Marcam923

KRYPTO

Many know his name, although few have seen his face.
Into the darkness, he emerges victorious,
The light shines brightly, do not let the dark entrap you,
From the darkest moment, shines the brightest light.
Looks of a man, yet powers from beyond,
The darkness hides the light,
but from within the darkness is where the light truly shines.
It's all about what is held inside!

M.Molella - 8/25/09

Case - Coolermaster Cosmos 1000

Anyone who would like to support me in the voting, needs to go to the following link:
http://www.coolermaster-usa.com/micr...st09/index.php

Register, this is not for the Coolermaster forums, just for the contest, register separately for the forums. I will be in the Full Tower category, username - Marcam923

If there is a better mod please vote appropriately! If you do vote for me thanks!

The voting will begin OCT 1st and all of your support is more than appreciated. Thanks go out to everyone who has commented already!



At least that is where it began it's life. It was led to my hands with just a small vision, a small vision that will hopefully turn into a huge piece of art!

Follow the worklog below, but here are the final pictures!

Marcam923

So let us begin:

The majority of these mods were to improve an already awesome case. It has been the greatest pleasure to work on, and I thoroughly enjoy this case. These mods were to improve functionality, and cosmetic appearance. While maintaining an overall theme, that will all be revealed in the end.







Then I quickly got to work ripping out the front hard drive cage:





Then the reason for ripping that out, was to IMPROVE airflow!
What does that best well yes of course a couple front fans!





and some sanding on the main frame, for prep and paint later.

More pictures in the next few posts.

Enjoy!


Ok next step was to get to cutting out my Window mod to show off all that fancy new hardware!

Let the cutting begin!








You can see the first cut was rough, but right where I wanted it, after some sanding to get everything nice and smooth she look pretty again! :mrgreen:

Next was to mod the inner trim, so that it would hold a piece of plexiglass nicely in place! Then cutting the plexiglass to fit in snug! :mrgreen:






Once I got to this point, I realized that to get everything fitted as nice as I want it, and to give the inner look I am going for I needed to take it one step further.
Yes this one is a little crazy but all will be revealed in the end. :bounce: :bounce:

The cutting and the aftermath!




Finally the result!






You can also see the large hole in the top, for a little added cooling. :wink:

Marcam923

Paint

In the last couple pictures in the previous post, you can see some beginnings of some priming of the case.

Now for some shots of the frame painted Satin Black, and some of the prepping and finalizing of the exterior pieces.






Here are some initial shots, and the mess my garage was in, also just moved. Had to organize the garage last night in order to be able to complete everything.











Here are some shots of the exterior plastics, base coated, wet sanded and ready for final painting. Also my Lamptron Fan controller painted:






Hopefully will be back later with some final coat shots, and some other pictures!

UPDATE 8-26-09

Ok few new pictures, got the supports for the motherboard tray in, and the hard drive mount made, so the hard drive will be vented underneath to keep it cool, and slide out the front for easy cable removal and hard drive swapping if necessary. Also got the front of the case modded, and that will get mounted up later.

Will be sanding down the frame, and final painting hopefully finishing up today. Enjoy!
















UPDATE 8/29/09

Well I was unhappy with the paint on the chassis, so before final painting, I sand blasted most of the paint back off, and then sanded areas that needed it back down to the metal. Alot of areas where the filler primer was applied were only sanded flat, not down to bare metal, as to try and achieve the best possible finish.

Enjoy the pictures!











I also finished the end caps for the front of the case, to finish off the area where the door would have once been installed. This way the airflow through the front fans is never restricted by the door, but the front of the case appears finished and not missing something.

Marcam923

UPDATE 8/31/09

Ok have a few new paint shots, all the parts are painted. I have reconfigured how I am going to mount my harddrive, so that has been changed. That update will come as the main work on the case gets finished up and I get into the electrical work.

Here are a couple paint shots, more will come later!





UPDATE 9/3/09

Here are some more shots of the paint that were updated later down in the thread.












Here are a few full size shots!











Let me know what you think!

Marcam923

Lighting

UPDATE 9/6/09

This will be made clear very shortly. Basically the case will have a couple different lighting effects, this is one of them, it's UV hence it does not show up very well in the video. If I could only explain how cool it looks when standing in front of it! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:












Enjoy the show, another video and more photos coming later tonight!

Marcam923

UPDATE 8/29/09

Our first signs of some polishing work.

I have started lapping the heatsink for my CPU, but l et's get started with the case work first!

These are the rails, that make the feet, and top handles on the Cosmos. They were originally painted silver, until I nicely sanded them down to bare, aluminum, yes aluminum :wink:

After the first sanding with 220, then 400 then 600 then 800 then 1000 then 1500. Then hit with a very fine steel wool and some polishing compound, we get a nice mirrored finish, that will later be final buffed for a very high gloss.






UPDATE 8/31/09

Ok guys, have all four bars sanded down, and 2 of them with some initialy polishing done. So here are a couple shots for your enjoyment!






Through the polishing process, I started with 220grit on my mouse sander to knock off all the paint. Then I grabbed the following grits, 220, 400, 600, 800, 1000 and wet sanded until the previous grits scratches were gone.
Then I hit it with a buffing wheel, and some black oxide polishing compound. I need to do some further polishing, and final polishing still but the above gives you a general idea.

Marcam923

Electrical/Fans

UPDATE 8-26-09

Ok what will control everything in the Case as far as fans go will be my Lamptron FC-2

Why did I buy a silver one and not a black one, well I got a good deal on it, and it was exactly what I wanted to get the look I wanted!
Plus it let me take it apart! :wink:









UPDATE 9/3/09

Here we have some random shots of the fans. Very Cosmic looking. :wink: (get it "Cosmic")
Also sleeved all the fan cables, even though most of them will not be visible, I know they are there!












Here is a full size shot for the "fan"atics! LOLOLOLOL :wink:



Then a little video of the fans in action. I am getting a bit of a squeeling noise, the Lamptron fan controller is new to me, always used a Rheobus controller before, so I will lock this down eventually. This was just a test!

Marcam923

Hardware

UPDATE 9/3/09

The coveted, the almighty, yes the hardware, the heart and soul of the beast!

In full res, just for you PaPang! :mrgreen:

























This was a test fit, to test the integrity of the motherboard tray and make sure that I was not going to get any flex, or if I was going to need to add more support. Everything seems rock solid!

Marcam923

NOW I'M Happy with the paint!!!

Enjoy the pictures, picking up some more hardware and finishing the painting up tomorrow!!

Marcam923

Well the time has arrived, for those watching the reveal will be today, some final shots after I take them in the next couple days!

She is alive, she is running, and I have impressed myself. Normally at this point I see things I could change, things I could have done better, but this time I see a completed project! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

The threads up top will be organized later so everyone can find things easier, but the updates will be posted in the next few threads!

Starting with this one!! :bounce: :bounce:

My first thing to finish before I could start assembly of the hardware, was getting all my wiring tucked that would control everything else. I wanted that wiring invisible. The wiring for the fans, the cold cathodes, the strobe lights, (yes I used 2 strobe lights that were meant for a car, but work off a 12v+ system )

Plus I had to lap my TRUE Black, all of which needed to be completed before I could mount anything so that it did not get in the way later:

The TRUE BLACK was my hardest lapping yet, it was black and silver anodized, had to get both of those layers gone before revealing the copper. But after all is said and done, the end results truly was worth it.
Lapping steps >> 220grit > 400grit> 600grit> 800grit> 1000grit> 1500grit> 2000grit!





So with all that completed I begin the hardware mounting!

First of course motherboard in, 8pin EPS power cable routed behind the tray, you can see it sticking out up at the top:



Next our hand picked i7 920 chip, what a great batch, had her up to 4.7 already on air no sweat!



Mounted in her final resting place!



Drop in some temp ram, I could not afford the good stuff at this point.



A little OCZ Freeze, highly recommended!!



POOF TRUE mounted and getting closer, in this shot you can see one of the strobe lights in the top right, coming down from the top of the case!



At this point I picked up the pace, next we see both fans mounted on the TRUE, and the first gtx275 mounted in place, as well as the Corsair Ram fan, decals removed all black!
hmmmm where did the wires go?



We reached test run time, when I hit a wall.

Upon booting up something just wasn't right, my fear set in, as I do not really have time for dead hardware to make my deadline for the competition.
This is when I remember reading on the tech specs for my Corsair HX1000w PSU the input current was 13A and the power cord I had was only 10A?? Hmm could this be the issue? After a quick trip to Tigerdirect, and the location of a 15A power cord, apulled from the back as they do not officially sell them, problems resolved. The psu was not being allowed to pull enough power thus supplying insufficient power to the entire system. This theory was proved accurate, when I of course unplugged the old cord from the wall, and it was very warm to the touch.

Here is an shot of the difference in cord size, this HX1000 means business!



So she purrs happily along now. :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Reveals coming soon - hard drive final mounting, front panel switches for light control, and the pictures that will make you go hmmmmm

A little preview, this case project is called Krypto, why?

In the comic series of Superman, he has a dog named Krypto. Where can we always find man's best friend? At our feet right when we need them, thus my computer will always be right at my feet when I need her. Second I have a play on words, Krypto, being Kryptic (cryptic)