Maximum PC

Hi guys, I finally took some time to get some photos of this mod i've been working on since last summer!! I spent about 2 months designing/thinking about it/ playing computer part tetris, and alot of time gathering the correct parts.
It is basically a re-creation of Defyant's STORM'D but in more of a cube shape, and all custom fabb'd!! I figured I wouldnt even bother starting a worklog until now because most of what i have been doing is cutting panels and getting them drilled out, and the appropriate holes cut in them, but now as things are starting to come together, I took some photos, and am starting a log of it from here on.
If you see anything you think could be improved or changed, please let me know!! I am open to any new ideas/suggestions.
I am hoping to submit this to rig of the month in maxpc once its done!
Enjoy.

Hard Drive mounts
(used some old snowboard stomp pads to use as dampening )

Hard Drives Mounted


The Water Cooling Victims MUHAHAHA

HwLabs Black Ice GTS 240 Radiator: I chose this one because of my minimal space requirements!! its pretty thin! I also got some longer bolts, and rubber spacers to dampen vibrations, and I will be making a shroud by wrapping some electrical tape around it, because It is much cheaper, and easier then a regular shroud! The fans I am using are all Thermaltake High Performance Case fans. 74CFM at 21 DBA!!!

Next up, I have some Internal lighting! These are 2 UV LED tubes which I cut all the other junk off them, and wired them to an LED rocker switch that will go on the front panel THANKS RON! (he helped me with the wiring on these a while back.. I almost blew my PSU testing them.. twice)

Heres how they will react to the HydrX additive I will be adding (this photo is from xoxide site, but I submitted it as a customer photo (as well as any other photos I use from that site unless I note otherwise)

Here is the front Panel! More then meets the eye. On the left, there is the usual switch on/reset/headphone/usb ports, but the hdd activity lights are hidden behind the plexiglass panel. Also hidden behind the panel will be 2 compunurse thermal displays which will be hooked up to the other rocker LED switch, and when they are on, you will be able to see them thru the darkened plex, but when they are off, they will not be able to be seen!! To the right of the displays and rocker switches is a 3 channel silverstone fan controller which will control the speed of the 2 fans on the 240 rad, the fan on the 120 rad, and the fans around the hard drives!
For those of you who are wondering, The plexiglass I am using is 3/16" Grey 2074 plexiglass on all the panels except the back which is 1/4" thick. (I bought them from www.delviesplastscs.com the 3/16 stuff is hard to find)
1 thing I designed this case for was to be dark.. let me explain. My case now has so many lights coming out of it, I cant sleep with it on, and it is just annoying, so I designed it so that every light in it is hooked up to a switch that I can turn on and off as I need it! making my life alot easier, and my sleep patterns kinda normal

I also did the same storm rings as defyant used, with socket cap hex head bolts countersunk in, and ripped at 45! and some nice ac-ryan metal mesh to stealth the fan on the right and the passive intake on the left (wanted it to be a fan, but the pump said otherwise )

2 drive bays, 1 for my dvd drive/burner, and another for my audigy2zs front panel (I will be doing the optical drive bay mounts later.. Still waiting for some solvent cement to come in)
I will also be making a frame like the storm rings, ripping it at 45, and putting bolts in it all the way around to keep in the spirit of Storm'D!


Here are a few photos of the layout so far



As you can see, its very cramped inside, but theres plenty of room for airflow, as there will be a passive vent running along the radiator, and at the back of the case!

The 120mm fan hole in the bottom is for the intake for the PSU which is a 580w HIPER Type-R (currently in the computer im using right now )
I will be putting a filter on it that is easily removed so that it doesnt turn into the worlds biggest dust bunny!

(what it currently looks like in my computer as of now )

This case is designed similarly to the new sunbeam acrylic case where the mobo is going to be in the middle, above the psu and radiator (i came up with this design first.. those guys are telepathic copycats or something)
The mobo tray will sit right ontop of the psu, and there will be some room between it and the fans on the 240 radiator. I will probably cut some vent holes in it as well to promote more airflow around the bottom of the motherboard, and to the radiator!

The Back Panel (from the inside)

(from the outside of the case)

Holes are for Radiator, Back of mobo, passive air intake, and the back of the PSU

Some closeups of how the radiator is mounted


This radiator is spaced out with the rubber spacers like the other radiator, and will be shrouded with some black tape!

Also, notice how the fanhole is cut out AROUND the fittings. this is so that I can unmount the radiator, along with the rest of the whole water cooling system, and remove it with only having to take out the top panel, and none of the other hardware!!!!! this will make testing, bleeding, and complete overhauls of the w/c system 10000000 times easier

I am also custom fabbing a resivoir exactly like the one defyant made for storm'd, which is half done, except its in my car and I dont feel like going out to get it and take photos of it right now. the only thing that needs to be finished is to bond these end-caps onto one side, and plain ones on the other


These are just 2" diameter circles tapped to G 1/4 (took me forever to find one of those taps) and plugged with a nickel plated plug and an o-ring. I will not have the resivoir done until next week because I had to order more weld-on to bond the acrylic.

More updates to come later on this week!! until then, I have lots of skateboarding to do :D:D

mellow nosegrind at the local skatepark : )

almost forgot some specsss
I will be moving all my parts from my old case into this shiny new water cooled one!!!
Prescott P4 3.2 ghz
Asus P4C800E Deluxe
PNY Geforce 6800 Ultra
2 gigs Corsair XMS ram
WD raptor 74 GB 10,000 RPM
Seagate Barracuda 160 GB 7,200 RPM
Sound Blaster Audigy2zs Platinum

w/c Parts
Swiftech Apogee CPU block
Danger Den nv-68 GPU block
Tygon 11/16 ID 5/8 OD tubing
Swiftech MCP655 Pump
HwLabs Black Ice GT Stealth GTS 240 Radiator
HwLabs Black Ice GT Stealth GTS 120 Radiator
Danger Den High Flow fittings
Stainless Steel worm drive hose clamps
Swiftech Hydrx additive
Custom Fab Resivoir

Lookin good so far, keep it up.

Awesome. Nice design ideas.

Quick update: Took some photos of the resivoir.

I actually made 2 because I thought I cracked the first one.. turns out I was just sloppy with the weld-on, and it just looks like its cracked Here's some photos!
(new one is on the left)

From the side


I will trim down the threading on the barb going out so that it will draw from all of the resivoir, and not half an inch up

I just used 2" acrylic tubes (I wanted cast tubing, but it was just too expensive, but this extruded stuff isnt too terribly bad) and joined them with a smaller one between them - 5/8 ID 3/4 OD so that it doesnt restrict any flow. I also used a 3/8" NPT thread for the barbs, because it was the biggest size I could find (and I didnt have the G1/4 tap yet) More updates on the Resivoir sometime around next wed. The Weld-On isnt supposed to arrive until around monday, so I have to focus on some other things at the moment.

Another update

I drilled out holes on most of the panels for the corner cubes, and assembled it to see how it would look. I think its coming along a little bit better then I expected

Mocked up with my old PSU (new one is a little smaller)

(I will also be replacing those icky IDE hard drives with a sata 74 gig raptor and a 160 gig barracuda)

Without the PSU

You can see one of the passive vents in the back for the 240 Rad, I will also cut one along that panel behind the radiator running its length (possibly mount some slim 80mm fans if they will fit)

From the front


One of the Passive vents for the 240 Radiator


Shot of the back



I also figured out how I am going to route the tubing as well. I will have the resivoir mounted in that top panel with the barbs facing the front, so 1 tube will be going out of the resivoir, between the optical drive mounts and the panel that is not on the case in this photo, under the front 80mm fan (between the front panel and the hard drives) and into the pump. Out of the pump it will go to the cpu block, and then into the top barb on the radiator -> out of the bottom barb, and into the gpu block. from there, into the 240 rad, and then back up into the resivoir. I checked this with the tubing, and the only place I am a bit concerned about is the bend going from the cpu block to the radiator in the back, but I think it shouldnt be a problem (if it is... uh ohes)

In that picture of you skateboarding, I thought that you were grinding on your PC! That looks really nice, but I bet it would look nicer if you put a red LED on each of those fans, and installed a sheet of Plexiglas on the top.

Its all plexiglass. All that brown stuff is paper that covers it so it doesnt get scratched up, and so that you can mark where you need to drill etc alot easier. I will remove it all when I am done with everything, and need to flame polish the edges. Like I said earlier, I used Grey 2074 acrylic, which is pretty dark, but very transparent when there is light on the other side!

If that was my case, it would be one expensive nosegrind

I'm not really a fan of the red LEDs. I'm trying to go for the look where everything is pretty dark, except for the coolant which is lit up by the uv led's so that it can be seen through the case!

speaking of skating a computer case, I had this really old one that was sitting around collecting dust, and it didnt work and was basically worthless, so I brought it out into my driveway and skated it!! (it actually slid really well )

Here is the look that I'm going for:



Pretty much, I was reading the project log of this one when Defyant posted it a long while back, and I was completely blown away. It was the first actual modded case I ever saw, and I eventually wanted to make something like it because it looks so rad!

Like I was saying earlier with the transparancy.. you can see in the bottom middle photo kinda how it is. where theres light, you can see thru the plex, but where there isnt, it's completely black!

Defyant would be flattered! Awesome project

Hey, Havn't updated in a while, because, well.. there hasn't been anything to update on until now

I FINALLY got the weld-on yesterday, so I finished the resivoir, and I'm going to give it a little bit longer to set until I leak test it.. I ghetto pressure tested it by plugging one barb, and blowing into it to create some pressure, and I didnt *hear* any leaks, which is good, but I'm going to first leak test it by plugging the barbs abd submerge it in some water.. I dont want to have to break out the pump quite yet, because that would require me to mix some coolant etc.. more work then I have to do

Some Pics:






I did cut down the threads on the inlet barb (one i'm holding it by) but I think I should cut it a bit lower still.

I kinda F*K'd up the other res when I was making it, so I pretty much scrapped it.. I wasnt going to use it any way... Weld-on is possibly the most difficult stuff to use ever.. It can give you cancer, its a skin irritant, and its thinner then water, so it drips all over the place even with an applicator, and it's fumes are toxic and will probably make you sick if you dont do it outside or in a ventilated area. I hate using it.

anyways, hopefully I can get the frames I want for the front, and around the resivoir, but I am having trouble finding a good place that does laser cutting of acrylic... If anyone knows somewhere that can do it relatively cheap, please let me know!!!

Just did a few leak tests, and things are looking very positive!! there were no leaks around the parts that I joined with the solvent cement, but there was 1 on one of the barbs that I fixed with a better thread tape job, and another on one of the fillports because I didnt put it on tight enough :P

NEW UPDATE!! YAY!! Ive been super busy working on my case.. I worked on it around 50 hours or so in the last week (I also spent about the same amount of time skateboarding ) so I got alot done, and only have a few things left to do!

First off, Here's A picture of the case with my solution on how to support the motherboard without having anything that attaches the mobo tray to the sides! I just bent some strips of scrap plexi with a blowtorch, bent them, and then solvent cemented them together to make that frame, and then I am bolting it to the bottom and to the tray. you can also see how reflective this plexi can be in the photo (look at the bottom of the support, you can see the reflection of the metal mobo thing on the back in it!


Here's how it looks with the hard drives placed where they are going to go:



A shot with the motherboard tray in place:



Another shot of the mobo tray in place:



With the Pump in place:



The Back side of the Front Panel:


The Front Panel with the new frame and socket cap hex bolts in place!


I cut some bolts short and hot glued them in, because in certain places I can't have them go all the way through because of corner cubes that hold other stuff together


More photos of the frame:



I also made a frame for the top panel that goes around the Resivoir!



Shots of the top panel and resivoir from the inside:



Without the resivoir:


I made a support for the bottom of the resivoir to sit on:

It is supported on the other end by the 2 endcaps sitting on top of the frame.

Shot of the support piece the res will sit on fron the top:


I cut out a hole for a passive vent to allow airflow to the 240 radiator, and put some nice metal mesh over it!



The drive bay mounts:

I have some room to take a bit more off the bottom in the case it is blocking anything on the motherboard such as the RAM.. it shouldnt though.


No, thats not a goldfish in the back Thats just the hole for the back fan and radiator so that if I need to take out the w/c system, I can pull the 120 radiator thru that hole and only have to take off the top panel to remove everything! I also need to trim down the metal support tab things that are blocking that fan hole!

Hopefully sooner then later, I will have the mobo tray done with all the standoffs in place. I also may put a small lip on the left side panel for the mobo tray to sit on.. actually make a sort of channel that it sits in to hold it in place, but not have it attached.. hmmm

OMG AN UPDATE FINALLY!!!!11



I finally got my hands on a camera, so heres whats new:



Supports for the motherboard tray





shot with the tray in place



no, that is not my motherboard. its a socket7 one that contained an Intel 166 mhz processor. funny thing is, the mounting holes are the same layout, so it makes a great mock up : )



Front of the case without the paper :O



Back of the front panel showing the fan mount



I bought one of those dampening things for the fan so I dont have anything rattling around : )



Recently, I have just felt unmotivated to work on the case, because of a *number of other things*[READ: Skate-boar-ding].. planning to go to new zealand for a month or 2 very soon : )



Basically, I am somewhat limited in what I can do, because I do not want to set it up completely until I get back, because I dont want to leave a w/c setup just sitting for 2 months (especially a new one) and I cant move my parts in just yet because I need my computer for *other things*[READ: Coun-ter-strike]



Recently, I bought 2 blank skate decks for cheap, and decided to become an artist... paint pen all-star. the one on the right is still in progress.

Nice board work.

ehh, thought it might be cool to do an etching of something like that on another case or something. just trying to throw ideas out there : )

Finally got around to doing some more work. just added some more corner cubes for better stability, and I also put the fan controller into the front. I also removed the paper on a few of the panels that are done for the most part, and took some sexy pics!









: )

Lookin sick!

I am in New Zealand for a while. there wont be any updates until the end of september.

hey guys, just a quick update for now. I finally got home and put some more time in on the case.. its coming together pretty nicely. hopefully I can start moving parts into it by tonight and put the w/c loop together. I'll update later with some more piccys :D