Project Lumière Noire by E.E.L. Ambiense

You have some serious marbles to make cuts in such a nice case. I'd be worried about messing up and having to purchase more stuff. My hat off to you sir!
 
Really nice log. Can't even really tell what the original case was. Very big! Well done for a modder too poor to afford a ceiling in his shop!
 
Shush, I'm hiding in Marilyn's ID. I'm branching out. I've been reading the Via forum. They haven't seen a H2O cooled C7 yet.
john
 
I like your shroud idea. I may have to try that myself with my spare unused fans.
 
Hey, there!

Just checking in with a small update. I've been hard at work finalizing the old girl. Wiring is basically all done now. Cable management is basically all done as well. I've upgraded my secondary hard-drive to a new Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB drive. Nice drive too. It's a bit more quiet than the older 300gb unit it's replacing. Seems fast too, so I'm happy.

System's all plumbed and all the annoying 'new loop foam' has settled down to nothing. :LOL: Build is bloody quiet. Just what I wanted. All temps look perfect. Looks like my north bridge block is working perfect as well.

I installed Vista x64 perfectly fine. Patched up all the way and installed the other set of RAM, so I'm now running 8gb of RAM. I barely bumped the north bridge up a bit, but I don't even think it needs it. You know how a system feels...I dunno...solid when you first turn it on? That's how this system feels. I feel confident in it's health. I've already bumped the CPU up 200mhz, but I'm sure I'll push it a bit more. I've already installed Steam and most of my account's games for testing out the GPU. Works great. :) Frame rates are perfectly fine for what I need.

Anyways, enough boring stuff. Here's a handful of pics until I get to the finish line really soon. I have one more final piece I'm cutting for this rig...

I finally got around to adding the hosecoils to the rig....

shotinsidedone1.jpg


I made an acrylic PSU bracket...

psu_bracketdone1.jpg


And I drilled out a hole for the GPU's status LED on a PCI slot cover and finally coated all of them in gunmetal. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I ditched the stock 2-slot bracket on the GPU for a single-slot one. I always do that. I don't like the 2-slot ones for some reason.

pci_coversdone1.jpg


Also shot the I/O plate in gunmetal as well...

backiodone1.jpg


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Until the next update, I got nuthin'. :thumb:
 
Well... here's the thing. I needed to go ahead and activate Vista because I ran out of days. Anyways, did that, no problem. I also needed to install FarCry 2 as well. So I put the disc in the drive..... nothing. No spinup; nothing. I was like, 'huh'. BIOS reads the drive fine as well. So I checked the drive in Device Manager. Looks fine. Driver installed and 'device is working properly'. Well, apparently it isn't, because I can't get anything to run on it! I tried burns, DVD's, CD's, pressed discs, nothing. The eject mechanism works, but that seems to be the end of it. I don't get it. So I Googled and read and read and Googled, but I don't see much of any substance. There was an issue with some optical drives in Vista that required some easy registry editing, which I attempted, but the keys they recommended to be removed weren't there to begin with, so that's not my problem. I think the drive just simply died. Which is funny, because it was first turned on fully and used to install Vista a month ago! I haven't burned anything with it. Barely used. But it's a Panasonic UJ-85JS (?) I believe. Made by Matshita. And apparently, these are legendary for being utter crap.

I'll get this taken care of soon though. Just wanted to drop in a heads-up!
 
Okay, small update. I've been troubleshooting the issue with the burner from every angle, and I've come to the conclusion that it's just a POS. :LOL: I've already gotten a replacement on its way to me, so when I get that I can swap them out and hopefully I'll be fine after that. Since I had been waiting on that, I've decided to go ahead and get some more wiring finished, as well as finishing the final stealth pieces for inside the chassis. So, I did so.

Here it is with a test-fit to make sure it's right. It's, in fact, right. ;)

mainplate_final1.jpg


mainplate_final2.jpg


So, let's peel up the protective paper and get everything situated where it needs to be. After installing velcro on the backside of the first stealthplate, I put it in place. Even though I'll have to remove it to get at the IDE bays to remove the dead burner, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

mainplate_fitting1.jpg


...And the final piece over that and screwed into place with thumbscrews. Perfect.

mainplate_fitting2.jpg


mainplate_fitting3.jpg


And to make things a bit more interesting, let's have a lighting test really quick, shall we? :D

Starting the beast up....

system_lighting_test1.jpg


...And lights-out!

system_lighting_test2.jpg


...Let's flip the rocker for the lighting on the bottom of the rig...

system_lighting_test3.jpg


...there we go....

system_lighting_test4.jpg


...And let's flip the rocker for the lighting on the top of the rig...

system_lighting_test5.jpg


...detecting a pattern? :LOL:

system_lighting_test6.jpg


If you haven't noticed yet, the right switch's (reset switch) light is on or off in some of the pics. This is because it's the status LED for the HDD activity.

...Close-up of the res's and front of the rig...

system_lighting_test7.jpg


...And a side shot of the rig.

system_lighting_test8.jpg



Hopefully I'll be able to get the replacement optical drive installed and everything will work fine. I'll have another update when it's grown into one.

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Until the next update, I got nuthin'.
 
Looking pretty :)

Shame that drive just died like that :( It's always confusing when hardware just dies suddenly.
 
At least you've now got a nice DVD casing to use for a new mini-PC project, right? ;)

BTW, nice work bench :)
 
You know that point of frustration where you're at your wits-end and you're no longer thinking logically and you're just looking for anything to fix the dilemma? That point where you feel like Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation where his character can't figure out why the x-mas lights are out and he flips out and holds both ends of the power conduit and yells as he smashes them together and they finally cascade and explode into wonderful light because it's finally working? Yeah, that run-on sentence is basically what has been plaguing me since the last update. Let me go into a bit more detail here. *sighs* :evil:

Okay, I had an issue with the original DVD-R lappy drive stopped working. I then get it work. Then it stops working again. I try a different cord. Same problem. I try in a different system. Same problem. I get a replacement drive of a completely different make. I try the original connected to another system again, and it works. Then the new one. It works fine....for a while, then it does the same thing. So I got through all this crap again, and finally came to the conclusion that it must be the lappy IDE-to-SATA board being finicky or something. Only other choice...you guessed it, IDE. So, I then embark on a journey to find a long black rounded IDE cable that's only for a single-device. I figured it'd be a cakewalk to locate something, right? Wow, was I ever wrong. Anyways, finally tracked down a 36" 1-device black rounded IDE cable. I get that today, by the way. So this evening I proceeded to tear out everything and re-install it all, with the IDE cable and the original lappy-IDE-to-desktop IDE converter board. I start the system up to test when it's all hanging out....--and the system doesn't see the drive. Argh! I proceeded to flip out and vibrate with utter sputtering anger, until I realize that getting angry only makes me more stupid. It's a scientific fact that the brain secretes an enzyme that temporarily lowers one's IQ when angry. Or in my case, permanently. :LOL: So I find the other converter board just like the one installed on the new lappy burner....and I get to looking at it.... they're supposed to be the same bloody unit, but I notice that one pinout is missing on the lower-row of pins on one, and it's reversed on the other (that I'm not using yet). I was like, "wtf?" So I proceed to swap the two out...and what do you know...the damn system reads the drive perfect. So I start to put stuff back together after feeling a bit better and calming down, and I'm totally paranoid at this point. I keep re-checking after restarting the rig to make sure it's still there. Not some vaporous thing that likes to mock and maim like the system seems to like to do to it's creator already! :LOL:

Anyways, everything seems to be okay for now. I hope. So I started to really button up the rig after cleaning up some stuff in it, and dusting. I finally wrapped hose-coils around the last bit of hosing in the back, even though you can't really see it. I knew it was there, so it bothered me. :hehe: Also installed both panels. It's funny; I hadn't looked at the window panel since I put it together all that time ago. The acrylic's been through two incarnations of these rigs already and it still looks great. Just needs a polishing with some Novus cleanser, but it's fine. I really love the look too; the stealthed 'nothing here' look, until you start the system up. ;)

I really need to polish the outside of the rig though, because it's been sitting here collecting dust and fingerprints for what seems like forever with this build, so I'll hopefully get that done soon. Anyways, I snapped a handful of pics really quick just to give you a taste, before I can feel confident enough to begin to call the mod finished. I'm going to run it and shut it off for the next week or so constantly checking to make sure everything's okay with it. How about this... It's in 'pre-finish' mode right now. There. Does that work? :LOL:

And the pics....

buttoned_up1.jpg


buttoned_up2b.jpg


buttoned_up2.jpg


buttoned_up3.jpg



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Until the next update, I got nuthin'. :thumb:
 
Looking more and more pretty :D

Glad to hear you got the optical drive working. Isn't hardware wonderful? ;)
 
I gotta say, from the details to the overall design & look, this thing has got to be one of the most awesome builds I've ever seen.

A great many kudos to you.
 
Elledan said:
Looking more and more pretty :D

Glad to hear you got the optical drive working. Isn't hardware wonderful? ;)
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Thank you! Ugh, hardware is soooo finicky, lol.

Pzych0 said:
Awesome! I love it!! :D
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Thanks!

supaspoon said:
I gotta say, from the details to the overall design & look, this thing has got to be one of the most awesome builds I've ever seen.

A great many kudos to you.
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Wow, that's a hell of a compliment. Thank you kindly!
 
Its simple amazing, i was looking for a case for my next watercooling rev and thanks for u i will chose this Lian Li model.

Keep modding it! :D
 
hausner said:
Its simple amazing, i was looking for a case for my next watercooling rev and thanks for u i will chose this Lian Li model.

Keep modding it! :D
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Hahaha, thanks man. It's a good rig and a nice chassis to work on. I think the next incarnation I may jump ship to a Silverstone for the next Noire, but nothing wrong with LiLis.

Enjoy the chassis if you go for it!
 
hmm I like the look of that front panel quite a bit. Thanks for giving me some ideas :)
 
Alright. Final update to this log, since everything's officially done. Actually, she's been done since April, but there's been a lot of 'red-tape' to get through. Now that the front-page article is up over at B-T, I'm released to upload the final photos of her in all her glory. Enjoy.


Lumière Noire
Final Photos​
Thumbs are clickable for large photos​









​
 
Still one of the prettiest mods to ever be graced by your love and attention :) Makes me wish I had the time and money to attempt something similar. It's got to be piles of fun ;)
 
If I only had 1/10 of ur mod skillz.

And your grammar!
 
E.E.L. Ambiense said:
Thanks, Elledan! LOL, "graced by my love and attention", huh? I'd bet any of my ex's would love to hear that. :rolleyes: :D
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My current girlfreind swears I spend more time and attention on my cable management in the house (Home Theater, Computers, ect) than I do on her. It tends to also be around the time I see a frying pan or curling iron flying my way....and to think, I dont even have near Your skills or tools....god can only imagine what would happen then....

I loved following this mod as well as your others. It gives me something to aspire to.
 
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