Battle Dragon Bag - Scratch Build

[Aldersan]

Looking great so far, it seems like this is going to be a pretty tight squeeze but it should end up pretty awesome!

[monkeyfun]

Looking great so far, it seems like this is going to be a pretty tight squeeze but it should end up pretty awesome!

Oh yeah, if I wasn't custom building the reservoir, I'd be a little worried.

[monkeyfun]

Update #18: Last of the Framework

The Mayhem Coolant concentrate arrived!!! I know it’s called Tharsis Red but I’m pretty sure it’ll be the Dragon’s Blood in this case. Oh and I went out and bought a plain clear hose to show off the liquid.

After I finished installing the pump I notice a slight problem. When I put the risers in the frame to lift the supports off of the main portion of the frame, I didn’t take into account the radiator location… this meant the support for the PSU and the mobo no longer fit in the case when the pump and radiator are installed. I had to cut one of the legs off of the support to even attempt to fit it in.

I cut off a little more so I could see exactly how I needed to shape the support.

I enjoyed do this one over. I got to put some of the lessons I learned with the previous piece into use. That and I just like doodling.

And I like drilling holes with my fancy drill press.

This is the piece without any filing done…

Here’s the new support in the case working just fine with the pump and the radiator.

Next, I placed my mobo and PSU templates in the case to see if they still fit.

And because I’m paranoid, I checked to see if it would still fit in the bag. Yup, it still fits.

Now that, I corrected the mistake, I was free on working on a new piece. It’s time to start working on the video card bracket. First, I had to mod the back plate that came with the Alienware 6950.

I sliced off one piece, but decided to crop even closer to the actual video card.

Then I was distracted with doodling on paper and metal. I’m designing the bracket to work as a mount for the hard drives as well.

My doodles lack imagination but they’re fairly practical. I don’t think I’ll be winning any awards for my awesome sketches.

Here’s the bracket cut out. Technically, this was my second attempt at this bracket. While, I was cutting the piece out on my table saw, I wasn’t paying attention and I sliced off one of the legs.

Next, I set it on the case to make sure the idea will work…

Then I bent all of the various legs. It occurred to me that I might not need all 4 legs, so I chopped on off. Then I cheated by using the 3M tape of the gods to help me get the right placement.

It looks good from the top.

And it looks good from the side.

Another thing that I considered was the upside down water cooling on the video card. I purposely set the bracket at a bit of an angle. I did this to prevent any hot spots on the block if an air bubble forms in the GPU Cooler. The bubble will sit against the acrylic window and not on the block.

For the most part, the frame and all of the supports are done. All I have to do is sink a couple of the screws and clean up some edges.

That’s it for now! Tomorrow morning will start another marathon of case work. I’ll probably have another update later this weekend. Thank you for reading!

[Aldersan]

Looking good! Can't wait to start seeing the actual hardware in there!

[monkeyfun]

ASk and you shall receive! There will be some in this morning's update.

[Aldersan]

How dare you post without any pictures!

[monkeyfun]

Update #19: Marathon Modding

I am a non-stop modding machine. I think I spent about 12 hours in my basement yesterday working on this case. Most of the time was spent filing, sinking screws, cleaning up the metal. Here’s what the back panel looks like now:

I also worked on installing the front and back polycarbonate and acrylic windows.

I’ll spend some more time tonight sinking these screws as well.

I was nervous about drilling into the back panel. While it was easy and fairly simple to do, I didn’t want to screw up and have to COMPLETELY reconstruct this piece. Making it twice was enough for me.

I really like this picture. The red will stand out even more once the brown protective paper is peeled off.

If you are curious, this is what the case would look like as brushed aluminum:

Next I worked on creating and fitting the back piece. This is the last aluminum piece I have to make. While I still have a bunch of things to do, it felt like I was crossing a milestone.

I used my cheater tactic of using two straight sides of a cut piece of aluminum to line the piece with two of the sides of the case. I attached the piece with a couple of screws and then marked off the sides that need to be cut. After my table saw reduced the piece to the size that I wanted, I put the other screws in on the other side and then file the aluminum into a nice fit.

Now that I have the back piece on, I have to place some of the hardware into the case so I can measure what holes I have to cut out. I start with the motherboard and the PSU.

Mmmmmmm… sexy new motherboard. Not so sexy photography. I REALLY need a decent camera instead of the Olympus Stylus 1000 I’ve been using.

Since I had my new toys out, I decided to get a look at the hard drive placement. The two hard drives will be mounted on the bottom of the video card bracket. I’ll have to place them to either side of the RAM, since I forgot to factor in RAM height. I’m still not even sure what RAM I’m using. I’ll probably just end up taking 8 gigabytes out of my home machine and using them in this case. They’re fairly low profile.

Here’s a view with the video card and where it will be in the case:

Back to work! Tracing a generic area for the PSU was easy. I outlined the outside and then factored in a reduction by measuring the distance in from the screw mount. For the mother board, I used the motherboard stand offs to help me get the correct height of the mother board against the back plate. I used a couple of the standoffs upside down and attached them with nuts.

With the positioning marked on the back plate, it is time to prepare the piece for the jigsaw by drilling some more holes.

At this point I realized I was starting to get tired, so I decided to call it a night before I screwed something up.

Here’s the list of things I still have to do:
Cut the mother board and PSU holes on the back plate
Drill the stand-off holes for the mother board
Mount the video card
Cut a hole for the video card on the back plate
Mount the hard drives
Sink the last of the screws
Fabricate the reservoir
Cut the tube lengths
Test the loop for leaks
Prime coat the case
Detail paint the case
Mod the PSU
Sleeve all of the cabling
Install the CPU and GPU water blocks
Preload the OS, games, and software into the hard drives
Install all of the hardware.


Wow. That’s still a long list. But I still have lots of energy. We’ll see how far I can get before PDXLAN. Thanks for reading! I might have another update later tonight or tomorrow morning.

[SXRguyinMA]

nice progress man! Keep it up!!

[monkeyfun]

Update #20: Over-Crowding

I didn’t get as much done tonight as I would have liked to but progress is progress.

I evaluated my extras. So far, I’m on track for using everything that I purchased… with the exception of the remote power on switch. It’s pretty cool gadget but it’s a little too big for the amount of space I have left in my case. It’s too thick to mount it under the motherboard or the PSU like I had hoped. Oh well. All of the lights and the switches will be used.

I completed the installation of the risers.

I also completed the PUS and mother board input/output panel holes.

Then I started to stall… First, I put in the PSU and all of the cables I’ll be using for this case.

But that looked ok. So I took out the PSU and installed the pump and the mother board and started with the video card placement.

And that looked ok. So I put EVERYTHING in and started documenting the install order so I could do it again without issues.

Front view:

Front panel down view (sorry about the blurry picture):

Top down view:

I think I have the last of the kinks out of my design and everything (except the remote control) will be installed. In order to cut the video card output hole I have to commit and get that water block installed. That means I have to test my loop tomorrow before work.

To-Do List:

Fabricate the reservoir
Cut the tube lengths
Test the loop for leaks
Install the CPU and GPU water blocks

Mount the video card
Cut a hole for the video card on the back plate
Mount the hard drives
Sink the last of the screws

Prime coat the case
Detail paint the case

Mod the PSU (optional, will explain more later)
Sleeve all of the cabling (can wait until after PDXLAN)

Preload the OS, games, and software into the hard drives (have to wait for the processor to arrive on the 15th)
Install all of the hardware.



Thanks for reading!

[Aldersan]

Looking great! Finish that up fast!