Lexa

[The boy 4rm oz]

Would it be possible to mount the rad underneath the case with only the fans inside so you only loose 1 (if that) expansion slot.

I always intended to mount the radiator on the underside of the case with the fans inside (minimal loss of expansion slots).

As for moving the res forward, that's impossible. If I move it forward I will be going under the HDD bays with the barbs and I don't want to hack that up nor do I want the barbs coming up right in front of the expansion slots. I will have to take about a half inch of plastic away from the rear case feet so the radiator will slip in between them rather than the feet needing to be replaced. The only down side to this is the lack of strength in the case feet but that's nothing some metal strip can't take care of.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well guys a very minor update for this weekend. I have had a few problems which I will elaborate on later this post.

Well I have finally rebuilt the front of the case after fixing up the majority of the cabling a few months back. everything went back together as it should and it all works great, looks cool with the cable sleeving also .
Here is a pic of the assembled case front:

And here is the rear of it with as much cable sleeved as I can:

Ok so now on to my problem.
The rear of the NZXT LEXA has a plastic plate which looks like this:

This plastic plate is meant to make the rear of the case perfectly symmetrical with the front case fascia. Due to the way I have mounted my radiator the plate doesn't fit as it should.
Pic:

As you can see in this picture one of the support bars is in the way of the radiator.
This is your problem you say! Oh no no no, this is a simple problem to rectify, my problem lies with my tools.
I measured and marked what parts of this plastic plate needed to be cut:

I then proceeded to go to the shed to cut of the troublesome support bar with a cutting disk and my Sontax rotary tool. I power up the tool and nothing happens. Hmm, I check that the power at the socket in on and try again, still nothing. I try spinning the cutting disk with my fingers and it bursts into life but only for a second before I smell this weird smell and the rpm's of the tool gradually drop to nothing. I tried everything to get this crappy thing working again. I blew out the vents with the air compressor, this made it better but it still died eventually.

So it looks like I have to go see if I can go get it replaced under warranty but I doubt that. Dad being the efficient man he is sent the receipt to the tax agency along with other stuff so he could get his tax return tallied. This a real problem because this thing didn't come with any warranty slip so looks like I am stuck. I can't do any work on the case with out this tool so the mod will be on hold for a while. Unless the place I bought it from will swap it for a genuine Dremel , but I highly doubt this .

There is some good news in this though. I have ordered my HWLabs Black Ice GT Stealth along with another 2 metres of tubing and should have them by the end of the week. I'll keep you guys posted. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well in the mean time the only thing I can do is some cable sleeving, which I don't want to do just yet cos I want to see how all the plastic panels fit in the case first. I could try a hack saw on that plastic but my guess is that it will warp and snap, safer bet is to wait for a replacement rotary tool.

I got a confirmation E-mail regarding the status of my radiator and tubing, they received my order and will ship anytime tomorrow after they receive payment. God bless Visa lol.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well bad news guys. Firstly the place I ordered the radiator hasn't responded to my payment so I need to give them a call and see what's up. Secondly the place I brought my Dremel knock off from won't replace it due to them not stocking them any more and the fact I don't have a receipt. The receipt would have cost $120AUD to get back from the tax accountant. There is good news now though. Dad brought me a brand new genuine Dremel 300 series and I also had my last exam today so I intend to spend tomorrow modding .

Now it's time for pics of my new toy .
Here is the nice a new box:

Here is the case, the blue box on the side holds the accessories:

A close up of the box, not a lot in it but I have all of the attachments from my broken knock off:

And finally here is the Dremel 300:

A close up shot:

I hope to get a lot of work done tomorrow guys, in between my driving lesson. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Ok guys, a small update of what I did today.

Lets rewind a bit. You remember the rear plastic plate of the case?

Well Today I cut it to accommodate my radiator:

Here it is installed:

And a side view:

Perfect fit, will look even better without the finger prints

Well that's all for now, may have an update tomorrow. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

They are great things Dremels but make sure you don't make the same mistake I did, knock offs are crap, it's a genuine Dremel or it's nuthn.

A small update on my 240mm radiator. I called the retailer today but couldn't get through. I will try again tomorrow.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Ok time for a picture update. Officially all oh my schooling for this year has finished so after school I got right into modding.

I started by removing my plastic panels and dismantled my drive bays.
Here is a picture of the process.
Un-riveted:

Dismantled:

From here I removed the front intake fan housing because I needed to do a bit of work on it.
Here is the removed housing:

Due to me using a 3-pin power header on this fan I decided to drill a hole in the housing to make the routing of the cables easier.
Here is the fan (just a stock Cooler Master one my friend gave me):

And because I had some rubber grommets laying around I thought I may use one.
Pic of the housing and grommet:

Now to find the correct drill bit. This one fits perfectly on the inside of the grommet so I will use this as a base and step up the bit size if need be.
Pic of the drill bit and grommet:

Hole drilled (I needed to go a few bits larger for the correct hole size):

Grommet installed, perfect fit:

Now to have a look with the fan installed:

Fits perfectly and makes cable routing just a little bit easier.

On to the painting.
First coat of primer:

And the final coat of black with the grommet installed:

Looks pretty good if I don't say so myself.

That's it for today, with this part of the case dismantled I can finally finish the rest of my plastic mounting, tomorrow perhaps. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Well guys I am having a hell of a time trying to contact the place that sells the HW Labs radiators here in Australia. Every time I call the phone just rings out and they aren't returning my emails. I figure they may be on holidays or moving store, they may even have closed down.

Well enough of the sad stuff, on to the modding .

I completed my disk drive cover today and I am quite proud of how it turned out, nothing went wrong haha.
Here is the piece of plastic I started with, I had already cut it to size and just had to add indents for rivets and extrusions on the case.
Here is a pic:

Same piece of plastic but with the protective plastic removed:

Pay no attention to the top left corner of the plexi, I slipped with the Dremel but it's ok, this part is covered by the top of the case anyway.
Now installed on to the window side of the drive bays:

It fits perfectly.
Now here is the support bar:

Plenty of room.

While I was doing this I also drilled a hole for the HDD thermal sensor and of course it isn't complete with out a nice rubber grommet.
Here is the hole (middle top, under the slit):

And now with the grommet installed:

Now doesn't that look much better.

Well that's all for now. I needed to keep myself occupied today, I have my driving test tomorrow and I am a bit nervous lol. Hopefully tomorrow arvo I can get the window side floppy bay cover installed. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Finally the update I promised guys, I know it's not a lot but I worked everyday the past week so I haven't had any time for modding.

I have completed the FDD cover.
Here is the piece cut, sanded and drilled ready to go with an assortment of mounting bolts.
Pic:

The exposed piece of plexi:

Installed with the disk drive bay cover:

A shot of them both together:

Now with a bit of UV light:

I know the glow looks a bit "blotchy" but in reality this plastic glows under any light and I have plenty of light in my case.
And finally a shot with the rear cover for the disk drives:

Looks quite good together I think but I think something is missing. I have an idea that I am looking to try out and hopefully it turns out. I think you guys will like it. Well that's all for now. Until then...

Happy Modding.

[The boy 4rm oz]

It will be black. I was just showing you guys how the plexi looked mounted. If you have a look a few pages back to how I did the support bar plexi you will have a better idea. I guess I should have put that in earlier lol.

EDIT: Must have posted this as Maleficus posted his comment.