[bob808]

Yes I'm at it again

This will be my 8th build and I'm excited about this one. It's my first time using a Lian Li case and its very nice. Its all aluminum and the fit and finish are excellent

It's for a lady-friend of mine and will buget out at about $1100 including monitor, keyboard and mouse.

The case is a Lian Li PC-V351A
Link : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-221-_-Product

Here are some unboxing pics.

 

[Furious Porkchop]

You want to stick your processor in her motherboard.

 

[xxbassplayerxx]

What a way to start a thread, lol.

Any ways, subbed!

 

[bob808]

I am putting in a window on this side.

I think I will use glass instead of acrylic because it will be more scratch resistand and I have some lying around.

It makes sense to put the window in this side, along with the optical drive as this is the side with the 'front panal' usb and audio/mic ports.

Also, the pci slots are on the other side so if it had a window there, you would only have a good view of the video card.

 

[lithgroth007]

Great case, I love mine. There are a lot of options to work with when you mod it. My personal favorite is to remove the 120mm fan holder in front, cut some holes up there and move the fans up. This gives you better airflow and a decent amount more room to work with in the case. You will just need to get some fan grills though, which can also make the case look really nice.

EDIT: I forgot to mention this, if you do this mod you will most likely need to move the power and reset buttons, they kind of get cut out...

 

[nategr8ns]

Subscribed because pink is awesome and because of post #2

.

 

[imadude10]

I've worked with this case before. Looking forward to see how you deal the the absolute lack of exhaust fans. Sub'd

 

[bob808]

thanks for looking

 

[bob808]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imadude10 I've worked with this case before. Looking forward to see how you deal the the absolute lack of exhaust fans. Sub'd

It doesn't seem too bad to me. First off, the lady in question is not really a gamer and likely wont be doing much besides solitare and neopets and myspace lol. So I am going for quiet and low wattage to try to keeps temps acceptable.

There is a 80mm exhaust fan located on upper part of rear panal and the psu will act as exhaust also.

To me this case seems to have more of a lack of air intake. It comes stock with 2 internal 120mm fans toward the front of the case but its not like there are cutouts directly in front of them to allow air into the case. Instead the case relies on smallish sections of holes (and slotted pci covers) to allow fresh air intake.

Look at nice fit/finish in this pic

 

[Aick]

it won't be complete without some sort of hello kitty sticker..

and of course...

sticker somewhere =D

 

[bob808]

When we were discussing this build, the main thing was keeping price reasonably and that it MUST be PINK!

She wants EVERYTHING pink and white. Case, monitor, mouse/keyboard, exc.

Thats why I ordered the plain aluminum case instead of the black one. The plan is to dis-assemble the case all the way down and powdercoat the individual pieces.

I contacted a local powdercoater guy and told him that I build computers and need a powdercoater for special pc builds. I e-mailed him some pictures of my sig rig during its latest case mods and he said he could powder coat the frame and a few other misc parts for $55 for stock colors.

But the picture I showed him was with the case frame still most intact and 3 pieces of my HDD cage dis-assembled. (4 pieces total)

 

[bob808]

This case broke down into ALOT of pieces. Tons of rivets to drill out. I bought some white capped rivets to use to put it back together. Here are some case break down pics for you all.

Left side off

right side off

mobo tray out

exhaust fan plate removed

 

[bob808]

Removed i/o panal and power button/reset button. Removed fans too.

 

[bob808]

I took a bunch of referance pics before drilling out all the rivets to get this out.

 

[bob808]

a few more pics of dis-assembly for your enjoyment and so I remember how it all goes back together lol.

The fan grills, front fan holder bracket, pci slot covers and motherboard tray rails are going to be white along with the hdd rails and maybe the mobo i/o shield. And the rivets too

the rest will be what I'm calling frosting pink

 

[bob808]

heres my first order of goodies for this build. This includes everything except for cpu cooler, replacement fans, and gpu.

I ordered two 500g wd hdds for the same price as a terrabyte and figured it'll get better speed peformance set to raid 0.

 

[bob808]

Before I can take all the case parts to the powdercoater, I need to cut side window and remove the psu from its protective casing. The psu case will also be pink and after removing the center badge off of the psu's fan grill, It will be powdered white.

Heres some pics of the psu coming out of its shell... One warranty down...

My soldering iron would not heat up enough to melt solder so I ended up cutting 4 wires that I willl have to solder back together and shrink wrap insulate. I have since bought a new soldering iron. had to disconnect (read snip) the 4 wires to remove the plug and switch from the psu's box.

 

[bob808]

Last weekend, I sent "E" to go pick out her color at the powder coating shop. $44 for a 2 LB min order of 90% gloss pink. Last thing to do before taking case pieces to said shop was to get the window cut into the right side panel. Heres picts of layout.

Boy-oh-boy did I get a scare when I was cutting out the window...

While making the bottom cut, leaving only 11/16" on the bottom of the panel, the bit that was left started bending from heat!! It was flexing quite a bit and I thought, "well I just ruined this case". My heart sank. But as It cooled (pretty quickly actually) it returned to its original flattness right before my eyes!

I was very much revieved to say the least. It could've been a $100 mistake.

Final picture is after a bit of hand sanding with some sandpaper. Looks pretty good to me.

 

[Aick]

nice man looking good! can't wait to see barbies computer all nice and set up

 

[bob808]

So last Monday I took all the case pieces to the powdercoat guy and the cost for 38 pieces in 2 colors came out to be $125 plus the $44 for the powder. Ouch! but they do have to hang each piece by electrically charged wire, spray powder, and bake in the big oven, so a price hike was expected fron the 4 piece pic that I had sent him in the inquiring e-mail. He said that there would be some left over pink powder and that if I had anything else small that I wanted to powder, he would thro it in.
Just so happens I had planned for this and had previously bought this mini-itx case for $25 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811154091 ) for a cheapo internet box/media server that I plan on building and trying to sell on e-bay. I took off the black plastic front and dis-assembled it into 2 pieces and told him I was only worried about the outside and back of the case as thats all that will be seen.
No extra charge so I am taking $25 off the price of the powder coating for the build, seems only fair to me.
I think the cost will be worth it in the long run as the look of this build is one of the most important aspects to 'E'.