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Evening gents, its probably been awhile since you've seen the Ice man in here. Been busy with alot of things in the real world and I just needed a time out all together from the FM community but im still around and yours truly has now begun the necassary steps for a brand new case project codenamed "Night Wind"
Recently its becoming more and more apparant that the blinging of cases over the years has started to get a little wain for me. Its sad, the most exciting and thrilling thing hobby i've done in years has started to loose its lust and desire. I remember how excited and pumped I was the first time I started browsing through forums look at peoples mods, seeing how they did stuff and walk throughs way back early in 2001. I"ll always remember surfing through the good old Virtual Hideout looking at all the incredible cases guys have made during the start of the great case modding times.
I rememeber how excited I was when I cut out my first window and how awesome it looked to see inside a working machine that I PUT together! The first time I cut out a blowhole, the first time I fired up my first neon light in the case, all the way to the very first case I ever modded, the Enlight 7237 case. And I remember the woops times, like the screw ups of incorrectly measuring blowhole cutouts, paint mishaps, poorely judged measuring, lost money and time and just plain bad ideas. But throughout it all, it was unmistakable fun!!!!
Now that i've gotten older and busier, I dont' feel as obligated to sit my ass down in front of my machine hours and hours at a time back in my DAOC days, I don't feel the yearning to be plunking down hundreds of dollars on a new case modding projects trying to outdo the "next Guy" who always comes up with something better anyway. Im getting a little tired of all the freaking noise of several fans in my case like a damn vaccum. And all lights with the major "bling bling" effect of a damn rice car sitting next to me.
I started to become increasingly annoyed when I come home from a noisey, busy and bad day and all I want is some peace and quiet while listening to some streamed music, download or surf. Instead of serenity, when I fire up my machine and I get a freaking whine of HDD"s, multiple fans blowing air with no rhym or reason and the constant glare of stupid LED's fans in my face when im trying to sleep at night through the $80 custom etched window to make my case that extra "special"
To be honest, those days of giving much of a care of how my case looks and compares with all the rest of folks out there, how different and unique it looks and how crazy I can mod something I think I pretty much over with. Im not longer inclined to wip out my credit card for some kinda extra "bling bling" part for my case which no one freaking notices except online. I no longer have LAN parties to go to show off my work and my work that I do show off anymore onlineis always either out done or i've come under the "Me too" spell and it doesn't impressive anyone anymore. Can't say that I blame them, I recently surfed through the Virtual Hideout case galleries and saw maybe 5 cases that had a unique or intriguing idea that caught my idea. Anything beyond that I saw the rest of the cases suffering from "Been there, done that"
The modding community has become too over saturated with everybody jumping on the bandwagon. Not only that, the freaiing companies are doing the same thing! I"ve never seen so many cheap ass, crappily made and ugly premodded cases in my life. I honestly don't know know a half decent DIY would consider purchasing some of the plastic garbage both in case and parts out there. But at the same time Im not surprised as the whole computer modding scene has turned into much how the ricer/import sene happend when "The Fast and the Furious" came out. We went from a small hobby of dedicated and talented car modders with unique and beautiful cars to now where "Joe Blow Rapper wanna be 16 year old" from High School throws a $400 spoiler on his $4000 green Dodge Neon because he thinks hes "In the scene" as a result of doing it when in fact, it makes him look like a complete utter reject and wanna be. And In many ways, the computer modding scene has turned into the same thing and I think many of you can agree with me on my viewpoint.
That being said, the IceWind has decided to give out his last effort in the modding scene. After this, I doubt i'll be doing much of anything in regards to modding and be moving on to other life ventures. As my patience with noise and lights has diminshed over time, I had a few plain but very serious objectives with this new project:
1. Reduction in all noise and vibration as much as possible
2. Elimination of unecassary lighting, wiring and cable managment for ease of use, upgrading and peace of mind
3. Windows are no longer desirable for both noise factoring and light output
4. Reduction in case size for ease in movement and desktop space
5. All airflow is to be achieved via 120mm low dba fans, no 80mm's at all and no unecassary, useless bling bling fans. Blowholes are no longer desirable as well.
With my ideas clearly laid out, I set out to first start looking for a case to build "Night Wind" upon. After going through a MAJOR investigation into SilentPCReviews forums, i've decided to ditch the aluminum cases to factors of reduction of vibration and resonation that results in having an aluminum case in comparison to steel. With the idea that NO 80mm's are going to be used, and that I wanted a reduction in case size and factor but have a very high quality, expandable and somewhat lightweight case. In the end, I returned to my favorite case manufactur that has built my some of my best cases over the years and once again, I turn to them to fufill my needs. I decided on the Antec Sonata for "Night Wind" to be built upon.
Further investigation has shown me the light in regards to how much vibration and noise can be transferred from HDD"s to the case which also entails the importance of Aluminum vs Steel. Due to aluminums lighter nature and the reduction in structual integrity, vibrations and resonation are greatly increased as a result of direct mounting of HDD"s to the chassis. The solution I have found to my surprise is to suspend the drives using elastic wire that will enable to the drives to be basically be suspended by a web of elastic cord that will absorb all virbration, motor noise and seek/access crunching has a dramatic effect in noise reduction from my research.
I've also come to the conclusion that Western Digital drives are by far the noisest drives i've ever come across next to IBM's. The high pitched whine WD's ball bearing drives will no longer cut it. As such, all drives will be replaced by 160gig Seagate Barracuda's
"Night Wind" will be the first case in my history that WILL NOT have a side window. Honestly, I no longer really glance or care about seeing my equipment lying next to me. As long as its doing its job quietly, I honeslty no longer have the awe inspiring wonder of looking into my cases. This will not only result in not having the damn glare of LED's fans, but this will also help in reduce sound output from the case as well.
The Sonata case will be heavily modified and dremeled to allow maximum passive airflow through the front intakes, therebye negating the purpose of having duel intakes and exhaust fans. Instead, I plan on allowing maximum airflow through the case through a combination of extreme wire tidyness, removal of case obsructions of airflow path with the dremel and using Coolermasters UV 120mm fam for both quiet performance and good airflow. These also will be foam insulated to reduce vibration into the case.
**** A special thanks to all the guys at Silent PC Review who made this possible with all their incredible ideas, input and suggestions to make this case project a success. Without them, this would not have been possible. If you YOU wanna know how to quiet your damn computer down, then these boys are the guys to ask!****
Recently its becoming more and more apparant that the blinging of cases over the years has started to get a little wain for me. Its sad, the most exciting and thrilling thing hobby i've done in years has started to loose its lust and desire. I remember how excited and pumped I was the first time I started browsing through forums look at peoples mods, seeing how they did stuff and walk throughs way back early in 2001. I"ll always remember surfing through the good old Virtual Hideout looking at all the incredible cases guys have made during the start of the great case modding times.
I rememeber how excited I was when I cut out my first window and how awesome it looked to see inside a working machine that I PUT together! The first time I cut out a blowhole, the first time I fired up my first neon light in the case, all the way to the very first case I ever modded, the Enlight 7237 case. And I remember the woops times, like the screw ups of incorrectly measuring blowhole cutouts, paint mishaps, poorely judged measuring, lost money and time and just plain bad ideas. But throughout it all, it was unmistakable fun!!!!
Now that i've gotten older and busier, I dont' feel as obligated to sit my ass down in front of my machine hours and hours at a time back in my DAOC days, I don't feel the yearning to be plunking down hundreds of dollars on a new case modding projects trying to outdo the "next Guy" who always comes up with something better anyway. Im getting a little tired of all the freaking noise of several fans in my case like a damn vaccum. And all lights with the major "bling bling" effect of a damn rice car sitting next to me.
I started to become increasingly annoyed when I come home from a noisey, busy and bad day and all I want is some peace and quiet while listening to some streamed music, download or surf. Instead of serenity, when I fire up my machine and I get a freaking whine of HDD"s, multiple fans blowing air with no rhym or reason and the constant glare of stupid LED's fans in my face when im trying to sleep at night through the $80 custom etched window to make my case that extra "special"
To be honest, those days of giving much of a care of how my case looks and compares with all the rest of folks out there, how different and unique it looks and how crazy I can mod something I think I pretty much over with. Im not longer inclined to wip out my credit card for some kinda extra "bling bling" part for my case which no one freaking notices except online. I no longer have LAN parties to go to show off my work and my work that I do show off anymore onlineis always either out done or i've come under the "Me too" spell and it doesn't impressive anyone anymore. Can't say that I blame them, I recently surfed through the Virtual Hideout case galleries and saw maybe 5 cases that had a unique or intriguing idea that caught my idea. Anything beyond that I saw the rest of the cases suffering from "Been there, done that"
The modding community has become too over saturated with everybody jumping on the bandwagon. Not only that, the freaiing companies are doing the same thing! I"ve never seen so many cheap ass, crappily made and ugly premodded cases in my life. I honestly don't know know a half decent DIY would consider purchasing some of the plastic garbage both in case and parts out there. But at the same time Im not surprised as the whole computer modding scene has turned into much how the ricer/import sene happend when "The Fast and the Furious" came out. We went from a small hobby of dedicated and talented car modders with unique and beautiful cars to now where "Joe Blow Rapper wanna be 16 year old" from High School throws a $400 spoiler on his $4000 green Dodge Neon because he thinks hes "In the scene" as a result of doing it when in fact, it makes him look like a complete utter reject and wanna be. And In many ways, the computer modding scene has turned into the same thing and I think many of you can agree with me on my viewpoint.
That being said, the IceWind has decided to give out his last effort in the modding scene. After this, I doubt i'll be doing much of anything in regards to modding and be moving on to other life ventures. As my patience with noise and lights has diminshed over time, I had a few plain but very serious objectives with this new project:
1. Reduction in all noise and vibration as much as possible
2. Elimination of unecassary lighting, wiring and cable managment for ease of use, upgrading and peace of mind
3. Windows are no longer desirable for both noise factoring and light output
4. Reduction in case size for ease in movement and desktop space
5. All airflow is to be achieved via 120mm low dba fans, no 80mm's at all and no unecassary, useless bling bling fans. Blowholes are no longer desirable as well.
With my ideas clearly laid out, I set out to first start looking for a case to build "Night Wind" upon. After going through a MAJOR investigation into SilentPCReviews forums, i've decided to ditch the aluminum cases to factors of reduction of vibration and resonation that results in having an aluminum case in comparison to steel. With the idea that NO 80mm's are going to be used, and that I wanted a reduction in case size and factor but have a very high quality, expandable and somewhat lightweight case. In the end, I returned to my favorite case manufactur that has built my some of my best cases over the years and once again, I turn to them to fufill my needs. I decided on the Antec Sonata for "Night Wind" to be built upon.
Further investigation has shown me the light in regards to how much vibration and noise can be transferred from HDD"s to the case which also entails the importance of Aluminum vs Steel. Due to aluminums lighter nature and the reduction in structual integrity, vibrations and resonation are greatly increased as a result of direct mounting of HDD"s to the chassis. The solution I have found to my surprise is to suspend the drives using elastic wire that will enable to the drives to be basically be suspended by a web of elastic cord that will absorb all virbration, motor noise and seek/access crunching has a dramatic effect in noise reduction from my research.
I've also come to the conclusion that Western Digital drives are by far the noisest drives i've ever come across next to IBM's. The high pitched whine WD's ball bearing drives will no longer cut it. As such, all drives will be replaced by 160gig Seagate Barracuda's
"Night Wind" will be the first case in my history that WILL NOT have a side window. Honestly, I no longer really glance or care about seeing my equipment lying next to me. As long as its doing its job quietly, I honeslty no longer have the awe inspiring wonder of looking into my cases. This will not only result in not having the damn glare of LED's fans, but this will also help in reduce sound output from the case as well.
The Sonata case will be heavily modified and dremeled to allow maximum passive airflow through the front intakes, therebye negating the purpose of having duel intakes and exhaust fans. Instead, I plan on allowing maximum airflow through the case through a combination of extreme wire tidyness, removal of case obsructions of airflow path with the dremel and using Coolermasters UV 120mm fam for both quiet performance and good airflow. These also will be foam insulated to reduce vibration into the case.
**** A special thanks to all the guys at Silent PC Review who made this possible with all their incredible ideas, input and suggestions to make this case project a success. Without them, this would not have been possible. If you YOU wanna know how to quiet your damn computer down, then these boys are the guys to ask!****
