Parental Advisory

Mods: I put this here because once I get going, approximately 50% of what is done will be a case mod. Please move if necessary. Thanks!



Hey guys!

This is going to be my first build log. I plan to have multiple parts to this, and as of writing this now, I’m finished with half of part one and half of part two. In all, I plan to have around four parts:

1. Case Mod (paint)
2. Case Mod (window)
3. Watercooling
4. Sleeving

I’ve started painting and watercooling (see below). Sleeving is coming from FTWPC, and I have yet to get any definitive ideas for the window mod. I love constructive criticism. Please tell me how I could do better. I can’t promise that I’ll listen or that I will have time, but I value good input.


A little bit of background first. I got the idea from looking at all of the case mods on OCN. I started to see that some people were doing black and white themes. That’s what I’m doing, except I’m going to “spice” it up a little. I’m calling this build “Parental Advisory”, based off of the well known warning that accompanies US music CDs.

The first few pictures are fairly crappy because my little sister dropped my camera and screwed up the sensor. I just got my replacement camera, so there should be a noticeable change in quality a few posts down.

Enough talking. Ask questions if you want. Here are some before shots:
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

A few months ago, I experimented with some spray painting on the mesh 5.25” drive covers. The results looked like this:
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Sanding, plus three coats of flat white and one coat of clear gloss turned out pretty nice. It looks just like the paint job on the stock covers.


Seeing as I had nothing to do one weekend, I started painting the exposed front mesh. I took off the front cover to access all of the mesh and air filters.
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That’s 2 months of dust…

The covers are a pain to take apart. Luckily nothing that is visible will get scratched if you take everything apart correctly. First, lift the four tabs on the top and bottom with a small screwdriver and pry out the plastic part with another. Not very surgical, but it gets the job done. Now just take out the screen filter. The end result:
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Sanded using wet/dry sandpaper (I don’t remember the grit):
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I don’t have a garage or anything, so I have to make sure that my painting is contained. Solution, a box:
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I needed a way to hold the parts up without too much of a footprint (so paint would cover the entire part). I figured that fishhooks would do the job.
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And then the inevitable happened:
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You aren’t a REAL man unless you’ve worn a Hello Kitty band-aid. That’s a fact.

Wising up, I clipped off the barbs with a pair of dikes and assembled the contraption:
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I could have sworn that I had more pictures for this part…Anyways, painting in progress.
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I know I have more pictures somewhere. It is difficult keeping files synced across two computers and a smart-phone. If I find them, I’ll post them.

Here’s the finished product:
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So then I waited, patiently, for the event of the year…BLACK FRIDAY. Newegg deals were a severe disappointment, as I was hoping to pick up another graphics card for cheap. Instead, I decided on watercooling. FrozenCPU had their kit for $10-$20 off, with a free kill coil. Got some Feser tube for $1/foot, too. Since I plan on using this kit in multiple builds, it was worth the investment. FTWPC also had some good sales, so I picked up a HX750 kit (~$25), 2 high speed Yates ($1 each), 200ft of paracord and 5ft of heatshrink ($9), and 24pin and 8pin extension cables ($11). That concluded my Christmas and spending for the year.
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) So two days ago, a box arrives on my doorstep, with lots and lots of packing material…
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My brother came out of hibernation to see what I got. TAH DAH!
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His first words were “That’s it?” Slightly disheartened, I opened the box and poured (technically placed) out the contents:
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I couldn’t resist but taking everything apart. I only managed to get the CPU block apart in the little time I had before I went to bed.
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There are about 4 pins in a row that were bent. I’m not too worried about it. Again, I have more pictures somewhere; just need to find them.


Today, I had plenty of time to wash, clean and prep everything for installing tomorrow.

I went down to Lowes and got two 1/4” right angle brass fittings for my radiator and some 1/2” ID tubing for testing. With everything ready, I got back home and saw this (and a new camera):
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A much needed fan controller. I was hesitant to buy it, but it is easily the best $25 I’ve spent in a while. Perfect for what I need.
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Back to business. First up was the radiator and getting the right angles in place:
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Now for the CPU block:
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I couldn’t find any silicon in my house to lube the o-rings (even though I was using it yesterday on the kitchen sink). I’m sure they’ll be fine for a couple of months, when I go to do some maintenance.


Next up are the barbs. I Teflon everything just to be sure.
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That was my first go around. I thought the fit would be a little snug, so I only used a little bit of Teflon. Once I realized that there wasn’t much resistance until the bard was screwed to the o-ring, I decided to thicken up the Teflon.
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Onto the pump: Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

My brother’s friend came over to spend the night. I don’t normally like my brother’s friends, but this one is smart and likes computers. By this time, I had a small test loop set up to test the barbs and fittings for leaks. He was wondering how the water flowed through the system, so I added a couple of drops of food coloring to the reservoir.
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I think he is convinced that building his own computer is now a necessity.

Drained the loop once he was done looking…
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…and filled it back up with clean, distilled water.
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I moved it into my brother’s room (right beside where I was working) and hooked it up to his computer. I didn’t trust my little Molex AC adapter enough to let it run the pump constantly.
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Fan controller works!
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Alright, that’s enough for tonight. I’ll keep updating as I go. Let me know if any of y’all have requests or questions about what I did.
Edited by rdfloyd - 12/2/11 at 10:21pm

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