Project Tox Box: One day pimp project

KikBox · 11-04-2005, 09:17 AM

*This work log can also be found on the KikBoxes forum.

About 9 months ago I put together a system for a friend of mine. We went with an Abit Mobo, Athlon 3800, ATI video, couple of hard drives, blah blah. Anyway, now he wants to pimp that box. The challenge is that this is a machine he family uses on a daily basis so we have one day to get the work done.

So tomorrow is that day! He has a pretty agressive agenda for a one day mod so I called in some reinforcements and we will have 4 guys crowded into my garage for the project. The upgrades we will be performing are as follows:

92mm Blow Hole install
Case Handle install
120mm Exhaust fan install
Full interior paint job (primer and paint)
WM
Memory upgrade 1gig OCZ platinum
Performance testing and tweaking

Here is a picture of the box as it is now. The case is a Silver Stone Temjin.

Anyway, we start drinking (I mean working) at 11am central and are scheduled to finish at 9pm central and I will be posting pictures and notes in this worklog all day tomorrow with live updates on our progress. During this time I will also be making a significant number of upgrades to the Booom Box and these changes will be outlined in my Booom Box worklog.

God willing, we will get it all done and have some time to play a few games too.

VERCETTI · 11-04-2005, 09:32 AM

have fun man, I know it will kik ass..lol

R.Carter · 11-04-2005, 09:48 AM

How are you planning on getting the paint and primer to dry on such an agressive schedule?

I bet it will be a blast! Have fun!

KikBox · 11-04-2005, 10:20 AM

That will be tricky. The primer should not be a problem but the paint is another story.

I have a 3 season porch with a gas fire place in it. This will allow us to regulate the temperature and keep the air warm and dry. This should help promote fast drying. We'll see how it goes. The good news it that we will be able to remove the frame and get paint on it right away so that it can be drying while we work on the exterior mods. With any luck, the finish will no longer be tacky by the time we want to re-install the hardware.

VERCETTI · 11-04-2005, 10:26 AM

LOL my ragz 2 richez I painted it while mowing the yard...lol to stay true to the theme...lol

KikBox · 11-04-2005, 10:35 AM

Didja get any grass clippings in the paint? :-)

tencent · 11-04-2005, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VERCETTI

LOL my ragz 2 richez I painted it while mowing the yard...lol to stay true to the theme...lol

So thats how the pros do it??? Damnit thanks for waiting this long to tell me.

Good luck

keyoshi · 11-04-2005, 07:34 PM

lol ^ yeah good luck. looks pretty nice now. BTW, OCZ power supply?? Lol..too bad my bro don't let meh mow the lawn...d*mn..I could possibly get a nice paintjob....hope it turns out well.

KikBox · 11-07-2005, 09:58 AM

Let me start by apologizing for not make these posts on mod day. One of the guys had a sick little girl at home leaving us one man short. We still got all the work done but I was not able to take the time to post as we went along.

We got started right at 11 and did not waste any time. We started by taking a series of pictures of all the cable hookup and pin locations. This is especially helpful when reassembling the system. I find it much easier to look through out pics rather than using the cryptic Abit manual and I knew we were going to be pressed for time at the end of the day.

As soon as we had all the pics we wanted we start stripping down the chassis. This process went quickly and we were soon down to the bare metal will the components packed safely away in a box.

The first thing we had to do was get a hole cut in the back of the chassis for our 120mm fan. We elected to cut this our instead of sticking with the intergraded grill on the box. I think it looks better and promoted better air movement. I setup my 4.5 hole saw and we use a little shot of 3 in 1 oil to lubricate the blade. My drill cut through really easily...literally 5-6 seconds of cutting.

Once the cut was complete Joe began the prep work for painting. All the components to be painted were cleaned with denatured alcohol and then masked with tape and masking paper. Joe paints for a living so I left the painting to him and moved on to the blow hole and case handle mods. All the drive cages in this case use plastic drive mounting clips. All the clips were removed, the window was removed and the side panel masked. Joe also masked the bottom of the case.

Once all the masking was complete we shot the frame with a few light coats of white primer.

KikBox · 11-07-2005, 10:16 AM

So far things have been clipping along very quickly and smoothly.

The next step was to get the blowhole and case handles mounted. For this mod we have a mnpctech chrome blowhole kit and some machined aluminum billet handles. While Joe is working on the interior paint job I set to work on this part of the project.

I made a simple little jig with 2x4's and quick clamps to securely hole the case panel in place while I made the cuts. I taped off the area to be cut and used a 3.5" hole saw for the cut as our blow hole will be a 92mm aluminum case fan. Again a little splash of 3 in 1 oil and the cut was done. I rinsed off the metal shavings in the sink and cleaned up the burrs with my Dremel.

The blowhole kit comes with nonstandard fan screws. In fact, all they are is bolt with alan key heads on them and as a result they do not bite into the fan frame as well. I had to bore out the holes in the fan a little bit but after that it went together really well.

A little extra time was taken with the billet handles just to make sure they were mounted straight. Installing the handles is easy; the trick is making sure your holes are nice and straight. Here you can see the finished product. This part of the project is done and we can set it aside.

Meanwhile Joe has completed masking the chassis and begun shooting the frame. The paint we are using is Hot Rod Green enamel. It's kind of expensive stuff but the finish we get with it is worth every penny. Joe saves on paint by only shooting those areas that will show when the case is open. In this way we were able to get the whole job done with only one can.

Joe applied 2 coats of paint and then we placed the parts in a warm dry room to let the paint cure. The temp in the room was 80 - 85 degrees thanks to a gas stove and since it is November in the Great White North, the air was VERY dry.

KikBox · 11-07-2005, 10:29 AM

After about 4 hours of curing time in a warm dry room we start reassembling the chassis. The fan mount holes were bored out and rubber grommets were installed to help keep the exhaust fan quiet. We also used a 14.5" strip of U-channel to clean up the edges of the cut.

From here on it was just a matter of getting all the parts back in place. We install the motherboard and front bezel first so that we could clean up all the power and led wires. I braided them but them in black sleeving. We did not have time for a lot of other WM stuff but we did make a few changes that allowed us to remove one power cable from the mix and get all the hardware require for the lighting up off the bottom of the case. We really wanted the nice green to show through.

Once everything was mounted we fired her up and got a dim pool error on the startup. A quick flip of our SATA cables and we were off and running. WM is minimal on this project but part of what we like about this look is the UV green cables, even the SATA cables have been replaced with UV green. Unfortunately we were not able to get our hands on the new OCZ memory in time for mod day but it is on order and should be installed by the end of the week.

Joe had the idea of painting his slot covers black. I had never considered doing this before but I think it looks really cool. We pulled it off finishing at 9:20pm short handed. Now it's time to start planning for the next set of upgrades.

jay.scratch · 11-07-2005, 10:37 AM

looks pretty good mate

keyoshi · 11-07-2005, 05:25 PM

freaking awsome. I like teh color. That is just freaking awsome..lol. Tell Joe +REP from keyo :D

Blazin Trav · 11-07-2005, 05:31 PM

Now that's efficiency. The only question I have is how did you do the stainless steel or whatever material that is surround for the top blowhole? Thanks in advance.

keyoshi · 11-07-2005, 05:40 PM

That blowhole looks awsome. Isn't that the same kit as whats in the other one?

KB_Zoom · 11-07-2005, 11:07 PM

The one day mod session... AWESOME. The green paint matches the UV cables and the 120mm back fan PERFECTLY!

The blowhole makes the top of the case look totally dressed up.

Joe must really know his stuff to be able to prime 2 coats and paint 2 coats in one day! Does he want to paint my Ogre case? What does Joe charge to paint a case? Lemme know! Lemme know!!

SpitFire · 11-07-2005, 11:19 PM

very nice work, glad to see that there are group modders out there :), i really like that green color, what brand is it?

The Enforcer · 11-07-2005, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blazin Trav

Now that's efficiency. The only question I have is how did you do the stainless steel or whatever material that is surround for the top blowhole? Thanks in advance.

It's from mnpctech.
http://www.mnpctech.com/mnpctechblowhole.html

Sleeper Cell · 11-08-2005, 01:50 AM

Wow, incredible work. I like the UV goodies inside, kind of like glow in the dark Halloween candy!

JK

But seriously, nice work.

Rob! · 11-08-2005, 12:14 PM

That color theme is awesome.

Is that new memory going to be a similar green color?