[Tower Mod] Mini Elite by wwwicked

[wwwicked]

Hi all, my name is Mark van Willigenburg and i'm living in The Netherlands.

First of all, my build is around the Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced. A cute and little itx case i waited a long time for to embrace it in my arms.

Now the time has come to modify it to the most cuteness, coolness and quietness case (offcourse within my expectations).

Cool, due to the Antec 620 modfication in the top. Quiet due to the semi passive power supply and ssd only and cute due to the little windows and something awkward on the top.

The hardware i'm going to use:

Allready got the most of the hardware, so in basics i've put the case a couple of weeks ago together:

Real nice feature is that it can house a full ATX psu.

If you use a lot of cable ties, then it is possible to route the cables a bit. Even so, it is still a lot of clutter.

Clearly, you can see that i used 3.5 inch hard drives at first. And they use a lot of space in this case.

The other side, still a lot of stuff in so less space.

I've used the front panel of the Cooler Master Silent Pro Hybrid, which is keeping the fans quite quiet. It also gave me some extra room for the cables.

An fully modulair power supply is a must if you often want to gain access to the inside of the case.

I've added a custom made ledstrip inside, it just fitted perfectly.

And then it's time to place the side/top panel back on, doesn't she looks cute?

Really find her a cuty, I'm in love.

The ugly external dvd burner with some fancy slippers .

But wait.. there is just something missing. I know it, some personal modifications ofcourse.

So i added a VFD display on the left side, which give me information about the temperatures and a lot of other stuff:

Ofcourse, there will be many more modifications:

Warning, large resolution when clicking on it (5000 x 2546 px).

So hold on to me and let us ride the rollercoaster ride together.

[wwwicked]

Some of the information i get from the VFD display (which was from a CM Media case, RC-280):

My nickname and the name of the build.

My 2 most used email accounts, when there is new email i can see it on the display.

The temperatures of the cpu cores, had a quadcore in it at the time of the photo's.

CPU load.

Fanspeed of the cpu fan.

Weeknumber, my wife asked it a lot of times, so now she knows it by looking at the screen.

Free diskspace (gigabytes).

The display also shows an equalizer when i run WinAmp, al the other screens are then disabled:

[wwwicked]

Had some problems with the temperatures of the processor, clearly the cpu cooler could not get enough fresh air:

The room between the psu and the cpu cooler (Cooler Master Gemini M4) was quite tiny.

When i placed a fan next to side, the temperatures dropped very hard. So it's clearly an airflow problem.

I started to think about watercooling, had an Antec Kühler 620 before and was very happy with it (had it in my previous case, which was a Silencio 550). Also saw that i still got a Koolance radshroud for 280mm rad (2x140), at a quick peak it looks likes it would fit the Elite quite well:

First of all, i went back to Sandy Bridge and bought an Intel Core i3 2125. Pretty impressive, those cpu's are quite fast.

Offcourse i need to modify the radshroud to make it usefull to my perspective, so i've made some sketchup drawings and send them to my favorite lasercutter. A couple days later, there was a package with this:

A cover for the radshroud and 2 tiny windows.

For extra airflow, i will leave some openings around the windows.

Tested the black cover on the top of the case. Fits like a charm.

From another angle.

A lot of metal needs to be cutout.

So, first thing to do was to cutout some material from the radshroud:

Also painted it with some black paint (used ral9005), so it would fit the case more.

Added the plexi cover and a fangrill, to check if i cutout it well.

Sneak peak on the plexi glass.

Then it was time to put the Dremel in the cover of the case, needed to make a lot of cuts:

Looks quite nice:

Gives me a lot of extra room like this .

Also painted the cover in the same black as the "hoodie".

And again some photo's:

I've decided to make the window on the right side a bit smaller, because there is a small cooler behind the holes. But it looks really nice i think.

The left side got a bigger window. The little square is for the VFD display.

Testfitted the fan and radiator underneath, fan i'm using is a Cooler Master XtraFlo 120mm Slim.

From the inside. Sits perfectly. Only need to shorten the screws, but it's still test mounting yet.

Also was in a funny mood and customize my Kingston SSDnow 128gb a bit:

And my OCZ Vertex 2:

[wwwicked]

Don't know why, but i had some energy left today to give some attention to the case (it was around 35 Celcius outside ). Thank god my wife wasn't at home, otherwise i surely got a fight because of the mess:

First i stripped down the case, the metal holders for the hdd's and the optical drive are removed:

By default, there are some small casefeet mounted, i did not like them so i've changed them to my satisfaction. Cooler Master ATCS feet should do the trick:

Fitted the top again (fan is mounted) and fits her perfectly:

After that, i forgot to take more photo's . Will make some more photo's of it when i've made a better bracket version for the radiator. But for now, she looks like this:

Also did a soundcheck, quietness is already a succes:

Still to do:

- Fitting plexiglass windows,

- Mount VFD display,

- Bracket for radiator and ssd's,

- Make more photo's and movies.

- .....

[wwwicked]

Mounted the plexiglass windows and the vfd display.

My apologies for the bad quality photo's, didn't got the right camera yet.

Also tested the display (in the first video i forgot to start the equalizer plugin in WinAmp ):

Still to do:

- Bracket for radiator and ssd's,

- Cable managment / sleeving,

- Make new custom ledstrips (with or without

),

- Make more photo's and movies,

- Pet our

,

- .....

By the way, comments are always very welcome.

[frozensnail]

Great work there matey, glad someone has modded this case. Will be following your updates

[wwwicked]

Thanks mate, doing the best i can.

Also made a design for the ssd / radiator tower, which is a all-in one support bracket. It goes from the bottom of the case al the way up to the radiator. Designed it in sketchup and send it to my lasercutter. Materials are clear, blue and black plexiglass.

In total, there are 63 parts, so it's going to be a nice puzzle. To bad my lasercutter is still on holiday till the end of August, but he did deserved it.

[Meelobee]

Love the new top you made, nice work

[wwwicked]

Thanks Meelobee.

The design for the ssd / radiator holder (click for larger ones):

The inner tube (were the ssd's are mounted) are going to be frosted clear plexiglass. And there will be some led effects mounted .

Did gave it some Photoshop sauce offcourse

[RebellionNL]

Whenn this elite is ready this will be a piece of art for sure!!

Love your work in progress. Keep on going