Project :: The Glass Prison

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Leeum

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 9, 2005
Messages
244
I’ve only been finished Moondust a couple of months and already I’ve got the itchy jigsaw fingers again... :D I’ve had a 64bit rig in the pipeline for a while now; I only got the motivation to start work recently when I received my Custom PC prizes for being featured in the magazine. The prizes included a case, PSU and various Intel hardware which will be used/ sold to fund the project.

The original plans included a Lian-Li PC-71 however when I received the prizes I had a change of heart. The Enermax case was much better than I expected – the build quality is great and the case has some lovely details.

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Hmmm, what’s in the box? ;)

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Here she is… :D

First impressions are good – it sports a stylish front bezel which has nicely crafted mesh bay covers and is surrounded by loads of brushed aluminium which will polish up a treat. It also has a blue backlit LCD at the top which monitors the case temperature, fan speeds etc.

It’s slightly let down by the splatter paint finish but I’m sure that can be sorted out due course. The case was supplied with a meshed side panel, I’ve contacted Enermax and they’ve agreed to exchange it for a solid one to accompany my tribal designs.

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The lockable front panel swings open to reveal the 120mm intake and the drive bays.

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Inside the case has much less room than I first thought. You can also see Enermax’s patented ‘wind tunnel’ which is imo… pointless – needless to say it won’t be staying.

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The case also has a 120mm blowhole at the rear.

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The front of the case has a pretty sweet aluminium cover on the variable resistor which controls the speed of 4 fans in the case.

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The Enermax logo – another nice detail.

Ok… enough blabbering about the case, time to start work. First job was to make some space to accommodate a BIX3 in the case; the first plan was to mount it to the top panel but with the PSU installed there was a serious lack of space towards the top of case.

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Instead; the HDD cage was drilled out which freed of space along the centre brace… you can see what’s coming now can’t you? ;)

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Here’s a test fit with the radiator – near as damn perfect!

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From another angle. With the fans installed I’ll most likely loose the first two drive bays which may or may not pose a problem, we’ll have to wait and see.
 
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I then snipped the pre-stamped grills on the 120 in/ outs with tin snips.

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The jagged edges were then filed and sanded with some wet n’ dry, job done :D

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The rear blowhole.

That’s all for now… see ya folks :)
 
DarkenReaper57 said:
Wow, I've never seen that case before. It looks pretty nice. Are those dual 120mm fans?
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Yup sure are - never seen anyone mod one before and I think they're a great case! Let's hope mine is the first of many! :)
 
Thats looking great man. Hope to see more!

BTW you will have a blowhole at the top? Because I can see all that hot air rising and its got nowhere to go!

Also how will you route the wires past that radiator?

Good luck

Thanks.
 
Oh snap. This is going to be incredibly nice.

If thats the final placement of the BIX 3, then I have a question, are you going to cut blowholes in the top of the case to make some air flow for that rad? Or are you going to jam it a little bit with the lack of airflow in the top?

I know you'll think of something creative. I hope this mod turns out really good for you. I'll be watching this log because I know for fact that something wicked is going to come out of it.

Leeum is probably one of the youngest, most talented modders on this site. Without a doubt.
 
Can't believe you're already starting on another! Can't wait! BTW that case looks a lot like the TJ-06, it has the same features, a door locked with a key, the wind tunnel, same setup for the way the mobo and hard drives are.
 
Noni: Cheers! :D Having blowholes at the top wasn't really in the plan but I see your point - I was hoping the PSU would shift most of the hot air. As for routing the wires, the case has several little holes in the mobo tray to allow the wires to go through.

TehRoflcopter: :eek: Shucks dude... Where there's a will there's a way ;)

Hexus0: I've just realised the case is a carbon copy of the Silverstone... not sure who made it first, them or Enermax :confused:

Cheers for the comments and ideas!
 
looks like it's completely silverstone except for the bezel.

does anyone make an original case these days?
 
BoySetsFire said:
looks like it's completely silverstone except for the bezel.

does anyone make an original case these days?
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Of course they do, it's just that most original cases suck majorly and generaelly have a shitload of plastic slapped on them.
 
you could do a tribal design, or put a res in the top, and use mesh insteaf ofplex, if you put a res uptop, may have to make up some bracing. but mesh would allow the air to exit at the top.

i think a good, but unconventional lay out would be to have the 2 120 mm fans that were used for the windtunnel, both pull air in, then the air gets sucked through the rad, then out the top. it would be abnormal, but differant and cool.

im sure you have brain stormed plenty, just tossing out what bounces out of my ears :-D
 
just to clarify. enermax doesnt have a patent on that case design. i have had an aerocool spiral galaxies for a long time now and the inside of the case looks exactly alike.

but anyhow, this is looking to be a cool mod.
 
If you didn't want to carve out the top you could vent out the top of one of the side panels. Maybe make a little shroud to go on top of the bix that directs the air to the side? Incorporate it into your side panel design, just back it with some mesh instead of plexi.

Just a thought.
 
Nice idea uzor! Might consider doing something like that, maybe Vac formed plastic?

Decision decisions...:D
 
Leeum said:
Nice idea uzor! Might consider doing something like that, maybe Vac formed plastic?

Decision decisions...:D
Click to expand...
Glad you liked it. I've been eyeing that SilverStone case, so you'll have to let us know how you like this thing once you really get into it.
 
That case looks literally identical to the TJ-06. There has to be some licensing going on between Enermax and Silverstone. I mean I don't think they could possibly look any more similar!
 
Not sure how well this would work, but you could possibly build a wind tunnel far the rad out of plexi or something. Though a blowhole on top would probly work better, plus this would eliminate atleast another of the drive bays.

airidea4hk.jpg
 
Ugh! Steel cases. I don't like em. But hey, it was free right? Keep up the good work. Convert that huge round dial into a volume knob. Have it go from 1 to 11!

"Yea, but these go to eleven".

You'll show your age if you know what movie that line is from.

Steven
 
Stevennoland said:
Ugh! Steel cases. I don't like em. But hey, it was free right? Keep up the good work. Convert that huge round dial into a volume knob. Have it go from 1 to 11!

"Yea, but these go to eleven".

You'll show your age if you know what movie that line is from.

Steven
Click to expand...
Spinal Tap, right?
 
Stevennoland said:
Your showing your age, but yes, your right!

Steven
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Hahaha I'm only 16, and saw that part of the movie on VH1's most rediculous metal moments or some show like that.
 
I’m still here and have been making alot of progress with this project, just don’t have much to show in the way of pictures yet ;)

However, I’ll do my best in taking you through what I’ve done to the PSU.

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Here’s the Enermax Liberty PSU I’ll be using – another one of the CPC prizes :)

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The contents of the box.

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The PSU itself. Fits in well with the colour scheme of things, the gold fan grill will have to go though :p

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What happens to new stuff? Yep, it gets cracked open :D

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As this rig will be using a mains powered pump, I decided to get the PSU fitted up with the ole internal pump relay again. I had to pick up a relay, some wire splices and diode from Maplin to put it together.

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Here’s the relay all wired in. You can see on the left where I’ve spliced 12V for the relay coil.
 
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The relay hides at the rear of the PSU, it’s secured by a double sided pad :)

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Once that was all tested and working I got the PSU braided up in UV orange, it’s tedious work but well worth the effort imo.

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The result of a full day’s work. I’ve yet to add a chrome grill to the fan ;)

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The PCI-E power connectors.

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The ATX connector. I sleeved the 4 pin connector seperate incase the PSU ever gets re-used in a different rig.

I’m aiming to get a good couple of updates up over the next couple of weeks. Until then, mod on :)
 
Oneos said:
Not sure how well this would work, but you could possibly build a wind tunnel far the rad out of plexi or something. Though a blowhole on top would probly work better, plus this would eliminate atleast another of the drive bays.

airidea4hk.jpg
Click to expand...

heat naturally moves up. that diagram shows air being forced downward and then out. i deally you wana have hot air move up and out the back. so all you really gotta do is tke that arrow pointing inward from the back and reverse it to allow a proper exhaust.
 
That's true, kinda defeats the object of having an 120mm fan at the bottom as that's venting cold air out the case :confused:
 
Flip it around so it's working as an inlet, not an exhaust.

 
Remember that air will find it's way into the case even with out a intake fan. Creating negitive pressure is your best bet! So.... Make sure you have more Exhausts then intakes.

Also I love what you did to that PSU.
 
i'm not so much worried about the fan on the bottom of the back of the case, but the fact the diagram shows the top of the back of the case as being an intake. the fan at the bottom is good if the motherboard is BTX, because then the cpu is closer to the bottom of the case and you end up having a wind tunnel effect, where the cpu is right next to the fan in the front at the bottom, and then the air is immediatly rushed out the back. all i'm saying is, the top should never be without an exhaust because that's where you'd want an exhaust.
 
After removing the HDD cage to accommodate the BIX3, I knew I needed a new method of mounting the hard drives. I figured it would be nice to use Danger Den’s new Aquadrive in the mod. However, once the radiator and fans were installed, space in the drive bay cage became a major issue as it left two bays unusable.

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To create some space I removed floppy drive cage.

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After jotting down a few ideas I made a cardboard template for a bracket which would hold the block along with two hard drives. This is what I came up with.

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I fired away the dimensions of the bracket to coolmiester who agreed to give me a hand. He cut and bent the 2mm alu bracket on his sheet metal bender (making an awesome job) and even dropped it off for me, cheers dude :cool: I then finalised the shape by hammering several of the bends as the metal bender isn’t designed to do full 90 degree ones.

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Test fitting the Aquadrive :)

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The Aquadrive alone weighs a tonne nevermind adding the weight of two hard drives aswell. I drilled 4x 4mm holes to secure the bracket into the case. I then sanded the whole bracket down with wet and dry ready for machine polishing.

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The front end of the case with the bracket installed.

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Closer view.

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From the back.

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I’ve yet to secure the block to the bracket, to do that I’ll use the strong automotive tape once the drives are fitted to the block.

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Closer view.

More progress soon :)
 
Now that I had approximate locations for the components inside the case, I started finalising the radiator mounting. The original plan was to rest the radiator upside down across the centre brace and drill holes for the barbs to go through the drive bay cage. Once I had the Aquadrive and its bracket installed, I realised the bend was just too tight for the tubing.

Instead I switched the orientation so the barbs faced upwards at the rear of the case. I cut a few spare lengths of tubing to make sure the method would work.

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The tubing connected to the barb on the left side bends down to attach to the GPU block, the one on the right side connects straight to the reservoir at the front of the case :) The tubing clears the PSU without any problems, the only issue I can forsee is when I come to drain the loop, some of the water will remain in the radiator.

The fans on the radiator were slightly restricted by the large centre brace; also, the first fan was completely blocked by the drive bay cage. To allow them to freely move air, several slices had to be made to be made.

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I started by marking the end section of the radiator onto the cage.

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I then marked the cuts to be made along the brace.

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The cuts were made to the drive bay cage by using my trusty key hole saw.

I then de-riveted the brace and set away cutting with the jigsaw, here’s the result before filing and finishing the edges off with wet and dry.

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Installed back into the case.

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From another angle.

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Here you can see the centre brace is pretty much level with the lip above the motherboard tray. The plan now is to have some orange UV plexi cut to deck out the entire area of the centre brace and drive bay cage to provide a ‘floor’ for the radiator. I will then cut the outline of the radiator shroud into the plexi and will secure it by screwing it into the shroud mounting holes.

Sorry if my wording is crap, I’m sure you’ll understand when I start work on it ;)

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Here you can see the (semi-painted) radiator in place, the ruler is just to balance it until I make the floor out of plexi ;)

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A shot from the bottom of the case, you can see the fans are free to draw in air and all the fan mounting holes are accessible.
 
Taking a break from the radiator for a bit… I got the pump mounted. I popped the motherboard into the case just to make sure it wasn’t going to obstruct anything.

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The M5 mounting holes marked.

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The pump mount was also drilled and the holes then countersunk for the M5 bolts.

Sorry for the long winded update, hope I haven’t bored anyone ;)

More soon! :)
 
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