Hey everyone,

Well, thanks in no small part to the help of everyone from this forum I've finally finished building my new PC. This is the first time I've ever done it and I'm really pleased with it. I've changed cards, RAM etc before but never done anything with CPUs etc so it was a little scary at times! It's also my first shot at modding so any opinions good or bad are gratefully received. Here we go...

I started with a cheap Casecom case from ebuyer...

and then bought some replacement Casecom sides with windows in (you'll see them in a bit).

Some of you may remember that one of my questions was regarding painting the inside of the case. Given that I was going to have two side windows, and that one would face predominantly onto the back of the motherboard mounting plate, I thought spraying it black would look better than the standard rubbish silver...

I got some enamel spray paint from Homebase and set to work. That promptly ran out after one coat (I did put two coats of primer on too), so I went back. They'd run out so I got some standard matt spray paint by the same manufacturer. A couple of coats later all was well...

I also sprayed the plastic feet that went through the bottom of the case, along with the back of it too.

Next was to assemble the rest of the various bits...


As I mentioned earlier, I was quite scared of messing about with CPUs etc and this was definitely the bit that stressed me out most! The Zalman CPU cooler was actually a breeze to fit, with excellent instructions. It's exceedingly heavy but you can feel the quality of it. Definitely an excellent purchase. After that, I replaced the standard heatsink and fan on the Asus A8N Sli mobo with a Zalman heatsink...


Then I popped it into the case along with the rest of the bits and bobs like HDD, DVD-RW etc. There's a single 120mm case fan at the back and two 80mm ones at the front (right at the bottom). I also put the two 512Mb sticks of OCZ RAM with heat spreaders on. They look incredibly cool and I completely forgot to take any pictures of them! Anyway, initial setup looked like this...


I also asked about sourcing some mesh for sticking inside the boring side of the case. I got some from Homebase in the end, sprayed it silver (primed it first) and installed it into the boring side. I think it looks pretty good, as it adds some interest but still allows the blue LEDs to shine through it.


There followed some more messing about with bits and then the other side was fitted...


With the lights and everything on, it looks like this...

Which is OK but I wasn't blown away considering there's four LED fans in there and one UV light. I should point out that the little silver bit in the middle of the case side is silver not gold, but it's reflecting the pine case it's on.

Then I waited for it to go dark so I could see the real effect. First impressions were good...


Yes, I'm pleased...


Behind the door at the front is the DVD writer, card reader/floppy and system monitor (temperature, fan and volume)...


It's quite hard to describe how pleased I am with this, because the pictures don't really do it justice (particularly the UV light which reacts with the cables, slot protectors, molex connectors etc). But suffice to say I'm very happy.

And if anyone's curious the spec is:

Asus A8N Sli mobo
AMD Athlon 64 Venice 3000
1Gb OCZ C2.5 RAM
SATA Seagate Barracuda 80Gb NCQ
XFX 6600 256Mb passive cooling
Akasa 460W PSU with 120mm LED fan
Zalman CNPS7000B-CU CPU cooler with 92mm fan
Zalman NB47J north bridge cooler
60Gb PATA HDD that I can't remember the spec of
Pioneer DVD-RW DL drive
Hitachi combined USB2.0 card reader and floppy drive
Coolermaster Musketeer system monitor

It's currently running at CPU 35oC and mobo 40oC. These rise by about 1-2oC after half an hour of slogging away on Far Cry, which I'm quite happy with.

So thanks everybody, I'm a very happy bunny at the moment!

P.S. Sorry about the pics, they're from my phone

Nicely done haydnw! The case looks the nuts. I like the idea of painting the inside of the case as it adds a little something extra. Was this your first time building a PC? if so, how did you find it? oh and god bless homebase.

Well it looks like you've done yourself proud there... All looks nice and tidy inside and the paint i hope is heatproof or you'll be getting some peeling and blistering....Cabling looks neat and tidy...


Hope you have many hours of enjoyment from your build....Its a nice feeling knowing you done it all yourself isn't it ....

very nicely done by the way nice hardware specs as well

very well done... although i cant see any of your pictures

Nice one mate ... i built my mate a pc ... had some trouble first ... but all fixed now ... you don't know how happy i was when it was finally complete ! Such achievment !!! lol

Nice pics I might mod my case when getting new pc later this year :P hehe

Well done, may it serve you well !

Cheers everyone!


Yes, it was my first full build. It wasn't too bad, because I'd done most of it before with other systems. The only really new bits were fitting the processor and HSF, and fitting the motherboard and PSU into the case.


Paint is apparently good to 50oC so I reckon I should be able to get 55oC out of it. The ambient case temperate is rock steady at 40oC so I'm safe for a bit. I've yet to look into overclocking though.

The PSU came with the main parts already sheathed in black, but I took it upon myself to sheath everything else, right down to the fan cables and front USB port cables etc. I'm really glad I did now, because I think it looks really good.

And yes, it's a fantastic feeling when you first push the button and it doesn't explode for one thing! I've also just ordered another 1Gb of RAM and i'm looking at another gfx card (I promised myself I would wait but then Far Cry worked and I want it to look even nicer!). I've also just realised that the PATA drive in there only has 1.5Gb free on it, so I'll be swapping that out for a second bigger SATA one. That should tidy the cabling up a bit more too. Then I have to stop spending or my girlfriend will kill me!

that looks amazing, the mesh in the window works very well and painting the inside makes it look way better

haydnw, congrats on a quality build, just shows what you can do with a case using a little imagination.

I like the idea of spraying the interior black and the mesh looks good.

And that Zalman cooler is a goodie - fine temps and nice and quiet.

Well done

nice one!

i particulary liked the third picture down
the one with all your boxes of modding gear all laid down!
looks very nice tho, good lighting effects!!