[Comments Only] Project Night Light (Subtle Gaming Rig)  

Sorry for the terrible camera pics below, blackberry's don't take very good pictures...

UPDATE: 02/11/11 - I spent about 2-3 hours in my shop planning out the cable mgmt holes, cutting them, sanding the case, priming, and finally painting the case. The entire case is now black, pics will be posted tomorrow, I'm going to bed because I'm tired. Atleast tomorrow will be a big progression day as all my LED's showed up today from Xoxide.com. Since I can't find a "Big Boy - Antec 900" clear fan with blue LED's I will probably modify the Coolermaster MegaFlow 200 to fit into the stock fan shroud. Pics to come....

UPDATE: 02/10/11 - I took a look at my case last night while using it, and decided that it looks ugly as sin (with all the silver and hideous cabling), I mean who wants a cool looking glowing computer that has a spiderweb of wires? SO as a further mod this time around I will be stripping the case down to nothing, spraybombing it matte black, and performing the Antec 900 Cable Management Mod in addition to making it glow.

This is my first time joining in the 'Case Mod' competition, what I am planning on doing this time around probably isn't much of a mod though. The idea is to take my Antec 900 case upgrade to a brand new motherboard, crossfire two ATI Radeon Sapphire HD5770's, Paint it black, Mod the Case for proper Cable Management, and make it glow as much as possible.

*UPDATE* June 3, 2011 - A little over 4 weeks ago I decided to get a better video card, my buddy bought both the HD5770s for $350.00 so I went and bought 1 Sapphire Radeon HD6970, well the itch to crossfire grew for a few days (plus I got a sweet return on my income tax) so I bought my second Sapphire Radeon HD6970, crossfired them, and overclocked both to run 940/1440.

Then I was tired of my room feeling like a sauna (4.018GHz 955BE will do that) so I bought and installed the XSPC Rasa RS240 watercooling kit. Last update below is how it currently looks.

Anyways on to the plan:

UPDATE: New mods listed in Red

- Remove existing Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H, and all components
- Install Gigabyte GA-890GPA-UD3H
- Install 2x Radeon Sapphire HD5770 Flex GPU's w/ Crossover cables
- Map out locations for Cable Management holes
- Remove all re-installed components, drive bays, fans, etc
- Cut cable management holes
- Sand grey surfaces with 100grit
- Prime the case
- Final sanding
- Spraybomb matte black using heat resistant paint
- Re-install all components
- Remove Stock acrylic bezel behind black grille.
- Install Red / Blue LED strips for additional lighting
- Turn it all on and watch it glow
- Swapped video cards for HD6970's
- Installed XSPC Rasa RS240 kit all internally

Next big upgrades are swapping the mobo for a new Gigabyte 990FX chipset, and buy the AMD FX8130p 8-core processor.

System specs in my sig.

Pics Time:

'Old' Motherboard Removed:


Motherboard Comparison Phenom II seated on new motherboard:


16GB of ram back In:


GPU Cards in & crossfired:


CPU Cooler back in, All wired up:


Lit up and running for now:




Now I play the waiting game for the rest of my parts and LED's to arrive, I will start tinkering with how to cleanup the cables a bit more.

As you can see the glow is subtle, when I am done with it, this case should shine.

More to come!
Edited by ajmidd12 - 6/3/11 at 11:40am

I went to the local computer store and picked up my temporary case last night, and swapped over all the components this way I can take my time and make the Antec 900 look good.

The case was on sale so I got it very cheap, it is a Xigmatek Asgard Black Edition.





I will probably end up using this case to build my fiance's computer in the future. It definitely isn't bad for $25.00, the components run about 5-10 degrees warmer but then again it only has one 120mm fan built onto it and I only ran it for about an hour on little load.

Stripped down the Antec 900 ready for cutting the cable management holes and painting either tonight or tomorrow.







More to come by the end of the weekend.

*UPDATE* As you can see above I left you guys with a ugly grey case torn down to the skin. Well I came home late Friday and started working in my shop....

Laying out cable management holes


Holes cut (7 total) I cut a few more than necessary in case I choose to upgrade or re-route anything, I would much rather do it once than over and over.


Painted (yes the case is upsidedown)




Front panel painted (I also removed the optional fan holder clear acrylic peice that comes with the cover where the rounded triangle is. It looks much cleaner with only the black grill there.


Acessories & Grilles painted


More to come...

I will modify the Coolermaster Megaflow 200 to fit the Antec Big Boy shroud. That's another little mod taking place tomorrow.

*Update* Here are the pics from the custom fan I made to replace the ugly black one that comes with the Antec 900 case (200mm Big Boy)



Cut them apart using the dremel, very easy to do and clean cuts


Mutated into clear fan and supports with Antec Big Boy shroud. I used an epoxy to merge the peices together then smoothed them out, you can't tell the difference.


Functional


Hey I like it alot, came out just as I expected and adds a bit more custom flare to the case. Plus it lights up blue so that was a bonus

Here are the photos of the re-build (hopefully the final time for awhile)

BEFORE STARTING THE BUILD


AFTER THE BUILD W/ CABLE MANAGEMENT






I would like to think it looks MUCH cleaner than it did originally? What do you guys think?

All that is left is to install the lights I have, not really sure where to mount them yet, I was thinking just beyond the glass facing inside the case but we will see.

Hope you guys liked this build, it wasn't bad for a first timer
Edited by ajmidd12 - 2/27/11 at 5:51am

Lights are in and lit up







And yes it is fully functioning



Hope to get some feedback from you the judges after the comp closes.

Cheers

So since I am new to this and all, do the mods or judges reply accepting a build log? Or how does this work? Does it just go live in June to the rest of the members?

Well since I was disqualified for accidentally posting this originally in the Casemod Logs, I also did some water cooling to the system. May as well update this thread too

I also swapped out my video cards for new crossfired Radeon HD6970's one ref one non ref sapphire versions. Both are overclocked to 940/1440

See below.









For a more thorough walkthrough of the watercooling build check out here http://www.overclock.net/water-cooli...l#post13590146

It's too bad I'm not in the running for any prizes on a technicality (and partial excitement for posting before asking) because I did a ton of work that some wouldn't even consider attempting yet. Either way I hope to get some feedback from people when this goes live.

Anyways maybe my Corsair Obsidian 800d will allow for a 'better' casemod where I may pick up prizes.
Edited by ajmidd12 - 6/3/11 at 11:38am