phinix Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 I really love this one ! Cheers! I like your project too! Cool desk, my missus would never let me do sth like this in our house Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinix Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 Next bit to do was to add acrylic piece to top cover of power chamber. Here is a acrylic bit under power chamber top cover. I have this 3 LED strip as a tester, wires pushed in PSU power cable:) This is how it glows.. Here is power chamber partially built, top cover fits perfectly. I put a table lamp under this cover to show how it glows but it was to powerful and it looks white in that photo below This part here is a acrylic piece of the cover that goes on one of the sides of power chamber and covers GPU power cable hole. I added self-adhesive white sheet under it to expose yellow color of the acrylic. Now, this aluminium part on top is the one I painted with matte black spray paint. Here is one side of power chamber, just to show how it aligns nicely with L shape support, both powder coated ..and Tower itself... well.. frame and few pieces of power chamber. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinix Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 Next big thing to do was to shorten all PSU cables.. Nightmare to do but had to be done... I needed to cut down all cables to make sure it will all fit in small power chamber. Here's a Tower waiting for cables... I started from labelling 24pin cable. What I wanted to do was to "sleeve" those wires, but not with sleeve, I wanted them to look as thin as possible, so used yellow 2.4mm heatshrink, 8cm length for each wire, just for pieces that will come out from power chamber. I really like the result... very nice:) I also had to "amputate" most of the pre-soldered cables, like SATA line, 4pin CPU power, floppy bit. Then had to secure those wires... Next was soldering 24 pin cable.. Jeez, it was taking ages! I was doing 8 wires per night:) Quick and easy method - taping wires first, then soldering:) Next I had to attach all cables firmly to PSU. Also prepared slim SATA cable for DVD drive. ...and started to attach SATA cables inside power chamber. Prepared power cables for drives... I ddin't really know what I was doing wrong but my soldering iron was going down pretty quickly.. this iron end was ruined after few hours of work:( PSU in the Tower... That was just a try-out:) Then I had to attach SATA and power cables before screw PSU into the power chamber. ...and PSU installed and covered DVD installed... That 24pin cable looks pretty....:thumb: All done... Up and running!!! I started it without graphic card first, in case some soldering went wrong and PSU was going pufffff..... All went ok, it worked fine, so added GPU. Changed back plate first to single slot one. Looks ugly but will be sweet after I install water block. This is GTX285 version, so no hdmi hole. ...and the whole Tower... Sorry for those fingerprints and dust - I didn't clean it after installation. Glamour shots will be at the end of the project! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinix Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 Next thing I did the other day was to solder all those SMD led strips for side panels (that go under those acrylic combs), so I took a small trip to Maplin and bought this: Those are VERY handy helping hands:) So I cut up those strips to 3 led bits and started to solder them together so they create 3x6 pattern that will go under side "acrylic combs". Look how nice and small these solders look. I love it:) Slowly.. one after another... First set done... They had to be arranged to this... As you can see, I had to cut small wire pieces for those small loops. After few hours, I had all 4 done I had to cover-push those sets to the panels from behind... ... I mean.. from the rear... I mean... Anyway.... I made rectangles from 0.5mm thick aluminium sheet, rounded corers and covered them with semi-clear "frost" film. This was necessary to make sure those leds won't conduct electricity to the panels. I soldered long wires for later mount, glued those leds to the rectangles and attached them to the panel. After half an hour, I had one panel done - two sets ready to go! After that I finished reset switch. To do that, I used old reset micro-switch, M3 dome nut and small piece of acrylic. I painted black that nut and piece of acrylic. Reset goes right above fan controller. Acrylic piece pushes reset switch and reset switch pushes this nut to the hole in the rear panel. So all nicely look like this:) Of course I will add double sided tape between switch and acrylic piece that is why now it looks a bit.. wobbly... Of course those screws will be cut to size:) Here is how it looks from behind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinix Posted May 2, 2011 Author Share Posted May 2, 2011 One day I realised that I need to re-assemble the Tower to fix a bit those PSU wires I had cut and painted those two small bits to hold a PCI-E cables cover. ..and this is how it is going to be mounted, using velcro pads (it has to be removable). I have also attached watercooling to CPU... EDIT - As one of the conditions of our contest, I used Cooler Master product - this brilliant thermal paste I had from other CPU cooler. For some reason this back-plate is always on its side...heh... There! Better? :worried: I like how those hoses are so soft and easy to move around... Watercooling mounted... CHECK! DVD mounted...CHECK! Top fan mounting.. CHECK! You can see here how little space is left for graphic card... 3.5cm Nano Tower resting... chilling... Bottom acrylic panel, ready for painting... I fit in right side panel, it was pretty dark inside, so had to use lamp for this one. Right side panel fits in... CHECK! Now, it was also the time to assemble this ring cover for reservoir I designed and showed before on few sketches. Now, I showed these before, these are small comb pieces that will hold all rings. I glued them together with third one, straight rectangle with holes for leds. Then I added top and bottom small rectangles. I pushed in those rings to see how it is going to look like - please have in mind they are only pushed here, that is why they are uneven... I like how they glow in my hand:) Then I took them out and glued them in, all straight:) You may notice it is missing one ring on top - it's just a miscalculation, I need to get one more later. After that I spent some time on soldering 10 leds, then pushed them in those holes. They come in easily but firmly, so I dont need to use glue or anything. Perfect fit. Then I couldn't stop myself from trying them out. So here are photos of this ring cover, lit up like Christmas tree:) ..b&w anyone? I played a bit with my camera and tried to get a bit darker ones - I like how you can see every edge of each piece of acrylic, like a skeleton rentgen photos:) I spent a lot of time on painting stuff. I painted all aluminum hex shapes for front panel. First 3 layers of black matte paint, then clear laquer, 2-3 layers. All look beautiful. I also designed and cut out temperature lcd holder, which is attached to this ring cover and stick out on the right side of it. To make it, I used a black tinted acrylic for this. Color didn't matter cause it was going to be black painted anyway. It will be attached like this. And here is painted and attached to the ring cover. I used double sided tape for it. Cables will be cut to length and sleeved later, when the whole thing will go inside of the Tower. I also painted this USB socket that goes on top. It was ugly cream color, but wanted it nice black deep color. Cable was sleeved as well. To finish some other bits I used this double sided tape - I have attached aluminium painted cover to acrylic piece of that GPU cable cover I showed before. I did some work on rear panel too - cut to length fan cables and sleeved them. All three of them:) Then sleeved power button cable... Also sleeved each of those single wires, using yellow heat shrink - to add a nice finish. I'm not sure I showed you guys my special "painting chamber" in my attic:) After applying few coats of paint, fumes in the air are so "thick" that I'm always "done" for the rest of the day;) New thing here! I decided to change the design of the top panel, adding this nice cover. It has holes for power button and USB socket. Remember that older version of it, with small hole plates? I didn't like it so designed these. Both acrylic and aluminium bits are same size, I drilled those holes in acrylic bit for 3mm yellow leds which will be pushed in to light up the whole edge of this thing... Here it is on top 10mm acrylic panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milo_smiler Posted May 2, 2011 Share Posted May 2, 2011 This impressive all the dedication you give congratulations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinix Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 This impressive all the dedication you give congratulations Thank you very much for your kind words! I'm happy you like my build! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArkAngel Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Absolutely awesome build dude. Seeing how as we are both scratch building a MITX case, I can't imagine how you managed to squeeze in so much more things. Love the details you are putting in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night_Flyer Posted May 5, 2011 Share Posted May 5, 2011 Best build I have seen so far Since it is looking like it more and more I want finish on time, you still might have my vote as said before Greets Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phinix Posted May 10, 2011 Author Share Posted May 10, 2011 Absolutely awesome build dude. Seeing how as we are both scratch building a MITX case, I can't imagine how you managed to squeeze in so much more things. Love the details you are putting in. Thanks! Yeah, it was VERY hard to squeeze it all in, but was worth it:) This week I'll finally finish it:) Best build I have seen so farSince it is looking like it more and more I want finish on time, you still might have my vote as said before Greets Thank you very much! I'm happy that you like my build so much. I hope you're going to like it when I finish it and show the final result! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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