Minor Upgrade Project.

[RMT99e]

Project: Upgrade

Hey. Im making this topic to document my minor mod update to my comp system. At the time i have a terrible camera..but i'll see what i can do.

List of changes/additions
-Major wire cleanup. Its a mess. Im going to do some tucking and bending whatever i have to do. I also have UV blue reactive sleeving.

-Change cathodes. Replacing 2x12in blue cold cathodes for 2x12in & 1x15in UV cold cathodes.

-Water cooling changes. Moving mainframe down a few slots and cleaning up. Also applying new arctic silver 5 ( cleaning with arcticlean Sadly not only off the cpu block, i have some on my tubes too haha..dont ask..) I also have some UV Blue dye to put in my water.

-Add hd. I need more space, im going to put in a extra 80gb western digital i have lying around. Should be interesting, last time i tried this i had trouble because my current HD. It seems like it always wants to be the slave no matter what i do..and if its not, it wont show up. We'll see.

-Change/add fans. I am changing my case side fan to a intake and adding a 120mm high speed panaflo to the top ( which i will be cutting out to do. )

-Add to front? After i removed the door it looks kind of plain.. I might add something.

-Get a camera. hot damn

-ill list more later

Im planning on starting tomorrow. I'm doing this for better looks of course and deff. performace. Im expecting big temp drops. stay tuned

heres a pic of it now with the window off. again im sorry for the terrible quality..the camera is some cheap one i got for free with my modem..i just put it in like a week ago lol.

system layout

close view of yucky wires and ect.

close view of HDD area (aka more sloppyness )

 

[tyshy]

sounds cool...i look forward to see what's in store for us

 

[shellshock]

yes, I have to say, you need a cleanup. Be shure to replace those ribbbon IDE cables with some new round ones. It'll make it alot cleaner. Good luck man. Cant wait to see the finished prouduct

 

[RMT99e]

Okay! a little delay yesterday (texas hold em) didn't win anything

also, im going to wait a few days for the fan. I have more fan screws for it and a fan grill coming in the mail. I'm about to start working, ill post up in a little.

I'll start with the HD, im getting low disk space messages

 

[RMT99e]

Alright! after a few hours of messing around we have our first progress.

I have done the following.
-Mad wire sleeving! I covered a bunch of things with my UV blue wire cover. No more orange red yellow in sight [well maybe a little].
-Ligthing. - removed the plain blues and threw in the 15in UV at the bottom of the case. Right now im jamming out to some tunes while it flashes (sound reactive) I also covered all the wirees for the lighting kit to UV. I still have to add the 2x12, which will make everything look alot better.
-UV Dye. Im currently running some UV dye through the system.
-Movement! O moved my watercooling mainframe to the bottom 5.25 bay. I left a spaec between that until there is the cd rom drive. Above that is another blank spot im leaving to make room for the 120mm panaflo.
-Round IDE wires? To lazy! I splut up the IDE wires and taped em' up. Nice and clean now.

I am not done with the wire cleaning yet. Even though i covered alot i still can tuck away some, ect.

Im planning on adding the other UV's later and doing some other stuff.

Problems so far-
1. While splitting the IDE wires i messed up a little. Didn't split the wire or anything. Fixed it up with some ducktape. It works still, as im typing this now
2. I need more electrical tape.

Pics

Pic #1 the uv sleeving GLOWSsssss very nice..but see the tubes? its kinda dim. Tubes are origonally tinted orange a little, so i think none of that is the dye..maybe a little is..

Remember the mess where the IDE cables were? with light on (may be unclear of changes, all you can see is a little piece of the harddrive IdE wired that will be moved. Also u can see a few little wires in the background. You can't normally see those.

Heres a brighter pic w/ neons off.

Lights-Off Pic

again sorry for the quality! Also you can still see some wires by the power supply.. i can't really tuck those anywhere so i dont know what i want to do with them. ideas? should i just settle with it?

 

[RMT99e]

^^Wouldn't let me post anymore!

Lights-off pic

Im keeping the case window off for now! you can wait.


Okay. I think later tonight i might do a little more, but other than that im done for today.

Next things on the list are

-* remove CPU water block, clean with arcticlean, apply arctic silver 5
-cleanup some sleeving with new electric tape
-clean glass [case window]
-add HD
-Find a spot for the second cold cathode box. right now its sitting on the case floor.

in a few days- (when screws/grill comes)
-add top exaust (120mm panaflo)
-add new case screws

can't think of anything else at the time.

 

[RMT99e]

Okay hard drive in and working! Glad. I needed it. I might do some work a little later. Today is mostly madden time.

 

[RMT99e]

I didn't expect to do much today, and yet, i end up spending hours. lol.

Alright first i did some more cleaning and ect. Some nice person told me "you could have done better" when i showed them the topic in my first attempt at a cleanup..

I ended up cleaning up more like crazy and my god i did a sweet *** job. It looks good as hell. I moved alot of things behind my case in a deadspot and it worked so well. I sleeved up my modded IDE wire to make it look even better. Now that area looks smooth. See for yourself

Yet again sorry for the quality! it sucks for both of us cuz it doesnt show my true work

used a lamp to try to get some light for a better pic..didnt work to well

didn't work that well this time either O_O

Next. I cleaned up with my arctic silver stuff and then applied the great arctic silver 5 for the first time. Also while in the area, i broke my temp sensor for my cooler bay lcd!! yay! (so now it says HI all the time. I love it.). It was a piece of crap anyway.

i got the screws in today and i tried using the thubscrews on the AGP slots. Didnt work at all, how gay..they are kinda crappy too. So far i just have them on my harddrive(s). I got the fan screws and fan grill for the 120mm too. I am planning to put this fan in on sunday. should be tight.


Oh yeah did i mention? Im running 7 Degrees cooler with the arctic and extended wire cleaning. How sick. And i don't even have my fans in now.
Current idle = 30 deg. C. How
it should be

 

[RMT99e]

Updates tomrrow. Rar.

Tomorrow around noon im going to work on putting in my 120mm exaust in the top.. Other than that i dont know what i want to do next. It'll take some thinking... Any ideas?

Oh yeah i think i'll borrow my dad's camera to take some good pictures...finally.

 

[RMT99e]

Alright, i haven't gotten to work in a few days. Today im pretty sure i'll finally get to it. Plans for today are...

1. Install panaflo 120mm top exaust
2. drill hole for extra 12" cathode
3. clean off case glass and put fan back on.
4. Do something with the cluster of wires near PSU since its visible and kinda blocking airflow (maybe put on roof somehow?

I am messing around with some overclocking, ill post results when im satisfied.

another thing coming to mind is changing the fan on my 2nd 80mm radiator on the back side of my case. The fan is veryyy weak, and im using it as a intake. The air coming into my case from that is very coool. I think a stronger fan might be nice.

 

[RMT99e]

Booyea!! 120mm panaflo top exaust is in. I used a huge drill but and made the hole and screwed it in with the rubber groments, fan grill, Ect. It looks real nice and fits on the outside. This thing moves air like crazy. I also put the window on and made the fan blow in. HD temps lowered the most, by up to 10 degrees C! CPU is down about 5 degrees C, Not bad , and the overall system temp is lowered too. For now i'll take some pics, i think i might be done working for tonight. I really want to figure out what to do with the cluster of wires coming out of the PSU, its visible from the window. I might take the mobo power out from the cluster and stick it to the back of the case and then stick the rest to the top.

Also, since i have a tiny mid case, im afraid that something like a CD drive will not fit into my top 5.25in Bay. That's fine though i have 3 others. Maybe i'll put a fan controller or something up there.

 

[SolidxSnake]

That looks very very clean! What'd you use to cut it?

 

[RMT99e]

It was a very large drill attachment. It covered almost all of the whole i cut out, it was a tad bit small. But i left it like that because it looked clean..no need to file for that small of an amount of room. I'm very happy with it

 

[RMT99e]

UPDATE: My psu blew finally. New forton 530w psu, abit nf7-s v2 mobo, and corsair XL's 2x512mb on the way.




I wasn't very happy with my wire sleeving..soo....
Name Code Qty Each Options
--------------------------------------------------------------------
UV Sensitive Neon Green TPT2NG5 1 1.59
FLEXO PET 1/4" Sleeving -
5 Foot Section
3/8" Blue Heat Shrink TT71506 2 0.63
Tubing - 1 ft
3/8" Green Heat Shrink TT71505 1 0.63
Tubing - 1 ft
1/2" OD UV Sensitive UVCOIL-BLU 1 3.89
Horizon Blue Coolsleeve
40"
FLEXO Chrome 1/2" TCH3S5 1 6.99
Sleeving - 5 Foot Section
3/8" Black Heat Shrink TT71500 1 0.63
Tubing - 1 ft
PC Toys 36" Dual Device PRC36HD2-SIL 1 1.49
Round ATA/IDE 133 Cable -
Silver
Cooler Master VHC-L61-U1 VHC-L61-U1-19 1 7.99
Cool Viva VGA Card Cooler
Subtotal 24.47
Shipping 7.32
Tax 0.00
Total 31.79

notice i decided to throw in that vga cooler it was cheap so i grabbed it hey

 

[RMT99e]

NF7-S V2 Came in today..very fast shipping from newegg. Looks excellent. I am waiting on my ram,psu, and stuff from svc (sleeving,ect.). I am expecting it on friday, prolly monday or tuesday.

 

[Son1990]

Tell me what you think of the sleeveing kits via PM along with how the colors look compared to pictues. very intrested in getting some but not sure if its worth it.

~Ken

 

[RMT99e]

I'll let you know when they come (estimated sept1st). ^


Anways i finally have all my new parts.
-Abit NF7-S V2 Mobo
-Corsair XMS 1gb TCC5 Ram 2-2-2-5
-Sparkle(Fourton) 530w psu

I totally stripped the case, its empty. New mobo is much bigger, so it will be a even tighter squeeze..which makes me want to get a new case more.

Next step is to just put everything back in. Ill add more updates asap.