Lexa

I didn't really want to go for a water cooled HDD cos it just meant extra work for me and the fan works great, wait and see how I set it up ;). I do have a GPU block, sorry i posted half the pics and u didn't get to see it.

EDIT: I didn't want to use gloss paint in the interior because I think the matte black would contrast better with the bright UV colors that are scattered across my components.

The MCW-60 is cheaper (even after buying the RAM and mosfet sinks + the adapter plate) and the Stealth doesn't give me any room to upgrade, it is solely for the 8800GTX. After seeing that the MCW-60 can outperform the full Danger Den block by 1-2 degrees, this was the better option, even over the Stealth. You can't go past a better performing product that's cheaper and leaves you room to upgrade in the future with very few extra costs attached.

No more painting today guys, I decided to finish my PSU cover.

I gave you a glimpse of the cover a few posts back and as you can see there wasn't really much done.

It was basically just a piece of cut plexi but a lot has changed.
This morning I went down to the hardware store and got the required bolts and domed nuts that I will be using to mount my plastic bits, as you can see there aren't many there, I will need at least two more packs of each before this mod is done.

Now onto the PSU cover.
Here's the cover with the holes drilled for the mounting bolts:

These are what I will be using to mount some of my plastic bits. I got these from an old Meccano kit that I had when I was younger. For those of you that don't know what Meccano is, it's basically like LEGO but instead of using plastic blocks it uses nuts, bolts and metal panels.
Here is a pic:

Here is the plastic piece wet sanded and with the mounting brackets installed using those cool domed nuts:

A side on view:

And a view from the back:

You guys remember that dust trap cover I made a while back? Well today I also mounted that with the new screws and domed nuts.
Here's a pic:

Sorry about that first pic, I uploaded with the wrong resolution but you get the idea :).

Well I don't know how much modding I will get done tomorrow cos I was kinda hoping to do some of the homework I have that's due at the start of the new term which is Monday. I hope to at least get those switches sorted out if I have the time. Until then...

Happy Modding.

First update of the new school term yay lol.

Well I have already been swamped with homework (year 11 blows!!) so I haven't been able to do much but I had a free 10 mins and decided to mount my two switches that I will be using to turn the CCFL's off. They are the same switches ! was having the problem with the LED's and no I haven't had a chance to fix that problem yet.

Ok enough talking, on to the pics.
I am mounting these switches on a FDD drive fascia so firstly I masked one up and marked for cutting:

I started by drilling two holes:

Because dad didn't have a big enough drill bit I had to use my Sontax rotary tool and a grinding attachment to make the holes bigger:

Here is the completed hole with a switch installed:

The other hole is drilled and the second switch installed:

Finally here is a pic of the switch lit up so you can see what it looks like in the on position:

Sorry about the bad pics guys.

This part of the mod took about 10 mins with the longest part being marking the holes up.

I want to get the majority of the plastic work (mounting and cutting mesh) done during the week and a little bit more on the weekend. Until then...

Happy Modding.

Yeah the sides are the same. Instead of a locking hatch like the LEXA has the Apollo just has the plastic mold that allows easy removal of the panel. Thanks for the comment, my 100th by the way lol.

Yeah I guess so. May be hard to find a panel that has one. You could call NZXT (or Email them) and ask how much it would be for the side panel (if you have a black Apollo) or say that you have the LEXA and your lock is broken and how much would a replacement lock cost.

Guys I have done a lot of work over this past week end. I pulled apart most of my case and started painting panels that didn't need to be modded, and modded a few also. No pics today because one of my mates just left and I haven't had a chance to take any pics but don't worry, a huge update tomorrow after school. Until then...

Happy Modding.

Ok guys, finally the picture update.
Over the past weekend I really got stuck into my case. I did a bit of painting along with some plastics work and now basically the only things left to do are mount the plastic pieces, finish painting the case and then hardware/water cooling installation and cable management. I'm aiming for this weekend or next weekend at the latest for completion.

Ok to start things off, here is the case with everything stripped from it i.e radiators, fans, reservoir etc:

Here is a pic of my work space in my dad's shed. This is what the case looked like after a few hours of drilling:

I'm not kidding when I say a few hours of drilling. Most of the rivets were put in on an angle causing the drill bit to skip across the hole and making the original holes larger, I need to use bigger rivets when I put the case back together but anyway back to the pics.
I couldn't get any painting done on Saturday or Sunday due to bad weather, was raining heavily all weekend but I painted the pieces I could after school today.
Here is a pic of the calmer part of the weekend and the painted pieces:

The pieces I painted are the supports for the PCI cards and the mobo I/O panel, the support bar and that small piece is another support prop that connects from the case floor to the rear panel, dunno if that does much but it was there so I painted it ;)

Time to attach my cut, sanded and drilled piece of plastic to the support bar (sorry, no pics of the cutting, sanding or drilling process).
To start off, here is a closer look at the support bar:

The piece of plastic that will be mounted along with my trusty screwdriver:

The mounted piece of plastic, looks pretty good to me :):

And now with some lighting:

I know the last picture is pretty bad but you get the general idea.

Well it doesn't look like a lot but basically at this stage of the mod all I am really doing is attaching pieces before painting. I hope to have an update mid week and then hopefully another one on the weekend if everything goes to plan. Until then...

Happy Modding.

As promised here is the mid week update, looks like completion this weekend may be a long shot, definitely next weekend though.

Ok so I start of with the read panel of my case and prepare it for mounting the PSU plastic cover.
Here is a pic:

And the drilled holes:

While I was working on the panel I also decided to paint it.
Here is the painted panel:

Once the panel was dry I inserted the rubber grommets back into the radiator pass through holes, I also added a piece of fan hole cover to the part of the panel I cut to make room for my 8800GTX.
Here are the grommets:

And here is the fan hole cover attached to the cut part of the case:

I know the paint looks a bit grey but this is only because of the camera's flash, I assure you it is black.
Next is mounting the PSU cover, so here we are.
The mounted PSU cover:

And from another angle:

I will try to get some more plastic work done this weekend along with some painting, I ran out at the end of painting this panel so back to the hardware store. Once again sorry for the grey looking paint, it is just the camera flash. Until then...

Happy Modding.

Well guys time for another update, we have had shocking weather all weekend so very little work got done so today after school I started modding.

I painted the top of panel of my case (you have all seen painting before so just the completed shot):

Now for something new. My local hardware store didn't have the rivets that I needed o put my case back together so I sent dad on a mission :). He came through, after work today I got a 100 pack of rivets (should be more than enough).
So here are my rivets and the rivet gun:

Because I had some free time (and because these two pieces were completed) I decided to start to re-construct the part of my case (the rear panel) that was completely modded and painted.
Here are the two pieces ready to be re-joined ;):

And here you go, joined back together:

Here is a shot from the back so you can see the rivets:

And to cap it all of I inserted the PCI covers into the slots that won't be used and secured them with my cool bright blue thumb screws.
Pic:

Today I also nearly completed mounting the HDD cover, well it is mounted, just need to cut the whole in the mesh and plastic to allow the cables to pass through. I should finish this tomorrow after school and will post pics as soon as it's done. After this is done that only leaves 6 more pieces of plastic to mount and a few pieces of mesh, the I can finally paint the rest of the case (I have painted all that I can at the moment). More tomorrow...I hope :). Until then...

Happy Modding.