Alright the people have spoken and what they want to see from me is a SFF (Small Form Factor) Case build themed after the ever popular and one of my
personal fav games F.E.A.R. so here it is and here it will begin.





The case in which I will be using as the foundation of this build will be the Thermaltake LANBOX Lite as all the compartments are modular which
will help reduce some of the construction time on some of the housings for the computer parts.



Once I get my hands onto this case (which should be soon its in transit) I will be able to examine it further and then start sketching out some possible themed render for the build.
UPDATE 8-20-07: Case came in today, I will get some pics up soon.


Hardware:
(The hardware I plan to run in this build)

CPU: Intel Q6600 G0 SLACR
PSU: OCZ GameXStream 1010w Power Supply // Sponsored By: OCZ Technology
Mobo: GIGABYTE GA-G33M-S2H LGA 775 Intel G33 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Ram: SUPER TALENT 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory
GPU: On-Board Video until the 2950 comes out.
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3750640AS 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive // Sponsored By: Geeks.com
ODD: LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model LH-20A1L-06
X-Box 360 HD-DVD Player
Wifi: D-Link DWA-556 PCI Express Xtreme Wi-Fi Card (uses the PCI-E x4 slot)

Cooling:
Swiftech H20-120 Compact Water Cooling (Used to cool the dual or quad-core) // Sponsored By: Swiftech
AlphaCool Cape Bullseye Reservoir (placed in-line with the H20-120) // Sponsored By: ArcticMOD.com
Feser One - F1 - Cooling Fluid - BLACK / UV RED (custom mix) // Sponsored By: Feser-One.com
All fans used in this build was Sponsored By: AcousticPC.com
Noctua NC-U6 Dual Heatpipe Chipset Cooler (For the North Bridge) // Sponsored By: AcousticPC.com
All other hardware will be cooled with the stock cooling unless stated.

Case Lighting: All case lighting used in this build was Sponsored By: CoolerGuys.com

Here is the box that the case came in.


The Case itself and all its glory.


The case versus a screw driver... the case didnt stand a chance.


What will be painted Red.


Here is a pic of what came in one of the boxes, ya I know its not much but its important none the less. ^_^


Here is an image of the LS DVD Burner that will be used and the X-Box HD DVD drive not sure how I will mod this just yet.



And in this next pic, I will be using one of those style Res in this build, it will be installed in-line with the Swiftech H20-120 Compact Water Cooling

Alright at first I thought I was going to have to mount the Res outside of the case as I wouldnt have room for it on the inside, well after staring at the case for a nice long time, I figured out how I can have it installed on the inside and make it so that I could slide the top panel off still to get access to the system.



It will make more since when I cut it and upload that image

Also by relocation the lower HDD rack, I am able to keep the extra storage location but still be able to mount a longer graphics card.



Also by removing the top 3.25 bay location, frees up room for me to be able to install the Radiator from the swiftech kit, now I just have to decide if I will have the fan flush with the outside of the case and the rad inside or have the fan inside the case and the rad mounted flush to the outside of the case.



Now for the paint. ^_^

I cleaned and prepped half of the items I plan to paint, the other half I have to do some modding on.

Alright after two coats of primer.



Here is the first coat of color, after it cures I will wet sand and then apply the second coat, let it dry and paint the other side with the same process.

Painting is done on these items, so yay for that ^_^





I painted the drive cage, oh ya painting those tight areas was fun ~_~ ya I know I could have drilled out all the rivets and then paint each part and then rivet it back together but where is the challenge in that =p

Oh if you noticed I even painted areas that wont be seen by human eyes but its that extra step that really wins over people and besides the world might not see it but at least you know its there



Tomorrow I will cut the spot for the Res out and paint the bottom of the top panel and figure out where I am going to put the visual flow meter and more importantly the temp monitor, I also have to plan out where the handle will get installed and by the looks of things it will have to go dead middle of the case, I wanted to have two handle but some really extensive modding would have to be done and well it just wasnt worth the amount of work to get that to happen so I will be going with a single industrial looking handle that collapse inside of the case when not in use..

Alright here is a pic of a quick test fit, the PSU bracket has not been painted yet so its not seen here in these pics.




I have decided on an image that I will have etched, this one was created by a friend of mine and he goes by the name of Tivon, this image will either be color etched or blackout etch we will see what I go with later on, it will be on the same side as where I will mount the Rad. The other side of the case I have not decided on it I will leave it with the standard clear vented side panel that originally came with it or do something a little more custom.

Here is a shot with all the modular parts installed minus the lid



In this next pic you will see the prep work for getting ready to cut the handly location, now if you noticed I taped down a paint mixing stick,
I use that as a guid when Im cutting with the dremel, it adds some extra reinsurance that Im cutting a straight line.



Here is a shot with the handle installed in the top panel, next up is to cut where the res will be mounted.

Well hers another update:

I installed the OCZ 1010 watt PSU





I love how compact this power supply is, perfect for power hungry SFF cases. ^_^

I cut out the location where the Res will be installed, here is the res mounting plate



I used Acorn nuts to hold the res mount plate in place, I think its a great look for it.



Alright next up I installed the res, to make sure it all fits and will clear the pci slot location, which is does nicely ^_^



Last is a shot with it all installed and the next pic after that is a nice close up, all in all I think it looks awesome ^_^

Well everyone I got the motherboard in today ^_^



So the first thing I did after staring at it for a while was to remove that almost useless north bridge heatsink and install the Noctua NC-6 heatsink.



Oh isnt is pretty ^_^





Tomorrow I will be getting the Swiftech H20-120 Compact Water Cooling, so I will have another update for you soon

The Swiftech H20-120 Compact Water Cooling Kit arrived today ^_^

I must say the packaging that it came in is pretty nice and man they really meant it when they said compact.



Here is everything that came inside the box



Close up of the pump/block combo and back plate.



The back plate installed on the motherboard



And here is the Block installed on the motherboard




Now as for the Radiator, well at first I thought I was going to have to mount the Rad on the outside of the case and the fan on the inside of the case but after checking it out, its so compact that I will be able to mod it so that the fan and rad will be installed inside of the system and all that will probably happen tomorrow. ^_^

okay I know I said I would start cuttin tomorrow but ya didnt want to wait, alright I cut away the hardrive location on the cage to make room for the fan and rad.

Here is a shot of the fan and rad mocked in place.



and yes there is enough room to fit a 2900XT.... BARELY ^_^

oh and here is a shot of showing how tight of a fit it is for the fan/rad.



I did a quick mock up of how the water cooling system will be installed in this system to try and maintain as best of air flow as possible and still keep it clean looking.

oh and if any of you are curious with out my designs and changes Im modding it in such a way so that I can achieve and maintain its modular design and being able to remove all the parts without anything conflicting, so I have been doing a lot of cutting a trimming like the modular part that hold the optical drives, that drops down and slides forward, I had to cut a channel so that it will still drop down and slide forward past the rad and fan thats on the side.




I still have to do some clean up work but you get the idea

Its looking pretty sweet right now. Just for future reference I would cut your pieces before cutting just so you don't ruin that pretty paint job...

What is the bubble top for your reservoirs?? Is that just for looks??

How are you planning on covering up one of the sides without giving the radiator room to breathe (expel the hot air to the outside or pull in cool air from the outside)??

Other than that looks pretty sweet and keep up the good work!!

Quote: Originally Posted by swimsfast99 Its looking pretty sweet right now. Just for future reference I would cut your pieces before cutting just so you don't ruin that pretty paint job...

Yes Im well aware of that, it was just an unforeseen situation that I didnt anticipate at the beginning.

Quote: Originally Posted by swimsfast99 What is the bubble top for your reservoirs?? Is that just for looks??

Its primarily for looks but also helps prevent those little condensation/ air bubbles that you see form at the top of most people res and its nice to be able to look at your fluid level and see that everything is still flowing, and well it plain looks cool ^_^

Quote: Originally Posted by swimsfast99 How are you planning on covering up one of the sides without giving the radiator room to breathe (expel the hot air to the outside or pull in cool air from the outside)??

I will be cutting the current side window to make room for it but plan to get a custom etch window installed in its place.

Quote: Originally Posted by swimsfast99 Other than that looks pretty sweet and keep up the good work!!

I will and thanks. ^_^

Small update for today,

In keeping with the idea of making this system easy to get into and work on, instead of having the window panels on the inside I will have them on the outside of the case with bolts and nuts to hold it in place so I can get to it faster as the side panels on these cases dont come off so making the windows come off makes it a little easier to work on.

Of course I changed it up just a bit so that it looks better on the outside.





The same will be done to the other side, after I cut the window to fit with the Rad in place.

Yea IDK why you painted before doing stuff like the handle and what not. Easy way to burn or chip off paint. Also looks ike you got some orange peel on some of the painted pieces. Also whats with the still silver parts around the top. I know its not seen but modding is all aobut the details

well someone is very negative this afternoon not enough sleep I gather???

Okay I will put it as simple as possible so that I dont have to repeat myself again.

Quote: Originally Posted by Cpt.Planet Yea IDK why you painted before doing stuff like the handle and what not. Easy way to burn or chip off paint.

First I didnt paint the handle before I installed it, it came that shade of black plan to paint it later to match. As for cutting some parts after I already painted them well there were a few things that I didnt anticipate during the build that I had to change and cut but hey that happens when your modifying a prebuilt case cant always predict how every part will fit.

Quote: Originally Posted by Cpt.Planet Also looks ike you got some orange peel on some of the painted pieces.

Nope no orange peel just my crappy 2mp camera and dust, I wet sanded between coats and then I colored sanded at the end.

Quote: Originally Posted by Cpt.Planet Also whats with the still silver parts around the top. I know its not seen but modding is all about the details

I guess you dont paint stuff often, okay paint adds thickness to whatever is being coated and therefor you have to take into account that added thickness, seeing how the top cover slides over that metal and is already a tight fit to go and paint that area would hinder its ability to slide and would even stick, not to mention you would scratch off paint due to the tight fit, so just like the company themselves when they painted the case they did not paint that area for the same reason, its just common sense, well common sense for most.