Project Oroborous: The Cycle Continues - Case Mod Log

[ottoyu34]

Amazing shots! Great stuff

[Sushi Warrior]

Busy with exams and have to buy a new camera (Sold my D40X, moving to Pentax). I have been really busy lately, but the water cooling is all in the case I just have to leak test and sleeve some stuff (keep meaning to order MDPC-X...)

[ForTheGG]

Just so you know, you can get Clean Cut triple braid from "furryletters" on ebay, it's amazing sleeving. Not as good as MDPC-X, but much cheaper and almost as good.

[supaflyx3]

Holy mother of god that's sexy, i can't wait to see the final thing!

[Sushi Warrior]

Project||Oroborous Preview

Some nice pictures as it stands now should be up in a week or so...



Also I am glad to announce NZXT is sponsoring the build! They have sent some FN120RB/FN140RB fans (perfect for this build!), 6-pin PCI-E power extensions, the IU101 internal USB expansion (interesting plans for this...), and the Sentry 2 touchscreen LCD controller.

And as always, a big thanks to MNPC Tech as well!

[Sushi Warrior]

Here's two more teasers. Front fascia done, LCD poster placement.





Ignore the tape around the LCD poster, I am making an acrylic/brushed aluminum cover right now.

As always, a HUGE thank you goes out to Bill Owen at MNPCtech and NZXT!

[Sushi Warrior]

Well, I opened the case up after ~2 weeks of use and I found a bit more than I bargained for....



Dead spider. How does he get in there?!!? WHY does he get in there?





Ohmygodthedustkillmenowowningacatisamistake

After about 20 minutes of work with compressed air and brushes, it was more or less now dust-free. To work!

First order of business, reservoir placement. Right under the DVD drive and next to the mobo. The usual spot :/



It's pretty simple installation. Just drilling 2 holes (in my case, widening 2 existing holes) and adding a few nuts/washers. There were no instructions provided however, and it took me a few minutes (and improper assemblies) to get it right. Not super impressed so far EK.

It was hard for me to get the clamps on because I had to get the washers/nut or whatever it was on between two sheets of metal. I had to squeeze the bits down carefully and manage to get them over the bolt. That took a bit of figuring out! Would have been MUCH easier on a single sheet.



Mounted up.





Pump goes here...



Sweet jebus that's a tight fit! This isn't gonna be fun...



About 1 hour and a few cups of boiling water later, we have success! Remind me NEVER to try that again. In case you are interested as to how I did it, here's my step-by-step method.

1. Get tubing on pump barb (don't screw the pump barb in ALL the way, leave it a little bit loose) .
2. Put other end of tubing onto barb for res use, but don't screw it into the res yet (just leave it on the end of the tube)
3. Remove res clamps.
4. Rotate reservoir to thread onto fitting on the end of tubing, which should be easy now that the clamps aren't in your way.
5. With the extra rotation left from 1., you should be able to get the pump vertically (I recommend doing a bit of a dry fit to see how the res lines up. You can fix ~20 degrees of tilt but can't flip it a whole 180 or something. Just get it in the right ballpark).
6. Put the clamps back in (may be a bit tricky).
7. Put res in clamps, pat yourself on the back, go take a well deserved nap :)



Infinitely useful MNPCTech 120.2 radiator template in place where rad should go.



Rad in place just to check it fits OK.



A little close to the PSU....



Very tight fit once you add a fan! Phew.



Aluminum cover being added to the front triangle. It was rather simply to make and I didn't have my camera with me - I just cut the aluminum to the rough shape of the plexi (give or take 5mm - leave a decent amount of room), glue as shown, and file into the exact shape. This technique works for a LOT of stuff actually.



Ugly glue residue... oh well, you can't see it. I wonder what this will make the light reflections look like?



Back to the rad. Bottom piece removed (a few rivets were all it took) and taped up. Just tape the template in place and make your marks!







The results speak for themselves! It works MUCH better than a print-out template as you can make your marks right onto the painters tape (no worries of paper ripping, ripples, etc.) and they are nice and accurate. Not even my horrible mis-measurement and other problems can mess me up here :)



Slight modification... I'd rather have one continuous hole than 2 with that little divider in the middle.



Ready to cut!



Sparks, pretty sparks...



Boom, done. Don't think I have any pics of it after filing.... we will see...


And that's it for this update. Another round of huge, huge thanks go out to...

Bill Owen and MNPCTech



And Victoria from NZXT! The next update (shouldn't be far away) should have some details for the excellent package I got from NZXT.

[Sushi Warrior]

How about a little behind the scenes/teaser?



Here's the photo.





Thats what it actually looks like "behind the scenes". I am in the middle of writing a little guide to modding photography, and while I consider myself an expert at neither I think I have a few tips that could help out a lot of modders and overall make HWC project logs that much more enjoyable. I got my "studio" setup for a grand total of $20 (3 lights and backgrounds). Expect it to be up by.... monday? I think it's gonna end up being pretty long :/

Hopefully the MDPC-X arrives here today, otherwise I'm gonna have to wait until Monday, and there isn't much I can work on right now :(

Oh yeah, I ordered MDPC-X. 30 metres, white and black. Expect a total PSU overhaul (NZXT HALE90 hopefully) and fully sleeving everything.

And yes, I can be a little messy...

[miggs78]

Sushi's back in action, good to see you back mate.. Great work.. When I saw your work shop, I thought you were going to use like a hole saw or some machine to cut the rad cutout, but you used a rotary tool..

Nice work throughout :)

[Sushi Warrior]

Originally Posted by miggs78

Sushi's back in action, good to see you back mate.. Great work.. When I saw your work shop, I thought you were going to use like a hole saw or some machine to cut the rad cutout, but you used a rotary tool..

Nice work throughout :)

I don't have any 120mm hole saws and I don't own any big machines.... only a drill, dremel, and files/hand tools

Thanks!