Battle Dragon Bag - Scratch Build

[Fuganater]

Damn man! Your a modding machine!

[AmEv]

Or rather, he's modding a machine!

[monkeyfun]

Looking great! Finish that up fast!

Damn man! Your a modding machine!

Or rather, he's modding a machine!

Thanks all! I'm definitely on a roll. However I have four 11-hour shifts coming up... I'll have to curtail my modding to before and after work activities.

[monkeyfun]

Update #21: Reservoir

I started on the reservoir. I mocked up the pieces with foam core and checking it in the case for fitting:

I cut some of the pieces…

And I have begun assembling them.

I’m glad I have a bunch of extra polycarbonate. Two of the pieces I cut were a little… off. So I’ll be replicating them until I get it right. Tonight I’ll work on completing the reservoir and painting some of the pieces.

To-Do List:

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

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

Mount the lighting for the polycarbonate strip
Mount the lighting for the CCRTs

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 - In Progress
Install all of the hardware


Thanks for reading!

[Aldersan]

Looking great! You HAVE to get this thing done soon, and then make me one Definitely a quality mod!

[monkeyfun]

Looking great! You HAVE to get this thing done soon, and then make me one Definitely a quality mod!

Are you kidding? I'm building 7 of these beauties! Oh wait, nope, sorry. My lottery ticket didn't win.

[Aldersan]

Lol, try again then cuz I want one! Helluva build so far, can't wait to see this finished, and then I can't wait to see what you mod next

[AmEv]

6 more????


Talk to sponsors, CONVINCE them to give you enough hardware for them!!!

[monkeyfun]

Update #21.5

I am exhausted. I've been owrking 11 hour shifts and then modding.
I'm simply gonig to give you two quick teaser pictures and then more after PDXLAN or late Thursday evening. Please keep in mind, that's not the final color. It is just the prime coat.

Have To-Do:
Cut the tube lengths - In Progress
Install the CPU and GPU water blocks - In Progress
Mod the PSU (optional, will explain more later) - In Progress
Mount the video card - In Progress

Test the loop for leaks
Cut a hole for the video card on the back plate
Mount the hard drives
Mount the lighting for the CCRTs
Install all of the hardware

Can Do after LAN:
Detail paint the case
Mount the lighting for the polycarbonate strip
Sleeve all of the cabling (can wait until after PDXLAN)

Completed:
Prime coat the case - Done
Preload the OS, games, and software into the hard drives - Done
Fabricate the reservoir - Done
Sink the last of the screws - Done
Polish poly-c strips - Done

[monkeyfun]

Update #22

Wow… so PDXLAN and Emerald City LAN happened. I just realized I was posting some modding drama on Facebook without following up on my forums. This is bad and I apologize but I was very, very crunched for time and did the best I could to keep my audience informed. So this is what you might have missed out on…

The water cooling did not pass the loop test. The reservoir leaked horribly and I ended up cracking the plastic cover on the CPU water block. All was not lost because I’m a modder and I don’t quit. I rushed to make the case air cooled (just for the LANs) so that I could at least show the work in progress. I wasn’t going to win any contests with the current paint job but the computer was functional and semi-presentable.

Here’s the case at PDXLAN. They were force feeding us Mean Bean Monster Energy drinks so most of my pictures were a little blurry. A new camera is on my birthday list this May. Actually my wife is more excited about learning photography than getting me a camera.

Since I cracked the plastic cover of the CPU water block I decided to start a concept piece as its replacement. For some reason I have a bunch of .5” thick Poly-Carbonate in my basement. The people at Laird Plastics gave me an incredible deal for a huge piece for only $20. So I have a bunch to experiment with… Here’s where I started:

I cut the piece of poly-carbonate to the shape of the brace. Then I drilled all of the screw and mounting holes. I held off putting in the water intake/output holes. I wanted to see how it looks before deciding the placement of these holes.

Next, I tested using the Dremel and the little Dremel Work Bench as a router.

When I felt comfortable with the set-up I tried it on my block cover.

Here’s the (blurry) end result. I really like being able to see the pins and fins inside of the water block. I ended up making a couple of mistakes. But that’s ok, as I had intended to redo this block cover after I got my techniques down with the tools I have on-hand. There were two slips: one while routing down the brace and another when making the top oval. Both mistakes are lessons learned.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I’m back and modding! I had a lot of fun at the LANs but it’s time to go back to grindstone! Thanks for reading, updates will return to their regular intervals.