Personal rig modded on the cheap

[Andrew48]

Hello people! This will be the first computer I will be trying to mod. I dont have much money to spend on mods so dont expect anything specialy special. This is my peronal machine I will be working on. I decided to modify my computer becouse my 7950 had to be RMAd, So instead of waiting for the new one to arive I started working on my case.  My current system:

AMD FX 8320 @stock
Asus M599X Evo R2.0
Powercolor 7950 PCS+ (waiting for her.......)
Kingston HyperX 2x4GB 1600MHz
XFX 550W Pro 80+ Bronze
Samsung 830 128gb
Corsair Carbide series 200R

I am saving most of my money to buy myself a decent cpu cooler and some good looking, silent fans becouse the corsair ones are just bad.
I will also try to use my arduino as an automated  fan controller 

The first mod I want to do Is make a PSU cover just becouse the look cool and hide most of the cable mess

I then want to do something about the front panel to allow more air to be drawn and will most likely make a window for the side panel. 

Dont know if I will be adding any kind of lighting.

I have most of the tools I(think) will need and I can borrow the ones I dont have

This is what my system looks like right now(SSD hiden in the 5,25" bays and using some other random RAM for testing)

Please excuse my writing mistakes, english is not my first language!


Latest updates:
Fan controller: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/61577-personal-rig-modded-on-the-cheap/?p=1636211
Case: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/61577-personal-rig-modded-on-the-cheap/?p=1367514
Old PSU cover: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/61577-personal-rig-modded-on-the-cheap/?p=848214
cable grommets: http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/61577-personal-rig-modded-on-the-cheap/?p=953161

[megadarkwood]

Good luck have fun!

 

EDIT: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/48005-ultimate-case-modding-guide-submit-your-tutorials-updated-daily-show-off-your-mod/

[Andrew48]

Good luck have fun!

 

EDIT: https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/48005-ultimate-case-modding-guide-submit-your-tutorials-updated-daily-show-off-your-mod/

Thanks! I have checked this thread of yours more than once and it seems to be helping me and giving me ideas  already

[megadarkwood]

Thanks! I have checked this thread of yours more than once and it seems to be helping me and giving me ideas  already

Feel free to ask me questions also

[TheSLSAMG]

I can't wait, fellow Clarkson!

[Andrew48]

I can't wait, fellow Clarkson!

"How hard can it be?"

 

[TheSLSAMG]

"How hard can it be?"

 

"Where's my hammer?"

[<boss2939>]

It's so simple all I basically see that stands out is the mobo and the psu, nice on hiding the ssd and good cable management, plus good mobo you should get at least 4.6 jiggahertz, if I were you I would add a window, one thing I hate so much and I mean all builds in general is the ugly 24 pin with rainbow wires, good build especially for first timer

[Andrew48]

It's so simple all I basically see that stands out is the mobo and the psu, nice on hiding the ssd and good cable management, plus good mobo you should get at least 4.6 jiggahertz, if I were you I would add a window, one thing I hate so much and I mean all builds in general is the ugly 24 pin with rainbow wires, good build especially for first timer

Thank you.  I will add a window sometime (dont have the tools yet). I might also buy some extensions from bitfenix for the 24pin and the pcie 6pin. I dont know if my psu can handle an overclock on the cpu as I am planning on overclocking my gpu. We will see...

[ALXAndy]

PSU should be fine I would be more concerned about the VRMs on your board..

[Andrew48]

PSU should be fine I would be more concerned about the VRMs on your board..

I don't plan on overclocking more than 4GHz

[ALXAndy]

I don't plan on overclocking more than 4GHz

 

Then unless you got a totally dud chip you'll be fine I was running my 8320 at 4.2ghz but I needed a H100 to do it. The 8320 seems to run really bloody hot. With a H60 it was throttling.

[Serbian_Souljah]

Then unless you got a totally dud chip you'll be fine I was running my 8320 at 4.2ghz but I needed a H100 to do it. The 8320 seems to run really bloody hot. With a H60 it was throttling.

Yep i had an FX-8350 under a H60, Ran way too hot. Even in Push - Pull it was noisy too.

[Andrew48]

OK so I made a PSU cover prototype using cardboard. I am looking for some aluminum sheets right now..Thats what it looks like:

[Andrew48]

Then unless you got a totally dud chip you'll be fine I was running my 8320 at 4.2ghz but I needed a H100 to do it. The 8320 seems to run really bloody hot. With a H60 it was throttling.

 

 

Yep i had an FX-8350 under a H60, Ran way too hot. Even in Push - Pull it was noisy too.

Yeah I heard that these FX chips run hot so I will only overclock when I get some proper cooling. I dont want to go too far becouse a silent built is more important

[ALXAndy]

Yeah I heard that these FX chips run hot so I will only overclock when I get some proper cooling. I dont want to go too far becouse a silent built is more important

 

They don't get that hot. That's the problem, as soon as they hit 68c they throttle down to 1.7ghz until they are under 65c then clock up again. This sucks in gaming, Crysis 3 would lag really bad.

 

Just avoid the single thickness rad AIOs. Get a H70, H80. H100, H100i, H80i etc.

[<boss2939>]

Thank you. I will add a window sometime (dont have the tools yet). I might also buy some extensions from bitfenix for the 24pin and the pcie 6pin. I dont know if my psu can handle an overclock on the cpu as I am planning on overclocking my gpu. We will see...

if you keep your cpu under 1.48 volts you should have enough watts to oc your gpu

[Andrew48]

UPDATE!

So I started working on the aluminum psu cover. As you can see instead of using a big aluminum sheet I use 3 smaller ones. I did that becouse it was easier for me to bend them 90 degree as I dont have any special equipment.


I also draw a cyrcle for a 120mm fan. I dont know yet if I will actualy cut it.


You can see that there are cuts on the 3 metal sheets for the front pannel connectors, as wel as for the PCIe bracket and some screws to make sure there is no emtpy space and holes.

Also I made some feet for my case becouse the included ones are small and I am sure there is limited airflow going to the psu and the bottom mounted fan.


Here is what the cover looks like as for now:

 

[ALXAndy]

Good work there dude. No offence intended here but I love seeing 'cheap' mods. What I mean is basically people modding with PCs that don't cost $10,000.

 

Sadly modding has become a bit of an extravagant affair with people spending thousands of dollars,which has kind of pushed out the small guys.

 

So mod on, brother, and if you need some encouragement take a look over my £130 mod project

 

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=211969&highlight=nfenix

[Andrew48]

Good work there dude. No offence intended here but I love seeing 'cheap' mods. What I mean is basically people modding with PCs that don't cost $10,000.

 

Sadly modding has become a bit of an extravagant affair with people spending thousands of dollars,which has kind of pushed out the small guys.

 

So mod on, brother, and if you need some encouragement take a look over my £130 mod project

 

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=211969&highlight=nfenix

Thank you so much! Glad to see that there are more people that think modding doesnt need to be  expensive to look and be good. Also nice rig you got there!  You did a realy good job with the painting! 

[Andrew48]

UPDATE2!

SO i started joining the 3 pieces together! I am only using screws for testing!!
Heres is it with only 4 screws



And here it is with 6 screws. It fits in perfectly!




Perfect!!




NOW I am looking for my rivet tool.... Its like its hiding from me

[TheSLSAMG]

Very cool so far. Go go Clarkson Rangers!

[Andrew48]

Very cool so far. Go go Clarkson Rangers!

Thanks!!

UPDATE3!

I found my rivet tool! YAY!

Changed the screws to some smaller ones. I can't put rivets becouse then it wont fit!

Smaller screws didnt do it. The SSD was too high. So i used a saw to make them even smaller

Thats it for today. I am going to install the feet tomorrow

[Andrew48]

UPDATE4

So it turns out school is using most of my free time and I dont have much free time left to work on my pc..

I made some custom case feet from some thick tube I found. I think it they did work just fine.

second sets of feet was made by using some washers and some rubber things. I didnt liked them











I also found some foam sheets that I would be use to cover the PSU cover. got 2 pieces for 1€




Started planning and gluing it on the psu cover. toooooo much glue!








Testing and it looks good

[Andrew48]

So my RMAd 7950 just arrived! Going to stresstest it to be 100% sure its not problematic again. Also I bought some Noiseblocker black silence fans model XL2 . Going to make my own automatic fan cotroller soon using an arduino.

:D


Fans I ordered