So I bought an Antec 900 to drown my sorrows :D

[soundx98]

Steve, I am on the road in Chicago this week, but I'll PM you this weekend when I get back with some photos etc.

 

mknwatt thank you very much for the nice compliment

But there is whole world of difference between radodrill's case and mine.

Doing a case in plexi is uber difficult.

[radodrill]

mknwatt thank you very much for the nice compliment

But there is whole world of difference between radodrill's case and mine.

Doing a case in plexi is uber difficult.

 

That and mine is built from scratch while soundx98 is modding an existing case.

[catkicker]

Another fine job Carl.

[ReelFiles]

Steve, I am on the road in Chicago this week, but I'll PM you this weekend when I get back with some photos etc.

...

 

Cool, thanks dude.

[mknwatt]

I didn't mean to compare the two projects. I followed both projects and both caught my eye for some nice work. I would agree, plexi would be a hard material work with. The "BLACK" case mod is more up my alley and like the way it looks.....maybe except for the top. I believe soundx98 did an AMD window mod awhile back.....can't find the picture, but the image is still stuck in my brain, that was one I did try.

[soundx98]

Today's post is brought to you by "Sisconsin",

America's Dairyland and home of Brett Favre, Technodanvan's favorite football player.

 

Lil shot of I-94 going west towards the Twin Cities.

I bet I have driven back and forth between Chicago and Minneapolis over a 100 times over the last 40 years.

About 7 hours from Home to Chicago's northside (da Bears)

 

 

Got home about 30 minutes ago and thought I'd show you where I am with cable management.

 

 

here is a big mofo pic of it

http://premium1.uploadit.org/soundx98//inside1.JPG

 

The 24-pin cable on the SkyHawk 620 is too short to route through to the other side of the case.

Hale, it barely even reaches at this point.

But the SkyHawk PSUs have an "always on" molex for the DVD Writer/CD-Rom.

I like the fact that I can "eject" the tray with the PC off.

 

The Molex connectors in the upper right hand corner (next to the 24-pin) bug me as well.

(I may just remove the molex connectors and hard wire the cable)

 

I relocated the mobo cables for PWR/Reset/HDD LED.

Sorta sandwiched them in between the SATA connectors.

(gave me a chance to neaten those up a bit in the process)

Just not up to disassembling everything, taking the top off and then lengthening the wires.

If I need to do all that I may as well make an "especiale" six conductor cable and run it under the motherboard.

 

The fan cable for the Zalman VF900 is plugged into fan 2 on the mobo and you can see it on the left side of the pic.

Not sure if it is worth the effort of replacing (the FanMate2 controller is nowhere to be found)

 

The AC Ryan 30mm Dual Overburst CCFLs came in the mail.

Unfortunately they are two and a half inches too tall. (fug)

But I already snuck one in near the HDDs and it lights up the area nicely.

 

 

If I can remove the other one of the CCFLs from the plastic tube (without breaking it) and then mount it "nekid" (without breaking it) it MAY fit and clear the rear fan (window side).

(Course I will probably break it the first time I move my case)

 

Got a couple of other ideas in "da haid", so stay tuned if you are a glutton for poor photography

 

Reel, you got PM coming your way.

[radodrill]

It's actually not too hard to remove the acrylic tubes from the A.C.Ryan CCFLs. The cube on the end with the wires isn't glued to the tube.

 

 

p.s. PM replied

[Branjo]

looking absolutely awesome dude, your beginning to inspire me to do something drastic, its probably a good thing that I can't find my Dremel lol

[t_ski]

As always, your cable management rocks. This mod has inspired me to finish the mod I had started several months back.

 

I have a simple fix for the Molex connectors. Right now they stick out becayse they are white. Just buy some black ones and they will blend in more. Anyone else looking probably won't see it when they look in (especially with the 2-way mirror), but of course you'll know they're there.

[radodrill]

its probably a good thing that I can't find my Dremel lol

 

That's easily fixed with a trip to Lowe's ;)

[soundx98]

Best 900 ever.....

Seriously it makes me want to modd the crap outta my Antec knock off cases.

 

Between soundx98 and radodrill casing modding, I’m feeling like I need to drown my sorrows with a new case.

 

looking absolutely awesome dude, your beginning to inspire me to do something drastic

 

This mod has inspired me to finish the mod I had started several months back.

 

:nod: mod on :nod:

 

I don't think there is any greater compliment than your case mod inspiring others to mod their own case.

 

Shortly after starting the project I decided it would be a greater challenge to spend time on cable management than cutting holes.

The main cable from the SkyHawk 620 is just too short.

Plus, since everyone with this case biatches about cable management I had to give it a shot.

 

Yes, I could have used some type of 24-pin cable extender and cut the holes but you know that generally decreases the case value.

And yup, some type of "channel" could be used to hide the wires.

Panduit has a ton of options http://www.panduit.com/products/browse.asp?classid=1006

but that would have required cutting a hole underneath the PSU and flipping it over so cool air would be drawn in from the bottom.

It's a three year old PSU and I thought it might be better to just play it safe.

When I do upgrade to a quad core whatever, the board layout will probably be different, so conduit seemed premature at this point.

 

Some great ideas were brought up by the forum members and I really appreciate that.

My thanks to all of you, it's what makes this such a great forum.

I am under some severe budget restrictions with this mod and living in an apartment with no shop area makes it difficult for sure, but it has been a LOT of fun and added some excitement to the oldfaht's life.

 

I realized last week that I had lost the rubber grommets for the rear of the case (water-cooling pass thru) and the good folks at Antec were kind enough to send me two more at no charge.

Good support, gonna remember that.

 

I have been having some problems contacting AC Ryan with some questions:

What is the best stuff to clean the Acrylpanel Mirror2 with?

Where can I buy 8 inch Blue Overburst CCFLs?

Where can I find the 5 pack of UV reactive paint?

 

So I contacted Radodrill (really nice guy, very helpful, and extremely talented)

I had been sending e-mails to "info AT acryan DOT com" and "sales AT acryan DOT com" and he suggested I try "contact AT acryan DOT com".

 

So we'll see if they respond. Thanks rado!

 

Now I did find this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...:MEWA:IT&ih=004

 

 

My thought is to paint the "edge" of the video card and the "edge" of the Hauppage WinTV-HVR-1600 I just bought from owcraftsman.

 

 

Don't want to be too gay (gaye?, gai?) with it. Just something subtle.

It dries clear and I am hoping that it picks up enough light from the Blue CCFLs to light up.

I should have a ton of this stuff left over, so if you are in need let me know and I'll try and put some in a small container for you. NC except shipping.

 

Just realized that not only did I order the wrong size AC Ryan CCFLs (12" instead of 8") but I ordered UV instead of Blue.

(Another "senior" moment I am afraid)

 

Haven't opened them yet but there is a 20% restocking charge (plus shipping) even if I return them sealed.

Probably not worth the hassle.

I could mount them in the top area and I am sure they would help light up the RAM slots and stuff at the top of the board but may not do justice to the card "edge".

 

I will tell you that the apparent quality of the AC Ryan CCFLs is MUCH SUPERIOR to the Logisys CCFLs.

Logisys - fugly blue transformer, male and female connectors (more wires to hide), yellow and red wires to transformer input, white wires out of transformer to CCFLs, and a "slide" switch for on/off.

AC Ryan - Beautiful flat black transformer that is easier to hide, single Black "pass-through" molex, Black sleeving to transformer, silver wires to CCFLs, and a "rocker" switch.

Plus as Radodrill said, the CCFLs are easy to remove on the AC Ryan's.

You get what you pay for (just make sure you order the correct sheet)

 

 

I am becoming more and more impressed by the Acrylpanel Mirror 2.

With good lighting inside the case it's just way kewl.

Case turned off (I really don't think this will happen much)

 

 

And best shot so far of the see-through mirror.

You can see a little reflection from the monitor and the Logitech G15 on the right side of the pic.

And you can see that the Blue light close to the UV spectrum helps light up the Yellow reactive parts of the motherboard.

 

 

ReelFiles has shouted "dibs" on the "fake" G5 case.

real big pics here: (56K warning)

http://premium1.uploadit.org/soundx98//P1010513.JPG

http://premium1.uploadit.org/soundx98//P1010512.JPG

http://premium1.uploadit.org/soundx98//P1010511.JPG

http://premium1.uploadit.org/soundx98//P1010510.JPG

http://premium1.uploadit.org/soundx98//P1010509.JPG

 

We agreed on $30 plus $9.00 shipping for the case, plexi window, 92mm Thermaltake A2017 Blue LED smart fan with controller and 120mm Thermaltake A2018 Blue LED smart fan with controller.

 

Steve needs to sell some goodies first (watch for his sale) but ALL the money will be donated to DIY-street.

Not a lot but every little bit helps.

 

PLEASE dig into your pockets if you can help DIY-street this month!

Just give a little click on the PayPal donate button on the bottom of the page.

[ReelFiles]

Yep, I donated $30 bucks from the $130 AceGobber paid me for my RAM. I am also gonna try to donate 5-10% of what I make off the other sales, but I have to make enough to buy a laptop for wifey. She desperately needs one for her Master's degree.

 

That mirror stuff looks really good, I'd like to get some of that for my MozartTx as well.

 

I stay away from the logisys lights now, I had two of their inverters burn up on me within a few months. I think they just run too hot in their stock casing. I took the lid off the last one I have and covered it with a floppy drive bay cover from my Tsunami Dream, and it's worked for a year now.

 

 

 

I guess drilling larger ventilation holes would work just as well.

 

I've been feeling a litle down lately because of money troubles, so I haven't felt motivated to actually use my DV cam to take pics and upload them to make my FS thread, but I really need to get this done today or tomorrow.