Show Us Your Rig [4]

[tgreen001]

Hey guys, I saw this on gizmodo so i thought I would post it...

What do you think?

Not soon enough for me to have an opinion yet....

Troy.

 

[GeneO]

fan needs painted another color

 

[essenbe]

fan needs painted another color

It looks like a Noctua.

 

[moneybagman]

That color scheme reminds me of Tony the Tiger xD

 

[tgreen001]

If Caltrans made computers, LOL.

 

[d4ph0d]

the psu at the front needs to be painted as the theme of this box.
otherwise this case is ok in my opinion. i like the fact that the whole case is see through. but all this bars around it make it look like it could withstand a car crash.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Kind of looks like a portable generator.

 

[d4ph0d]

Kind of looks like a portable generator.

+1 on that .

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

First Build

I finally finished modding the case for my first computer build. I chose the Antec Two Hundred V2 for its size (I don't have much room), HDD capacity (six), the 2.5" hot swap bay (I added a 3.5" bay), air filtration, and the relative ease of sealing up most of the air leaks to reduce dust collection (my neck of AZ is seriously dusty). This is what it looked like before I went after it:

The covered slot below the three 5.25" bays is the 2.5" hot swap bay.

This shot shows the filter in the front panel.

The plastic panel that is swung out below is for mounting two 120mm fans.

I don't know how many pictures I can put in a post so I'm going to start a new one.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

First Build, Part Two

These are shots of the case after I worked on it. I worked on top of my washing machine because it's much easier on my old back.

Not much change here. I got an el cheapo DVD drive (on sale, of course) to help with making the PSU cables. I'll use the drive to install Win 7, then replace with a BD drive once the rig is up and running.

This is the back side (duh). In the past, I used a product called Sand Ban to degrease and degloss paint before painting. I couldn't find it so I used another product that made the same claims. The *&^%$#@!s lied . The paint chips pretty easily in places but, since little of it shows (and it's been too cold to repaint), I'll just touch up the chips when they happen with a felt pen.

Here is what the case looks like with the right side panel removed. I added a large grommet to cover the big hole by the PSU, cut holes for the four smaller grommets near the bottom, and used two of the smaller grommets and a filler to cover the slot near the top. The front panel wiring runs inside the large, flat sleeve running down the middle. I haven't pulled some of the cables out and through the grommets yet but there is enough slack to do so once the MOBO in place. You can see a glimpse of the sound deadening foam added to the side panels (it's also on the top and back).

The next two shots show how the two large PSU cables (one home-brewed) are anchored in the so called cable management area (Antec's term).

This shot shows both the sound deadening foam on the left side panel and the fan there. there are four fans altogether: two in front blowing air in over the HDDs, one on the left panel pulling air in through a filter, and one exhaust fan on the back (I used a filter housing to block the blowhole; I can always add a fan there later if I should ever need it). The fans are ThermalTake AF0018s with an attached speed control pot. Besides having their own speed controllers, these fans are quieter than the two 2 speed Antec fans that came with the case.

Part Three coming up shortly.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

First Build, Part Three

This shot is of the speed control pot for the left side panel fan. I had to make a bracket to hold it in. You can see a bit of the pot for the exhaust fan.

The next two shots show the hub that feeds the fans. The bottom connector feeds the two front fans (I had to sneak the cable under the PSU to a Y splitter and, from there, to the fans), the center one feeds the side fan, and the top one, the exhaust fan. I prefer to have the case fans running at a constant feed since a constant sound level is easier to ignore than one that keeps changing. The fans are quiet enough, noise shouldn't be an issue anyway. I probably won't use the filter on top of the PSU; it's there for now mostly to keep small parts from falling in (been there, done that, didn't even get a tee shirt).

This photo shows where I "snuck" the front fans cable under the MOBO plate and PSU. I had to take the connector off to pull it off. Whatever works.

Below is shot of the PSU and the cables connected to it. Yes, it's upside down. There isn't enough room underneath for it to get enough air and the convoluted botom made opening it up for air and adding a filter impractical. The two cables running across the top of the PSU lead to a pair of USB 2.0 connectors and will connect to a header on the MOBO. The CPU power and 24 pin cables coming out of the PSU had sleeves that were essentially transparent so I used wrap around sleeves on them. The other PSU cables are homemade. One leads to the fan hub. Three are combined into one to make routing easier, then splits back off near their destination. Each of the hot swap bays have their own feed from the PSU (I read in a review that if they didn't have their own feeds, it could cause the other HDDs to momentarily stop when a HDD is inserted in the bay). The third feed goes to the optical drive and has a cable splitting off to a four pin Molex connector to possibly feed a card reader/USB 3.0 hub. You can also see part of the cable supplying power to the SSD and HDDs (the SSD mounts on the floor of the case). That cable was challenging because I used #14 wire to avoid as much voltage drop as possible. I had to strip the wire where the connectors went in order to get them to fit without breaking. Fun.

This shot shows more of the SATA power cable and the cables leading to the shotswap bays and optical drive. I cut a new hole for the front panel cables to go through since the two places provided left them coming up a bit short and/or looked like heck. Now, I have enough length for all of them except the audio connector (I fixed that with an extension). Once the front panel cables are connected to the MOBO, I'll cover the exposed cables at the top of the case with a wrap sleeve. Those white things on the floor of the case are the silicone mounts for the SSD.

This is a closer shot of the cables going to the hot swap bays and the optical drive. The empty space is where I'll be putting a card reader later on (the one at the top of my list will need that four pin Molex connector floating in there right now). The only SATA data installed right now is for the 2.5" swap bay and I wanted to install it before putting in the 3.5" bay while it was easier to get at.

Part Four coming up soon.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

First Build, Part Four

This shot shows the optical drive, the added 3.5" hot swap bay, the opening for the built in 2.5" hot swap bay, and the front fans.

This is a close up of the speed control pots for the front two fans. I had to fabricate the mounting bracket.

This shot shows the fan cover opened up. I had to cut away a cross bar to make room for the wiring for the speed control pot wiring (see Part One to see the cross bar).

The next two shots are through the front of the case where the fans mount. They give another view of the PSU cables.

I'll be back later with a list of the goodies going into the case.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

Lady Fitzgerald,
Excellent work in every facet. I especially like the great care in all the wire routing with attention to the cable twist and placing just the right kinks in it to make it look so clean. You can tell when someone has the upgrade bug and my dear you've been bitten by the system modifying bug.

 

[Bungee18]

Lady Fitzgerald,
That's some serious, clean, wiring. It looks amazing!
Keep the pics coming. We want to see the finished product.
Cheers,
J

 

[Solarstarshines]

Lady Fitzgerald I have that same Lg drive you have it is cheap and really effective it burns my media like no other

 

[Bungee18]

I have the same LG drive too. It is great.

@Solar,
I followed your advice and got an 8320. They were fresh out of 8350s.
I also got an H100i, a second 7850 and the new mobo arrived, so it's a full rebuild.
Still waiting for the SSD I RMA'ed some ten days ago.
Will post pics when I'm done.

I killed my 8120 when removing the DeepCool heatsink. The mounting bracket had so much pressure on it that when I undid the one sided fastener the whole thing sprang free, bending a whole lot of pins, before giving me time to twist it lose, .
It wasn't a great thing anyway, but I could have used it for a back up rig.
Luckily no pins stayed lodged in the socket, so I can still use the mobo.

 

[DocBrown]

I bought two of the LG SuperMulti DVD drives in Dec at Fry's electronics in Phoenix for $ 14.99 each ON SALE

Working great in the two latest rigs I build

 

[Solarstarshines]

I have the same LG drive too. It is great.

@Solar,
I followed your advice and got an 8320. They were fresh out of 8350s.
I also got an H100i, a second 7850 and the new mobo arrived, so it's a full rebuild.
Still waiting for the SSD I RMA'ed some ten days ago.
Will post pics when I'm done.

I killed my 8120 when removing the DeepCool heatsink. The mounting bracket had so much pressure on it that when I undid the one sided fastener the whole thing sprang free, bending a whole lot of pins, before giving me time to twist it lose, .
It wasn't a great thing anyway, but I could have used it for a back up rig.
Luckily no pins stayed lodged in the socket, so I can still use the mobo.

Sorry to hear that Bungee you will be ok with the 8320 it will clock with in a a few Mhz between the two
you will see a big jump in all aspects but don't expect your ram MB cycle to increase you will still be held to about 19 to 20,000 mb

@Doc Brown i think I paid a dollar more for mine back in the summer months 15.99 but when you look at who made it I think they could put a car together and make it work well that is how much trust i have in LG which im not normaly loyal to a particular type of brand but a deal is a deal in my book

 

[Alsisgevat]

Lady Fitzgerald, looks very good. Eagerly awaiting the rest of the pics.

 

[Dave76]

Nice work Lady Fitzgerald, looks great.
Waiting to see the finished pics.