I figured i might as well post this even though its not 100% completed. I still have a couple parts to paint.
The specs:
The build:
I totally stripped out my old case (30 min) which was easy, then cleaned and air compressor it out and taped off some areas so i could paint the inside and front and back. I used rustoleum flat black #7776 which turned out awesome. it looks like a military flat black. I did 2 coats of it. Hopefully it holds up as it is not an enamel so it will show scratches easier. The build took about 6 hours, although i was going slow, doing a lot of wire management plus dremeling and cutting the EPS hole. The cpu and heatsink also took a while to do using the "tinting" method.
I did some case modding, cutting some areas out of the non-removable mobo tray for wire access. and made a new 1" hole (with grommet) above the mobo so i could run the cpu eps power cord behind the mobo tray. other mods i had done before on this case are the fan grill cutout mods and fan filter door mods. The case is also upgraded with Scythe S-Flex 120mm fans which are quieter than the stock antec fans. The middle hdd cage and brackets were also removed.
The rear 120mm fan grill was cut out for better air flow and i bought some 1/4" black vinyl tubing, sliced it down the middle and pressed it along the jagged fan cutout. It's held in place by the rear fan pressing against it. I used some hard corrugated black wire sleeve for the front panel connectors and usb wires. I didn't bother connecting the onboard audio wires as I'm using the x-fi.
The p180 has some foam tape on the sides for air management (i assume). I kept them and colored them black using a sharpie. They look a little red in the pics.
The PSU mobo power connector is pretty big and unwieldy and there really wasn't much i could do to hide it.
One thing that didn't go as expected was mounting the ssd. SSD's are notebook size, and this one came with a 3.5" mounting plate. In my head i was expecting to put it with the other hdd in the lower shock mounted hdd bracket, but the ssd's mount holes don't line up. In the mean time I temporarily put it in my cases front panel floppy bay until i can figure something out. I'm thinking I might just create my own mounting bracket for it.
I still have some other stuff to do like paint the inside of the side panels (you can see the gray side panel in the pic), and I don't like how the optical drive has gray showing through, may paint that as well.
The system:
Runs great! Can't wait to overclock. This cpu is easily the coolest (temp wise) i have ever had. At idle during use in a warm room its at 34c.
The SSD is amazing. I haven't timed it yet, but im guessing from boot to full desktop with startup apps running is under 20 seconds. Apps also startup ridiculously fast.
uefi bios is pretty slick.
Bc2 at 1680x on all high with dx11: i don't know the fps yet, but it seemed very fast and there was zero frame lag.
The specs:
- case: modded Antec P180b
- psu: Antec TruePower Quattro 850 with four 25amp rails.
- cpu: Intel core i5 2500k @ 3.3Ghz (oc coming soon).
- hsf: Cooler Master Hyper 212 plus / with arctic silver 5.
- mobo: ASUS P8Z68-V
- ram: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1600
- video: EVGA superclocked GTX570 1280mb
- storage: OS: OCZ Vertex 3 SSD 240Gb / Data: Western Digital 1TB hdd.
- optical: asus dvdrw
- sound: X-fi titanium
- fans: Scythe S-FLEX SFF21E x2
- os: win7 home premium x64. (legit!)
The build:
I totally stripped out my old case (30 min) which was easy, then cleaned and air compressor it out and taped off some areas so i could paint the inside and front and back. I used rustoleum flat black #7776 which turned out awesome. it looks like a military flat black. I did 2 coats of it. Hopefully it holds up as it is not an enamel so it will show scratches easier. The build took about 6 hours, although i was going slow, doing a lot of wire management plus dremeling and cutting the EPS hole. The cpu and heatsink also took a while to do using the "tinting" method.
I did some case modding, cutting some areas out of the non-removable mobo tray for wire access. and made a new 1" hole (with grommet) above the mobo so i could run the cpu eps power cord behind the mobo tray. other mods i had done before on this case are the fan grill cutout mods and fan filter door mods. The case is also upgraded with Scythe S-Flex 120mm fans which are quieter than the stock antec fans. The middle hdd cage and brackets were also removed.
The rear 120mm fan grill was cut out for better air flow and i bought some 1/4" black vinyl tubing, sliced it down the middle and pressed it along the jagged fan cutout. It's held in place by the rear fan pressing against it. I used some hard corrugated black wire sleeve for the front panel connectors and usb wires. I didn't bother connecting the onboard audio wires as I'm using the x-fi.
The p180 has some foam tape on the sides for air management (i assume). I kept them and colored them black using a sharpie. They look a little red in the pics.
The PSU mobo power connector is pretty big and unwieldy and there really wasn't much i could do to hide it.
One thing that didn't go as expected was mounting the ssd. SSD's are notebook size, and this one came with a 3.5" mounting plate. In my head i was expecting to put it with the other hdd in the lower shock mounted hdd bracket, but the ssd's mount holes don't line up. In the mean time I temporarily put it in my cases front panel floppy bay until i can figure something out. I'm thinking I might just create my own mounting bracket for it.
I still have some other stuff to do like paint the inside of the side panels (you can see the gray side panel in the pic), and I don't like how the optical drive has gray showing through, may paint that as well.
- P180b stock photo
- painting
- side view (blurry sorry)
- rear fan grill
- side view
- case
- front (old pic not showing fan door mods)
The system:
Runs great! Can't wait to overclock. This cpu is easily the coolest (temp wise) i have ever had. At idle during use in a warm room its at 34c.
The SSD is amazing. I haven't timed it yet, but im guessing from boot to full desktop with startup apps running is under 20 seconds. Apps also startup ridiculously fast.
uefi bios is pretty slick.
Bc2 at 1680x on all high with dx11: i don't know the fps yet, but it seemed very fast and there was zero frame lag.
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