New PC - PC-A70B mod.

[wtf8269]

Well I've taken the first few steps toward building my new PC. I purchased a Lian Li PC-A70B about a month ago. I have many plans for it. Today I started by stripping down to the bare frame, and sanding it for paint.

My current machine's days are numbered. It's been sold as is for $650. The only thing I will be keeping out of it are the raptors and the sound card.


Like I said, I began by stripping the case down to the frame. Nearly everything on this case was held together by screws--a great thing for modders; no more drilling out and replacing rivits. Now you know why Lian Li says that their cases are hand built. As you can see I also already took the liberty of cutting out the front 120mm fan grilles.

All of the screws and whatnot:

These will be replaced by green LED fans:

Sanded with (if my memory serves me right) 400 grit sandpaper. I had it leftover from body work I did on my car last year.

The metal dust was too fine to just be blown off, it retains a static charge of sorts and sticks to the metal. So I used a damp rag to wipe the dust off.

This is the bracket that holds the second pair of 120mm fans behind the hard drive cage. I proceeded to cut out the cross braces. They were there for "strength", but when it is bolted into the case and has the 120mm fans bolted onto it, it is fine structurally. So I decided to make it look a little more clean.

I did not sand the HD cage, because it was too intricate for my patience.


I also sanded the motherboard tray, which I did not take pics of, but was done with the same process as the case.

I plan to go with a satin black paint, white cathodes, and as I said before green LED fans. I think it should create a pretty unique look. I will be purchasing a windowed side panel in the next couple of weeks. However I will be replacing the plexi with some black modders mesh, allowing the whole side of the case to breathe. I'm debating about buying a 4.5" hole saw for my mandrel and drilling a top 120mm blow hole.

Thanks for viewing/reading.

[Protius]

Awesome, can't wait to see the final result

btw what made you go w/ a full tower?

[wtf8269]

I need the room. Mostly for hard drives. Since video cards are getting so long I had to gut the bays out of my PC-65B with plans of upgrading to an 8800GTX. Then I started running low on HD space, and I had no more room to run any more hard drives. So basically this whole new PC started off the thought that I need more hard drive space. The other thing is that I just fell in love with the layout of this case. However I could pretty much do without the top 5" or so up past the cross brace.

[steelkane]

Nice case, it will look awesome all black, what brand paint were you planing on using.

[wtf8269]

I have some wheel paint that I had laying around that sticks to just about everything, but I think I will be buying some Krylon Fusion.

[steelkane]

Krylon Fusion is for plastic,, but should work on aluminum,, Krylon also makes Interior-Exterior Paint. I would use that, & after your sanding of the metal I would use Self-Etching Primer for your base. Sand, Self-Etching Primer, Sand, Krylon Interior-Exterior Paint, then last Krylon Acrylic Crystal Clear coat. if you do it in that order, your finish will look awesome & last for a long time. and if you what a satin finish use a flat black paint, that way when you spray the clear coat it will have a satin finish. hope your project turns out awesome.

[wtf8269]

Sorry for the long wait, guys. I've gotten a lot done. Including painting and re-assembling the case. I got a couple of fans installed (but I may go another route with the fans), and my two Raptors installed. Best of all, my PCP&C T12R came in today! My side panel came in on Friday and I took that apart and prepared it for the mesh, but I need to go out and get some black bolts to put it back together with.





This PSU is a MONSTER! My case weighs 20lbs in it's current state, and as you know the case itself is lightweight since it is all aluminum.




Thank you, hole saw:


The hole for the power supply wires:




Four pin power connectors on my fans, not good as the controller I plan on using is three pin. Yes they make adapters, but I'd rather not have to use any. Plus I may use red fans now since it sounds like I will be going ATI.


It's going to be a challenge to tuck all of these away along with six or eight sata cables, and all of the fan wiring.


The windowed side panel I bought with the plexi stripped out ready for black mesh.


How it will look with the mesh inside (had a real hard time getting the camera to focus).


Looking through the mesh.




My RAM waiting for a happy home in a new motherboard.


Sorry for the late update guys, things should pick up a little bit here as I will be ordering HDDs and GPUs soon. I'm waiting to cut/paint the motherboard tray until I get a motherboard.

[wtf8269]

Update: I ordered two 500gb drives last night, I'm hoping to have them by the end of the week. I'll be ordering two 3870x2's when they come out next week.

[InnocentCriminal]

Worklogs FTW!

It's been too long since I've followed any decent mods. Keep up the good work! ^^

[wtf8269]

Thanks. I won't be doing anything to extreme, but I definitely plan to make this a not-stock PC-A70.

[wtf8269]

Ordered an Asus 3870x2. Not the super cool looking one with the quad dvi ports; just the reference board version. Unfortunately the site I ordered from only had one in stock. You can imagine that I will be hitting the F5 button every few minutes in anticipation of ordering a second one. The 500bg drives came in yesterday and I installed them in the case. Also I bought some M4x10 bolts to put together the side panel, and it looks bad ass just like I thought it would. Sorry, no pics for this post. My dad had the camera for the night.

[wtf8269]

Ordered a second 3870x2 on the Egg this morning.

[InnocentCriminal]

SKILLZ!

\m/

[wtf8269]

Bad news-kind of: fxvideocards.com's inventory was incorrect and they did not have one. They called and told me that they will have them back in stock by Friday. So it won't come in as early as the one from newegg. Doesn't really matter to me though since I'm still waiting for the Q9450 to come out.

[InnocentCriminal]

Arrrh, not to worry.

I'll be planning on a 3870 X2 in a A05B once the Q9450 is around or less than £150 and DDR3 isn't so bleedin' expensive.

[wtf8269]

Yeah, I just hope I can deal with this laptop until friggin' March for the Q9450 to come out.

[InnocentCriminal]

Hmmm... that's a long wait when you're gaggin' for something. Zombie Christ, I can't wait 4 days until I see my girlfriend.

[wtf8269]

I may just end up getting an E8400 or E8500.

[wtf8269]

Here are some pics. The 500gb's sitting below my Raptors. Still need to order a third Raptor.


As I said I'm really happy with how the side panel turned out. I focused on the outer edge of the side panel this time to get the camera to focus properly.

[wtf8269]

Lookie what came in the other day.




Too bad I can't do anything with it. I'll be testing it in my buddy's machine tonight though.

[InnocentCriminal]

Seriously, that is one freakin' awesome skin for that X2!

As for the case/mods so far... I'm getting all jazzed about that. I'm glued to this, keep 'em comin'!

\m/

[wtf8269]

Glad to see that at least one person is following this.

[InnocentCriminal]

Everyone else are wankers...

[vivanco]

that card looks sweet can't wait to see the rest of the system keep it up...

[wtf8269]

Thanks. I'm actually considering taking the skin off, but that'd be a great way to essentially irreversibly void my warranty.