Alder's New Case!

[Aldersan]

Yeahh and that's why I'm blanking on ideas lol, I've got the pump/res dual 5.25" bay combo already so that takes care of that, it just drives me nuts that I have so much empty space in there XD maybe I just need to get another 580 to take up more room

[Neodymium]

Its very nice!

[Aldersan]

Picture time!!

First, here's a couple shots of the front that I never got before, with the PC both on and off so you can see the LED's in the reservoir. It's actually pretty cool watching the water swirl inside it, and it makes neat patterns on the wall behind me

Here's the black mesh area where I'm "planning" on putting the PSOne screen, if I can make it fit.

Here's my keyboard and mouse, both off and on. I think they match my PC quite nicely

And here's a pic of the bottom of the inside.

The PSU is covered with the white carbon fiber vinyl on the visible sides, which makes it stand out nicely. However, right next to it is the empty space that I feel so blah about It's pretty clear from this pic that cable management isn't a problem AT ALL with this case (thank god!), and like I mentioned earlier, I tried putting a fan here but it more than doubled the case's noise levels, to my untrained ear of course

Well, that's my progress so far! Let me know what you think, and if you have any suggestions go for it!

[Neodymium]

Very cool reservoir setup I like your keyboard!

[Fuganater]

maybe add a 120 or 140mm rad down there? Push/Pull config.

[Aldersan]

maybe add a 120 or 140mm rad down there? Push/Pull config.

Maybe, but I'd have to redo my loop and find a new place for my drain valve if I did that. I may try to pick up a quiet, low RPM fan for that bottom section, just to create SOME airflow while keeping the noise at a minimum. It just surprised me so much that the fan I was using before, an Aerocool shark fan, which usually didn't seem loud to me at all, created so much noise. However, we'll see. Of course, speaking of redoing my loop, if I had the funding I'd like to get some more white tubing and some of that anti-kink coil in white, and redo my loop in a much tighter and neater fashion. Oh, how I wish I had money to spare

As for plans:
STILL waiting on that screen when I get home from work tonight I'll probably check out that car adapter and see how difficult putting the molex end on it will be, as well as dig through my cable boxes (I tend to hang on to every cable I come across, because if I don't have a specific type, chances are high that I will need it ) and find a VGA cable to mod for the screen itself.

Also, I'm thinking about looking at some CCFL's or LED strips for the inside. While the fans and reservoir give the outside some nice light, the inside of the case is rather dark. I'd have to experiment with that a bit to decide, right now I'm trying to figure out if I'd be better off going with a longer CCFL/strip or two smaller ones.

I DID finally manage to pick up a few black SATA cables with a 90 degree angle plug. I used those for my BD and DVD drives, and used the one white cable that was previously used, for one of the two HDD bays I didn't have a cable in. I only had 4 cables, and had 3 storage drives and 2 optical drives, so I had previously decided that my DVD drive was the least importance. Anyways, now both my optical drives are hooked up, and I have 4/5 of my HDD slots hooked up I probably won't bother hooking up the 5th slot, because my motherboard only has 6 angle'd SATA slots, and one in a really awkward vertical position, so instead of making my cables all messy, I'll just leave it be, I discovered that under/inside the HDD cage area is a neat little hiding spot, so I probably won't use that tray anyways

I'm getting a lot of light bleeding out around the reservoir, because it's not flush with the sides of the case. I took off the tool less latch thing, and screwed it in on both sides to make it firmer (and quieter!) but I may need to figure out a way to stop the light bleed-through..maybe paint the sides of the reservoir black? Or find something to put around it and make it snug? I dunno yet for that.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

[Neodymium]

I may need to figure out a way to stop the light bleed-through..maybe paint the sides of the reservoir black? Or find something to put around it and make it snug? I dunno yet for that.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome and encouraged!

Try some caulking around the bleeding edge, then paint it black...it might help...also, you can scrape off caulking if you decide to do something else...

any other type of non-permanent sealant might also work...good luck..

[Aldersan]

Did some brainstorming on the light bleed through topic, here's what I came up with:

I remember reading in a work log that someone tried using aluminum foil around the edges of some plexi to help distribute light. They were having trouble with it not being sturdy enough, but since the sides of my reservoir are quite a bit bigger than some edges of a sheet of plexi, I was thinking that it might be a good idea to try that with this, it would both help block the light bleed through and give the inside of the reservoir more light diffusion, and would be easier to secure.
That was another thing I noticed, the LED's were mostly shining straight through instead of defusing their light more evenly, so I may try frosting them, anyone have any tips on how to do that?

Thanks in advance!

[Neodymium]

Just take a fine grit sandpaper and go in circles on the LED...that should do it...

[Aldersan]

Just a tiny update, was bored at work and came up with what I want on the PSOne screen, whenever I finally get it lol.
Using Rainmeter and ForceX and a bunch of other stuff, and several hours customizing and debugging, I came up with this: