Project: XeQtion - Votey's X-QPack Mod

Votey

i one word for ya(well many)..


you are amazing,, i think i did not see anything quite like that in terms of extreme modding....

i mean its not that extreme but the idea was extreme in the first place,, so again you did an amazing jop..

i think i need to get my #%% up and try something like that..
 
evaseeker said:
Votey

i one word for ya(well many)..


you are amazing,, i think i did not see anything quite like that in terms of extreme modding....

i mean its not that extreme but the idea was extreme in the first place,, so again you did an amazing jop..
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks very much! You're right, it's not that crazy of an idea, it's actually quite simple, but I am very pleased with the end result. :D

evaseeker said:
i think i need to get my #%% up and try something like that..
Click to expand...

Yes! Just make sure to post a worklog with lots of pictures! ;)

I think there are a few other people who are doing this same thing, since there is now proof that it can work. Hopefully they post worklogs, so I can see how they improve on this mod.
 
i cant think of anything that would improve on this mod other than somehow getting the mobo oriented so that all the plugs and stuff are in the back like its supposed to be instead of sticking out the side, but thats not physically possible due to the dimensions of the qpack, right? :(
 
It might not be possible due to the dimensions, but with some judicious use of right-angle connectors it might be possible to get all the connectors sticking out the backside.
 
thatd b extremely kickass. is there enough space to keep an entire matx mobo inside and have right-angle connectors sticking off all the parts and leading to the back? god, thatd make the mod even easier, too, cuz theres no need to cut the outer shell (and windows if you have the windowed version), just the support beams to make space for the vid card. thatd b so hot...

but then, i dont think theres enough space to do that. is there? how much space is there left between the mobo and the other side of the case, votey? or anyone else who would know?
 
ofcourse there is no space that why he started the whole mod this way.
the board would stick from the left side,, :confused:
 
are you sure? maybe theres like an inch or something, but then, thats probably not enough room to work with anyways :(

and i dont think its possible to re-orient the board because he had to cut out a piece of the hard drive support cages to get the video card in; if you rotate the board 180 degrees, then i think you might have to chop out a piece of the psu. not sure though, i haven't had the liberty to work inside a qpack yet.
 
Soymilk said:
is there enough space to keep an entire matx mobo inside and have right-angle connectors sticking off all the parts and leading to the back?
Click to expand...

Do you mean an entire ATX board?

Maybe. You could probably move the board "back" (actually to the right, if you're looking at the case head-on) a little and have 1 to 1.5 inches to cram the 90 degree connectors in. You'd have to custom make most of them; all but the audio jacks, I think.

Here's the left side of the case:

Mod_069.JPG


And here's the opposite side of the board. There is some extra room here:

Mod_070.JPG


Of course, moving the board "back" would cause the video card(s) to further encroach upon the HDD's personal space.

So I guess the answer is: Maybe. :p
 
am i correct about the reason y the mobo isnt facing the other side is because then the video card would hit the psu, and u cant cut that?
 
hmm... but then if you're not the type of person that needs a lot of hard drives (read: you use only one, or maybe two depending on how far over the video card goes into the hard drive cage thing), then you could put ur hard drive into the floppy slot, and proceed to cut up the hard drive holder as needed.

why would the connector things that lead over to the back have to be custom made? nobody makes these kinds of connectors? and how would you go about making one? :confused:

man, i wish i had the funds to b able to try this. but as it is, i cant do it unless someone else shows that its proven to work, cuz if it doesnt, then im sitting on a atx board that i cant use in my case and need to resell and lose money etc. :(

*edit*
for the right angle connectors, if they're not custom-made only, if someone happens to have some for some reason and also have a qpack, could you try rotating your matx board 90 degrees so that it has the connectors on the inside of the case like the atx board would, and see if the connectors will fit? atx boards' longer side is the side w/ all the connectors on it, so if a matx board fits, an atx one should too. thanks :)
 
Soymilk said:
am i correct about the reason y the mobo isnt facing the other side is because then the video card would hit the psu, and u cant cut that?
Click to expand...

"u cant cut that"? Never say those words to a modder! LOL. :D

No, the PSU is high enough that it would not interfere with the video card. But check out the pic below. The part with the red and black wires wrapped around it would have too be completely removed to make room for any video card if the MB were turned around.

Mod_052.JPG


Soymilk said:
hmm... but then if you're not the type of person that needs a lot of hard drives (read: you use only one, or maybe two depending on how far over the video card goes into the hard drive cage thing), then you could put ur hard drive into the floppy slot, and proceed to cut up the hard drive holder as needed.
Click to expand...

Of course, my video card is in the floppy slot, so that won't work. :p This is actually my current problem. I have two 160GB HDs that I want to setup as a RAID 0 array, but thanks to my "l33t m0dd!n skilz" I have no room in my case to put them. doh!

revenant said:
That's a bad-ass mod! nice work! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, rev! Right back at ya for your "chillin" thread. :cool:
 
aah, i didnt realize that the video card was taking up the floppy space too. hmm... i guess the only solution would be to

a) if you have metal working experience, make a new hd cage and stick it in there somewhere where it might fit, or

b) ghetto mod it w/ zip ties or duct tape or something like that, and have it strapped to a side or duct taped to the top of the shell where there might be enough space :p i mean, there HAS to b space in there SOMEWHERE that a hard drive could fit in, and thus be strapped in. it shouldnt be a problem if you just make sure its secured nicely, cuz i've had a hard drive just dangling in my comp before cuz i was too lazy to install it properly, but it might be a hassle if you're the type of person that switches around or moves their hard drive a lot.

and by "u can't cut that", i meant... uh... your mother is fat! so HA! but ya that support beam going across there looks pretty substantial and shouldnt-b-cuttable(?). thanks for taking the time to take pictures for us :)

continuing my right angle connector idea, i think the main one thats needed would be the monitor plug. i mean, worst case, you could just use the front ports for everything, but there isnt a front port for the monitor. and the ethernet cable. but that might be able to be routed inside the computer from outside.
 
Votey said:
I have two 160GB HDs that I want to setup as a RAID 0 array, but thanks to my "l33t m0dd!n skilz" I have no room in my case to put them.
Click to expand...

Can you move the curent HD toward the front of the case and have the second on edge mirroring (no pun intended) the first so the cables are butting up against each other in the middle. Of course right angle power connectors (or SATA drives with right angle connectors) might make that easier. In the pic above to the left of the WD800 is a grille of holes, could those even be taken out so the HD sticks out into the plastic of the front cover?

GREAT JOB on this mod!
 
Soymilk said:
...ghetto mod it w/ zip ties or duct tape or something like that, and have it strapped to a side or duct taped to the top of the shell where there might be enough space :p i mean, there HAS to b space in there SOMEWHERE that a hard drive could fit in, and thus be strapped in.
Click to expand...

That is hilarious, my friend and I were just talking about duct taping the drives to the outside of the case, and doing a really bad job of it so the tape is all twisted and half the time the sticky side is facing outward, so it gets dust and hair and cereal pieces stuck to it. :D

[LYL]Homer said:
Can you move the curent HD toward the front of the case and have the second on edge mirroring (no pun intended) the first so the cables are butting up against each other in the middle. Of course right angle power connectors (or SATA drives with right angle connectors) might make that easier. In the pic above to the left of the WD800 is a grille of holes, could those even be taken out so the HD sticks out into the plastic of the front cover?

GREAT JOB on this mod!
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I may not be in as much trouble as I thought. I got a 7800GT, and plugged it into the upper PCIe x16 slot for now, out of concern that the lower slot's x8 speed would hurt performance. Of course, this means I had to go back to the infinitely louder and infinitely less reliable stock chipset HSF. :mad: But it also means I may be able to use both HD spaces in my HD rack. :) So now I have to remove some of the pins from my Zalman Northbridge heatsink so my 7800 can fit "inside" it. I'll try to take pictures this weekend so you can see what I'm talking about.

40mm fans do not belong in computers that are used by people who can hear.
 
Okay, here's the issue. I love using this heatsink for my "northbridge"...

zm-nb47j.jpg


It's quiet (duh), reliable (re-duh), and it works just as well as the stock fan.

But if I want performance from my video card, I want to use the upper x16 PCIe slot. Besides, using that slot allows me to have two HDD's in my case. So I want to cut some of the pins off the heatsink so it can fit under the card here...

Mod_071.JPG


in place of that crappy fan.
 
...wow. just wow. took me a minute to realize what "re%" was supposed to mean. couldn't you have just typed "represent" next time? :(

and i think i missed something here. so how are u getting 2 hd's in now, is it by ghetto modding it, or the suggestion that the other guy made w/ 2 hd's sharing one cage slot thing, or does using the top pci-e slot in a sli board not take up the floppy drive space or what?

and wtf how do u get cereal bits inside ur comp?!?!?!?!
 
Soymilk said:
...wow. just wow. took me a minute to realize what "re%" was supposed to mean. couldn't you have just typed "represent" next time? :(

and i think i missed something here. so how are u getting 2 hd's in now, is it by ghetto modding it, or the suggestion that the other guy made w/ 2 hd's sharing one cage slot thing, or does using the top pci-e slot in a sli board not take up the floppy drive space or what?

and wtf how do u get cereal bits inside ur comp?!?!?!?!
Click to expand...

No, I was talking about taping them to the outside of the case. True ghetto. ;)

The HD rack normally holds two drives, but not when the video card is sticking into half of it. Anyway, maybe I'm wrong about the HDs fitting now that I moved the video card up. It might still be in the way. I hereby swear that I will not post here again until I've figured out what I'm going to do and done it. :D
 
i forgot if u've tried oc'ing w/ that sucker yet or not, and how high or whatever the temps get. did u? if not, take some time out and do that, too :) well, itd mostly b for the temps i guess, since the mobo isn't effected by the case its in other than temps.
 
heh, np. wasnt meant to b like mean or nething, in case u took it that way. a lot of stuff gets lost in the text compared to saying stuff out loud...
 
Well done Votey.

I can tell that you saw something you wanted and just went for it. Your a very [H]ard individual. Beautiful work and good worklog for the rest of us to see how you did it. You found a great balance in size vs. power.

Thanks for sharing your modding adventure with us.
 
Excellent idea, awesome mod and perfect title! Well done. :cool: Truly great man.

Seriously, send that idea to Aspire. I will bet you anything we will have ATX clones coming along in no time! Alot of us would appreciate that...

Votey said:
40mm fans do not belong in computers that are used by people who can hear.
Click to expand...
Heh, I totally agree. ;) If you want to be lazy, you can take a pair of pliers and bend those pins off the sink. Done it before.
 
If you move the HD cage forward in the case, you will then be able to fit a second HD behind the first (between the one in the cage and the 120mm fan). It will take some fab work to make a bracket, but I think you're up to the task. Also, you can re-drill the holes in the HD cage to move the HD farther forward in the cage after moving the cage forward in the case for more room.

Picture in a few minutes (also showing my Votey-inspired-mod).
 
Nice job with the mod dude!

When I recived my Xpack I was temped to do the same thing, as I noticed it would fit my ATX mobo as well :p But with Q-Con just a week away I had enough to MOD already.

Nice to see that someone else thought of the idea as well and actually put it to use. It looks pretty slick dude! Psst.... make a plexi shell for it, would make this mod sick!
 
This is old, I know, but I can't find any good Micro ATX boards, Biostars is ok, and I have the Qpack and a DFI collecting dust... I'm not good at cutting stuff but I'm sooooo tempted...

I never posted, though I followed all ur work... looking forward to ur next mod.
 
if your still using the flat ide cable, grab a can of vinyl dye from autozone, and mask off the ends, and shoot the cable with vinyl dye, it will blend it into the case much better.
 
Votey said:
Okay, here's the issue. I love using this heatsink for my "northbridge"...

zm-nb47j.jpg


It's quiet (duh), reliable (re-duh), and it works just as well as the stock fan.

But if I want performance from my video card, I want to use the upper x16 PCIe slot. Besides, using that slot allows me to have two HDD's in my case. So I want to cut some of the pins off the heatsink so it can fit under the card here...

Mod_071.JPG


in place of that crappy fan.
Click to expand...

Can you bend the pins?
 
I have done the same thing a couple of times and just wanted to say Nice Job!

(its a lot of work)
 
PC-HAngover said:
Well, my front USB ports work just fine, as well as my HDD light. However, my power on light does not work, because the connector is a 3 prong, and my P.O.S. ECS RS480-M is designed for a 2 pin, argh.

BTW. Awesome mod! I was thinking of doing something similar because I can't stand the shitty ECS RS480-M any longer. But then I realized that the new T-Force mobos are coming out soon, so I will stick to mATX, for now. :D
Click to expand...

You can just cut the 3 ping power connector and then attach hole 1 to pin1 and hole 3 to pin2.
Jason
 
hehahohee said:
Can you bend the pins?
Click to expand...
He should be able to, I had to do that with the same NB cooler in my Micro Fly for the caps on my vid card not to hit...
 
Damn cool mod, dude.

I have the same problem with a similar heatsink on my Ultra-D, except my stock heatsink/fan died. :(

I did some benchmarking, and it didn't really seem to matter which slot I put the card in, the performance was about the same if I set the jumpers on the board to 8X/8X (Which is how you're supposed to set it up for SLI).

This was with an A64 3200+ and a 6800GT. 3DMark 2005 score was about 4500 or so, I think.
 
I'm thinking of doing this to my Q-Pack... anything I should be warned of as far as "OOPS!" errors that are common/possible?
 
I'm currently in process ofdoing mine. I went the opposite way of this. My IO is on the other side of the window. I didn't want the heat of the cpu getting inside the PSU and I have it right under the floppy area (empty, don't use floppy). I'm also thinking putting 2 80mm on top and one 80 on the side. UV of course.

It's not easy work and Im not good with my hands at all... however you messup and you've pretty much lost a case. Very samll room for error.

Patience is key and don't try to finish in one shot. Takes a while.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top