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thatkidchase
n00b
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2009
- Messages
- 2
What's up?
I've recently started modding a silver Thermaltake Aguila case that I acquired from my friend for a very reasonable price (free). He just upgraded to an Alienware and the case was just sitting in his apartment taking up room.
This isn't my first time building a computer (I've only owned one factory PC), but it is my first time modifying a case this heavily. So, I figured I'd tap a good resource of modders for ideas and tips.
What I have floating around in my head is pretty simple; I want a blacked out chassis (going to paint all of it flat black), nearly invisible wiring, custom water cooling, optimal air flow with few fans and relatively quite operation.
So far, I've only disassembled the chassis down to the frame and began prepping the sheet metal and plastics for paint. Only a couple of pieces are primed and wet sanded, the rest are prepped (mainly because the weather hasn't been cooperating), excluding the frame itself. The frame has a lot of intimidating nooks and crannies, but I need to man up and just do it. I won't bother posting pics of the process because I'm sure you've all seen it before. I will, however, post pics of the final product.
As for hiding the wiring, I've decided to make covers for the top half of the case and the 5.25 bays out of either fiberglass or carbon fiber and tuck the wiring behind those. Molding the pieces is going to be the hard part, but what I'm really having difficulty on is deciding whether or not to do it with FG or carbon. Fiberglass would be the wiser choice because of its price (2x2 modified twill is $9.50/yard, versus $65/yard for CF), but CF looks awesome if done right.
What I want for water cooling is still up in the air, but I have a rough idea of what I want. Its only going to cool the processor, so nothing really extreme.
I still haven't decided what components are going to go in, I'm torn between doing an i7 setup or going AMD. AMD is considerably cheaper, and seeing how I want to keep this on some-what of a budget, it'll probably be the route I take.
I'm taking my time on this one so I do it right and the final result is what I envisioned.
I've recently started modding a silver Thermaltake Aguila case that I acquired from my friend for a very reasonable price (free). He just upgraded to an Alienware and the case was just sitting in his apartment taking up room.
This isn't my first time building a computer (I've only owned one factory PC), but it is my first time modifying a case this heavily. So, I figured I'd tap a good resource of modders for ideas and tips.
What I have floating around in my head is pretty simple; I want a blacked out chassis (going to paint all of it flat black), nearly invisible wiring, custom water cooling, optimal air flow with few fans and relatively quite operation.
So far, I've only disassembled the chassis down to the frame and began prepping the sheet metal and plastics for paint. Only a couple of pieces are primed and wet sanded, the rest are prepped (mainly because the weather hasn't been cooperating), excluding the frame itself. The frame has a lot of intimidating nooks and crannies, but I need to man up and just do it. I won't bother posting pics of the process because I'm sure you've all seen it before. I will, however, post pics of the final product.
As for hiding the wiring, I've decided to make covers for the top half of the case and the 5.25 bays out of either fiberglass or carbon fiber and tuck the wiring behind those. Molding the pieces is going to be the hard part, but what I'm really having difficulty on is deciding whether or not to do it with FG or carbon. Fiberglass would be the wiser choice because of its price (2x2 modified twill is $9.50/yard, versus $65/yard for CF), but CF looks awesome if done right.
What I want for water cooling is still up in the air, but I have a rough idea of what I want. Its only going to cool the processor, so nothing really extreme.
I still haven't decided what components are going to go in, I'm torn between doing an i7 setup or going AMD. AMD is considerably cheaper, and seeing how I want to keep this on some-what of a budget, it'll probably be the route I take.
I'm taking my time on this one so I do it right and the final result is what I envisioned.
.
