My effort at a modded system build (pics ~1.4Mb total)

[haydnw]

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

 

[tek]

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.

 

[crazylegs]

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 ....

 

[scriptghost]

very nicely done by the way nice hardware specs as well

 

[G~MAN]

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

 

[Belloni]

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 hehe

Well done, may it serve you well !

 

[haydnw]

Cheers everyone!

Was this your first time building a PC? if so, how did you find it?

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.

the paint i hope is heatproof or you'll be getting some peeling and blistering....Cabling looks neat and tidy...

Its a nice feeling knowing you done it all yourself isn't it ....

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!

 

[Me__2001]

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

 

[floppybootstomp]

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

 

[psd99]

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!!

 

[haydnw]

Thanks everyone, just thought I'd let you know that I'm apart to pull it apart and start messing with it!

I realised last night that when it's dark I have no way of seeing where to insert floppy disks and CF cards etc into the dark slots in the black combined USB card reader / floppy drive. So I intend to stick a small cathode or LEDs or something in the back of the reader in a manner which lights up the slots at the front.

I also want to get rid of that horrible old PATA drive which is messing up my cables and put in another nice SATA drive. After that, what's next is anybody's guess.....

 

[G~MAN]

graphics card i expect hehe

 

[itsme]

Brilliant job well done!

 

[Carr]

Quality

How hard is it to do something liek this for the first time as I was looking into it, but then thought best not as I've never done one before and don't know loads and loads about computers.
Most I've ever done was put a Firewire PCI card in the back of my pc

 

[G~MAN]

is it hard to make the case as well as you did?? did you have to spray it silver aswell ?? good job! the neon in the middle... is that standard with that case ??

 

[haydnw]

Hey guys,

This wasn't terribly difficult as I'd had experience of fitting most of the bits into other machines before. The only really new bit was screwing the motherboard in and fitting the CPU and it's heatsink / fan.

I didn't spray the sides silver, they came in the colour. The top of the main case was also already black, I just stripped it right down to the bare chassis (removed sides, top, plastic front, feet, wiring) and sprayed that all over.

There's one UV light stuck to the top of the case, next to the side and then LED fans in the front (2 x 80mm), at the back (1 x 120mm) and in the PSU (1 x 120mm). They're the only ones in there, although I'm looking to get some blue LEDs to backlight the floppy & memory card slots at the front. The cables are UV reactive though, which might give the impression of more light.

h

 

[G~MAN]

sooo the neon in the middle is standard... im think of doing something like that for my new computer

how is the black inside going ? any bubbles or anything?

 

[ChristopherP]

isn't that case like £4.99 aswelll?

 

[G~MAN]

indeed it is :shocked:

a very good case for the price

 

[Raje]

Paint the face plate with glow in the dark paint.

Well I have to say Ive read it all and the case sounds amazing, though I didn't see any pics, but feel free to email me some (e-mail address removed)


I remember you asking about painting the inside, glad it worked well for you. Ad far as not being able to see your card reader and floppy at night, I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. Leds are kind of a pain to install, especially in a tight space like your talking about. For me I went low tech.... do the card reader adn floppy disk have removable face plates, mine did..... I removed them and painted them with some glow in the dark paint I got at local party shop. The paint charges in the day with any kind of light and glows pretty well in the dark. Stay away from the glow in the dark paint with colors.... they tend to suck, I had sheathed my old power supply with some clear tubing and decided to paint it this awsome neon orange that glowed.... big mistake, never did get every single flake off my MB.

But the clear/white glow in the dark works really really well and is almost invisible in the daytime any way; as a matter of fact, I'm going to paint my keyboard tonight with it.