Kurgan First Mod (56k beware!)
 

Alright,

So some of my new toys came in and I'm itching to start work on my new "Republic Commando" PC mod. I'm going to keep a work log here so I can share with you all. Although this won't be finished over night, my only timeline is to have it completed before SW:TOR is released.

The PSU I've ordered to Sleeve is still on back order so, to tie myself over until then I've decided to get some sleeving practice in with some fans and SATA cables. The whole thought here is that all the internals will be in a Red/Black theme anything that isn't Red or Black I'll do my best to make them that way.

As for my ATCS 840 case, I have some plans for that aswell but we'll get to that later. round one, sleeving Fans and Sata Cables.


1)Packaging of the Heat shrink/sleeving a tools + goodies


2)Kurgan Edition sleeving tool


3)Fans before


4)You'll notice I cut off the yellow cable for two of the fans, apparently "The Yellow in the sensor/speed control - You only want 1 conected to the header."


5) Pic of the Sleeving, heatshrink and some of the tools used.


6)I used some 3M heatshrink to cover the cables just in case you might be able to see through the sleeving braid, later learned it really wasn't necessary and just made it a little harder on myself!


7)Sleeving partially done


8)Three fans ready to be spliced together


9)Pic of the regular CAT5 pair cable to "fish" through the Sleeving


10)Finished product


11)Closer look


12)Next Sata cable before


13)Sata cable after!


14)Sata Closer look






Those white 3 pin connectors are getting replaced with black ones, just need to see what else I need for sleeving heatshrink.

Initially I was going to do all Red sleeving but now I think I'll mix it up with red and black for a little extra fun.

Cheers,

K.

You have to use img tags, not media tags ;)

going for red/black theme? :-)

Hah!

I got the error on my page so I thought, what the heck I'll fix it later and left!

Gah lol

Yes a Red/Black theme for sure

First,

I really dislike those White 3 pin connectors, I'll order some black ones and fix it with my new order.

Initially I was going to do all Red internal sleeving but now I think it will look a little bland, so I am going to order some black and mix up the internals for some fun.

Those Fans were my "learning curve" I made the mistake of cutting excatly to length and lost quite a bit due to the Sleeve frailing on me, and therefor had to mask the effect with extra heatshrink. If you look at the Sata job, those I got right and I would imagine the rest of the build should be similiar.

Those are just some cheap fans I had laying around for alittle practice while impatiently awaiting the HX850 to show up. I'm looking at These for the actual build.

Thanks, :)

K.

faster&cheaper?

Lol Nah,

3 pin connectors really aren't that expensive; plus I gotta get some black sleeve and heat shrink anyways.

I really love the quality of the stuff at MDPC-X

interesting site design, and personal touch on your gear is quite nice too :-)

Good start mate, I gave up on modding my rigs... very time consuming stuff... but it's final look is very rewarding at the end... looking forward to see the final build...

Ya me too,

Been waiting two weeks now for the PSU to ships, I'm sure thats going to take quite a while to sleeve; which reminds me, I need to get some black sleeving/heatshrink before it gets here!

Doh

PSU is in, time to get back to sleeving :)

PC is back from the powdering coaters and looks freakin beautiful :D

In the process in reassembly now, will post Pics soon but not all oredered mod components are in yet so it will wont be fully assembled for a while.

Update on sleeving - has been a huge pain in the butt, hoping to have it finished soon but considering the wait I have for a few things I'm in no rush.

K.

some macro shots of the powder coating would be very interesting :-)
also "outside" pics with daylight lightening instead of artificial lightening might give it another "look" too.

and using indirect light and no flash :D (it's sad that most people mess up casemod pics by using the flash)

I'll do my best gents :) Tho my camera "Skillz" are pretty basic :)

Its all assembled, I'll have pics up by the end of the weekend, working 12 hr night shifts right now so time is limited.

I think it'll just be pics of the skelton basically as I dont plan to show the case fully assembled until everything is finished, which could still be a while - the project is starting to come with quite the price tag!

K.

Here we go :D

Starting with a few "Before shots"

Drilling out the Rivets (1/8" Drill bit)





Putting a 1/4" bit through the holes for the stock feet, those things have to go....replacements on the way :)



Nice hole in the HDD Cage to mount my 2 x 120 Radiator!


I think it'll fit fine even with fans mounted yes?



Motherboard Tray prep'd for cutting



Finished the cuts, not great but I'm happy for a first go

Everything back from the Powder Coaters!




Assembly has begun :)




Getting a little thirsty, nothing better than a good Belgian beer to fix that!

Just a little left to go!








Voila!

Jmke's outside shots will be next :)

case looks awesome without side panels, keep it this way :D

HA!

I have plans in the works for those too!

Lotsa work left to do, unfortunately the money isnt there to do everything at once so this will be a marathon Mod project and not a sprint to finish :)

Enjoying it tho, good progress on the sleeving now aswell, just waiting for a package to finish it off.

K.

ATCS 840 front panel with Galactic Republic logo, CNC milled. Will have more pics when I get it back through the post





Power, Reset, LED's + USB x 2, ESata, and 1394




Close up





Close up #2

Just ordered the OCZ Vertex Turbo Indilinx Barefoot 120 GB

Pretty stoked, the new feet for the case should be here this week hopefully and I'll port my current hardware back to the ATCS 840. I sold my two 300 GB velociraptor to help "fund" it, now that TRIM is supporting raid there might be a 2nd one coming down the road :)

Next update when the feet and new goodies arrive :)

K.

New feet are in, so is the PSU changeover kit I ordered. I should have time this weekend to finish off the PSU sleeving job - pretty sure I have enough sleeving and heatshrink....and I'll put her all back together :)

JMKE, my buddy has an SLR so I'm get him to do some outdoor shots as requested early next week hopefully, along with a little tutorial for me on how to use a camera.

Oh and BTW, I liked your previous avatar much, much better :woot:

K.

I would be quite worried if you liked this avatar better ;)

OR... drop by with the case and I'll take the shots with my DSLR ;-)

i like ^^ nothing more to say :D