Project: K E I S A R I, 19 November 05

[_keisari]

Greetings fellow modders and welcome to project K E I S A R I. This is my first serious attempt at making a casemod, so please bear with me.

This project will definitely involve (but is not limited to) metal, laser etching,cutting, polishing, nail biting, screwing (as in using a screwdriver), fanta drinking, crying, drilling, H2O (maybe MCT-5, but who knows), silencing and finally spending some cash (as much as I can afford that is).

I have aquired a sponsor. They have some awesome stuff and great great customer service so check them out www.vcore.dk


My starting point is the awesome Lian Li PC-7077. This case is great and it's HUGE, there's 12 (oh yeah, count em), 12 freaking 5,25" slots.



One thing that's for sure is that my gf has banned casewindows.
So I guess we'll just have to figure out what to do instead then. Case windows are boring anyways
Here are the specs:
The hardware
Asus P4C800-E Deluxe MB
Intel P4 3.0 GHz CPU
Corsair XMS ProSeries 1024 MB kit (2x512)
G. Skill Extreme Series 2048 MB kit (2x1024)
Plextor PX-760 AS DVD burner
Pioneer 52x DVD ROM
Creative X-FI Pro soundcard
PCI USB card (5 additional USB ports)
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74,6 GB
Hitachi DeskStar T7K250 250 GB
2x Maxtor Diamondmax 9 160 GB (This adds up to about 644,6 GB! Eeeks! don't think I'll need more space than that)
Seasonic S-12 600 watt PSU
Innovatek Fan-O-Matic PRO VFD version 20x2
The cooling
Laing DDC-PRo 12v pump
Innovatek XX-Flow CPU block
Heatkiller GPU-X ATI x800 GPU block
Innovatek Graph-O-Matic Rev. 2.0 NB block
2x HeatKiller SilentStar Dual HDD blocks
Innovatek Fass-O-Matic reservoir
ThermoChill PA120.3 (tripple 120mm radiator)
Innovatek Konvekt-O-MAtic Maxi passive radiator
The brain cooling (VERY, VERY important!)
Fanta! And lots of it. Ooohh baby!

I'm not in any way affiliated with Fanta! I just like the stuff ALOT!
The System
The cooling will be a parrallel system. When using very restrictive or low flow systems (e.g. Innovatek or Aqua Computer) parrallel systems often have a slight temperature advantage compared to serial systems. Parrallel systems on the other hand are also a bit more complicated to set up.
The cooling loop as I've envisioned it

An equivalent serial loop (just so you can see the difference and how much more complicated it is)

On to the modding!
I recieved my case from www.caseking.de and I immediately unpacked it only to realize that they had sent me the wrong freaking case (Lian Li PC75) . On top of that they had packed my two SilentStar's inside the case and they had obviously bounced around during transport thus breaking a lot of the drivebays. Bad move!
I immediately emailed them telling them that I had recieved the wrong and broken case. The case was returned.
Here are some images of the case I recieved in error.


They DO deserve some credit though because I recieved the correct case only 5 days later
and was creditted 10,50 € to my bank account for the return shipping. THUMBS UP Caseking! Yeah!
Let the real modding commence!
I started with stripping the case down to it's bare minimum. Like this.

this

and this

WOW this is fugly! Off with thy head, Ching!

These plastic case feet suck too! Ching!

Case stripped!

[_keisari]

My dad in law's workshop where everything goes down


more workshop


stationary drill (this should come in handy)



I've really been picking my brain about the order in which my drive bays
should be placed and I've come up with 4 different layouts.
A.
-VFD-
-Empty-
-Pump-
-Empty-
-DVD RW-
-DVD ROM-
-FDD-
-SilentStar-
-SilentStar-
-Power Btn + LEDs-

B.
-VFD-
-Empty-
-Empty-
-Pump-
-DVD RW-
-DVD ROM-
-FDD-
-SilentStar-
-SilentStar-
-Power Btn + LEDs-

C.
-VFD-
-Empty-
-Pump-
-Empty-
-DVD RW-
-DVD ROM-
-FDD-
-Power Btn + LEDs-
-SilentStar-
-SilentStar-


D.
-VFD-
-Empty-
-Empty-
-Pump-
-DVD RW-
-DVD ROM-
-FDD-
-Power Btn + LEDs-
-SilentStar-
-SilentStar-

An image is a thousand words (the layouts from above)


Now the hard part: To choose the 1!! Eeeek! Biting nails

Anywho, I think I'm rooting for layout A, but feel free to give your opinion

I also recieved my MCT-5 (it has only recieved praise som I'm looking forward to see if it's woth the money + I got it for a very good price price at www.coolerkit.dk)


The DualStars (they still have the protective film on them)


more DualStars and blocks


They look kinda bland so we need to spiffen them up a bit. Bolts always look cool so lets add some of those

Measure 5 times


drill, screw and voila


How they are going to be stacked (and yes, they need to be polished but not until they come back from laser surgery )

[MasterP]

WHOA!

That's a BIIIG case!
Looks like you've got this mod well planned out (so much information in that post! )

Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out Keep those updates coming in!

[Dex]

Yup, looks pretty sweet.

Looking forward to seeing how this pans out.

What the heck is a DualStar though?

[THRASHER2]

Sweeeet Work..........keisari
I love sweeeet new projects from new members w00ts!!!!

[Wordbiker]

Your plans certainly look Fanta-stic....

Very nice watercooling gear you have chosen. While I can't comment on the performance of Innovatek's gear, it does look very nice, and they have items that no one else is making. I'd like to hear your impressions of it _keisari.

Welcome to PimpRig

[BigAkita]

Where the hell did you learn to speak English so well?

Great start on the mod.

[Wordbiker]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex What the heck is a DualStar though?

Look at his HDD coolers. SilentStar dual blocks for two HDDs. Pretty sweet setup. Watercooled HDDs are fairly rare to see.

[SPECIALBLEND218]

With that water setup you would be much better off running in series over parallel. You will get much more flow through the blocks resulting in better performance. Especially with running a DDC pump since it has good head.

Neat looking project can't wait to see how it turns out.

[SaltDaddy]

Nice start, ya that thing is bigger than my house .
I vote for A.
Keep up the good work and keep us posted

[_keisari]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dex Yup, looks pretty sweet. Looking forward to seeing how this pans out. What the heck is a DualStar though?

As Wordbiker said it's for cooling the HDD's + it kills most of the noise the drives make (superquiet, yeah! so it can run at night without disturbing my beauty sleep )

Quote: Originally Posted by Wordbiker Your plans certainly look Fanta-stic.... Very nice watercooling gear you have chosen. While I can't comment on the performance of Innovatek's gear, it does look very nice, and they have items that no one else is making. I'd like to hear your impressions of it _keisari. Welcome to PimpRig

Hehe, Fanta-stic that's a nice one

Innovatek's gear is awesome! I'm getting very good temps and flow with my current system + it looks sweet and the craftmanship is really good as well.

A bit on the pricey side though.

Quote: Originally Posted by BigAkita Where the hell did you learn to speak English so well? Great start on the mod.

In regards to my english skills I'm just a natural I guess.

Just kidding, I've lived in Boston for about a year. That's why ich spreche english so well.

Quote: Originally Posted by SPECIALBLEND218 With that water setup you would be much better off running in series over parallel. You will get much more flow through the blocks resulting in better performance. Especially with running a DDC pump since it has good head. Neat looking project can't wait to see how it turns out.

I beg to differ on that one. I've done a bunch of research and as far as I can tell parallel is the way to go because the system I'm using is pretty restrictive 8mm inner diameter (think that's about 5/16" to you americans). The water will then be distributed evenly across all the blocks at the same time via the manifolds + the parallel system is much more fun to build.


Thx for all the kind remarks everybody.

Keep your pants on! A small update's coming later tonight

[_keisari]

Time for a small update

Woot! Just recieved some new stuff (Noiseblocker damping mats, fan silencers, wheeels!, Revoltec copper ram sinks and not to forget AC Ryan flex sleeve kit + AC Ryan PSU MORF kit)


Recieved my gear back from the laser etchers (www.dgcgravering.dk). I want to thank these guys for making an awesome job on the etchings! They look so sweet. Even though they wrote the KEISARI in the wrong font and with wrong spacing I can't complain because they gave me such a good price on the job and it still looks really cool. All in all I'm very happy about the job and it's going to look very nice when I get the rest of the case done.

The etched DualStars (sorry about the horrible lightning on the pics)


DualStars testmounted in chassis (I know I should do some cleaning so don't mind the dirt on the floor)


side panel


more side panel (artsy angular shot )


I'll leave you with a little quiz that you can ponder about untill the next update:
What is the name of He-Man's tiger?

[beachbum86]

*****Cringer ******

[lafez]

wow, this looks like a really well thought out mod. Im loving the laZer etchings ! I cant wait to see how this mod turns out.

Quote: What is the name of He-Man's tiger?

- I had to skip that question

Quote: *****Cringer ******

did you google that ^ ?