Case- & Hardware Modding

[HaRdSTyLe_83 5,167]

Search for any local laser cutters to you. There should be at least one. If not, try contacting ColdZero in Portugal. I've bought many pieces from them for my Corsair 900D. I think they'll do custom laser cutting if you provide them the models.

 

i already spoke with them before, he makes a gpu backplate with the same type of artic cammo of my motherboard, but i dont know if i want to mess with the gpu

 

made a new window for my case but i still dont know how im going to make it stay there without using some screws it doesnt look very professional, but for under 10$ i cant really be mad lol

 

 

still need to take the rivets from the hdd trays, but ill do that only once i have some parts to make a watercooled loop

Edited March 9, 2017 by HaRdSTyLe_83

[Natasha 1,005]

I can't say anyting cause I can't do this but the cables going into the graphics card could be tidied I would think, no?

 

 

Here's a really helpful guide:

 

 

 

 

Honestly, that must require the patience of a Saint! Edited March 9, 2017 by Natz_83

[HaRdSTyLe_83 5,167]

yeh, still waiting on the 6+2 pci sleeved cable and some cable combs that i ordered, to lazy to do it myself

[Misumi 2,051]

Photo guide on cutting aluminum by hand. Posted an overview on the member forum, but here's all steps.

 

Cutting this for another project (not for a PC, but tech related I suppose). 10mm and 6mm thick 6061 aluminum plate. (You can cut upwards of 25mm/1" like this with cutting fluid and going SLOWLY. Roughly a couple millimeters per second slow. )

Roughly cut out the 10mm piece with a jigsaw. This was no fun. It won't come out with a pretty edge, so it'll need a lot more work. Just cut 1-2mm from your line to be safe. The rest will be filed off.

From there, I started filing it as straight as I can. Won't be perfect, but it'll be good enough. You're going to want to use a mask when filing/grinding/sanding. Or preferably anytime you work with alu. Take a guess at how bad aluminum dust is for ya. Yeah. Pretty f*cking bad.

During the rough filing, I'd jot the high spots with a marker. Then go over it with the file, and repeat the process until it's visibly flat. Grind grind grind!

Moving onto a finer filer to get most of the deeper scratches out.

Wetsanding starting with 320 grit.

320 wetsanded. Compared to the initial rough cut finish. I was planning on going up to 1000-1500 and pulling out my bench buffer to polish it, but this dull finish with 320 looks quite nice I may keep it.

On this episode of Attack of the Metal Tentacles, I drill a .5" pivot hole.

Cut out a pocket to reduce some mass in the thing. Draw your cutout then drill a hole on the inside (far from the drawn edge) to insert your jigsaw. I finished the inner edges the same way as the outer.

More weight reduction. .5" holes for fingering.

Working on the side plates. These parts will be identical so after I rough cut them, I clamped both on the vise and filed them together to ensure they were as close to identical as possible. The filed edge looked like one piece, so I guess I got close enough.

Drilling & countersinking some holes. Screws will pass through here and thread into rods, which will hold the two pieces apart. Again, I take advantage of these being identical pieces and clamp them together to make sure everything lines up.

#8-32 tap into .5" aluminum rods. Phallic shaped objects make slip on your vise so wrap a towel around it.

The finish on the rods were fairly scratched and plain. To get a cleaner finish, I stuck the rod (with tap) into the press and held some 220-320 sandpaper around the rotating piece. This is definitely ghetto. Potentially unsafe. Don't get your fingers caught in the chuck.

Voila. Ghetto lathe turned finish.

Stock finish, meet ghetto turned finish.

What could it be?

[AZAZEL 3,116]

What could it be?

My first thought was a sequential shifter of some sorts, or a handbrake assembly. Looks gorgeous either way.

[sivispacem 21,861]

I was going to use the phrase "e-brake" for the first time in my life. Though obviously I mean "hydraulic handbrake".

[Misumi 2,051]

Correcto! Handbrake is correct. A vertical one, although no hydraulics here as it won't be for vehicle use. Hoping to mount it to a racing sim setup I'm slowly building.

[HaRdSTyLe_83 5,167]

hdd trays are gone now i have some space to start my first watercooling project

 

been looking into Ek and Xspc, any advice for the pump/reservoir combo? D5 or DDC ?

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by HaRdSTyLe_83

[Natasha 1,005]

That's like artwork. If I had room to have a larger case I'd consider tidying up my cables

[Misumi 2,051]

D5 or DDC is fine. I had a small DDC pump for my ITX build, and it was quite loud though. The DDC pumps are usually more compact, which was a requirement for me, but I don't think that will be an issue for you.

 

Personally, I'm going back to air cooling. As much as I put into modding, I still prefer simplicity and ease of maintenance for a personal build.

[Misumi 2,051]

Continuation of the handbrake assembly. Here's the rear plate close to completion. The switch is an IR break beam sensor which connects via USB. I tapped some extra threads for thumbscrews to act as cable holds so that it doesn't get accidentally pulled off.

 

 

 

 

Handle mocked up with a short shaft and checking out possible spring placement. I'm still waiting on spring anchors to arrive before I can mount them. (they won't sit at the angle in the photo, but rather downwards towards the center screw)

 

Main shaft in & locked to center.

[HaRdSTyLe_83 5,167]

ghetto mod 101 cut white plexi to cover some parts, ended up using superglue to make it stick in place lol

 

 

and to cover the Psu cables

 

 

is it just me who feels like a women trying to fit inside a corset everytime i try to close my back panel? alot of skeezing and holding my breath

 

edit: what radiators you are using in the manta? i thought about starting small and just use the SE 240 (26mm thikness) on the top and leave the front space for the pump/res but i dont think its enough for the future if i want to do the gpu.

Edited March 20, 2017 by HaRdSTyLe_83

[Misumi 2,051]

 

edit: what radiators you are using in the manta? i thought about starting small and just use the SE 240 (26mm thikness) on the top and leave the front space for the pump/res but i dont think its enough for the future if i want to do the gpu.

 

That's a question for Azazel. My Manta will be aircooled, provided I even finish it. That project has been on the backburner for me.

 

I did use a slim radiator on my last build, which was an Alphacool 240 ST30 (30mm thickness). I only had a CPU on it (5820K), and I wouldn't recommend more than one component on a slim 240 radiator.

[HaRdSTyLe_83 5,167]

yeah, on ekwb configurator it recomends at least a slim 360 for both gpu and cpu (cooling power of 299w for the 275w of the system) but it leaves very little room, so ill probably go with the SE240 on top + SE360 in the front and just reduce the size of the reservoir so it can all fit there

Edited March 21, 2017 by HaRdSTyLe_83

[AZAZEL 3,116]

yeah, on ekwb configurator it recomends at least a slim 360 for both gpu and cpu (cooling power of 299w for the 275w of the system) but it leaves very little room, so ill probably go with the SE240 on top + SE360 in the front and just reduce the size of the reservoir so it can all fit there

 

It can't take a 360 in the front I'm afraid (the height of the 'inner' chassis is only ~340mm top to bottom). The largest you'll be able to fit is a 280, and you'll need to remove the top of the chassis to maneuver it in. Think I read that wrong, haha. You're shopping rads for your S340, of course. Doh. I'm running an EK SE240 in the top, which is about the largest you can squeeze in a Manta, and a CE280 in the front.

 

I only have pleasant experiences with EK's radiators, in all their pre-cleaned goodness. I always flush them out before use, but I've never witnessed any gunk or debris in any of them.

 

I try to keep all the water cooling components of the same make and materials , to limit the various metals interacting with the fluid. Mixing too many copper and nickel coatings, and aluminium radiators will almost always affect the fluid in some way or the other, especially some of the pastel/opague fluids on the market.

 

If you can squeee a PWM D5 combo in there, I'd do it. It runs much quieter than the DDC.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Azazel
Reading.

[HaRdSTyLe_83 5,167]

Right now this is what im considering for my first build, dont know if ill do the GPU im a bit afraid to mess with the warranty on that

 

 

1 x EK - coolstream SE 360 (slim triple)

1 x EK - supremacy EVO full nickel

1 x EK - XRES revo D5 PWM (inc pump)

1 x EK - FC1080 gtx strix - niquel

1 x EK - FC1080 gtx strix backplate niquel

1 x EK -duraclear 9,5/12,7mm 3m

7 x EK - ACF fitting 10/13 niquel

1 x EK - ekoolant pastel white (concentrate 250ml)

1 x EK - atx bridging plug (24 pins)

1 x EK - Cable pump testing

1 x EK - cable PMW fan extension 30cm

3 x EK - AF angled 90º G1/4 niquel

1 x EK - uni pump bracket (120 mm fan)

1 x EK - cable ysplitter 3 fan DC

 

Budget is around 600 without the fans, i dont know if my Corsair Af120 will be enough, and most likelly im missing some componentes lmao

 

Edit: if seems that my fans are crap for static pressure so i probably need to add some vardar aswell

Edited March 28, 2017 by HaRdSTyLe_83

[Misumi 2,051]

I like the brand variety.

[AZAZEL 3,116]

dont know if ill do the GPU im a bit afraid to mess with the warranty on that

 

You don't truly own something until you've voided the warranty.

[HaRdSTyLe_83 5,167]

still waiting on some parts to arrive but now im having some doubts on how to connect the fans on the rad

i ordered the EK-Cable Y-Splitter 3-Fan PWM

 

"EK-Cable Y-Splitter 3-Fan PWM is a simple adapter used to hook three (PWM) fans to one motherboard 4-pin PWM"

 

but will it have power enough to control 3 fans in just one fan header straight from the mobo? tried to read the Mobo manual and cant find anything. the 4 fan splitter comes with a molex to get power straight from the Psu and the Pmw from the mobo

 

 

 

This is what i found: each fan is 2,16w and 0.18amp, someone correct me if im wrong but each header can handle 10w and 1amp right?

Edited April 3, 2017 by HaRdSTyLe_83

[AZAZEL 3,116]

This is what i found: each fan is 2,16w and 0.18amp, someone correct me if im wrong but each header can handle 10w and 1amp right?

 

That's usually the case, yeah. I don't think you'll have any trouble running the three fans off of one header on the mobo, but if you're in any way in doubt about your calculations or the ratings for the fans, the 4-pin splitter with the MOLEX/PWM-signal combo is a safer bet.

[AZAZEL 3,116]

Fancied up the front fans with some decals.

 

 

 

[ｘ 6,141]

Thinking of getting a Streacom DB4 some time in the future and modding the top panel to accommodate a 140/120mm fan + SFX PSU + CPU Cooler and a 1070/1060 Mini instead of the original fanless design. How hard do you reckon this'll be?

 

 

Edited April 8, 2017 by Exqlusive

[Misumi 2,051]

Fancied up the front fans with some decals.

 

 

 

Great attention to details. You should update the Manta thread over at OCN. It's looking quite dead. Seems like we're the only ones who bought the case. Future rare case owners I suppose.

[AZAZEL 3,116]

 

Fancied up the front fans with some decals.

 

 

 

Great attention to details. You should update the Manta thread over at OCN. It's looking quite dead. Seems like we're the only ones who bought the case. Future rare case owners I suppose.

 

Don't have a user on OCN, but maybe I should make one then. Is it still fairly active?

 

Did a decal for the pump as well.

 

[Misumi 2,051]

Most of the sections are fairly active. The popular case threads are always bumped up. Our Manta thread has probably been left behind back towards page 500 or something.

[AZAZEL 3,116]

Thoughts on this lettering? Not sure if I'll keep it or not - the letters are perfectly smooth, but the adhesive backing makes them look a bit iffy. Might look alright when everything's in and lit up a bit.

 

 

[HaRdSTyLe_83 5,167]

^^ that looks amazing

[AZAZEL 3,116]

Cable management in its final form:

 

 

Could be neater, but just needed the cables to sit flat, so the covers would fit over them:

 

 

 

It might seem silly spending so much time and effort on something you won't really see that often, but yeah.

[AZAZEL 3,116]

Thar' she blows, laddies! All done, ready to crush some games!

 

 

 

[sivispacem 21,861]

That's a thing of beauty.