Project: Phoenix (PC-101 Orange Case Mod)

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Parker

And from where you are that time is????

Exactly

Originally Posted by Parker

BTW, this build is looking awesomer by the minute!

LOL, thanks... awesomer? Is that a word?

Originally Posted by Parker

What are the spec's of the system you plan on puting in this thing?

E8400 aircooled with Noctua 120mm heatsink knockoff
MSI P35 Neo2-FR
Supertalent 2x 1GB DDR2-800 CAS 4
X1950Pro 256MB video card with passive Accellero S1
Corsair VX550 PSU
Western Digital Raptor 150GB
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB
2x Samsung DVD burner
There will also be a Sunbeam Rheobus and I'll probably use Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 12's throughout the case.

[halutzparilla]

its about time you bring this mod out of the grave... i wonder if it will break your Ooze worklog time record... do your best its forming really well...

[Parker]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

LOL, thanks... awesomer? Is that a word?

Well, by my dictionary, in the R section, on page 1486, row 45, on the left page, in bold, it says "In 2008, on the day of Saturday January 26th, the word 'Awesomer' was created by Parker Inc.™ and is in fact a word."

[gvblake22]

Spent a lot of time trying to clean up the edges of the swirly black design pieces, but I did also decide to hack out a big piece of material inside the case:


I cut out a large square from the internal divider to give the PSU fan some extra breathing room.


...and no that is not the PSU that will be used in the final build in this case...

You're probably scratching your heads about now, so let me start from the beginning. The place the hard drive is mounted now was interfering with the cables that come out of the PSU. With the PSU oriented how it was meant to be (120mm fan facing down), the cables from the PSU came out right on the hard drive. Flipping the PSU on its back with the fan facing up allowed me to have the cables coming out of the PSU on the other side of the case (behind the hard drives) which is much easier to manage. But the problem here is that the fan was pressed right up against the aluminum piece separating the motherboard chamber from the hard drive and PSU chamber. That is why I've cut this big gaping hole, to allow the PSU to be oriented so the cables don't interfere with the hard drives and the PSU does not starve for airflow. This also opens up the inside of the case a bit for better air circulation, and for a better view of what lies below. Sorry I don't have much in the way of pictures for you, carefully filing and sanding those decorative pieces of black acrylic is very slow going and tedious (not to mention the risk of breaking it). Patience please!

[Elysium]

It actually doesn't look to bad, nice job Blake! The only thing I would worry about is the structural integrity of the case - it kind of looks like it could bend easy.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

It actually doesn't look to bad, nice job Blake! The only thing I would worry about is the structural integrity of the case - it kind of looks like it could bend easy.

Trust me, that piece of aluminum is very thin and contributed about nothing to the structural integrity of the case. Even the divider its self doesn't really want to bend, but there will be no loads placed on this piece anyway. The side panels are very thick aluminum that will hold it all in place. the front, top, back, and bottom pieces (the black aluminum) is also very thick and all constructed as one piece so it is quite strong. I tried flexing the case with the piece cut out and nothing was compromised. I feel very confident in the structural integrity of this case, Lian Li did an awesome job by using such thick aluminum for the main body of the case that it can stand by its self.

[Elysium]

Sounds good! A question for you: why didn't you just put the HDD on the other side of the case, and have the PSU with the fan down? I would think it would have been a lot easier to relocate the HDD's than cut out that divider piece.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

Sounds good! A question for you: why didn't you just put the HDD on the other side of the case, and have the PSU with the fan down? I would think it would have been a lot easier to relocate the HDD's than cut out that divider piece.

Because that would ruin the surprise I have planned to reveal at the end!

[Parker]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Because that would ruin the surprise I have planned to reveal at the end!

Oh you tease!

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Parker

Oh you tease!

HAHAHA, I learn from the best!