soundzen Posted December 21, 2018 Share Posted December 21, 2018 Hello modders, I always loved small itx cases for space and transport reasons and so i chose cm elite 110 case to do a simple quick mod on it, even if i manage to cut my hand in the process... sincerely i have no time, no money and no skills to built a high end pro mod rig as others here (my budget pc gaming costed me 800$ plus 200$ to mod it including keyboard + mouse), but im as thrilled and happy with the final results, DIY with no help from outsiders (no heavy machinery, no cutters or drillers nor 3D programing) its a simple, easy but nice result. Here are step-by-step photos of the case mod (which come out of the box with power blue led button): 1) after cutting off the front honeycomb grid, i put a coolermaster green led strip inside the case 2) cleaned the inner border of the remaining honeycomb panel and painted the front frame green 3) look of the front panel with nox keyboard along with razer mouse + pad and my old samsung 24" (changed 2019) 4) purchased a masterfan MF121L rgb fan and also changed the panel power led to green 5) scotch-taped a provisional camo print before ordering it online, then sprayed my initials on top grid (erased 2019) 6) painting various parts of Elite 110 such as the PSU cage, then i screwed-in a wood handle and sprayed it green 7) the gpu MSI gtx 1050ti Aero @ 3.6Ghz 4Gb, was lightly painted on the outer shell painting the MB gigabyte z370n wifi - which i was nervous about, because of the octane M.2 slots 9) then accident happened, with my screwdriver slipping into my hand around 11PM driving to clinic blood on wheel LOL so had to stop mod for 2 days 10) alll the green painted parts, leaving out my Crucial 500Gb ssd, my G-skills Aegis 8Gb DDR4 ram and my nox X650watts atx psu 11) with my hand back in action, i dremeled a cut to the metalside panel, in order to see trough and vent better my gpu fan 12) it was time for cleaning out those metal cutting edges, because i didnt want another injury on those sharp barbs 13) and also changed those original hard plastic black feets, for these higher white anti-vibration rubber ones. THE FINAL RESULT !!! In my to-do-list: - put camo sticker - cut acrylic window - engrave steamos - weld shorter led strip - change psu full modular - purchase green cables PRO & CONS of elite 110: - cheap, small, cute and easy transport - allows an squared ATX power supply - psu cables become messy inside - plastic feet too close to surface - every side has a ventilation grid - no place for hdd factor at top racket MY SCORE ON THE CASE: 8/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 well, the camo green vinyl came back with a bad quality so i didnt even stick it on my case! i probably chose a low resolution photo... pixel was visible close look! *in the bin* so im thinking of a simple spray paint for all the sides of my case lid, but also, im cutting out a window! since im afraid that dust will enter trough the top grill by obvious gravity, i decided to cut out the top grill with my Dremel and purchase an acrylic small panel to screw it to the metal tags i left on the cover case, as such... and yeah im not a pro, im a girl, im an amateur so spare me your comments: "thats not clean / not straight / not professional look" - i know it needs improvements LOL Bye, going out to get me an acrylic sheet and cut it to the windows size along with some metal screws - it will allow to peek inside the pc from above (will also let the green led beam show) since there is plenty of air flowing trough the side panels + huge front grill and 120mm fan !!! simple job: spray paint, cut acrylic, puncture 6 holes, screw it all in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 still my noise problem continues and after shutting down / unplugging fan after fan, i can pin point the noise coming from my MSI graphic fan (a light humming from my psu) im changing my psu next week - from my NOX to a SeaSonic fully modular (to clean up the cable management within (im keeping only 3 cables out of the 8 that come with every non-modular psu in market) with this new psu, i can later swap in for -50$ investment on Shakmods green sleeve cables (all i need is the cpu + motherboard + sata cables): i see 3 options for my noise problem: 1) since i dont have 200$ for a new GPU this year, i either remove the original MSI fan and leave it just with the passive copper radiator, which is covering the processor (hoping its own heat will dissipate trough the side panel) 2) swap for another fan if its possible to get a kit from MSI but i doubt it 3) install a water cooling kit to replace the fan itself but space is little in the case ...choices, choices !!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted December 30, 2018 Author Share Posted December 30, 2018 another day, another mod... finished my acrylic top window cut - it was past 10PM so had to speed up the mod because of noise and nuisance to neighbours due to the buzz of the Dremel... so i used fire & blade to cut my piece from bigger sheet. Took a cutter, heated it to the flame and sliced the acrylic along the line... and with a heated screwdriver, ive punctured the 6 holes, then put on these screws from outisde-in (to hide the bolts) and voilá... cuts are woobly but it did the trick! i bought a polyurethane translucent superglue, in case i wanted to seal-up the perimeter of the acrylic, but i noticed that the metal mini-flaps for the screws are not flat-out, so the glue will drip out. with the window done, next is the final paint of the lid... maybe a matte dark as the original case colour, because i already have enough green touches, here and there (even more with the future green led strip inside and the mod green cable sleeves). ---------- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 got a second case sticker - those vinyl for laptops - and its nice... not quite the kawasaki green of the front, but the camo blends well now i need to spray with black paint on the side panels and hide those previous stains...after removing the sticker and the acrylic window Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 Seasonic Focus +80 Gold full modular 550W - what an hassle-free setup it is now... out of 7 cables available in the box, i only used 3 - Air at last !!! look how clean and roomy it is now inside... you can see my hazzlenut table below cables come with black mesh a bit firm on the bend - also got myself a short and tight 20cm yellow SATA3 cable for SDD i can peek inside and see my ram bellow, my cpu fan on left, my graphic at the back and my SSD at end of yellow sata cable i can actually slide in my hand to plug/unplug anything with ease so one less expense from the list on previous post ---> im going to save 50$ in green cable modding and keep these black ones: my front fan is not centered because of the coolermaster own crew holes behind the secondary grid (inner grid) maybe i should put the fan between the 2 grids and gain inside space??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted January 9, 2019 Author Share Posted January 9, 2019 basically my cooler master elite 110 modding, is finished (after the black paint retouch) - soundzen out ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted January 15, 2019 Author Share Posted January 15, 2019 well, since i used my green led strip for the interior, i had to go to the motherboard fan settings (gigabyte RGB fusion app) and put it back to a green also! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 so, as suggested by a msi forum expert, to solve my noisy gpu fan, i can either: 1) change for a new MSI fan at second hand representative warehouse guy, but its invalidated by my green paint on GPU 2) i buy another gpu similar (180€) or higher (300$) duhhh ...then the msi helper, gave me a link for a new fan replacement: ARTIC CELERO 3 passive fan for gpu https://www.arctic.ac/eu_en/accelero-s3.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundzen Posted December 18, 2019 Author Share Posted December 18, 2019 UPDATE after 11 months: finally upgraded de GPU and end this noisy fan, while keeping the mini ITX format (AKA no artic copper cooling block) a GPU to match my motherboatd GIGABYTE i went from: 180$ msi GTX 1050 ti @4Gb --> 266€ gigabyte GTX 1660 super mini @6gb ---> https://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-N166SIXOC-6GD#kf ...i also doubled my RAM from: Gskill 1x8Gb @2600Hz --> Ballistix 2x8Gb @2400Hz (didnt know if my MB supports 2 x 3000Hz) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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