Project: Dark Carbon

[rendermandan]

No problem, You didn't Jack my thread, your just sharing information, which is what this is all about.

[Boddaker]

Wow, I haven't been here in a while. You have made some awesome progress! Great job Dan. I definitely need to check in more often!

[rendermandan]

Thanks Boddaker!

[rendermandan]

Hey guys small update tonight.

I did some work on the back of the case to cover up the hard drive swap case and bolts for the feet.

Here are the pieces that I cut to make the covers. I cut two triangular pieces for the top and a couple rectangles for the sides. I then beveled the front edge of them so they fit tight against the case.

here you can see the bolts for the feet and the wires for the lights.
You can also the the covers I made. this is before I painted them.

And here they are installed.

I also cut a piece of CF to cover the bottom black plexi. the Black plexi looks good by itself, but I had an extra piece that just about fit it perfectly so I went ahead and did it.

Then I just epoxied it to the bottom panel. -All done with that.

I also spent a little time with the lcd temperature monitor. This is the same one I used in Motorized Madness. many of you will remember what it looked like before.

Here is the temperature sensor that I will screw into my resevoir.

Well, the blue just wont do at all. So I popped it open and modified it a bit.
Here is the result.

What do you think? The red looks so much better!

[The boy 4rm oz]

Nice solution for the gap in the back cover. You're right, the red LCD looks much better. That's a Thermaltake temp sensor right???

[rendermandan]

Thanks, yes, it is a Thermaltake.

[DonT-FeaR]

looks sweet nice solution

[SXRguyinMA]

lookin awesome I have their temp sensor as well, my screens a tad different, has a low water indicator and such as well. love the red though, looks great

[mittelmeier]

Looks sweet man. The red looks a lot better on the lcd screen. Can't wait to see more.

[rendermandan]

Hey guys, Sorry its been so long since I've made an update. Been really busy with work and Christmas parties. So without further adue....

I worked on mounting the Reservoir I purchased.

Its about 2" in diameter so I used a hole saw and cut a large hole in the motherboard tray.

The hole was slightly larger than it needed to be, plus I wanted to clean up the edges a bit so I took some rubber edge molding and cut one side of it off.

Then I glued it around the inside edge of the hole. Essentially I made my own 2" diameter rubber grommet.

Then I slid the reservoir in through the top and here is a shot of how the holes extend out into the bottom chamber of the case.

this show shows how much clearance there is with the bottom on. -about 1/4".

Side note, not sure if I ever showed this shot, but here is the bottom of the radiator that sticks down into the lower chamber.

Now the reservoir fits fairly snug in the grommet, but it still wiggles around so I wanted to make an aluminum mount for it. So I started with a 1" wide piece of aluminum and drew out a template.

A few cuts with the scroll saw later, and I have this.

Then I bent the tabs as needed.

Then I used that same 2" dia. hole saw to bend it into a round shape to fit around the reservoir.

And here it is.

Some test fitting.

After drilling the mounting holes, I shot it with some Anodizing paint.

And here it is all mounted.

And here is how it extend up into the case from the top.

Next task was to work on the the motorized temperature display. Yes I said motorized. You didn't actually think I would build a case without putting some type of motion into it did you? LOL

I started with some rectangular scraps of CF.

Cut some brackets and made a frame.

Then I laid out some cut lines for the temp monitor and a few holes for some leds.

Here is the monitor and one led in the panel. I've ordered the other one but it won't be here untill next week. These two lights will be for hard drive activity and something else. Not sure what.

Then I set it in place in the case and tilted it up to give you an idea of what it will look like.

In the top of the frame I'm going to mount another 120mm led fan. This fan will exhaust the hot air that comes out of the PSU below. it will also help to cool the dvd drive and lcd panel.

I have to cut the top panel out of the case top yet before I can mount the fan. And I have to mount the frame to the case to make it tilt up. Still lots to do, but that's it for now.

Later,