Case Pics

[3oh6]

Originally Posted by Supertim0r

case ?

http://simon.webideal.ca/Bench/bench%20PC.JPG

funny, i was thinking the same thing...

[Patriote]

Well, i'll continue with this :



Thats when i was doing a pencil mod.

[Lithotech]

Testing testing testing... one new beside one old... gotta love the removable mobo tray. I've been waiting to come across an old throwaway case with a removable tray. I'll take the tray for bench testing, and toss the rest.



.

[Lithotech]

Just finished this one.

So roomy when she's empty. Case is a Silverstone TJ04. I like how the fan mounts are drilled right through, no airflow blocking grates -- and still sturdy as a tank... weighs about as much too.



Things get a little cramped when the hard drive bays stick right into the vid card, and the sata connectors on the mobo are right smack in the same area. Took a little creative cable management, and a couple trys -- this is of the first try.





This is the first Corsair PSU I've used, and I likey! The modular cables being flat like ribbon cables opens up some interesting routing possibilities. The thoughts I had in mind never came to pass, they sort of took over and routed themselves and came out nice enough. The cables are quite stiff, but that works more to benefit than problems because they still flex fine with a little effort, and tend to nicely stay put when molded and massaged into place. I'm really impressed with this PSU.






Most recent attempt to sneak the sata cables past the vid card and hard drives. A little unusual, but doesn't look too crazy and certainly not blocking any airflow.




Nice shot of the OCZ Reaper memory (6400's) -- love these sticks, never get even warm, very sturdy and easy to handle, and not a single burp out of them at the various speeds I tested with. I didn't push them very hard at all and never even seeked their limit, but they ran at 1066mhz 5-5-5-15 with only 1.85 volts. As I said, not a single error out of em yet.




Finished! For now...












.

[Patriote]

Pretty good looking. Nice wire management! Only think that looks awful are those purple plastic thing that locks the HDD and Bay devices in place.

[enaberif]

Litho,

Probably because you are using the corsair but the TJ04 is designed to have the cables flipped up and over the back side and routed behind for good cable managment.

[Lithotech]

Originally Posted by Patriote

Pretty good looking. Nice wire management! Only think that looks awful are those purple plastic thing that locks the HDD and Bay devices in place.

Thanks. Yes, I agree, and seriously considered removing them since I am OK with just screwing things in. I was hoping they would glow a bit with the cathode and the holes they leave behind aren't exactly pretty.

Originally Posted by enaberif

Litho,

Probably because you are using the corsair but the TJ04 is designed to have the cables flipped up and over the back side and routed behind for good cable managment.

Yes, or they can drop down through the gap at the corner of the mobo. The problem is access -- if you go up and behind then you have to remove the back and top side panel to get at them, and it breaks the nice horizontal line they make going straight into the empty drive bays. You don't see the stash in the drive bays unless you look from behind. If you shoot through the gap at the corner of the mobo, they have to drop down into visibility and can partially cover the corner of the mobo.

Still, looking at the pics now, I see potential. I never actually tried it that way, maybe I should have. I may revisit this and try.

I had originally planned to route the bulk of them straight down beside the right side of the mobo. They would neatly bundle as one flat stack. Then run the main ATX up and over, and the EPS stays as is.

Once I got started, it just didn't happen that way, and having access to much of them in the drive bays seemed preferable at the time.

It's the SATA cables that really bother me, looping out in front like that. But again, access is much better this way for disconnecting them and removing the bay. The three drives are one backup and two in RAID-0. I could have run the RAID drive cables to the other two sata ports that stick sideways out of the board, then it would completely hide them behind and come back underneath the bay to tag the drives. But I wanted the three cables to knit together, and was already using one of the side sata ports for the dvd.

This is what I mean when I said the cables sort of had a mind of their own: and any time I deviated from what they wanted to do, there was some sort of hiccup blocking me lol!

By far, a slightly larger case would eliminate the sata probs, or if the vid card wasn't full size and pinching into the drives and sata cables. Yet these are really nice cases for the money, and you can't beat the 8800's these days for great performance.

[enaberif]

See the arrow you can route the wires over this edge as the top has a 1" gap that provides for this and then you tuck any extra down the side of the drives.

I painted my case.
Added Northbridge H20 block and a swiftech 120 rad to my loop.

[Lithotech]

Originally Posted by enaberif

See the arrow you can route the wires over this edge as the top has a 1" gap that provides for this and then you tuck any extra down the side of the drives.

Yep, I'll give it a try next chance I get.