Evolutionary

[Franklin]

This project is sponsored by:

www.freezinghardware.nl

www.sapphiretech.com

www.acryan.com

Hi guys. Some of you will remember me of the casemod AlumaxX.

I won the Dutch casemod championship with it. Today I will start with something new, not a casemod but a custom build case. Some people told me they thought it was easier to mod an existing case then to build one yourself. I think it is easier to build it yourself and to prove it I will start building one :naughty:

I found some sponsors for this project, so that's why I can already start a new project.

Bill Donnelly from Sapphire gave me a very nice white motherboard

Thanks Bill :thumb: :thumb:

Alex Chen from A.C. Ryan send me a huge box with casemod materials :jawdrop:

Thanks Alex Chen from A.C. Ryan :clap: :clap: :clap:

Powersupply was a price at the Dutch casemod championship

Also think about using a PSone screen. It is not an original thing to do but it still is something that looks very cool. The screen itself is nothing special anymore, but the way I want to use it will be :naughty: :naughty:

I will use alumium profiles (25mm x 25mm.) to build a skeleton for the case.

and these profiles will be attached to each other with this sort of things ( don't know what the english name is )

The aluminium skeleton/ frame will look something like this

The aluminium has arrived today, so that's why I start this worklog today. I ordered the aluminium one month ago, so I had more then enough time to work the plans out. Started thinking and sketching three months ago.

My trip to Australia last summer gave me some inspiration. In Sydney I saw the Opera House and I think everyone knows what it looks like. This is what the outtakes on top of the case will look like.

It's a sideview and a topview. What is my goal for this mod?
First of all I want to spend much time on all the details. I'm going to watercool the videocard(s) and the CPU. The radiator will be mounted inside the case, but the airflow will be seperated from the airflow within the case. The motherboard and videocard will be in a seperated compartment from the powersupply and the harddisks. The cooling will be very important in this mod, more important than silence. I think I will not use the small bore stuff from Aquacomputer this time. Everything will be controlled with an Aquacomputer Aquaero

The colors I will use are black ( lots of it) white, grey and a touch of orange.

Started with the frame. First I had to saw the aluminium profiles to the needed sizes. Just like in the previous mod I will use a lot of handtools.

The first step is to saw the profiles for the horizontal layers of the frame and connect the pieces with these parts. These things can be pushed into the aluminium profiles. Very easy and it looks clean, no parts or screws sticking out.

At the bottom of the photograph from the frame you can see four sketches, these are the horizontal layers I will need. The first three layers are ready now and can be seen in the picture above.

[Franklin]

and the finished frame

I make sketches by hand. This is a sketch from the powerbutton I want to create for this case.

The light grey is brushed aluminium ( left overs from the Lian Li mod ) The orange/brown is wood. The powerbutton will light up and the two bumps to the right are the power leds. The same shapes and materials will come back in the other devices like the M-PLAY 2002, the Aquaero and the DVD recorder.

Coolermaster helped me out with a mobotray from a damaged case. Thanks Ron from Coolermaster

Here it is

some damage, but nothing serious that can't be fixed. It's a removable tray and I will remove some parts anyway. This tray saves me quite some time.

In the picture below you can see the slight damage, but I will remove this part.

This original mesh will be cut out.

It needs some cleaning up

I'm not finished filing the edges yet, but this is the tray with everything that's not needed removed.

With a small modification the tray fits perfectly in my home made aluminium frame.

[Franklin]

@intergalacticman : What do you want to know about the front? Just send me a pm for any questions and no the mod is not for sale. It is the computer I use at home and it was my first casemod, so I'm very attached to it.

I'm back from my holidays downunder and I think this was a good reason to stop working on a casemod for a while.

Today I received some parts from www.freezinghardware.nl , a sponsor of my projekt

A Laing EcoCirc D4basic-30/830NX pump.

and two Black Ice GT Stealth 240 radiators

Right now I'm working on the final plans for the harddisk container. I will be using these things.

Hope to start working on the box this weekend.

I started working on the acrylic with my new machine, it was a cheap thing but it is good enough for what I will need to do with it. I made some holes in the acrylic for the radiators.

Because the acrylic isn't wide enough to cover the whole case I had to use two pieces. Here you can see one piece for the first radiator.

and the two pieces. On the left side it is hard to see, because I already removed the tape from the acrylic. You can also see I started closing the frame at the back of the case.

On the left side you can see where the first radiator will be mounted. The other one will be placed on the right side.

[Franklin]

Today I started working on the box for the harddisks. I will use an old watercoolingblock for the harddisks and also a normal fan.

First I needed to create piece of acrylic to mount the fan. I want it to fit in the front. I think it fits great.

Just taped the box together to see if everything fits.

I placed the dempers beside the box to get an idea what it will look like.

[Franklin]

The first aluminium 'ring' that will be placed over the box is ready. I'll need 4 of these aluminium parts to mount the shocks. The shocks will be mounted between two of these rings.

the front view.

and from a slight angle

It took me about 4 hours to produce this ring, so that means I have about 12 hours of work for the other 3 rings.

I'm very happy with all my sponsors. Building AlumaxX really paid off. I wouldn't be able to start a new project this soon after AlumaxX without these sponsors. They give me all the artistic freedom I could wish.

[Franklin]

Just a small update. The second aluminium ring is ready. I expect to finish the last two rings this weekend so I can start working on the details of the box. The shocks will be mounted between two aluminium rings, that's what the bumbs on the side of the rings are for.

[Franklin]

Thanks.

All the rings are ready, I only will have to clean them, sand the edges and driil the holes to mount the schocks. The shocks will be mounted like this.

It is time to add some details to the box.

[Franklin]

Don't know anything about rc cars, just bought these in a webshop in the Netherlands.

Today I was feeling like years ago. Playing with clay makes you feel young again. I made the shape for the air outlets that come on top of the case. These ones. Side view and top view ( it's in Dutch )

Used some wood for the hight, length and shape. It's about 6 cm. in hight.

After drying I will have to sand it with some very fine sandingpaper and then bake it in a normal oven at 130 degrees Celcius.

Not finished yet after baking it, because this is a positve and I will need to make a negative from this shape. The negative a will use to shape the glass fibre.

[Franklin]

I ordered all the materials I need to make the fibre glass parts. It took me a bit longer as expected, but I needed to know know some technical stuff about working with fibreglass before I could order it. Monday they will send all the stuff to me, so I expect it to be here on tuesday or maybe a day later. I almost done with the model for the fibreglass part. I will make a fibreglass shape from this clay model and that part I will use to construct 4 airoutlets. The clay is baked now and it came out well. Only will have to sand it a bit.

Just to give you an idea of what I mean, the clay model on top of the case. The fibreglass is hardened after 25 minutes, so I think I can finish them next weekend.

I did a lot of work on the harddisk box, but I dont want to show it yet. All the parts will be glued and I can't do that before I know it all will fit. It's a bit hard to take a picture of all the things withot it being mounted. So you all will have to wait some time for those pictures.

Started working on something els, the powerbutton. This was the idea.

and I used some leftover aluminium from the Lian Li mod.

I just can't wait to begin working with the fibreglass.

[Franklin]

The model for the airducts on top of the case are almost finished, After sanding it with very fine sandingpaper I had to put some resin over it.

This is what the model looks like after two layers of resin. Some spots may look like they are not smooth, but that's because some spots are a bit grey and most of the model is white.

Now I will have two wait for it to dry, takes 24 hours. Tomorrow I can use the moldingwax.

I'm cutting the fibreglass mat to the right size, so I can start working with it tomorrow. The fibreglass model will not be the part I will need, but only the nagative model that I will use to create four fibreglass airducts.

I also need a model for the fibreglass that will cover the top of the case, I use MDF for it.

The MDF model is treated with the same resin. It will need another two layers before I can apply the wax.

Now I'll have to wait 24 hours for it all to dry. In the meantime I started working on some plexi tubing that I will use for the airducts from the radiators to the top of the case. First I need to cut it down in size.

After thhis it will have to be cut in half.

Now I have four of these parts, only two in this photograph, but I've got four of those thing now.

They will be mounted here.

The plexi will not be visible in the endresult and the sides will be closed as well.