Battle Dragon Bag - Scratch Build

[Stonerboy779]

Sucks about what happened with the powder coating good to see that you aren't going to let it bring everything down.

[monkeyfun]

Sucks about what happened with the powder coating good to see that you aren't going to let it bring everything down.

Thank you, sir.

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Update #27:

Well…. The couple of hours I was setting aside to do modding ended up getting side tracked by one of my neighbors that required tech support. I’m a sucker for an elderly neighbor that is fascinated by current technologies.

I did get some work done. The PSU is assembled and I just need to finish the last of the cabling at the other ends.

I also finished soldering the strip lighting and began installing it on the case.

The pieces fit snugly on the frame and I might have to shave the side panel down a little bit.

Here’s the view of the case with only the strip lighting up the case and side panel.

And here’s the CCR tubes that will be in the case. Apparently I’m a sucker for lighting too.

Checklist until completion:

Finish Cable Sleaving: 80% Complete
Touch-up paint on PSU (got a couple of scratches while sleeving).
Assembly and Test


So close, I can almost see the light at the end of this mod.

[monkeyfun]

Update #28: Assembling Pictures!!!
I’m still working on the sleaving, redoing some of the sleaving and a little soldering. But it was driving me crazy. So I started assembling the various parts of the case.

Here’s the GPU (Radeon 6950/70) with the water block. Just a quick note, the water block was provided by the kind folks over at DeviceUnkown.com.

Just a quick shot of the second hard drive mounted on the back side of GPU. The primary hard dirve is the slick little OCZ SSD drive will be mounted on the back side of the motherboard because it’ll be visible.

After a little modding of the mounting brackets, I was able to install the CPU water block.

And I’ve installed the windows in the in the respective panels.

Checklist until completion:

Finish Cable Sleaving: 80% Complete
Assembly and Test
Install updates and games

Another update later tonight with sleaving pictures. And even later, I’ll post the finished sexy shots and some of the action shots of the case while I’m at PAX.

[Fuganater]

Side panel = EPIC WIN!

[monkeyfun]

Side panel = EPIC WIN!

thank you sir! I always enjoy it when someone who's builds I follows compliments my build. It means I'm getting better and will eventually get to the level of mods I enjoy reading.

[SXRguyinMA]

Well it's good that you both talked it out and even better that he offered you a severe discount.

Something to keep in mind for the future plans:

Paint willalways be less durable than powdercoat. However while it's easier to damage it's also easier to touch-up if need be. Also powdercoat can add significant thickness to panels and pieces that paint will not.

Paint is best suited for mixing colors as you've done with this mod. It can be done with powdercoat but it's difficult to get the kind of soft color transitions you were looking for.

Home powdercoating setups can be had for relatively cheap money, but getting yourself an oven to bake the parts in is the tough part of it.

Just some things to keep in mind, but I love how this build is coming along!

[monkeyfun]

Home powdercoating setups can be had for relatively cheap money, but getting yourself an oven to bake the parts in is the tough part of it.

Thanks! And Home powder coating is a very possible future. We just upgraded from Electric heating to natural gas and will need to replace the stove/oven in the near future. I think the old oven will make an excellent powdercoat oven.


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Update #29:

Note all of these pictures happened sometime between Thursday 6pm (8/30) and Friday 6am (8/31)

Time was running short before PAX and the mountain of cabling and sleaving seemed daunting. So I did what any modder would do, I worked non-stop to get it done. Here’s a quick picture of some of my sleaving work:

Eventually I completed all of the required sleaving. So I began the next task of assembling all of the parts. One of the tricks behind working in such cramped space is figuring out the ordering of assembly. You can’t just assemble the parts in any order because one part’s placement will block access to the other parts. Here’s one of the steps of assembly, the motherboard and primary SSD:

This picture jumps a few steps forward. I’ve already half assembled the side panels, connected the hard drives, attached the pre-assembled GPU & secondary HDD, and wired the switches to the motherboard.

While the computer is 75% assembled, I prepare the Mayhem’s Tharsis Red:

Except… something’s wrong… but no matter, I tested the loop again before it hit me… is my red pink?!?!?

I checked the other three containers of Tharsis Red and sure enough, I was accidentally shipped a bottle of Gemini Pink labeled as Tharsis Red. Here’s the difference between the two. Apparently being awake for 25 hours doesn’t help your ability to differentiate between pink and red.

So I drained the loop and filled it with the appropriate colored coolant… and it’s almost ready! I’ll I have to do is power it on and update the OS and games!!!

Did it power on? Did I make it to PAX? Did I win the casemod contest? Did I embarrass the whole casemodding community in my panel at PAX?

I’ll let you all know with my next update. And no cheating by looking at my facebook entries.

[Fuganater]

Email Mick about the coolant. He will send you a new bottle.

[monkeyfun]

Email Mick about the coolant. He will send you a new bottle.

No worries, they sent me 4x 250mL concentrate bottles at an awesome rate for this build specifically. With the discount I got, 3 bottles are still a deal and I have some left over for a drain and refill.

[monkeyfun]

Update #30: The morning before and during PAX


When I finally had everything put together and ready to test it was about 4am on Friday morning. I plugged in all of the input and output devices. I had all of my disks and update files ready.

And then it didn’t power on. PANIC.

I had to semi-disassemble the computer to trouble shoot everything. I verified that the on/off switch was wired correctly. I verified that everything was plugged in. I tried another power supply… and success. I began trouble shooting the power supply… but every single cable is sleaved. So I made a judgment call. I wanted to have something to display at the panel for people to see. I could have slapped any old power supply in the computer and got it up and running. So I kept the nicely sleaved power supply out for people to see and put a jury-rigged power supply into the computer so that people could see the water cooling and lighting.

That being said, my build still isn’t done. *sigh* I will need to figure out what pins I screwed up on and then SLEAVE THE ENTIRE PSU AGAIN…

So after getting 3 hours sleep, I hauled everything down to the convention center. This is where I digress; feel free to ignore this part of my update as it’s all about PAX and presenting modding at the crafting panel at PAX.

Since I had purchased two seats, I set up two computers at the BYOC: One for use and the other for display. Unfortunately, there was no casemod competition for this BYOC. But that was okay as I was a sleaved PSU short of a complete case anyhow. I wandered around the Exhibition Hall and swung by the Gigabyte & the NZXT booths. Lee Harrington (another great modder) and Irene (with Gigabyte) were at the Gigabyte booth and showed off all their new mods and mobos.

I specifically swung by the NZXT booth to see Bill Owen’s Bladerunner case. It is a beauty.

Eventually, Saturday rolled around and I had to speak on the panel. Here are pictures of people lining up to see us speak…

…and the line went around the corner too… Here are the other panelist and I getting ready for the panel:

I created a quick little cheat sheet… this list got much longer the closer to the start time.

Here’s a quick shot of the display for people to see. I had the TTeSports bag out, the case displayed, the Gigabyte bag (and mobo mentioned), the Thermaltake sleaved PSU on the table with a sample of Mayhem’s Tharsis Red:

And then the people started coming in… we were told that between 325-400 were in the room with another couple of hundred turned away due to lack of space….

Here is a picture of the complete panel: from left to right

Myself (Dingo Casemodder/monkeyfun/bitterfun/Gentleman Dingo)
Amanda Casperson (http://petrichora.deviantart.com)
Heather Dery (www.lunarjadestyles.deviantart.com)
Tally Heilke (http://tallystreasury.com)
Sewing Punzie (http://punzie.etsy.com)
Anne Wheaton (http://valdaleyes.net)

Here’s me beginning my talk on modding:

The first slide had some of my cases and some cases I liked at PDXLAN:

The next three were process slides:

Unfortunately there were some technical difficulties as they were unable to play the short 1-2 minute movies I provided. After everyone was done doing there little presentations, the floor was opened for questions and answers.

After the panel was over, I took some time to answer individual questions.

…and was joined by two other modders: Boddaker and DragonPhreak. Thanks for helping out guys!

The next morning… the PAX Enforcers decided to mod my mod. I felt loved.

The next update might be a little delayed as I’m going to be un-sleaving my PSU and trying this again. Thanks for reading!!!