PlexiPimpin Fliptone n' Marci Stylee *Lotsa Pix*

[Marci]

The latest from the hands of fliptone et alle... (figured better to do it's own thread than use gallery, as there's far too many pix n' text!)





As you can see from the shot above, this is a Beantech FullTower Plexi case fitted with Watercooling, additional 12v TEC PSU relayed to the Prometeia MkII mounted in the custom hand-built plexi base.




Mounted in the top of the chassis are 2x HE120.1 radiators and a DangerDen Clear Reservoir... All mounting holes were cut with a jigsaw...



Due to the Beantech FullTower being of an increased depth in comparison to the MidiTower, the whole Prometeia chassis has been replaced with a custom size-matched plexi base box.



To accomodate this, all wiring has been extended and double-braided with a chrome-braid base layer, and colored-braid top layer.

[Marci]

The watercooling side of things is powered by the DangerDen DD12-D4 pump wired to the adjustable-output Meanwell TEC PSU that you can see stripped from it's chassis and mounted beside the mainboard. The Meanwell PSU depends on it's own chassis as a heatsink. To get round this, custom heatsinks were applied to the PSU along with a silent Zalman 60mm fan.



The VGA Card, an Asus 9800XT, is cooled by a Swiftech MCW50-T block, and the morthbridge by an MCW20 block using 1/2" OD Tubing on quick-connect fittings.



All cooling fans are powered by an Enermax FanBus / Temp Display... stripped from it's original chassis and mounted onto a plexi frontplate.



The case was originally designed for DFI LanParty mainboards, so 4 Post-Probe LEDs are mounted on the frontpanel to report fault and status codes from the mainboard.



The Prometeia MkII also sports a similar error reporting feature bsed on 4 LEDs. To match the top chassis' DFI LEDs, the Prommi's LEDs are also relocated from the rear of the case to the front panel.



To enhance the fans, sticky-backed holographic paper was called into play... this covers the motor spindle that is normally viewable, and just adds a bit more "sparkle"



Obviously, as the case is plexi, everything is in full view, including all key PCBs that look remotely attractive... above is a shot of the rear of the Meanwell s320-12.

[Marci]

And the entire chassis from the rear...







Full frontal...



Backlit...



Doesn't photograph too well... and we've discovered that lighting effects are fairly useless when it comes to transparent cases... there's nothing to diffuse the glow and spread it to the inside of the PC... lighting just gets lost in there. All you see are the lights themselves glowing in the dark. With nothing to reflect the light back at the components inside it's just pointless... hence the lack of lighting! Only lighting is from the fans...

This case is designed for daylight viewing.

Currently contains (altho soon getting replaced with A64 setup)...

XP3000+ Retail @ 250FSB, 2.75Ghz with DFI board... AN7 restricts FSB.
Abit AN7 (LanParty died... awaiting replacement to be fitted)
1Gb OCZ 3200 Platinum
Asus 9800XT
TopPower 520w PSU
Meanwell s320-12 PSU
DD12-D4 pump
DD Clear Res & mounting plate
2x HE120.1
All 80mm fans Akasa Chimera
2x Blue Akasa LED 120mm fans
NEC2500a
16x DVD Rom
nVentiv MkII regassed to r507 with Blue LCD
Pump & TEC PSU relayed off Prommi Compressor Controller Relay to take advantage of Prommi Controller's alarm / shutdown system (in event of system shutdown, TEC and Pump also shutdown)

Can't remember size of HDDs... 2x Maxtor SATA DiamondMax

Fliptone started it back in December, but with the onslaught of PhaseChange mods n' suchlike getting it finished has been put on the back burner soooo many times... petty little holdups too, stuff like the Nylon braid used for the majority of the cabling we can't purchase separately over here... you have to buy the Techfkex kits, out of which you need ONE of the 5 sizers provided, and a [content edited] of a lot more of it than they give you. There's well over £200 purely in chrome and nylon cable braid there! Add into the equation the fact that these braiding kits had only just become available over here, so we'd get 5, use em up, then have to wait a month before anyone had anymore in stock!

Getting the mix right on the Tensol Cement was also fairly ridiculous. It's supposed to be mixed at 40:1 ratio... but then it dries solid in seconds! Had to experiment with 50:1, 60:1, 70:1 to find one that gave you just the right time to assemble and clamp it before it was permanently stuck. AND it had to be strong enough to take the weight of the Prommi... when you lift that rig by anything but the base, the entire weight of the prommi is supported solely by glued joints... hence the 90deg cross section acrylic bar used down the inner edges of the corners.... it was the only way to get sufficient surface area for a bond strong enough to take the strain.

And of course, the plexi was only available in sheets trillions of times bigger than you actually need.... at just over £200 per sheet...

The Chimera 80mm fans had only just become available in the UK too... so I think there are 5 in play, totaling £60-odd pound in 80mm LED Fans... Really has been a nightmare to do. there'll be some more shots too of the "details"... If you look at all the fanholes, the finish is as perfect as the factory cut edges, even tho EVERY hole was cut with nothing but a regular jigsaw...

Doubt anymore acrylic work will be undertaken after this one...!! Unless commissioned and backed up by cash... but we're prepared for that situation. This ones' up for sale already to fund the next project, whatever that is!

The original plan for THIS rig was to sell it to nVentiv as a democase to use at shows etc for pimpin' the Prometeia... but know they've gone down the pan I guess that plans outta the window... unless AMD / Intel / nVidia / ATI are interested!

[Jrocket]

All I can say is WOW! This is an amazing piece of work. I love how the pump and rads are mounted!

[Doctor Carta]

dang nice sh*t

[DaMaN]

Can't see the pictures mate.

[Jabo]

O-CuK suffered massive data storage failure hence lack of picies. Chaps are hard at work still to get the whole thing back up and running. They managed to ressuect The Store in express time but forums and piccies hosting is still waiting their turns I am affraid

[Marci]

Pix have been partially lost... but I'll find em somewhere... think they're loitering round on an external USB2 drive somewhere... failing that, I'll have tio find the right Microdrive and reprocess em off there...

Bear with me... I'll get em back up soon!!

Am just putting up the O-CuK SQL Databases so I can get frontend and forums back online. Store is auto-generated locally THEN uploaded, so the local machine is always more upto date than the server... hence store could be brought up quick and easy just by hitting the "refresh site" button within the local Online Store software (Actinic Catalog)

Gallery lives on a diff server anyways, so that never twitched... same goes for gameserve...

Anyhoo; won't be long now!!

[qk4723Deluxe]

[Marci]

fixed!!

[dcpusher]

Now I hate my computer. How much total cost? That is the nicest computer I have ever seen.

[Jupiler]

Awesome job, Marci. Looks pimpin' nice.

[Marci]

total cost was about £3000 including the system that's in it... a lot, we know... could've been done cheaper but we don't have the contacts to buy perspex in smaller sheets etc etc... and that £3000 includes a rough "labour cost" for the amount of hours it took to do... but if you were doing it yourself, just the top-case & prommi-case would probably cost about £300 to do.

Anyhoo.... there's a load more pix to come... gimme 5 mins and I'll get em up n' posted...

[Marci]

And here's the rest of the bumf on this case....!
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Here's the stock case... Beantech BT90... with an Enermax Fanbus and a CD Drive slung in for good measure. Looks kinda small at this point doesn't it?! Well that's about the same size as a LianLi PC70.



First job to test what one could get away with in terms of power tools and the perspex was to attack a drive bay fascia. Nice n simple... mask it up, drill relevant holes for the rheostat knobs. Stoopid-glue the lot to the back of a fascia, on little perspex standoffs. Drill bit used was whatever blunt highspeed steel bit that was to hand that was the right size for the knobs... In this case just shy of 5mm. Inner edges of these holes were polished with... stoopid glue! If you whizz stoopid glue round the inside edge of the cut, the perspex instantly goes shiny again! ONLY any good for small holes cos it isn't tidy, and the risk of putting too much in and having it spill out either side are fairly high.

Top case was slung to one side for a bit, as the main task at hand here, and indeed the main objective, was to see if you could fabricate a matching Prometeia Base Box that was strong enough to take the weight... and neat enough to not look a complete mess!

So.... Amari Plastics is the place to go (see O-CuK Links > Modding Supplies). First off, we discovered you can't get the matching blue in this country. We originally wanted to build the base box out of 10mm perspex as the thickness meant a greater surface area for the adhesive we were planning to use to bond to. However, we got the luverly price of £200 per sheet. Of which we only needed 1/3. Surprise surprise, we went home with 5mm sheet. MASK EVERYTHING AND KEEP IT MASKED.



Also seen above are a set of rods. These were cut from 10mm Armaplex which is perspex used for protective machine screens... They original started life as a large square sheet. First up the sheet was routed to give a quarter-round edge. Then strips were sliced off to give a 10mm x 10mm rod. Route, cut a strip. Route, cut a strip. Route, cut a strip.

Purely from the existing nVentiv base box, we could work out alignment for mounting holes for all the prommi hardware. Panels were cut to size from the 5mm sheet from Amari.... masked up... holes drawn on ready for cutting.







Eh voila... sometime later... all panels cut and ready. Everything was cut using by hand in tru Fliptone-fashion with a jigsaw, with a wood blade @ medium speed. So how good it comes out basically depends how good you are with a jigsaw. Always cut short of your line and use a dremel with the sanding pad to take it back to your line, and finish with sandpaper. Edges are then polished... sand with finer and finer sand paper. When you get down to 1500 grit, it's close to clear already. Then to finish it from there, perspex polished was used... 2 blocks, light blue and brown... can be purchased from Machine Mart. Took Dremel with the smallest round white buffing wheel, turn on Dremel, touch dremel to polish, run dremel round n round on your edges... never stop moving... if you stay in one spot at any one time it will burn the perspex.







When cutting or drilling anything it's always best to cut onto a completely flat surface... ideally a sheet of wood... and drill straight thru into the wood. this stops the perspex jumping up and splitting on the rear side as you cut through. Alternatively, you can do a small pilot hole, then use a larger sized drill bit to cut 50% of the way thru from one side. Stop, turn it over, and do the other 50% from the other side.

Fliptone, being a plonker, forgot to take any photos of the glueing job... but he's sat beside me and is about to let rip down my earhole with the verbal equivalent which I'm going to narrate. Ready???

Here goes then...

First thing, to be able to glue it together square, make a 90 degree wooden shelf with a fixed wooden end. Open the other. Use that as your square. (here comes Marci's Photoshop Rendition...)



Voila. So you have a flat base to slide your base into, and a corner you can slide your panels into where they all meet at 90 degrees.
Next step, now that we had the means to get the parts in place, was to sort the adhesive. Tensol 70 Cement (by Bostik Findley.. also available from Amari at a luverly price of £17 for the 2 part pack). This comes in two parts, which should apparently be mixed at a 20:1 ratio. At this ratio, it dried instantly. Good job some testers were done before attacking the main panels... also the added advantage of having an excessively large sheet of perspex is you can make some little tester offcuts so you don't knack up your main panels. A bit of experimentation and the perfect mix was obtained to give suitable "manouvering time" to get the panels in place and together before it set, but not too long cos we didn't want to be stood round all day waiting for it to dry before we were safe to let go.

Lay in the bottom sheet of the prommi box... apply the cement with a small paintbrush... 5mm sheet = 5mm brush. Lots of brushes, cos after every stroke, each brush is useless. Cement was applied to the bottom flat edge of the rod first. This was then stuck to the bottom sheet inset by 5mm. Then the next rod was applied to the opposite edge of the sheet. Cement is then applied to the remaining exposed face of the rod, and the upright panel put into place whilst at all times pushing the panels to meet in the wooden corner bracket. Once this was done, we're left with a box with a single open side... the rod was then drilled and tapped & fitted with captive studs and bolts (from BAPP Bolts) so that the remaining side panel was removeable.

Prommi Base box finished! As all the holes were predrilled before assembly of the base box, once the adhesive was set it was all safe to bolt together... which gives you this:







That was the case done. All that was left was to fit the PC and Promi into it and make it look nice in the process. Neat cable routing, neat cable finishing.
No photos for that bit... it's literally common sense. Extend every wire so that it can run neatly from it's source to it's destination... via a neat n tidy route through the case. Braid every cable for aesthetic finish. Clip into place. There's nothing to extending cables... snip one cable, solder on an extension cable, heatshrink... done. Braiding is equally obvious. Matching molexes were chosen to go with the case theme and braiding theme. Watercooling components were chosen simply as they were all blue, as was the case, as was the pump!

The rest is er... well... you've seen it! What more do u need to know!

L8rs... there's prommis-a-callin from the basement...!

[Marci]

Well... we did say *56k warning* at the start of the thread... 256 Broadband Min Req. 1Mb broadband ideal!!
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Oops... guess what... if you scroll down in a window, you'll find there's a load more photos hiding out of site!! *puts the smokeables back in the ashtray*



The guts time... first up the PSU which is a bit of a no namer, but looked good to start with. It's the TopPower 520w (ie: 430w) which comes in a Titanium mirror finish that we originally thought would look great. Turns out it didn't. All excess PSU Connectors were stripped. ATX Mainslead was shortened. All other Power looms lengthened and shortened to suit the case. The final lid ended up being another job for the holographic paper...



OK... it's a tad tacky, but when the light hits it right it looks gorgeous. The same paper was applied to the fan centers...





Again, all cables are done in the Fliptone-patent Double-Braid standard... chrome under layer, colored top layer...





In it's early stage, it was a messy affair... takes time to organise this many cables into something sensible!

[Marci]

(We had to get Fliptone in somewhere... hardly anyone knows what he looks like!)



At one point we even thought it was finished... and hooked it all up to have a play... which didn't last long due to Fliptone's touch of death.



Turn on... DESTROY the bios... resign it to another day.

Unfortunately, when you leave things for another day, this gives you time to think up additions. Hmmm.... big case... 2 rads... plenty of room fer a TEC PSU and Pelt setup mefinks!



Here's a stripped down Meanwell s320-12. Apply heatsinks... in matching style...







DangerDen washers were used to make nylon standoffs to raise the PSU off the case.



And the rest of it is in the first post of the thread! Now that's DEFINITELY all folks... promise!! *drops the flashdisk in the ashtray along with a match*

[chilly1]

Beautiful job..

Want light on the inside I saw a guy in Maine take a piece of plexi and etch lines on the inside and then rub a floresencing dye in the etches, he specialized in faces He did a life size Beatles for a bar.. backligheted with a ultraviolet 20 W nixe tube...

[EQuito]

The only thing missing is clear bezels on the CD's
Otherwise, awesome job!

Congrats!

[Blaster]

nice, very nice

luv the rad placement

[johnny x]

hey,

iit is a nice case,
and big enought for all hardware.


gruss johnny x
...
..
.

[masterofpuppets]

Simply put:


Great work there Marci and Fliptone.