Project - Air Cube v2

Didn't get anything done from tuesday to friday, here's why.
To keep this bit light hearted I'll just say my bro messed up badly again, I needed some time to brighten up after this latest do, seems he'll never learn that legal highs are just plain bad for him, I'm losing count how many times he has come close to death now & they could be & probably are laced with toxic crap. It's been hard keeping bright when he plays up like this, but spring is definately helping with some nice blue skys & sunshine, long grey winters make you really appreciate a nice blue sky & some warmth :).
I have come to a firm conclusion that many people who say they are bored should rephrase it to I'm a boring person, time to change lol :D.

Right, now my excuse for no updates is out of the way, onwards with the project woo hoo :banana:.

:D Thanks Jase, yeah it's nearly double height lol.

I have tried out the upgraded cooling on the 360 without the casings though within that time, main 2 fans blowing on the components, rear fan pulling air out, played some gta iv for 10 minutes, turned off put my hand on the gpu heatsink, was nice & cool :), did same on cpu & it was very hot to touch.
So I flipped the cpu fan over to take air away from it & had the rear fan blowing in, both gpu & cpu run nice & cool to the touch after half an hour of gta iv mayhem :D so I'll make a duct to guide air out of the side & put an easy to remove & clean dust filter on the back to minimise the need for clean outs.

So it's looking like a very good anti rrod fix so far :), concernig the cooling layout it's a good thing I had a little downtime else it would have been done wrong, I'll take the 2 temperature sensors from my 1st 360 mod & place them on this new mod so I will be able to see if the fans start failing + it might make it look a little better :).

I would do a cooling mod on my new ps3 but it is still under warranty so that is why I'm just doing a ventalation mod outside of it which I hope will be enough for it's longevity, it does get pretty warm sat on a desk but a good flow of air passing above & below it should help.

Here's what I got done over the weekend, should be back on track with regular progress from now :).

The 360 is coming along ok :).

Whilst I was without a dremel, I started drilling, filing & sawing to get things done, silly me I tried the same technique for the air cube right side panel & ended up putting it aside until my cutting discs with the correct 1/16" hole in the middle arrived.

Well, got the cutting discs :), I cut along the lines I marked out perfectly, filed & sanded all the edges, thought jobs a gooden, pulled all the masking tape off & the drill holes left a bit of a mess on the psu grill, yes it could have been patched up with body filler but I prefer not to use it so I filed away settling for some wonky lines instead, I'll mask around the grill & give it a quick spray of matisse blue & spray some into a pot & use a fine brush to do all the bare edges.

The other window will be removed so I can get the white double sided mounting tape cleaned off & replaced with clear mounting tape.

Thats all for now, more soon :).

Ahh, think I'm coming together again, a few said I should do a scratch build 360 case, I had pretty firm plans on just modding the 360 with scraps I had lying around to keep it's original functionality & to cost nothing other than the fans, the last week I just didn't know how to carry on (head was scrambled) so kept putting it off, so I sat down & started designing a completely custom 360 case, kept my mind busy for hours & it seems to have done the trick to get me back in the mood for continuing, had to get some new body filler (the activator had burst out of it's tube & become useless while in storage), wanted to carry on for hours more but had to call it a day though because of noisy filing, don't want to irritate any neighbors in the evening with my hobby :).

The back side is coming together, cut out the internal mesh, used little pieces of sheet aluminium held on the inside of the exterior mesh & filled over the holes & sanded down, have made the filler strip template but can't do it until tomorrow (the air dremel is noisy) & had some more filing to do on the internal metal chassis which resonates a loud racket, so I hope to get all the body work & air ducts done tomorrow, then I can put it aside until I paint it & can continue with the stack, woo hoo I found my mojo baby, yeahh :D lol.

I'm feeling good again so more soon :).

Lol, I thought I'd get all the xbox body work done today :facepalm:, but only got the front gap between the metal cover & xbox filled & sanded & made the gap cover at the back, still, it's steady progress :), it looks like there is a gap still but that is just perm marker from a guide I made on the filler to form a nice smooth edge, used 60 grit, 240, 600 sand paper.

Needed a bit more filler.

I don't know when the body work will be fully done on this xbox, could be tomorrow or the day after if I keep at it like the past couple of days.

I'll just keep posting at the end of the day when any progress happens :).

Only done the face plate today (started too late), I trimmed the original dvd bezel so it was 1 or 2mm thick, placed maksking tape over the front of the face plate, lay the trimmed bezel in place & slapped some body filler over it, sanded, then flipped it over & covered the gaps for the bezel & sanded smooth.

The top piece is going to need a bit of work on it before it looks a bit nicer but it'll come together, just had a slack day lol :D.

More soon :).

Xbox 360
Filled & sanded the inside & outside corners of the top piece.
Made a quick & simple air duct to blow out of the side, still undecided if the rear fan will bring air in or out.

The back could do with some filler so it all sits nice & flat all around, I'll get that done tomorrow, I'll also trim the flat bars out of the way of the side hole.

It's getting very close to being ready for painting :).

Air cube
LOL, the temps are better with the exterior panels on rather than off :D, just thought I'd take a pic of the air cube with the new panel on :), the onboard led lights only come on when starting up the pc & are quite subtle but good looking, I like them, there is a green, orange & red light which has given me an idea to use some leds on both sides of the case to be different colours, the 5870 pretty much splits the case into 2 halves so I think it'll look quite decent if placed in the right spots.

More soon :).

Sure is Jase, the dvd cables just about reach :D, nearly got this xbox done now, phew :).

Put a good layer of filler on the back & smoothed out, the top piece is laid flat now & cut the flat bars lower to be unseen.

Decided ac ryan meshx is the right stuff for the side duct hole, it's very unrestrictive so would be perfect for it, thought about doing my own grill but the meshx would be better, once I have a mesh sorted for the hole it should be ready for painting & then I can move on with the stack, after a couple of days for a break :).

Doing the xbox the way I have has given me more appreciation for case mods, scratch builds are more straight forward because you are the one who designed it so you know exactly how it should all go together, it requires a lot of adapting with a ready made case so I believe it can take just as much effort to do a good looking mod, case mod appreciation +10 :D.

The ps3 is going to look too normal amongst the 360 & air cube, I'd love to at least give it a paint job but that warranty is stopping me, for now :D.

More soon, Can't do nothing more on the xbox until tuesday but I could make a start on the levels of the stack if I feel up for it.

Thank you Xtrykr, just waiting for the mesh, should have it tomorrow, then fix it to the 360, then clean, then paint :).

:) I should have some tin snips but never got around to buying some, I'm friends with the air dremel again now I have the correct fitting discs lol :D, still got to order the paint for the xbox.

The stack.
The makeshift table was not flat enough for putting a jig on & getting this stack made, luckily my dad had a kitchen work top doing nothing, so we took the clamping piece off the rough makeshift table & put it on the kitchen top, so now I have a nice table to work on :).

Made a square jig, I cut the wood to precise sizes of the angle bars so I needed 4 hands to make it 100% square, my dad helped me on this, it would have taken ages to do on my own & might not have been 100% square, anyway the jig is perfect so I'll be able to do my marking spot on when I start on this stack.

This is the bottom level piece, it's the chunkiest level of them all, I wanted it to be well grounded :).

More soon :).

Decided to do the part I was dreading the most, removing the air cubes feet which I stuck on with araldite.

I removed the araldite by using my heat gun on all the exposed bits for a few seconds & then scraped it off, then heated the whole bar & levered it off, it all went nice & smoothly :).

Polished up the original polish so it looks all fresh again :).

With the old feet taken off the sides & top fit perfect.

cut, filed & polished some new ones from solid square aluminium bar & decided to use mounting tape to attach the new feet.

With the new feet on the sides & top fit perfect, so glad :D.

Looks pretty sweet :).

Finally cleared up the garage so it isn't like a game of twister any more, it was getting ridiculas lol :D.

Got the ac ryan meshx, got it installed on the xbox (used my glue gun), where the rivets are hanging out I want to tap the holes so it is properly secured in place & so it can be disassembled easy, once I get that done it is time for painting it.

More soon :).

Time to sort the ugly brown & green fans out, the fan blades pop off easily.

I looked around the house for something that could quickly cover the fans motors & found spice jar covers to be a perfect fit :).

Primer

Shot to show the spice covers doing their job :).

I cut a load of circles from card board & stuck the sharp end of a rivet through the centre & popped them onto the fan blade.

The fan blade colour was not as light as I was hoping, originally wanted a close to white ice blue so this is way off that plan but I'll settle for it, not putting more paint on the blades, anyway, much better than brown/green, got the frame colour exactly how I wanted it at least.

Now, I need to make my mind up if I'm going to paint the internal panels or not, & if I am what colour, so I'll put that bit off until I'm sure.

I'll take some better pictures of the fans when I have some good daylight.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StormRider

better? they're impressive now! ^__^

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:banana: Thanks StormRider :D.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

The fans look so much better now that they are painted. So so much better.

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:D Thanks Jase.

This is how how my pc has been the past few days while I've been painting, had it functioning purely for media & internet.

Spent a bit of time sanding all the work on the back panel & it's all nice & smooth now, painted both sides too.

The front panel needed the countersinks to be a little deeper so the bolts sit flush, painted the rear of the panel too.

Painted the back expansion/io piece.

Here is a better shot of the hdd cage I made, the ssd can slip in the top space just perfect :).

The blue gigabyte motherboard goes really well with the fans & back panel & the braided cables you can see are extensions (got them for pcie, 8 pin atx, main atx, I would rather buy them like that than void my warranty, especially with a decent psu (they cost too much to void them), the sata cables could do with being swapped out or even braided, I would love to shorten the psu cables because they are way too long but I can tidy them into the front right corner just about, got rid of the rounded ide cable, it is supposed to be clear but it had turned nicoteenish lol, the flat ide cable routes better anyway.

withgpu

I think the back looks better than the front now lol :D.

Everything is done on the front, back & insides, I'm going to come up with an alternative for the right side grill, either make the bars slimmer or get another sheet, then all thats needed is the left window removing to clean up the white mounting tape & replace with clear mounting tape, then the air cube v2 is complete, still waiting for my drill bits to arrive before I can do anything else on the xbox & the stack, so I'm having a few days off from it :).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by billygoat333

looking good!

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Thanks billygoat333 :).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StormRider

I'd rob a bank(or two) for that case:devious:
well, not really, but you get the idea:D

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Thanks StormRider :D.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

The painted fans really finish off the mod perfectly, it looks so much better now then it did with the fans their original colour. Everything just blends in together, makes it look like it all belongs together.

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Thanks Jase :up:.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

Outstanding work! +rep

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Thank you blue :), woohoo I've gone up another notch :banana:.

In other news the air compressor is playing up, it's getting up to 50 psi & not going any higher & keeps running rather than switching off, doesn't look good, most of the air tools I have need up to 90 psi the compressor could go up to 150 psi until the other day :(, hopefully it is a simple inexpensive fix.
My dad went to a motorbike show the other day & came back with a few nice new air tools so this is a bit gutting, a sawzel & a belt sander.
I managed to clean all the dust out of the case & psu with it, it was while I was doing the dusting I noticed a change in the noise of the motor, I have really taken a shine to air tools now so I'll have to get it fixed :up:.

I ordered some small light changing LED boxes for the air cube :D.
Called Lamptron Psycho Lazer LEDs :D.

Ughh, 1st the air compressor, now my tap snapped & got stuck.

Got the fan frame for the xbox properly mounted to the chassis now, tapped it earlier so it's ready for painting, nothing new visually so I'll post pics when it's painted.

I made a start on the stack today, marked up where to drill, drilled all the mounting holes for the bottom level & was going very good, maybe too good lol something bad had to happen & it did.
Ran into a problem while tapping the final layer of the base of the stack, the tap snapped off while doing 1 of the holes, can't remove it at all, tried all known methods, just nothing to grip hold of, so my best bet is to file down the parts that stick out & relocate the hole & body fill over the failed hole or redesign the base a bit, ahh the joys of modding lol :D, it's all worth the effort in the end though :). Anyway, the stack is back on hold until I get a couple of new taps :hurt:.

Looking forward to installing the LED's in the right spots tomorrow though :).

I don't think I'll be using the LED blocks, they really are awful, on the video it shows them changing slowly, the ones I got change far too fast & then strobe, straight away I found them highly irritating lol, I should have just learned how to do my own LED lighting, would have been cheaper & far better, I have soldering irons & am pretty good at solder work, I just got lazy lol.

I would go for the LED strips if I wanted a lot of light, but I just want subtle bits in cirtain spots, strips are too long for what I have in mind.

Heres what I've done while waiting for the new taps.

Grinded the stuck tap so it's level, relocated the holes, ordered some new taps, got them today.

Received the changing LED's, wrong version, sent back, waiting for the alternative which looks better :).

Put a bit more work into the right side panel grill, lots of filing & sanding so no more wonky lines & put some mesh behind the grill & painted it haze blue with a light mist of matisse blue :).

Removed the window & it took a whole load of elbow grease to get the white mounting tape off, painted the inside upper half haze blue on both sides, need to order 2 windows, thought I had a couple spare, thought wrong lol, so I'd expect to receive some time next week, also buffed up the inside top panel so it's better than it originally was now.

Very tempted to sand the front grills to get really nice edges like I did with the rear, but would probably require painting again so I think I might pass on that, once the windows are installed the air cube v2 is done, but I think I'll always wish I sanded the front grills, so with that in mind I think I should :) lol.

Painted the xbox, I'm especially pleased with the hdd :), done it all matisse blue & the power button is haze blue because I ran out of matisse lol, doh!.

On with the pictures of the finished sides, buffed inside top & the finished xbox, just wish I made enough space to add some meshx for the back fan, it's already a tight fit once the top piece is on so no room for it, oh well.

Now I can fully focus on getting this stack put together, so more soon :).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StormRider

-applause-
that is one sweet xbox. ^__^

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by billygoat333

oooh... that blue is pretty! I approve! :up:

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

That is one sweet looking XBox, looks a ton better then white :D.

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:) Thanks guys :up:.

Walked into a wall with the stack build though.

The taps I got seem to be the wrong pitch size thread, not only that but the guy I bought them off on ebay also only sent me 3, was supposed to be 6, so thanks to the ebayer I bought them off the stack build is fubared for the time being.

So I'm quite unhappy with how the base is turning out, all tapping related, the pieces for the 1st base are turning into swiss cheese, making me think I'd be best off making another order of aluminium to get it right, 1 bad hole was bad enough, now there is 4, if I do order more aluminium I'll make the postage worth while & order enough to do another project at a later date, I would like to do a mini ITX media case at some point, was also thinking of making a desk, I was a little short of flat bars anyway so maybe this was supposed to happen, I also wanted to add some trim bits to the stack to give it a little flair :).

So other than putting windows in the air cube, noting more to do until I get the right bits & new aluminium so it could be a couple of weeks before the next update, sigh.

Wow, was nearly 3 weeks since my last pictured update, many problems with the rrod xbox's leading me to just say the hell with it & buy a new late 2009 one (jasper) to put it in the modded case so had to mod the hdmi bottom half & the internal metal case again, I should have originally known getting a new one without previous problems is the best way to start off an xbox's life inside a well cooled case, anyway it's now a green 4 life 360 :D.

Had various tapping problems with the stack & problems marking the chunky angle bars accurately which has made me decide to use black rivets on the corner angle bars, the levels are fine, just the main corner angle bars, not all the mounting holes line up perfect but at least every levels corners does by at least 1 bolt which will enable me to rework them easily to take rivets instead.

Got all the base levels put together without nuts :).
Made another temporary jig for getting the marking done on the chunky angle bars, was a real pita to mark accurately & took quite some time before I figured out a good method, then it went quite smoothly, but still a few holes don't fully line up which is why I'm going to drill the holes with a 3.2mm drill bit & use rivet washers & black rivets.

I decided to do away with the 0.7mm aluminium sheets on top of each levels frame base & instead get some clear polycarbonate sheets & paint all the frame work so you can see through it all, should be pretty sweet, The sheets of aluminium became too messy with failed taps causing me to need more sheet aluminium which I didn't have.
Any polishing I do on this stack will be given a coat of clear so it keeps the polish.
The end of the framework is close to finished now, phew, was a bigger mission than I anticipated :).

Not been taking my camera along to the work space & instead just been pushing forward so it's straight to the form which gave me a cheesy grin :D.

More soon :banana:.

Thanks Jase, StormRider :up:.

Update time :banana:.

OK, painted the levels, cut the angle bars to size & smoothed off the top edges by filing & sanding & spent today polishing the angle bars, the plastic sheets for the 1st 4 levels needed a smidge filing off the ends & trimmed little corners out to make way for the rivets & then started fixing it all together, at last :D.

Still more to be done like little extra support bars, guide rails placed inside, switches, but the main effort is now done phew, was a mission & half lol :).

I'm also going to put some more effort in on the air cube by sanding the front grills so they are nice round & smooth edges.

More soon :).

:) Thanks Jase, yeah it was as good as I visioned it to be & even a little better :D, I'm quite chuffed with the stack :), to be honest my room needs a make over now as the stack looks too good in my room lol :D.

Update time :).

Skip to the pictures if you're not interested in the details on what's been done ;).

1200mm high
400mm wide
380mm deep

Weight air cube v2 empty ??? very light but won't be known until I upgrade to a i7 or amd hex core rig or given the speed of new tech these days & my money flow being slow & low maybe something far more awesome once I have enough.
Weight air cube v2 fully loaded ? I'll update soon
weight empty stack ? I'll update soon
weight fully loaded stack ? I'll update soon, it'll be heavy

Since last time where I got the main basic structure done, I have been busy getting the trim supports made.

The front & back of level 2 & 3 I put 1/8" polished angle bars for a support for the various sized flat bars to stop dvd's falling out, I gave the flat bars a simple brushed finish, also put 9mm x 6mm flat bars for a dvd stop & psu slot, put a flat bar with switch mounting holes for turning ps3 fans or xbox fans on/off, upper 1 is for the ps3, lower is for xbox. All the extra trims are put on with araldite rapid steel adhesive, very very strong 2 part adhesive.

Cut solid square aluminium bars to the size of the ps3 with extra for a slope on both sides, cut angles & super glued them perfectly aligned to the ps3 base to keep it easy for putting it on the level how I wanted it, this doesn't void the warranty btw as I can easily remove the bars if needed ;), so the ps3 has very good ventalation now above & below so the side vents should be able to take new air in, much better than just having it on my desk, I no longer have to worry about it having a melt down so now I can get really stuck into red dead redemption :).

I was thinking of cutting solid square bars to size to put in the corners of each level to give even more support but I'm not sure it needs it to be honest, it's very rigid all over, I'll have to think about this.

The braiding could have been done better, I'm a n00b at braiding, but I'm ok with the result, they're out of sight :), the psu wires are folded over & over & wrapped with cellotape to keep them in a compact bunch with a paper clip in the green & black pins to run the fans, the switch cables I chose the lazy route & bought 2 off ebay, 900mm long though so just folded the cable to the length I wanted & wrapped tape around them so no cables interfering with the games/dvd's area, hmmm nintendo wii in the bottom space, hmmm probably not, currently or planned to play games/films, ohhhhh yeah :D.

The xbox wouldn't fit into the level, so it was either refabricate the top piece or cut the rear off so I could slide the top on, I cut the rear off for the time being, after the amount of space left over with the air cube & wanted it all to be a good fit, must be less than 1mm spare above it, the missing rear piece can only be seen from behind so I can live with that.

One problem I've come up against is the floor in my room where I want to have the cpce (Console PC Entertainment) is not flat so I'm going to cut a wooden piece to size, put something underneath the wood at the front so it makes a level surface to keep it on, need to do this asap as it's a bit like the leaning tower of pisa, keep expecting it to collapse all of a sudden, so yeah I need to do this asap :).

This stack project was something I was not very sure about, mostly needed something to keep me busy for a while & was a bit of a spare of the moment kind of design, but man am I glad I went for it :D, I mean I'm sat here & I look to my side & I'm surprised it's me that made it lol :D.

There will hopefully be another update with quality outdoor daylight pictures once I've sanded the front grills to a nice finish & repainted, it'll need it since it'll be taken back down to bare metal, then I believe I can call it a 100% finished for sure this time woohoo :D.

With it being summer & I like to keep a good overclock with nice temps the quiet small fans have a hard time keeping things really cool, so just for summer warm spells I will use a desktop fan on the lowest setting with the top & sides off, the results are better than peak winter & temps barely rise when gaming & pushing the pc hard.

OK I think I've covered everything about what got me from my last update to now so I'll shut the hell up & show a pile of pictures in it's 99% complete state, enjoy :D.

Wow, took about 4 hours to do this post lol :).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blueonblack

:bowdown:

Dude. That is absolutely beautiful work. +Rep for sure, love it!

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Thank you blue, appreciate the feedback :):up:.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by StormRider

sweet tower you've got there

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Thank you Storm, me thinks so too :D:up:.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

Now that is an awesome rack and a really nice setup, not to mention a nice OC :D. I like your Sennheiser's also, I have the same pair, the HD595's are awesome.

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Thanks again Jase, really makes a good difference knowing other modders have been following this, and yeah the 595's are awesome for gaming, I have it set for stereo but it's like surround sound, on games like left 4 dead I can pinpoint where enemies are, forget those gimmicky surround nasty headphones, the 595's rock for gaming/music/movies :D:up:.

Final update :).

Took some new pictures earlier today, the yellow light was nasty I think you all would agree ;).

Now, back to my unlevel floor, I just took some scrap ply wood, placed the cpce on top of it, marked around the edges, got busy with the saw, filed the corners round & edges smooth, took it back to see how bad the unlevel floor was, was off by near 10mm, so I had these furniture slide pads & placed 1 underneath the front of the board, not quite, tried doulbling them up, spot on, luckily I have a bunch of others at a smaller diameter so I stuck them to it & thats my floor sorted, it stayed fine all the way to the top of the air cube, phew :).

This shot shows how close the top of the xbox is to the next level, I'd say 1mm spare, talk about cutting it fine lol.

And so, the rest of the pictures are just to show it off in natural light :).

Back to the weight of this thing.

Air cube v2 fully loaded = 42 lbs
Stack with psu & fans = 27.4 lbs
Xbox 360 = 8.4 lbs
PS3 = 8.4 lbs
Total = 86.2 lbs without dvd's/games

And thats it, I've decided not to sand the front grills to a perfect finish which I know I could given an extra couple of days, but if I wanted it 100% perfect I would have had it done by a machine for me, I don't want or need to compete with a lifeless machine lol, I like the fact it is a little rough here & there, keeps it completely unique :). I'm leaving the slightly rustic cuts so it remains an average joe made piece.

So thanks for showing an interest in this project & peace out & mod on all until my next unplanned mod ;), I definately had an all you can eat buffet of modding for the time being, I'm absolutely stuffed lol :D.

Thank you Jase :), now, how long will I be able to read other worklogs without getting the urge to mod again lol, time will tell :D.

Looking forward to it Jase :banana: :):up:.

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 1 of 3.

The reason I jumped in at the deep end doing scratch builds is because every single case I ever bought I found it could do with some cooling mods doing to them so I thought why not just make my own, tried cad programs & couldn't take to them, then I found google sketchup & were soon making models that I knew were possible to do in reality with my tool set, hail google sketchup, without it unprofessional people like me might not have gotten into designing & building our own cases/stuff.

I started off just doing it for functionality but after hanging around tbcs & bit-tech for a bit & seeing everyone elses mods I started coming around to appreciate the fine attention to detail people were putting in & started seeing it all as high quality modern art that I could highly appreciate because it's functional as well as great looking, more & more modders are raising the bar of excellence so I thought I should put more effort into the looks also, but still I put form & function 1st, looks 2nd, looks take longer to achieve :D.

So, it all started from just doing blow holes in pre-made cases & wire management holes with a dremel, I remember it being tricky to handle but with more practice it makes near perfect & then with files & sanding can make perfect, not laser perfect but human imperfect perfect lol :D.

I like to make a premium case for the price of a mid range case which is another part of why I don't go the machined route & powder coat/custom paint route, I have to say though it would be a total buzz to use a bigger budget so I could rule out tool restrictions in designs.

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My tool set - for anyone wanting to know

I'm quite lucky as I only had to buy the bits that say "woo hoo" next to them.

A work space of about 5 foot by 8 foot, gets like a game of twister in the thick of modding lol.

Manual tools
Small but useful work bench
4 Quick clamps woo hoo
5 C clamps
6 squares woo hoo
Rulers woo hoo
Good range of files
60, 240, 600, 1200, 2000 grit sand paper woo hoo
Vice
Cheap sheet metal folder woo hoo
Hammers/mallets
Wrench tapper woo hoo
Manual mitre saw woo hoo
Hack saw blades
Pop rivet gun
Rivet nut gun that I haven't found a use for "yet" ;) woo hoo
Various drill bits, countersink bit woo hoo
Razers

Power tools
Chomped my way through 5 dremels woo hoo, no more, they die too easy & cost too much to keep replacing.
Bench grinder adapted to use polishing mops & modified to keep cool
Drill press
Cordless power drill & 2 batteries
Cordless sheet metal shears woo hoo
Hot air gun woo hoo
Air compressor that needs a new gasket which is hard to find so I'm going to use gasket high temp silicone or make one.
Air dremel, an absolute breath of fresh air compaired to dremel.
Air gun - perfect for cleaning solid dust from a pc to make like new.
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Picture time with brief discriptions.

Badly planned & executed 1st case, was trying to mimmick the Lian-Li X2000 when it hit the news, mine had some flaws & looked pretty awful in comparison lol :D, but I like the fact that my 1st case was this horrible as I really feel I have progressed nicely :) + I think I did the 1st 1 over a couple of weeks.

When I got a cheap sheet metal folder, my 2nd case made entirely with sheet aluminium & a bit of body filler & pop rivets, it cools all the components really well but lacked strength & was made pretty fast.

Latest which I am very happy with I started using a drill press & combined some of what I learned from my 1st & 2nd case & added some new tricks, spent a couple of months last year making it, then got back to it from feb to the completed project now, I intend to make a low power media pc before I make a completely new gaming case to fill the spot on top of the stack.

Went from this pile of raw goodies.

To this

Mobo tray by me, pci/io piece from a lian li case which is the only bit not made by me in this build.

Did this but at the time I was planning on polishing the whole case & the cuts were not clean enough so scrapped the grills.

Shiny :D, polishing bars is pretty easy, it's polishing large sheets that is more difficult.

To this

To this

And finally got around to painting the akasa apache fans to fit the colours :).

Decided to have another go at doing the front panel with built in grills.

CONTINUED:

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 2 of 3

& finally to this :D

Then I wanted my pc & consoles all in 1 place so I made this :).

To this

Then 4 of these.

& this bottom level.

To this

To this

Also made a cooling mod for the xbox 360.

Which leads to the finally new in use shots. Whilst doing this recap post I remembered saying I'll leave the front grills rough, but that wasn't the only imperfection, there were bits I had to touch up with paint & they didn't match perfectly, so I thought with this definately being my last post I would go ahead & get this front panel finished off properly to a good standard & present these final pics.

CONTINUED:

My modding journey so far, a recap & finale - Part 3 of 3

And the latest pictures of the Air Cube with properly finished front panel, a days worth of sanding & a new coat of paint.

Before

After

With stack left view + flash

With stack left view no flash

With stack right view + flash

With stack right view no flash

There might be more pictures coming soon "if" I'm successful in making a big light box that aids in better pictures :), got all the materials, just need to make it.

And that wraps it up :), thanks to all for viewing, feedback & motivation to make it look nice, mod on all :):up:.

Damnit I was carrying on calling it finished prematurely, newb modder mistake, sorry, possibly 5 times now, I should change my name to Waynidoh :D.

I think I'm catching the perfectionist virus (bad for me, good for viewers :D), I was fixing up a few things I didn't like much on the internals for the bottom level which I admittedly half arsely done originally, upper level is great, just the lower deck is a mess of wires & things that could've been done a bit better.

Made a new internal side fan mount, cut some solid square bar to the depth of the inside, smoothed the edges, used 2 flat bars to mount the fan & added another square bar with 45 degree cuts, used araldite adhesive to stick it to the bar, much nicer than the last one & doesn't resonate any vibrations & has a good weight to it so it doesn't fall over.

I was going to drill vent holes into the hdd cage but scrapped the idea (was unable to use the drill press without a lot of messing making a custom platform which I done a few times throughout this mod) & instead just sanded & painted it lol :D.

Made & installed mounting brakets for the optical drive at last.

Replaced the misfit yellow sata cables for black akasa round sata 3 cables, much neater.

The power wires are far too long for this case, I'd have to make custom power cables for everything to be really tidy, but for this time I'll just go mad with cable ties :D, at least the flat bars for the middle level will come in useful for cable ties, a flukey cable management feature there :D.

Ordered a 360mm x 120mm x 10mm & 120mm x 120mm sheet of polycarbonate to replace the feeble fiddly standoffs for the front fans, they were causing annoying faint vibrations, so I traced the mounting holes from the front panel & cut circles to make a perfect one piece standoff that will not cause vibrations & it works really nice.

One main outstanding thing I have learnt from doing an effort inducing mod is it would definately be best to have a running pc so I don't end up putting the system in too early & calling it finished, so when I get around to upgrading my complete system I won't be selling my current parts, I'll instead build a temp pc, then I could do a mod & keep working on it without long breaks, but it will be quite some time before I can afford a new system & new materials, possibly a year off, but theres nothing stopping me from designing new cases.

Only thing that could wrap this log up now is when or if I get my light box made to get some good quality pictures of the Air cube & stack.

Spent a good chunk of the day cable tidying, used over 40 cable ties & sleeved an ide cable lol :D.

Ok more than enough blah blah, it's picture time woo hoo :D.

Project comlpete, 6th times the charm lol :D.

I just keep on getting little ideas to improve this case, this 1 was worth doing.

With the summer rising ambient temps quite a bit, the low cfm of the akasa apache's were struggling to maintain nice motherboard temps, I like to keep it at 30c so I've been using a house cooling fan right next to the open case, it lowered temps by 10c & even while gaming it kept the motherboard temps just as it were at idle.
So today I grabbed 1 of my spare fans, plugged it in & tested to find the sweet spot to keep temps low during the summer, didn't take long to find, so I made fan mounting holes on the top left support flat bar & screwed it in, it's only supported on half of the fans mount holes, but it's good & not vibrating, this mod now holds 10 case fans.

Heres the mod I done today.

This capture was made on a cool night with cool ambient temps recently without the extra mod.

This capture was done just now on a warm day after a gaming session.

Anyone think I should make it permanent or just for seasonal, if I make it permanent I will make a simple grill for the top panel & a cover & switch for turning it on when needed & get another apache & paint it, the top panel could use a re-coat of paint anyway, the front edge is a little scuffed.

True :) thanks for a vote to make it permanent Couch3ater :D, I mean if it produces temps like this in summer, it'll be crazy cool come winter :banana:.

DeadP1xel suggested a window grill over on bit-tech, so I took measurements on the workable area for the top panel & got messing with sketchup.
Coudn't do an inside window/grill (not enough clearence).

So I could mount a window/grill above & make a small frame around it, hmmmm.

Or as above but without a frame & instead a bevelled edge like this quick sketchup I just done, with threaded holes for attaching from underneath, the square is just there for measurement purposes if I go ahead & do this. Also the blue panel represents what surface I have to work with.

This sketchup doodle could be an actual item by wednesday :D.

Thank you Luthien :), wow, once I've finished the top piece I'll have a lot of catching up to do on peoples project logs.

@ Couch3ater I Couldn't resist :D:up:.

@ Jase I've really enjoyed going from meh to oh yeah, the learning curve modding has I think might be infinite which is why I think I like it so much. Hope you did ok with the exams m8 & looking forward to your upcoming project :):up:.

I have an update on the project :).

Was going to wait until I got the plastic sheet, but thought why not just get stuck in on the metal work, I really miss not being able to use a dremel :(, was the hardest window mod ever lol, took all day to do this, just finished sanding at 8pm.
Masked up & marked up, drilled & countersunk all the mounting holes, then drilled opening holes so I could get the hacksaw blade in & went human jigsaw on it, hours later the pieces fell out, then had a ton of filing & sanding to do, but at least all the edges are nice & smooth now & ready for painting :), I'll try to get that done tomorrow, need primer.
Perfectly on schedule to get this done by wednesday still woo hoo :D.

Next & final update hopefully either tuesday or wednesday night :).

Lmao, tell me about it :D, I'll have to design all of it instead of just the frame for my next log that should put an end to final update, not syndrome lol :D.

^^ :D

Got paint, pre-wired blue & green LED's to experiment, a pre-wired molex power rocker switch, the piece of plastic & another apache fan ordered, hopefully have it all tomorrow, the plastic is gonna require a lot of work, lots of filing & sanding awaits me.

The LED's are for plugging into the front spacer pieces, I frosted it before I installed it, was an idea I got last night after viewing other logs & I mentioned it on another forum & sure enough someone said go for it, was going to pass on it but thought yeah why not :D, I'm hoping it gives it a good effect, the switch is for turning the LED's on/off (yet to decide where it will go) & the apache to keep it all in uniform, that'll be 10 apache fans then lol, should have asked akasa to sponsor me, the fans cost more than the case materials minus the paint :eek:.

:) Got the 6mm plastic, paint, fan & immediately got started masking, measuring & marking.

Messed up badly on the drilling of the plastic piece though, did it all spot on 4mm into the 6mm thick sheet, but should have used 2.5mm drill bit for the m3 thread but used 3mm by accident (I blame it on 1st thing of the day eyes half shut modding), not to worry I ordered some m4 bolts & if I'm lucky I'll have them tomorrow fingers crossed, it can & will be fixed :D. I'm not rushing it but I am working extra hard to get it done for tomorrow my birthday :D.

Used the bench grinder to give the edges a curved bevel as good as I could & used a file to clean up edges.

Got 60, 240, 600, 1200, 2000 grit sanding over 5 or 6 hours & a nasty blister on my thumb, damn it was hot :D.

Got the air cubes cover sanded & primed & both sides of the fan.

Got the metallic matisse blue on & a coat of clear & half of the the fan coloured & clear coated & a late night colouring & clearing of the other side hopefully.

Going to do the grill on the plastic sheet tomorrow, unsure to do lines or holes or even both.

Thank you Luthien :).

Ok, see what you all think of this :neutral:.

Had a rough nights sleep as I fell asleep at the pc & had an auto shut down, 1 minute I was watching a show, next I woke up 9am lol so wasn't in best form for today.

The day of modding started fine, marked a grill to cut & went to work on it.

I'm unsure if it worked out well, when I went to enlarge the middle mount hole it went all the way through which was bad. I gave up on doing the grill, my files were barely doing anything on the 6mm plastic so as a result I had to cut a bigger than normal hole to get past where I was trying to do a grill (the new hole cutter is awesome though :)), also some spray managed to get under a bit of the masking :(, but there was a good layer of clear on it so I should be able to fix that pretty easily.

Good points, it made the cover more rigid & have better temps than before the extra fan mod, theres virtually always a way to fix things up, window on the outside was either not a good idea or I just fluffed up over & over or I'm tired & not thinking straight.

I honestly don't know if this extra mod is good or bad or inbetween, but do know there are some things I could do to fix it up if I'm correct in thinking it's not looking right, but if it's good then I'll just need to fix the extra large vent hole (easy fix).

I really don't know what to make of this top piece which is why I'm including quite a few shots of it to see what you all think, designed it quick & made it quick within 3 days so it's such a drastic change from what it was, could do with as many opinions as possible please.

Again I could do with as many opinions as possible please.

Thanks Couch

Just so you all know, I'm having a small time out, I managed to remove the plastic piece I think it was a bit of a wreck when I failed doing a grill & then made the hole to cut out what went wrong, it was hellish to get the bolts out too, all of the allen head sockets lost the sockets so had to use mole grips for all of them, It's off now, there was a moment where I thought I messed it up completely.

I did some more testing with the extra fan & found an even better spot to place it, looks better & cools better, pretty much just above the bottom side fan so the left side panel will require an extra vent which will probably be the most difficult part to do with it already having a window there.

Set myself a realistic goal of having the top & side done by the time Mafia II releases which is 27-aug (game I'm most looking forward to this year :D) I'll probably have it done way before that date but gives me a chance to step back & really think this out & do this properly :).

I'll try & save the next update for when it's finished :up:.

Was going to make my last update my final but delivery delays so why not a quicky before the finished pics :).

Ok so here's the new top, made a frame from 20mmx3mm & 40mmx3mm flat bars to cover up the mounting holes from the previous plastic top piece, painted them same colour as the fan frames, stuck them down with 2 part araldite epoxy resin, put my left over ac-ryan mesh x to use, barely had enough to do this, painted it the same colour as the fan blades, for the time being the mesh is held in with scotch mounting tape & for the finishing touch 2 3mm thick windows that slip into the 2 vents in the top making for a flush fit, the top windows can easily be removed just by poking through from underneath & lifting out, the side panels needed a means of getting fresh air so I went with the mesh on both sides so the entire case is awesomely air cooled & very well ventilated.

Excuse the nasty surroundings, my room is like a bin at the moment lol :D.

Here is the new revised placement of the extra fan, I stuck a 1/2 inch angle bar to a 40mmx3mm flat bar for extra support & stuck the flat bar to a middle level flar bar, it's a very close fit for the fan mount but is just perfect, honestly amazed at the temperatures now.

Re-made the front spacers & added 5mm LED holes, 8 LED's for the tripple mount, 4 LED's for the single mount & going with blue & green, waiting for the extra LED's (tested it with 2 green LED's & it looks good glad I went for it :).

Still waiting for sewing machine oil so I can fix the fans, must have wiped whatever lubrication was on them off when I painted them all.

All in all this is mighty close to finished & I'm far happier with the new top, can't wait to get all the fans lubricated & install the new front lit up spacers & call it finished.

Still got the other half of the LED's to come tomorrow, once I place them where I want them, I'll work out the wires so it all uses 1 molex for each spacer instead of 6 & so it can be switched on/off, yet to figure out where to put the switch, here's some daytime & night time pre final shots :).

Day

Night

Another thing kind of off topic but, my razer lycosa keyboard has been playing up by blacking out for a second now & again so I dug deep & ordered a steel series 7g, looks a great no nonesense quality keyboard, the lycosa had issues with the media control panel not long after buying it, I fixed that by snipping the connections to the boards internals & now randomly blacking out making me miss letters in words now & again not even a year old, so after looking at gaming boards they were all overpriced gimmicky nonesense types, the roccat valo v2 would have been a good choice if it weren't for the extra 100 macro keys lol, the logitech g19 needs ac power for the bling it carries, thought there were no good gaming keyboards anymore & then read up about the 7g & my mind was made up almost instantly so should have it soon woo hoo :D.

It's kinda northern lightsish but static :D.

Got the extra LED's today but need to wait for braiding supplies because all the LED's have piled up the wires so I'm going to modify them all to be nice & neat so with luck I'll have them tomorrow.

Woo hoo, all main work finished, but yeah you guessed it theres still more to come lol (most unprofessional worklog ever).

Had a problem with compacting the pre-made LED cables combining green & blue LED's to use 1 molex passthrough, the green ones were wired funny compared to the blue ones so had to do them seperate so the front lights use 4 molex passthroughs, originally had it all nicely heatshrinked & sleeved for the first 2 times, then lost the will to sleeve them properly & instead used thin strips of gaffer tape wrapped around them & used my glue gun to stick the cables to the plastic spacer so at least it's tidy wires, just not pretty looking like sleeving is :D, next time I'm playing with LED's I'll be making them myself, still got to make it so the lights can be switched on/off.

I removed the meshx, like I said earlier the panels I cut barely fit so if looked at a cirtain angle I can see small gaps so it's not a perfect fit, also tested if temps were affected with solid covers for the sides & they were not so I have some 0.7mm sheet aluminium spare & since the air compressor is back up & running good I'm thinking of doing some designs for grills to fit inside where the mesh was & then stick a window behind them, need to think up a nice design first though, want it so you can still clearly see the insides which the meshx failed on imo so I'm chomping at the bit to do some dremel work after struggling with human jigsaw method lol :D.

On with the latest pictures without the mesh & side windows & LED's done & plain windows in the top for now until I make the new grills :), night & day pics.

Can't wait to get busy with the air dremel again :banana:.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SXRguyinMA

that looks awesome! +rep

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Axis Machine

I love the lights awesome job. :D plus rep :up:

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:banana: Thanks for the compliment & rep mates :):up:.

Woo hoo the new keyboard came but is that a home key I see missing.

then an 8 key

then a hash key with the missing keys in the box.

They plugged back on easy :), decent sturdy board, nice keys, no silly touch sensitive panels just a straight up good board.

I've always ditched palm rests from keyboards but with the height of this board it actually makes it better so it went back on & here is the design I'm going to do for the side grills & mini ones for the top, the nice thing about these grills is I'm taking zero risk in damaging the already made panels so no pressure :) I'll hopefully have at least the side windows done & smoothed out today will be a joy to do on 0.7mm sheet, maybe an update later :).