UPDATED 31 July 2016
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Some cooling parts are arriving by Wednesday the 3rd August and the case is now sanded down and ready for paint, 2 ventilation holes have been cut in the front and rear. There will be pictures of the case and its cooling gear by next weekend hopefully.
Here is new motherboard, 8-core fx cpu / memory and cpu cooler photo.
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I have started this thread to post some photos of the build in each stage. The first of which is restoring a shitty old case. Am updating photos soon of the before and after looks of the case.
(Please watch this thread over the next month for full updates)
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Updated 1st of August 2016
Some gear arrived for the case!
Look forward to seeing where this goes. I have used that exact USB3 hub in several builds. Rock solid and cheap
Updated 10th August
Current Spec of (upgraded system) will be:
Asus M5A97 - Motherboard as pictured above, this replaces the old Asrock N68 Motherboard I had
FX 8320e - this is to replace the FX4300 I was using
Asus Strix R9 380 card - mostly got this cos it was priced nicely at $159 on amazon and they had lots in stock vs the Rx480 which is still low on stock with etailers :(
G.Skill Ares Memory - as pictured
The ATX case is an old one I had photos of it up before but removed them since what I will do now is post Before and After photos.
BEFORE PHOTOS (how the old case originally looked)
You will notice in the photos Red outlines, this is where some of the ventilation holes have been cut into the old case for new fans. This will be an air cooled rig supporting 3x case fans. On the side panel a window has been cut also and this will support a clear acrylic window that will allow for a view of the inside once its all done.
The metal work and painting took me a little more time than intended since I had to visit a friends workshop to do it.
I am sorry to everyone for the delays, it has also taken me time to purchase some of the gear as I was going about it by getting 1 item every pay day, as a result amazon has not yet shipped my SSD's and my GPU is on its way but not sure exactly when it will arrive.
Please keep an eye on the thread there is some good stuff coming soon.
First Photos of Case AFTER PAINT
I left the front part silver / black since peripherals are usually black and the silver was plastic so didn't really want to sand that part down and repaint, I think it still looks fine.
Please comment / like / ask questions etc if you want too on this thread, I hope you all like the work that I have done so far.
When the graphics card arrives I will start work on setting up the motherboard and install it within the case.. Hopefully by this weekend.
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Looks like a good start. I did a case that color not to long ago to teach young children about computer parts and then let them build the pc for their classroom. They really seemed to like the color choice. Will be watching to see how this comes out.
cpu / cooler / memory installed. Motherboard has been placed into the case but I have to sort out the cable management. The color scheme is working nicely so far.
Was a challenge getting the motherboard into the case because the mount screws I had were a different size to the actual screw holes on the case interior, luckily I found some that did fit but it took a while to sort that out.
The cable management challenge!
So this case 'despite the improvements I made as shown in some of the photos' was still an old case which means that basically it had the old way of mounting a PSU, and also virtually 0 cut outs on the inner case itself which allowed for any type of reasonable cable management.
So I spent 2 hours working away at the cable management and this is about the best i could do given the limitations of the case and also the power supply being a non-modular one where all the wires hang out ; ;, I might upgrade it in future when I can afford to but part of the premise of this build was to save money and reuse existing parts I had.
Here goes with some updated photos:
The rationale here was to have as few cables as possible being in the way of or intrusive towards any of the components and also the cooling fans.
A few well placed wire ties have kept some of the thicker cables in place whilst the smaller cables have been conveniently looped and hidden where possible. It is hard to hide the peripheral cables which are plugged in but I think overall the visual look is still fairly tidy.
Also with the way the case is actually designed the window does not show any unsightly cables and when complete it will only show the aesthetically pleasing view of the components.. so from this point of view I am fairly happy with my design.
Since GET CRACKIN seems to have ended um I think I will rename this thread???
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Still no graphics card ; ; customs service in NZ seems to be slow as it is in the country but been held by customs since Sunday !,
Amazon site thinks UPS will deliver by next Tuesday I guess I should trust them, the tracking number locally does not show any progress at all on the whereabouts or delivery status.
Am now itching to finish this build it has been quite an effort so far...
I feel your pain. Waiting on parts sucks. Build is looking good but lets tidy up those cables. Can not have your mistress with lose ends. After all, you spent good money on her. lol
build has to have a name so name her
Don't worry cables have been handled as best as I could manage. When you see the final product and its actually turned on you will see what I meant about the design itself allowing for a more aesthetically pleasing look rather than seeing some of the spider web of cables that connect things together...
As for name well this is an AMD/Asus build, but its sort of a team red turning all blue build also based on the color scheme of nearly all the components...
Here is how the updated view actually looks of the inside of the case as you can see barely any unsightly cables in view...
Sorry about the shiny of the heatsink it basically reflected my camera flash back to me... lol
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May i give an advice here?
Since you have moded a window, you may want as clean looks as possible. So here is my idea..
Take those cables
and push them between the hard drive cage and the right side panel. Use the zip ties to hold them to the hard drive cage. You can even just secure a couple of thick cables, and attach the smaller cables to them.
So you will basically have the NZXT S340 effect.
Thank you I will certainly aim to do this once the GPU arrives and is installed, I have 1 hard drive to also install so I have to do that before re-routing cables.
Oh yes... Cable routing should be the last thing... I don't use cable ties usually. I use hard wires, so i can easily redirect and change the cable management.
