Banzai's Cube Case Mod

[Banzai]

My computer just crashed on me just after I’d finished typing up 3500 words for this thread. So this is a trimmed version.

Basically, it’s an Ipex Server Case. I bought it with it’s internals for $250, sold everything bar the case for ~$270 I think it was. So yeah $20 in my pocket.

Progress 16/11/03

Click on pics for larger pics

Back






Front Door Open


Major Front Door Open


Left Side before mod


Left Side after mod Notice the long PCI card holder is gone ?


Right Side

That’s all I CBF’ed doing ATM, I’ll post some more details up tomorrow when I get home.

Banzai.

[Banzai]

Progress 02/12/03

Well, schoolies was awsome. but my bank account differed. With what I had left, I went to Kmart, and bought 3 cans of matt black spray paint. Without checking the garden shed first. We had 2 can's still in there. Oh well, 5 can's, at least I'm not going to run out.



So today was all about painting.

I still can't believe how much of a modder's paradise this case is, it was so easy to remove screws and rivets, everything comes out.

Before Painting

As I said before, this case has been the easiest to mod so far interms of removing parts.
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Swinging doors and facia plates before painting
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The front swing door.

[===]

[Banzai]

Drying

Who would have ever thought that I would have used a clothes line during my teens for something besides goon-o-fortune :lol:
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These are the facia plates and the two top swinging doors after painting.
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The front panel on the case. The whole thing is a door which swings out.
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The front left swing door.
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These are the sides to the case. ****ing heavy is what they are.
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The top of the case even comes off

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All these pics were taken before painting, and then about 2-3 coats into painting. As you can see there still needs to be another coat or two. I have done that. Just CBF'ed taking more pics.

I don't intend on putting a window in as I am over a "rice" computer. But that doesn't say that I won't later on .

I should be moving all my gear into the case by the end of the week. By then I should have posted off my BIX, and have my new heatercore and shroud ready to go in.

Banzai.

[Banzai]

Progress 03/12/03

Well, after letting it dry, I started putting it together. There are some blotches of shiney/matt paint from where I've done a dodgy paint job. But I've just done some touch up's on them when it was all together.

The hardest thing to put back together was the floppy drive. That little spring was a bitch, but in the end it was worth it.



And just a few pics of it all together with a touch up. I think it could do with a bit more touch up'ing though.


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I'll post more pics up later this week when I finally get in all the watercooling gear.

Hopefully I can have a Peltier setup happening [Chilled Water] before the end of Feb

Banzai.

[Banzai]

Part 1
Progress 05/12/03

Time for a update.

Today I got my hands on a VL heatercore. Not the one I was wanting, by a long shot. I was after the VL heatercore that is ~240mm long. This one is only ~180mm. Oh well, you learn from your mistakes. It cost me $38 which included pressure testing and removal from the Crumpledor.


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Then I took to it with the hacksaw to remove the excess pipe on it. It is a few mm to big in the diameter, so I'll have to get a shrinker to make it fit the 1.2" tubing.


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Then came cleaning. I couldn't find any Hydrochloric acid around the pool shed. So I went for the next best thing.



Pool Chlorine. Stinks like all buggery. It doesn't make it shiny like Cathar's, but it did clean it.



I left it in a container for ~30 minutes to let it do it's work. Then took it out and hit it with the high pressure hose, making sure I got rid of all the Chlorine.



This was what was left after it'd finished soaking.



When using corrosive stuff like this, it's a must to use protection. Thanks mum

[Banzai]

Part 2

With the Radiator situation underway, I had to get started on where it would sit in the case. I was hoping for it to sit on the front right under the 5 1/4" drive bays. But making it fir there was going to be a bitch. So I decided, since there was already 92mm fan holes there, to put it on the left side.


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You can see there where I've used the Jigsaw and Metal Cutters to cut away the metal. This is so much tougher than my Lian Li, the Lian Li was like a hot knife through butter, this is one stubborn POS. I've marked out in nikko where I am going to cut with the Jigsaw. I've marked out all three fan holes to be cut, but I'm only cutting two as I'll only need two for this shroud and radiator. The third one there is for when I get my next heatercore, that's if I do, this one might do the job well enough.



Just measuring things up to make sure they fit.

[===]

When I get a chance I'll draw up a diagram of the flow pattern of the setup.

That's enough for me today.

Banzai.

[Banzai]

lol

~120 views and no replies ... no pushes of encouragement ?

It's alright. I've got another post coming up soon.

I bought the aluminium and 1/2" tubing today for the shroud and watercooling setup.

[Khledar]

Awesome Possum.

[Banzai]

Woohoo for random posting :lol:

[Khledar]

Well not just random, I've been following what you've been doing - I'd love to see the results, and your info is definately cool too - just not a lot to comment on. Cept... Awesome so far I love the retro "well built" cases - they just happen to require motorized wheels for movement

[jamicon]

**Edit** just realised I had a new account for my newer nickname :P

post is below now

[m00j]

I'm following it too! (since I found the thread yesterday). Although I have not posted in it before, I have been subscribed to it.


It is an interesting contrast to my current mod, which is a little black shuttle XPC, which I am going to watercool.

Have to get them side by side @ a LAN when they are both done for a good photo

So far it is looking awesome, looks very nice in black (in white it is pretty ugly). It will be interesting to see the finished product.

What are you planning on doing with all the extra room that it has over your last Lian Li case? (which if i remember right was pretty full).

[Banzai]

Well, in this one I really want to put in a waterchiller setup. So that's two watercooling loops. But that's not for a while yet. Got Christmas and other things to save for. I've got the new MCW5001 waterblock coming soon from David and Karma too

[jamicon]

are you sure you don't mean the MCW5002 ?

thats the only one I can see on their website.

[Banzai]

Yeah, sounds right. It's the newer revised one.

Should be around $88 IIRC ?

[Banzai]

Progress 08/12/03

Well, it's done. It's looking schmick as well.

This would have to have been one of the cheapest mods, actually, it is the cheapest mod I've ever done.


Heatercore: $38
~2m of 1/2" Bunning's Tubing: $4.50
Cube Case: -$20 [Read the first post to understand why]
Sheet of Aluminium: $22

Nice and cheap.

I've ditched the old 400w generic PSU that I was using before for the 400w redundant one that came with the case. Only problem being is that it doesn't have a 12v aux connector for my P4 motherboard. No problem, easily fixed, I just cut off the one from the old PSU, and spliced it into a molex
Oh and the rails on this new 400w PSU. Magnificent. They are almost spot on. I'm lovin' it.



HeaterCore & Shroud


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That was the shroud that I made for the heatercore. I did make another along the lines of Cathar's which had alot of bending in it, but then I decided to go original and use my own design. This one requires a hole in the middle for the fans instead of no hole for Cathars. If you get what I mean


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Then I attached it to the heatercore by pop rivetting it into the holes along the side of the heatercore. You should be able to see what I mean by the holes in the side in some of the pics above a in a few posts. Then I painted the heatercore as well, after taping up the tops of the fans, and grills on the heatercore.


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I realised that there was some rather large gaps between the fans and the shroud. Out with the sealer, I don't know what it's called, but I found it in the shed in a gun. So I used it. It doesn't look to tidy, but it does the job. I attached the radiator to the case with cable ties. Great things, so many uses, where would us ghetto case modders be without them.


Finished Case

These last few photo's were taken with my new phone [Nokia 3200], so they aren't of the best quality, but you get the picture.


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I'm very happy with the results and I've achieved what I wanted. The two 92mm panaflows are quieter than my old 120mm Sunon @ 7v. I'm getting 1 - 2C better temps than before with my BIX and 120mm Sunon.

I'll do a bit more of an update and bit more detail

[m00j]

looking very nice!

[Banzai]

Well, it's been a while since my last update.

I've been busy. Busy both with the case modding and New Years and Christmas Hope everyone had as good of a time as I did :thumbup:

Well, I'd like to that CoZa| for his generosity for giving me this waterbubbler. Well, not really. I just took it


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What I want to do it have the chilled water running through the waterblock onto the TEC then onto CPU. I think I'm going to have to get it re gassed because I have to mod it into the case ? Am I on the right track there ? It is gassed isn't it ?

I bought 2 TEC's from eBay. $45 from the US inc postage for a 226w and an 80w ... I think that's what they are. But they aren't potted. But that's easily solved with $5 and a tube of silicon

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When this head ache chills over I might elaborate a bit more on what I want to do.

Also if anyone has any links on this kind of stuff that could help me please post.

Cheers Ryan.

Time for a power kip *yawn*

:lol: :thumbup: