Project : Panda (Antec 300 mod)

[k0rben]

Hi guys, i am introducing my first project.



It's called panda because of the black&white theme of the project case - Antec 300.
Maybe some of you think (i hope not) i am copying b&w theme from Fractal define R2 case, but nope, this was planned about a 1.5 year ago. :p

First i made a sketchup model of case :

ITS IN THE LINK so if you want to be surprised don't click
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/5...imurobott4.jpg


I edited the antec 900 model and created this 300. Unfortunately i haven't got colour image of this now. I also created the model of scythe himuro which will be used. For those who are interested - models for sketchup can be found on http://scc.jezmckean.com/ .

My hw now looks like this :



Here is the case in tearing down part the new antec 300s are also SSD compatibile and got this nice backplate hole.



Unfortunately i won't be taking my camera with me to the workplace, only my phone, sorry for bad quality of some pictures.

WORK STARTING - UPDATE 0 :

I deriveted the top panel and the lower hdd cage



The cage - > out and i will use those two cable ties later.



The top panel (covered with painter's tape) - gonna spray that black



The hole for the front i/o to pass thru



The 5.25" cable-hole is here, i haven't got the right tools like dremel or nibbler so i just drilled 1/8" holes and then punched out the circle.



Yeah and i forgot, i thought that i will use the hole-saw but then i realised - it cuts only wood :wallbash:

This is what it does with metal - pretty "sharp" eh?



Now additional holes :




Meanwhile i sprayed the 120mm fan cages and the top metal piece :





Now to clean this metal madness everywhere





The first stage of the positioning the himuro box and drilling the himuro holes.





The stands were cutted by my new scissors for sheet metal.




Now back to case, after drilling som additional holes (for himuro etc.) comes first coat of metal primer :thumb:






Thats it for now, next update tomorrow

[k0rben]

UPDATE !

Spraying black, next in line is clearcoat.

[k0rben]

Guys cmon, don't let me win the "one man's worklog" prize

Here are some updates :

3x Gelid Silent 12 - 1000RPM fans






and Gelid Tranquillo CPU cooler








2 Gelids modded (covered wires), removed old stickers and added new ones






The rubber fan mounts was quite hard to insert to holes, but finally i am out of the dusty room and got my camera.

[jedihobbit]

With a project named "Panda" don't think anyone could state you swiped their color scheme, the animal on the ohter hamd............

Like what you're doing and as far as having to make due with the tools one has, been there done that!!

Will be watching!

On your clearcoat, I'd let the current coat of black "cure" for at least 7 days before applying.

[k0rben]

So i'm back with new updates,
yesterday i installed heatsink, riveted case together, did some measuring and cable management, but its hard with this octopus psu with like 200 cables

Here are some photos,

The coolers backplate is broken, the "thread" snapped off suddenly, i think it was some kind of factory fault.



but i fixed it with this rubber grommets






Its holding on nice...

Well that was the first bad thing.
The second is that i shuffled the Himuro white stands, so i dont know where each of them go.
Must redo this outside the case or redrill holes to 1 stand.

The good news, i have new rivet gun,



and i did some "sleeving" (not actually sleeve) on the top 140mm yate loon (1000rpm)



I used the sleeve from the Arctic-Cooling AF 12025L old fan...

so to recap, the pc is back together, and still a lot to do..
things to do/buy : fan controller, cable extensions for front i/o, himuro stands, some dampening foam, sleeving, new optical drive.

see you.

[IFMU]

Moved to:
XtremeSystems Forums > Hardware > Computer Cases

as per OPs request.

[NFC]

lol I love the Panda stickers =D

[k0rben]

thanks, also thanks goes to IFMU...
I cant figure out how to change the title of the thread (date change to be exact)
I changed the 1# post title but can't change the whole thread title. Or this is not possible in hardware->computer cases?

[k0rben]

Soldering is half done, i've done two leds, and reset. To do is HD audio, USB and pwr switch.

cable mess



leds rdy for soldering on the run



antec 300 manual is good for catching the falling solder



i used my old badass ETP 3 soldering "gun" (you can find them somewhere now too, but this one is from early 90's and still does the job ! )

[[XC] Oj101]

The panda stickers just do it for me I'll be watching this one

[jedihobbit]

May have to ask for some pointers as I will need to be swaping out some LEDs in my "to be named" build!!

Coming along nicely.

[6a6an]

nice job man
i'll be doing some modding on mine antec 300 so I'll be watching this one for sure

[k0rben]

Fan controller update !

Finally its here, the 5.25" Kaze Master



and some quick testing



and this is my mentioned usb cable extension, i hope interference-less...





its about 20 cm long.

and here comes the TEASER !



first time i saw this on vrzone, then some guys from ocn did this, so i made myself one too

I also bought today 3M mounting double sided tape (of the gawds (lol)), some zip ties and zip tie holders and rubber grommets..

More pics and progress tommorow, i was mowing my yard.

[k0rben]

I am back, i was on vacation for 8 days . Updates soon.

[NFC]

and here comes the TEASER !



first time i saw this on vrzone, then some guys from ocn did this, so i made myself one too

lmao, you should have made it a 1650 as long as you were making a logo for it, like a ricer. =D

[k0rben]

Small update but more pics.

This is the cable mess behind the Kaze Master, need to be covered somehow...


Small addition - white screws and covered silver plate of Kaze.


I bought some M4 screws and nuts and sprayed them black.


This is the fan with white fanguard installed. I also used rubber grommets on the screws.


And a fan improvement-you remember that "sleeving" scavenged from old ArcticCooling fan? So its useful again.
Away with the ghetto black tape cover!


And in with the improved version and of course the panda sticker added


I snipped off some sleeving from the gelid (the unsleeved part will not be seen) hence to use with the front panel reset/pwr.


This pic is just to show you my fail, making a molex to sata extension from straight one to the one with 90° sata end ('t-cap') That was just for test, not for use.


Im thinking of using flashlight made for closets or other small closed rooms, its basically 3LEDs with one resistor, powered by three 1,5V batteries.




As you can see here the kaze temp sensors arent plugged in yet

[k0rben]

Guys, only very small update for today, i haven't had much time lately...

Something i did for my kaze master, to protect from overheating.

You can see those transistors on the right dont have any cooling..





Its old heatsink from some old graphics card, cutted to fit... fixed with thermal adhesive tape.

And this is to hide the 5,25" bay area cables





Sprayed black, here is the final.



Another thing, i finally mounted the temp sensors.
And my idea for sidepanels was to switch them, (the solid one goes to the left and the one with the 120mil hole goes to the tray side) the hole on right panel will be covered, and the left panel will be really hard dampened.

[k0rben]

Someone still watching this?

Overall progress so far,



Sorry for bad quality and dark pics, its horrible weather out right now, so the light conditions are bad.

Front is now finished, only what is left is front usb and audio...
I ghetto dimmed those leds with a black permanent marker and a small piece of painter's tape.



The sticker is probably temp, that tx650w was meant to be located a few milimeters left, but there i made some measuring mistakes



And also i don't like that white heatshrink, it was just a test, what do you guys think? Re-shrink the cable to black or shrink all front cables with white?
(i prefer re-shrinking to black tbh)

and here is that covered sidepanel hole



Again I apologize for slow progress and updating, but i have some important things to do etc.
i hope you understand :thumb:

[jedihobbit]

Someone still watching this?

[k0rben]

Hey guys, i'm back !

I got this nice card with me

(yeah i know the pic is kinda blurry)
at first i wanted the one with the black pcb but that card was out of stock, so i got the blue one.

i'm currently busy with "testing" the card (that means playing a lot of l4d2,tf2 and dirt2 )
it runs very cool and quiet, stays at max 65-70C with fan speed on 30% (while playing maxed out l4d2), but i haven't tried crysis though.

by the start of the next week, hopefully, i'm gonna get some dampening material (was out of stock too) and finally figure out that himuro stand.
and btw, the cables of tx650 are still fighting back, this cable-job is gonna be tough

[k0rben]

Couple of new pics,
deciding what should i do with heatsink plastic cover which came with gelid tranquillo.
The stock covering is tinted plastic, but it gets pretty dirty in a while (dust, fingerprints etc.)



here it is cleaned



I made a cardboard model of that plastic piece, because i wanted to spray it white. But white is not matching the aluminium heatsink, so i will spray it black and somehow cover that "E" in the word gelid. Or one more option - don't use it.

Here is the current status of the cables.



You can see (or not, sorry my crappy autofocusing) that i made 6pin, 8 pin, front panel and bunch of fans' and kazemaster's cables. Yeah and one whole molex 4pin 'branch' which was there, but slipped off, because i havent used the m3 scotch 4010 mounting tape, but some generic double sided yellow piece of something that looked like a tape. With m3, everything holds on perfectly.

And to do :



Now just some random pics

This is my fan filter full of ghetoiness



I use it at night, the top fan is spinning most of the time.

And i got new headphones



I appreciate any feedback, feel free to post!

[6a6an]

congrats on your work so far
well i did some modding on mine antec also and may i suggest something i did instead of that ghetto fan filter

[recent]

Thats just awesome, i have been dreaming of modding Antec 300 for a long time ! getting my new setup, so thinking of getting busy with Antec 300 too ^^ nice work !

[k0rben]

6a6an : umm, nice, but i'm afraid i like my 140mm exhaust hole too much to do this
recent : thanks !

[k0rben]

Yesterday (actually it was about 0:30 at night) i worked on my sidepanel...



I just used some spare foam that comes with graphics cards and mobos, but it's not all, i was thinking about using silentmaxx silma kf25, but it is out of stock for a very long time again. Maybe something ghetto will work too (heavy sleeping pad ).
Then i did these two cuts, sidepanel was bumping into rear 120mil grill.