Project: Phoenix (PC-101 Orange Case Mod)

[gvblake22]

Ok, time has come for me to start a new project. The Secret of the Ooze project took way too long, but was finally finished and came out OK. I discovered though that making a case from scratch is way harder than it looks and I don't want to attempt something like that again right now. So after a lot of case shopping, I settled on the Lian Li PC-101. I have a lot of little things planned for this case, but I think if I try and explain it all it won't make any sense. So you'll just have to wait for updates and let the pictures do the talking. Overall though, I plan on using an orange lighting color scheme with black and silver/gray accents. Lighting inside the case will be handled by many 5mm orange LEDs. The entire exterior of the case will be powder coated a dark gray color with a glossy finish. Opaque (not transparent) black acrylic, transparent fluorescent orange acrylic, and staggered hole mesh will be the other main components. I also plan on making an entirely new front panel out of a piece of aluminum sheet. Since the designs sortof resemble flames of sorts and the fact that I will be moving to Phoenix, Arizona with this case I will call it that; Phoenix.

So to kick things off here is the case as seen from the front with the side panels on and the front door taken off (as well as all the drive bay covers removed).


Here is an angle shot of the case with the side panel removed and all the innards removed.

The HDD cages in the bottom will not be returning to the case ever again, I have bigger and better plans for the HDD's in that bottom section...

With the case stripped down, I went to work making some designs. This is what I came up with for the side panel (drawn onto the paper backing of the 1/16" thick black acrylic):

It was a very delicate process trying to cut this intricate design out, but with the help of my jig saw I made surprisingly short work of it all...



That last picture is the finished piece. Yes, it is just the outline, think of it like a picture frame. The piece is placed on the mesh that will be behind it on the side panel. And behind the mesh (on the inside of the desgin) will be the fluorescent orange acrylic. Here's how it looks on the side panel:

Yeah, probably hard to imagine all that right now, but it's too hard to try and draw up prototype sketches, so you'll just have to use your imagination here people...

And speaking of mesh, here is the piece that I will be hacking up and using in various places all over the case:

That's a mATX motherboard at the bottom shown for scale. Yes, it's REALLY BIG. But that's the only size I could order it in, so I guess I will be using lots of mesh in this project! Here is a close up of the mesh:


As I mentioned earlier, I will also be making a new front panel for the case. I removed the front door completely and won't be using it at all. Instead, I will make a new front panel that has a slight curve to it on the top and bottom edges, similar to the Silverstone TJ-07. I have a piece of 1' x 2' aluminum sheet that I will cut up and be using to fabricate the front panel:


Once I cut it down to size, I needed a reliable way to make an even bend in the aluminum. For this I made a small "jig", basically just two blocks of wood nailed together with one edge filed down to the radius of the curve I want.


Then the aluminum is clamped to the jig, layed flat on the workbench, and the jig is just rotated upwards, bending the aluminum around the rounded edge...


The final result is came out surprisingly good and will hopefully work great. This is just one bend so far, but you can see the look I'm going for here:

Disregard the C clamp laying on top, it is only there to hold the front panel in place for the picture. The space along the edge between the new front panel and the existing front bezel of the case will be filled with that mesh all the way down and have orange LED's behind it shining forward into the backside of the new front panel.

Behind the front panel will be two 120mm intake fans. To make room for these, I need to cut out the bottom section of the front panel under the 5.25" drive bays:

That picture is of the case on it's back with me looking down on it at an angle. Sorry, looks kindof odd, but you can see the red lines I photoshopped in there which is where I will be making the cuts. Unfortunately, I forgot my cutoff wheels for the dremel so I wasn't able to get any actual cutting done today. But hopefully next weekend I'll get some sparks flying!

That's all for now, but I just wanted to get something started here to wet your appetites. As usual, this project will probably move along at a snail's pace, but I am getting very excited about it so hopefully it will be done before the end of Winter!

[Yellowhello]

Looks like an awesome project, Blake! That looks like a very nice case... a mini V2000! That's a great design for the side panel.

Are you gonna water cool this project?

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

Are you gonna water cool this project?

HAHA, you're a funny guy!
No, no watercooling for me, sorry. The focus for this case is on low noise air cooling. There will be two 120mm low speed Yate Loon fans in the fans in the front (behind the new front panel) blowing cool air into the case. One will be in the bottom section for the HDD's and PSU and the other will be blowing into the main section of the case, across the motherboard. Then there will a single 120mm exhaust fan in the back (probably an Arctic Fan 12) and another 120mm Arctic Fan 12 (as exhaust) in the top of the case.

[Yellowhello]

Yate Loons aren't orange...

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

Yate Loons aren't orange...

Oh yeah? Tell that to Performance-PC's!

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by gvblake22

Oh yeah? Tell that to Performance-PC's!

LOL, nice... I thought you were going for orange LED fans... oh well, it still looks like a kickass project! Good luck!

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by yellowhello

LOL, nice... I thought you were going for orange LED fans... oh well, it still looks like a kickass project! Good luck!

No, those LED fans are cheap-o and there aren't any decent ones. Plus, the lighting is too concentrated. I will be using individual LED's wired throughout the case (as opposed to CCFL's) in hopes of keeping lighting even all around.

[Athildja-x64]

What about this one Blake?
120mm Orange UV Reactive Fan, ball bearing

UV Reactive Orange :)

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Athildja-x64

What about this one Blake?
120mm Orange UV Reactive Fan, ball bearing

UV Reactive Orange :)

Yeah, the UV reactive orange fans would definitely look the best, but the noise level is just not acceptable. I am really hoping for a near silent (or as close as I can get) system when this is all done. So far, I'm liking the characteristics of the low speed Yate Loon fans and the Arctic Cooling Arctic Fan 12. With a fan controller, these fans should be able to drop down into the virtually in-audible range.

[Athildja-x64]

I thought that might be an issue.
Well I can keep looking around :P