A V1000 Project - Final Build Pics -17/11/08

Hello!

It seems like it's been close to a year that I have been planning this out and reading, reading, reading, everything that I could once I stumbled upon XS.


Funnily, I can't even remember how I came across XS in the first place, it may have been one of those random google searches where I stumbled across this site by accident. And stumbling some more, I found myself in the LC section of XS and I was like 'what the f**k? Water in the case, are they nuts?' But it was something about the tubes and the beauty of clean cases and the shiny blocks (ohhhh the blocks :slobber: ) that got me hooked.


I started reading (like I already said) and began making tentative posts trying to learn what I could, and mostly trying to emulate a sponge. To some aspects, i think I've managed pretty well, but some days it becomes glaringly obvious that I'm still wet behind the ears and green in the gills and noob with a capitol N (and really whatever other idiom that implies lack of knowledge) as I slap my head and just say 'doh!'.


I'm learning all the time, and owe a marabou to just about everyone on this forum. And those of you that I've PM'd and recieved help from, here's a big
THANKS for you.


To get started, you'll see that I ramble a bit, and I hope that I can keep your attention long enough to finish the build.

I thought about giving you a list of stuff that I have, but then I was like 'nah, everyone appreciates pron pics instead', so here's a pic of hardware. . .


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans040.jpg

AS it is, some of this may change or has changed or may not even fit in the case itself. Of course the case will be watercooled, but I'll get to that later on as we go.



Ya prolly wanna see the case now right?

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans016.jpg


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans041.jpg

Watercooling would be a definite in the case, so I needed to make a cut somewhere to fit a PA120.2 (I have a pa160 here as well, but I haven't decided if I need it or not, as I won't be OC'ing and will have 1 GPU. After talking to Marci several times, he also felt that the 120.2 alone would be enough for my needs. I'll see how it goes, and if I'm happy with temps, Rock On! If not, well the beauty of modding is that I can always go back in, hehe) and that a requirement for me would be an internal case. Hats off to everyone that has big rads in these little cases, but for the life of me I couldn't see how to get a 120.3 in here without an external mount. Anyway, I needed to make a cut, and went with a top mount.


Little taping first.

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans001.jpg


Before:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans002.jpg

After:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans003.jpg


After:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans004.jpg

I know how everyone recommendeds a jigsaw for all case cuts, but since we didn't have one, I went with a dremel as that was what I had. And I've never used one of those before either. I thought the cut came out ok.


I knew that I wanted to get in and make some cuts for the mobo tray, and being that this is my first build ever, I wanted to do everything right. So I started to look around the case and decide what the easiest way would
be to do that, and I figured if I took out the mobo tray, it would be easier to accomplish. Except I couldn't find how to do that. The easy way that is. So one rivet led to another, and before I knew it, I had this:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans005.jpg

DOH!


Since the case was in pieces, I needed to take some pics so i could get it back together. . . at least that's what I hoped


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans006.jpg


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans007.jpg


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans008.jpg


I have a ton more raw pics like those, but I figured you get the idea.


So, since I bumbled into this mess, I wanted to do something about the insides and thought a nice black finish would go good with the look I'm trying to achieve. Off to the powdercoaters went the whole case!!! Let's see what that looks like in a few days when it comes back.

(if pic size is a prob, let me know and I'll resize them)

Looks GREAT so far! Keep it up, and MORE PICS!

Lookin' Good!

I've got the PCV1000..love it to death.. that i just removed a EXOS 2 from..got a nice large cut like yours that i'm gonna fill with somethin incredible

Those cases are great :D, subscribed,
also i want to look more of the radiator mounting because I'm still learning on how to do that. :P

So you are going to use a ThermoChill PA.120.3? :)

Interesting. I like your build. I will be keeping a close-ey to this project. ;)

How to remove the mobo tray on its own is in my build thread.
Looking forward to following your build LR. :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jedda

How to remove the mobo tray on its own is in my build thread.
Looking forward to following your build LR. :up:

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seems like your bandwidth is exceed.

Yeah, too popular. 25GB/month.
Its back up in two days, the 8th.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jedda

Yeah, too popular. 25GB/month.
Its back up in two days, the 8th.

---

haha same thing happened to me except I'm back on the 10th. Anyways Great job so far. I like your idea of using photo's as reference pix.

Great stuff... can't wait to see how it comes together!

hmm more pics sounds nice.

I agree septim. :)

More pics please. :D

Excellent build!
But more pics is simply required... pics or ban!:D

(joking... but we are dying over here without more pics!!! Give us more!!!!!!!;))

He's not build anything yet. :P

Regardless sounds like a very nice project.

What are you going to rivit the case back togheter with ? Alu rivits or Steel rivits ? The original rivits were Alu.

Allright, Allright. I know that was a little unfair, I should have posted more pics in the first place, and not just teased you with the ones I did.

I have no idea where the case is going to go, I'm kind of whinging it. But, I have a theme that I want to stick with, and then I'll see if I can incorporate some cool cut into the window. Because I gotta have a window!!

Oh right. Theme. Well, I really like the way black and silver looks together, like black and chrome is just sick in my eyes. I looked into getting some parts chromed, like I thought that would be just insane to see a chromed rad and chromed pump, and like chrome everything.

So I started calling around locally to see what kind of quotes I could get, and after countless hours on the phone trying to explain: 1) no, I'm not joking, 2) No, it's not car radiator, 3) Yes, it goes in a computer, 4)Yes I said 'Water inside the computer, and 5) You want to charge me how much? I gave up on finding any local shop to do my chroming.

Well, out went the idea of chroming stuff. But I've learned in my life that not everything can be reached direct from point A to B, sometimes the path meanders a bit. In this meander, I settled on different aspirations, but still going after the look that I wanted.

To get there, I knew that I needed to see a specialist. Only a specialist would have what I was looking for. And I found just the specialist here in Stockholm.

These Guys rock!!

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans054.jpg


But first, before I get to those goodies, here's a little more before shots:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans057.jpg


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans059.jpg


I like this one, it shows the cut (before it got real pretty) and some attatchemnt details that I'll need for later

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans058.jpg


Did anybody catch my little reference in the background (I know it's a little blurry, that was the point) in the first cut picture of the rad hole in my first post?



Anyway, back on track.

So I decided to see Sifverts today while I waited for the case to come back from the powdercoaters, and I picked up some goodies. . .

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans056.jpg

Quite a few actually. My wife saw the bag, and then like all wives (hey, no harm no foul here, I'm calling it just like I see it) she saw the reciept and was like 'YOU SPENT HOW MUCH ON SCREWS??? HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND??'

Sadly, I couldn't think of an answer to that question.

To continue, trying to get in touch with my inner theme, I went and visited these guys, and I'm always amazed at how geeky people can be. Even when I'm feeling like a big geek, somebody comes along and out geeks me. Nobody blinked when I came in and said 'I just took my computer apart into like 30 pieces, and I think I may need some screws to get it back together'. The kind folks took me by the hand (not literally, but you get my drift) and we walked around the store together putting stuff into little bags. I described what I wanted, what I wanted to achieve, and roughly what I thought the hole sizes were.

Here's what we came up with:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans047.jpg

Those guys above will be in places of rivets, or where something needed to sit flush. I wanted to stick with hexcant screws (I think they''re called socket heads in english) as I liked the 'industrial' 'deco' look of them.


To continue (I think everyone should have some of these) :
M4
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans055.jpg


M3 and M4 together
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans052.jpg


a difference in size perspective
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans051.jpg

I figure the M4's I'll use to attatch something big (like the rad maybe?) to the case, and the M3's could come in handy as general screws. I have some M5 chromed hexcants that I found on ebay, I'll take a pic of those when I get them. I'm going to see what size I like the most to attatch the rad and the grill to the top of the case.


For the rad, I knew I might need some of these, so I got them in the respective sizes to the screws above :

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans053.jpg
Those are the 'locknuts' that have the little plastic ring on the inside.


And the Pièce de résistance (these were so expensive that they're the ones that made my wife flip out):

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans048.jpg

DOMEHEADS!!!


Saw some of these and figured 'ah what the heck, I may need them':

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans050.jpg

But then I realized, if I needed to make more cuts, the case would already be pc'ed and I'd shake like a junkie cold turkey after 4 days trying get the hole saw straight. Oh well, I have the bad feeling I may make some more cuts anyway. Live and learn.


I wonder what these are for???

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans049.jpg

No seriously, what are they for?


The kind people at Sifverts said I may need some of these anyway, so I got some, M3 of course:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans046.jpg



Lastly, I think I may have to do something about this:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans045.jpg

I don't really like that button. I'll see if I can do something about it.

you made my day bro :rofl:

The Vandals are a drop in replacement for the front switch.
Vandal

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jedda

The Vandals are a drop in replacement for the front switch.
Vandal

---

I know. . . ;)

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO more pics more pics lol. :D :up:

Great post.
Im going to follow this tread

I love the line about the wife commenting the purchase of small things :p I got the same thing recently with 10 feets of Tygon R3400. Mine said "Are you nuts to pay over 30$ for tubing when you can get it at the local hardware store"... I had to explain the differences and in the end, said she dosn't mind spending 100$ on pieces of clothing when 20$ is enough just to convice her to leave me alone.

looks good, just one question, why waste your money on a 640mb gts when the new g92 gts has been out for a while and that even beats the gtx in a lot of cases?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by AliG

looks good, just one question, why waste your money on a 640mb gts when the new g92 gts has been out for a while and that even beats the gtx in a lot of cases?

---

ya I know :(

Problem was I bought almost everything I have in July/August on vacation in the US. Now I think I may drop that card in my other computer and buy the new GT, Ihave my eye on this one : http://www.evga.com/products/moreInf...512-P3-N806-AR

which surprisingly is available here, no probs. I just have to wait to pay day. . .
Same goes for the e6850 that I have in the box, untouched. I don't know if it's worth it to get the e8500 instead. . .

Makes me glad I live in the US where all these parts are readily available (we really should switch over to metric though...)

Look what just showed up from the powder coaters :up:

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans017.jpg


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans018.jpg


http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h.../logans026.jpg


I'll see if I can get around to putting it together now with all those screws that I have :)


Other mini-projects to do:
1) Heat Pipe mod by Ace-a-Rue on the IP35
2) Stealth DVD Mod inspired by Cyprio inspired by phcjpp
3) learn to wire LED's
4) something special with the PA120.2