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Project: Elegant-Li
Project: Elegant-Li
Hi all. I have been out to of modding game for quite a while now. I try to pop in when I can but it is nowhere near as much as I would like. I come to you all with a new project. Something that I have been planning and pondering for the better part of 8 months now and actually started just before Christmas 2010. I was planning on having this project finished by now but since Uni finished for the year late last November I have had set back after setback. The most major setback being work with a close second coming to a project car I purchased, an AE86 Toyota Corolla Levin
. Well enough excuses for now, lets start with some background.
Background:
I originally got the idea for this project when one of my friends fathers asked me to build him a new desktop. He gave me $1000AUD and 1 week to bring him a quote and a build running PC, I delivered his request in little under 4 days. When searching for a nice budget case I came across the Lancool PC-K series of cases. For the size and the price the cost was quite cheap and from what I could gather online they were a nice reliable chassis. I ended up choosing to make the build in a Lancool PC-K58 and knew straight away that I had chosen the right case for the job. With tons of space for all the latest hardware, relatively good looks, good cooling and a great price I knew straight away that I had found my next project case but there were a few things that bugged me about it, the plastic and the weight. I knew at the time that Lancool were pretty much a budget version of Lian Li so I jumped on the Lian Li website to find which case they modeled the PC-K58 on, that's when I found the Lian Li PC-P50. I settled on this to be the perfect case for my new project. A relatively roomy case without being too large and made entirely out of aluminum were a few of the qualities that swayed my decision.
Design:
This project was initially going to be a complete white project called "Snow" but after receiving the Lian Li and just seeing the quality and beauty of the brushed black exterior panels I couldn't bring myself to paint it. I then re-named the project "Elegant-Li" and decided to keep the exterior as is while making a few structural modifications and painting the interior white.
In terms of modifications I have a few up my sleeve. I'll be performing the standard mods such as a case window and adding a false floor but I will also be doing a few extra things that I will keep secret for now.
As with my last build (Lexa), i will be incorporating a water cooling system into the design. It won't be over the top and I wont go into the details right now because I haven't finished working out the details yet.
The colour scheme as stated above will be a black exterior with a white interior. I haven't decided between black, gray, or white cable sleeving yet but that's not a major issue. The water cooling will consist of either a single or duel loop (still haven't decided) with dark blue coolant.
The entire interior will be lit with the help of a few pure white LED strips.
For those who followed my previous build you would know that I'm not one to put my thoughts to paper as picture form very often. Here is a teaser of how (I hope) this project will turn out.
That's all for today, call it a teaser. I hope to get some actual progress shots up tomorrow night. Until then.
Happy Modding.
Project: Elegant-Li is sponsored Speedy IT Services!
http://speedyitservices.com.au/
Speedy IT is a local IT group run by a good friend of mine who I met through my Uni degree. Speedy IT Services specialize in PC repairs and website design but also sell hardware, software and watercooling products. I helped Paul (the owner) get things going and it is great to see the busines take off in the local market. When Paul decided he wanted to build his first water cooled PC just under 12 months I helped him get everything organised from the ground up and to repay me he agreed to be my sponsor for this current build.
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Overclocked
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Re: Project: Elegant-Li
Thanks Alex, I wont dissapoint
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Re: Project: Elegant-Li
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Re: Project: Elegant-Li
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Re: Project: Elegant-Li
Ok, sorry for the delay in the updates guys but the start of the new University year has kept me pretty busy for the last few weeks, I had a lot of preparation to do.
Even though I have done a bit of work on this project I am going to start the updates right back at the start.
Lets start with the un-boxing
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Well here is how the case arrived at the post office for me:
As you can see it was wrapped nicely with no signs of damage.
How nice of them
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A shot of the box itself:
At this point I was quite excited to tear this box open and admire the case until I saw this:
They had sent me the wrong case
. I ordered the bog stock Lian Li PC-P50 and they sent me the higher end model with flashy lights, a black interior and a case window. I was quite angry about this, a simple mistake to make yes because the only differentiation between the two cases is the sticker on the box. The company I purchased the case through dispatched a courier to exchange the incorrect case with the correct one. I have to give PC Case Gear props though, they made the exchange very quickly and hassle free, the didn't complain and they were very apologetic, a great bunch of guys.
Here are some pics of the case as it was straight out of the box:
The entire construction of the PC-P50 is aluminum excluding 1 piece, you'll see it in the second picture of the case, where the Lian Li badge is mounted. I have always heard of the quality of Lian Li cases but never expected it to be as good as it was, everyone should have the pleasure to work with a Lian Li case at least once.
Well that's the un-boxing out of the way, now we can look at some goodies I purchased for this project
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Re: Project: Elegant-Li
Soon after receiving the correct case I received a few bits and pieces that I intend to use in this project:
What we have here are 5x 120mm Noiseblocker PL-2 1400rpm fans, 1x 100mm Scythe 1000rpm fan and 2x Scythe Himuro drive bay HDD coolers.
A shot of the Noiseblocker fans:
A shot of the Scythe fan:
And a few shots of the Scythe Himuro coolers:
Well the fans are pretty self explanatory, to move air but the amount of them is due to them being on sale
. That's also why I settled on the Scythe Himuro, it looks awesome and does what I want it to do, it was also 2 for the price of 1 lol.
Next up i'll be stripping the case.
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Re: Project: Elegant-Li
When stripping a case I find it best to pretty much remove everything that is held in by a screw first before grabbing my drill.
I started by removing the the drive bay dividers/supports as well as the HDD caddy.
Before:
After:
I then removed all of the body panels including side panels, top panel and front fascia along with anything else I could remove from the interior. Here is what it looked like after I was done:
I then took the case with me down to the shed and let lose with the drill. The first thing to come out was the drive bays:
A picture of the removed drive bays:
The next thing to come out was the motherboard tray:
A picture of the removed tray:
The last thing to come out was the PCI retention plate:
Now I'll explain why I removed these three key parts of the chassis. Because I intend to make a false floor so I can house the water cooling gear unseen these three pieces of the case had to be removed. The drive bays have been sacrificed so I can make my own to suit my needs, something smaller and something that looks a little bit nicer. The new drive bays will house both the optical drive and HDDs hence the need for the Scythe Himuro bay coolers. The motherboard tray was removed once again so I can make my own. The stock tray is too tall and would interfere with my radiators. It is also not long enough to cover the entire length of the case. Because I want to keep the project as clean as possible a new tray is needed to suit my needs. The PCI bracket was removed because it will be in the way of the false floor. This card has 8 PCI slots, most conventional motherboards have only 7, the extra slot is needed space so I am going to modify the original to suit.
Now that the case is a skeleton I am ready to start work on the case itself.
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Re: Project: Elegant-Li
When it came to tackling the case I decided to work on the front fascia first, mainly because I knew it needed to be done before I started the drive bays. Also I didn't have any sheet aluminum yet so this was all I could really do lol.
Due to Lian Li's design, the drive bay covers that aren't in use clip into the stock drive bays. Because I am not using the stock drive bays and because all my bays will be covered I need a way to attach the covers to the front fascia itself rather then the case.
Here is the front fascia and drive bay covers:
I started by marking:
Cutting:
Filling:
And bending:
And was left with what you can see above.
This is how the bay covers look when installed into the front fascia.
From behind:
And from the front:
Perfect fit
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Now obviously the masking tape will not stay there permanently, it was just to help the plates stay in place as I made minor adjustments to the bends to get them all to sit flat. I will eventually replace the masking tape with either a strip of black electrical tape or a gel strip just to ensure the plates aren't moved out of place by accident.
Well that's all I have time to post up for today guys. I promise I will have more for you soon. Until then.
Happy Modding.
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