[pjlietz]

Hey all, with the case mod comp just ending, I was thinking of how long my Mozart from last years comp as been running. I decided it needed a bit of a tear down and reworking.

I'm going the redo the loop as it was way to much for this rig, go figure I'll have enough left over to build a fairly good loop with spare parts

.

I'm also going to sandblast all the black paint on the case. It was pretty cold out when I did it and the paint fell to crap fairly quick. It may end up midnight blue inside when I'm done

I'll be cutting all the fan grills off as well.

Day One - Tear Down.

Here's the case last year around this time, the build log is in my sig.

This is what I found when I started to tear it down,

Mmmm dust, lol... Man this thing is dusty.

Mobo gone, I'll be taking that in for testing during the tear down. I think my usb ports are dead.

No worries, lots of dust left, lol.

Ready to start draining, the 'drain' plug I installed didn't seem to be of any use

.

Loop's empty, I managed to spill about 3 cups of coolant in the process though, lol. Cleaned up ok though.

But still more dust, lol. Poor pumps.

Oh, and the money shot for dust,

Man I thought I kept my rig fairly clean, but there was still tones of dust in there.

I should have some updates of the sandblasting tomorrow night

Thanks for looking

Day 2

Well I didn't get to start the sandblasting until last night. I just wish I had a bigger compressor, lol. I seems to work really good, just takes a long time

I got the majority of the paint off between the sandblaster and my angle grinder with a wire brush on it

I should have the rest of the paint off by the end of tomorrow.

The dark areas are from the wire brush, easy to clean off though

I got the 10 120mm fan holes started today as well

I still need to finish them off to smooth things out a bit, but it's a good start.

And for a little bit of off topic in my own thread, lol.... This is what kept me from getting more done today

Been doing some work on the old 'Stangs engine. Finished the pint on the heads today! The intake is all cleaned up to, waiting to be painted

I should have some more done by tomorrow night!

 

[pjlietz]

Day 3

Got a fair bit done today

. Primed and got the first base coat done! It took forever to get the black off of it, lol.... And I still didn't get all of it

No pic's for the primer though,

GF had the camera, lol. I'll have some sanding to do as the wind picked up just as I was finishing the first base coat of black and blew some of the sandblasting sand in to the paint :swearing: Oh well, glad it was on the first coat, not the last.

I also started to clean my WC'ing parts

I hope to start the sanding on the base coat tonight, I may have some more pic's later

Day 3

Well got the last of the black on there today and started the dark metallic blue topcoat. Everything was going great until I had a run in the pain at the top of the MOBO tray. Instinctively I grabbed a rag to wipe it up, wrong move

I ended up taking a large amount of paint off around it. I should have just waited and sanded the runs out. I was so pissed, the GF comes out and I'm just cursin away in the garage, lol.... I should be able to do a decent enough touch up on it though. Good news is that it's in a place no one will really see it once all the HW is back in. Here's some pic's of the work so far today, I'm hoping to have another update tonight as well.

Black base coat done,

Little bit of blue added,

And a bit more

And now I'm real blue

I should be able to fix it though. It may not match perfect, but that's ok.

Till next time all!

Day 3 Still

Well I got the problem spot sanded and repainted, along with the first coat of clear

It's not perfect, but I really want my main rig up and running so I'll give up a bit on the paint side, lol. Here's a few pics of this afternoons work

This one looks abit on the light side,

Ahh, just right, lol.... I wasn't looking for anything two flashy

Shadow pic of the back,

Mobo side, can you see my BIG screw up, lol

How bout here?

Here's the front, not like anyone ever see's it, lol. The inside seem to come out very white? Not sure why though....

That's it for tonight.... I should get some more done in the next few days!

Till next time.

 

[pjlietz]

Guess this is day 5, lol....

Well I didn't get much done the last few days, been kinda busy, lol... I did get the HDD's mounted and installed, Mobo's in, all the fans in the front are in, The Rad is moved and remounted, WB is installed on the CPU... Seems like alot, but it's really not

The paint seems to be holding up better the before, which is nice, however I did manage to ding a few parts and will have to touch them up.

Mobo's in,

Rack of HDD's anyone

There is my 74GB Raptor, 2x36GB Raptors and my 4x500GB 7200.11's that will be plugged in to my new Perc5!

Fans anyone?

Rad mounted

HDD's in

Man that was tight, lol... These things are ment to fit w/o paint, add a few layers and it can be fun to put back together, lol

Well that's it for tonight.

I think I'm going to pick up a Silverstone EAS 5 1/4 bay controller, then I will be able to control all the fans from the O/S.

I think I'm going to make a custom badge for the front to cover all the front panel connections as I never use them.

Till next time....

Day 6

Well, got a little more done today. The second rad found a home

I think I may run a dual loop in here now, lol.... The 120mm Rad will be just for the GPU while the 240mm will be for the CPU. Each loop wile have a MCP-655. I also picked up a pair of DVD-RW's as the Blu-ray/HD DVD drive will be moving in the Media Center. I also got the rest of my fans today and the Silverstone 'Commander' ESA controller. It looks pretty cool, and can control fan's and light's.

Time for a few pic's.

This is how I mounted all the fans to the rads. I hope it will help with noise issues. Only parts needed are 4 small rubber washers.

Kinda hard to see, but there is a very small space between the fan and the rad.

I also installed one of these on every fan to help with vibrations. I tell ya, in a case meant to have the fans stacked like this one it's a pain to fit some of these. There is not much give

Rad mounted. I'll have an Antec Spot Cool fan on the top of the board blowing over the covered Heat Pipe on the mobo.

Last of the fans on the back mounted.

Here's the 'Commander' unit I was talking about. It has 5 fan plug's, 3 light plugs, and 4 temp sensors that all feed to the O/S via USB. Should be pretty cool.

Connections

Well that's it for now.... More soon.

Mini update for Day 7

I got a the GPU and Xonar installed as well as the optical drives and the Commander.

Not much I know, I should have more done today though.

Still on Day 7.....

Well I got it wired up this afternoon, what a pain in the butt lol. It quickly became clear that I would have to use the old Aerogate controller as well, just have to many fans, lol. I also added another fan in the HDD bay to keep the Raptors cool. I still need to take the 3pin extensions off the old fans to finish connecting the fans on the back of the case.

I managed to use almost every connection on my PC Power and Cooling 750. I still have to add the pumps and the lighting as well. I also started laying out the loop, sorry no pics yet though.

Here is what I did get done though.

Aerogate installed,

Miles of power cables, lol

How it looks on the right side of the case, still need to add a pump.

Power for 7 HDD's

Mobo all wired up.

This was a pain, darn 8 pin connection,

4 of the fans wired,

Well thats where we are now.... I'm going to start the dual loops next, that'll be fun no doubt

Till next time.

End of Day 7.

Last updated for the day.

I got the loop layed out for the GPU. The fill port will run to the open end of the black T splitter and tuck up beside the 120mm Rad.

Still working out the details for the CPU loop. Trying to keep it as short as possible.

Here's a shot of the GPU loop.

That's it for tonight, thanks for looking!

Day 8 here we come...

Well after 2 hours in the dentist chair this morning, I'm back at it....

I finally found a way to run the CPU loop that I like. I didn't want miles of tubing like before. Also part of the reason for splitting the loops was to make it a lot easier to remove parts and work in the case.

The pump for the CPU loop gets mounted on the PSU (ya could be bad)

It's pretty well hidden,

Here's the Y adapter for the fill port,

Mobo side with both loops layed out,

One more, close up,

I'm going to start with the lighting now, so there will be another updated today. I'm also hoping to get the leak testing started today.

 

[pjlietz]

More of Day 8

Alright, got some work done on the front covers. When I decided to use all 7 HDD bays, I lost the option to use the 3 1/2 inch fan controller I build for this last year. I was going to make a big cover that would go over all the front panel connections. After some thinking though I decided to try and fit one of the 3 1/2 inch mesh filters from my Armor in the the bay. Of coarse TT has to make them just a bit different, lol.... But a bit of banging with the end of a screw driver, and I got this,

Not perfect but good enough for me, lol.

I had made a very large plate out of scrape aluminum, but that was before I came up with the above idea. So I was able to cut the large plate up in to a much smaller one. It still needs some work but here it is.

Going on the end of day 8

Woot for three updates in one day, lol....

Got the first coat of paint on the filler piece for the front. Also got the 2 UV lights intalled... I still have a pair of blue led lights to install though... Not looking forward to finding space for those.

Got a few quick pic's for ya all.

Panel painted,

UV light one,

And the other one,

Almost time to start filling the loop.... Maybe tonight

Day 9....

Woot for triple post, lol....

Well I'm on the home stretch, got the loop filled and am leak testing right now! It was kind of a pain with two loops, lol.... Had to do everything twice. I decided against the 2 blue LED lights I was thinking of and am going to use a single light with 3 LEDs in it. Wiring for the 2 light tubes was just going to be to much. I'm trying to cut down on the extras with this rebuild to make working on the system much easier.

I must say though that working on a case with out a top on it very nice! I think all my build from now on will have the top pulled off till everything is done.

Anyway, here's a bunch of pic's of the loop's leak testing.... What good is a post without pic's anyway, lol....

Paper towel is your best friend here, lol.

GPU Loop,

Fill ports,

Back side,

Full on mobo side,

Connection for the top fill port,

Seems to be testing good for now. I should have the 'case badge' do today as well.

Till next time!

 

[whe3ls]

holy dust bunny's bat man

 

[DigitalBear]

Holy Dusty Jesus! Good thing Water prevents overheating due to dust built up better than air

 

[pjlietz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by whe3ls holy dust bunny's bat man

Lol, ya I was alittle surprised.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalBear Holy Dusty Jesus! Good thing Water prevents overheating due to dust built up better than air

Ya, I never noticed a temp change

 

[p0isonapple]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DigitalBear Holy Dusty Jesus! Good thing Water prevents overheating due to dust built up better than air

+1! Damn man, I freak the hell out when my case gets that dirty. I clean it out every 90 days.

 

[CattleRustler]

thats an insanely abnormal amount of dust, regardless of fan config (+/- case pressure) How often do you clean the area (dust and vaccuum) where the pc runs?

 

[Manyak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CattleRustler thats an insanely abnormal amount of dust, regardless of fan config (+/- case pressure) How often do you clean the area (dust and vaccuum) where the pc runs?

lol, you should have seen my last rig. I used it for 4 years before cleaning it out!!

 

[Cr4zYH3aD]

<5 and no cleaning :/

 

[xHassassin]

That's almost as bad as my dell was.

 

[Robilar]

Should be interesting as always pj.

Either your wife is slacking off on the cleaning or you keep her away from the computer area

I don't let my wife into my home office (or our cleaning lady for that matter. russian women with vacuum cleaners scare me...)

 

[pjlietz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by p0isonapple +1! Damn man, I freak the hell out when my case gets that dirty. I clean it out every 90 days.

Lol, ya eh,. It's funny how it gets in there even though I dusted it every month or so. Guess I didn't get to all the hidden places

Quote:

Originally Posted by CattleRustler thats an insanely abnormal amount of dust, regardless of fan config (+/- case pressure) How often do you clean the area (dust and vaccuum) where the pc runs?

Not often, lol.... PLus with the two dogs I guess it gets dusty real fast.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Manyak lol, you should have seen my last rig. I used it for 4 years before cleaning it out!!

If it was worse, I'm scared, lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cr4zYH3aD <5 and no cleaning :/

Holly molly

Quote:

Originally Posted by xHassassin That's almost as bad as my dell was.

Ahhh a dell

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robilar Should be interesting as always pj. Either your wife is slacking off on the cleaning or you keep her away from the computer area I don't let my wife into my home office (or our cleaning lady for that matter. russian women with vacuum cleaners scare me...)

Naw the wife doesn't clean the basement, lol

 

[xHassassin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Robilar Should be interesting as always pj. Either your wife is slacking off on the cleaning or you keep her away from the computer area I don't let my wife into my home office (or our cleaning lady for that matter. russian women with vacuum cleaners scare me...)

I could never imagine having a cleaning lady...

Anyways, this case somehow reminds me of that case in the 1990's computer video, with the high tech Pentium processors, ~15GB of HDD space, and 128MB of RAM

 

[pjlietz]

Day 2

Well I didn't get to start the sandblasting until last night. I just wish I had a bigger compressor, lol. I seems to work really good, just takes a long time

I got the majority of the paint off between the sandblaster and my angle grinder with a wire brush on it

I should have the rest of the paint off by the end of tomorrow.

The dark areas are from the wire brush, easy to clean off though

I got the 10 120mm fan holes started today as well

I still need to finish them off to smooth things out a bit, but it's a good start.

And for a little bit of off topic in my own thread, lol.... This is what kept me from getting more done today

Been doing some work on the old 'Stangs engine. Finished the pint on the heads today! The intake is all cleaned up to, waiting to be painted

I should have some more done by tomorrow night!

 

[repo_man]

Looking good PJ, well....now it is. Before though.......

lol! I might have to tear down Phoenix and double check for ninja dust bunnies. I tend to clean it every month or so, but after seeing yours, I'm scared! LOL

Can't wait to see the progress, this was actually one of my favs from the case mod comp last year.

 

[Syrillian]

Heyah, PJ

! I remember this mod.

Lookin' forward to seeing the re-vamp take shape.

And woah! Dats alotta dust!

 

[pjlietz]

Quote:

Originally Posted by repo_man Looking good PJ, well....now it is. Before though....... lol! I might have to tear down Phoenix and double check for ninja dust bunnies. I tend to clean it every month or so, but after seeing yours, I'm scared! LOL Can't wait to see the progress, this was actually one of my favs from the case mod comp last year.

Lol at ninja dust bunnies

But ya, darn dust was all over the place.

Thanks it was one of my fav's to, lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Syrillian Heyah, PJ ! I remember this mod. Lookin' forward to seeing the re-vamp take shape. And woah! Dats alotta dust!

Glad to see old age hasn't affected your memory, lol

It should end up being a lot cleaner and easier to work in. I'll be taking out one of the pumps and at least one of the smaller rads. Should be a bout 4 feet less tubing as well, lol.

Thanks for looking everyone, hope to have another updated today!

 

[XaNe]

Keep Up the good work