Time Sync.

[AlienALX]

In all senses.

OK so I have not raised a screwdriver to a PC in anger for over a year. I have also not bought a single PC component for the same length of time.

Those of you who know me will know I have four rigs. Old skool (2004 AW A51) Dianoga (2006 A51 ALX) Riff Tamson (2008 A51 ALX) and "The Triad" (2014 A51).

Now as you guys know I have a 14 core CPU (Intel BE) on a MSI X99 board with 16gb ram etc. My Titan XP is under water, and the CPU is cooled by a 120mm basic AIO. Now this was fine until recently, when I noticed a few apps taking advantage of the cores. Then? it started getting very angry and very hot. Given this is not going to get better in the future (only worse) I was kind of at a brick wall when it comes to modding. There is absolutely no way at all I can possibly fit another loop in the rig, nor plumb the CPU into the existing one for the GPU (which I would not do either as it wouldn't be enough) and so that means I need to move into a "new" or "bigger" case in order to fit more water cooling.

Once upon a time this case looked like this.

Once, many moons ago. I hot wired it to get it to run on a standard PSU, which it still does thankfully.

Now? the idea is to take it down into every part, cut, grind and drill to gut it to a shell, then build into it after having it painted or powder coated.

Now obviously I need to be realistic here. This is not a overnight or one week mod. There are at least 50 parts to this case and I have never gone that deep into it before. I am not fooling myself that this will happen quickly, especially as I want the inner shell painted or powder coated black. This is serious, serious, once in a lifetime amount of work.

Thankfully these came up cheap.

So I will not have to buy a new PSU. I can simply hide all of the blue cables

More to come as and when.

 

[Dicehunter]

You could always have an external rad/pump/res for the CPU, Make 2 hose holes at the rear of the case and have a HUGE radiator.

Just an idea

Something like the Alphacool Eiswand -

 

[AlienALX]

"Where we're going we don't need roads".

I'm all sorted dude, apart from the fans. I will order them once it has been gutted and I know how many I will need. For now I got a pump and top.

18w DDC, capable of pushing the entire loop with cooling.

A nice plain top to go with my BP res.

And everything else apart from the fans. I want plain black fans, no LEDs at all (the case does that itself and I don't want any clashes).

I already have -

The same rad running on the GPU. I will be putting one in the roof, one in the front (once it's been all cut out and emptied). I already have lots of red and black BP fittings, but just to make sure I will have more than I need I am going to tear down the old skool rig because I don't use it. It has lots of the same red fittings in. I also have a AC Poweradjust (with the software license) as well as an AC splitty for fans and pumps and etc. I have lots of gear to throw at this tbh.

I am now going to strip as much as I can and see how that goes. I need to start planning on drilling out all of the rivets etc.

 

[AlienALX]

This thing is so complex it is utterly terrifying. I will be lucky if it ever works again lol.

So I started work. As you can see I am labelling everything. I will need to, there is plenty of it ffs.

Just the basic wiring, old floor and two side panels removed.

What I am dealing with, and this is just scratching the surface FFS.

The control board, it is as big as an ITX board only longer.

People have often said to me over the years that Alienware are a rip off, and you get conned. OK, this case did cost about £800 over the price of any other rig but let me explain why. You see this black plastic cage I have removed here?

This is how many screws hold it on.

Now look at the HDD sliders.

There are eight screws holding each one on. There are 6 bays.. This is gonna take a while...

Seriously though, this will be the hardest mod I have ever done, ever. By the time I had this out I almost wanted to cry.

And the ever growing mound.. I'ma need a bloody big old box !

And the front finally off. The ribbon is hanging out, I will need to fix that.

 

[Bartacus]

I hope you're labeling those piles of screws bud, LOL! You are a serious sadomasochist! Most of use would have just dropped some quid on a cheap ATX case to tear apart, YOU have to go Alienware, LOL! Those are some mind-blindingly-intricate internals! Love that you're doing it though, can't wait to see it all come together, over time of course.

 

[AlienALX]

I hope you're labeling those piles of screws bud, LOL! You are a serious sadomasochist! Most of use would have just dropped some quid on a cheap ATX case to tear apart, YOU have to go Alienware, LOL! Those are some mind-blindingly-intricate internals! Love that you're doing it though, can't wait to see it all come together, over time of course.

Seriously it is truly terrifying. I just removed the front IO and power switch, that took me about 30 mins. The Esata cable broke, but it wasn't connected to anything any way. I guess I tucked that years ago and forgot about it lmao.

Progress is very slow, given I am labelling everything. I do not know if I will reinstate the hard drives as they were, or, just hide a couple somewhere. We'll see. The front IO needs serious work though, and needs all new wires soldering to it really. They will also need braiding, which is basically a whole day just doing that. I don't mind too much though, it will be worth it. I just pray that when time comes to move it you can still lift it, as it's 40kg empty.

I should be able to drill out the bays tomorrow. I am trying to take it slow, and not rush it.

 

[Bartacus]

P.S. I love how the build name is just dripping with irony. Time sink indeed, LOL!

 

[AlienALX]

haha yeah. I was under no illusions, tbh. It took me around 40 hours to build it for my ex, and that was just working with the case.

This is another hour or so in. I am finally getting my head around it. Thing is? no manual, so removing the two lower panels from the case with the RGB in was a real nightmare.

It's everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. All over the desk in the pic, all over the floor, and half of the wiring is still in it.

It has two blower fans for the HDD bays I didn't even know it had lmao. Oh, and when I took the bottom panels off they took a 9 year old dust bunny crap all over my carpet, as well as me realising that I had a water leak and there was red coolant everywhere.

 

[AlienALX]

Well I had a bit of a result. The hard drive cages are only held in with four screws each, the other four are for the mech and you don't remove them. The nice thing is I don't have to put them all back in, which I probably won't. The days of me needing 6 hard drive cages are long gone.

I drew a pattern and numbered each drive on the pic, then numbered each cage and removed them. If they go back they need to go back in the same order, as they are each different (cable lengths, where they route etc).

After a whole load more faff trying to remove the back plastic cover/IO lights I got that out (it just fell off ffs after hours of trying to figure it out) and I now have a raw shell.

Couple of things are becoming apparent. If I want it powdered I would need to de-rivet the entire thing and then pray I can remember how it all goes back (not going to happen) or I can arse-spray it and it will look like total poop, or, I can paint it by hand. I know that doesn't sound very good but it is the best option, if I ever want it back together in one piece. I think I am going to use a hammered finish so that you don't see any brush marks, like this.

Regardless of that I still need to do a crap ton of metal work first, so I can think more about that later. Next step is getting out all of the crap I don't want, then giving it a bath.

 

[Warchild]

Buy an airbrush and compressor and use some enamel paint. Slow but great finish.

And since you have it apart. I would also spray that repulsive chassis light grey. Best time to do it is now.

edit*

Make sure you use a decoupler for that pump. if you plan to have it hidden, I highly recommend a shoggy sandwich. Regardless of pump speed, anything over 40% pwm and it will whine. It still trumps the D5 pump in my opinion but for noise, its not the best. 22 PSI max pressure with around 5GPM though, means it can handle almost anything you throw at it.

 

[AlienALX]

I will be doing it either black or red (inside). Not decided which yet, but don't think I've ever seen a hammered red case.. We'll see I have plenty of time to think about that.

 

[Warchild]

I will be doing it either black or red (inside). Not decided which yet, but don't think I've ever seen a hammered red case.. We'll see I have plenty of time to think about that.

Go black.

Red cases always look terrible to me. Just look at the LD V8 case with Red. Then imagine parts inside being black (god help people who would choose red components in a red case).

Pretty sure you would think its too much. Black goes with almost any combination, and allows you freedom to change/upgrade later on. I think Red and Yellow are the two colours I could never use as an interior case colour. Its just too much and feels like colour bleeding before its even began

 

[AlienALX]

Most of it will be covered in acrylic any way. IDK like I said I will see how it goes. I think the board has some grey on it, so I might rock grey. There will be small red accents (like the fittings for example) but nothing major. I will be using black cables. Just plain black, nothing else.

But yeah, 95% of the internal case will be skimmed out in 3mm flat acrylic (black most probably). There will also be no internal lighting, nor LED fans (plain black again).

Oh and the pump will not be standing on anything man. It will be straight piped into the bottom of the res, then hung like it is now on the res (with rubber grommets).

Just like it is now, only slightly beefier.

Problem is IMGUR is broken, so I can't even show you that lol.

If that works that will show you how I intend to do it.

 

[Warchild]

Most of it will be covered in acrylic any way. IDK like I said I will see how it goes. I think the board has some grey on it, so I might rock grey. There will be small red accents (like the fittings for example) but nothing major. I will be using black cables. Just plain black, nothing else.

But yeah, 95% of the internal case will be skimmed out in 3mm flat acrylic (black most probably). There will also be no internal lighting, nor LED fans (plain black again).

Oh and the pump will not be standing on anything man. It will be straight piped into the bottom of the res, then hung like it is now on the res (with rubber grommets).

Just like it is now, only slightly beefier.

Problem is IMGUR is broken, so I can't even show you that lol.

Accents are what make things pop. Red accents will be good. Red interior not so much. Call me boring Norman, but I am a big fan of grey. Dark/gunmetal/metallic etc.

This is a big favourite of mine.

 

[AlienALX]

Accents are what make things pop. Red accents will be good. Red interior not so much. Call me boring Norman, but I am a big fan of grey. Dark/gunmetal/metallic etc.

This is a big favourite of mine.

Well I was only worried about over doing it. That said, I don't think any one could really over do black. Not that I've ever seen any one try, but yeah I don't think it's possible /paintitblack.

Also note the res is clear as is the coolant now (that's a way old pic the pastel failed so I put in clear) and I will be using (probably) clear hosing and possibly a couple of hard runs to stop that big ole nasty return line that always bugs me with hoses. I'll curve it where it wants to curve, then go straight where it will look better straight.

Oh also, now that I can see your image... I want hammered finish dude. I also want to use Hammerite, as it's direct to metal, sticks like crap to a shovel and is very strong and hard wearing. If I go with a smooth finish and paint it by hand? yeah, brush mark heaven. Hammerite goes on, then reacts to hammered finish and all of the brush marks vanish. Not spray painting in my flat any more, I did a few bike parts a few weeks back and I am still cleaning off overspray from my floor (where it settled and then fell).

I can't spray paint here. Plus again, I've not seen a case with a hammered look interior before (with lots of matt acrylic either).

 

[AlienALX]

OK testing testing 1 2 3

Edit. Cool. OK as you can see I took the cage out last night. Was a total nightmare and I suffered many cuts, as parts of the case were set into others and then riveted. So I had to derivet, then bend and smash. It's out though, but I also need to remove the old fan holder lump as it will restrict the floor pan (it did before tbh). It's sorta near the front and in the bottom. Yeah, that needs to go also.

 

[looz]

The effort you're ready to put in in order to maintain the ALX look is impressive. Can't wait to see how it progresses.

Also, spotted the Microsoft Sidewinder wheel in the background. NFS Porsche 2000 bundled with it was plain awesome.

 

[AlienALX]

Yeah sadly it hasn't been used so I am going to gut it.

Going back to the pump.. Forgot to say, that is all sorted no matter how I want to shake it.

I've bought one of those which comes with everything you need.

 

[AlienALX]

Right, well that should do the buying part. I found a deal on these @ £5 each for 120s and £11 for the 92.

And some Tygon tubing 11/8.

 

[AlienALX]

OK so yesterday I got this done. I cut it down from 360 to 240.

Basically cut down with Dremel, file smooth with belt sander and rivet on. Note though, this is not a part you will see. It will be riveted into the chassis and become part of it, then there will be a cover over it hiding it completely. It just gives me a 240 front mount to go with the one in the roof