Mini p180 "stealth" redone front panel, done sidepanel and sprayed other sidepanel.

lenne0815 · 28th July 2009, 5:24 PM

After being directed to the guys at gammods, i ordered some plexi and mesh etc etc, to visualise the upcoming design i used sketchup - 3ds max - maxwell render.

Like i promised, this weekend i modded the hell out of the middle / front plate !

Some teaser pics

Click to view full size!

Click to view full size!

After suggestions from MadMonkOfFunk coming in after my first post, i decided to run the gfx power cords through the middle plate, and because i didnt like my first attemp and the cable extensions provided by Arctic cooling, i took the cooler of, changed the cables, made a new middle plate and fittet all back:

Click to view full size!

Cutting the new perspex to size taken from old middle plate, including two cuts which dont go all the way for the fan

Click to view full size!

Click to view full size!

Cutting roughly to the edge on the bandsaw

Click to view full size!

Clamping a guide for the handrouter to the perspex piece

Click to view full size!

Routed out, edges still very rough

Click to view full size!

routing bit for small rounding ( 3mm)

Click to view full size!

edge routed and polished ( 180 - 500 grid, then cutting compound (car buffing stuff ))
(u cant see the scratches in daylight, dont aske me why they stick out like that on the pic

Click to view full size!

Drilling hole in the old middle plate to mark the exact place of the bigger hole in the new middle plate.

Click to view full size!

drilling new hole for the gfx cables ! ( got a 3mm rounding and polished aswell )

And now to the interesting stuff

(unfortunately i forgot to take a couple of pics in the process, got a bit too exited there

Click to view full size!

taking of the metal sheet from the fron door ( it6 sticks quite well, i used a lot of patience and a hairdryer there )

Click to view full size!

bits and pieces from the front panel ( im still amazed by the quality from the antec tower, they definetly didnt cut any corners when they made this case )

Click to view full size!

glued 3mm mdf to the metal part of the front panel

Click to view full size!

Click to view full size!

used a flush cutting router bit with the bigger handrouter using the metal panels as the guide for the bearing on the bit

Click to view full size!

fits spot on !

Click to view full size!

marked the inside, added a hole for the on off button (sry no pics there)

Click to view full size!

transferred the edges from the "frame" i made and the "rails" i quickly cut on the tablesaw to the main door

Click to view full size!

cutting the door with the anglegrinder

Click to view full size!

drilling the ends out

Click to view full size!

test fit ! ( fits

)

Click to view full size!

Click to view full size!

heaps of sanding polishing etc !

Click to view full size!

glued the lot together using contact adhesive ( 3m quality stuff ) and what u cant really see sandwiched a mesh in between the perspex and the door.

after taking the protective tape of the perspex i polished it using turtle car wax and sprayed it with silicon spray to give it the final sheen

Final pics

Click to view full size!

Click to view full size!

in the process of making this i caused 1 huge fuckup ( maybe u can find out which one it is if u have a look at the pix galleries

) and this morning i thought a fuck it, throw everything away anbd use metal mesh instead untill i opened my car door where i thought i spent already so much time on it, atleast give it a try

As mentioned there are heaps more pix in the gallery, special thanks to my gf ( embarrasing fact, she came up with the final design

)
and MadMonkOfFunk who suggested running the cables through the middle plate ( was a bit blind there, the solution was so obvious i couldnt see it

)

I have somehow the feeling that this thread is becoming more and more a worklog, considering im planning to spray the sidepanels matte black ( maybe adding a window ? ) next we but i just cant think of a good name for it, anybody ??

any questions / sugesstions / comments are welcome

__________________________________________________ _______________

first mod:

So, this is my little mod on my already modified Antec mini P180.

Ill redo the bottom Plate with red perspex soon, this one turned out alright, but not good enough

Before

Click to view full size!

Back: Thermaltake something Blue Led Fan ( Intake ) pushes air @ 12 V like hell, but with a noise level louder than a vakuum cleaner in the same room.
Beside that, its blue. I dont like blue.

Front: 2x noname 700 rpm exhaust fans, cant hear them, but they dont move any air either...

Bottom: Antec 3 speed case fan, not to bad, but im aiming for perfection, not for "not too bad"

Very bottom of the case, two more or less custom mounted HDDs running in Raid 0, one of the reducer mounts came with the case, the other one is a 3 bucks bended thin part.

Click to view full size!

New Parts: hooray my noctuas arrived ( and with it a little box from lian li !)

Click to view full size!

I think u can read up enough about them on other hardware sites, so i dont bother u with the specifications any further, just a shot from whats in the box:

Click to view full size!

The fan, rubber mounts ( Important ! u wouldnt believe what difference they make ! ) and 7 / 5v adapters for claimed low noise / ultra low noise.

The three main ingridients together ( Including what was in the lian li box )

Click to view full size!

The Drive bay thingy allows me to mount now 3 hdds in 2 Standard size Bays, incorporates a filtered 80mm Fan and a sleek black front mesh ( Because of the bottom 120mm Fan in my case i need these bays to stay open, otherwise the fan will pull against the psu fan which would result in an unpleasant overheat )

Another shot, because i like the looks of it so much:

Click to view full size!

The installation of the parts was rather painless, even though i ran into a couple problems, for example to fit the lian li thing i had to cut the bay slots a little bit bigger, theres something like a little plastic "spacer" in the way, that usually closes the gap around dvd drives etc, but a cutter knife solved that problem, another thing was that everything now sits really tight at the bottom, so i had to move a bunch of cables into differtent positions, but that wasnt much of a problem.
The Noctuas are a bit fiddly to install aswell u have to pull reallu hard on the rubber mounts to make them slip all the way through the Fan mounting holes (Pliers helped there)

Final shots ( in no specific order )

Click to view full size!

Click to view full size!

I think the fans just look awesome, i would have preferred another color, but i think its ok they have this special color sheme, its just noctuas.

What i gained from the mod:

A silent case. I know "silent" has heaps of different meanings, but for a computer case it is very silent now, the actual sound of the moving air in a whole is now louder than any moving part in the case, its just a rather pleasant, deep woosh it emits, very different from the high pitched annoying whirr of other fans, I can now actually hear the v8 Fan again when it spins up on higher loads, its louder than the rest of the system at 100 % ( and i considered that already as very silent before )

Even under full load which produces heaps of heat ( 4870x2, q6600 @ 3,45Ghz ) typing on my keyboard is still way louder than the case, its hard to describe, but its really quiet.

2-3 C lower temps but this comes mainly from getting rid of the no name front fans in first place, any halfway decent fan combo would have achieved that.

The lian li thing is quite good aswell, i like the looks, the build quality, the hdd sound dampening ( rubber mounts ) an the possibility to mount another hdd.

next thing on the roadmap will be as mentioned before a red bottom plate with a better cut out for the fan and some cable sleeving

Im always open for any kind of comment / sugestion / constructive critisism, so please tell me what youse think.

beside that, im fucking bored and obsessed with my pc as hopefully everyone reading this is aswell

MadMonkOfFunk · 28th July 2009, 7:57 PM

Nice mod, the cable management in there is great.

Have you thought about taking the power cabled for your GPU through the midplate instead of going around the abck, that way you don't get them running over the top and you won't need those extensions either.

Also maybe put some black electrical tape, or heatshrink over the end of your SATA cable going into the DVD drive as it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Apart from that, nice mod, makes a smallish case look roomy

lenne0815 · 28th July 2009, 8:07 PM

Thats actually a really good idea, considering im probably redoing the bottom / mid plate anyway ! i was thinking about whats the best way to hide them anyway that nails it

ill rip out the extensions anyway and only use the black psu cables for it, that should look pretty neat then !

for the dvd drive, good point with the sata cord ill hide it if im in the right mood im gonna rip it apart and spray it black this we aswell.

schnappy · 28th July 2009, 8:36 PM

I've been meaning to ask somewhere - what's the sort of plastic called like that where you can't see through it, but when shone from behind the whole front of it lights up to provide a neutral, flat light?

lenne0815 · 28th July 2009, 9:00 PM

its called perspex + 180 grid

schnappy · 28th July 2009, 9:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lenne0815

its called perspex + 180 grid

Care to elaborate? Can't find anything on Google... all I see is a mention of scattering?

lenne0815 · 29th July 2009, 5:40 AM

OFFTOPIC sand one side of the perspex with an orbital sander with 180 grid, this makes it milky white and the now rough surface scatters light evenly /OFFTOPIC

speaktobrett · 29th July 2009, 1:23 PM

what model noctua fans do you use ?

MadMonkOfFunk · 29th July 2009, 2:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speaktobrett

what model noctua fans do you use ?

They look like Noctua NF-S12B fans. You can see it in this picture.

Warpy · 29th July 2009, 3:31 PM

Very nice, what CPU cooler is that?

lenne0815 · 29th July 2009, 4:05 PM

Thats a cooler master v8, its shiny

i think the true is still the best cooler available, but this one performs great aswell and fits better into my color scheme ( it glows red )

The noctuas are NF-A12B flx fans, im liking them better and better every day, now that im typing here i cant hear the pc at all

MadMonkOfFunk · 29th July 2009, 4:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lenne0815

The noctuas are NF-A12B flx fans, im liking them better and better every day, now that im typing here i cant hear the pc at all

I replaced the Antec Tri-cools in my P182 with Noctua S12Bs and they really do make a difference, I know what you mean. But TJ07 for me soon

speaktobrett · 29th July 2009, 4:28 PM

i wanna buy those fans.. because my Coolermaster RC-590 is fairly loud :s

lenne0815 · 29th July 2009, 4:30 PM

FLX ( mentioned before) dont get the uln, u cant run them faster than 900 / 700 i think that would be a bit low in a case ( u cant hear them at 1200 anyway )

the tj07 is nice, but WAY too big for me, im already annoyed that the mini p180 is that big

I just decided that i wont only replace the middle plate, but ill make a cover for the top and bottom bays aswell

MadMonkOfFunk · 29th July 2009, 4:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lenne0815

FLX ( mentioned before) dont get the uln, u cant run them faster than 900 / 700 i think that would be a bit low in a case ( u cant hear them at 1200 anyway )

I run them slower than stock, but i have 6 in my case so at full speed they can be heard

haha, but then again my computer is about 20cm from my ear

Quote:

Originally Posted by lenne0815

the tj07 is nice, but WAY too big for me, im already annoyed that the mini p180 is that big

I find my P182 too small!!!

a P180 would be terrible for me. TJ07 looks great though, and will have plenty of room for when I get my W/C stuff

Quote:

Originally Posted by lenne0815

I just decided that i wont only replace the middle plate, but ill make a cover for the top and bottom bays aswell

Nice, post up some pics when your done. See if you can get the GPU power cables going through the midplate though, it would look neater.

28th July 2009, 5:24 PM	#1
lenne0815 Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 44	Mini p180 "stealth" redone front panel, done sidepanel and sprayed other sidepanel. After being directed to the guys at gammods, i ordered some plexi and mesh etc etc, to visualise the upcoming design i used sketchup - 3ds max - maxwell render. Like i promised, this weekend i modded the hell out of the middle / front plate ! Some teaser pics Click to view full size! Click to view full size! After suggestions from MadMonkOfFunk coming in after my first post, i decided to run the gfx power cords through the middle plate, and because i didnt like my first attemp and the cable extensions provided by Arctic cooling, i took the cooler of, changed the cables, made a new middle plate and fittet all back: Click to view full size! Cutting the new perspex to size taken from old middle plate, including two cuts which dont go all the way for the fan Click to view full size! Click to view full size! Cutting roughly to the edge on the bandsaw Click to view full size! Clamping a guide for the handrouter to the perspex piece Click to view full size! Routed out, edges still very rough Click to view full size! routing bit for small rounding ( 3mm) Click to view full size! edge routed and polished ( 180 - 500 grid, then cutting compound (car buffing stuff )) (u cant see the scratches in daylight, dont aske me why they stick out like that on the pic Click to view full size! Drilling hole in the old middle plate to mark the exact place of the bigger hole in the new middle plate. Click to view full size! drilling new hole for the gfx cables ! ( got a 3mm rounding and polished aswell ) And now to the interesting stuff (unfortunately i forgot to take a couple of pics in the process, got a bit too exited there Click to view full size! taking of the metal sheet from the fron door ( it6 sticks quite well, i used a lot of patience and a hairdryer there ) Click to view full size! bits and pieces from the front panel ( im still amazed by the quality from the antec tower, they definetly didnt cut any corners when they made this case ) Click to view full size! glued 3mm mdf to the metal part of the front panel Click to view full size! Click to view full size! used a flush cutting router bit with the bigger handrouter using the metal panels as the guide for the bearing on the bit Click to view full size! fits spot on ! Click to view full size! marked the inside, added a hole for the on off button (sry no pics there) Click to view full size! transferred the edges from the "frame" i made and the "rails" i quickly cut on the tablesaw to the main door Click to view full size! cutting the door with the anglegrinder Click to view full size! drilling the ends out Click to view full size! test fit ! ( fits ) Click to view full size! Click to view full size! heaps of sanding polishing etc ! Click to view full size! glued the lot together using contact adhesive ( 3m quality stuff ) and what u cant really see sandwiched a mesh in between the perspex and the door. after taking the protective tape of the perspex i polished it using turtle car wax and sprayed it with silicon spray to give it the final sheen Final pics Click to view full size! Click to view full size! Click to view full size! Click to view full size! in the process of making this i caused 1 huge fuckup ( maybe u can find out which one it is if u have a look at the pix galleries ) and this morning i thought a fuck it, throw everything away anbd use metal mesh instead untill i opened my car door where i thought i spent already so much time on it, atleast give it a try As mentioned there are heaps more pix in the gallery, special thanks to my gf ( embarrasing fact, she came up with the final design ) and MadMonkOfFunk who suggested running the cables through the middle plate ( was a bit blind there, the solution was so obvious i couldnt see it ) I have somehow the feeling that this thread is becoming more and more a worklog, considering im planning to spray the sidepanels matte black ( maybe adding a window ? ) next we but i just cant think of a good name for it, anybody ?? any questions / sugesstions / comments are welcome __________________________________________________ _______________ first mod: So, this is my little mod on my already modified Antec mini P180. Ill redo the bottom Plate with red perspex soon, this one turned out alright, but not good enough Before Click to view full size! Back: Thermaltake something Blue Led Fan ( Intake ) pushes air @ 12 V like hell, but with a noise level louder than a vakuum cleaner in the same room. Beside that, its blue. I dont like blue. Front: 2x noname 700 rpm exhaust fans, cant hear them, but they dont move any air either... Bottom: Antec 3 speed case fan, not to bad, but im aiming for perfection, not for "not too bad" Very bottom of the case, two more or less custom mounted HDDs running in Raid 0, one of the reducer mounts came with the case, the other one is a 3 bucks bended thin part. Click to view full size! New Parts: hooray my noctuas arrived ( and with it a little box from lian li !) Click to view full size! I think u can read up enough about them on other hardware sites, so i dont bother u with the specifications any further, just a shot from whats in the box: Click to view full size! The fan, rubber mounts ( Important ! u wouldnt believe what difference they make ! ) and 7 / 5v adapters for claimed low noise / ultra low noise. The three main ingridients together ( Including what was in the lian li box ) Click to view full size! The Drive bay thingy allows me to mount now 3 hdds in 2 Standard size Bays, incorporates a filtered 80mm Fan and a sleek black front mesh ( Because of the bottom 120mm Fan in my case i need these bays to stay open, otherwise the fan will pull against the psu fan which would result in an unpleasant overheat ) Another shot, because i like the looks of it so much: Click to view full size! The installation of the parts was rather painless, even though i ran into a couple problems, for example to fit the lian li thing i had to cut the bay slots a little bit bigger, theres something like a little plastic "spacer" in the way, that usually closes the gap around dvd drives etc, but a cutter knife solved that problem, another thing was that everything now sits really tight at the bottom, so i had to move a bunch of cables into differtent positions, but that wasnt much of a problem. The Noctuas are a bit fiddly to install aswell u have to pull reallu hard on the rubber mounts to make them slip all the way through the Fan mounting holes (Pliers helped there) Final shots ( in no specific order ) Click to view full size! Click to view full size! Click to view full size! Click to view full size! Click to view full size! I think the fans just look awesome, i would have preferred another color, but i think its ok they have this special color sheme, its just noctuas. What i gained from the mod: A silent case. I know "silent" has heaps of different meanings, but for a computer case it is very silent now, the actual sound of the moving air in a whole is now louder than any moving part in the case, its just a rather pleasant, deep woosh it emits, very different from the high pitched annoying whirr of other fans, I can now actually hear the v8 Fan again when it spins up on higher loads, its louder than the rest of the system at 100 % ( and i considered that already as very silent before ) Even under full load which produces heaps of heat ( 4870x2, q6600 @ 3,45Ghz ) typing on my keyboard is still way louder than the case, its hard to describe, but its really quiet. 2-3 C lower temps but this comes mainly from getting rid of the no name front fans in first place, any halfway decent fan combo would have achieved that. The lian li thing is quite good aswell, i like the looks, the build quality, the hdd sound dampening ( rubber mounts ) an the possibility to mount another hdd. next thing on the roadmap will be as mentioned before a red bottom plate with a better cut out for the fan and some cable sleeving Im always open for any kind of comment / sugestion / constructive critisism, so please tell me what youse think. beside that, im fucking bored and obsessed with my pc as hopefully everyone reading this is aswell Last edited by lenne0815; 16th August 2009 at 4:36 PM. Reason: New stuff

28th July 2009, 7:57 PM	#2
MadMonkOfFunk Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Brisbane Posts: 116	Nice mod, the cable management in there is great. Have you thought about taking the power cabled for your GPU through the midplate instead of going around the abck, that way you don't get them running over the top and you won't need those extensions either. Also maybe put some black electrical tape, or heatshrink over the end of your SATA cable going into the DVD drive as it sticks out like a sore thumb. Apart from that, nice mod, makes a smallish case look roomy __________________ Heating: i7 920 \| P6T \| 6GB \| 1TB \| GTX285 \| HX-620 \| TJ07 Cooling: HK 3.0 \| EK-285 \| MCP355 \| RX360 \| EK-Multi 250 Next Project: Photography

28th July 2009, 8:36 PM	#4
schnappy Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Melbourne; Camberwell Posts: 240	I've been meaning to ask somewhere - what's the sort of plastic called like that where you can't see through it, but when shone from behind the whole front of it lights up to provide a neutral, flat light? __________________ Successful trades: h2setyabudi, Valtelino, Redefine, kordial, sammy_b0i, Samuka, FRaNTiC, make_out, davomaster, Sir Didymus + more

29th July 2009, 3:31 PM	#10
Warpy Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Midkemia Posts: 3,563	Very nice, what CPU cooler is that? __________________ Q9550 \| Gigabyte UD3P \| Inno3D GTX 295 \| 4GB Ballistix Tracers 1066 \| Auzentech Forte \| Edifier S550 \| Win7 x64

29th July 2009, 4:30 PM	#14
lenne0815 Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 44	FLX ( mentioned before) dont get the uln, u cant run them faster than 900 / 700 i think that would be a bit low in a case ( u cant hear them at 1200 anyway ) the tj07 is nice, but WAY too big for me, im already annoyed that the mini p180 is that big I just decided that i wont only replace the middle plate, but ill make a cover for the top and bottom bays aswell Last edited by lenne0815; 29th July 2009 at 4:34 PM.

28th July 2009, 8:07 PM	#3
lenne0815 Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 44	Thats actually a really good idea, considering im probably redoing the bottom / mid plate anyway ! i was thinking about whats the best way to hide them anyway that nails it ill rip out the extensions anyway and only use the black psu cables for it, that should look pretty neat then ! for the dvd drive, good point with the sata cord ill hide it if im in the right mood im gonna rip it apart and spray it black this we aswell.

28th July 2009, 9:00 PM	#5
lenne0815 Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 44	its called perspex + 180 grid

29th July 2009, 5:40 AM	#7
lenne0815 Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 44	OFFTOPIC sand one side of the perspex with an orbital sander with 180 grid, this makes it milky white and the now rough surface scatters light evenly /OFFTOPIC

29th July 2009, 1:23 PM	#8
speaktobrett Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 27	what model noctua fans do you use ?

29th July 2009, 4:05 PM	#11
lenne0815 Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 44	Thats a cooler master v8, its shiny i think the true is still the best cooler available, but this one performs great aswell and fits better into my color scheme ( it glows red ) The noctuas are NF-A12B flx fans, im liking them better and better every day, now that im typing here i cant hear the pc at all

29th July 2009, 4:28 PM	#13
speaktobrett Member Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 27	i wanna buy those fans.. because my Coolermaster RC-590 is fairly loud :s