wonderful sponsors have helped SO much. I'll thank you guys later in this final update. ;)
Ok, let's also get some stats on the worklogs.
I've been running worklogs on these 4 sites:
Bit-Tech (http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=159199)
OC Team Denmark (Danish) (http://www.octeamdenmark.com/forums/...anagement.html)
RealRedRaider (http://www.realredraider.com/vbullet...ad.php?t=16936)
The Best Case Scenario (http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ad.php?t=20176)
Number of updates: 32
Number of pictures: 818
These are the final pictures:
High res versions are available in this archive:
http://www.nutman.dk/worklog/Project...Final_pics.zip
So, any final words?
No, I really think I've said it all, more or less.
However, one last thing to mention is my extreme gratitude towards my amazing sponsors. Thank you SO much for sponsoring this project. Without your aid it wouldn't have been impossible, but it would certainly have cost me a LOT more! ;)
My sponsors are:
Go visit their sites and buy what they're selling!
To the active readers, the inactive readers, new friends, old friends, contacts, my sponsors and, of course, my wife: THANK YOU!
Now, go follow me on Hotmods.net. :up:
Bill Owen asked if he could feature the casemod on his blogsite, and I happily gave him permission:
http://www.mnpctech.com/casemodblog/...man/#more-3588
