• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Lookin to do my first modded case/comp

V

VulturEMaN

Gawd
Joined
Sep 11, 2005
Messages
1,017
Aight. Here's the game plan:

1. I feel like I need a HTPC. They sound aight.
2. I wanted a acrylic case for a long time.
3. Blue lights are cool.
4. I have lots of ethernet wired all throughout my house, so lots of wired ports would be good.
5. It has to be stylish, but still stay cool, quiet, and have lots of room.
6. I'd like to maximize (to the max!) a sff mobo (matx, mitx).
7. Gonna go for a big video card. Weeee.

With all of those random childish thoughts in my head, I grabbed Paint, then Photoshop, then Paint again, then my FTP to get the job done.

Here's what I have currently planned to buy and do:
CASE: Black semi-transparent acrylic case (hand done by me of course :p )
MOBO: http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/SBC/LV-674.HTM
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144808
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116238
GPU: Will be the last thing I order...and whatever is the best at the time (prolly 8800OCX by then)
DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827129170
HDD: RAID 0 (or better) of some 160/200/250gb sata2 drives (preferably samsung)
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817163109
FDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103516 (i'm gonna need one for everything on this mobo...will be mounted internally)

I still don't know what I'm going to do for 80mm fans or a heatsink, but I'm sure some brave soul here has a recommendation.

Here's my Paint design :p

mitx%20final%20design%202.png

Gold is mobo, light blue is video card, green is hdds, red is dvd burner, and dark blue is psu.

fyi, the area with the drives will be seperate from the rest of the case. I intend to have it hinge off from the rest of the case with some adonized hinges (unless a better idea presents itself here while i'm still thinking about it).

btw, as far as I know, this will be the first case built that holds a full size PSU and is M-itx compatible. So I plan to do it well. (commell is supposedly coming out with a case for it soon, but I can't wait...and I love acrylic :p )
 
I'm sure evryone has thier own priorities for these things, but when I put my htpc together I found I was more sensitive to fan noise than I thought I would be. You might want to do some experiments to see if the noise level from your proposed arrangement will be acceptible (to you).

I don't use my htpc for gaming, it's strictly multimedia. We've got a nice conventional tv, non-hidef. I ended up using a laptop board from a ebay'd hp laptop with a broken lcd; it's virtually silient. Media Center runs fine on my onboard graphics (s-video out). My point is unless you will have the need of a powerful card you might want to consider a lower power option (one less fan).
 
agent420 said:
I'm sure evryone has thier own priorities for these things, but when I put my htpc together I found I was more sensitive to fan noise than I thought I would be. You might want to do some experiments to see if the noise level from your proposed arrangement will be acceptible (to you).

I don't use my htpc for gaming, it's strictly multimedia. We've got a nice conventional tv, non-hidef. I ended up using a laptop board from a ebay'd hp laptop with a broken lcd; it's virtually silient. Media Center runs fine on my onboard graphics (s-video out). My point is unless you will have the need of a powerful card you might want to consider a lower power option (one less fan).
Click to expand...

I'll agree with you on the fan noise...thats why I was wondering if anyone knew of any decent 80mm UV or Blue LED fans out there that are quiet...preferably 25mm thick too...

I'm still messing around with heatsinks...but I just don't know if they are better/worse than the stock cooler on this processor...

I basically want a power machine that has hi-def capabilities (hence waiting until the 8 series...prolly have hdmi output I hope...) but one that can still quiet down for watching tv. Thats why I was going to put the switches on the front...so I could kill a few fans when just watching tv...

also, that side 80mm fan would be basically where the vid card heatsink would be installed...so I thought that I would either do some crazy duct there or maybe just put in a fan like I thought before...
 
Darkala said:
test your fanage and see if its too loud
Click to expand...

once again, I need a few fan recommendations....preferably blue or uv...80mm

I looked around for a bit, but I've heard lots of bad stuff on all of em.
 
try the coolermaster 120 ones they i have a pair in my p180, they dont push alot of air but they a quiet. dont get the 80mm, they give off a high pitched whine.
 
strikeout said:
try the coolermaster 120 ones they i have a pair in my p180, they dont push alot of air but they a quiet. dont get the 80mm, they give off a high pitched whine.
Click to expand...

ty for the info, but after doing a mock case with cardboard (i'll post pics later), I realized that I can only really do 80mm fans. It'll be a total of 7 of them, with 1 120mm in the psu. So now I still could use a recommendation for 80mm fans...
 
Here's my mock up (until I get enough money for the mobo, psu, ram and cpu). Sure, I made it out of random cardboard layin around, and it's certainly very ghetto, but atleast you can kinda see what my vision is. And hey, atleast I'm advertizing cheerios and kleenex :D (cheesits too, but you can't see it)

I put a mock 7800gtz in there with a mock of my mobo. There is also a mock PSU and a mock hdd.

Day 1
First pic of pre-cut mockup. Right side of case.
1.jpg


Left side. Notice my hole for video card cooling.
2.jpg


Inside of HDD area. This is roughly what it'll look like. That little ledge that the hdd is sitting on will be some sort of metal screen to let airflow come in for the final product.
3.jpg


Bad pic with flash on (not my camera...it's from a kid down the hall). You can get a clear view of the mobo's size and placement.
6.jpg


A bit further back with the flash still on.
7.jpg


Day 2
I had the smart idea to cover it in duct tape (I have loads of rolls sitting around). With it, it'll look less like a bunch of shitty boxes and more like a design. Right side.
8.jpg


Left side. Notice the newly cut fan holes for the HDD section and the top vent for the case.
9.jpg


An ugly shot of the HDD area inside. This pic made me want to tape that stuff too.
10.jpg


Back of the case. Shows where the fan hole will be minus the holes for the PSU, mobo, and vid card.
11.jpg


Always gotta show my finger getting pwned. I managed to stab it with some scissors when trying to clean them off (ducttape leaves some nasty stuff on em when you go through 2 rolls).
12.jpg


I cleaned out the inside of the hdd area and prepared to make it look pretty :p
13.jpg


Pic of what it looked like done. It's hard to tell in this pic, but I added a piece of mesh for the fake hdd to rest on.
14.jpg


Easier to see the mesh here. I also added a small hole for the sata and power cables to get through.
15.jpg
 
I like how well-prepared you are.
Looking good so far! What are you doing to do with that "window" next to the video card?
 
daedal said:
I like how well-prepared you are.
Looking good so far! What are you doing to do with that "window" next to the video card?
Click to expand...

Not sure yet. It's either gonna be a hole for a 80mm fan, or a hole for the vf900 gpu heatsink...not sure yet...
 
I would not put 7 fans in such a small case, it pointless and loud really,
you can just have a vent next to the video card, make a couple holes however you like the design, and maybe 1 or 2 intakes with 1 out the top and psu.
I have 2- 80mm cooler masters (i htink) in my gamer, led and i love em, quiet and pull some pretty good air. I would also go for some low profile fans, the 80's i have arent, but my 120 is.

Other than that, love the mockup case......

Also if you can, get a usb floppy and save some internal room. Unless you just have your preference for that. Just my thought
 
darknite said:
I would not put 7 fans in such a small case, it pointless and loud really,
you can just have a vent next to the video card, make a couple holes however you like the design, and maybe 1 or 2 intakes with 1 out the top and psu.
I have 2- 80mm cooler masters (i htink) in my gamer, led and i love em, quiet and pull some pretty good air. I would also go for some low profile fans, the 80's i have arent, but my 120 is.

Other than that, love the mockup case......

Also if you can, get a usb floppy and save some internal room. Unless you just have your preference for that. Just my thought
Click to expand...

That's why I'm still looking around for a quiet 80mm low profile fan..

4 hdd fans are mainly just for show, but they will cool the hdds off enough imo.

I found these heatsinks...looks small enough and quiet enough for my needs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835103157
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835186134

I'm still mixed on what I'm gonna do with the floppy. It's gonna be a low profile notebook one (as that's the connector that the mobo has), so I might just mount it with the rest of my harddrives. This mobo uses floppy for almost everything (so unlike my current asus one), so having it continuously mounted might help out.

It might be cool (but I doubt that they make em) to find a slim floppy connector that is rounded and precovered in UV stuff, but I guess I'll have to do that myself.

The next thing I'm gonna research is hinges for the hdd area to open up. I think it would be best to put the hinges on the bottom of the case, but I'm still gonna research what kind would be the best (spring loaded, etc). I just need to find the type of hinge in an oil polished brass (has this nice shiny black look that pwns).
 
nice fans, keep a worklog of it, i like worklogs even though im about to be off inet fo rlike 12 weeks.
 
darknite said:
nice fans, keep a worklog of it, i like worklogs even though im about to be off inet fo rlike 12 weeks.
Click to expand...
That's pretty much what this is, but if you read them forum rules, it says that you shouldn't put it into the worklog section until you've actually started it. ;)

FLECOM said:
What qualifies as a work log:

Projects that you have started to work on and is ongoing. Finished cases should be posted in the Gallery. Only exception to this rule is a finished project which is written up as a log complete with pictures and history. In other words it must look and read like a project log.

What does not qualify as a work log:

Finished projects. These should be posted in the Gallery.

Project plans like "this is an idea I have". Feel free to post those in the Case Modding forum. If later it turns into an actuall project then you can post your worklog here.
Click to expand...
 
Well, I got straight A's my 2nd semester at college, so the parents are giving me the go-ahead for the build this summer. I've made a few changes to the line-up:

CASE: Custom black semi-transparent acrylic case
MOBO: http://www.bwi.com/prod/13148
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146567
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116240
GPU: Onboard until the next big card comes out. Like the 6000000GT RLSLSI :p
DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827129004
HDD: 3x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152025
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817163109
FDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103516

As you can see, way more money being put in. Maybe cause parents are gonna pay for alot of it now :p

One thing...I gotta email Commell and ask what their BIOS allows for voltage for the RAM...cause the stuff I picked out likes 2.1v, which seems high in my mind for an industrial board....

I'm also considering forgetting about RAID and just getting 1 large SATA II drive, and throwing everything in this:

http://www.commell.com.tw/Product/Peripheral/Enclosure&Accessory/SD-321.HTM
 
Ahoy!

Today I saw the review for this Lian-Li case (Clicky) and now I think that I'll just mod one of those to make the computer. Also, I wouldn't need to spend extra money on slimline drives to make everything fit.

This project is still in motion, but due to poor grades last semester, it won't be a possibility for atleast another 6 months (after my new job ends, in other words). It's paying 20$ an hour, and 1/8th of that is gonna pay off college, and the rest will be for food and this project.

I need to hurry tho, cause commell took alot of mobos off of their listing on their site (which they also moved). This place is still selling the mobo tho: http://www.bwi.com/prod/13148
 
Ok.. well... advice. When you are considering making a computer, post in other threads to ask for opinions/help. Then, when the time is right and you have ALL the parts, post your day to day progress of building/modding the stuff with detailed pictures. That would go in the work log section. The thread will gain more popularity and respect. I mean, I can make a thread and speculate on what I'm going to buy, then change it, then change it again, then delay it.. Its just not something people want to participate in. :(
 
wiretap said:
Ok.. well... advice. When you are considering making a computer, post in other threads to ask for opinions/help.
Click to expand...

I have been doing this. Mainly my reason for posting what I want todo in this thread is so that I don't forget my master plan. And so a few of my friends can follow my ideas and IM me later saying how dumb I am :p

wiretap said:
Then, when the time is right and you have ALL the parts, post your day to day progress of building/modding the stuff with detailed pictures. That would go in the work log section.
Click to expand...

I know this much. This post was originally in the worklog section when I was a n00b, and they moved it over here and told me why. :D

This thread was put in this part of the forum because it said in the rules to put it in here.


Work Log Forum rules said:
What does not qualify as a work log:

Finished projects. These should be posted in the Gallery.

Project plans like "this is an idea I have". Feel free to post those in the Case Modding forum. If later it turns into an actual project then you can post your worklog here.
Click to expand...

I have a thread like this also going because I like to get all of my projects perfect...a no-problem build. I can usually get away with this if I plan well enough. Whenever I do this build, it will have been my 19th comp build in the past year, and each of those builds took loads of time for planning and pricing.

Truthfully, I'm still waiting for that mobo to come down to "Clearance" pricing, the case to be on newegg, and for myself to learn a bit more about watercooling and OCing before I attempt to do both on this build.

Just chill for the moment, and I'll be back in a month or 2 saying that I've bought most of the parts (minus the mobo and watercooling, unless I get some major price droppage).

I was planning on ordering the processor today, with what money I have:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116005
But it's out of stock :p
 
Hi, how is your mod comming along?
I was looking for some info on the same Commell mobo, LV-674.
I did a mod with nearly the same components. Very nice mobo indeed. Amazing what they can pack into such a small board!

Here is my mod...
PAPSAK Mod

Unfortunately the LV-674 board does not support the Intel 900 series CPU, as yet.
I am still waiting for a bios update.

Keep up the good work!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top