Project: Black Zipper

Sponsored By

How It All Started:

before 24th December 2007 at least 2 years before

Well after looking on the forum for about a year and other forums like this (bit-tech, TBCS and a few others) i wound pluge in a build a custom rig, but haveing not much money a no pc building experience, i went looking for old system to rebuild to get to know the parts (only none two so till a begner), then i started to read the magerzine, Custom PC which iterjucied me to the big e-tailor (such as scan, misco, dabs and novatech) from there i've been added items to the shopping basket and designing a computer though my head. i then relished when i start to build all of this most of the products will change (new products, old products cheaper and so on) so i decide to stop with that and to customize the begie case i had salvage from my works skip, and then think about the inside, and after some thought and buying the books "pc chop shop" and "dightal hot rods" the designs started poping into my head, but before i got carried away in doing a complete custom design, i shound start at the bottem, and work my way to the top, and on that i have decide to do a morden/idustrail looking case with an orignal fell to it, lain li interia parts (because i love there hard drive cages) and a fast slick looking paint job.

Brief:
To customize my boring standed beige case, to a high performance computer with a morden and idusrail theme. With a fast slick pant job, Water cooling and Lain Li interior parts.

Plan:
1.To paint the case fully black including interior, including the lain li parts which will be black powder coated
2.Twin Turbine Fans in front of case (2 120mm)
3.2 custom resvires with led's and mesh in side panel
4.Lian Li Wheels, Removeable MB Tray, Hard Drive Rack and DVD Drive Rack
5.9 White LED's in bottem of case to give glow afect and 4 led's in each resiver to give glowing
6.White stipes along front, top and side panel of case
7.Remote DVD Drives 2 In Total
8.All Cables to be Sleeved In White Sleeving
9.cpu and gpu watercooling
10.Custom Usb Hub In front Of case
11.custom name on left side panel
12.Mesh around componants

Products Brought So Far:

23rd December 2007

Case Taken Apart

Iv'e drawn around the parts on the bezal that need filling and cutting

24th December 2007

Iv'e cut out the side panel that will hold the resivrs

and heres the panel back on the case

29th December 2007

i've appled the first layer of filler to the other side panel to make it smoth to get rid of the horribly x, and it's ready to be sanded down and a nother coat appleyed

and heres the case with only the cut side panel on

31st December 2007

i've sanded down the first layer of filler and have appled the secend coat, i think i only need 2 more layers after this one

i went shopping i brougt myself a nice new shiny dremel 300

and some more filler and some nuts and bolts

1st January 2008

and i have sanded down the filler on the side panel, one more layer shound do the trick now

18th January 2008

i've marked out the front metal before the plastic bezel and on the plastic pipe.

i'm cutting the metal so the a can place a sheet of aluminm in there so i can cut holes for the fans because at the moment the is holes and inlets everywhere. and i cound leave it but it wound be better if i made it fresh.

26th January 2008

i have Solded all the Resistors on to the LED's for the bottom

ready for the black wires and heat shrink

all solded up now just need heat shrink and test fit

With heat shrink Added

and a little test fit

all wired up

1st February 2008

i have cut out and grinded down the front metal panel before the bezel

i am buying a fan grill for the 2 triple rads, thanks marcus00 for this

4th February 2008

i got home from work and my parcels had come

1 big box and a screen

and now for the contents of the box

thermaltake TR2 - 500W PSU

OCZ DDR2 Ram

EVGA 8800gt 512mb

intel core 2 quad

ASUS P5N32-E SLI Plus Motherboard

32bit Vista OEM

Samsung 500gb Hard Drive

Logitech S510 Keyboard and Mouse

7th February 2008

5m of 1/2 tubeing

2 swiftech pumps

2 black ice 360 rads

2 ek 250 res

6 fans

ek 8800gt block

barbs and paste

rad brackets and hose clips

1/2 gromets

and my d-tec block and kit are on back order and shound be here the end of next week

17th February 2008

my d-tek fusions came this week and the other screws for the rad, thanks rob, i also got sent a little WCUK badge with that

front perpex panel instead of the metal one i made which will in cooperate led's

these will hold the tubes which i will much up to 4s, i have designs theres as thee is going to be a hell of a lot of tubing and once again led's incorporated into the perspex

i have also designed some for 2 lots of tubing, and again with led's

:D

First of I wound like to thank Paul at CCS Windscreens for sponsoring me for this mod

I have applied another coat of filler on to the side panel

When I cut of the excess plastic on the front bezel it left the area around it ugly and rough so I put a sanding disc in the dremel and sanded it down.

I’m going to include a quick safety message in here, about safety items when dremeling, due to the fact I spent 5 hours in A&E on Thursday, I was dremeling out some metal sheeting when the disc snapped and landed in my eye,

I have got a cut my the side of my left eye, a scratched eye and there was dermel dust in there

There lifted up my eyelid and shoved a cotton bud up there to remove the dust, which was really wied then the put some orange dye in my eye to make sure it was all out,

Now I’ve got a half orange eye, which I can’t see, propley out of, and have to put eyedrops and cream in for the next week

So I recommend now that you where there’s dust masks

And some goggles

After that now for the dremeling

Before Sanding

After Sanding

as you can see from the picture above that I have rounded off the bottom of the bezel for the lain li ports that I am going to buy

I am also going to change the design of the side panel, due to the fact that I put the res’s up onto the side panel and the angles didn’t look right, so I am going to put 3mm Perspex under the side panel and then cut out the new hole and filler up the holes after I have installed the Perspex surroundings

Like THEkorean did with his black and which wavemaster

I will be doing something like that but with two res’s instead of one

I have also changed my mind on the front fans I will now have two 120mm fans together instead of a 92mm and a 120mm

Here is the new design

I will make a fan box to go in the front of my case for this and will make a turbine style front bezel as before for the fans, which I will filler up.

I am also deciding on if I if should put a 7’ screen on the bezel of the case.

Well after them changes I had some more,

I’m going to get it spayed my by mate Colin and then get it airbrushed with lightin stripes.

That’s it for now happy modding

man, this thing has got me stoked

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scar~face

man, this thing has got me stoked

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it's got my head in so many designs if money was'nt a problem, it woun never end, i wound install something then decided to mod it some more :D:D

Whats your native language? It sounds kazakhstian when i sound it out. I was reading it as if i was borat :)

Cool mod dude. Looks like its going to be a nice one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by J-Roc

Whats your native language? It sounds kazakhstian when i sound it out. I was reading it as if i was borat :)

Cool mod dude. Looks like its going to be a nice one.

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english but it wound be cool to be borat, but i am dexlic so expect it to be bad in some places, the words which are spelt wrong is because firefox dos't recinoise it ether, HE HE, there is 3 words spelt wrong in that sentence

that looks nice:O and a nice bunch of hardware you got there to:p

Quote:

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Originally Posted by p0Pe

that looks nice:O and a nice bunch of hardware you got there to:p

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:banana::banana: yes i got something nice :banana::banana:

i'm consufused :?:? because some people on other forums didn't like the hardware choices :up::up:

Nice work so far buddy. I like your defyant way of mounting the reservoirs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

Nice work so far buddy. I like your defyant way of mounting the reservoirs.

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haha. I thought the same thing. It's a method that is proven to look good though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tinker

haha. I thought the same thing. It's a method that is proven to look good though.

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who's defyant :?:?, only joking, :D:D just love his work so i thought i wound give it ago :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bentleya

who's defyant :?:?, only joking, :D:D just love his work so i thought i wound give it ago :up:

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heh... lookin at your work so far, there is no way this doesnt have some inspiration from him...im a big fan of his work also, cant wait to see how your case turns out!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by b4i7

heh... lookin at your work so far, there is no way this doesnt have some inspiration from him...im a big fan of his work also, cant wait to see how your case turns out!

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my plexi is coming on friday, and I'm going to get some more toys tonight or tomorrow ready for it, :D:D expect an update some time friday :banana:

23rd February 2008

In this update I have gone Perspex mad, and I mean it, Paul hocked me up with my Perspex and loads of off cuts to, so a big thank you to him.

Look at all that Perspex, I sorted though what he gave me, to the stuff that he cut for me

all the Perspex there is for my 2 120mm fan box that will sit in the front of the case

smoked Perspex for the back of the case

3mm clear Perspex for the new front of the case

the new side panel

and all of that is for spare, which I will use, he he he, secret plan



Now we got all that out the way, I went down the local screwfix on Thursday to get some new toys, for the Perspex

Tap and Die set

And some new self centering, hss extreme 2 drill bits

And I did order a nice bench drill press but there didn’t have it in stock, ooo well I check back next week for it

Well guys my dads got this secret stash of sand paper filler and filling equipment from when he was a body repair and spay expert

Gave be some stuff for me to work with

Some nice filler knife things, and some silicon carbine paper better know as wet and dry, a tip for all the people doing there technology GCSE, You have to say glass paper instead of sand paper and silicon carbine paper instead of wet and dry, as both of them are trade names.

All right on to the front panel, Paul cut all my Perspex to size, all I had to do was trim a few edges at the bottom and the side

I have drilled the six holes for the bolts that will hold it to the front metal of the case, plus the 4 big holes for the brackets that connect the bezel to the case

and a little test fit

I have drilled out the 3mm holes for the leds, which will light up the centre hole for the 2 120mm fan intake

That’s it for now Happy Modding

24th February 2008

After drilling most of the holes yesterday for the front plexi I am now moving on to the fan box which is going to be made out of 6mm clear Perspex, I haven’t finished the front plexi, due to the fact I a m waiting for my 114mm hole saw to be delivered

I checked over the measument for the fan box, in which got cut out, and I forgot when I designed it that it wound be 10mm, so I have drawn out the new lines to be cut

As you can see in the picture below where the blade got hot when I was cutting it with my jigsaw, it has melted it a bit leaving the sides stringy a bit of sanding should solve the problem

I will not start to drill the holes in the box to my hole saw comes, so I am just going to sand down the edges to make the fit better

As I have got to sand the edges down I fort I wound give it a little test fit just in case I sand to much off

I told you a few updates ago that I was changing the side panel, I have cut out the centre of the side panel ready for Perspex

I have marked out the Perspex that will go on the side panel ready to be cut

All clamped up ready to be cut

All cut, time to mark the new design

A little test fit, WOW perfect first time, me happy

New design marked out, and ready to me cut

A little test fit, just gotta cut out a bit more on the real side panel

Sorted now for the cutting of the Perspex

A couple of holes for the jigsaw

Centre Cut Out

All Cut Out

Another Test Fit

ok on to the sides of the side panel, I will cut this pipe into 4 to make the corner sections of the panel

and here it is chopped up

that’s it for now happy modding, and there might be an update later, I’ve had to stop cos it’s started to rain and my work area is outside

Looking nice, keep it up.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

Looking nice, keep it up.

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should be an update later, because i'm taking my sie oanel to work to sand :up:

gonna look slick:D... get it moving :p...

got th sanding done i'll update the log tomorow, just sorting out my desk,, wat a mess

well i have been drawing up more designs this week, and i am definitely going with the front 7" screen but with a twist, there will be two dvd drives be hide the screen, ok now your wondering how i will get to the dvd drives....

i will have 4 gas struts one on each corner on the screen, i will make brackets on the dvd drives so when i open them the screen will move forward,


crazy or what, keep a look out for my finally design on this, by the end of the week

1st March 2008


First off the side panel, in the last updated I said I might update later but I didn’t updated but I did get some work done, I continue from where I left off

I have glued in the corners for the side panel

And now the straight edges

I just wanted to show how messy your work area gets when you work with Perspex

Ready for the belt sander

All sanded

Before I get on to today’s update, I’ve good some more supplies


One hell of a load of filler (standard p40 stuff, with hairs in)

100m of bell wire

2 4cm fans for the plate divider

a soldering aid, I have been trying to get one of these for ages, so I’m very happy

Now on to the update, I am going to start this update with the inside plate divider, I have marked the Perspex with the cut and bending lines

After a quick chop on the chop saw

I’m going to Leave the Bending to later, because I want to get most of the filling down on the side panel

Have marked and drilled 6 4mm Holes for bolts on the side panel, these will be used later for securing the mesh and the Perspex with led’s in, I have randomly placed the six holes!!!

I have taped the holes for the bolts so there stay in position while I put the filler on, and I have inserted the bolts

A few final adjustments on the side panel before gluing

Now I have glued the Perspex to the side panel ready for filler

will be some more later but to then happy modding

Will I have got the first lot of filler on the side panel

Seconded lot

Third lot

Forth Lot

That’s it for now there will be an update later to then happy modding

2nd march 2008

last night i did reattempt the bending but it went wrong again so i have marked it up for the third time

and here it is bent

i have marked up for the 2 40mm fans

and for the 4 pipe holes for the water-cooling setup

here it is ready to be drilled

and drilled

i have also drilled holes at each end for two bolts for the perspex that will go on top

and here the other bit to be drilled

and here it done

thats it for now to next time happy modding

8th Febuary 2008

well it’s been a while since the last update, due to the fact of redoing the first which is still not done, but I think it is an improvement on the last,

I’ve spent the week ordering and trying to source parts, with some joy and a lot of (can’t find what I’m looking for)

So the lot of pro ducts came for the custom cables, and there over stuff I’m ordering later

So to start 100 3.5mm stereo jacks (nice little photo shot here If I was good at taking photo)

50 3.5mm PCB stereo sockets (nice little photo shot here if I was good at taking photos)

and I’m going to get some nice hi res Photos here in a week or so for my new avatar (HE HE)

I have order 300 leds on Tuesday and should be here the begging of next week, 100 red, 100 white and 100 UV all with 12v resteris (and prosser13 should be some coming your way)

Now on to the side panel, (first few are teaser shots which you might of seen this week)

I can tell you now this is going to be one heavy beast.

There will be an update later till then happy modding

I'm using male and female headphone jacks to connect the wires on my side panel fans for a quick release solution.

Really like the side panel, dual res's look great

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

I'm using male and female headphone jacks to connect the wires on my side panel fans for a quick release solution.

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yer it is a better option but if you pul them out while the powers on you fry your power suppley :(:(

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Xperiment

Really like the side panel, dual res's look great

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thanks Xperiment, going to start sanding in a hour or so :up:

9th March 2008

i have sanded, dremeled, cut and other means for 2 hours to prep the side panel for the 2nd layer of filler

now for the 2nd layer

sorry for the shot update, that filler toke forever, and i had to go out at lunch for a couple of hours

but to next time happy modding

Thanks for the tip.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The boy 4rm oz

Thanks for the tip.

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yer i only found out my self this week :D

14th March 2008

well some of my products came that I ordered, my red Perspex and tubing for my cables

well now you’ve seen them lets start chopping it up (a row of five pictures because I think it is self explaining)

well after doing all of that I drilled the 5 mm holes and the B**** cracked, I’m not to fussed about it because this time I will make it better,

I have made a quick sketchup model for you to see what it should look like. And this bit of Perspex will fit over the top of the divider plate where the tube holes are.

well before I redo that little piece of Perspex, I’m going to apply another layer of filler to the side panel so it can dry a bit while I do my Perspex.

I have marked off areas of the side panel with masking tape, these area are area I don’t want filler on, you while notice in the picture that o have marked with a marker pen on the side panel, these are the areas I am applying filler to

I tried to put the side panel back on the case the other day and the Perspex was stopping it, so the dremels out and it’s going to get cut

Well now I got that cut out, now out with the sand paper for the side panel

There will be an update later, I just fort u guys wound want this update wile I sand for hours

Till the next update happy modding

I like the idea with the red plexi.

15th march 2008

my leds came today, 100 red, 100 white and 100 uv, there all came with resterias and i brought them of ebay, from a ebay shop that is in china

now on to today i am going to be doing some work on the divider plate, so to start i have marked out holes for bolts and leds

i will be drilloing 6 holes for leds using a 3mm drill bit and 4 holes for the bolts using a 5mm drill bit

i have centre puched ready for the drill bit

all the holes drilled, i got scared when i was driling for the bolts as it was right on the bend but it was fine

next up i have cut out w section of red perspex, one to go over the tubing holes and one to go over the fan holes

first up i will drill 2 5mm holes for bolts in the tubing perspex

and 4 5mm holes for bolts in the fan area

i am mking 9 6mm holes at the back of the divider plate for stero jacks, i have marked it out below

ready to be drilled

it was all going to plan till i drilled the last hole, i had to change the batteriy on the drill and was to much power and a cracked the perspex, ooo nose i really feel like C***

so i will be making number 3 tomoz but i'm not sure hoe much perspex i'll have to do it, i have decided to deign all my perspex on sketchup and get it laser cut out as i have made it twich by hand and it has gone wrong

till next time happy modding

looks goooooooood man! +rep worthy for sure:O

but DAMN thats alot of tubes xD

I agree looks great! Can't wait to see it lit up.

thanks guys, i'm going to spend tomorrow doing my deigns for the perspex in sketchup ready to be laser cut

I added your header and just realized that you have already made one (probably tired of waiting). Sorry for taking so long, I won't be offended if you would rather not use it.

Jon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eclecticos

I agree looks great! Can't wait to see it lit up.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jdbnsn

I added your header and just realized that you have already made one (probably tired of waiting). Sorry for taking so long, I won't be offended if you would rather not use it.

Jon

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i'll have a look first and see ;);)

24 March 2008

Well long time no update, so heres a big one, i have started work on the front bezel of the case

I have marsked of the front bezel and marked ready to be dremeled out

Here is the pipe i will be using for the corners of the hole

Here the hole is cut out

i have cut the piping to the right size for the hole

i have marsked up the pipe to the case while i apply the filler

Here i have used body filler on the underside to hold the plastic in place

A test fit to see what it looks like

i have marsked up the other corner

and here it is with the filler

test fit

Remember this perspex, yes it is the old plate divider i will be using stripes to make the straight edges

here there are cut out

I have marsked them up like before ready for filling

Filled

And a test ft

From this point i will not be explain the pictures as i go along, basically it is layers of filler applied followed by sanding down of it then a test fit on the case

well the front bezel is not finished yet i have got to measure and cut perspex for the drive bays for a fan controller and power switches, filler in side the intake hole, sand down the bottom of the pip so there uniform and some more stuff but i don't want to bore you.

i also have got some more plans for the case, one of which involves motorized gas struts. i have been searching for these but as i don't do what there are called it is a bit hard trying to find them :( so i ask dose anybody know what there called, and it wound be even better if you post a link to the shop :)

so till next time happy modding