Midnight Express (Lian Li PC-A70 Restoration/Mod)

[hannse12]

Midnight Express

or basically the story of how i saved a Lian Li case from its former abuse, and (hopefully) made it beautiful again.

 

 

 

Hallo und Gruesse von Deutschland!

 

i just recently got introduced to the series a couple of months back, and i was immediately hooked, Linus and the team do an amazing job, and the builds they showcase on the WAN show are incredible! major kudos to all the builders out there!

 

so i just recently moved back to my hometown in Germany to go to Uni, and since lugging my entire rig from America all the way over the europe was out of the question, i did the next best thing and packed all my parts inbetween my underwears and socks, and took them over in my luggage and carry on ! The problem was, where should i put all the parts!? Generally, computer parts seem to be more expensive in Germany than i'm used to (it still hurts whenever i see a post about a newegg or ncix deal, that i can no longer jump on    ), so i resorted to an old beige chieftec that my good friend was willing to give me, which worked alright, except it severly limited my cooling options. basically i was stuck with an leftover h55 to cool my already hot 8320 (i was lucky to keep the thing cool at stock clocks), and a warm/loud 7950. both of these were not ideal, but as a new student, in a new country, you take what you can get .

 

Recently. however, i began doing some honest research about what i could possible do to fix my issues, which basically sum up to:            1. bad temps, 2. loud noise, and 3. ugly case.                  After some looking around, i began to think that i might actually be able to accomplish something within my meager budget. Eventually i landed on the conclusion that i wanted to upgrade to a fully custom, internal water cooling setup, and i wanted a case worthy of the upgrades.

 

Which brings me to the Lian Li PC-A70..

For as long as i can remember, i have always admired Lian Li's cases. the pure aluminum chasis. the sleek lines. the spacious interiors, and none of the ZOMG LAZERS AND GAMERZ look that a lot of other cases nowadays have (I'm looking at you Haf 912 with sound activated cathodes, candy paint job, and a poorly executed window that i got off craigslist). But they're so expensive! there was no way i was going to afford one!

and then came the ebay listing of my life: A Lian Li PC-A70, used, abused, and partially broken. My kind of woman...errrr i mean, case. as the last minutes crept by, i kept hoping that nobody would see the beautiful body that stood infront of their screens. i hoped that everyone else just saw a case that had calcified water all over the inside, a broken front panel, and a poorly executed 360 rad cutout. Turns out, thats exactly what they saw . i gave in my last minute bid, almost exceeding my case budget, just because i wanted the friggin' thing so bad, but it turns out, it was unnecessary. as the listing closed, i could not believe my eyes. I had just scored a Lian Li full tower for 12 euros!!! 12 freaking euros!! i've spent more on a bottle of booze here than i did for my entire case!!! i was amazed, in shock, and jubulant that my dream pc might actually be ready before JJ Abram's star wars comes out!

After a bit more scavenging, i managed to snag a used watercooling setup for 65 euros. 360 rad, eheim pump/rad combo, a bunch of fittings, a couple cpu and NB blocks, the works.

and so the journey begins, one boy, full of hope (that may be the Becks Gold talking), and a dream to restore a great case to a reimagining of its former glory!
 

[hannse12]

okay, here are some pictures of the case its in now, the good ol' beige chieftec!
 

[hannse12]

reserved

[wng_kingsley7]

@hannse12 Welcome to the LTT Forums Can't wait till your done & finished with you mod. 

[hannse12]

thanks!

[hannse12]

anyone know if i could simply use this silver as a kill coil? a mayhems kill coils is way more expensive, and i've never seen anyone try this out before.