Project p.max

[maddcore]

I've had some ideas brewing in my head since around February for modding a new case, so I just went and bought one. I've got a folding box that I've just assembled, so if I run that as a fileserver I don't need my storage drives in my main box anymore, so capacity isn't an issue. Also I've always wanted something more compact than the Antec 1000AMG semi-server case. I also wanted to move from the 80mm fan system to 120mm for silence, and something more portable than the big steel behemoth.

And whats the one brand-name case that meets these requirements? The Super Lanboy, aka Super Riceboy, etc. ' ' I hear you say. Well, in some ways, I agree. It's a fairly common case, but ... it's a great case, and thats why everyone has one. So now I have a need to make the quintessential LAN case just a little different from the other 5,600 SLBs on OCAU!

I have a few small mods, nothing huge, which are in the works. These include, but are not necessarily limited to: a full respray, hard-mounting a network switch, cutting and shutting cables, and, like all good mods should have, power-tools, injuries, perspex and bondo!

Stay tuned as we progress through the coming weeks.

[maddcore]

First off, I didn't want to spend $130+ on a case and apply a really crappy paintjob to it, I've seen it happen way too often. I had this yumcha POS case (which the folding box / fileserver is going into) lying around, so thought I'd give it a lick of paint. I tried various techniques on different panels, such as paint straight on, sanding+paint, primer+paint, sanding+primer+paint, and sanding+primer+sanding+paint. It ended up looking pretty good.

It's not a feature of this worklog, so here's just two quick pics:





The fingerprints in the second pic are just fingerprints, not painted on, but they are a testament to how glossy the finish is! (Fingerprints don't show up on matt / satin finishes).

Now on to Project p.max - once the case was dismantled, I masked off the areas I didn't want to paint...



The SLB has a brushed aluminium finish on it, which is basically a coat of semi-clear anodising to stop surface rust etc. It doesn't need much sanding as-such, but a quick roughening up is needed.





Then clean up the work, before hitting it with a few coats of primer with a quick, gentle hit in between with 800 grit paper (dry at this stage). Wet sanding, or sanding with anything rougher than 800, just took the primer off again! Even hitting it for more than a few strokes was taking the primer off on the edges.







By this stage, there's 3 coats of primer on each piece, applied JUST thickly enough that there aren't any patches, with some very quick 800 grit sanding in between. This gave me a bit of depth-of-primer (TM) to work with later on... But for now, 1000 grit wetsanding, another coat of primer, 1000 grit wetsand and *GASP* another coat of primer.



As for the chassis itself - the top panel is pop-riveted onto it (and is integral to the structural integrity) so this had to be drilled off. The whole chassis was attacked with some 600grit to get the protective finish off, cleaned up, then primered in my dodgy spray booth.

PS omgzor, sanding down such a complex shape is teh suck.

[maddcore]

<Later that night in Gotham....>

So whats this in the mail? Has the beer fairy arrived?











No, its not beer But its a Storm G4 waterblock, MCP655 12v pump, a roll of Clearflex, and a 120.2 radiator complete with big black nasty looking Deltas!


I promised some perspex, I know... This isn't going to be of the same level of workmanship as the D-Bomb, but more for practical reasons. The SLB has this huge drive cage at the bottom front for 5 drives. Hard drives are ugly. Pumps are also ugly. I'll put the pump under the drives (it barely fits!) in the cage.



So I'm going to hide both behind a piece of shiny black perspex, so we'll see how that turns out. I masked + marked out the piece:



And then shattered it while cutting it:



But got there in the end. It still needs to be rounded at the corner, flame polished, and mounted properly. I just popped it in for a looksee:



More perspexing:



I said the quality of workmanship wouldn't be up there, but thats not bad considering I did it with a rusty hacksaw and a file. This is something I'm trying out for mounting the pump at a weird angle, not sure if I'll run with it, but for now it seems good. You won't see this, which is why I didn't really worry about straight cuts and rough edges.



While drilling the pump mounting holes into the perspex, the drill bit jammed, whipping the perspex around into my hand (because of course it wasn't clamped ) and it bled like a motherfucker, I was too concerned with blood gushing out of my hand to take a pic, sorry guys

[maddcore]

The next day I started on the actual painting part of painting the case!





So superbly glossy. You can even make out me waving in the right panel!

A light coat...



A second coat...



You've got to build up layers, it gives you a better finish in the end than doing 2 heavy coats.

Showing off my gloss again.



Thats it for today. Next up I'm working on mounting a network switch into the bezel.

[magicsun]

looking forward to an SLB done the right way.

[maddcore]

So like - Whats the right way?

There's a two things that I think are critical for a mod... Planned cooling, and cable management.

The rest of the details are just down to the taste of the owner

[magicsun]

non rice, purpose built

[maddcore]

A quick update (pictures next post) with this...

The network switch - hole in the chassic + bezel has been cut + bondo'd, an L-bracket fashioned out of black perspex. This can now be mounted perfectly, this section is done.

Watercooling - the holes for the piping took damn ages for some reason. This was the last of the cuts on the chassis.

Painting - started on final coats. The top and right side panels are complete, chassis needs one more coat, the left side panel needs one more coat. The front bezel needs 2 more coats.

The door - Theres a Defyant-frosted-perspex inspired plan which may or may not be used. I'm waiting Paypal to debit some funds so I can buy a 4x20 character LCD from California... so there's some excitement there.

[maddcore]

The SLB has room to the right of the drivebays where I am mounting a network switch. I had to cut a hole in both the chassis and in the bezel to mount it in that space. It was marked out carefully, cut, then filed to size.









Some bondo work was required to get rid of the Antec logo and get it flush again.

[maddcore]

At the same time, while I was on the bezel + bondo trip, I turned the two 3.5" drivebay plates into a single panel and mounted three switches along it.







And I threw it all together for a looksee.





Looks good to me. More sanding and stuff required... and what am I going to do about the gaping hole next to the 3.5" slots? It's some totally awesome box for like screws or something... I don't usually take screws to LANs, and its not big enough for a length of cat5e so wtf. It's gotta go.





edit: finished the switch plate:

[maddcore]

So the network switch needs to be mounted to the chassis somehow. It got ripped out of the original component box.



The L-bracket:



The cut:











Put it in for a looksee...





And the door still sits flush, as you would hope

.

[maddcore]

I've started mucking about a little with the watercooling, did some leak tests and positioning tests as well as cutting the holes for the piping.

Theres a pic I put up in a previous post with the pump in that perspex L-bracket, here's why:



So I had to cut a hole to accommodate piping heading out to the back of the case, thats done and sweet. As for the piping heading sideways there really isn't much space to work with... I mounted up the radiator to work out where to cut the holes for the pipes, and check out this:



What a huge flex, this case really is made out of a pepsi can. Pretty lightweight material! Once the roof and panels are back on that won't be a problem.

I also have to practice cutting clearflex tubing, its hard to get straight!







Thats just a couple of short lengths I had to get the positioning right.

And thats about all for today folks. Thats the last 2 weeks or so work. It's all coming together now, once the paint is done thats all the hard stuff complete, the rest is mostly electrical.

[killer65210]

very ince looking mod.

How are you going to connect the router to the computer on the inside?
are you just going to have a cable go arround out of the front of the case or are you going to mod the router?

/subscribed/

Smurfinator

[FB008]

looks awesome mate, very clean and practical.

when i had my super lanboy i was thinking of putting an mcp350 pump there too, would have worked ok other than the fact that the tubing would be bent too much

keep up the good work there

[blancmange]

its gonna turn out well.... but i suggest putting the switch inside the case hidden some where, then crimp your own patch plate to put on the side of the case or somthing... and then put an LED above the corresponding port... because having the switch behind the dorr sorta can be annoying if you want to shut the door, but have a switch annoying you...

another option, is have the switch inside etc like i said before... but one of the wires goes to the back of your computer.... so its always plugged in.

if you want a better idea of what im trying to say, PM me


*suscribed