Compact VR mini-ITX build

[porina]

8 hours ago, Heesleemer said:

pics?

When I'm not too lazy to take some  

[TheRandomness]

Oh it's the SG13 Should've gotten a 1070

[porina]

1 hour ago, TheRandomness said:

Oh it's the SG13 Should've gotten a 1070

It *was* a SG13, and it *does* have a 1070 in now. Earlier references to 980Ti were temporary.

[porina]

On 06/10/2016 at 11:59 PM, Heesleemer said:

pics?

 

Have a really rubbish picture with side panel off for now. I've given it a bit more thought and my plans to mod it are as follows:

1, change the ATX, EPS, and PCIe cables with red sleeved extensions

2, replace the front and rear fans with Corsair SP120 RGB. Move the existing unlit fans into the top.

3, replace the fan on the cooler... I don't think I can make that Noctua brown work.

4, get my old plasma tubes out and see if they fit somewhere.

5, do something about the green nvidia logo. I've read it is possible to sand off the green revealing white, which can then be painted over with another colour like red.

6, also redify the NZXT logo

 

Optional:

7, take a decent photo when done and post it somewhere with #betterred and see if any AMD fanboys like it

8, get two red SSDs just to make those slots look like they're doing something. I'd need red SATA cables to go with it... or do I? They wont really be visible and I can make do with black.

 

Not doing:

The Avexir Red Tesla ram would look sweet, but not at the price they go for at roughly double ordinary ram of the same speed. 

 

[Heesleemer]

I like the cooler... I have the other 92mm version... I may just get another one just for that and take the few degrees performance hit. 

as for the fan color... i mean you could just paint the edges????
 

[porina]

5 hours ago, Heesleemer said:

as for the fan color... i mean you could just paint the edges????

I've ordered two other black 92mm fans to try. Probably wont be as good as a Noctua but just need it to be good enough, and can try using two fans. I couldn't find red LED fans in that size.

 

I found my old plasma tube. It is rather big so not sure yet if it will actually fit anywhere nice in this case. I also found two short cold cathodes I could do something with.

[porina]

WIP shot.

 

Got some bits and fitted them tonight. Added are the three SP120 RGB fans, here set to red to match the rest of the case. I'm debating fitting some Silverstone fan guards over them. This is only because the lower front fan, is in an area where it may get caught with stored cables which may shift when moving the case. I have these left over from a previous mod attempt where they didn't fit. Some time I also need to figure out how the case fan controller works as I could do with dropping the speeds a little.

 

The old case fans I've moved to the top. They're not connected at the moment and I'll work out later if they need to be used. I'm also debating getting more of the LED fans if 5 isn't excessive. Could replace the front ones with 140mm, leave the 120's top and rear.

 

I replaced the single Noctua fan with two Arctic Cooling ones to see if that helps. A quick stress test says no, but the grey of the new fans looks better than the brown of the Noctua. I might go back to a single fan. The 2nd fan covers the ram slots, so just as well I didn't go for the expensive plasma ram.

 

I also fitted the red sleeved cable extensions which look much better. I need to work on the positioning in the back area to straighten them up a bit.

 

I've put a 1TB HD in the upper 2.5" holder. Debating if it would look better in the upper or lower space. I'm even debating fitting a dummy HD in the unused slot just to make it look better, or a live 750GB 2nd drive but I'm not sure I'll ever need that much space in this pure gaming/VR rig.

 

I think I can put the plasma tube on top of the bottom box, but not done this yet. Hope double sided tape will suffice for that.

 

Later on, I still need to make the GPU and case lights red too. The power light could also be modded. This could be a red colour filter since the slit is on the case front, and the white LEDs are on the case.

[porina]

I've added a red filter to the NZXT logo so that is now red. Similarly for the power/HD light on top of the case not shown.

 

The plasma tube I'm not sure about keeping now. Here it is pictured at the only space inside the main body. It would look better if it were not for the long plastic parts on each end. I also tried putting it in the lid, but similarly the short length looks a bit too short. I'm now thinking instead of getting dual 140 LED fans on the front, and move the existing 120s to the top for top illumination.

 

Nearly forgot to say... I fixed the power switch. To recap, I found if I put any pressure on the top of the case at all, it registers as a push on the power button. On closer inspection, the length of the plastic bit pushing the button was slightly too long. By shaving a bit off with a knife, it is now loose enough that pressere on the lid is no longer transmitted to the switch.