[n3xu5]

This project is now complete! ... all photos are 56K friendly.

Greetings! I've been planning this project for over two months now and it's finally time to start making some REAL progress. I'm planning on fitting a good amount of stuff into my rocketfish case I picked up from Bestbuy a few months back for around $25. At the same time, I'm going to be doing some pretty sexy mods to it also.

Original photos of the unaltered-case.



I have not seen any door mods on the rocketfish case yet, and I have seen plenty of people just discard the door altogether. Well, I won't be doing that, in fact, I'm gonna window my door. I also plan on fitting dual Swiftech MCR320's into this case also, and I've had at least 6 people tell me it couldn't be done, I plan to do it! In all honesty this will be the first case mod I've done in 5 years, and since the last one, my dremel died ... Another one bites the dust! and another one and another one bites hey!

So I picked one up from Lowes the other day...



Yes, that is a 28 year old Litton Microwave ... don't ask.

DAY 1

Disassembly and inspection.



Prepping the door.



Door ... killed



Just kidding I have plans for it still! hehe, now where's that molding ....

[n3xu5]

DAY 2

The door is alive and well, minus molding ...



Killed the lip on the edge of the stationary motherboard panel to route wires.



PSU Mod.



Front fan filter cover ... *cough* did I say that? Sorry, I meant ... "NEW and IMPROVED PSU Support thingy!" and yeah, it slides into a locking position too!



Cutting the PSU Window.



Crap, I didn't take into account for the side panels ... luckily though, I had too much instead of too little.



Talk about a tight fit ... thats about 2/16 of an inch from the hole to the edge ... I had to smoke a cigarette after that one.

[n3xu5]

DAY 2 - Continued

PSU MOD + Window minus molding, and cutouts sneak peek... he see's you!



DAY 3

Planning & Prep.



Lian Li 3 5.25" Bay Fan Cooler - Nasty Air flow ... so I had to make it better.



Originally, I was going to mount 3 hard drives behind that Lian Li bay device, but found out to my surprise they wouldn't fit properly. Because I'm such a stubborn SOB I didnt want to give up my bay device, I made the old HDD rack work for me.



I bought an EK Top for my Laing D5, and a D5 Bracket. The holes didn't line up with the EK mount spacing ... shame on EK! So I had to drill ... it was not easy to do by hand, either. The swivel piece on the bracket got really hot and even bent. I ended up straightening it out again and mounting it to make sure everything was working properly.




L-brackets for one of my MCR320's, had to drill and cut them ... sparks went everywhere. Also, Here's the case door with molding on! ... by the way, it's still not finished hehe.

[n3xu5]

DAY 3 - Continued

Top MCR320 vent ... and a sneak peek for comparision.



DAY 4

Planning & Prep.





EK Res 150 Mounted.



D5 Pump Bracket with Petra's Gel Stuff underneath for vibration dampening.



DAY 5

PSU MOD Complete.

[n3xu5]

DAY 6

I have 4 "L" Brackets to hold my MCR320 Radiator in place. It was somewhat of a challenge to decide on how to mount them exactly, but in the end I managed it. Also, cutting the hole for the rad grill sucked. I had to eyeball most of it, and measured a little bit. I think it turned out ok.

Bottom MCR320 positioning and measuring.



Got my markings & measurements.



Side panel door window & rad grill measurements, and final cut.



Checking my cuts.



Sexy! The radiator sits maybe 3/4 of an inch away (if that) from the grill, which is mounted directly to the side panel. I think it will be enough to still allow fresh air from the outside to be sucked in by the 3x120mm medium speed Yateloon's.

[n3xu5]

DAY 7

Didn't do too much today ... I'm nearing completition of all of my case mods. Today I cut my side panel window and drilled holes, finished my door, and cutout a small piece of lexan for a top fill port where the audio / usb addon thingy was on these rocketfish cases.

Prep.



My sexy door ... That's a 80mm hole and a 120mm hole to allow air to pass through the door.



Notice the lexan shavings under the molding .. lol, I cut the holes with everything attached, as it was easier. However, when i glue all of my molding down permanently, I'll clean those out.

Mini-Update

Front door, complete.



Mini project rig for Asus P5Q Deluxe North Bridge Heatpipe cooling.

[n3xu5]

DAY 8

I started assembly and rinsed all of my parts with distilled water. I know a lot of people recommend using distilled water + 10% vinegar to rinse out radiators, but I chose slightly boiled distilled water with some rigorous shaking.

I disassembled my FuZion v2 to inspect the channels and pins. Then added some bitspower customer fittings.



Three 5.25" bay modded Lian-Li fan bay with a Yateloon Medium in it.



Top panel radiator placement and assembly. I ended up flipping the fans to blow air out of the top for better case airflow. This may make the air passing through the radiator slightly more warm than bringing in outside air, but with two radiators (one on top, and one on the side bottom) I doubt it's going to matter, I'm overkilling this anyhow (CPU + GPU Loop).



Motherboard mounted with CPU Block installed. Then a picture of the res + pump installed.



The top barb on the res needs to be replaced with a 90 degree elbow fitting. I cannot attach hose to it, since the fans on the rad do not give enough clearance. I have one of these comming in the mail, hopefully by Tuesday of this week.

[n3xu5]

DAY 9

Not many updates .. waiting on my MX2 and DD Derlin Right Elbow barb to come tomorrow and then leak testing begins.

The side panel door completed!



Disassembled 4870x2 & cleaning stuff.



Trying to decide which ramsinks to use ...



COMPLETION PICS - INTERNALS

[n3xu5]

COMPLETION PICS - INTERNALS, continued





COMPLETION PICS - MISCELLANEOUS

[jokers_greg]

dammmmmn, thats looking hot!

[atomic ferret]

Can't wait to see the rest of this!

[Ric2L]

subscribed

[n3xu5]

*UPDATED*

thanks for the replies guys ... its going semi slow because i don't want to do it all in one weekend and then have nothing to do but wait for the ATI 4870x2 and the waterblock from Dangerden to come out. The suspense has already been eating at me, but this allows me to take my time hehe.

COMPLETION PICS - MISCELLANEOUS, FINAL SET









NOTES:

Overall, the equipment in these photos are a little dusty, please forgive me. I ended up leak testing for around 36 hours ... it was not planned that way but I had passed 24 so I figured .. what the hell. Also, I was planning on making a Fan / Rig for the NB ... I picked up a Antec Spotcool instead (thus the blue lights which worked great!). I feel like the wire management is not bad, could be better, but you would have to be standing in front of this thing to see exactly how MUCH CRAP I really fit into it all ... lol, I feel like I accomplished something with all of the wiring.

[MARCI]

Nexus, go crazy, then I'll send you mine :P

[n3xu5]

*UPDATED*

Day 5 added.

Can anyone tell me if the heat that comes off the rear of the psu can melt 1/8 inch lexan? I don't think so personally, but I've never used this power supply before so I dont know what type of heat it puts out.

[Anubis_386]

Nah these days PSUs don't get all that hot really, my old Corsair one was particularly coool actually ..

*Subscribed*

[Hitbox]

This is ugly.



HAHA JUST KIDDING THIS IS AWESOME!!!
Been looking for ideas on what to do with my Rocketfish and this is great!

[n3xu5]

Originally Posted by Anubis_386

Nah these days PSUs don't get all that hot really, my old Corsair one was particularly coool actually ..

*Subscribed*

Thanks I was wondering ....

I got my new toy today!

[Anubis_386]

Awesome! .. Now the (potentially) long wait for a waterblock for that beast ..

[Hitbox]

oh baby! D:

[jokers_greg]

DAMN dude, that setup looks crazy!

[n3xu5]

Originally Posted by Anubis_386

Awesome! .. Now the (potentially) long wait for a waterblock for that beast ..

Originally Posted by Jeremy from DangerDen

August 13, 2008, 12:05:54 AM
PostPost subject: Reply with quote
[DD]JERM
Administrator


Trying to get the first cut out tomorrow...

Hopefully that wait won't be too long hehe.

[n3xu5]

*UPDATED*

Day 6 added.

My dremel died on me!! I took it back to Lowes and got a replacement / refund with NEW accessories! freebies! lol

4870x2 Dangerden water block is right around the corner!!

[n3xu5]

*UPDATED*

Day 7 added.

Almost done!

[n3xu5]

*UPDATED*

Mini-Update added. Also, some good news. DangerDen is sending me their new 4870x2 full coverage water block prior to public release. Apparently, and amazingly, I was the first person to sign up for their "Email Notification System" for that product. I spoke with Jeremy from DD and he decided to send me one since i was first in line (which i find hard to believe), or so I was told. Either way, I'll be sure to post pictures of this beauty when it arrives tomorrow!

DangerDen is a very good Retailer! I highly recommend their products for anyone interested in TOP NOTCH customer service.

[n3xu5]

Behold! the 4870x2 Water block, hehe.

[xtkxhom3r]

dayum bro major ****ing props bro ima send you my rocket fish so you can do some modding for me :P

[Big Mike]

Nice work so far, I have the PA120.3 version of that grille to put in my 'fish, not looking forward to having to cut up the case that much to do it, will be my first mod on that scale. I did some work on a TT Armor but most of that was custom mounting a BIXIII in the front. Any tips from your experience cutting in the grille? I was just going to mark the openings onto tape on the top and cut out just the areas for each fan and leave the main slats etc solid.

[n3xu5]

Originally Posted by Big Mike

Nice work so far, I have the PA120.3 version of that grille to put in my 'fish, not looking forward to having to cut up the case that much to do it, will be my first mod on that scale. I did some work on a TT Armor but most of that was custom mounting a BIXIII in the front. Any tips from your experience cutting in the grille? I was just going to mark the openings onto tape on the top and cut out just the areas for each fan and leave the main slats etc solid.

If you look at this picture:

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j3...h/IMG_1911.jpg

I took masking tape and placed it all on the underside of the top panel. I remounted the top panel and flipped the entire case upside down. There are two sets of outside lines. The outer most set of lines is the inner bars (inside markings) that stretch across the top of the case. With those marked, I was able to place the rad and grill in the middle of them directly for spacing. Once I was happy, and some measurements later, I took the top panel off again. Then I layed the radgrill in the middle matching my spacing measurements and then traced the inside of the grill with a pen. When i was cutting, I cut maybe 1/16 to 2/16 outside of the line, trying to hide as much as possible under the radgrill. Straight line cuts for eveything except the curves. For those, I used the sander on the dremel to round them off.

Well, that's how I did it at least, hope that helps.

[n3xu5]

*UPDATED*

Day 8 added.

Final Assembly started. Water Equipment has already been rinsed with distilled water. I'm going to start cutting tubing today, and may even assemble the videocard + water block.