Now you gotta heatsink BIGGER than yer Case . Them fire exstiguisher's are dayum fine from all the reviews I've read.

Quote: Originally Posted by Lokie You will be really suprised on just how quiet that PSU really is. I bet you will check to make sure the fan is running.

Eggcellent.

I'm a big fan of having my cake and eating it too.

Looks like rain the next couple of days, so no more painting for awhile. I thought I'd tackle the ugliness that is the inside-the-case portion of bay devices. Here's the DVD writer covered with carbon fiber film.

I cut the film about an inch oversize in every direction, then trim it down once it's in place. This gives you a little wiggle room if the film doesn't lay down perfectly square. I prefer a razor blade for square cuts, the greater surface area allows you to rest it against the surface you're cutting away from without nicking it. Very important on something like the side panels.

Applying a little heat helps the film to stretch and conform to odd shapes. The needle is for any bubbles that might form and for releasing air from the inset sections so the film will stick.

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If I ever say I'm going to strip off aluminum anodizing, just shoot me. I'll never do this again, but it looks kind of cool. It does however make flash photography next to impossible.

I'll shut up and let you look at the pics now.

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This should be in the featured worklogs....

Amazing work bro.

My compliments....

I second the featured worklog! Simply amazing detail there, bro!

Thanks for the props guys, much appreciated.

One thing about the modding process, you always find things to do you never would have considered when you started.

HEAR HEAR !!! FEATURE THAT SWEET BOOTY ........errrr ...... Case .

Nice work on the cromage Mike , and i'm really liking them wheels more and more

Saweet project Mike! it looks like it's a helluva good time dude.

That's looking frickin' sweet Mike!
Those bay covers came up ridiculously good!

(By the way, you got plans to ride that case down a hill at all?)

Thanks guys.

Quote: Originally Posted by mnpctech Saweet project Mike! it looks like it's a helluva good time dude.

Absolutely, I'm having fun with this one.

Quote: Originally Posted by MasterP (By the way, you got plans to ride that case down a hill at all?)

Tempting ...but no. My street luge is a NZXT Adamas case.

Well the weather was a little borderline for painting and it shows. It got a little orange peely, but since it's the first coat (coats) it won't matter. I'll sand this one down and do it at least two more times, two or three coats each time to even out the surface and then buff it all out.

The gold leaf really pops even in low light.

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Okay, so I'm too lazy to clean up the fingerprints for a progress shot, but the window cut out is all buffed out and mounted in place using black hex bolts. That's about 9 coats of clear sanded with 400 grit between every three coats. Then it was wet sanded with 600, 800, 2000 grit then buffed with rubbing compound and then polishing compound. I'll let it cure good and pull it apart in about six weeks and wax it.

I used a bit of modders mesh in the lower cutout area to simulate shadow. The back of the cutout and the edges of the acrylic have sound damping material applied to them to both seal the window and separate the two a bit and prevent any vibration.

You won't see them when it's all together, but acorn nuts make for a nice finished look on the inside and the whole thing comes apart relatively easy for cleaning. The mesh also hides the corner I chipped when I was drilling the holes. I remember now why I prefer Lexan over acrylic. The smoked acrylic does look nice with all the black.

I'm quite happy with the way it turned out.

Edit: I also had to whack a bit off the back panel to fit the window.

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A test fit on the window ...perfect.

And no, I did not polish the inside of the bay covers, but I did dress 'em up a bit.

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GREAT work on the Project AntiM

Artwork is BADASS!

Quote: Originally Posted by THRASHER2 GREAT work on the Project AntiM Artwork is BADASS!

Hmmmm... Project: Badass.

It's got a ring to it. And it's descriptive. Thanks mang.

Here's the blow hole all mounted up. Satin black > Silver.

♪Spider grill ♫ Spider grill ♫ ...does whatever a spider grill ♪ ...um ...does. ♫

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AntiM, how long did it take with the "Easy Off" to take off the anodizing? I am going to do stripping some anodizing soon and am looking at either the "Easy Off" method or just using some water and lye....

I went for 45 minutes. The problem is the Easy Off bubbles and you get pockets that are still anodized. It's actually kind of a cool look if you could get it to do it consistently.

I still spend a good deal of quality time with 220 grit sand paper to take it down to bare aluminum.

The lye method is worth a shot, I don't know how it will handle a hard anodized surface though.

Well, I will probably go with the lye method. You can still purchase it on Ebay.

I plan on just mixing it up in a small bucked and then either using a sponge to apply it to the face of the part. I really don't want to eat up the back side of the parts. If that doesn't work out too well, I will just do the dip method and do it slowly. I think the best bet on the dip method would be to just mix the lye in very diluted and just monitor it closely.

Well, I've been taking a little break in the modding process, more this weekend. I've just been kinda looking at it and thinking.

In the mean time, I've been debating over what sound card to use for this build. The onboard asus HD card is really very decent and I've got a very capable if somewhat underwhelming Razer AC-1 in another rig.

For gaming, especially support for older games and full EAX in Vista, nobody can touch Creative X-Fi, especially the X-ram cards. But X-Fi cards lack so much in other areas like optical connections on the card, Dolby Digital Live, solid state caps. That and I hate feeding the monopoly that is Creative and I'm still ticked over the whole Audigy garbage driver ordeal.

And there's plenty of cards built around chips like the CMI8788 that use much better components than Creative and support Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Digital, DTS Interactive, DTS: Neo PC and Dolby Digital Live and specs that equal or surpass the X-Fi in most respects. But don't support EAX past EAX 2, much less EAX-HD or X-ram.



So I ordered a X-Fi card ...made by Auzentech. The Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1.

As far as the speakers I'll be using, you'll have to wait for the review.

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♫ Look out, ♪ ......here comes ♪ the Spider Griiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillll! ♫ ♪♪

Second grill all mounted up. And lot's more finger prints and some dust. Not to worry, there's a car wash a couple of blocks from my house.

Well my sitting and just looking at what I had so far and thinking about it led me to the fact that I was not happy with the carbon fiber on the DVD drive bezel. It just clashed with the look of the bay covers. I was going to pull most of it off the bezel leaving just the tray covered and the rest plain black, then I remembered I had a CoolerMaster aluminum drive cover stashed away.

I know I said I wouldn't do anymore anodizing stripping, but I did find out that if you rub the oven cleaner with a toothbrush every 15 minutes or so while it's stripping the anodizing, it comes off much cleaner and more even. Live and learn. I let it work for a full hour this time. Rather than strip the whole thing I decided on a two-tone look to compliment the fan controller.

This is the cover sanded down with 220 grit before more sanding with finer grits and eventual polishing, the Sharpie marks where the LED indicator is. I'll drill a pin hole to match those over the LED's on the fan controller bezel.

I'll also cut away some of the bezel cover and drill some new mounting holes so the drive will fit flush in the bay. Right now the case's bays have a little lip that stops the drive in the perfect position for mounting ...normally. A hobby saw and file will make short work of modding the plastic drive bezel to accommodate the new cover. This should bring my vision of the front bezel all together.

I hope to get all the wiring I'm going to sleeve, sleeved and planned out this weekend as well.

Edit: All polished up and a quick look at it in place. Yepper, that'll work. As they say in France, "That eez wan peemp DVD bezelle!" Now I'm happy.

Edit 2: And done with the DVD. Snapshots don't really do it justice, I promise better pics when I've got everything together.

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really looks good... I would have to say your painting skills are amazing..