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PROJECT LOG ROG meets Lian Li casemod

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Cown

Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2002
Location
Denmark
Hi Guys :salute:


The reason for the mod:
About a week and a half ago, I came home from work and wanted to check out some reviews on the net. I turned on my computer and my CoolIT Vantage A.L.C. started beeping like mad. I opened my case and saw that the display was showing that there was no water circulation. I turned it off, tuned it back on, but still no luck. I figured it had given up on me (I've had it about 3 months, hope this isn't a common issue with these :() so I took it out and brought it back to the dealer and they RMA'd it for me. I went back home and pulled out my stock AMD cooler, and began to install it, now while doing so I looked around in the case and though this has begun to seem a bit old and worn out, and I started getting this great idea to mod it somehow. I went on the web and started look at other mods for inspiration, and finally got the motivation to start doing some mods to my old case :)

Now I live in an apartment on the 3rd floor and don't have access to any fancy workshops or garages filled with glorious tools etc. so I have tried to come up with alternatives in ways of modding my case, without make too much of a mess (my girlfriend has already threatened to kill me, so I try to behave :p )

The hardware:
It's all in my sig :)

The case is an old Lian Li PC-A10B, which I have been very pleased with, giving me no real reason to change it, but since it's old, it has become a bit boring too look at, and this is the perfect time to do something about it :)

The case:
I wasn't planing on doing a worklog, but figured I might as well share it with you guys and also get some feedback an suggestions while doing so. Regrettably I didn't really take any pictures when I started, so I've found some on Google:

This is what it looks like untouched:
lianlipca10b_05.jpg

lianlipca10b_04.jpg

lianlipca10b_13.jpg

lianlipca10b_09.jpg

lianlipca10b_10.jpg

lianlipca10b_20.jpg

First thing I have started out with is the front. I was looking VERY old with the floppy drive bay still mounted, never actually having been used, so I would remove it and spice it up with a LCD of some sorts, and this is where I found the NZXT Sentry LX fan controller, which already had the same color as my case, so I thought it perfect. Order sent, and all I had to do was wait until it finally arrived:

IMAG0687.jpg

IMAG0688.jpg

My dull looking front:
IMAG0693.jpg

Starting to tare it apart:
IMAG0694.jpg

I found out that these supports were mounted, and decided that I they really didn't have any real reason for being there, so I thought I'd remove them:
IMAG0695.jpg

To do so I had to take a look at the side and start to unscrew the whole thing, thinking I'd remove the gray plastic drive locks as well:
IMAG0696.jpg

I think it makes it look "cleaner"
IMAG0697.jpg

Removed the floppy bay:
IMAG0704-1.jpg

IMAG0698.jpg

Installed the Sentry:
IMAG0705-1.jpg

Sentry turned off:
IMAG0708-1.jpg

Sentry in action:
IMAG0770.jpg


All done, but this still wasn't enough so I've come up with a few more things to do:
- Cable sleeving the PSU, USB cables, Audio cables etc.
- Adding a window to the side of the case. (Finally a reason to buy a Dremel)
- Adding some new color inside and possibly outside the case.
- Make some more holes with my new Dremel :attn:
- Spend some more time waiting for my A.L.C to return from RMA :mad:

Now it's getting late, so I will stop for today, but will return with more updates tomorrow.

Thanks for looking so far :)
 
Last edited:
Update 29/2-12

Hi guys


Here's an update on how it's going.

I finally received my sleeving for the PSU and started right away. Now I've never done this before, and had a bunch of ideas on how to do it, but after sleeving the ATX power cord and the additional 12V power cord for the motherboard I decided to stop. First of all the color of the sleeving doesn't fit the rest of the color scheme, it's too orange for my liking. Second of all I am a newbie at this, and like all newbies, I have to learn the hard way and learn from my mistake and quite frankly, the sleeving job I've done looks like bullocks. Thirds is the quality of the sleeving, I believe it to be too cheep, it doesn't fully cover the wire underneath it, and at the same time fraying (is this the right word?) at the edges.

I'll share the horrible job with you and let you know that I've learned from this and hope, my next attempt will be much better. I've ordered some high quality sleeving from MDPC-X along with new crimps for the ATX connector, 12V connector as well as the PCI-E power connectors, so I can sleeve without the shrink tubing for cosmetic reasons. Unfortunately I cannot show you the sleeves, because Nils, the owner of the site, closes it down, and only has it open for show an hour or less at a time on specific days. I'll try to "steal" some pictures from the site, nex time he's up and running :)

The PSU:
IMAG0713.jpg

Decided to open it up for some cleaning:
IMAG0717.jpg

Disgusting :-/
IMAG0714.jpg

Better:
IMAG0717.jpg

Now since I am a noob and afraid that I probably would mess up the right order of the wires, I wrote them down, just in case:
IMAG0718.jpg

Connector off:
IMAG0720.jpg

My new tools for the job, and the sleeving, and as you can see, it's very orange :(
IMAG0711.jpg

Sleeving done, looks like total crap :( I tried to do it without the shrink tubing on the connectors themselves, but they keep fraying and won't stay in the connector as I want them to. I am ashamed :bang head:

IMAG0721.jpg


Now for the more fun parts, the foiling.


Now as mentioned before, I live in an apartment on the third floor and have no access to workshops or a garage, limiting me from using spraypaint, because I don't want to intoxicate the air, for the sole sake of my 8 month year old daughter, her health is more important :) Also the mess would be horrific :eek:

I've had to figure out another way to mod the case inside, so I've decided to use red plastic foil.

The color scheme I am aiming for is the classic ROG theme, mainly because of my motherboard and for my future update, which I also am planing on being an ASUS ROG board.

Let the modding begin.


First of all I will be removing this ugly looking PC speaker, wonder what Lian Li were thinking when they placed it in the case :shrug:
IMAG0703.jpg

Secondly I need to remove the protection around the holes for the wires:
IMAG0722.jpg

Mobo and protection removed and a cleaning of the surface done:
IMAG0726.jpg
IMAG0725.jpg

Mobo slide-able tray removed:
IMAG0727.jpg

Ready for foiling!

The color of the foil which I am planing to use, unfortunately doesn't show quite right on the camera, I think the reflection makes it look "off", it's high gloss, very shiny :clap: it show a bit more orange/purple than it really is, I assure you it's definatly RED :thup:

The foil:
IMAG0728.jpg

Starting off small:
IMAG0729.jpg

Now for the bottom... I was highly concentrated while doing this, so forgot to take pictures of the process :bang head:

After the foiling was done, I added some new edge protection, It's thicker and looks a lot better than the original.
IMAG0731.jpg

IMAG0732.jpg

Adding the rest:
IMAG0733.jpg

IMAG0735.jpg

IMAG0733.jpg

I also wanted to "pimp" the plate on the side of the 5.25" bays:
IMAG0738.jpg

All done:
IMAG0739.jpg

Mounted:
IMAG0740.jpg

I am pleased with the result :)


Now for the motherboard tray.

I decided it was time to experiment with my newly bought Dremel, and I must say, this is a nifty tool :D
IMAG0744.jpg

Some measuring:
IMAG0742.jpg

Now for the cutting, unfortuatly after installing the cutting blade, it broke, because I put the Dremel down too hard :mad: Oh well, change change change.
IMAG0745.jpg

Cut cut cut, one hole done, and one cutting blade used up.
IMAG0746.jpg

Some more cutting:
IMAG0747.jpg

Done:
IMAG0748.jpg

Now some filling and sanding around the rough edges, I think the result is acceptable :)
IMAG0751.jpg

Now for some more foiling:
IMAG0752.jpg

Protection added:
IMAG0754.jpg

From the back:
IMAG0774.jpg

Some more cutting and protection:
IMAG0755.jpg

IMAG0761.jpg

IMAG0756.jpg

Tray placed back in the case:
IMAG0757.jpg

IMAG0758.jpg

IMAG0760.jpg

It's starting too look like a mod :)

Motherboard mounted:
IMAG0763.jpg

IMAG0764.jpg

I've received my new red thumb screws I ordered from caseking.de, they add a little more spice to the mod:
IMAG0765.jpg

IMAG0766.jpg

Some more pics:
IMAG0779.jpg

My Vantage A.L.C finally came back from RMA, they sent me a new one, which I am very pleased with :) So I removed the stock cooler and mounted the new Vantage:

IMAG0778.jpg

IMAG0782.jpg

IMAG0781.jpg


IMAG0775.jpg

I decided to foil up the side fan as well, but I'm thinking of removing it when I've finished my window mod on the case:

IMAG0789.jpg

Foiling:
IMAG0790.jpg

IMAG0792.jpg

IMAG0795.jpg

IMAG0793.jpg

Hardware and fan back in the case:

IMAG0799.jpg

IMAG0800.jpg

IMAG0805.jpg

Vantage up and running:
IMAG0812.jpg

IMAG0813.jpg

IMAG0814.jpg

Color isn't right, a couple of button pushed later:
IMAG0816.jpg

IMAG0817.jpg

That's it for now folk, next update will be:

- New sleeving of the PSU
- Windows mod
- Adding light inside the case
- Closing up the extra hole in the back of the case:
IMAG0806.jpg

Suggestions welcome :)

Thanks for looking!
 
Last edited:
Update 29/2

Hi guys, here's a small update, while I still wait for my new sleeves from MDPC.

I have decided to add some more color inside the case, again I using foil, this time black.

IMAG0836.jpg

IMAG0838.jpg

IMAG0839.jpg

IMAG0840.jpg

IMAG0842.jpg

IMAG0844.jpg

That's it for now guys, thanks for looking :)
 
Update 4/3-12

It's time for a little update.

I've managed to replace the backplate for the secondary PSU. A couple of holes drilled and some rivets added, and that's all she wrote:


The previously removed backplate:
IMAG0823.jpg

IMAG0824.jpg

Holes drilled and rivets mounted:
IMAG0826.jpg

Backplate in place once again, The almost none existing aluminium, supporting the rivets forced me to mount it with a small gap of about half a millimeter, unfortunately I can't fix this :(
IMAG0831.jpg


In the meantime I received a package, I wonder who it's from :)
IMAG0849-1.jpg

IMAG0850.jpg

The products, sleeving and shrink tubing for the PSU and SATA cables, in addition I received some other color samples:
IMAG0851.jpg

Some closeups:
IMAG0853.jpg

IMAG0854.jpg

The previous sleeving I used:
IMAG0856.jpg

In comparison I must say that there is a HUGE difference in quality and looks:
IMAG0858.jpg

IMAG0859.jpg

Unsleeved SATA cable:
IMAG0860.jpg

Sleeved:
IMAG0862.jpg

So far it's been very easy to use:
IMAG0863.jpg

The PSU's turn:
IMAG0864.jpg

My first attempt which didn't turn out very well:
IMAG0865.jpg

Had removed all the wires from the connector and had them aligned for easier sleeving:
IMAG0869.jpg

First wire sleeved:
IMAG0871.jpg

SOME time later:
IMAG0872.jpg

I must say thet these sleeves are something else, they don't fray and the weaved threads stay together as the should do, I would like to take this oppotunity to highly recommend these products to anyone who is thinking of sleeving. You wont regret it :thup:
IMAG0873.jpg

That's it for now, it turned out that I didn't order enough sleeving, so I will have to wait until I receive my next order.

Nex update will consist of sleeving the PCI-E cables, 12V cable for the mobo, LED, power and reset button cables and USB, Audio and Firewire cables for the front panel.

If I find the time I will also give the window-mod an attempt.


Thanks for looking :)
 
Hows that NZXT Sentry LX working out for you? I went through 4 of them before finally keeping the one I have now and just dealing with its flaws. All four of mines would randomly beep and blast my fans to full throttle for no apparent reason. Tried all sorts of different settings (temp alarm on/temp alarm off, manual mode/auto mode, battery changes) all yielded the same results lol. I finally got bold and just ripped the speaker off the unit. I can deal with it now without the random beeping since I never used the temp probes anyway, but my fans will still just randomly blast to full throttle and slowly return to their set speed. And I dont even wanna talk about the fan compatibility issues lol. You would think a fan controller would be able to control any fan given it had the power to do so. It would simply fail to adjust the speed of some fans that were rated within the units 6w power range. NZXT told me the fans were probably incompatible but hell I thought a fan controller just adjusted the voltage being delivered to the fans therefore controlling the speed?? The thing looks absolutely beautiful but it definitely has some bugs lol. Loving the mods you've done btw!
 
Last edited:
Hows that NZXT Sentry LX working out for you? I went through 4 of them before finally keeping the one I have now and just dealing with its flaws. All four of mines would randomly beep and blast my fans to full throttle for no apparent reason. Tried all sorts of different settings (temp alarm on/temp alarm off, manual mode/auto mode, battery changes) all yielded the same results lol. I finally got bold and just ripped the speaker off the unit. I can deal with it now without the random beeping since I never used the temp probes anyway, but my fans will still just randomly blast to full throttle and slowly return to their set speed. The thing looks absolutely beautiful but it definitely has some bugs lol. Loving the mods you've done btw!

For now I haven't had any issues with it. I runs really well. I haven't had my fans go up and down in RPM, so I guess I'm lucky :) I disabled the alarm the moment I installed it, I don't use them temp probes either, so no need for the alarms.
 
Update 5/3-12

Hi guys

An update on some more foiling I've done, while I wait for new sleeves.

This is the part i plan on foiling:
IMAG0882.jpg

IMAG0884.jpg

Also gonna do something about this wire hell I've got going on:
IMAG0888.jpg

ROG DOG! :screwy:
IMAG0892.jpg

Some foiling done:
IMAG0893.jpg

Holes cut out:
IMAG0895.jpg

IMAG0896.jpg

Almost looks painted :)
IMAG0898.jpg

Starting to look like something:
IMAG0900.jpg

That's it for now folks, thanks for looking :)
 
hi mate nice mods, is that foil wrap costly? as im currently in the middle of modding my antec 900 but not got confidence with spraying.
 
Update 19/3

Hi guys

It's time for a mini update. Unfortunately, I don't have much to post, since the new pin remover I received only lasted for 3 pin changes, before it broke :( I RMA'd it and am waiting for a replacement. I am also waiting for us to change the saw blade on our big panel-saw at work. I need it for cutting the plexiglass I want to use for my windowmod as well as an suggestion I received from a fellow modder on another site, more on that later :) The new blade will give precise cuts as well as prevent the plexi from fraying on the edges when cut.

I have since my last update, gotten a hold on a much better camera than the one I used before, which was my phone :p The color of the foil as well as the sleeves show much better and are near as accurate as could be to real life viewing :)

Some pictures to show you the difference:

IMG_0599.jpg

IMG_0600.jpg

IMG_0597.jpg

IMG_0621.jpg

IMG_0618.jpg

IMG_0617.jpg

IMG_0616.jpg

IMG_0615.jpg

IMG_0620.jpg

My first attempt at sleeving the PCI-E cord, but this was not a succes. The two sleeves wires connected together to one pin were to "fat" to fit inside the connector, which caused the pin to fall out.

IMG_0628.jpg

I therefore, decided to add extra wires to the existing one and for this I "stole" some wires from an old ATX PSU I had laying around:

IMG_0644.jpg

IMG_0643.jpg

IMG_0664.jpg

IMG_0654.jpg

IMG_0671.jpg

I think it looks somewhat better, and while doing this, my pin remover broke :mad:

IMG_0667.jpg

While frustrated that the tool broke, I decieded to use my time to sleeve the power/reset/led cables.

IMG_0687.jpg

IMG_0685.jpg

IMG_0684.jpg

IMG_0677.jpg

Summoning it all up, my case looks like this atm:

IMG_0692.jpg

IMG_0689.jpg

I still need to sleeve the USB/Firewire cables (still not sure how to do this the best way) I also need to remove the white cableholder at to top of the case, hide/sleeve the wires from the top fan, but I will only do this when I receive my new Enermax fans in red and black to match the color scheme, unfortunately they are out of stock, and I won't get them until the beginning of April.

As always, thanks for looking, and any comments or suggestions are welcome :D
 
Last edited:
Looks good bud. I too am going for the red and black (ROG) theme. If mine turns out half as nice as yours, I'll be happy. :)
 
KΓλ©KΣΓ™;7136697 said:
Looks good bud. I too am going for the red and black (ROG) theme. If mine turns out half as nice as yours, I'll be happy. :)

Thanks mate, looking forward to seeing it :)
 
Working on a wallpaper atm.
Ruby.jpg
In the market for some paint to match the G.Skill Ripjaws in my system. Hard stuff to try and match....
 
Update 21/3

Hey guys

As mentioned before, my new pin remover broke after only removing 3 pins, so I contacted the webshop where I bought the tool, to ask if this was normal, and they replied, telling me that it should last a lot longer than what I had experienced, so they sent me 2 replacement tools free of charge, SUPER SERVICE! I received these today, so I carried on with the sleeving :)

The new tools:
IMG_0715.jpg

"New" wires for extension of the PCI-E connector (stolen from an old ATX PSU):
IMG_0707.jpg

PCI-E plug ready to be modded and sleeved:
IMG_0718.jpg

I have tried to take some better pictures of the way I do it, but at this time of evening it has gotten dark outside, and with the lamps my GF demanded we had to have in our living room, the pictures aren't as sharp as could be, so I hope you bare with me on this:

I cut about 0.5 cm of the existing wire on the PCI-E plug, preparing it to solder the extra wire to it:
IMG_0737.jpg

IMG_0735.jpg

Extra wire soldered on, and then covered with shrink tubing and sleeved, like I did on the other one earlier in the thread:
IMG_0743.jpg

IMG_0740.jpg

Removed this cable organizer as well:
IMG_0779.jpg

IMG_0782.jpg

Also decided to sleeve the visible wire from the top fan in the case:
IMG_0755.jpg

Boring as she looks:
IMG_0753.jpg

Sticker removed:
IMG_0764.jpg

Sleeving done:
IMG_0773.jpg

IMG_0769.jpg

Now I've taken some pictures of the finished result, but due to the bad lighting they didn't come out well at all, så I've decided to wait until tomorrow and take some better pictures before I show them to you guys, I hope you are okay with that :)

So for now, once again, thanks for looking!
 
Last edited:
Cown, this build looks unbelievably good. I guess that's why the Olympics are every 4 years :D
 
Update 24/3

Before I begin, here's a few pictures as promised :)

IMG_0786.jpg

IMG_0801.jpg

IMG_0812.jpg

IMG_0815.jpg

I received a suggestion from a fellow modder on another forum, which I have taken to heart. The holes I made in the motherboard tray for cable-management were premeditated. I didn't think things through, so I decided to correct my mistake by covering it with a black plate, and while doing this, also hiding the SATA cables which seem out of place.

5mm plexiglas cut out to fit my measurements, I made 3 just in case, luckily I didn't need them :)

IMG_0817.jpg

When I cut the plates I had some plexiglass left over which I cut to fit an SSD drive, no sure I'll be needing them for anything, but I made them anyway :)

IMG_0822.jpg

Measurements made for holes:

IMG_0885.jpg

Holes drilled out:

IMG_0914.jpg

IMG_0902.jpg

It's hard to see, but I cut threads for M3 screws in the glass.

IMG_0897.jpg

Time for some countersinking (is this the right word?):

IMG_0911.jpg

IMG_0914.jpg

For the plate mounting, I've gotten some black M3 screws from MDPC:

IMG_0893.jpg

Like a glove:

IMG_0916.jpg

To raise the plate to the right level, I've combined 3 motherboard spacers, which give me the exact height I need:

IMG_0888.jpg

IMG_0921.jpg

IMG_0919.jpg

Threading for the spacers in the motherboard tray:

IMG_0924.jpg

IMG_0926.jpg

IMG_0927.jpg

IMG_0928.jpg

Spacers mounted:

IMG_0934.jpg

The plate fits nicely:

IMG_0939.jpg

Some black foil added:

IMG_0941.jpg

mounted:

IMG_0942.jpg

IMG_0943.jpg

IMG_0944.jpg

Now that I'm using black screws, I thought I might as well replace all the screws holding the motherboard:

IMG_0883.jpg

A little extra for the looks:

IMG_0947.jpg

Resulting in:

IMG_0953.jpg

This will be hidden by the plexiglass cover:

IMG_0967.jpg

Cover mounted:

IMG_0970.jpg

IMG_0983.jpg

IMG_0987.jpg

IMG_0994.jpg

IMG_1004.jpg

I think the result turned out pretty well, what do you think? :)

A few extra pictures:

IMG_1023.jpg

IMG_1024.jpg

IMG_1026.jpg

IMG_1029.jpg

IMG_1032.jpg

IMG_1035.jpg

IMG_1037.jpg

IMG_1045.jpg

IMG_1046.jpg

IMG_1052.jpg

IMG_1058.jpg

Next step will be adding some light to the case, windowmod and replacing the fans with new, more colorful ones, and some other minor details, but I'm still waiting for parts to arrive.

For the lighting I've gotten a hold of some LED's which I need to mod to fit the PSU's 12V molex connectors:

IMG_0823.jpg

IMG_1067.jpg

IMG_1069.jpg

Thats it for now guys, thanks again for looking :)
 
Last edited:
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