I started with the project in december 2004. The mod is based on the Lian Li PC-V2000
and the side
I have done several mods before, but I always used low budget materials. This time I want to use topgear. The things I want to realize this time are:
- minimal noise level, but not to many concessions to the temperatures
- I want a clean look, just like the Lian Li case itself
- Almost no cables be visible, only the waterhoses in sight
The Lian Li has got a nice tray for the harddisks, but it has to be removed. I will place my harddisks in two Aquadrives that don't fit.
With.....
and without the tray
Now I will have to build a new place for those beautiful Aquadrives. First thing I do is use paper models.
The way the Aquadrives will be placed.
The HDDrack materials will be aluminium and UV reactive acryl glas. These are the raw materials. (the small aluminium strips will be used to cover up the ugly black plastic sides from the PAPST fans)
Taping in the plate and marking the places that are going to be removed.
The Dremel had some difficulties getting through the aluminium, so I decided to try it with a blade from a metal saw, that worked very well indeed.
Now the rounded corners have to be removed. I decided to use a drill, I had to do a lot of filing work anyway.
and this is how it looked after filing a couple of hours. Don't pay any attention to the scratches, they will be removed later
Let's start with the acryl glas. Here comes the paper model again ;D
The base for the little "windows" is ready.
Those corners only have to be rounded
and then it eventually looks like this.
To give you an idea what it will look like
I've installed the Aquadrives in the new rack.
and attached the little windows.
After some weeks the watercooled Enermax PSU from Heat-trap arrived. It looks very nice, but the screws are there to be removed of course and then........
Mmmmmmmmm it would be a shame for such a beautiful waterblock not to be visible, so I will have to use my Dremel again.
Now I must make some kind of cover for the PSU and I wanted to keep using the same style that I had for the HDD rack. UV acryl glas. I wanted to see if it was easy to bend the UV acryl glas, so I heated it and tried to bend a piece.
That wasn't so hard. I made a nice piece to cover up the gaping hole.
To allow some airflow into the PSU I will install the acryl just above the metal PSU cover. Like this
The PSU will be visible in the case from this side.
A photo to give you another overview.