Caselabs SM8 Heavily modded

[Wasupwitdat1]

When I say heavily I mean this thing must weigh about 90 lbs. I't a strain on the nutsack to lift so it's on casters. I started this mod because I was interested with the graphics card orientation with the TJ11 from Silverstone only I didn't want a Silverstone case. I went with Caselabs because they are American, Yea! Not really. They offer great modding possibilities and good customer service. CS being important because you don't get that from a lot of the foreign importers. Anyway, I did my research before I actually made the purchase because I wanted to be sure this was going to work. From the information I gathered I was able to draw this out on paper

 

The design was originally intended with a single cooling loop so there was changes along the way to completion. It was a simple mod to do. I gathered some 3/8" aluminum angle stock and some 1" aluminum angle from Home depot. Some 6-32 screws and a countersinking drill bit. I removed the Caselabs mid panel and installed the angle stock in it's place noting attention to the new mid panel's correct location and I was able to use the existing holes used for the original mid panel.

 

I acquired a sheet of .093 aluminum from a local metal supply house.

 

I just had to drill and tap holes to mount the new mid panel into the angle sections. Now I am left with this big hole in the back panel where the removable mother board tray use to go. My solution was to go to Home Depot and get a piece of aluminum but they didn't have what I needed so I got a piece of steel instead. Anyway I made a blanking plate that would house two fans.

 

Now I had to locate where I wanted the mother board tray to slide into the case.

 

I installed the new mid panel and I removed the slide rails from the original mid panel to mount them onto my new mid panel

 

So, it's starting to look like a computer case again but I needed to cut out the top two rails to allow the tray to slide in and out easy without hitting into the rails.

 

I originally used some black paint to paint the bare parts but it ended up looking like crap. So I went to Home Depot again and found some paint that matched perfectly to the powdercoat finish from Caselabs

 

Next I cut the cable through holes in the mid panel. It took a bit of filling to clean them up because I don't have a machine shop to make it perfect the first cut. But I got there and it loked really nice.

 

Also you can see I started adding the DINOC carbon fibre vinyl covering

 

So here is what it looks like at this point which only took about five days

 

Now I needed to make the power supply mount and panel and a top front blanking plate.

 

Next I had to cut the cover plate for the front I/O opening

 

So that was pretty much it. Now I have a case that's ready to start installing components. I started with the radiators. I had to make brackets for this because I wanted to mount them stacked.

 

I'm not going to show bit by bit the installation of all the components. but I will at this time show the door mod I did. I was shooting for something that looked like this

 

I drew this out on the panel and made my cuts with a rotary tool. Cut the plexi and mounted a lighted fan and Bloehole from MNPC

 

Now, here is my finished work in all the glory. Enjoy the picture show

 

Well I hope you all enjoyed this. I know I had a great time building it the last few months. Now I have to find something else to do like get my butt back on my bicycle. This kept me occupied while I was recovering from a surgery to my hand. Cheers!

 

 

 

 

[Samdb]

That is the most attractive interior I've ever seen.

[Denned]

That looks awesome :blink:

[Emperor_Piehead]

It looks great. 

[ProGearUk]

This is so epic well done man that is a very awesome pc you have there. Just to ask what are the specs of this fancy pc that you have.

[MrSuperb]

First I thought 'meh' ...

 

... then I saw the finished interior ... 'HOLY F*CK, this looks amazing!'

 

 

> BOTW material

[Wasupwitdat1]

Sorry, I left out the spec didn't I.

 

ASUS Sabretooth X-58 motherboard

CPU Intel 970 i7 @ 4.2 GHz stable as Hell

OCZ Agility 3 SSD

Mushkin Blackline 6GB MEM running @ 1600 1.5v (removed the OEM heat speaders and installed the EK kit

Corsair AX860 PSU

EVGA GTX680 SLI GPU's

 

These components were used in a Corsair 650D case before but even water cooled I couldn't get better than 3.8GHz out of the CPU. But I am amazed that I reached 4.2GHz and it's playing BF3 without any issues.

[AraSarkisyan]

That is the most attractive interior I've ever seen.

 

That is the most attractive interior I've ever seen.

check out Monster PC

[AraSarkisyan]

[Wasupwitdat1]

OMG!!!!

 

That's nasty.

[BiomedMike]

Yeah that is premo work.

[CoolBeans]

That is so awesome!

[Vayran]

This makes me so motivated to try and mod my case myself. Quite likely the best case I've seen, excellent work sir.

[Liam-McShane]

Wow. Just Wow. Top work  :D

[JanusBananus]

That looks really awesome!

[Giancarlo124]

That is awesome.

[Nickadeamus]

Looks Great

[whatthe_fuzz]

so uh...I can haz? :D

no really this is amazing. BEAUTIFUL

where did you get the metal piping for the watercooling

[Wasupwitdat1]

First let me start by saying Thank you to all of you who took the time to reply and say you liked my build.

 

The easiest part was the case mod and the hardest part was getting all the runs in my loops worked out with all those Bitspower fittings. I probably have a couple hundred dollars worth of fittings left over. I never got not one leak from the Bitspower fittings even after making 4 or 5 changes to the loops. The only leaks I encountered was from two new Swiftech rotary 90* fittings I bought because I couldn't get 90* Bitspower at the time I needed them. Anyway, I'm still working at this thing a bit getting a little better cable management, shortening cables, and changing some LEDs that for some reason have a different tint to them. I've owned several computers and built them all myself mainly using Silverstone cases and one Corsair Obsidian 650D and I must say there is nothing like a Caselabs. These cases are the best and even though it seemed expensive at the time it doesn't hurt a bit now that I've spent the money and got my case done. I like the performance I'm getting from the components and won't be upgrading for a while and when I do get a new motherboard and CPU it will drop right in to the existing case very easily. And that about wraps it up unless anyone has questions and I do have a lot more pictures I can add to hopefully answer specific questions. Here are the screenshots of the performance

 

 

Again thank you for your kind replies.

[CJPowell27]

Put this in build logs! I have a feeling it would be featured if you did!

[Monty007]

Amazing work! My favs are the evga logo you did and the water cooling setup. How are the temps with the rads like that?

[Wasupwitdat1]

I'm pleased with the temps because they don't change much more than 10 to 15 degrees when I'm gaming. They used to get dangerously close to the components maximum capabilities, and even would crash at times, when I used smaller rads and had them in the top and front of the Corsair 650D case and that was only overclocking the CPU to 3.8GHz and the GPU's weren't pumped up much either. So now my rig is more in line with a lot of other peoples based on things I've seen posted in tons of forums. So yes, I'm happy. Go back to the end of the 1st page to see the images posted showing GPUZ, CPUZ, and CORE TEMP.

[Giddyguy]

This should go in Build Logs so that Slick can put it in Build Logs of the Week!

 

The interior is really nice, so nice that I like it better with the lights off.

[guyfromnebraska]

Ya repost into the build log section!

[Purple]

Nice, I love the carbon fiberish look