My latest "BIG MASSIVE CUSTOM Computer Case Creation!" 56k modem FORGETABOUTIT BUD!

[eclypse]

Many years ago (damn cant remember exactly, but its was when the voodoo 2 graphics cards were out) i had a strange idea looking at my large Kenwood tall air cleaner to put the computer inside and it would cool the whole computer perfectly with its dual massive squirel cage fans at the top pumpin out insane CFMs. Worked perfectly as well. Even had a glass front window. I thought it was sweet but everyone thought i was crazy and it was ugly. The part that sucks is that i dont even have a pic of it anymore Though i told everyone that it was a prototype, and that one day i'd build it from the ground up and it will be the perfect All Air cooling + perfect cooling for water cooling as well.

Well many years later and crappy stock cooling cases later i decided i cant take anymore and i need to build it!!

So i looked all over the internet for ideas on what to build it out of since i live in a condo and i dont have access to the right tools and even if i did i could'nt build it here.. Finally i seen a custom case built out of Lubic. Now in the past i thought no way could i build it out of this stuff with the cost involved but once you think about the fact that you can reuse it to fit your needs so its futrue proof i jumped on it!

Bought up 2 combo kits and 1 airplane kit of Lubic.. I thought hell, with all the parts i'll have i should have no problem building whatever i wanted no matter how big!

Well to make a very long story short.. In the end it took me 4 months to finish this case! I could not believe how challenging it would be to use lubic. Worked on my spare time.. Usually 2-3 days a week solid and maybe a few late nights. This case took all my free time. Everything about it was a pain! Its even hard to think back.. feeling all that fustraition over again hehe.

Oh and i could'nt tell you the exact end cost but just the case alone has to be over a $1000 easy! Took many trips to lowes and it was like a hundred everytime from tools to plexy down to screws.

The idea of the case is simple.. Suck in air from the bottom front and back and out the top. Along the way it cools the hard drives in the front goes up threw the 2 massive triple fan rads cooling the water cooling and up over the motherboard cooling that and the graphics cards and eventually out the top 16" fan. I wanted just one quiet Large fan cooling everything. Thats how i had it till near the end when i finally got the whole thing togeather and turned on the fan and noticed that the fan was'nt getting enough air and working too hard for it.. So i noticed if i kept the back top door open it would take some stress of the fan and it was still getting great pressure threw the rads.. So i made a screen on the back door. Then i finally broke down and though, well lets put 6 120/38mm 120CFM fans blowing up under the rads and i bet i'll get what i'm after. Once i did that i got major pressure and damn did it cool the system and the top fan could finally breath.

Insert one cheesy air flow diagram pic please! lol



Simple.. Air comes in from the bottom front and back threw the hard drives and up threw the 2 massive triple fan rads and up over the motherboard and out the top fan.





The case has plexy glass walls all around and the top is made out of thin panel wood. I could'nt just do plexy walls cause its been done so many times so i made my life hell and did the black painted metal mesh in a sandwich between 2 layers of plexy so its encased. That way it will be easy to clean and i dont have to try and get dust of all the cracks.. That would be suicide!



Heres another shot.. The doors and the front drive bay are from my previous Mountin Mods UFO case.. I could not believe that the walls from the UFO case fitted the door frame so perfectly, so i had to use them hehe. The front drive bay actually pulls out and screws in just like on the UFO case..Air tight seal all around ofcourse. Only the best if your gona build it right the first time

[eclypse]

Heres a shot of the inside showing the pull out motherboard assembly.. I should of got a close of pic of it but a little late now with the whole system installed. Basicly used the few left over lubic peices i had and one motherboard tray. The motherboard on another pleyglass tray just slides right on in the lubic groves and i use another small peice of lubic that i cut as a locking key that just screws in from the back holding it in tight.



Heres a shot showing the 2 pumps in one loop.. Actually theres another 2 on the other side.. 2 per water loop.. Overkill you bet! I went with a rezless setup using a striaght loop with the 2 danger den fill ports. First time user with a straight loop. Totally love it! No more rez! Acutally dual pumps per loop is toally unnessisairy with this setup as the water lines are so short.. I dont notice any gains whatsoever with both on so i have to redue the water lines sometime soon and take 2 pumps out.



Another shot showing the fan power buttons on the top left. It goes from off to low,med and high. I like to keep it at Med. All she needs. Oh the power and reset buttons on the top right are both off my mountain mods UFO case

[eclypse]

Heres a shot of the back.. Here you can see the crappy screen door i put in to act like a buffer for the fan since it was'nt getting enough air.. Stupid idea but i had to do something to save the project.. And starting over is no option after spending 4 months building this case. The sliding door idea was the quickest and best idea i had to both give me room to get in there to fill the water lines and hook up the system wires. You just slide the door down and tighten the screws and with the air seal gasket it totally seals around the wires coming out the back.





Heres a pic of the fillport area. I made sure to get a great seal around the top area just encase i overfill it and it spills over. I heard Danger Dens MCT-5 Non-Conductive Solution is some super stinky stuff and a mess to clean up.. I take no chances! hehe



Heres a shot i took while filling the system.. Again.. took no chances and used a barb connected to a tube.. Seemed to work much better then what i was plaining on using, a turkey baster.

Oh.. The fan shroud. I had to come up with something great to use that i could take apart or move out of the way so i could fill the water lines.. I quickly came up with a great idea to use a floor mat used for working out or a kid play mat. It connected together like a puzzle peices so i could just pull it apart where i needed at the bottom.. Works like a charm i tell ya!



Heres another shot showing how i fill the lines.. The funnel just hooks on the door and stays nicely! Could'nt ask for more. No spills of drop filling the system.

[eclypse]

Ah... Forgot a quick shot of the motherboard with the 7800GTX SLI per installed with water lines. Finally i get smart and go back to the trusty metal screw clamps insted of weak zip ties on the cards.. Man i could'nt tell you how many times in the past i had leaks on the card lines.. You figure sooner or later i get smart and get rid of it.. Well it was a good time cause i didnt feel like cleaning up any leak in this case! But i was well prepaired with this build just encase of one. Love those massive heatsinks on the memory! Massive air cooling across those cards finally with this case!



Now finally to the 4 hard drives consisting of: 2x 74GB 10,000 RPM Raptors in single 16k Sripe Raid 0. And 2 300GB seagate drives also in Raid 0.
Drive bays fully pull out for ease of install. And let me tell you, the use of new snap in "Locking" sata cables are a blessing with this setup!

Thinking of getting rid of the green cold cathoids for another set of black lights. My wife dont think the green fit.. but i used whatever i had laying around. THe cool part is that they light up with the hard drive activity with i think is fitting since its where the drives are.







One last shot.. showing the above veiw of the drives that you can see from inside.

[[XC] MarioMaster]

one word - sweet

you need to get the water cooling up and test it out

[Magnj]

jebus. nice jorb.

[eclypse]

Heres a quick shot showing the power and hdd LEDS at the top L Bracket.. Was a real pain to drill out the holes in the lubic to fit them.. though it came out good i think.. Really didnt have anywhere else to put them as it would of been murder to drill holes threw 2 layers of plexy and the metal mesh.. Would of been a total mess.



Now for the lighting..

Heres a shot showing the front fan lit up. One single old tripple red LED pointed up from under the fan worked great! Now to just get another and have it pointed down from above somehow and it will be totally lit up.



Heres a shot of the front filter just barely lit up from the black light under the rads.. I think the black light will work better with the front filter insted of the green lights.



Heres finally a shot of the inside lighting.. I used only 2 sets of black lights total. Man i love the LEDS on those Crucial Balistix Tracers! I recently had the old pair RMAed ofcourse right when i was finished with this case and i was very happy when they siad they still had some to replace these.. This case was made for that ram! hehe.






I forogt about a couple of pics and thought i'd just toss them up.. This one show the little lubic peice i cut that locks the motherboard into place.



Just thought i'd throw these 2 up since there so clean compaired to the others.







Thats the last of the pics.. The case still needs some stuff done before its totally done. I need to replace the back slidding door with a solid one and get another red LED that i think would look sweet pointing down right inbetween the 2 7800 cards.. Evil actually hehe. Also another red LED for the top of the top fan. Maybe another black light set for the front drive area insted of the green. Also some more wrap for the few loose power lines.

Whenever i change out the fluids, i'm gona go with red water die next time.. That along with the red lights i think would look sweet with the black case.. I wish i would of done that in the first place but i was in a hurry and used whatever water die i had on me.

[eclypse]

hehe forgot to give out the case end specs:

Case size is 23" wide and 44 1/2" Tall and it has to be close to 200lbs easy cause it took 2 people to get it off the table when i finally got it done. Thank god i used 6 caster wheels! I could'nt tell you how heavy it is now with the system and water installed.. But its dam tuff to push it around the carpet hehe. Hell if i could do it over again i'd make it taller.. cause i'd like to be able to glance over and see the system from the chair. I'm sure i'll end up putting it on some heavy duty cabnet of some sort soon.

System specs:

AMD FX-60 w/ Swiftech Epogee WB in single loop
2x 7800GTX 256MB SLI w/ Danger Den Low profile WBs in single loop.
2x ThermoChill PA120.3 Triple 120mm Radiators <-- Worked best cause it has larger chanels that allow for high volume air that my case needed.
4x Danger Den DD12V-D5 Pumps.. Though i'm only powering 2 cause 4 is overkill with these short lines. Gona pull the 2 out soon and sell them.
2x Western Digital 74GB 10000RPM Raptors
2x 300GB Seagate sata drives
Creative X-Fi Fatality sound card
PC Power Cooling 1 Kilowatt P/S
Also the front USB/Firewire bay is a HUGE must with this case and a life saver! hehe

[ugp]

Can I say god golly floggin molly!!!

That looks like a lot of work there....nice job man. Time spent well...

[ripken204]

omg, i cant imagine you trying to take out a stick of ram, you would have to crawl inside of that thing.. nice job. what are you temps?

[Makubex_GB]

All that and you get an Apogee!?! Get a STORM!

Other than that, the rig is friggin SWEET!

[BlueAqua]

HOLY MOLY is right!! That is one nice system, just about everything you can think of besides Phase.

Very nice job, looks great!

[eclypse]

heheh thanks guys! Yup a ton of hours and when i was done i didnt know what to do with myself cause i was so used to working on it.. It was very weird!

Temps are gona be touch to judge as everything is highly juiced.. but the PWM system temps are around 35c idle and tops around 44c on load.. Those temps could be much better but DFI had to put the damn ATX port right next to the damn PWM heatsinks so ofcourse the MASSIVE ATX connector blocks air from hitting them.. I might make some kind of clear plexy shoud around that area to force the air to go around the ATX connector and cool the heatsinks.. But its not much of a prob right now as its not gettin really hot to warrent the fix.

The cpu is getting 1.6v to get 2970Mhz dual prime stable and 30C idle and 38c load... Embarrising enough this chip dont want no dual 3Gigs!! Can you believe an FX-60 that wont do 3 gigs dual prime stable?? I cant.. and messing with the water block seating i've noticed some strange crap.. So my only idea is that the damn heatspreader cant be touching the core very well at all. Core 1 seems to love 3 gigs no matter the voltage and core 0 is a voltage pig.. I know if i reseat the block again i can get the temps back down to 28-29c idle where it was when i first started out. I'd love to send this CPU back to AMD in a heart beat! I know the stepping and week is great as others have done over 3 gigs with it.

The evga 7800GTX SLI setup is runing damn cool.. Idling at 32C at 1.7v 625/1500 and 43-44 Load.

Chipset is at a lowly 36C with the retail crappy heatsink! hehe.

This is all with the large fan at Medium speed.
Room temps show 78F..

[eclypse]

omg, i cant imagine you trying to take out a stick of ram, you would have to crawl inside of that thing.. nice job. what are you temps?

hehehe The ram is the easiest thing to change cause its right there next to the door.. Now to change the graphics out would be suicide!!!

Hell i'd love to adjust the voltage on those cards and really go for a high overclock with the new setup but the way i did the mods i could adjust them easy in the old case.. not on this case! I'd hate to slip and kill the card. Changing them out.. NOT ANY TIME SOON I TELL YA! lol. When i get board i'll mess with it but i'm gona chill for a bit and enjoy the computer since i've been without pc gaming for way too many months.

[eclypse]

All that and you get an Apogee!?! Get a STORM!

Other than that, the rig is friggin SWEET!

I've also got a storm.. Bought the later to replace it cause it was supposed to be better.. Am i wrong?

[eclypse]

HOLY MOLY is right!! That is one nice system, just about everything you can think of besides Phase.

Very nice job, looks great!

Thanks man!

Yeah i've already thought about phase and where i would put it early on in the build.. I passed thinking about my electric bill and noise.I'm sure by the end of summer i'll be planing my next winter project and somehow squeeze it in there hehehe.

[eclypse]

Just added a few shots i forgot about in the last pic post.. Nice and clean pics.

[whoodiestyle]

2 words - holy shiznit

[nop]

sweet and nice job indeed

[Torin]

I don't believe in god... but Dear God. LOL, that is one crazy setup, nice work dude.

[Mankz_91]

good god.......

i want one.....

[Poki]

Yeah baby, meh likes!
One little suggestion though. Those cam door latches, are they plastic? If they are i think you could use a plastics die to die them black and the die should get far enough into the surface to keep the leading edge of the cam from turning back to white from wear. I'm a big function over fashion kinda guy but i can see you're a function and fashion guy so i thought throw that out there for ya. That really is a great case, i like it alot

[majestik]

Wow, where did you get the 16" fan, and what are the specs on that thing? I'd love to do something similar, but use a 10" fan on a monstercore

[SoF]

this looks like the mother of all towers ^^
I like the lightning in there - UV rocks ;

Congratulations on your tower - I would call it "big m4mm07h"

[Mortal]

Holy snickers bar! That's amazing.

I wonder if John Connor will have to fight that in the future?