Project: Holo View

[Jonathan]

Hey guys! It's been a while since I participated here in this prestigious event every year. The last time I participate was 2014 (I think). But anyway, this will be my entry for this year's Case Mod World Series. I am calling it "HoloView". This is a sponsored project by Thermaltake and EVGA. I completely forgot about the World Series this year when I got the project approval. Wasn't intending to join in this year, but with some convincing from a few of my friends who are participating in too, well, why not. 

 

Anyway, this is the case that I will be modifying, the Thermaltake View 27. I will be chopping this case off a little bit to give way to some radiator mounts and fan mounts. I will be adding something special on this one and hopefully I could pull it off before the deadline.

 

 

I will be using some CoolerMaster 120mm fans for this guy, I will be using a few CoolerMaster MasterFan Pro. But first, I need to free up some space in my "Work area" then do some measuring. 

 

This will be my post for now, but I will update the work log as soon as I get some more progress and chopping action.

 

Ciao! 

[Jonathan]

Hey guys!

 

Okay, a little update. I was able to take some photos and tear the view 27 down to confirm some measurements. 

 

This will be the motherboard that I will be using.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did some test fitting yesterday to see the areas or the computer case that I could possibly cut off a little bit to make room for a 240mm radiator. My plan is to flip the case 90 degree so the front panel will be the bottom of the case and the top panel will be the front panel.

 

 

Time to tear the case down to see some more fan or radiator mount.

 

 

 

 

Okay. I was hoping that I could use the half part of the bottom of the case for a 240mm radiator, but since the power supply that I will be using was a bit longer than what I expected, that area will be cut off to make some room for a 140mm intake fan. Looks like the radiators will go either this way.

 

 

Or this.

 

Looks like I might opt with the last option since the view 27 already has a radiator mount for a 360mm in the front (now the bottom). 

 

Now that I have a few options confirmed, I will be working on cutting out some radiator and fan mounts this coming weekend. See you guys on the next update! Ciao!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jonathan]

Hey Guys!

 

Update time! And yes, I am still alive! Did some work for the past weeks for the project after finishing up some important commitments. Shall we begin?

 

Did some more measuring on the view 27 chassis to confirm if the radiators will fit in without having clearances issues, which it had. I tried to fit x2 slim 360mm radiators from Thermaltake, and it looks like the radiator for the front will have one issue. I won't be able to connect the 8 pin power connector for the CPU on the motherboard.

 

 

 

 

I did not noticed the issue at first so I trimmed the front panel (was the top side of the case before) to fit the 360mm radiator without having any interference issues with the side panel.

 

 

 

 

After trimming the chassis, I found a scrap acrylic sheet that was laying around the basement for probably 3 years now, I took that to make it as a "front panel template" for mounting the fans on the chassis.

 

But then, that was the time when I noticed the issue with the radiator and the 8 pin power connector of the motherboard. I could plug the cable in, but it is going to be TIGHT to the point wherein the connector on the motherboard is being forced down to some scary degree.

 

 

So instead of forcing the dual slim 360mm radiator, I decided to just use one thick 360mm radiator and just have 3 fans as intake on the front panel.

 

 

After that, I went ahead and draw some random lines and circles as the design for the front panel. And then after that, I went ahead and tried throw an aluminum sheet on my cnc (SO3) just to see if it's going to crap on me. If it did, I will mostly end up making a new design that is not too complicated to do by hand. But my CNC was on a somewhat good mood that day, aaaaaaaand......

 

 

I said "somewhat" on a good mood because........ Sometimes my CNC will decide to not follow the .gcode instructions and just do some random lines around the material that I am cutting. In this case, I was on the 95% before completion of the job, but then the CNC decided to go deeper on the cut instead of following the gcode, aaaaaaaaaaand.....

I ended up having a broken cutting bit and an unfinished job.

 

 

So I went ahead and did the cutting the old fashion way..

 

 

 

After a few minutes of filing, I ended up with this front panel.

 

 

Grabbed a Coolermaster Jetflo 120mm fan that I had laying around and it on the front panel. I just wanted to see what the cut out will look like once there's an LED fan attached to it.

 

 

Kinda looks cool but I need the MasterFan Pro RGB version. I am hoping that it will become available here before the end of this month.

 

 

 

 

The front panel was a bit long, but that was quickly fixed with a jigsaw and a hand file.

 

 

After that, I went back to the drawing board (CAD) to try and come up with a mount for the Pump/Reservoir combo that Thermaltake provided. I recently purchased a small 3D printer before the end of last year and threw in my cad design to the 3D printer. I came up with this. I ended up with this kind of mount since the most logical (for me at least) place to put the pump/res combo is on the back side close to the power supply. This way, it'll be much easier to run tubing around.

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for me for this update. Side panel mount, sliding rods for the side panel, the side panel itself. Hopefully I could get those done for the coming next 2 weeks. See you on the next update! Ciao!

[Jonathan]

Hey guys! Time for some update! Wew, it's been a while. 

 

Last time, after printing the pump mount, I ended up printing a few more parts that I will be using in this project. I printed a hinge,

 

 

 

And some custom case feet,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I was finally able to get my hands on these! Been waiting for them for a month, and they were selling like hot pancakes! So when I saw a couple of these are available on a online store, didnt hesitate to grab them.

 

 

Test fit on the front panel.

 

 

 

Changed the pop rivets of the case to hex screws.

 

 

 

 

After that, I then proceeded to make the side panels. First attempt was a failure. I was using a heat gun to heat up the part of the acrylic sheet that I want to bend. It did bend although the sheet ended up warping.

 

 

 

It kinda looks good on this photo but that was because it was clamped in the case. The next morning when I removed the clamps, the acrylic sheet was basically warping.  I tried it again, but it was almost the same result. So I decided to make a DIY sheet bender using some wood, aluminium U channel and nichrome wire. So instead of doing a curved edge, I ended going for 45 degree bends. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And earlier this morning, the weather here was a bit nice, cold and a little gust of wind but it was sunny. So I dismantled the case and decided to jump in to the paint part of the project.

 

 

After 3 layers of metalcast from Duplicolor, I ended up with the front panel looking like this.

 

 

 

 

And for anyone who might be reading and following this log, some of you might be wondering why my side panel looks empty since the other half of it is hollow in the middle, well, here's a little hint.

 

 

If you still have no clue, you will need to wait for the final photos.

 

That's all for this update! Next update will be the final update since the deadline is just around the corner. Hopefully I could make it in time! Thanks for reading my work log and see you next time! Ciao!

 

 

 

[Samca]

insane front panel, so awesome

[Jonathan]

Final Update.

 

Hey guys! So here we go! Final update time! 

 

The past 2 weeks I ended up doing some more disassembly and paint jobs, First that I disassembled was the power supply. This was my first time disassembling and paint a power supply so I was so freakin afraid that I might end up screwing the thing. Fortunately that didn't happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next was the pump/res combo.

 

 

 

After those, I went ahead and finish up the acrylic cuts that I need for the side panel that will be painted,

 

 

 

time for some -5c paint job! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

let's install the fans!

 

 

 

 

Side panel done!

 

 

 

 

 

Now for the side panel, a month ago, I purchased a USB powerd LCD monitor (AOC 15"). The reason why I went with this monitor is that having a monitor that is USB powered is more convenient and a huge time saver for my case since I really don't have enough time every weekend to try out methods on how to power the screen up without getting the inside of the case look so full with wires and what not.

 

 

 

 

This is where the LCD monitor will go. I printed out some small corner clips that will hold the LCD panel on the side panel.

 

 

Now that's all done, lets install some tasty components!

 

 

 

 

Time to run and hard line tubes and do a quick leak test!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aaaaand finally! Although I only have a few over all final photos (my DSLR died on me after taking a bunch of photos), here's some final photos for the project.

 

 

 

 

And if anyone is wondering where was the touch feature? I made a "grainy" video demonstrating it (since my DSLR camera died). Here's a link to my new YT channel/Video. I would like to apologize in advance about the video quality. 

 

Screen Test:

 

 

Touch Test:

 

 

And that's all for me! To all the people who are visiting and going through my log, thank you so much! I hope I inspired anyone who wants to try out this transparent LCD side panel thingy. Again, thank you for sticking with me this far! See you on the next project!