600T SE Update and Door Mod

Have had my new system for a couple of months now and got the itch to tinker. Dont have a name for it yet but that will come with some time. The main goal of these updates are to quiet the computer a little and improve aesthetics. The original plan was for new fans and a fan controller but that changed after a conversation with my dad. I work with my dad at his cnc machine shop and long story short ended up talking him into cutting a hole in the acrylic window to put a fan in, when he showed me what he had (24" x 36" acrylic 3/8 thick sheet) I ended up making a joke about just making a new case door and he said go for it. Was defiantly not expecting the answer that I got because anytime I suggest making a one off part I usually get brushed off with the answer it wouldn't be worth it. So now that the door will be getting made for the case I figured I better work on the aesthetics of the inside of the case since everything will be seen. Anyways this will be my first log so be easy on me. Please excuse my poor photography skills. So lets get started.

I ordered the following parts from Performance-PCs on Friday:

2 x 120 mm Fan Grill - Black
3 x 12” -18 LED Super Bright Sunlight Stick- Sleeved - White - Sleeve Color: Black
1 x 4-Pin Molex Powe Adapter Cable w/ Remote On/Off Toggle Switch - 36" - Sleeved - Sleeve Color: Black
1 x Akasa USB3.0 Internal Adapter Cable
1 x Bitfenix Spectre Pro LED Fan Series - 200mm
1 x Bitfenix Recon 5 Channel Mobile Device Controlled Fan Controller
1 x Corsair Air Series AF120 Performance Edition High Airflow 120mm Fan - Set of Two
2 x Corsair Air Series SP120 Performance Edition High Static Pressure 120mm Fan - Set of Two

Came home from work today and found a box at the front door so I headed back to the garage to make some room to work. Opened up the door and immediately shut it, WAY to hot out there to do any work out there. The living room and coffee table will just have to do.

Here is the build before I got started



Box from Performance-PCs on the "Workbench"



Time to make a mess



Everything pulled out of the box



Pulled these out of the padded envelopes, Performance-PCs defiantly get an A+ from me for packaging everything up so nothing gets broken.



I got the LED's sleeved. It was cheap and I figured why not. The light is shining through in the pictures, they look much better in person. Probably will be overkill with 3 of them but ohh well, Reading lights



Here is how I will control the LED's so they will not be on all the time.



Im happy with the way they look and the feel of the switch, these came sleeved right from the factory, defiantly a plus.



Here are some of the fans I decided to go with, I decided to go with 4 SP 120's, 2 for the H60 and 2 for the top of the case. I figure I would get 4 of them to be ready if I work up the courage to go with a full wc loop. The other 2 fans will be AF 120s for the Acrylic side panel. I will be cutting 2 holes so I can blow air onto the graphics cards in preparation for HOPEFULLY sli gtx 670's soon.



Last but not least is what I was most excited to check out! The Bitfenix recon. I really dont like the look of any of the fan controllers with a display, I really think that most of the ones in my price range are cheap looking and or too colorful to be appealing to me. This one really caught my eve with its simplicity and nice screen colors and layout.



Ok, time to get to work. Got started off by pulling the front panel off and removing the front 200mm stock fan. The front panel was actually a real pain, I was afraid I was gonna snap the tabs off for how far they need to be pulled back to get the panel off.



Well that took more time than expected. The Bitfenix 200mm fan went in smoothly. The Bitfenix Recon however was a real pain. The toolless design of the 600T kinda screwed me up here for a little, Took me a little to figure out how I was gonna secure it, one side I had in with a small screw but the other wouldn't line up to be able to clip in. after awhile of trial and error I got it. The fan controller turned out 100% better than I expected it too.



Monster time.



Now came time to replace the H60 fans and top 200mm fan. Unfortunately the screws for one of the fans I had been using were to short to use. So I decided to take a ride up to the hardware store to get some longer screws. No big deal, its only a short ride from the house. Once a gain, unfortunately the screws I picked up didn't fit, they were just a little bit to wide. While I was putting them back in the bag to take back I noticed their was another bag of black long screws, not sure if they came with the fans or the fan controller but I decided to give them a try. PERFECT FIT, so now I got all the new Corsair SP 120 with the white inserts put in. Defiantly flow well with the case.



Next up is the LED lights, Nice and easy install, a little bit of Velcro, tuck the cables away, and plug them in. Easy! Now time to set up the molex switch I bought. Disappointing! I ran the cables for the switch so I can be able to give the LED's a test. So I plugged everything in but something wasnt right. The pins in the female molex connector for the switch started to push out. No big deal jst gotta push them back in. No bueno, the wires actually started to separate from the crimps.Ohh well, they were cheap, I guess you get what you pay for. I might have to pick up the tool to try and fix it, either that or I will just have to pick up a different one later.

Ok, on to the next step for now. Cable management, I cut all the zip ties to make things easier for myself. Just gotta put new ones on and... wait.... of course..... no zip ties left. On that note Im gonna take a ride back up to the hardware store to grab some and see if I can find anything else that will be helpful. Time to call it a night.



Defiantly am going to consider getting some sleeving from mdpc-x. The OCZ cables are absolutely terrible for cable management so that will make them a little easier to work with and make things look alot nicer.

I will hopefully get started on the side panel tomorrow depending on how much work there is to do tomorrow. More pictures and updates soon!

Their must be a zip tie shortage in this area. I went to a few stores today and could only find the opaque white ones so I just grabbed two packs of them. 100 in a pack for $2.50, Would love to have black but for the price I cant complain. The SLI GTX 670's is my ultimate goal right now, im just trying to save a little here and there for school and possibly a new car so I cant justify going out and getting them just yet. Right now the 550 Ti is doing enough on the screen I have and for the games im playing so that will have to do. I may throw my other 550 Ti in there just to check it out though.

Update!

Well, not really a true update as nothing was accomplished. But I did get a chance to take some measurements and get an idea of what I really want to do today. Unfortunately we were just to busy today to be able to free up a machine long enough to cut out the new side panel. The pictures arent very good quality because I used my phone sorry about that.


Anyways, here is the 3/8 thick material that I will be using to create the side panel with. Im really excited to get started on it, at the same time im kinda scared to cut it since I have never cut anything like it before and this material is pretty expensive.



One of these machines will be where the material will be cut out. Both are currently in use now and I just gotta be a little patient to get into one. Both are cnc though so once we get all the dimensions right it will only be a matter of setting the tool paths and we will be set. More than likely the latter of the two will be the one being used, simply because the Mazak is about halfway through a job that has been running for about a week already. Either way it should be pretty interesting.

Mazak CNC Milling Machine



SWI CNC Milling Machine



This is the switch I mentioned before that ended up falling apart on me. For as cheap as they are I might just order another and mabe save this for something else. I wont be able to fix it without the molex tool and a crimper so it really wouldn't be worth it to do right now. Kinda disappointing to see something that never was used like that, but ohh well, like I said you get what you pay for. Ill just have to be really careful with the next one.



Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get started on the side panel. But im defiantly gonna try to get a hold of Nils to see if I can get some sleeve for these cables. Cable management right now just is going to be really tough since the 24 pin is so thick in the back. I really cant wait to get this thing running and see the temps and how loud it is.

Update


Unfortunately, Still no progress made on the side panel. I am going nuts not being able to do anything right now. So I had to do something to calm me down. Paint my Antec 900! I had see it before on the forums but I cant remember the name of the guy. He painted this case white with black accents and it looked really sharp. So I broke down my amd build and took the case down to the shop so I can throw it in the blasting cabinet. Took longer than I expected but its much better than having to do it by hand. So I turned the garage into a makeshift paint booth so I can work late at night, the only problem is the bugs are sneaking in and bouncing all over everything. I dont plan on doing a log on it since its so simple but heres a picture of whats going on. I still got alot of work to do, but I plan on taking my time with it so I have an excuse to steal the 550 ti out of it to put in the 600T



I did also get onto the mdpc website and get everything I wanted and more priced out so hopefully I can get some funds together to get that ordered soon. Before this build I had no interest in sleeving and I think thats mostly from being afraid of messing something up. But im getting over that and getting really excited to give it a try and see how it looks. Anyways as soon as something happens with the 600T I will get pictures posted.

Update

Well, I got the system up and running, didnt really get a chance to check the difference in temps. I have just been working on keeping it quiet and it has been a 110% difference with the Bitfenix Recon. I really am please with how it works and especially the fact that it has the online monitor. I have been using it all day and it has been flawless both on my phone and on my laptop. What really impressed me was it is an immediate change, no delay whatsoever. As soon as I can get this door finished I will get the thermal probes setup to hopefully read temps around the cpu, gpu, ssd's/hdd. That way the fans can compensate on auto mode. Also I will be able to get profiles setup, I plan on doing a silent, folding, and gaming setup for profiles. Depending on when I get the Antec 900 back together I may grab a recon for that and some Bitfenix fans. I have been really impressed with their products so far.

Here is the online fan controller. It took a little bit to get setup but it is defiantly worth the peace of mind knowing your pc temps anywhere. Right now I only have 3 fans connected to get an idea of how it works.



Next I will get some pictures of the system with the new lights added.

Update

So here is the update that have been waiting for for alittle while now it will probably be the final update so the best was saved for last. I was able to gather some funds and ended up getting rid of the 550ti sooner than I thought and was able to replace it with a GTX 670.



Put her right in, 550 didnt stand a chance.



I also ordered some cable extensions from NZXT. I know alot of people dont like them and seem to prefer bitfenix but for the price I got them at I couldn't pass it up. I couldn't be happier with my decision, they are much better than expected and make the cable management 100% easier. I know I said I was going to do MDPC-X individual sleeving but I just didnt think it would have helped. Mabe in the future I will grab a Seasonic or Corsair PSU to sleeve to make it worth it, for now the extensions will do.





Here is a close up of the Bitfenix Recon fan controller. Have been very pleased with it, and being able to monitor and control the temps while away from home is great. During the last foldathon I was able to check my temps from my phone and feel a lot more comfortable about leaving the rig on for long periods of time.



And the main reason alot of people have clicked on this threat, the lexan side panel. Finally we were able to get a free moment at the shop to get a chance to get the side panel cut out. Things went pretty smooth with the whole cutting process, unfortunately the pictures I took were all terrible and I only have 1 terrible one to show you the cut piece. I really apologize about that. But the finished product is what counts, right?



And here is a picture with the fans installed and the new door on.



The final is a closeup with the flash off, I cant begin to explain how bright this thing is when the lights are on. Sure am glad I bought a switch for them!



Overall I am very happy with the way it came out. I am sorry about my photography skills though, I do realize the pictures could have been alot better. Now I know what to do for the next one that I do now that I got the first log under my belt. Thanks for looking if you are reading this!
Edited by mxfreek09 - 8/31/12 at 10:22pm