I've been asked by a number of people in these forums to post my build in these log threads. I guess I didn't post it in the right section in the beginning so many of you have seen this already in another section. I have added some photos to try to give more detail on how this mod went down. Here goes,
I started water cooling about a year ago and realized I was actually able to unlock more performance from my PC by doing this. But I kind of got a fever or addiction you might say because it didn't stop at just adding pumps, hoses, and liquid to my case. I watched a lot of Youtube and I particularly like Singularity Computers builds. I also like the build he did in the Silverstone TJ11 with dual pumps and the graphics cards positioned vertically. I looked around the web for a long time trying to find a case other than Silverstone's that had the graphics cards positioned like that but there aren't any. So when I found Caselabs I knew I wanted to mod one of these cases. From the info I collected off the internet I was able to make a drawing scale 1:1 to see if and how my components would fit and also radiator size and placement.
Once I knew I had a chance of making this work I dropped the bomb and placed the order for a Merlin SM8. It took about a week and a half but it arrived fully assembled. I pulled it out of the box and immediately started taking it apart. Once I got the mid panel out I was able to determine my plan better as to how I was going to make the new mid panel mount in it's place. I went to Home Depot and I bought some 3/8" aluminum angle stock and some 1". I bought a few boxes of 6-32 screws because this is what Caselabs holes are all tapped at. I wanted to keep all the screws the same thread size just like Caselabs did. I bought a countersink bit for my drill. Next I went to a local metal supply warehouse and bought a sheet of .093 6061 grade aluminum. Then I took all this to the shop where I work so I would have a place to do the work.
So I got to work installing the framework for the new panel.
I used the existing mid panel holes made by Caselabs to mount my angles to. Then it was time to cut the new panel to fit perfectly. Next I was left with what to do with the back panel of the case where the motherboard tray originally slid in. That was easy. Put some fans there. So I went to Home Depot to get an aluminum sheet to make a panel for this but all they had was steel. So steel it was. I got a gage thick enough to be strong because I could only make four holes for the mounting bolts.
I originally painted this back panel flat black but I realized it look terrible so I made another trip to Home Depot to look for paint. I found one. This paint matched the powdercoat finish from Caselabs perfectly. Look at the pic of the back section. I only painted the new cover panel.
So next I had to cut the top rails where Caselabs as the frame for their drop in panels. I had to make the opening big enough for the motherboard tray to slide in and out without hitting the rails. Once dropped in the tray would sit on the 1" angle and support it.
I put the new mid panel back in and I removed the motherboard tray slides from the original mid panel and installed the slides perfectly on the new mid panel.
Mid panel removed again I started ctting the holes for the cables to pass through. This was a little harder because I had to drill big holes and then across them to make them elongated which turned out quite sloppy but after a day of filing I got them cleaned up nicely. and I then started to apply the DINOC carbon look vinyl.
So here is what the new panel looks like installed
I did some touch up painting and cut the screws to a flush custom length and any other details I found that needed attention. Next was time to make a support panel for the PSU. This took a day because it was a lot of work for one thing and I screwed up the first panel I made. It took a lot of filing and then painting and drilling holes precisely where they needed to be. I was glad to get it done but again it worked out perfectly
So now I was at a point where I could start installing components. I started at the bottom with the radiators. I was going for attacking them so I had to make brackets to accomplish this.
I had to cut the cover plate for the front I/O hole so that it would fit in the narrow space.
So a lot of the work that didn't get photographed was just installing parts and getting my loop runs to work out. I started this build as a single loop setup. Money was the reason. I kept ordering fittings as the weeks went on and staring at the build coming up with ideas. Caselabs has come out with a whole bunch of neat fan covers and vented covers so I placed a couple of orders there too. They were great to deal with. Caselabs customer service is the best. One idea I had was to make a custom junction block for all the LED lighting. I sent Molex an email and they sent me free samples of their terminals and I went to Radio Shack to acquire a PC board to made this custom junction.
At this point I still didn't know what I wanted to do with the door panel. Window? No. I had one in the last build with the Corsair 650D case and it didn't do anything for me. I had this idea
At this point I'd like to just post the rest of the build completed
Unfortunately I had a few more better pictures and one of my complete setup but the file size was to big. They were taken with a different camera. So I hope you enjoy what I've posted and thank you to all of those people who gave me compliments in the other thread section.
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