Personal rig modded on the cheap

[Andrew48]

exactly what i did but just remember to prime it or else it is so easy to scratch, i love cheap mods

what do you mean "prime it"? paint noob here

[<boss2939>]

what do you mean "prime it"? paint noob here

you have to spray a layer of prime before actually painting it or it will easily be scratched or the paint wont look that good this is mostly used on bare medal,  here are some links:

http://www.amazon.com/Rust-Oleum-7582838-Professional-Primer-15-Ounce/dp/B00106IZLO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1388522396&sr=8-2&keywords=primer+paint Primer with good reviews and decent brand.\

BTW this primer works best with enamel paint

[Andrew48]

So I paint with the primer first, then when its dry I paint with the actual color of my choice. Can I use regular spray paint after the primer coat?

[Andrew48]

An UPADTE!

 

Soldered a wire between the broken pins and now it works!

Hot glue!!

 

This will control the led brightness using the arduino.

 

As I will be replacing the front panel with mesh, I decided to also add my ghetto card reader there. De-soldered the original usb cable and soldered an internal usb 2.0 cable. This card reader also served as a 4 usb port hub. I am goint to solder a mini usb cable there to go to the arduino. Still waiting for the other components for the fan controller to arrive.

 

Also I started re-designing the PSU cover as the ssd will be mounted in a different place and there will be no bottom mounted fan this time.

 

 

Cable management at the moment with random fan cables here and there including the usb2.0 cable to see if it is long enough   I also hate the usb 3.0 cable  :angry:

[Akolyte]

Thanks! I hope it will  

 

Yep I saw the enermax heatsink and it costed like 20 euros more than the hyper 212 and in benchmarks it has similar performance to the evo so I went with the evo I will not paint the whole heatsink just the top fin. here are some examples of what others have done

 

http://assets.overclock.net.s3.amazonaws.com/3/32/328b168b_vbattach219588.jpeg (vinyl  wrap of the top fin)

http://www.dodaj.rs/f/1a/LT/2zFpV4FL/1/img3203.jpg (whole heatink and apparently no performance decrease )

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/826/8a04.jpg/ (top fin)

 

The LED strip works now! solder can fix everything

 

Bitfenix spectre pros are on their way! I ordered the black ones because they where a lot cheaper than the blue ones. Ordered 3 and I will start modding the front panel to add mesh with a d.i.y. filter. 

 

Also today I bought a Raspberry Pi and finally  tried some mechanical keyboards. The one with the  MX blues switches felt soooooooo good!! To bad they are very expensive

you should check out the standard razer blackwidow.  I was able to pick one up for $50 USD brand new.  great bargin.  Maybe you'll find one if you search like Indiana Jones.

[Andrew48]

you should check out the standard razer blackwidow.  I was able to pick one up for $50 USD brand new.  great bargin.  Maybe you'll find one if you search like Indiana Jones.

50$? New!? Where????  :huh:  :huh:  I want a mechanical keyboard so bad right now In my country the cheapest one start at around 90€ which is too expensive for me! My current one is a logitech K360 wireless keyboard and to be honest I hate it.. I can only find cheap ones on ebay but I dont trust ebay that much. Banggood has some like this one but still not sure if I should spend that much money one a keyboard 

http://www.banggood.com/Flashget-G600-Wired-Mechanical-Keyboard-Cherry-MX-Red-Switch-p-79412.html

[Andrew48]

I started working on the front panel mod today. Becouse I want to install 3 120mm fans in the front, I had to do something about the awful already intake  airflow on this case. The front fans get air from the sides. I noticed that the holes cant provide enough air when I installed 2 fans. So I removed the pre-installed filters  to allow for more airflow but still it was no enough. So what I am thinking of doing is to cut the front panel and install some mesh with a filter. Here is the portion of the front panel that I will be replacing with black mesh

 

3 temporary front fans, old PSU cover and the card reader!

 

[mythicalbeast]

damn, that actually look like it could be a great idea!

[EMPthePanda]

Too sexy, keep up the good work!

[Andrew48]

Too sexy, keep up the good work!

 

Thank you!

damn, that actually look like it could be a great idea!

Lets hope it will  

[Andrew48]

Finally my fans arrived! they look sexy and they came with free Haribo! yay!
Front panel cutout done! now I need to find some mesh and figure out how to mount the third fan on the drive bay.

[TheLordofMoisture]

You can buy one of those 5.25'' adapters for a 120mm fan.

 

Here's a pic of a Lian Li one:

[the pokemon kid]

You can buy one of those 5.25'' adapters for a 120mm fan.

 

Here's a pic of a Lian Li one:

BZ-502B-B.jpg

By the look of it, it looks like you can take the front plate off. Which would be awesome!

[Akolyte]

Finally my fans arrived! they look sexy and they came with free Haribo! yay!

Front panel cutout done! now I need to find some mesh and figure out how to mount the third fan on the drive bay.

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. That is gorgeous!!!

[Andrew48]

You can buy one of those 5.25'' adapters for a 120mm fan.

 

Here's a pic of a Lian Li one:

BZ-502B-B.jpg

By the look of it, it looks like you can take the front plate off. Which would be awesome!

I will use my own mesh with a filter to cover the whole front.  Also I cant find them where I live

 

. That is gorgeous!!!

Thank you! photos are blurry but I will take some better ones soon.

Also the resistors for the fan controller arrived! I ordered more than I needed just to be safe (0.01€ each)

Did some close ups just for fun

 

[Lord Pantaloons]

awesome

[Rabi]

This is really cool! great mods too!

[Andrew48]

awesome

thank you fellow Clarkson!

 

This is really cool! great mods too!

Thank you very much!

Also I would like to ask for ideas on how to mount the third intake fan. I will most probably go for the 5,25" bays but I don't know how to mount it.

I am also thinking about the fan controller setting I will be using

Here's what I come up with

At idle the 2 top fans will be off and the back exhaust on will be running really slow(5-6volt). on the front, only 2 of the fans will be working at minimum speed(5volt).

When it gets a little hot, It will just rump up the front fans (all 3 of them) at low setting(maybe 6-7 volt), top fans will be off and rear fan at medium(6-8volt).

Under load, the front fans will be running at medium(7-9volt), rear fan at medium(7-9volt) and top fans will be running at low(6-7volt).

And if things get really hot (like in summer) the front fans will be running at medium-high(8-10volt), top fans at low(6-8volt) and rear at medium(8-10volt)

All of this will be controlled based on temperature from 3 sensors which will be installed on 1) VRM heasink 2) cpu heatsink 3) gpu heatsink (will probably add another one to monitor intake temperature)

I know it might seem pointless to built my own fan controller when I can just buy one. The main reasons are that this computer is at my bedroom and its most of the time on doing things on the background. So a super quiet system is a priority for me(at least at idle or at light load). As I will be running my own server on it, I dont want to turn it off when I am going to sleep. The other reason is because I freaking love doing these small electronic projects. 

[Andrew48]

UPDATE!
Front panel mod done!
That is the only type of mesh I could find this big. I wanted something with smaller holes but this worked good 
The first on was a little bigger and because this is some thick mesh, I did a new one instead of fixing the first one

[Dark_Nemesis]

Nice! and thanks for the info! And sadly theres not much I, as a total noob can do to mod my PC without voiding the warranty.  However I might buy a quite-kit thingy to stop vibration.  I also think I'll remove my hard drive cage.  Pretty boring :'(  Sometimes I feel like just getting a stencil and some spray paint and putting a nice red bear claw on the side pannel, and highlighting all the front lines in red.  While also cutting some foam, and putting it on the side pannel (the inside) to keep noise down. But those will void my warrenty. I also wanted to put my power supply in the optical drive part.

Just so I understand this correctly, do you have a OEM system, or have you built it yourself? Because if you bought the components separately, then all the warranty you can void by modding your case, is the warranty of the case itself. ( providing of course that you dont get paint or metal grinds in any other component while modding  )

[Andrew48]

Just so I understand this correctly, do you have a OEM system, or have you built it yourself? Because if you bought the components separately, then all the warranty you can void by modding your case, is the warranty of the case itself. ( providing of course that you dont get paint or metal grinds in any other component while modding  )

sorry wrong reply 

Edited January 30, 2014 by Andrew48

[Dark_Nemesis]

Cool project man!

Wish cases would come with that front mesh straight from the factory! Big fan of the whole "industrial" look   

 

Just a tought regarding the fan controller, did I understand it correcty that you went for voltage control and not PWM? 

Have done a fair bit of tinkering with fans and noticed that, some fans, typically low power ones, can have some problems starting undervolted, I assume beacuse low power fans have a lower starting torq (not sure if this is the correct english term,sry) which means lower current through the coil on startup, this resulting in the fans jerking once on startup, but not spinning up. You may have tought of this already, but I tought I'd give you a heads up just in case. 

[Andrew48]

Cool project man!

Wish cases would come with that front mesh straight from the factory! Big fan of the whole "industrial" look   

 

Just a tought regarding the fan controller, did I understand it correcty that you went for voltage control and not PWM? 

Have done a fair bit of tinkering with fans and noticed that, some fans, typically low power ones, can have some problems starting undervolted, I assume beacuse low power fans have a lower starting torq (not sure if this is the correct english term,sry) which means lower current through the coil on startup, this resulting in the fans jerking once on startup, but not spinning up. You may have tought of this already, but I tought I'd give you a heads up just in case. 

Thank you very much!

Yes I am using variable voltage to control the fans.

I haven't thought about that but I think it could be easily solved buy giving the fans more voltage to startup and then slow them down quickly. So for example if the fan worked at 5volts after undervolting it  but can't start spinning when i give it 5volt from the startup, then I can give it like 6 or 7v and by the time it starts spinning it will slow down to 5volt. The arduino will be able to monitor the RPM of the fans so it can all be done in program.

I am still waiting for the voltage regulators to arrive ( probably this weekend) to start testing. 

[Lord Pantaloons]

good stuff

[flibberdipper]

Did you get the 3 or 4 pin Spectre Pros? And what do you think of them?

 

And nice mods.