Got a New Case!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Out of curiosity, how/why did you end up settling on the 650D..?...

Clean looks, a reliable appearing hot swap bay I could use for 2.5" drives, reasonably good wire management provisions, good air flow and filtration capabilities, and the ability to have up to nine HDDs. Being able to buy an extra non-windowed right side panel to to replace the windowed left side panel was also a huge plus. While bigger than I would have like, it was still small enough to fit in my limited space with some modifications.

...You could say I own the "space ship" version currently, since the 600T is identical inside as far as I know... But I simply haven't had the time or the means to try "fix" the things I would've done differently in it's design.

Besides the decorative plastic panels wrapped around the metal portion of the 600T, it also has a different top metal panel than the 650D. The 650D top metal panel makes the case taller, has a different grill and also has the swap bay added.

It is time consuming to modify a case but, fortunately, I'm retired. The, however, are fairly basic with a bit of creativity. The only power tools actually needed are a drill and a Dremel tool. I do have a small, el cheapo bandsaw that came in handy but the little work I used it for (the fan braces and the little wood blocks) could have been done with hand tools if I wasn't so lazy. I'm making far faster progress than I had expected.

 

[paulpicks21]

It looks like you are putting a lot of care and attention into this Lady F and the results are very professional, very good work so far and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It looks like you are putting a lot of care and attention into this Lady F and the results are very professional, very good work so far and I look forward to seeing the finished product.

Thanks, Paul! I'll be posting some more pictures later today (they are still in the camera).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I finished shimming the HDD cages today. This is inside of a cage. The HDD trays slide on the flanges around the holes on the side (which is at the bottom in this picture). The trays have enough clearance they could rattle around in there.



This is what I used to shim the HDDs. It's a piece of 1/32" thick x 1" wide UHMW Slick Strip that is self adhesive on one side. Slick Strips are usually used to make drawers slide more easily.



Each cage needed six strips 132mm long cut into pieces as below. The bottom strip is to shim the side of the cage, the middle strip is to shim the flange, and the top strip is scrap. I had the Divil's own time measuring and cutting the strips but I did catch one break; the wide strip was the exact width of the little metal rule I was using.



The guide the HDD trays slide in on the left has had both strips installed. The guide in the center has just the strip on the flange installed.



This is what the cage looks like with all the strips installed.



After I took the picture, I blackened the strips with a felt pen. The strips took out the play up and down and sideways but there was still a little play in and out so I put some of the scraps on the back flanges to take out that play. There is absolutely no play now. The trays fit a bit snugly but a tiny bit of furniture polish on the strips fixed that.

Found some more leaks. I had already started plugging them up with bits of aluminum tape before I remembered to take a picture. The arrows point at the holes in the frames where the PCI covers go.



Here's another view after all the tape had been applied.



After putting the tape on, I used a paint pen to paint the tape to match the case.

Here, the HDD cages have been reinstalled...



...and this is the backside, for whatever that is worth.



Another problem. The little slots the ends of the PCI covers go into were too wide and the covers wouldn't stay snug against their frames so I put a piece of scrap foam down to snug that up. The foam will be covered by the MOBO.



I put in blank covers where there won't be any cards for now. I decided not to use the stock Corsair thumbscrews since they rub against the foam. I already have more than enough smaller ones so I used them instead (I also used them to secure the HDD cages). Except for the two holding in the third HDD cage, I have plenty of room to get at them with a screw driver should I ever need a bit more torque than my old fingers can supply.

 

[Britton30]

Great work Jeannie. This is a bit rough, but this is what the case should say.

 

[Stephanie]

Great work Jeannie. This is a bit rough, but this is what the case should say.

View attachment 318830

Agree .. Great work Jeannie a new Case is born

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Great work Jeannie. This is a bit rough, but this is what the case should say.

View attachment 318830

:roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao::roflmao:Thanks (choke gasp) Gary!

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Great work Jeannie. This is a bit rough, but this is what the case should say.

View attachment 318830

Agree .. Great work Jeannie a new Case is born

Thanks, Stephanie!

 

[Britton30]

Heh, heh, you're welcome.

 

[Golden]

Will it be finished soon?

 

[ZaLiTH]

Will it be finished soon?

I love the casual nature of the question... As though things like this were ever actually "finished".

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Will it be finished soon?

Not real soon. I have a few little niggling details to sort out over the next few days, such as swapping out the connector on the rear fan—I'll get it tomorrow—and installing it, installing the feet, the front cover, and deciding what color filter material to use on the front, bottom, and side filters, the worst being to make a shroud to cover the PSU and the cables coming out of it (the aluminum to make it from won't be in until Tuesday due to the holiday this weekend). Then I get to start work on making or modifying the PSU cables. My new PSU has some nice cables, except for the SATA power and 4 pin Moles cables, so I'll probably be able to use some, such as the 24 pin cable, as is. The PCI-e cables have two terminal connectors on each one so I'll have to label the wires and pull the pins on the one going to my GPU so I can do a sanitary job of snipping off the extra connector. If I ever upgrade GPU to one that needs two connectors, I'll either "liberate" a second cable of its extra connector or just go ahead and use one cable with both connectors. I will have to make new SATA power cables—the stock ones totally suck—and a new 4 pin Molex cable to feed my sound card. I'll tack on a 4 pin Molex connector onto the SATA power cable going to the ODD in case I ever decide to install the internal card reader I'm using now (it's a bit of a reach to get to right now and I have a USB 3.0 external reader I can put on my desk where it's easier to get to; I also want to free up the PCI-e socket the internal reader is using).

Still, I'm a huge amount farther along than I had originally thought I would be. I was expecting the entire job to take six months. I will stretch the job out a bit so our "monsoon" will have begun and humidity levels will be higher. Right now, the air is so dry (it has been as low a 4% and has averaged 10% or less recently), I can't walk two feet and touch ground without drawing a long, fat, blue spark (and I HATE that!!!) so I don't want to be handling any electronics until the air gets a wee bit moister.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Will it be finished soon?

I love the casual nature of the question... As though things like this were ever actually "finished".

LOL! Methinks by "finished", himself meant "up and running".

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, I just hit a snag (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). I had finished salvaging connector bodies from some cables I already had and was removing the extra connector on one of the new PSU's PCI-e cables when I slipped and broke my pin removal tool. After removing several dozen pins I break it. AUGH!. And right before a holiday weekend. I ordered a couple more but I won't see them before Tuesday (I was too cheap to spend $60 for overnight delivery).

 

[Britton30]

That's not being cheap, that's practical.
Is it a hollow metal tube? Maybe a metal ball point pen refill would work. Hardware store might have tiny metal tubing.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

That's not being cheap, that's practical.
Is it a hollow metal tube? Maybe a metal ball point pen refill would work. Hardware store might have tiny metal tubing.

You're thinking of a Molex pin extractor. THAT on would be a tough one to break. No, the one I broke was the one that has two flat little prongs on the end.

 

[Britton30]

Shows what (little) I know. They look like a small version of Molex.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

This is the set I have.

The top one is for removing ATX pins, such as the ones in PCI-e PSU cables or that plug into a PSU. That was the one I broke.

The next one is (I recently learned) for removing pins from hooded male fan connectors. It also can be used on female fan connectors but can remove only one pin at a time which can be a bit tedious.

The third on from the top is for removing female fan pins. It's the slickest one of the bunch since it can remove up to four pins at once.

The bottom one is for removing pins from four pin Molex connectors. The small end is used to remove male pins and the large end is for removing female pins.

 

[Britton30]

Good set. They look very MacGuyver-esque. I fiddles with fan and front panel connectors using a tiny sharp blade tip to release the terminal. I broke a fair amount of them though. :sarc:

 

[smarteyeball]

Edit: I saw somewhere that DEMCIfilter claims their filters restrict airflow 20%. I assume that's before they get dusty.

20% before dust sounds about right. The thing I loved the most about the filters though was how easy they were to clean. Remove, rinse, hang and they dried quick too.

I've installed many fans backwards myself. Better to find it now though.

That's why I always triple check the arrows on the fans before installation now.

I remember once back on my haf I spent some considerable time installing 4x1200m on the side panel, taping all the wires in a nice neat bundle and direction only to discover all four were on backwards... done it a few other times, but that one I remember well