Project: KNS-01 19-AUG

Hi everybody.

This is my first post in this forum, althought i've been following TBCS since the times of Matrix Rebirth Project at least. Let me introduce myself a little. I came from Madrid in Spain, and i've been making mods for about 5 years with a dozen of cases done (with more or less success in contests) and a endless number of other minors works. You can see all in my webpage where i also discuss about japanesse culture, modeling and others... but only in spanish... Although you can post in english in the forum if interested.
I hope this will be the first of a long amount of posts (despite my english hehe)

Well, the important thing, the work.

I began with this project at the beginning of August so i'll try to make a little summary until today's updates for you.

I have been making a rack project (Here) and hope to post it here also soon, because it still unfinished. I'm doing it to keep my computers tidy and clean. This is the first machine on my network (KNS-01) and the first one for the rack.

A jump between some post that i've seenin other forums, like this or this i was inspired and decided to make a new case for my Shuttle system.

I have a LAN party close in time and with my LAN Raider project on hold (Here) while i get more parts and ideas, a new case was needed. In add, this case will give me enought space for liquid cooling components and others.

By the reasons i've said, i have other projects on hold, so i took these hex bases borrowed for this project. I fixed both with screws, cutted, filed and sanded until they matched perfectly. Then i began to make an alu frame.

This is the back of the case. The small hole is for ventilation and the big one to pass the shuttle chasis thru. I'm going to use wood (MDF) only in front and back and it will be properly covered when finished. I've recently changed the back a little, but it is ahead.

The inside face of back and front, with the angles to support the structure and the chasis. The frontside will has holes also, for buttons and others, but i'll make they later.

8 of those 8x8mm ALU square bars wil be the chasis of the upper structure.

A teaser of the case. HDs will be in the botton, in a removable plate for easy access. The shuttle chasis in the middle and WC comps in the sides. I have to decide some things, like the location of the DVD (maybe a slim type unit) and others.

I've traced lines in the middle of each profile and then i matched it with the lines in the steel angles. They were fixed with clamps to make the first set of holes.

The case is pretty strong and still left more screwing work.

A preview:

After making the second set of holes the chasis/case (outter shell) is rock solid.

Supports for the shuttle chasis.

After align the profiles with the frame, i glued they with araldit epoxi, is very strong.

Watching modding forum across the world, Cats love mods... is a fact.

Get the shuttle chasis there is not easy. I had to cut and sand some sides, because (disapointing) the chasis is larger at the back. I have to paint the chasis well before put it inside the case.

The back of the case. You can see my current setup to cool the CPU and GPU. I'll redo it better when the case will be finished. A handle to pull out the case would be nice.

At the front, holes to secure the chasis. The front needs work...

Some details in the front. Black in the top, the Imon inside reciver module. At the botton...

...My spider logo. i'm re-using it, maybe by the last time. Isn't still glued, but fit perfectly. Once the front will be covered, you only could see the the inner circle and the spider.

Behind the spider i'll put one of my MDVA's lite unit. I hope to achive a nice effect.

The MDVA full unit front bezel used as template for hole drilling.

The front. As i previosuly mentioned, when the front will be finished, only the circle will be visible.

And the back. The MDVA only uses de 5V line, so less wires to solder, and less mess.

Yesterday i bought some new gear for the case and new items for the armory :)

Hinges, vinyl, etc... And my copy of your favorite delta sander.

ALU profiles to make a variety of pieces. I'm using a lot of profiles in this project.

Edges to support the sides. Are fixed with araldit epoxy. Recently i've discovered the Araldit expoxy for metals that is even stronger.

The base of the case is made of steel. I hope the steel will be present only there, if not i going to need a truck to move it. To bend the plate without the required tools, i dremeled a channel first.

The base in place. The top plate should be like that but in alu, if i can find 1mm alu plates anywhere.

I've changed the design a little, so i'm going a little slower than i want to. I want a removable HD tray. But in the former desing it wasn't possible. So i began remakin the back pannel small hole

Catch the diference?? I reconstruted the hole with wood, araldit and putty.

This is the idea of the docking bay.

The plate for the bay has being glued in place with araldit.

I've also did a stand for the hd tray

Triying to save some weight in every place.

The stand is fixed with screws to the base.

Profiles added to drive the tray thru.

This is the HD tray. It's a hacked shuttle tray with a lot of work. I had to reconstruc one side because it has a hole for wiring pass in other project, added profiles, cutted vent holes, added stands off from a Zalman block, etc... In the pic with dummy HDs

This is the idea... And the last pic for today. But before a little preview....

Preview 1:

My girlfriend is making a Lan party hex bag for the case.... more to come.

Preview 2:
Some final scheme designs. I made they with Gimp. Each image are 2 faces of the hex sides. The top and botton will match they more or less.

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

No paint this time. I want to cover the case with vinyl. The "grey" part is metallic finish vinyl.

Comments are welcome.

More soon.

I did a little test with the MDVA and the spider etch.

What do you think?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kumo

What do you think?

---

I think its lookin GREAT!!! Anxious to see the next update!

Pretty sweet, cant wait to see it done!

At first, when I was looking the the spider etch, I wanted to say that the lights kind of took away from the etch. But I was too quick in my opinion and now that I look at it, I like it. It looks like a web! My first thought was bike spokes. lol

Maybe you can put a different color LCD on the side of the plexi that the spider is on so that it lights up only the etched portion. Just a thought...
Like on the Doom 3 pentagram by Crimson Sky

looking great, nice to see some beautiful original work

very nice, looks really clean too.

Thanks all for the comments. Are really much apreciated.

Silenced Coyote: ThX. Like the leds are behind the plexi is dificult to light only the etched lines. Mmmm maybe with other leds and a on/off switch....

Wow what a cool shape. This is a peice of amazing work keep it up. I love your spider pattern with the LED's

Thanks.

I'll try to post some updates between today and tomorrow, maximum.

I'm doing some different task in the mod, so i don't have a really big update by the moment.

This is the HDs module. I reconstructed the side with ALU plates leaving only the holes to screw the HDs. I glued they with araldit, and sanded the cage. Then i applied a layer of car filler to smotth the surface and fill the small gaps. That piece is not the most important, though. But take time to finish it.

The LAN is the 09/15... Less than a month. Time to speed up the work a little.

Ahhhh And the bag, of course. The bag is almost a parallel project and my girl is making an impressive job.

That blue foam of 10mm thick is the shock-absorber material. Mmm... maybe it will be a nice pillow in the party nights haha :)

With the foam inside the bag stands up.

She is making also some nice military/adventure style pockets. Cables, CDs, mouse and others will fill they.

More soon.

Sorry again for the lack of updates, but i`ve been busy trying to get a lot of work done. I have the LAN in few days so i have to work in the case a lot with virtually no time to post regular updates.

But while the paint is drying...

The awensome bag is done. My girl has done a wonderful job with it.

Making special pockets on the bag cover for pen and ID card.

The cover fixed. Still work to do with the zip. The bag`s solid looks is due the blue foam inside the walls.

Finished cover and bag. You can see the handles added. Is impressive. It has 2 of those big pockets for wires, tools and others.

Lot of space there. Oh BTW you can see the DVD new tray painted, inside.

The front of the bag. The tab hides the zip closers and maybe a lock.

I have to give a lot of thanks to my girl for that bag. Mmmm.. maybe a new pair of shoes... :)

More pics...

The Watercooling system is plain symple and you have seen it in the previous posts. But i want to improve it a little and i did the pump mod, like Coolmiester has done many times.

Here are my pump, dissasembled and the elbow to sacrifice. The barbs of the elbow are bigger thn the original ones in the pump.

Hole done and elbow barbs cutted.

All together with lots of araldit epoxy.

Testing the pump with a happy end of no leaks. There was another reason to make the mod: Hose routing. In that way is easy to lead hoses thru the case.

The Black Ice with half done fixings.

Complete pieces. I pop-riveted diferent AUL profiles together. The long parts are 2 8x8mm square alu profiles while the short ones are 2 2x10mm Alu plates. In the edges, 90 degrees steel L mounting plates.

The rad in position. The advantage of that suppor system is that you could mount the rad in 4 different ways, depending of your cooling and computer system. The disavantage is that i can`t use the 38mm fan, and must use a standar 25mm fan.

I`ve found this piece in a IKEA set... as usual ;) I want yo put something in the oposite side to the rad mount, simply to fill the, by the moment, unused space, but it finished better.

Plate riveted to the case. In that moment i was thinking in how to use the plate... and the idea came to me.

New PSU location. It improves the cooling, the wire managing and the looking of the case... More of this to come.

Last pics for today...

The case black painted. Despite there aren`t too much paint jobs on this mod, the paint is always the slower parts, because the drying times. I`ve painted some parts to give to the project a uniform finishing between the diferent materials.

Those are plastic handles, for decorative purpouses only. The were part of an "Old styled phone" so they aren`t for heavy weight things. The original silver paint was old so i repainted they black.

The chasis repainted in mat black. This time i`m using Motip paint, instead the usual Duplicolor cans. Like Duplicolor, is also for cars so the finish is gurantee.
At this stage, no more additions except the mentioned new paint and a the mesh in the 2 vent holes. I cutted the old grill with small holes under the mosfets area. More about the chasis later.

A little teaser about some fresh painted parts :) more details in the next update. In the upper left corner part of my Blood Angels collection :D

More updates soon, i promise it.

I'm in the Netzone (Netzonetour.com) LAN Party right now. The case is still half done and left some work on the details and others, but the gear is running fine.

More updates and pics soon.

damn, thats one good lookin case... nice work... *thumbs*

OMG I LOVE THE BAG. its awesome

The bag is the best, i have no doubts :D

Just some quick mobile phone pics

The PC up and running. Still some work to do.

Backward. The "034" is the security check number. The side is open because it's still unfinished and doesn't has the vent hole for the rad

My girl made me that. It's a LAN "shelter" with fixings and inner pockets to kept the mobile and others. No more lights when sleeping quietly ;) I'll try a better pic later.

Fun for all, no matter if you're a Unicef/Ikea Teddy bear or not :D :D :D

Nice... really nice... your case is making mine feel inferior hehez... just kidding... any new mods coming up next?

Thanks.

By the moment, the first thing to do is to finish this mod.

Although i have some ideas on my mind about a new case.

More party pics, taken by the admins:

My rig.

A middle size LAN with 240 people (about 24 chicks included :) )

No DOOM, Quake, unreal, BOS or CS:s... The mame machine was the star.

Ligths off.

Quote:

---

A middle size LAN with 240 people (about 24 chicks included :) )

---

I love the way you counted how many girls were there. haha That last picture is cool.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by m4gnum

I love the way you counted how many girls were there. haha That last picture is cool.

---

I not counted they, admins did it by me ;)

After the LAN, more updates:

This is the base of the case. With black vinyl applied in the inside face.

And the outside face with the metallic vinyl. The bubbles in the pic are mainly because under there are holes, so they're not a problem.

That shiny coat is Softmetal sticker. Designed for kitchen decoration (like the frigde) and it is a little hard to bend in close curves. But it easy to apply without bubbles. There are different colors of metal finish.

The base in place. The big platform is for the HD cage. And the small one for the pump. Both have been covered with softmetal vinyl.

The back of the base, in place and without the decoration, for test purpouses. I've put a lot of screws in the case.

Althought the top and the base are made of steel, the sides and other pieces are made of aluminium. That is important becase the case is getting heavy. I've found in the last minute a provider of ALU. Those are some 0,8mm thick plates.

Just a couple of pics of the HD's Bay

This is the final look:

At the first moment, i was decided to put the metal vynil on it, but the look of the paint and the stripes was better.

That little piece has a lot of work.


More to come.

Well, time to resume the work and the worklog.

First of all, one pic more of the HD bay/tray on place.

You can see the details and the locks. The adjust is not perfect so i'm thinking in a solution.


Come back to the chasis works. The case is not finished but some parts like the chasis are completed. You can see most of the chasis in other post. Here some details.

The new I/O port bracket.

I have to make a new bracket for the front ports, since the front was cut when this chasis was part of the Darkwater mod.

In detail. The bracket is fixed with pop-rivets and araldit (for filling some gaps)

The back handle.
As i mentioned previously. a handle to pull out the case is a nice idea, and when i also realized of the unguarded fan, an idea came to me.

I took a common metal made black handle.

And splitted it in 2 halves.

Then i cutted a short ALU tube and put it together with lots of araldit and one old fan frame, as correct size support while drying.

Once installed i got a handle and a fan guard. You can see other details in this pic, like covers or black screws that i used always it was possible.

New USB ports.
I want to add more USB ports to the case, so i searched in my room and found one of that common USB2 PCI slot covers. Too much common ;)

I've sleeved the wires, painted it and replaced the original connector with a red one.

There some part purchased to enhance the look (and the perfomance, of course) a little. A pair of gold/copper memory heat spreaders and a new fan in black/red scheme. But i rejected that fan (it's slow) because it's a great fan for case cooling or paired in a 2x120 rad, but with a single 120rad and one fan, more cooling power was needed. Formerly i was using a 120*38mm panaflo fan (huge, fast and loud) but it's too big for the case, so i decided to use a good Classic Enermax fan.

The problem is that i didn't had correct screws to use with the Black Ice and the Enermax (with its uncommom screws holes).

So i did my own screws with M3 threaded rod bars and nuts. That leaves me with another problem. The nuts make a small gap between the fan and the rad. so i have to make something...


More of this to come.

How the HELL did i miss this? This is an incredible mod! I love the style and the colours! It's similar to the style i used in my own mod, though at the same time, something completely unique.

I'm liking the colours, the simplicity, and the design-not to mention the fact that everything i see looks professionally finished. Definately keep up the good work. If there's anywhere that you could improve, it would be the worklog & photos-but to be completly honest, i can see a huge improvement in your last post over the first posts anyway, so i'm being picky.

Great work man-great mod!

-Dave

Thanks DaveW, your commentas are really much apreciated.

I'll post some pics more this evening.

greets

Sorry by the delay.... This is another evening ;)

More new pics. This time, the shell.

This is the top of the case. Is like the bottom, but with the DD Fillport and the tinted window. I'm thinking in a red lightning for that window and the case.

This is the (at least by the moment) finished side. The vinyl is amazing, despite my poor skills sticking it.

...And this one is the unfinished. Still left to do the vent hole for the rad. The inner faces are white, but i have a couple of ideas for they. From absorber mats to some decoratives images.

One of the massive hinges. There weren't smaller ones, but they match enought well with the case strong look.

One of the locks of the side covers. They are the same that the pair in the HD bay

Detail of the front with the Imon Inside IR reciever and the name of the case.

That part is made with the original Imon front plate and some pieces of plexy.

The fornt of the case is covered with more vinyl, so after fill the gaps and sand the module (and the rest of the front) i applied the vinyl. A sort of paint to cover well the module... Hairdryer comes handy at this stage.

The back of the case. Simple and good looking.

More things soon.

I was going to make a comment about the case, then i realised i was looking at the back of the case. Last time i saw someone put that much effort into the back of a case was the Doom 3 worklog!

-Dave

TY Dave, really.

Clearly we all put a lot of effort on the front, but i think the back is also important, and not only for mod contest.

Viewing the photo, i think it maybe needs a sort of wire managing.

I really enjoy how the window's view is dominated by that lovely waterblock. You were either lucky with board layout or that window was well planned.

Victory!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With this still half finished case i've won the first prize (A external 250GB Freecom HD, about 143euro) in the the last LAN, Netzone Valdemoro 2K6 (www.netzonetour.com) done the last weekend of October.

The Unicef's teddybear got blood thirsty and joined to the Horde.

My girl did another thing to my LAN stuff. This wonderfull hex cushion, matching with the bag and the case. No more ass pain, after long hours in that unconfortable plastic chairs :)


Soon i'll post some pics more.

Well, sorry for the long delay.

Some pics of the internals, that i missed in the previous posts:

The painted PSU in place and the power splitter. I bought that thing in my last visit to Japan and is a worthly/useful part. The good point of that side

is that i have room for wires.

A inner view of the pump, HDs Bay and others. There are some wires to clean still , but i'm enought satisfied with this zone organization.

2 pics of the general internals and tubbing. Sorry by the dust, in that stage i was still cutting some pieces. I think that isn't a bad setup.

Go now with the pieces showed in the last LAN party pics.

To better finish the side panels y made 2 lids. They are made of 2mm thick aluminium plates.

As the time between LANs was too short i decided to not paint the new pieces. Instead i covered they with vinyl, with a good result.

This is the new front panel. Better than the old temporal one. I still have to put the buttons. Althought isn't necessary at all, because the Imon Remote controller is useful. And also the space in the PSU side allow me to put some hidden buttons.

I want to redo the sides, maybe they aren't enought good and don't make me happy.

Anyway, sadly (or not), i've decide to put a final point to this post here. Because a bunch a reasons: I have anothers projects started (like KumoNoSu; I haven't forget it) and some ideas in my mind that involve 40K Space Marine Themed systems. And the expected LAN life of this system is about to expire after the next 1 or 2 LANs (The new Modding contest rules of the parties that i use to go, states that the same modded system only can entry twice). After that, i hope this PC became in my main Linux desktop system with Ubuntu or pure Debian. I've began to look for a new system for LANs, a new AM2 i hope. This socket A system is still capable of long hours of fun and work, but it's a little out of day.

Thank you very much to all to by the support, and of course, to my girl by the wonderful goodies that she made. Maybe i'll post some new pics in the future, but not by the moment.

See you soon, in other of my projects, check the forum.