Project: Armor Redux

[SXRguyinMA]

Ok, so I went through the trouble of measuring, drilling, grinding, etc, to end up with this panel:

That I decided not to use. I realized that it wasn’t going to fit in with the rest of the front of the case. So I scrapped that idea.

I ended up using one of the standard TT faceplates, and drilling/grinding it for the buttons and stuff instead. It was a lot easier to mount and looks much better IMHO.

[SXRguyinMA]

Next up was stealthing the DVD drive. This went pretty easy. With a TT faceplate and some hot glue, it was done. I just had to drill a new hole in the chassis for the screw to mount it, as it sat too far back, but that was no big deal.

Tray motor removed

A few well-place snips and dabs of hot glue, and the wiring is done

Faceplate work

Open:

Closed:

Next up I sleeved the SATA cables to hide their red-ness

[SXRguyinMA]

Then I did this neat little voltage mod to the MB that I found online. Apparently there’s a significant drop in the voltage between these two points due to a too-thin trace. So the remedy is to solder a thicker wire between them.

also while the board was out I removed the heatpipes and heatsinks. I also read that these mobos have issues with overheating due to the use of thermal pads instead of grease, so I removed the pads and used grease, then reassembled it all. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, so I didnt get any pics.

I also sleeved the power/USB cables

[SXRguyinMA]

Then came the OCZ memory cooler. I didn’t want the blue LEDs anymore, so I started by taking the fans out

Then de-soldering the LEDs

All sleeved up

RGB LEDs soldered up

Ready to go

[SXRguyinMA]

I also had blue LEDs on the CPU cooler as well, but for these I just put a piece of heat shrink over them

Mobo, cpu cooler, memory cooler and a pair of 3870x2’s installed

[SXRguyinMA]

My 5 leftover RGB modules from Rockin Case

4 of these got mounted to the bottom of the case, and one to the side panel opposite the PSU.

[SXRguyinMA]

Then I decided to do something I saw on the Dark Blade mod. I put LEDs inside the DVD drive.

Board with LEDs soldered up

And sleeved

LEDs in place, with a few snips of the plastic housing

Aw crap – the cover hits

Oh well, break out the dremel

Ahhh that’s better

Sleeved up and ready for install

I also got this nice little brown box from Hong Kong, and in it was this

It’s a PIC programmer. I set up my spare mobo with Windows XP on it, because it’s got a serial port that’s needed to use this puppy. As soon as I can get it configured right, I’m going to try creating my own color sequences in the RGB controller. Look out for a different thread on that later on.

[SXRguyinMA]

And she’s done!

And set back up

And a few parting shots and a video. The camera doesn’t get the colors too well, it’s something you need to see in person, or wait until I can afford a nicer video camera lol.

I’ll post the link to the video once it’s done processing

[SXRguyinMA]

I need a better camera. for some reason the colors on these pics all look lighter than they actually are lol

Red:

Green:

Blue:

And a vid:

[billygoat333]

looks very clean and nice! I like the usage of the original tt bay cover for the switch panel.