The ups and downs of case modding

[Steve]

You may or may not know that I am currently undergoing a rather large case mod. It consists of, in brief, the following:

Full respray to metallic dark-blue;
PSOne LCD Mod;
Analogue Voltmeter installation;
Watercooling.

Now, a project like this takes a little bit of planning, however, it would seem no matter what I plan... I end up changing that plan.

The most amusing trials and tribulations involve fitting all my watercooling in the case (Beantech Igloo 1). I procured a rather nice 25cm long plexiglass reservoir for the top of my case. I made sure it would fit in the top behind the drive bays and wouldn't interfere with my PSU. Great stuff.

Nope... I forgot about the attachments. Put the barbs on and BANG, right into the PSU. No worries, elbow attachments will solve that... nope. The attachments are too close together to allow two elbows to screw in properly. Luckily I thwarted the reservoir's plans to spoil my setup and decided to lower it a bit. Everything was fine again. But not for long...

I tried my 120mm and 80mm rads out in the case today, with their fans. It was at this point that I discovered the intended orientation of my 120mm rad would be an issue. You see, if I had the attachments towards the back of the case rather than in the middle (the rad being at the bottom of the case) I'd have to drill two 1/2" holes in my RAID 5 card and maybe even one of my 6800GTs. I hear this is a bad idea. Luckily, a reversal of orientation solves that problem... I hope.

Ah well. Consider this a little insight into what Kez has been upto on the modding scene. This job is taking a LONG time, but I'm making sure that it'll be worth it!

[seasick]

Sounds pretty sweet.

Out of interest, where did you get the analogue voltmeter from? I've been after a 5V DC panel meter for ages to use as a hard drive activity-o-meter (running off the motherboard LED HD header), but such things seem impossible to get hold of (Tried Farnell InOne, RS Components, etc. to no avail.)

Er... that's it.

Mr Seasick.

[Steve]

I used Farnell InOne, mine's a 12V DC panel meter.

[seasick]

Ah... what you using it for? (My obsession with panel meters grows ;-))