Blue-Hellfire

[Cobra]

ok i had an eventful few days or workin on hellfire =o)
i installed the fans in thier rightful places and did a bit of wiring cleanup on the PSU.
first the sata cables that came on the PSU were way too long. so i cut em heh

luckily they came with nice little push type connectors which made shortening them rather easy.
just popped the side caps off of the mid way ones and pulled off the connectors.

then i cut the wires near the PSU so i could keep the Last plug with the pins n stuff so they had a finished look.

i soldered the wiring back together and covered the connections with shrink tubing and sleeving.

overall it looks alot cleaner with the shorter wiring there.

once those were shortened i cut all but one molex plug off the PSU. all the molex powers is the lighting so i had no need for the 5 extra plugs

now it was time to sort the lighting wiring out.
not so many pics for this as i was kinda on a roll and with the finish line looming near i didnt really feel like stopping every 3 mins to take a pic (sorry)


for the front fan controller i didnt want mine to light up like a christmass tree , wifeys is a bit bright in my opinion.

so i hit em with the same candy blue overcoat to both tone them down and blend them in a bit.

i think they will look good when installed.
got all those fitted and snapped the front panel on.

tricky bit here was i now had to affix my front dvd drive bay covers so they sat flush with the front panel.i needed to find a spacer to make this achievable.
did some lookin around and found something just the right size for what i needed..
swiped a few pens from wifeys desk (shhhhh)

dissassembled and trimmed down they will work fine as spacers

temporarily affixed then with some superglue.

once in place i ran a bead of epoxy along the top and bottom of them to make sure they were permanent.

once those were set i started mounting the lighting
i used one ccfl on the front edge to light up the flames
but i needed something a bit more to set off both the front turbine intake and the top skull vent cover.
i found a set of these on the net..round ccfl fan grills.

they only had em in 80mm so i will make due as usual.
i started by disassembling them so i had the bits i needed.

luckily they seemed to be just a press fit and came apart easy.

pulled the light rings out.

using the 2 larger ones for this mod and saving the 2 smaller ones for my next project.


positioned the first ring on the backside of the front turbine fan and epoxied it in place.

the top fan since it was in upside down position cause it is exhaust i had no framework to affix the lighting to.hmmmm
cut a piece of mesh down to bridge the mounting holes in the underside of the fan and then epoxied the light to the mesh.
did what i needed and things worked out well

wifey picked me up a few skull keychains from the bay that she was hoping i could use in the build.. me never wanting to dissapoint the wifey just had to find something to do with em =o)

heres the top 4 that will protect my ex fan grill

that left me with 2 more

one for the front turbine intake

and one for inside the case just as an accent piece.

with all lighting in place it was time for testing them out
what would a day be without a bit of drama.
get em all wired to my switch and turn them on ...hmmm only the front ccfl tube is working, nothing from my 2 light rings...grrrrr
a bit of this and a bit of that later and come to find out the lil effin resistor box for the round ones was bad.. glad i ordered 2 of them when i got em.
swapped out the converter and now they are all purty.

heh i like it =o)

now it is time for final assembly ( yes i actually said final assembly)

all hdwe went in without much drama


yep winner!!
got everything all installed and back together.

here is the finished product..

stick a fork in it. i am callin this one done.
overall i did what i wanted to do. i have a decent case and a rig that can play any of the games i want it to with little or no fuss.
i am doing some benchmarking tonight to see where it sits and i will post screenies of that.
i already have another project on the horizon but i plan to take about a month before i really start on it so i have time to play with my newly finished toy.

thank you to all who have been following the worklog, i hope i havent dissapointed too many of you in the build but at the end of the day i am happy with the results and i have learned alot from everyone on these forums during the whole build process.
most off, thank you to Wifey!! for putting up with me while i left pc bits all over the house hehe.

heres a bit of a spoiler for ya

early plans are shuttle,home server with about 6 hd's improved cooling and lighting and double as a monitor stand on my desk, and of course some air brushing on that one as well.
wish me luck and see you all in a while with this new one =o)


Link To Original Worklog