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Boght this case about 3 years ago with a vision in mind. And now I just finally finished it, lol. I basically stripped it all down.
Thats the way it sat for another year. I wanted a triple rad on the top, and found a way to make it work as you see, but with no spot for the air to exit for the third slot. My idea was to cut a hole under the top bezel and make a scoop that directs air out the back of that bezel where I cut out all the notches.
A year later I was back at it seeing how paint looked on it. I got a bit done, but kind of just lost ambition. Here's a shot comparing the painted mobo tray to the factory exterior paint.
Well this year I finally decided it was time to get the new WC loop built, and the whole point of this case was to be WC, so I might as well finish that as well. So the shopping list got put together and I got to wait eagerly as parts showed up. The list was:
2600k
2x 7970 w/ EK Blocks
9800GT (for Physx)
16GB DDR3 2133
AsRock Fatal1ty Professional P67
128GB SSD
Enermax Evo Galaxy 1250w
and here's pictures of the goods...
The block I'm using is an old Enzotech block I had, this build 2 years ago was going to be an AMD setup. But already having a 1055t clocked to 4ghz on air, and wanting an upgrade, there wasn't really an AMD option that was going to be a significant upgrade. Without thinking about it I just went 1155 then the mobo and cpu showed up and I realized I only had AM2 and 775 backplates for the waterblock... Well thank god AsRocks mobo has dual mounting hole configs, using a combination of the holes I was able to get the 775 backplate to work by tilting the angle of the waterblock a bit.
So with all of the new hardware here it was time to pull the case back out from it's resting place under my stairs. The time under there had scratched up the paint I had put on it and some of the factory paint. So I had to start over sanding it down. But after some time, it turned out really nice, I'd say looks as good as factory paint.
So with the case painted it I cut out the holes that I needed and made a scoop to push the air out of the back of that bezel. I also decided that I needed the room in the bottom to run a dual rad, so the HDD racking had to go. And since I hate swapping HDDs in and out of cases between builds at times, I just decided the HDDs were going to be external. I've had it together for a few weeks now, but had a few final touches to put on before it was picture time. I lost the Res cover for my XSPC Dual Bay Res. So I took the factory bay cover and popped them off the plastic, then cut a 1/8th inch of the back of them to make them sit flush with the other bezels. And I was going to just use the floppy cover that came with the case, but the better half threw that out at some point... So I had to cut out the grating to make my own hole so I could monitor fluid levels. I finished those yesterday and painted them, so let the pictures commence.
And the overclocking results on the 2600k for 24/7 use!
Overall, I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. Just wish I would have finished it years ago. The only other plan will be to cut out the HAF logo and put an red acrylic window i nthere with it's own backlighting. I'm going to give that a shot next year, I'm not sure how it wil turn out though since the HAF logo runs right up onto the lip of where the case closes, so we'll see if I ever actually do this.
Thats the way it sat for another year. I wanted a triple rad on the top, and found a way to make it work as you see, but with no spot for the air to exit for the third slot. My idea was to cut a hole under the top bezel and make a scoop that directs air out the back of that bezel where I cut out all the notches.
A year later I was back at it seeing how paint looked on it. I got a bit done, but kind of just lost ambition. Here's a shot comparing the painted mobo tray to the factory exterior paint.
Well this year I finally decided it was time to get the new WC loop built, and the whole point of this case was to be WC, so I might as well finish that as well. So the shopping list got put together and I got to wait eagerly as parts showed up. The list was:
2600k
2x 7970 w/ EK Blocks
9800GT (for Physx)
16GB DDR3 2133
AsRock Fatal1ty Professional P67
128GB SSD
Enermax Evo Galaxy 1250w
and here's pictures of the goods...
The block I'm using is an old Enzotech block I had, this build 2 years ago was going to be an AMD setup. But already having a 1055t clocked to 4ghz on air, and wanting an upgrade, there wasn't really an AMD option that was going to be a significant upgrade. Without thinking about it I just went 1155 then the mobo and cpu showed up and I realized I only had AM2 and 775 backplates for the waterblock... Well thank god AsRocks mobo has dual mounting hole configs, using a combination of the holes I was able to get the 775 backplate to work by tilting the angle of the waterblock a bit.
So with all of the new hardware here it was time to pull the case back out from it's resting place under my stairs. The time under there had scratched up the paint I had put on it and some of the factory paint. So I had to start over sanding it down. But after some time, it turned out really nice, I'd say looks as good as factory paint.
So with the case painted it I cut out the holes that I needed and made a scoop to push the air out of the back of that bezel. I also decided that I needed the room in the bottom to run a dual rad, so the HDD racking had to go. And since I hate swapping HDDs in and out of cases between builds at times, I just decided the HDDs were going to be external. I've had it together for a few weeks now, but had a few final touches to put on before it was picture time. I lost the Res cover for my XSPC Dual Bay Res. So I took the factory bay cover and popped them off the plastic, then cut a 1/8th inch of the back of them to make them sit flush with the other bezels. And I was going to just use the floppy cover that came with the case, but the better half threw that out at some point... So I had to cut out the grating to make my own hole so I could monitor fluid levels. I finished those yesterday and painted them, so let the pictures commence.
And the overclocking results on the 2600k for 24/7 use!
Overall, I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. Just wish I would have finished it years ago. The only other plan will be to cut out the HAF logo and put an red acrylic window i nthere with it's own backlighting. I'm going to give that a shot next year, I'm not sure how it wil turn out though since the HAF logo runs right up onto the lip of where the case closes, so we'll see if I ever actually do this.
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