Lexa

[The boy 4rm oz]

Time to continue on from yesterday's post.

Today I finished my HDD bay cover and pretty much finished mounting all my other plastic pieces. Here we go.

Ok so here we have the piece of plastic that is my HDD bay cover (all sanded, polished and drilled):

Here is the piece of mesh I cut to cover the gap in the plexi, I have painted it black (from original silver) and have cut a hole to allow power and SATA cable to pass through. A tip for people using a jigsaw to cut mesh, don't. The teeth on the blade get stuck in the mesh holes and will bend and warp your mesh, believe me, I had to flatten my piece of mesh out after trying this way. I ended up using the cutting disk attachment for me rotary tool, worked perfectly, no warping, just a hell of a lot of sparks lol .
Pic:

Here's a random picture of the screws/bolts and nuts I will use to mount this piece:

I will be attaching this piece by using 8 bolts with 2 nuts and a spacer per bolt. As you will see in this picture there is only 4 (left hand side) bolts set up. This is because I can't insert the other 4 without taking the front of the case off and I am not ready to do so at the moment.
Pic:

The plastic and the mesh before the installation of the mesh:

The completed panel, looks quite good I think :

Time for the installation of the panel.
Spacers installed on the bolts:

HDD cover installed:

I front on pic (looking through case window):

A pic looking through the plexi to my HDD:

And finally a picture of the panel removed and under UV light:

I also got stuck into mounting the other pieces of plastic.
Here is the rear cover for the CD drives:

And here is the inside floppy bay cover and also the inside HDD cover (big gap is for mesh):

I also mounted one of my 10cm UV CCFL's to the case support bar, fits perfectly, well after some grinding of the mounting blocks anyway :

Sorry that first pic is smaller, must have uploaded it wrong lol. Also you may notice that the inside CD drive cover looks crooked, that is just the hole cut in the plexi, you wont notice it when it's covered with mesh.
Well that's all for today, may be some more tomorrow but I doubt it, I have to right a whole essay that is due Thursday (only a draft) lol . Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Ok guys, I finally have a worthy update for you. Sorry it has taken so long but we have had some real heat here in Australia (above 30*c for the past 2 weeks) and it has been too hard to work in the heat in our shed.

Ok, so just like the HDD cover I have completed the other side of the HDD cover plus the Disk Drive covers.
Here are the pics of the Disk Drive covers installed and finished:

I know in the second pic the cuts look really crooked but they aren't...well mabye a little but not enough to notice, it's just the picture.

Here is the other part of the HDD bay:

As with the Disk Drive cover the cuts aren't crooked, it's just the picture.

And to cap it all off here is a picture of all the bay covers installed so you can see what it's all gonna look like when it's done.
Pic:

To cap off this post I am going to give you a progress report, well I'll show you a progress report . What best way to report progress but with pictures lol.
Here is my case so far with everything installed how it will be.
Side on:

PSU cover, support bar and radiator:

Disk Drive cover:

PCI slots and radiator:

Danger Den fill port:

It has come to my attention that I may need another radiator in my system so I intend to see if I can get a Black Ice Stealth 240mm radiator to mount on the under side of my case. Looks about time I got myself a sponsor . Well that's all for now, hope to have some more updates later this week before exams next week. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well Guys it is now time for a....well a mini update I guess you could call it.

I didn't get any actual modding done today. I visited a mate that just got out of hospital, nasty burns, damn coolant. Before you ask it wasn't PC coolant, his car's radiator blew up in his face.

If you read back a few posts you will find that I am looking to add a 240mm radiator to my existent 120mm loop. I was intending to mount it on the under side of my case and was looking to get an Black Ice stealth 240mm but after starting a thread about this topic (Check post in "The Ice Box", "Pump and Radiator Question") I found that they drastically reduce the flow rate of the loop. I was recommended to use a Black Ice Xtreme 240 (my 120mm radiator is also an Xtreme) and after some measurements this poses some problems. The thickness of a Black Ice Xtreme radiator is roughly 5.6cm, the distance from the stands to the base of my case is about 4.2cm. This immediately rules out using the Xtreme radiator, even if I mount the fans on the inside of the case. I may just end up going with the Stealth because the extra cooling will be worth the slight flow restriction in my books. The Black Ice Stealth is only 2.960cm thick so it will fit without any problems and I will just mount the fans on the inside of my case and lose the access of the last motherboard slot (3rd PCI-e slot, won't use it lol). The fans I was looking for this radiator are the Scythe Slip Stream 1200rpm fans pushing 68.54CFM at 24.0dBA.
Here is a link to the fans:
http://www.pccasegear.com.au/prod6026.htm

last Night I sent a few E-mails to some good PC retailers with regards to sponsorship. when I got home from school today I had received a response to my E-mail. The company in question admired my initiative in sending an email and after viewing my worklog greatly liked what I had already done. Sadly the business is a bit tied up at the moment and physically can not provide any assistance for me at the moment but they said they had saved my E-mail and if their conditions change in the near future they would be able to offer assistance. I am still waiting on a response from my other E-mail.

Well that's it for tonight guys, tomorrow I will try to get some more plastic mounted or do a bit more mesh work. I have exams next week so I really should be studying but that's what school is for . Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Thanks for your input, I noticed that you had your fans sucking from the bottom of the case. If I end up going down this road I would mount the fans so they suck air from the inside of the case and blow it through the radiator and out the bottom of the case. This will allow my other radiator to draw in a minimal amount of hot air and also keep my other components cooler.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I guess but you have a 120mm fan on your PSU plus the 120mm rear fan. I have a 80mm fan on my PSU and my rear 120mm fan has another radiator attached to it plus another 80mm fan on the top of the case. Hmmm, you do have a valid point, even on my 120mm radiator it is mounted on the outside of the case with a fan pushing air through it. I know what you are saying is true, this just sounded right at the time of the post lol, my mistake.

[TEAMIKKE]

Although airflow matters, it isn't vital. Especially not with watercooling. Everyone with a good 240. rad of even more can cool his rig. What really matters is, that you have enough outtakes.

My case has 7 fans and the are all outtake. Here's a little sketch of it.

Green = radiator
Blue = fans
red = HD's

It hasn't any intake! Still I can run passive with my watercool setup. My E6300 never runs hotter than 33 gr. Celcious (?). Only with gaming I'll turn the fans on (Noctua's: Quiet and little airflow) and still then it won't run hot. And they suck up ''hot'' air from the mainboard area!

If I were you, I woulnd't be so worried Same for the flow. If you have a good pump it can handle the resistance. That's were they are made for! You woulnd't buy a 8800ultra to play Age Of empires, right

Good job on detail btw

[The boy 4rm oz]

Thanks for the input. This is my first water cooled rig and I want to get it right the first time to save me trouble later. You and Xperiment both have valid points about fan placement but now after thinking about it I am leaning towards Xperiments rad set up. This also allows me to more effectively cool my RAM and Mosphet sinks on my 8800GTX.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well guys I have decided to go for the Black Ice Stealth 240mm radiator with or without a sponsor, at only $95.00AUD it is cheaper than my 120mm Black Ice Xtreme.

Today I wanted to see if the radiator would actually fit in my case but first I had to re-attach the case feet back onto the case.
Pic of the re-attached case feet:

Next I drew up the exact measurements of the radiator on a sheet of paper and cut it out so I can use it as a template.
Pic of the template:

I know the template looks a bit big but this is the exact dimensions, the fans I drew on are a bit small and throws you off a bit.
Fitting the template on the floor of the case:

As you can see the template fits with about a 1cm gap at the PCI slits which needs to stay there due to the way the case feet are mounted.
The template with a fan on it:

Two fans fit comfortably in this space but this may lead to another problem that I will elaborate a bit more on in a minute.

The only downside of mounting the fans like this is as follows:

The pump doesn't fit where I intended to mount it. Damn you say? I say challenge .

Here is my solution.
I will make a small platform out of the plexi that the pump will sit on, this elevates it off the case floor and above those fans.
Here is a mock up I did quickly with some scrap plexi I had:

That's not all of my problems though lol.
Take a look at this pic:

This is a pic of the rear case feet. See the curve of the plastic? This may make mounting the radiator a bit more difficult. It actually won't fit unless I cut part of the feet away. This will also mean strengthening what is left of the plastic case feet because this computer will be heavy once the water loop is filled and the hardware is installed. That's all for now guys, I have to work tomorrow after school and Friday I have a driving lesson (woohoo almost have my license) so probably no update until Saturday night or Sunday. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I want to keep the feet because it keeps with the contour of the original design. If you have a look at a LEXA side on the front and rear molding curves so it is "perfectly symmetrical", this includes the case feet. If I remove or destroy the original feet the case just wouldn't look right.
here is a pic of what I mean:
http://images.google.com.au/imgres?i...3Doff%26sa%3DG
This makes it easier to understand what I am saying lol.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I would mount my rad the same way but it means I will lose access to 2 PCI slots which I don't want to do. I don't mind losing access to one (3rd PCI-E slot) but the slot above that is a standard PCI slot (I only have 2which I can really use due to water cooling). Those case feet look awesome mate, haven't seen them yet lol.