[Oliver1234]

Hey guys,
Magnum is still up and running just fine, and I had the itch to build again, yet my wallet is still feeling a little light, so I figured I'd help out the ninja with a build!! Neither of us have modded this heavily ever before, yet I've worked with an acrylic loop before. Between the two of us, we figured we could probably pull something pretty cool off. So we're doing this build at my house because I have a slightly better work space, which means I'll be posting some of the updates on this build, but this is still fully the ninja of pie's build. Also, throughout the summer, we will be out of town at various dates for various times, so there may be a lack of updates, but we'll try our best to let you guys know in advance!! So here's a few pics of what we're working with, not much, but for two highschooler's on a budget, it's not that bad:

This is where we'll be taking pictures of the case as a whole, simple, but it works

Our makeshift lightbox, pretty much a few trifold boards thrown together with some posterboard inside, and a white t-shirt acting a diffuser for the top light

And now in the dark, with the lights powered up... puuuurrtty

And now we head into our lair where all the magic happens

Here is the mysterious slab where the forging of our creation will take place (of course with a stereo system, absolutely necessary

)

AND THE WALL OF GLORY!!!!

 

[Oliver1234]

Now lets see how the first of our setups worked when put to the test. Before I forget, we are using a new Canon PowerShot SX510 HS that Ninja just got Monday, so we're still getting used to it, but from the pictures I've taken with it so far, it's very nice! The 250D arrived a couple days ago, and it's pretty much what we expected. After having seen and worked with the 350D and the 650D, neither of us were surprised by it.

The desk turned out to be a very nice place for the shots, because the natural light from lots of windows on the other side of the room provided great lighting for us.


The case just looked so tempting from the first minute we saw it, so we stripped it down as much as we could without touching the riviets (yet), and it's surprisingly light to carry like this, but it seems like a very workable case!



That's all we have for today, but hopefully we'll get some more work done Friday morning, and if you're lucky you may see us chop up a few side panels to make room for some windows!!

 

[Oliver1234]

Ok, little update!!
Today we went to our local hardware store, and looked around for anything we might need!!! We had some pretty good success for materials needed to make windows, our next step (after painting)!!

First off we got two square feet of plexiglass for the windows, any good ideas on how to cut the stuff? We've looked around, got some fair ideas, but I'd take your opinions over the rest of the internet's...


Secondly, picked up some Scotch 3M mounting tape


Third, and most unfortunate, the Aluminium. We decided to order some sheet Aluminium from onlinemetals.com, because it wasn't sold anywhere locally, and it arrived today in a REALLY big package


We opened it up to a big disappointment, a huge scratch down one side of the metal


We'd heard this company had a pretty good reputation, so we were expecting much better. Usually, I would just say use the other side, but some of the panels and brackets we're making will be visible from both sides, so we wrote to the company's customer service, hoping it's as good as the reputation of the website. We should have a response by sometime tomorrow! Until then, playing around with the jigsaw, and destroying stuff!

 

[Oliver1234]

Hey guys!!! No physical progress, but we planned out a lot, and ordered some stuff!!! So after doing a lot of research on paints, we settled on House of Kolors, the best of the best. Tonight we ordered primer, a white base coat, and the Pearly Snow White which we will paint the entire case in. We also figured out our sleeving designs, and we will be using LutroO's Telios line of sleeving, I'm soooo excited!!! I made a little diagram of our plans, and here's what we have come up with so far, hopefully it will work well!

Oh... if niether of us mentioned this so far... This will be MATX!!!!

 

[Oliver1234]

Hey guys!!!!!!
Small update! After a weekend of white water rafting and rock climbing, I'm finally back to work, it seemed like forever!!!! Today ninja and I dissassembled the case by drilling through all the pop rivets, and it honestly was really easy and turned out pretty well!!! The case is surprisingly flimsy without the extra support pieces, so it looks slightly bent, but even the addition of just the side panels straightens it back out.


Second thing we did, which may have been the scariest part of the project yet for me was cut the to-be top panel from .1" Aluminium. It went fine, but my ears are still ringing from the jigsaw blade, and my hands still are vibrating from holding the metal steady in the clamps!


Jigsaw, loud but extremely effective!!!

Finished product!!! As usual, will look much better with some House of Kolor on it!

You can see just how thick the metal was... if we do this again, I'd seriously consider getting some thinner stuff.

We ordered a good amount of WC'ing gear, and some paint as well which should be arriving soon, along with custom sleeving! We still haven't ordered fans, anyone have any recommendations of brands?

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpIcSnIpErZ23

I'm liking how this looks! Subbed. (I'm a Sophmore in Highschool, so maybe i'll get some inspiration.)

Thanks! Nice to know somebody is looking in here, I thought Ninja and I were all by ourselves for a while!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jedi Mind Trick

Subbed as well, this looks like it will be amazing!

Thanks again!!! Neither of us have never gotten into modding so deep as this before, but there's gotta be a first for everything!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpIcSnIpErZ23

I'm thinking of building my own case soon...I really want a full ATX case with a horizontal motherboard layout and support for multiple radiators.

Well, if you have the money, the Caselabs S8 is awfully hard to beat, but if you don't have a ton of money, like us, or want a bit of a challenge, also like us, find a smaller case, and rearrange it, like us as well, I promise you besides the occasional frustration of a failed plan, it's sooooo much more fun than just plugging together a few pieces of a computer!!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smithcity

Great work so far, looks like you are getting pretty detailed! I'm looking forward to seeing how the color scheme comes together.

Me too!! We're pretty much going all out on this build, figuring we've just gotta see how good we can get, it's all working so far!!!! (Key words being "so far")

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiz766

Unique so I am in!

Unique was the goal!!! Thanks a ton for all the kind comments guys, it means a ton to us!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiz766

Love catching these in their birthing stages, so I am stoked to see final product.

I'm soooo excited to see how this turns out as well!! It felt so weird making the first cut; destroying the case knowing there was no going back...

Quote:

Originally Posted by MuGGz

Niice

Thannks

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by grimslider75

Subbed, because I love seeing what can be done in smaller form factor cases, especially in terms of style

And that is the main reason we chose the 250D! We hadn't seen too many people building crazy stuff with it, and had no clue why, so the thought was, "let's see if we can do what most people don't do!" I think we can!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpIcSnIpErZ23

Yeah i totally understand. I just don't have 500-700 bucks to spend on a caselabs case. I also want the challenge too. I just don't know what case i could start off on that is Horizontal and ATX. Maybe the Haf XB evo?

Not many people our age do, why do you think we don't have our hands on an S3?

I was actually going to suggest the Half XB Evo, if not, and you really want a challenge, maybe you could do something like the death start build on here, where you take two vertical ATX cases, combine them together, but unlike him, flip the motherboard layout to horizontal!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Natskyge

This looks intresting
Subbed

Thanks, it's VERY interesting...

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpIcSnIpErZ23

Yeah, i think i may get a corsair air 540, and cut out the insides and lay the mobo horizontally. Of course i'll need to make a pedestal for rads and such, but i think it'll work.

Where i live, most people's computers have pentium 4's and such. My school desktops have Core 2 Duo's. It sucks not being able to talk computers with people, but atleast i have OCN

Oh yeah, I know the feeling... there's about three or four of us in the school, other than that people either just don't care or rage on and on about how apple is the best thing ever to exist...

Also, packages are running late apparently, so they won't be in until tomorrow and Wednesday... I'm soooo impatient...

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fluency

I'll be keeping up with the log too; always love sff builds!

Thanks!!! I was planning a small scratch build for myself that was TINY, but I just didn't want to hurt my wallet anymore, so I took this summer off, and decided to help Ninja with his build, which should turn out awesome!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpIcSnIpErZ23

I hate apple for making people computer ignorant

It's pretty much me and one other person who actually build computers.

Yep!! Apple doesn't make BAD computers, they just... you know... there prices aren't my favorite in terms of what you get, though I try not to hate too much...

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpIcSnIpErZ23

True! They make some quality phones though

. Anyways time to find a Corsair Air 540 on sale.... heheeh

Not sure this is a "sale", but you could get it off of performancepc's for 139.99, then use OCN's code, either "OCN", or "OCN55" (I forget), to get 5 or 10% off of it, just an idea!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpIcSnIpErZ23

I might take that up... i need to get 1 or 2 more rads anyway thanks

And I bet you could fit the rads inside the case without a pedestal. Depending on how many you have. Our original plan for this case was to stuff three rads inside, but because we're using a monstrously gargantuan GPU, we couldn't fit the amount of rads we wanted inside, so our original plans were foiled!

 

[Oliver1234]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EpIcSnIpErZ23

Haha. Maybe i could mount the mobo higher up and mount the rads below....that's actually a good idea... Line the walls in rads...

That would be.... EPIC!!! Cut out the bottom plates, and put tons of mesh in there, you could make a pretty sweet looking water loop with that...