Project: Afterburner

PROJECT:

Well, Part Crysis is finished, so I am moving onto my next project.

This will be based on an Antec 900 case. Since I got a new shuttle for LAN parties, I decided I can build a rig with wreckless abandon since weight and value are not a concern if it is staying on my desk...

The case itself will be airforce themed, I can't go into much more detail there, but I am sure you will start to see it's fighter-jet inspired designs popping up as I go through the worklog.

Today I just have a few prelimenary shots for ya'll, the markings for wire management, designs for custom displays and power on options, a one of my displays in motion.

First, here are the holes I need to cut for the wire management:

Next, I have the top panel... I am replacing the 240mm fan with a 2x 120mm radiator grill, and setting up one of two radiators up there... I am also putting a "cockpit" (ie a bunch of shiny LCD's and buttons) up there to replace all of the stock case buttons.

Of course, the case is Watercooled, I am having some custom parts made for me by the awesome guys at Danger Den (big throw out to Jeremy, Dennis, and all the boys out there), but I can't show you those yet, as A) It would ruin the suprise, and B) I haven't even designed them yet lol. However, here is what I do have...

I got two of these:

And they will go here:

And here:

Also have an awesome pump! 18 watt DDC, with a Dangerden Acrylic top, a new product. Performance so far is good, about the same as the XSPC one I had, plus it has more customization options. Only concern is that the flowrate is dropped slightly because of the lower bore size.

And the heart of the system: Intel QX9650 Engineering Sample: I won this at the PDXLAN11 Overclocking Competition, and just had to build an uber rig around it.

And what is left to buy?

And finally, a nice little video of a custom script I setup for my Matrix Orbital GX Typhoon:

Nice. wanting to see more of this one.

Tell me, which looks better?

A:

OR

B:

PS, here is a little model I am working on... very rough, when I am done I will have the whole thing designed out... I decided to do this becuase last time I went by the seat of my pants and it would seem to me that the seat of my pants and I have different ideas regarding the way my mods should go.

I also have a rough design for the top panel done:

I have a feeling this will be good :)

May I make a suggestion to the first design for the front grill, it looks great but I think it is missing something?? I would add 2 triangles to the top and bottom between the "wings" I will call them. Kinda like this "<" but have the point facing the center of the grill.

I see what you mean and I will have to try and implement it... See, that is the air force logo:

I can understand though, and I wanted to open up airflow down there, so I have to look into my options.

Ch-ch-check it out!

Front panel laser design! (Yes, I even made it myself!)

Side angled shot of the case to give a basic layout idea. Its amazing how well the front panel worked out, I fit an Optical Drive, 2 HDD, and the radiator with about 3/4" to spare up front.

Inside of case, painted it up, cut holes for wire management. PSU is installed, pump is in the relative location it will end up. Holes will be lined once my Performance PC's shipment comes in...

And, the top of the case, I have to rebuild the top panel to support the parts shown... but that shows what I am going to have going on up there.

Lol what's that octopus doing sitting at the bottom of your case??? lol. Nice work on the front panel design.

That would be the power supply wires :P Sarcastic answer for a sarcastic question!

I cannot do the routing until next monday, my shipment of c-channel is coming then so I can line the holes that I cut, I would wire it up now but I dont want the wires to be severed on the PSU.

Question for you guys, does anyone know where I can get some cheap plastic material? I dont really need to use anything as high grade as acrylic since I will just end up painting it anyways.

What I am looking for is a styrene supplier. In addition to this, what is everyones prefered brand of modeling putty? I need to get some kind of filler, and I really don't like bondo, yet would it be the best thing to use considering that I am covering a large area?

Thanks in advance.

I would just use plexi. I went to a plastics place over here and asked for some offcuts that were 4mm thick, the guy gave me about 500x500mm worth for $10AUD.

Polly filler should work well for your putty needs. We don't have Bondo (that I have seen) over here in Australia but I have found that basically any of the fillers that you can get from the hardware store works well. Just ask for their advice before purchase and you should be fine.

The issue is not funds, its the actual material itself. What I need is something that is fairly soft so it will cut easily using a dremel, something that I can use a heatgun to bend, and something that is very thin.

I need something around 3mm thick, that I can cut with a dremel. I also need to drill many holes through it, and it is preferable that it has a rough surface.

Mabye you should look away from plexi and look towards aluminium sheet metal. Nice and soft, easy to bend without heat gun and easy to drill.

That will not work either :)

What this case is for is the PDXLAN 12 modding competition. The only rule was the case had to be an Antec 900.

Now, for my theme, I decided to make what I felt that the Antec 900 should have been from the start. Making an alloy top panel would completely void that goal. I need to use a sort of plastic, and it looks like acrylic is not going to work for what I am trying to do.

Maybe Styrene? Like what Paul, Bod, and rendermanDan used on their mods?

Well, I ended up using acrylic. Turned out pretty well actually, will end up being perfect once I get it all done.

I will throw up some pictures of my work thus far tonight.

So, as I promised, I have updated pictures! Keep in mind, this is not by any means the finished product, just one more step to the end.

Here is my shipment from Performance PC's, they stuck a cat in the box too, I don't know what to do with it but it sure is cute!

Here is the interior of the case after I got done putting trim on the holes and got my wiring all done up. All the wires will be hidden behind the mobo when I am through.

Here is a shot of the front sans panel.

Here is a closeup shot of that

This is the custom piece that I built to extend the top panel so I can mount the thermochill.

A shot of it all together

And finally my desk with the current shuttle that I am using while I build this:

If you are looking for a filler and / or an epoxy, try marine tex. I have found that it works pretty good.

Looking good buddy. YAY free cat lol.

I'll have to look up marine tex. I was going to use bondo, but I have had bad past experiences with it. Is marine tex a two part mix?

I'll get some more pics up later once I start doing cutting and moulding on the top bezel.

Okay, get ready for a BIG one! Lots of pics and work done!

First, I got the top radiator panel made up.

Obviously, I need to do a lot of bondo and sanding on it, then paint! I also need some longer screws, the ones I bought were the right thread but about 1mm too short! A real shame.

Here is a great money shot showing off teh sexy AC Ryan Blackfire fans.

And finally, I got the side panel (partially) cut... my diamond bit blade ended up rounding off right on the home stretch :( I will be fixing that soon though. And of course, the top panel in all of its glory, fully mounted and locked to the top of the case!

And one more for yeh!

Suggestions, comments, questions, all are welcome!

Looks cool. Are you going to paint that plexi shroud? The glue marks on the seems are kinda unsightly.

be a pitty to paint it cuz it looks so cool but yea teh glue is un sexc!!! lol good work tho

Everyone keeps askign me this, and I keep typing it in the thread! There are more than pictures folks!

Hehe, anyways, I will be scraping off all the glue, and filling the corners with bondo, and rounding it off and sanding it until it looks like one solid piece, then I will be painting it. As I have stated, its a ROUGH piece, no where close to being done.

Sorry I must have skipped that part.

marine tex is a two part epoxy/filler. They have a few different products; look at their website

btw, I think the case is starting to look pretty good.

Hmmm...:think: Very similar to the design I had for my project. Unfortunately, it's been cancelled due to financial reasons (trying to keep my house...). Good luck with this project man. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Remy

Yes, I have teh pictures!

First, I got the top piece finished for the most part... there are still some grooves and ridges I have to take care of but this is where I am at thus far.

Sooooo smooth.

Here is how it looks in the back. That was the easiest part obviously.

Heres the wiring work that I did... I got all my wires fed through behind the mobo, the pump(s) are in place, its lookin great!

Heres the front, I am really happy with the wiring up here, it came out really clean... that silver thing above the HD's is an LED bar, it will illuminate the PALIT logo that will be on the front panel once it gets here.

I got some new hardware too!

Corsair Dominator DDR800

I also removed the LED from my Xfi Xtreme Gamer Fatal1ty edition... I didn't want that stinkin F on there.

And it all together thus far:

Let me know what you think!

nice work keep it up mate

wow hot damn that top looks nice:D didnt think it woud turn out that smooth!
+rep

Man that looks HOT, the cover is awesome. Nice work there. +rep

Thanks for the kind words guys!

I got the holes planned out today, I am going to run dual fillports and a bulgin power switch, so I need to drill those holes today.

I also got sponsored by, as far as I am concerned, the best Water Cooling company there is, Danger Den! Big thanks to those guys.

My box of goodies should be here today, and I will be sure to promptly post pictures of me hacking brand new WC parts.

Lucky you. I need a new pump, my current one probably won't stand the third radiator I want to add to the loop lol.

THREE rads in one loop?! Gotta see that.

Today, I am making the LCD bezel (for the case), getting the holes drilled for my fillports and buttons and LED's, and IF my Danger Den box comes.... well then you are REALLY going to like what you see tonight.

Yeah man. An 80mm, 120mm and 240mm lol. That's why I recon I need the new pump lol.

I got a fair bit of work done so far this weekend:

First, I got a ROUGH outline for the LCD placement done, as well as drilled holes for the fillports and power button.

Next, I got the side panel painted and trimmed... window will be coming soon.

Close up shot of the paint... what looks like damage is actually the metal flakes in the paint reflecting light.

And, the money shot of my PC, the new front panel custom designed by myself in association with Danger Den. Thanks again to them, and thanks to Palit for the great video card sponsorship! Hear me out, these cards really are great, Palit deviates from reference design at times, in order to get maximum performance, and it shows!

And here is a shot of it all together so far.

Wiring comes up next week, buying mobo monday, video cards coming soon, nearing the finishing steps here :)

That window trim looks very schmik...may I ask where you got it from? Mod is looking great, love the paint.

The trim is from Autozone, its just normal car window/ door trim.

Thought it looked familiar lol.