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First Time Mod > CM690 II

81K views 190 replies 58 participants last post by  Frontside 
#1 ·
Hello to those of you @Overclock.net or just other people that may read this. As a newbie to modding and a newcomer or OCN any commentary or feedback will be greatly appreciated.
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Very quick background: I'm a dude living in South Africa. Late last year I built my first pc from scratch as I never really had the money for a proper pc before this. A number of the parts were bought second hand, but when I put it together and it worked first time I was happy and proud
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My previous computer was simply not powerful enough and this turned me in the direction of the LGA1366 platform. As for the case, I got a Coolermaster 690 II. I liked all of the features and quality that the case offered and at reasonable price. Eventually I decided to put it under the knife so to say and do a little bit of modding.

Trying to list all of the places and build-logs that inspired me would be crazy, but I have looked at more than a few logs on overclock.net and xtremesystems. The work @ MurderMod and MDPC must be mentioned as what is shown there is amazing. Though my modding goals aren't nearly as ambitious.

Disclaimer:

* Cellphone pictures combined with the fact that I know next to nothing about photography. So excuse the poor pictures, I have been interested in getting a better camera for a while, but for now all the photos are going to be a bit bleh ... I have gotten a new camera and I have been attempting to take better photos, but there will still occasionally be cell phone pics.

Anyway, here we go:

Parts:

CASE > Coolermaster 690 II Plus
CPU > i7 920 D0
MOBO > Asus Rampage II Gene Asus Rampage III Formula
RAM > Corsair XMS3 6GB
GFX > Gigabyte 560Ti OC
PSU > Corsair HX650
OS > Team XG1 120GB SSD
HDD > 2x WD20EARS, 2x 7200.11 1TB, 1x 7200.12 1TB
HSF > Corsair H50 or Coolermaster Hyper 212+ or Noctua NH-D14 depending on what I want to use as I have both at my disposal

Update to parts:
* Sold my H50
* Sold my Gene II and replaced it with a Formula III

Plans:

* Cut out rear 120mm fan grill
* Fit 3x 120mm fans in the front of the case
* Fit 3x 120mm fans in the top of the case
* Replace the mesh on the front and top panels
* Replace the front I/O panel and buttons
* Side panel window
* Custom fan controller
* Possibly watercool the CPU
* MDPC sleeving
* Will see what else pops into my head ....

Possible Table of Contents or List of Updates:
>HERE
 
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#3 ·
I doubt that the case that I am working on needs any introduction. There is an enourmous thread about the Coolermaster 690 range on OCN, but I'll throw in a picture that I liberated from the internet:

coolermastersite01.jpg


What my build looked like a long time ago:
built01.jpg


A slight update with a H50 in it:
built02.jpg


Moving on to when I stripped the case, the front:
before-front1.jpg


before-front2.jpg


The top:
before-top.jpg


Lastly, the back:
before-back.jpg


In order to achieve my goals of fitting three fans in the roof as well as three fans in the front sizable pieces of the case had to be removed. One of the pictures that I took of the cut in the top:
top01.jpg


Butchered front of the case:
front01.jpg


Also, I cut the grill out of the back of the case with a pair of pliers:
back01.jpg


Which I later made a little neater, like this:
back02.jpg


back03.jpg
 
#4 ·
wow, DO like! 3 fans in the top and front? I want that too!

Very impressive start man! Sub'ed!

Edit. I can't wait how you're gonna solve the top and front mesh, really curious!
 
#5 ·
Wow. You got her down to the bare bones! I still have my old CM690II which I loved and plan to make a backup rig out of. Its a great case for sure! Can't wait to see more pics!
 
#7 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by JorundJ;14136797
wow, DO like! 3 fans in the top and front? I want that too!

Very impressive start man! Sub'ed!

Edit. I can't wait how you're gonna solve the top and front mesh, really curious!
Thank you
smile.gif
That was one thing that annoyed me about the bottom of the front of the case, where the fans can be mounted. There is quite a lot of space, but because of the way that the fans are mounted slightly forward of the main body of the case there isn't space for 2x 120 mm fans. It took some work but I got it to fit. At the moment I am also curious about how I am going to handle the mesh
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but it is something that I am going to do, somehow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Majin SSJ Eric;14136802
Wow. You got her down to the bare bones! I still have my old CM690II which I loved and plan to make a backup rig out of. Its a great case for sure! Can't wait to see more pics!
More pics coming soon of what I have been up to
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xHighAlert;14137217
REALLY Like the way the rear fan turned out.
Thanks, I haven't fitted a fan in the back yet to see what it looks like but I think it should be good
smile.gif
 
#9 ·
Onwards!

Getting three fans mounted in the top started with a idea that I drew onto a piece of metal:
01.jpg


My initial cut, with some holes drilled:
02.jpg


Placing the plate on the roof of the case gave me an indication of the material that had to be removed:
03.jpg


I mounted some fans that I had laying around, the fan holes weren't as accurate as I would have liked but it worked:
04.jpg


Checking where I needed to drill into the case as well as where more material needed to be removed to get the fans to actually fit:
05.jpg


Success, it was in the case:
06.jpg


Unfortunately I did not take as many photos of what I did for the front of the case, but here is one where I have already mounted 2 fans:
07.jpg


More to come later
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#10 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by hyujmn;14144658
Could you tell me how you smoothed out the edges of the fan grill after you cut them out? And where you got that rubber grommet?

I'm looking into cutting the grills outta my HAF but I don't own a dremel.
I used a dremel to trim off the excess material, followed by using a metal file and then some sand paper. After all of that I touched it up a little with some spray paint ( I'll be posting more on this later ). I suppose that it would have worked to simply use a file to remove all of the material, but I cannot comment on that as I didn't do that.

As for the rubber grommet I found a local shop that deals in all sorts of rubber products like mats and rubber feet. I'll post a picture later of what the grommet looks like, but I am certain you will be able to source something. Where I got it isn't really going to help you as I got it in a local store here in South Africa
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#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by JorundJ;14146154
Awesome modding man, loving the raw metal. Looking forward to more!
Thank you
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At the moment I am simply posting work that I have been doing over the course of the last few months, when I found time for modding, so there will be a few more mini updates as I essentially catch up to where I currently am.
 
#13 ·
Still catching up with work from a while ago:

I continued with the mod, by attempting to round out the plates that were going to be used to mount fans, they went from this:
08.jpg


An inbetween shot:
10.jpg


To this:
11.jpg


After this, I spray painted the plates with a few coats of primer. In this picture, you can see the second method that I used to hang the plates for painting as the first method that I used wasn't ideal:
14.jpg


16.jpg


I moved on to a flat black paint, here you can see them drying:
17.jpg


Thats all for now, there will still be one or two small updates and then I will have posted everything that I have done so far.
 
#15 ·
Subbed! I'm looking for some ideas to do with mine too, great job
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#17 ·
I'm not sure where this would fall under, so I'll just put it here ... somewhere in between all of the other things I touched up the cuts in main case. I went from this:
touchup00.jpg


To lots of masking tape and newspaper so that I could spray the edges and holes that I had cut into the case:
touchup01.jpg


Now to carry on with the fan mounts: I already had two fans mounted in the bottom of the front and this piece of metal was for the optical bays:
19.jpg


Initial cut:
20.jpg


Fitting it:
21.jpg


More fitting:
22.jpg


Primer:
23.jpg


Black:
24.jpg


This was actually quite tricky to get properly mounted as there wasn't much space to clamp anything, but I think it worked out well. I cut those notches in the plate by first drilling 3mm holes, then 5 mm holes and then removing the excess material with a dremel. My 5mm drill bit decided to break in two while I was drilling these holes, I have no idea why as I didn't drill like an idiot and and it isn't a very hard metal that I was drilling through. Also, I ran out of black spray paint so there is still some primer visible here and there as I couldn't cover everything.

I then mounted all of the plates and this is what it looked like:
25.jpg


26.jpg


27.jpg
 
#18 ·
MDPC interlude
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I ordered some MDPC sleeve a while ago and took a bash @ sleeving. I ordered a black sleeving kit with some white sleeve, some pictures:
mdpc01.jpg


Nils threw in some short pieces of three other colours
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mdpc02.jpg


I have not attempted to sleeve my PSU yet, but I sleeved a couple SATA cables and a few fans. A Gentle Typhoon before sleeving:
ap-1500.jpg


After:
ap-1502.jpg


ap-1501.jpg


01.jpg


The stretch on some of the cables isn't very good, but I thought it didn't go that badly.

Two SATA cables:
sata.jpg


and three Sickleflows:
sickles.jpg
 
#19 ·
I wanted to have three fans with white leds in the front of the case and as I could not source any white led fans locally, I decided to mod three Sickleflows.

Blue sickleflow:
original01.jpg


Blue sickleflow and my hand
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:
original02.jpg


LEDs swapped out:
modded.jpg


Mounting the fans into the front of the case. I still need to get some M3x35 screws as the M3x30 aren't long enough for the two bottom fans in the front:
mount01.jpg


YES, the front panel still fits on:
mount02.jpg


With a reasonable amount of space left over in the bays for other .... stuff:
mount04.jpg


Ghetto rigged to the pc:
mount03.jpg
 
#23 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by JorundJ;14214832
Brilliant! Love the white fans at the front and hurrah for gentle typhoons!

Also, good job on the sleeving.
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Thank you
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Hopefully in the future I will be able to get some better photos of what everything looks like.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Soul.;14215906
Nice sleeving work! Things are looking good =D
Thanks, I think that what I have sleeved so far went well but sleeving the PSU will be the real test
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CramComplex;14261650
Subbed, I'd like to see how you're going to deal with the recessed plastic on the top part of the case. So far it looks good...keep it up!
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At the moment the top panel that hasn't been touched at all, the mesh and the plastic is all still original but in all likelihood I will be cutting large pieces of the top away. No idea just yet about how I am going to do that ...

For now all of the work that I have done is posted. I am busy with real life things and I do not know when I will find time to mod again, but I have been trying to source some parts and materials that I need. Things that I have done or intend to do soon:

* I have ordered Demciflex filters for the bottom of the case and the front
* Get some countersunk M3x30 bolts for the fans in the front
* Source mesh for the front and top panel, this I am struggling a bit with at the moment
* Buy the electronic components for my fan controllers, I intend to make use of a LM317 voltage regulator as the basis for this
 
#25 ·
Very nice! Where did you get the sleeving? I thought our sunny SA would never have anyone selling it
smile.gif
 
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