Well its been a while since I posted here, simply because the mobo in my last rig died. Also I had gotten an X-FI sound card for Christmas which from my experience does not work well with AGP boards. SO, point being, I took it as an incentive to upgrade. My new rig's specs:

Athlon 64 3500+
1.5 GB (Technically 2 Gigs.. its complicated) RAM.
XFX Geforce 7800 GT OC
X-Fi Sound Card
80GB IDE-HDD
Hiper R-Type 580W PSU

Some pics:









YUCK! Look at that ugly stock heatsink, and flat ribbon cables. That was the result of my poor memory; forgetting my pretty rounded IDE cables. But I got them in now, so those are gone.

Anyways, I decided that though I love my Thermaltake Tsunami case, I believe its time to subject it to some punishment and mod the thing. I've got BIG plans for this thing. Expect a bunch of changes to the case as well as some upgrades. I need to get away from IDE, looking to throw a Western Digital Raptor in there (w00t! SATA!) As well as solve my RAM problem. Also thinking of throwing one of those Cooler Master Susurro's in there.

As far as the modding goes, I am going to start some caster wheels. I am not sure yet though if I want the typical black plastic ones, or the nice metal ones. Probably those. What do you guys think? Also, I was browsing MNPCTECH and noticed a couple things I wouldn't mind getting. I plan on installing a 92mm fan on top of my case to release some of the hot air coming from the PSU; putting the Machined Billet Blowhole and Billet Handles. Then put some chrome film over the front door. Make it look sleeeak. Also, not sure about this one yet, but I am considering custom making some metal molding to go around the edges of my case. Could look pretty nice.

Anyway, I just thought I'd get this worklog started, since I'm po' and its going to be a long road to the finish line. Thanks for reading guys. Also give some props to my roomie, bluezharpking, who's starting his first build. Peace!

Nice dude- The tsunami dream's a sweet case

Yep - go visit MNPCTech and buy up big - he's got good stuff! Metal castors are all good too - mixrd with the paintjob on that baby, chrome would look SWEET!

So as for the title, did you mean metal? if you did - go get some spikes! (oh! check out www.dragonmodz.net too!)

Looking forward to the progress reports

Haha, actually I meant the element . But it is something to think about. That may be going a little overboard though.

Definately just ran across an idea. When I thought of my Tsunami Dream case I instantly thought of an old famous japanese artwork I had seen a while back. I am tempted to buy some plexi and send it off to get it laser etched since I am very in-experienced with etching and cut a space for it on the other side of my case. I've always hated that it was so bare and unused. Was thinking of black plexi. What do you guys think? Possibly even getting it painted?



EDIT: Sorry about the double post. Didnt' even think about it.

Sweet, I have a tsunami and cant think of anything to do to it so I will defenitly be watching this to see what you do with it.

Quote: Originally Posted by ManOfMandango Definately just ran across an idea. When I thought of my Tsunami Dream case I instantly thought of an old famous japanese artwork I had seen a while back. I am tempted to buy some plexi and send it off to get it laser etched since I am very in-experienced with etching and cut a space for it on the other side of my case. I've always hated that it was so bare and unused. Was thinking of black plexi. What do you guys think? Possibly even getting it painted? EDIT: Sorry about the double post. Didnt' even think about it.

Oh if only I could copyright mods....Where do you think I got my avatar from? I asked FunkyFresh to mix in some elements of that and I would use it as the symbol on MY Tsunami dream mod...

pretty sweet ideas bro. i got a tsunami case in my closet just waiting to be butchered. cant wait to see what ideas i can "borrow" from your thread. Good LUCK!

It is funny. I've seen a lot of people who have this case, but only a very small few actually do something worthwhile to it...(Beyond the CCFL in the handle mod).

^^Copyrighted by me!...j/k, mooched off someone else too!

LOL. Wow, I feel kind of bad now, Gzim. Only thing is from what I see in your avatar its much more simplistic. I'd rather keep mine the way it is. I think its beautiful. Anyway, like I said, its going to take a long time.. since I'm a college student without a job.. *opens wallet* *moths fly out* *wallet then bursts into flames* Yeaa... Thanks for all the responses guys! Keep'm coming. I'm probably going to try to find my caster wheels this coming week if not this weekend. Then there comes the task of mounting them. Probably going to have to drill some holes. My spring break should give me some valueable time to start modding (March 3 onward). I look forward to it.

~ manofmandango

Hey you want to etch the massive very liney work, more power to you!

I'd try that artwork on a spare plate of 'plexi first.... because, to me, it doesn't look easy!
But then again, if you pull it off, you've got yourself a beautiful etch.... I really enjoy those
japanese artworks! Simple, almost plain in appearance... but with a lot of stories to tell...
and yes... this dragon likes art....

TDR

I was actually thinking it may be better to have it airbrushed on the side. With the metal trim I'm going to slap on, it may look very sleak and nice. Who knows. But its good to find someone else who appreciates japanese art.

I asked FF to do my avatar all simplified since I was planning on etching it in a few places, and etching doesn't quite allow for a high color scheme...

An airbrushed mural would be pretty sick....not to ramble too much, but if you somehow.....had a big window in the general shape of the wave, and had some combination of etching and semitransparent paint, it would be the sickest ever...

::remind self to stop thinking so big, wallet is not half as thick as project would require::

Lose the ribbon cable and color up.Jo

As I stated earlier.. I have lost the ribbon cables.. Those are day old pictures. And I agree with you Gzim. But.. I'm poor.. haha..

Well guys, after much attempt.. I believe it is impossible to stealth a drive on my case. The drive rails make the optical bay stick out too much from the front causing the stealthed cover to not sit flush with the others. Very frustrating. On another note, I went and sized up screws today for mounting a fan to a copper heatsink off a Venus 12. And also went and looked at caster wheels. Hopefully those will get purchased and put on tomorrow. If not, it'll get done eventually. Enjoy the small update though it may be on a negative note.

~ manofmandango

Not so impossible, you are just going to have to improvise a mounting solution, maybe modding the rails? I know that in my set up (same case as you), the cdrom I'm using now is nanometers from a capacitor on the motherboard, but my friend tells me BenQ is good with short drives...maybe that helps...

if you dont mind a little extra work, jus take off the adapter things to hold in the drives and drill some holes after you measured where you want it an out some screws in it (old school). Thats what i did to my tsunami

Remember how I had mentioned that stock aluminum heatsink before? Well its soon to be no more. I dug out my old Venus 12 heatsink in hopes of mounting it, but ran into two problems. First off, it was horribly tarnished from old thermal grease applications (increasing the possiblity of performance decrease), and I had somehow missplaced the mounting screws for the 80mm fan that comes with it. I have to drive downtown to the super hardware store to get some pretty specific screws for it (something around 4-40 1&1/2). So before doing that, I decided to grab some Brasso and clean up that ugly mess.

Brasso FTW!



Before:



After:



As you can see, Brasso works wonders. Tune in for more updates.

looks good. should make a nice smooth surface to apply the thermal compound. i never thought about using brass polish to clean copper up but it looks like it did a good job.