TRON PC Case Build

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Boddaker1

Boddaker1

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Aug 30, 2010
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This is my entry into Cooler Master's case mod competition, scratch build category.

Title.jpg


Been working in Sketchup, building a mockup of the lightcycle suitable for housing a full ATX system with watercooling. It ended up being 40" long, but relatively short. As for the design, I didn't want to make a spot-on replica of the bike, so I went with my layered acrylic method, with just a few skinned areas around the wheels and top. This allows me to hide more components inside as well. Anyway, on with the mockups:









Upon removing some layers, you can see the initial motherboard placement and other components.


To give you a better idea of size, I placed a Cooler Master Cosmos case next to it.


PRELIMINARY PARTS LIST

EVGA X58 Motherboard
Intel i7 965 processor
EVGA GTX570 video cards in SLI
Crucial SSD
Crucial Ballistix memory
Pioneer Slimline slot load DVD drive
Cooler Master Silent Gold 850W Power Supply (qualifying product)
Dual bay reservoir by Primochill
Other watercooling parts TBD

I'm planning something special for the front radiator, more on that later. ;-)

So that's the basic plan, I'll be adding more detail as I go along.

There are quite a few entries already, including one from Bill Owen and Slipperyskip in the case mod category. So it's going to be a good show! 😀
 
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Thank you trihedral and Leetsauce!

More progress on the tubes. Got them painted inside and out, after taping off the areas where the ribs will be glued. Then after doing a light test, I decided to chamfer the ends to widen the glow area a bit.

I set up the router table with a 45° chamfer bit, and made a semi-circuler fence for the tube to fit in so it wouldn't go anywhere, then I slowly rotated it by hand 360°.


All four ends done.


For lighting, I'll be using these blue light strips wrapped around the tube center...


... like so.


A close up shot of the glowing end.


And an overhead shot.


The part on the bottom is darker because there is about a 3" gap between the ends of the light strip (it's 20" long, and the circumference of the tube is roughly 23"). I will cut a 2nd strip down to fill in that area. Otherwise, I think that is pretty much the look I was going for. :)
 
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My god this build looks absolutely amazing, you seem to know exactly how to make everything light up and look epic, and those lit tubes, geez you could just have them as decoration pieces in your house, lol.
 
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Thanks guys. Maybe I will go into the interior decorator business after this. lol

Ok, smallish update to show my progress today:

Playing with different lighting for the lightwall emitter. I drilled a few holes in the side of the center rib to accept 3mm uv leds, and fired them up to see how they look.
For some reason they look too purple here, not at all the same color as the SSD Engine. Maybe it's because these leds are embedded into the acrylic, whereas the SSD engine had the uv lights hanging over the pieces.


So then I tried white leds and got a better blue hue, but the leds were too far apart and I could see gaps in the lighting. So I went to a white led lightstrip curved along the inside edge. Looks much better! I think I'll be going with door number three, Bob.


So since I can't put the lightstrip where I'll be gluing the center rib to the tube, I had to cut a new groove in the side. So I taped off the area and drew my cut line.


Using the rotary tool, I carefully cut a thin groove just wide enough and deep enough for the lightstrip. I didn't want to cut through to the other side, so I put a mark on the saw blade for a depth guage.


Groove is cut, and the other side is unscathed!


The light strip fits right in.


It's just deep enough for the width of the strip.


With that taken care of, I can now glue the center rib to the tube. I used various pieces of scrap wood and acrylic to keep everything level, square, and plumb.


Back when I first dry-fitted the ribs and tubes, I realized that the tubes weren't a perfect cylinder. Holding the tube and center rib up to the light, you can really see how imperfect it really is.




I'll be filling in the gaps with some JB Weld, now that the two pieces are tacked together.

More tomorrow!
 
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Ok, so I had a bit of a set-back last weekend, and I had to re-do some things. Seems I miscalculated my spacing on the ribs, so I had to widen the rear fender a bit.

Here it is with the correct rib spacing. It's supposed to bolt to these!


So I hacked it into three pieces,


Added some cardboard and duct tape backing,


Plasti-Paste to the rescue!! lol


Been smoothing it out, adding bondo, and sanding, so I'm just about back to where I was on Saturday. So with that out of the way, I could finally begin assembly!

I got both main ribs attached and some cross supports in, like the dual 120mm fan mount.


I scuffed them up and painted the back face white to give it a lighter blue look, and to aid in the glow.


Then I opted for these Enermax Appollish fans for some bling. It has different modes for the leds. Here it's got a triple blade rotation going. Reminiscent of a Flux Capacitor. :)


Here's the "all-on" setting. I can also adjust the speed of the fans with the controller.


Next up is the power supply. Finally getting some components in! 😀
 
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Thanks everyone! 😀

All right, good progress today! I got the power supply mounted, as well as the whole bottom IO plate made so I could install the motherboard and video cards. woot!

Ok, the power supply didn't quite fit at first lol. This is just one of those things that no amount of forethought and planning in Sketchup could prevent. With all the ribs in place, I couldn't work the psu into it's spot.


It wouldn't slide in sideways either. This is how I originally envisioned it going in, but for whatever reason, it was just too tight clearance-wise. (I blame it on the power supply's bulging rear mesh!)


So, I had to rethink the psu situation, and come up with a plan that will work better in the end. I decided to make a mounting flange that will bolt to the psu, then attach to the bottom framing. This way the psu can just drop down and out if I need to remove it later. So first thing was to start removing the lower portions of the ribs. Center rib went first.


Then I glued in some cross supports before cutting away the top and bottom rib sections. These supports will be where the flange will screw into.


Then I whipped up a couple handle-looking pieces, that will re-attach the rib sections together.


Here's the top handle glued in.


And the bottom handle glued, with the bottom rib section removed as well. Now the power supply can slip up into its place without any obstruction.


Here's the flange I made which will secure the psu to the framing.


With that done, I could turn my attention to the IO plate. I went to town on this piece, measuring and cutting all the openings and never once thought to grab the camera. So all you get is the finished pics, sorry!


The plate is secured to the ribs via tabs and 4 screws (2 on each side). I incorporated the DVI and HDMI openings into this plate as well, so I could do away with the rear video cards' IO bracket.


A close up of the motherboard IO ports.


And a close up shot of the video card ports. the DVI screws are what holds the video card in place, so no need for any IO bracket screws.


Here's a shot of the psu installed with the flange. I used 4 thumb screws to hold it in place. Two of which are shared by the IO plate.


Now that I finally have some hardware in the case, I can start installing some watercooling gear. If I can be as productive tomorrow as I was today, I might even be able to do some leak testing. Let's just hope I don't stumble upon any more harsh realities lol.

Thanks for reading! :)
 
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Getting the watercooling system in, running hoses and such. This will be a single loop, running Primochill's new Myriad bay res with D5 pump, going into a custom curved radiator, then thru the components (cpu, chipsets, vid cards) and back to the res. (sorry some pics are a bit blurry)




Here's the custom curved radiator I had made specifically for the TRON bike. There was no room for a conventional 240 rad, so with the help of Moddersmart, I had a curved one made up to take advantage of the available space around the wheel hub. Working in Sketchup, I made a rough model, and sent the specs along with reference pics to them and this is what I got back. 😀







Here's a shot of the mounting method I devised to hold the rad. Two 1/2" square acrylic rods glued in between the two main ribs, one on top and one on the bottom.




And here's the radiator mounted on the bike.


And a shot with the front fairings on with the wheel rings. My goal was to make the radiator act as the front tire for the bike, and I think I achieved that look.


I will need to add some sort of bottom plate to make sure air goes through the rad and not out the bottom. Who knows how well this will cool all the parts, but at this point, who cares! lol

I thought I'd throw in a window shot of the bike. It's finally coming together!


Thanks for tuning in. :)
 
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Unbelievable....I can't believe that someone can actually make things this cool.

I thought some aliens made cool custom cases
But I guess they were humans.
 
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Wrong. I am an alien. 😛
 
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Well, the good news is, I finished it in time. The bad news is I couldn't get it to power up. Some kind of short in the wiring prevented anything from running more than a second, and me with no time to troubleshoot.

Regardless, here are the final pics (power to lights and fans provided by spare psu). Enjoy, and I'm off to sleep for a couple days. 😉





















 
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This. Is. The. Coolest. Thing. I. Have. Ever. Seen. Period.

DUDE! This case rocks! Great job! I really hope Cooler Master chooses yours, and I also hope that you can get it to post!
 
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Un freaking believable!!! If I had that, every week I'd be flipping it around to see the different sides lol... both the hardware side with watercooling and the SSD thing look fantastic!

But anyway this is probably the best case I've ever seen. Seriously great work.
 
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