Project: Flux

[Xperiment]

Project: Flux
By Xperiment

Some of you may have seen my post Next Project? in the Idea Zone of TBCS. I have been planning this build for a good couple of months and now starting to get things moving on the actual build. So here is my worklog for the build, hopefully you will enjoy reading it and get involved along the way.

So What Am I Building?

I hope to create an average spec PC that is cool and reliable enough to leave running 24/7. Its main use will be for downloading, browsing the internet and photo editing. I want it to be fairly portable as I may use it as a HTPC from time to time, so a decent graphics card is a must.

The Case

I have brought a Lian-Li PC-V300 in silver as the starting point for the build. I decided on this case for a number of reasons.
I haven’t seen a lot of them modded before, I am sure they have been but not to the extent of the other Lian-Li cases. Also the shape and design gives a lot of scope for modding and gives me the opportunity to work with a ‘small’ case, something which I very much enjoy due to the thought and planning that’s needed to fit everything in.

A few pictures of the standard case:

The Design

Those who have seen my post for the original idea will be familiar with the look I am aiming for in this build. For those who don’t I think it would be best described as ”Cartoon-like Industrial”. I want to use large blocks of colour and smooth lines with a very OTT water-cooling system to give a look which I hope to be quite unique.

I have been playing around d on sketch-up and so far have designed a few features I hope to incorporate in the build. The design is by no means final and will more than likely change quite a lot as the build goes on, but to give an idea here are some sketch-ups of some of the designs so far.

On With The Build

As with most other builds I began with one of my favorite tasks, dismantling the case. First to come out was the two 80mm intake fans and all wiring:

Next the side panels and motherboard tray:

Leaving only the bracket to hold the drives. A few drilled rivets later:

Wiring

One thing I was a little concerned about with this case is how difficult it is going to be to hide the wiring. I don’t want any to be visible, not even where it plugs into the motherboard.

Most of the wires are going to be around the inside front of the case (on/off buttons, power LED’s, fans etc) so I needed a solution to get them out of sight.

I decided to use a small project box from Maplins to act as a junction box to route wires through. I can also use it as a place to split power between LED’s, switches etc.

Front fan bracket sketch-up:

Cuts made and smoothed using a dremel:

Marked for drilling:

Junction box fitted:

Now I can pass all the wires from the front fans and front panel through this junction box down to the case floor where they can be hidden.

I have also sleeved the wires for the front I/O, I plan to have these hidden under a kind of ‘floor’ on the bottom of the case.

Acrylic

I am going to use a lot of acrylic on this build so went out and brought a scroll saw and a blowtorch to hopefully aid my cuts and bends.

Having never bent acrylic or used a scroll saw before I thought it best to have a practice first. So set about making a cover for the HDD bay.

I started out by drawing out the design and cutting it out with the scroll saw:

Then using the scroll saw as a temporary work bench, clamped the cutout for bending:

After a little heat from the blowtorch the bend was complete:

After cutting the edges were left a tad on the rough side:

So using 240, 800, 1200 and 1500 grit sandpaper I smoothed out the edges:

A quick test fit:

To mount the acrylic I needed two 4mm holes to bolt through, back to the temporary work bench:

Now to measure up and drill the HDD cage:

And using M4 hex bolts and some plastic spacers fit it all together:

Another test fit:

With everything fitting together nicely I removed the protective film and fitted the finished cover to the HDD bay:

The hole in the middle of the piece of acrylic will be covered with a sheet of mesh, so air will still be able to circulate around the hard disks whilst keeping the wires out of sight.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out, given most of the process was very new to me.

I hope you have enjoyed the first park of this project. I will have another update soon but am going to take my time on this build to try and get everything just right.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts so far . . . . . . . .
Xperiment

[tinker]

looks good so far.
This build is going to look nice.

[|NQ|Squelsh]

Verry nice case and great concepts! Good luck on achieving the look. Seems you can handle your new tools

[The boy 4rm oz]

Hell Yeah!!! I have been waiting for this, looks great so far. Can't wait for more.

[SgtM]

Lookin great so far! +rep

[Zephik]

Hell Yeah!!! I have been waiting for this, looks great so far. Can't wait for more.

Ditto! I'm very excited for this build, what a great start too! Totally made my night!

I owe you a +rep, apparently I need to "spread it around" some. haha

[Tavarin]

I liked the look of the sketchups in the idea zone, glad to see this build starting. Will be watching, good luck.

[Xperiment]

Thanks for all the positive comments so far. I am putting another update together at the moment, should have it posted up soon.

[Xperiment]

I have been itching to post my first update, so here it is.

I have finished off the acrylic cover for the HDD bay. I wanted to add some mesh to the cut-out in the acrylic so brought an off-cut for a bargain price of £2 from ebay:

Measured it up and cut to size with a dremel ready to fix to the acrylic:

Then using M4 hex bolts fixed it in place:

And mounted the finished cover on the HDD bay:

Next up was the motherboard tray. I needed to take it apart to measure up to apply some acrylic. First off was the back plate after drilling out a few rivets:

Then a couple more rivets to remove the last piece:

I wanted to replace the rivets with hex bolts to match the rest of the case, so first filed down the holes, then bolted it back together with the hex bolts:

Much more in keeping with the theme than rivets, plus it is now a lot easier to dismantle the motherboard tray, as I will need to in updates to come.

I also brought a standard 80mm fan, as I haven't decided on which fans to use yet I brought the cheapest one, just to use for test fittings etc:

Some large sheets of orange and black acrylic, 80mm fan next to them to gauge the size:

My last purchase of the week was a 80mm Black Ice GT radiator. I want to cool as much as possible in this build with water and don't think a single 120mm rad will be enough, so I plan to cool the less heat intensive components first (NB , Ram , Maybe HDD) then cool the loop with the 80mm before going through the CPU and GPU then 120mm Rad.

Also I had an idea for placement that I think will really suit the theme of the build:

So first I measured up and cut the rear of the case, behind the HDD bay:

Then cut a piece of acrylic to act as a bracket, just a test piece at this stage to get the dimensions correct:

Next mounted it between the rad and fan:

Before slotting it all into the case:

The fan will be inside the case, tucked into the back of the HDD bay with the rad outside flush with the rear of the case. The tubes will come out of the rad at right angles before looping back inside the case through the motherboard trays rear panel.

Well that's it for now, hope you have enjoyed reading. I should be able to do some more over the weekend, now I have all the dimensions for the rear rad I should be able to get that finished, then I hope to get started on the front of the case and some mods to the motherboard tray.

Thanks for reading, be good to get your opinions.

Xperiment

[Enigma]

Great update, really liked the cover on the HDD bay