Project DEEP PURPLE (The Introduction)

Hello fellow modders! I’ve been perusing through TBCS for about 2 months now and I have to say I’m impressed. J So, as such, I’ve made up my mind to do my project work-log here. I’ve been building systems for years now, and have one real heavy mod to my name (did it about 6 years ago, when modding was still pretty uncommon).

Anyway…moving on to project DEEP PURPLE. Currently I’ve got a system on my desk, built in a plexi box, with 6x 80mm system fans, 2x 40mm fans on the HD, 2x 80mm PSU fans, a 40mm chipset fan, a 40mm VPU fan, and a monster Athalon cooling fan. Needless to say, it’s loud, well, it’s worse than loud, I seriously thing I’m going deaf from it. That, and the fact that the system is a good 4 years old, has finally pushed me over the edge and forced me to start building my new system.

Now, I’ve grown a few years since my first mod (not the plexi, that was more of a parted out build than a mod), and I think I know where I want to go with this system. Basically, I want silent, smooth, and elegant. No harsh red neons, no multi-color eyesores, I want something that will blend in with my personal taste and style.

I’ve spent a couple of months just researching what I want, looking at part and company reviews, and most importantly surfing the internet for the perfect case to begin with. Oh, did I mention that, due to my job, I live in India right now so I can’t just run to Home Depot or BestBuy to pick up parts? J My challenge is limited to what I can mail-order from the states, which is 99% of my new build.

I was going to hold off on starting the project log until I got all of my parts in, but, you know how it is when boxes start showing up. You just can’t wait to get the approval of your peers and start detailing all of your work. So without further ado, here is what I’m going for overall, I wanted a strong gaming system, that would look great, for around $2k, not too bad a goal and I think I hit the mark:

Primary System Specs/Components:
CPU: Intel 820d Dual-Core 2.8Ghz
RAM: 2Gb DDR2-667 Patriot Memory
MOBO: Gigabyte GA8NSLI (Couldn’t find any mobo’s with a purple PCB, but this one had great reviews, and it’s blue, pretty close, it should work great in the end.)
VPU: XFX GeForce 7900GT
HD’s: 2x (striped) Maxtor 200gb SATA’s
Optical: Lite-On DVD/RW
PSU: Rosewill Modular Black 550W

Cooling System Components:
Pump: Danger Den D5 Pump
Blocks: DD RBX775 CPU, DD NV-78 VPU, DD Maze-4 Chipset, DD Aqua-Drive HD Block,
Rads: 2x DD Black Ice Extreme 120mm single radiators
Reservoir: Innovatek Tank-o-Matic w/ Black Aluminum caps.
Fans: 3x Coolermaster Silent 120mm Purple LED fans
(1 for each rad, one to replace the blue, loud fan in the PSU)
3x 120mm silicone fan silencers
Fluid: Blue & Red PrimoChill Ice fluid (hoping to mix for purple)

Case & Accent Bits:Case: ThermalTake Armor, aluminum (silver, but it’s the first thing to get changed)
Light: 15” Purple Lava Neon tube from StreetGlow
Light: 2x 15” Black-Neon tubes from StreetGlow
Control: PC-Neon connector kit from StreetGlow (I love how clean and simple this thing is)
Misc: Copious amounts of black cable sleeving, heat shrink, and tie wraps. I’m doing this one right.

My Plan:As far as modding, I’m going to do a total case destruction. J The internals are all going to be a nice high-gloss black. Outside the case is going to be a deep midnight purple, with black accents. I have in mind exactly what the accents will be, but I’m not going to spoil the fun yet. I’m hoping to replace the bottom window that comes in the case with a piece of un-etched plexi, since this will be my case and not ThermalTakes. I’m going to try my hand at replacing the system LED’s on the case with purple ones as well.

The entire water-cooling system is going to be a ½” ID setup, with the purple UV reactive fluid. All my other cables inside the case will either be totally buried (behind the mobo, through the racks, routed out of window view, etc.) or done in black to hide. Between the black lights and purple fluid, and purple lights, I’m really trying to do a subtle highlighting of the water-cooling setup. I’m also thinking of putting some holes in the case windows and weaving some extra tubing in and out of the case for effect, but I’m not sure if this’ll be feasible without overstressing my water pump.

As pieces start coming in the mail, I’ll do individual component, and small-step pictures (as I’ve got a lot of friends who have never seen a PC built from scratch, and it’ll be a fun way to show them what goes into building a computer, and what goes into modding one). The first couple of boxes are in, so when I get home this evening, I’ll do some pictures and start putting them in.

My Problem:
As I said, I live overseas, and I have a limit on box-size I can receive in the mail. So, I can’t actually pick up my case until I head home on vacation this summer. In the meantime, I’ll start with this intro, and the photos of what I’ll be doing with the components I get in (mounting water blocks, changing out fittings, looming cables, all the little stuff). When I get back from vacation on the 24th of July, then the true fun will begin (rivet drilling, sanding, cleaning, painting, assembling, all that stuff).

The Conclusion (for now):
So, I hope you will all enjoy looking at the (slow) evolution of my new beast. I’m up for comments/suggestions as always, and I am more than happy to just chat about my design with people. 8)

Cheers for now, the next post will follow with pictures of the first couple of boxes I’ve gotten in.

-Modding Fan

So, welcome back to project DEEP PURPLE. My first two boxes of parts came in today. I'm ordering as I can each payday and all, but here's what came in today.

First, the Motherboard showed up. Yay!

It's a nice looking board overall, but, look at the size of those heatsinks!!!

Those are going to have to go. All in due time.

The box came with the standard goodies for an SLI board. PCI Cables, an SATA Cable, a bridge to connect the two PCIX video cards if you go SLI, and the retainer for the bridge. Manual is thin, but, the one online has already answered all my questions.

Along with the motherboard, the processor came as well (actually found them as a package deal from PriceWatch.com. I'm only showing the packaging from the processor (if you look close on the picture of the board above, I got a little ahead of myself and couldn't help but drop the CPU in already) so you can see the gigantic fan and heatsink. Really, these are among the primary reasons that I'm doing a watercooling setup...the noise is insane!

Sounds cool, cant wait to see more progress

So, as I said, there were two boxes waiting in the mailroom for me. Number two was from the gang over at FrozenCPU.com this box was just *loaded* with all sorts of accessories, extras, and little tidbits.

Most importantly, the first stack of my watercooling gear came in:

The CPU Cooler, a DangerDen RBX block.

Two chipset coolers, for the north and south bridge chips. Both DangerDen Maze-4 waterblocks.

The top-mounted Fillport, so I can ensure my system is nice and full, and even better, bubble free at all times!

A handfull of extra 1/2" barbs from DangerDen, just in case any of my other bits need new barbs (i'm worried about the radiators actually, the pictures show them with plactic barbs and that just won't do).

A nice 13' length of 1/2" ID tubing.

PrimoChill Ice fluid, in Red. As I mentioned above I'm going to mix a bottle of Red with Blue to get Purple. However, FrozenCPU was out of blue, so that's coming in anther order.

The CoolerMaster Silent Purple LED fans came.

The Fan Silencers, an all important part for my quiet system.

Beyond the cooling stuff, a few other items came in.

My IDE cable for the DVD/RW.

My pre-loomed SATA Cables. I know, it's cheating having cables loomed at the store, but, I've never seen an SATA cable, and really had no idea if the loom I was buying would fit over the ends or not, and I was pretty sure that you can't remove the end off of an SATA like you can with Molex power...so...I figured better safe than sorry right?

And last but not least in this box was my small stack of goodies that I'll be using to do my own wiremanagement (what little I'll have to do). The heatshrink, black loom, and tie-wraps.

That's all the parts for now. I probably won't be able to contain myself this week and you're sure to see me putting, at least, my chipset blocks on (if I don't do the chipset and CPU blocks).

I'll try to keep this up to date, at least until I head on vacation. :) Can't wait till I get back and can start working on the case itself.

Cheers for now!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Scotty

Sounds cool, cant wait to see more progress

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Only problem is that a lot of real "progress" won't be too visible until I get my case. That's when *most* of the work will start. But, I'm sure little things like water block polishing and attaching will happen.

But...thanks for the vote of confidence. I'm sure I'll need all the support I can get when it comes to my painting. :) I haven't so much as looked at a can of paint in, oh, 5 years?

Either way, it'll be a great learning experience. I'll try to throw in highlights of any and all mistakes I make to help anyone else avoid them.

Cheers!

looking good, danger den now has a silver version of it's top performing CPU block :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Shikimaru

looking good, danger den now has a silver version of it's top performing CPU block :)

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Damn....and I only find this out *after* I get my stuff in and can't really process returns due to where I live. Oh well, the copper will work well. :)

You're gonna make us wait how long?:? :eek: LOL!:D JK!:rolleyes: This will turn out to be a cool mod when you finish it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Short Modder

You're gonna make us wait how long?:? :eek: LOL!:D JK!:rolleyes: This will turn out to be a cool mod when you finish it.

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Yup...sorry for the suspense. Like I said I really wanted to wait so I didn't have to put the thread on a one-month hiatus, but, when stuff started coming in I just had to start.

I got another box of stuff in today, but, I'm at work. Tonight I'll throw some more pictures up of the deliveries. I *so* can't wait to really start the hard work on this case. I'm going to do the whole primer + wetsanding and everything, a lot of work, and a lot of skills that I've never employed.

On a semi-related note; I leave for my vacation next week, and I can't wait. A weeks worth of SCUBA diving in Thailand, a week of visiting old friends in DC, a week back home with my family and attending my class reunion, and then a few days in Vegas. Somewhere in there, I need to hit a computer store and pick up the case to throw in my suitcase!

Cheers for now...pictures tonight!

Hello again my TBCS friends.

I got two things in the mail today, yay!

First was my bottle of blue PC Ice fluid. More non-conductive juice for my system. If you couldn't guess, I'm hoping to mix the red and blue to get purple (kindergarden was a long time ago, but that sounds about right to me).

Next, and more fun, was my water tank. 8) It's the Innovatek Tank-o-Matic. And the moment I got it I had to start putting it together...I need to do something right? Can't save all the fun for after vacation.

First, here's what it looked like out of the box:

Pretty basic, but, it's all in pieces!

My first issue with the T-o-M is that the barbs are were *way* too small. I'm going to be running a 1/2" ID system, and these just wouldn't cut it:

But I'd planned on this, and as you saw above, I ordered extra DD 1/2" barbs, which went on beautifully; first the compairison between the two:

And the re-put-together base:

Now that's waht I call unrestricted flow.

Next it came to putting in the input and outtake tubes into the base, but oops...can you see the problem that I almost didn't notice?

Yup, that's right...I nearly completley cut my flow off on the right tube by jamming it all the way down. Not sure how i caught that, but I know that I would have missed it had i left the original tiny barbs on. :eek: I'll just take that as a lesson and hope that i don't do anything blonde like that in the future.

Anyway, all put together this reservoir is one smooth looking piece, and will look great sitting in side my case lit up with a black light to show off all my (hopefully) purple fluid.

I'm spending the weekend packing for my vacation. SCUBA diving in Thailand calls! I'll be back with *many* more updates when I return from vacation. Don't abandon me in my abscence!

Cheers

MF

Mixing the PC ICE sounds fun, great if it works.

Hey, I always wondered if those fan silencers do anything, you'll have to let us know how that whole silencing deal goes. So far I'm liken the sound of this man ;) .

Haha, love the kindergarten comment.


Aaaanywho, keep up the good work (or the shipping?), and I can't wait to see it finished.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by monoflap

Hey, I always wondered if those fan silencers do anything, you'll have to let us know how that whole silencing deal goes. So far I'm liken the sound of this man ;) .

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I've always wondered the same thing. I figured as cheap as they were (a whopping $4.00 each) I'd try.

I plan on doing a rather non-scientific test. I'm going to bolt a fan to a radiator listen to it run, then put the silencer on and see if there is a difference.

I'll post the results of that test when more parts come in as well. It sounds odd to phrase it this way, but i can't wait to get back from vacation to really start on the meat-and-bones of this project. :)

hey modding fan,
where are your getting your mod supplies from. They are not available in India are they?

If you take the time to read you will discover the answer to your question

Quote:

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Originally Posted by modding.fan

Oh, did I mention that, due to my job, I live in India right now so I can’t just run to Home Depot or BestBuy to pick up parts? J My challenge is limited to what I can mail-order from the states, which is 99% of my new build.

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Also notice that the last post in this topic was a while ago so he probably wont answer.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slatter

hey modding fan,
where are your getting your mod supplies from. They are not available in India are they?

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Hello! As Simon mentioned, I have to mail-order most of my parts. I've gotten different pieces on order from:
www.xoxide.com
www.performancepcs.com
www.frozencpu.com
and there was one other site that I got through a reference from www.pricewatch.com...but I can't recall the name now.

I'm currently about 1/4 through my vacation. I'm in the airport at Narita Japan having just survived a full week of SCUBA diving in Thailand. :D I'm heading to Washington DC now where I'll be picking up my Case, then after a few weeks of fun between DC, Denver and Vegas....it'll be back to India, and I'll get back to work on Deep Purple!

But...for anyone who may be interested in knowing what it's like to be 30 meters underwater in Thailand, I'll let one of the oceans ambassador's say hello for now:

Cheers for now!

-MF

Quote:

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Originally Posted by modding.fan

Hello! As Simon mentioned, I have to mail-order most of my parts. I've gotten different pieces on order from:
www.xoxide.com
www.performancepcs.com
www.frozencpu.com
and there was one other site that I got through a reference from www.pricewatch.com...but I can't recall the name now.

I'm currently about 1/4 through my vacation. I'm in the airport at Narita Japan having just survived a full week of SCUBA diving in Thailand. :D I'm heading to Washington DC now where I'll be picking up my Case, then after a few weeks of fun between DC, Denver and Vegas....it'll be back to India, and I'll get back to work on Deep Purple!

But...for anyone who may be interested in knowing what it's like to be 30 meters underwater in Thailand, I'll let one of the oceans ambassador's say hello for now:

Cheers for now!

-MF

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Wow. I want. Please.

BACK TO REALITY!

Ok the mod is really awsome right now, but I'm not sure if the 2 different colored coolants will mix? Aren't they kind of like oil? Yeah sure you can mix 'em up, but after an hour they'll just seperate again?

Thanks, maximan1

Quote:

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Originally Posted by maximan1

Wow. I want. Please.

BACK TO REALITY!

Ok the mod is really awsome right now, but I'm not sure if the 2 different colored coolants will mix? Aren't they kind of like oil? Yeah sure you can mix 'em up, but after an hour they'll just seperate again?

Thanks, maximan1

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Well, I'm hoping that, like most similar oils, they'd mix together just fine (unlike, say, oil & water). But, with the pump constantly churning them anyway...it should stay mixed.

I'm going to try it outside of the case with a couple of ounces each when I get home. If it doesn't work, back to the drawing board on fluid. :(

If it doesn't work, just add some blue food coloring to the red fluid....and its basically anti-freeze, so i don't see why it wouldn't mix with each other, its the same brand and type.

Saw someone wondering about the silican fan gromits.

I have tried these and can say that I dont think they work particularly well

EAR fasteners are what you need. Reputed to be much more effective.

They are little rubber thingies that replace the screws in your fan. Isolating it from the case. The trouble with the gasket is that the screws still transmit some vibration. Using both would be the best presumably.

I read www.silentpcreview.com and tests there by Mike Chin and forum contributers concur with my own experiance.

Hello everyone!

I'm finally back from vacation, and if you want to know the true definition of fun, try hauling a full sized tower-case through 4 major airports as luggage. For some reason, you will (I promise) get stopped at every airport for an extensive security screening while hauling the box for a ThermalTake Armor case. :mad:

Anyway, this weekend or next week (depending on how finals go) I'll start the deconstruction and painting of this pristine (shall I say virgin) case. I've still got a load of parts to get ordered in the meantime (can we say nearly all of my cooling system, hard drives, video card, neon, etc.); but the case painting & reconstruction should occupy me for a payday or two.

Pictures to follow this weekend as soon as I can find the cable to plug my camera into the comptuer.

Cheers!

MF

Project DEEP PURPLE is back again...and this time with content! :D

As I said, I finally got my new case while on vacation, along with some other important bits-and-baubles for the case work. First I'll post the basics of the case, the next post will be the initial destruction (or deconstruction...whatever) of the case.

My first problem encountered on vacation was that apparently I can't use a tape measure, and the real suitcase I intended on packing the new case in was too small, so yup, I got to endure the joy of hauling this with me from Wyoming to Colorado to Vegas to California to Germany and back to India. That was fun.

But, TT packed the case well enough that it survived beautifully. On opening the box, I found the case wrapped in a cloth/paper type bag. I'm not sure what it's really made of, but it apparently kept it pretty scratch free.

On removing this layer of wrapping, I see a nice window cover applied over the plexi, more scratch guarding. Not sure if you'll see it in the pic...I can but I know what i'm looking for. :)

Pictures from around the case...for anyone not totally familiar with the design. Yup...that's about 400 5 1/4 drive bays. (Okay, closer to 11, but still...it's a lot). All of them are air vents, with filters (more to follow on this later). So the case has lots of potential for passive cooling as well as active.

Anyway, looking at some of the other stuff that came home from vacation with me; I had to pick up paint in the states, I just can't find any quality spray paint here in India...maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, or maybe I just can't read the signs...but...here's what i picked up. (I only hope I got enough...<worry>). Two cans of very dark primer:

My inside color (black semi gloss):

And my exterior (the cap, in person, looks like a nice dark plum, doubt it'll carry over to everyone's monitors), though it just dawned on me that i wasn't smart enought at purchase time to test-spray it...here's to hoping:

Oh, and yes I'll be painting indoors, and yes I bought myself a nice respirator. I don't have pics of it because it's in the mail.

Of course, I had to buy myself a rivet tool (since I'm drilling out all the rivets in the case for a full and proper paint job inside). Somewhere along the way a case modder (I think I read it here on TBCS) suggested that, if one is to purchase a new rivet tool to buy one with a rotating head. After looking inside the case at where i'll be riveting...I want to hug whoever it was that suggested it.

Next post (after I get some work done, I'm in the office afterall), will be the initial deconstruction of the case. I haven't gone crazy with the drill yet, but I've taken it as far apart as I can with screwdrivers. And let me preview this for you now...this case is *insane* for deconstruction. It may be labeled as mostly tool-free...but...wow.

Welcome back!

Umm how did you bring back primer in an aersol as isn't illegal to put aersol cans in your luggage for aeroplane flights as they are really just a can full of perersized gas with a high flamable proplenent which isn't the best of things to have on a plane. Any way

I bet the baggage handlers along the way where like wtf a computer case. And airport security would have had a feild day imange looking at that on a xray machine hmm metal + wires must be a bomb.

That case is nicer then I though it was I really like the vent in the top of it.

Cant wait to see what you are gonna do to the case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by simon275

Welcome back!

Umm how did you bring back primer in an aersol as isn't illegal to put aersol cans in your luggage for aeroplane flights as they are really just a can full of perersized gas with a high flamable proplenent which isn't the best of things to have on a plane. Any way

I bet the baggage handlers along the way where like wtf a computer case. And airport security would have had a feild day imange looking at that on a xray machine hmm metal + wires must be a bomb.

That case is nicer then I though it was I really like the vent in the top of it.

Cant wait to see what you are gonna do to the case.

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I'm going to plead the 5th on the spray paint. :) As far as the computer, the biggest pain was that every luggage counter made me sign waivers for damage. Even when I told them that it was an empty case. As far as security...that was a nightmare. I had to pull it out of the box in Germany for the screeners to look inside, and they brought along a Shephard (since it was in germany, the fact that it was a German Shephard is sort of implied) to smell it too. Fun fun fun...

Edit (forgot to mention): Anyway, I'm very impressed with this case. If you think it's good so far, wait till you see the raw amount of attention to detail they did with some of the interior features. Next post (I should get to it this afternoon, just swamped with work right now) will be full of interesting things. Also...I'll be asking suggestions from you guys as to some things I'm unsure of doing or not. :) Cheers!

Hello my TBCS friends! Time for another installment in Project DEEP PURPLE. This segment will be affectionately labeled “Part one of how to destroy a virgin case”. :) In part one I’ll be doing every bit of disassembly that can be done shy of drilling out rivets. Part two will cover that segment, as I’m sure this will take up plenty of typing and photo space. I’ll be tossing out my feelings on each piece of the case as I take it apart as well, for those of you interested in acquiring one yourself. Let me also say, that this in-depth log of the case disassembly is not just for y’all to read, but for me to read when I have to put this beast back together. :) So…feel free to look and skim all you want, I’m sure to get rather verbose here.

My first impressions of the case were that it looked to be a pretty simple disassembly. The thumb screws holding the main case door on were gigantic, which is always nice for function, if a little gaudy on form.

The door’s two latch locks are on high tension springs which, for someone not very two-hand coordinated like me made it a bit of a challenge to get off, but anyone who’s left hand isn’t totally retarded shouldn’t have a problem.

On pulling the door off I was made immediately happy. I’ve been wondering in my head how I was going to cover/remove/reattach the window from the door for painting, when the answer was presented. The window is held in place via what I call ‘push locks’, not plastic welding as I was fearing.

Similarly, the door latches are pressure-locked in place (you know, the plastic, bendy, angled pressure tabs)…well…look for yourself:

So now we get to see the inside of the case, in it’s full monstrosity. The thing is a beast when it comes to air space, which I love. The full front stack of bays are designed for 5 ¼ drives, or in my view, things such as radiators, water pumps, and all that unsightly jazz.

For those wondering what the shiny things are along the drive bays, it’s a rather ingenious method of tool-free drive securing using pressure locking plastic and little ‘dots’ that lock into the screw holes of drives. The below picture shows a close-up of one of the retainers, and also shows that they designed them to be able to work around drives you want hard-screwed in place.

To note here, I’m not sure I’ll be leaving these in place. They don’t work color-wise with my theme (all black inside with the exception of the cards/hoses/fluid. Also, I’m not sure if I want only one-side of my drives secured in place.

For people curious as to how ThermalTake intended users to have hard drives in this 5 ¼ beast, here is one of their *three* solutions. They provided a 3-high bay for holding drives, complete with an attached 120mm fan. (I’ll thank the boys at ThermalTake now for the fans, though, I wont’ be using them. They provided 2x 120mm’s with blue LED’s and 2x standard TT Orange/Black 90mm’s). Anyway, here is the bay, as I started to remove it from the quick-locks:

And totally removed:

I’ll say now, I’m going to be using this rack, once it’s hollowed out to hold a radiator for my cooling setup (I’m using 2x single 120mm radiators from DangerDen). The fan will hold it’s original place, and the radiator will sit inside the rack. I fully plan on screwing this rack into place to ensure it’s weight will be supported, I won’t trust the plastic clips to hold the fan and radiator.

The next option that TT provided in this case for hard drive storage is in the upper left of the case. Another 3-drive mounting box that will sit next to the power supply (if you noticed, the PSU mounting location has it vertical, not horizontal as it typical). This hard drive bay is also cooled, this time by a 90mm Fan that is attached to the case itself, not to the drive bay.

The drive bay is held in (as you saw) by another of those gigantic thumb screws, and by a spring-lock on the top (I guess they were worried it would run away). This spring lock is actually metal, and took some convincing to remove.

The 90mm fan is pressure-locked (via a plastic mounting bracket) to the side of the case:

And removing the bracket was odd, as there is another 2 pressure locks and a horizontal slide that was required. Hum, how to explain that better? The mounting bracket was pressure locked on the top and bottom, but, it also had slide-locks in place. Meaning to get it out…I had to squeeze both pressure locks, and then slide it to the side, all in one fantastic motion. Wow! Maybe the pictures will help.

And the bracket finally removed.

The 120mm exhaust fan in the back of the case had a very similar mounting bracket setup, not really worth noting on it’s own…besides the fact that it has FOUR pressure tabs, 2 top, 2 bottom. How many hands does TT think the average modder has? I’m not thinking that this mounting bracket is going to be strong enough in its own right to hold the fan and radiator on reassembly…so I’ll be doing a more permanent screwed in attachment for them. I’m just glad that TT still gave me predrilled holes for the 120mm fan. All this tool-free stuff is nice for most people, but not when it comes down to load-bearing modifications.

One side note on fans…I’ll mention that the goodie box inside the case (typically full of screws, etc) also had one more 90mm fan with the same style mounting bracket for use as an exhaust fan, mountable in the center of the top mesh area. Very spiffy TT. Thanks! Now if I could only think of a fun use for all these fans that I won’t be using…

The last little piece of the ‘inside’ bits, for now at least, is one thing that I’ve never seen on a computer case before. Then again, I haven’t bought a new case/motherboard for about 4 years, so maybe I’m just outta the loop. Anyway, this case comes complete with a door-switch. I’m guessing it’s designed to shut the computer down automatically if the door is opened. As such, I’m not sure if I’m going to reinstall it. I really want to go for a minimalist interior, and any excess wiring just won’t work for me.

Having to pause here just to changes posts, crazy 10000 character limit. :)

Anyway, back to the front of the case and the multitude of drive face-plates. I’m sure you’re noticing now that 2 of them don’t seem to match. (On a side note, I’m unhappy that the case goodie-box didn’t include a single extra matching face-plate. I guess they figure most people wouldn’t want to stealth drives, and would be filling up bays with other drives to make their own extras. Bummer.) Anyway, the very bottom one is one of the neat bits about the case that just makes it stand out. It’s actually a built-in (but removable/movable) junk drawer!

It looks big enough to hold extra CD’s, or screws, or well, just about anything. Not sure what, if anything, I’ll use it for (or if it’ll even stay in the case) but it’s a pretty cool addition.

Moving up one space, we’ll take a look at one of the 10 matching face plates. They are a plastic surround, holding a mesh grille and an included plastic air filter. The mesh grilles (on all 10) are pre-scored in the center for the accommodation of a 3 ½ drive, and the entire mesh grille is removable. However, the mesh itself is thin, and very weak (as I learned the hard way), so for the other 9, caution will be needed as I remove them for prep/painting.
Front, fully assembled:

Back, fully assembled:

Front, disassembled:

Back, disassembled, notice the little tab on the far left is missing, I broke it because I over-bent it trying to remove the mesh. :( Knowing that I need to remove them all makes me nervous. I’m not sure how I’ll secure them back in place if I break more. (I’m painting the front panels 2-tone black/purple {mesh black, surrounds purple} to go with the theme, and break up the monotony of the solid purple case.)

I will note here that I removed the bottom tray, and the bottom cover plate with the front bezel still attached, and realized that it was a total pain in the ass. So, I decided to look into how to remove the front bezel…now we can begin the tool required nightmare of this case.

Removing the other side wall was easy enough, just 3 standard hex screws and it slid right out. Looking at how the bezel is attached, from the factory, show me that there are not only SIX plastic pressure-locks, but 6 screws.

I was confused by this at first, as it took a small miracle for me to get the first of the face plates out without me losing a hand. I figure that if it was going to be this difficult to remove the face plates, the bezel should be easily removed. Well, after removing the screws, the bezel practically fell off…the pressure locks are just not injection molded with quite the precision for them to actually lock the bezel into place. So the screws are a necessary evil.

Anyway, after removing the bezel, removal and deconstruction of the remaining face plates will be a breeze.

Bezel gone, I get a surprise!!! I hadn’t noticed (somehow) that there is a third 3 ½ drive bay (a single one this time) locked into place. I’m now starting to understand that TT really does realize that people like having lots of hard drives, and the occasional floppy drive.

It did turn into a slight pain as TT actually had this bay screwed in place, on both sides of the case. Should I take this as a warning that they don’t trust their own quick-lock mechanisms? The plot thickens.

The very top bay (at least, top from the factory, it may well end up on the bottom for me) is what I’ll call the Utility Bay (not sure what TT calls it). It houses the power switch, reset switch, HDD & Power lights, and *TA DA* another 3 ½ drive bay.

The bay is a metal housing, with a plastic front face to match the bezel, with a mesh for ventilation (or removal) that matches pretty well the style of the other face plates. Have I mentioned yet how I *LOVE* the fact that the power and reset buttons on this case are movable? Yup this bay can be positioned into any of the 11 available slots. Yummy.

Now…seeing how the reset switches and LED’s are positioned…I’m now put in the mindset of another mod that I hadn’t originally thought about for this case.

Don’t those LED’s just scream “Replace me with purple!!!”? They do to me. The only problem is that I’ve never worked with LED replacement. Can anyone reply to me and tell me if it’s an easy thing to do? Do I need to worry about voltage? Impedance? I’m not an electrician at all, but I am the son of one, so I’m comfortable with, just inexperienced in this field.

A short move back to the inside of the case shows me pulling out the speaker (what a horrible position it’s in…this will have to find a new home; I want my water pump hidden here):

And that little door-sensor switch thingy:

Moving on to one of the other very interesting aspects of the case…the top panel. Why is it interesting? Well, for one, it’s a huge vent. “Yay!” for passive cooling in my water-cooled case.

And two, because it has this really killer, semi-hidden, media-bay behind a trap door. (Don’t we all just love trap doors?)

But oh…what happens now…we’re taking stuff apart. I’ll say now that this whole top assembly is going to be the bane of my existence. The media connector box will disassemble from it easily enough, actually one screw and it all dropped out very nicely:

But the top assembly has so many pressure locks included in it that there is no way I’m getting it off until I un-rivet the top from the rest of the case. So…that’ll be covered in part two.

Breaking again here to avoid the 10000 character cap. :)

So, to catch up, I’ve gutted the inside as well as I could, cleaned out the front as well as I could, removed both side panels and discussed them well enough…what’s left. Ah yes! The back! There are only 2 real things to cover here, the PSU assembly; and the Motherboard. We’ll take the smaller one first.

When I first looked at the back of the case (ref the picture above) there are already 4 screws in place around the PSU space. I looked more closely and realized that there is a small flange in place on the inside of the case. My initial assumption is that I’m supposed to unscrew this, mount it on the PSU then put them both back in place. At secondary glance I’m pretty sure this is right, as the flange has an odd swing-lock type bend in the plate to make it easier to swing the vertical PSU into place. (I’m short on pictures here…sorry…but it’ll all make sense.) You can see in this picture how, on PSU Bracket, the top, bottom, and left sides are all *inside* the case, but the right side is on the outside. This allows you to (from the inside of the case) lock the right side on, and swing the PSU into place. Or so I thought.

So…I unscrewed the screws, and nothing. I push a little, and nothing. I look inside and can see nothing holding the bracket in place…so I push harder. Then *snap* the glue holding it in place breaks and I realize that maybe it wasn’t supposed to remove it. Well, not for a normal installation, but since I’m doing a ground-up paint job…it had to go out anyway. The glue residue will just require a bit more painting. Anyway, the removed piece:

On to the final piece for today’s (or, at least, last night’s) deconstruction; the Motherboard bits. Now…I’d thought, sworn in fact, when I had decided on this case that one of its prime attractions was that the motherboard tray was removable.

But, I was wrong. Only the backing plate goes. The Mobo tray stays firmly in place in the case. Yay rivets. The back plate is held in place by a handful of screws, easily removed:

The back plate the happily falls out:

I’m sure many of you have noticed the atrocious green/purple quick-clips inside for the expansion card bays. Again, TT has done a great job making the case relatively tool free for the average computer builder, and I applaud them.

I, however, will not be using this, as I really don’t mind using a screwdriver now and again…especially when it comes to holding down a $300 video card, a $125 hunk of copper, all the while supporting water coursing through the block.

I did notice, however, that even after I removed the quick-locks, that the dead-plates held very firmly (and I mean *VERY* firmly) into place. This is because the expansion slot dead plates are actually springs in their own right. Again, how best to describe this? This picture is from the “outside” of the case, and you can see the spring-lips of the plates holding in.

With one of the plates removed, you can see that there are also small copper springs (not the best spring material) along with the secondary “button lock” on the end as well. I couldn’t actually get them off the case without using a screwdriver from the ‘outside’ as a miniature pry-bar.

Only problem is that they have a small hook that rests inside the screw hole, so these dead plates cannot be screwed in place, however they really don’t seem to need it so it’s sort of a moot point.

You may have also noticed from the last picture there that TT provided a motherboard adapter plate for a ‘standard’ ATX board (if there really is such a thing). What worried me initially is that this ‘standard’ plate looks a bit big, and is screwed into place! So, I unscrewed it, and realized that it’s just a fancy attachment method for their plate, but my cheap tin one that came with my mobo will pop right into place as it’s supposed to. Comparing the two, it seems that my motherboard is anything *but* a standard plate:

So there we have it, a dead empty shell of a new case:

Yup, I still need to remove the feet (not sure how I missed that last night), and the quick locks do need removed, but they can’t come off until the case is un-riveted (at least, not without breaking them). Bad design there in my opinion. But…the case, overall, has an awesome set of features and a great design.

A couple parting shots of the destruction as its spread out on my table:

(Please pardon the Humidor and the wine bottle candle.)

Thanks for reading/looking and following along so far. I have to spend tonight and tomorrow night studying for a couple of final exams for my college courses, so I doubt I’ll get around to the second phase of deconstruction until maybe Saturday (if I’m not writing research papers). But…deconstruction will happen within a week, and painting maybe within the same time or next week. I’m still waiting on some hardware orders (hard drives, memory, you know, nothing important), but I’ve got plenty of work with the case to keep me busy.

Cheers!

wine bottle candle I'm just not gonna bother thinking of a witty reamark to reaply with.

Talk about tool less desgin I'm very impressed with this case. All though I agree I dont trust those plastic clips on the pci brackets. I bet the people how desgined this case would shed a tear or two when they see you rip apart a case like this.

I think it is great how much detail you have gone into in pulling apart this case. You should write reviews for magazines I'm very very impressed with your work.

Purple LED's will look swish go with it.

Yeah quite a few cases these days come with tool draws ever in a 5.25" bay or inside the case itself.

Man I love the top of the case with the vent and the trapdoor. Are you gonna mod those?

I think the pop in brackets for the fans are a nice touch also the fact that the case takes a 120mm fan to exhasut heat.

The one thing that weirds me out about this case is how the PSU goes in on its side with a 80mm fan next to it. I have never seen that before it is weird. But also good as the bottom fan on the PSU blows side ways and then the hot air is sucked out by the 80mm fan. Instead of the PSU blowing hot air down over your mobo board which holds the goodness the CPU and GPU.

One last thing what oringally led you to choose this case?

Cant wait to see whats next. I'm subscirbed to this one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by simon275

I bet the people how desgined this case would shed a tear or two when they see you rip apart a case like this.

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I can only hope so! ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by simon275

Purple LED's will look swish go with it.

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I was thinking so...at least initially to replace the red and green ones...but...i have no idea how to do this. Thank goodness for the internet and being really bored at work. I'm going to have to do some research.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by simon275

Man I love the top of the case with the vent and the trapdoor. Are you gonna mod those?

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Paint for sure, to match the black/purple theme of the whole case. The top vent piece will be black for sure (as will the 'wings' on the front of the case, and the vent-mesh on the face plates). I'm mulling over some other thoughts as to what interesting stuff I can do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by simon275

One last thing what oringally led you to choose this case?

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Mostly, the fact that it's gigantic inside, very open. This build is basically entirley designed around showcasing my watercooling setup. Thus the intention for black interior paint, all black power and data cables (most will be self loomed, some factory...but hey...what can you do). I liked the window cut and shape, seemed interesting, but not really a giant *BAM* look at my innerds window. Also, i loved the quarter doors on the front. It's an interesting look, and with the color contrasting (black/purple) I think they will be a nice accent to break the monotony of a solid color case. (I'm not even good enough with paint to do multi-colors on the same smooth surface.)

Hope I don't dissapoint.

Thanks for the comments and cheers!

Dayum. Congrats on buying the sexy ass case! :D

I just had a concerning thought bounce into my head...and I need some advice from any experienced painters.

As I've mentioned above, I live in India. It's now the middle of summer so it's *hot* and it's raining just about every day like it's the flood. (It's absolutley POURING outside right now). As you can guess...this is kicking up the average humidity levels outside to like 90%

Now...I'll be painting in my house, which I keep to a cozy 68-70 degrees thanks to the huge air conditioners I've got at the house. A/C's have the great point of removing some, if not most, of the humidity from the air, but they *move* air as well which can be bad. Oh...and...have i mentioned that, even after heavy rain storms, India is *very* dusty?

So I'm in a dilema...do I:
a) Turn off the A/C, and let the house get very warm/humid for painting, and have minimal ventilation?
b) Leave the A/C on, causing dust to blow around in the room, but keeping it considerabley cooler and dryer?
c) (and this really isn't an option) Hold off on painting till wintertime when it's cooler, dryer, and I can leave the A/C off?

thanks in advance!

-MF

Suggestion: Don't paint in the house without _some_ sort of booth (even home made will work), or paint will be all over EVERYTHING!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Airbozo

Suggestion: Don't paint in the house without _some_ sort of booth (even home made will work), or paint will be all over EVERYTHING!

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I've got 4 or 5 dropcloths that I'll be hanging up from the ceiling and on the floor to prevent overspray. :) My options are limited, but in my mind that sounded like a good plan.


On a related note...I realized about a half hour ago that I still have one part to order that needs paitned *GAH* (DVD/RW). So...I bit the bullett, and placed an order on my credit card (was trying to do the whole build via cash-on-hand) and have all the rest of my functional hardware coming in. So...once that stuff gets here, I'll be painting and building. Yay! Only set of parts I've yet to order are my neons...and those will be a few weeks off now, since I have to pay off the card from this hardware order.

2-3 weeks of shipping, then I can finally paint (I'd prefer to do it all together, so I know my coats are consistent, dry times are the same, and final dry colors should be perfect matches). On the bonus side, as soon as it's painted, all my real hardware will already be here so I can start using it! :) Horray! I can't wait to get this beast up and running, mostly because my current system keeps crashing when I play WoW...Blizzard Entertainment has something against ATI video cards.

I know it kind of beats one of the purposes of modding: DIY, but in India you ought to be able to get work done for you real cheap.

OT: what are you there for? I'm Indian, but I haven't been there in 6 years, so I'm quite homesick now :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brouhaha

I know it kind of beats one of the purposes of modding: DIY, but in India you ought to be able to get work done for you real cheap.

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I'm sure you're right there, but I like to do mods myself, the only real reason I do them is because it keeps me busy and gives me something to do other than going out and partying every night. My body can only take so much. 8)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by brouhaha

OT: what are you there for? I'm Indian, but I haven't been there in 6 years, so I'm quite homesick now :)

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I work at the U.S. Embassy here in Delhi. It's a great job, a nice break after 8 years in the military from the strict attitudes, but keeps me in service of my country. And, possibly the best part, it keeps me at various places overseas...I love to travel and having a job that lets me live virtually anywhere in the world is great.

Ah, so if somebody I know doesn't get a visa, I know who to flame :D

Okay, back on topic. Besides stuff like spray paint that's hard to come by, I think you'd be better off getting computer supplies like drives locally since supply channels ought to be well established. Small outfits, often called assemblers who build and sell computers can sell you parts. I can ask people I know from Delhi if you need a source. About painting, would any of the following thoughts help (listed in no particular order)?
- It's dusty allright, but I am surprised it is significant even after monsoons and through the airconditioner. Anyway, the conditions should be similar to the southwest here, especially southern california. Maybe one of those folks can pipe up.
- How about shutting off the AC and painting before you leave for work? The paint can dry during the day and when you return you turn on the AC and see how the paint fared?
- Maybe just get the painting done from somebody. You still get to do the rest of the mod yourself. I believe others on this forums have got painting/powder-coating/chroming etc. done externally.

I'll post if I think of anything else.

So, as I couldn't start painting this weekend since I'm still waiting on my DVDR to get here in the mail...I started dry fitting some pieces to see how the case will go together.

I looked again at my Mobo and realized that, in my effort to keep prices down, I bought a low-model version of the board and it doesn't have pin-mounts for frontmounted Firewire or Mic/Speakers. :( Basically, this means that 2/3 of the function of the trap-door'd media panel isn't going to be used. The Mobo does, however, have 4 USB2 ports on the back...so I won't be short of USB spots if I don't use this bay.

However, this left me thinking...what do do with a trap door...and Eureka! I suddenly remembered that I had the dangerden fillport to install somewhere. I had initially been planning on cutting a whole in the mesh just behind the trap door. But now, I think I'll be putting it *in* the trapdoor.

That's the only real thing I can think of to put there...anyone else have ideas for me?

Cheers!

MF

That sounds like an excellent Idea. With the dangerden fillerport under the trapdoor.

For the painting why dont you try and get some dust filters installed. As we have them on ours as my mum is asmatic.

Man you have the job Ive always wanted

8) Yup, it's been a long time since the last update to DEEP PURPLE. But don't fret...I've got LOADS for you all today! :eek:

First, my order from Danger Den came in a few days ago, and I'm very happy with the way stuff looks:

First out of the box was my D5 Pump:

They even had the foresight to include a small foam pad to help with vibration noise...they think of *everything* (Okay, not quite...but we'll get to a couple of my problems with my DD order later.)

Also in the box was my HardDrive cooler. It's an odd looking piece, takes up 2x 5 1/4 bays, for 2 3 1/2 drives...but...I got this case because of it's HUGE space...so who cares!
One side (there are 2 of these), and I can say i'm impressed with how nice the copper block looks (just like my other DD stuff...very nice work):

The other side with the DD Logo...not sure the purpose since it has to mount inside drive bays and will never be seen but hey, I'll advertise for them here. Maybe my next case I can talk to them about sponsorship. 8)

And a rough look of how it assembles...they even gave me a piece of tubing to connect the middle portion. How cool are they!?!?

Lastly, my two radiators came in, and they are, well nice. Designed with HUGE amounts of surface area for the air...I do worry a bit about flow restriction...but...I'm not an engineer so we'll see how they go.

Here's a couple shots where I'm trying to show you just how much airflow these provide. The first you can almost see the chair behind through the rad:

Then I decided to go for contrast and put a white box half-way behind the rad...stands out a bit better...either way, trust me when i say they are great lookin!

That's all for this entry...but I'm typing more up today...plenty more...so keep tuned!
Cheers,
-MF