Work Log - Summer 2010

[culexor]

I couldn't think of a clever name for this project so I gave the thread a simple title. Feel free to give me suggestions as the project progresses.

Inspiration
Project White Lightning @ overclock.net
Hewi's Lian-Li v2000 @ xtremesystems.org

The Plan
My plan for this project is rather straight forward, but it will be lots of work. I will be powder coating my case white (inside and out), and I will be sleeving my PSU with some super fancy sleeving from mdpc-x. I decided to go with grey sleeving and black heatshrink tubing (grey was not available).

At this time, I have no hardware upgrades planned. However, that may change in the near future.

The Process
Well, in order to get the case powder coated, it has to be completely disassembled before I bring it to the shop. Since my case is held together primarily by pop rivets, I will have to manually drill out every single one (70+ rivets in total). Once it's all in pieces, I will bring it to the powder coat shop. While it's being powder coated, I will be at home sleeving my PSU (which I'll get to later). Once I get the case back, I will have to reassemble the case and replace all of the rivets.

Sleeving the PSU will be an extremely time consuming task. It's pretty straight forward, but it's easy to screw up. I have to remove every cable from the connectors, label them and sleeve them. Removing can be a pain but once you get it down it's pretty easy. Then I have to measure and cut the sleeving and heatshrink tubing. Once that's all done I have to actually sleeve the cables. This is the hard part. I have to stretch the sleeving out as much as I can on the cable, then heat the heatshrink a little bit, adjust the heatshrink so it's in the right position, then heat it until it has shrinked all the way. Doing this a few dozen times takes an assload of time. Hopefully it'll take the people at the powder coat shop to do my case because it will take at least 2 days for me to sleeve my PSU.

Progress
So far I have done a little bit of sleeving. I ordered it far in advance because it comes from germany and international shipping usually takes forever. Since I do have a deadline (June 12th), I wanted to be safe. Anyway, I have completed the 6 pin PCI-E cable and 3 SATA cables. But that's about all I have done so far.

...and of course, pics!

A few "before pics"






My MDPC-X order


20 meters of grey small sleeving, 2 meters of heatshrink tubing, 5 meters of grey SATA sleeving, .7 meters of SATA heatshrink, 100 black dome-head rivets, and some extra blue and red sleeving.



Sleeved PCI-E cables


[see next post for more pictures]

I'll try to keep this thread updated as I make more progress. I won't be able to do much work on the PC for the next few weeks since I have exams coming up, but once school is out I'll be working like a madman.

[culexor]

5 picture limit per post...

Sleeved SATA cables

[foothead]

You are sleeving the psu cables themselves?

Use some extensions so they sleeving can be reused if you switch power supplies and so your warranty is still intact.

looks good btw.

Another idea to mull over: you might wanna redo the side panel so the 5.25 bays are not visible. It will make your build look much cleaner.

[culexor]

Update: I completely disassembled the case today. For some reason, I thought it would take me a day or two, but it took less than 2 hours. Rivets are extremely easy to drill out.


(obviously that's not everything)


I still haven't gotten around to getting quotes from local powder coat shops, so I'll be making some phone calls tomorrow. Hopefully, I will have dropped my case off at one of the shops by the end of the day.



I had to put my pc somewhere...

[Cabbs]

Haha I've had my computer laid out on my desk before haha. It took a little while to get used to having my HSF staring at me.

[culexor]

I finally got around to calling some places. One out of 5 places answered my call (since it's saturday), and the gentleman didn't seem to enthusiastic. He wanted $75.

He's not getting my business.

I'll post back when I get quotes from the other places.

[culexor]

Well it looks like that guy had the best price which I find to be somewhat outrageous. Oh well.


Got most of the sleeving done

[JogaBonito1502]

I know the appropriate title for this thread, "Medusa Mod". That's exactly what the 24-pin connector looks like.

With all seriousness, I think everything looks pretty good.