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03-27-2005, 08:33 AM
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#1 |
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Anime:Any-may
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Kota Bharu, Malaysia
Posts: 2,447
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Short project:Hiding cables and front panel mod
Ok, here is where I have a problem, over the years I've practically finished up all the slots I have for the Thermaltake Tsunami. Constant upgrades within 1 year has max out everything on it. And the PSU is also full.
Here is what I had to fix based on my current specs: CPU: P4 2.8Ghz-AS 5-Thermaltake pipe101-Vantec Tornado 92mm idle:48C, MSI GNB MAX-i7205 Air OC: 151fsb, 3.3Ghz 50C RAM: 1.5gb Kingston VR (512x2) Apacer (256x2) DDR266-Vantec heat spreader. CL:2/2.5-3-3-7 HD: Seagate barracuda V 80+120+120gb & Western Digital 200+250gb PCI: Creative Audigy 2 ZS, Vantec Fan Card AGP: inno3d 256mb DDR3 GF6800GT-NVsilencer5 5 2/5" bay: TDK 1616N 4X DL DVD-RW, Sony 24/10/40 CD-RW, Thermaltake:Xpeaker & Hardcano 12 PSU: 480W Thermaltake butterfly Case: Thermaltake Tsunami Dream w/window (silver) So, I decided to drill holes and settle the wire problem and mod the front panel. Before mod pics: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0830.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0833.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0834.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0831.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0835.jpg Total Project time: 6hrs30mins non stop. 1st question you must ask yourself is do you really need to drill holes. If not careful the holes will turn out bad, or damaging the case itself. 2nd: Make sure you know where goes to what and how you want to rewire the cables. This is down to the which molex rails go to what, which cable for what, and the lenth etc. The size of the motherboard, size of the hole, all have to take into account. Of course trial and error is possible, but do you want to finish halfway just noticing that you need an extra/bigger hole. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0841.jpg Everyting out: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0838.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0837.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0839.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0840.jpg 3rd: Tools you need are a drill with heads meant to cut Metal/Aluminum. A dremel is better, but I only have a drill. Then something to sand down the edges of the hole. I forgotten where I placed it, so I used the drill also for it  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0842.jpg 4th: Remove everything from the casing, remember the locations of each item, and the PSU last. You also may want to mark the mobo dimensions as to not mistakenly drill the wrong area. You may want to clean each item, and the case now, since dust is always present everywhere. Now depends on your casing, the Tsunami has ample hiding space near the front area. the back tray is only big enough for the motherboard. Drill where you want, think you need it. I drilled 3 areas, only using 2 of it. The third is a precaution. Also make sure that you don't drill near the screw area of the motherboard, and avoid holes same area as adjacent holes. Depends on tray you may weaken the tray. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0844.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0845.jpg 5th: And next to the PSU there is a big rectangular hole which is there, I believe most casings have this hole. Start by placing all wires behind that hole and securing the PSU back in place. It took me nearly 30 minutes for this. the trouble is forcing the PSU back in place while the wires make a "U turn" to the hole. Then wires for the motherbord goes through the first hole. This also goes for the top panel connectors through that to behind. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0847.jpg 6th: After placing all wires where they should pop out, then for me its time to manage the Tt Hardcano 12. The auto fan controller is a big headache for me. Now make a "U-turn" after installying it towards the front to the empty area. Followed by the motherboard. Then just pull the cables of the sensor to where you want them to be. 7th: After the mobo is in place, time to attach all important wires to it. Like the 20/24 pin power supply, the front panels, the power connector, reset buttons etc. Forget the 5 2/5 and hd for now. Then install the IDE1, IDE2, (in my case IDE3, SATA1, SATA2-no floppy) cables 8th: Install the optical drives first as its easier to manage cables here. Connect IDE first then the molex. Follow this order: wires/connector on the hardware furthest from the side panel are installed first. Then secure the molex. Use all three for one particular area. Don't use more than 1-rail for area. Future planning. 9th: depends on you now its either the HD/floppy or the PCI cards. I had to install hd first as well as the AGP card. the Nvsilencer is too long. Thats why one of the hd tray is empty to accomodate the card and the power connector. After 1 hour of battling this with all the PCI everything is almost complete. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0848.jpg 10th:Time for the CCFL and the side panel. Finish. To close the back side panel, its a matter of following those cartoons by forcing the cover after you have placed the cables at the correct location without crossing over each other. Ther force is needed because the 24pin sleeving is too big, but its all easy. For Front panel modding: From step 8: I had to rewire the motherboard with the D-Bracket (some MSI motherboard diagnostics light code-it was actually meant for the PCI slot at the back, though I am not sure who wants to see the system diagnostics lights at the back of the case, so I pulled it infront to the floppy area. Then its a matter of drilling some holes for the PSU fan controller another for future-switch for the CCFL and case lights). A friend of mine recommended a shop where they make some religous amulets for the plastic transparent at the floppy. I've tried perspecs, microscope slides, acrylic, it does not work. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0851.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0853.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0856.jpg More pics of previous front floppy panel mods. Same mod, just that I could not fix it before. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/124_2428.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/124_2426.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/124_2431.jpg those lego pieces do come in handy  The original problem not able to see the lights http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/124_2435.jpg Completed Front panel http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0855.jpg After: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0849.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0850.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...n/DSCN0830.jpg Few wires are unhideble, like the green Sata power supply is too short. Had to drag it accross. Other wires include the fan card, the CCFL are just tucked away nicely.
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CPU: Intel E-5200. Graphics: Saphire Radeon 4770 HD 512 MB. Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L. Memory: Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Performance 4 GB ( 2 x 2 GB ), Chasis: Antec Three Hundred. PSU: Corsair CX400W. Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc SATA DVD +-RW. Storage: Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA. Peripherals: Dell E1905EP 19" UltraSharp LCD; LG M227WD (Dual screen), HP 4180 Printer, Canon S400SP Printer & Lide20 Scanner; Philiphs HP 890, Edifier MP230. OS: Win 7 (64 bit). Laptop: Toshiba Satellite M50 |
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03-27-2005, 01:26 PM
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#2 |
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Red-eyed Moderator
Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 17,575
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Nice job.. much cleaner looking than before.
Cable hiding and folding can literally be an art. I got lucky on the last "windowed" computer I assembled. I was able to hide everything behind the drive bays giving the illusion of a virtually wireless computer.
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-At Ford, quality is job #1, job #2 is making them explode. ~Norm MacDonald, SNL News -Switching to Glide..Balancing in my head..inside of me... taking the glide path instead. |
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03-27-2005, 01:53 PM
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#3 |
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Stereo junkie
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Just North of Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit
Posts: 3,402
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that looks very good, certainly much better without the clutter. i need to do that to my case...i just need to locate my tin snips so i can notch the case to hide the wires behind the mobo tray.
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Join the 1%, use Linux
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03-27-2005, 02:15 PM
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#4 |
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Red-eyed Moderator
Staff
Premium Member
Join Date: Dec 1999
Location: Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 17,575
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Between the motherboard and tray is a nice place to run a CD-Rom audio cable and IDE cable.. you make it vanish at the edge of the motherboard and reappear at the top.
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03-27-2005, 02:32 PM
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#5 |
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Member (8 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 188
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Are those lego's I see floating around there on that glass topped table? lol!
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| Dimension Series | Intel P4 Pentium Processor at 2.4GHz | 1GB DDR PC2700 333MHz | 22" Samsung Display | 320GB HDD | |
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03-27-2005, 10:24 PM
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#6 |
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Anime:Any-may
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Kota Bharu, Malaysia
Posts: 2,447
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yup legos. I have lots of it, bought since 4yrs old till 13yrs old
the front panel knob is fixed using legosOnly problem is hiding the Coolermaster rounded IDE cable, its not easily folded as normal IDE. Behind the board will work, but the IDE is at the edge, so I thought I just hide it on the next tray. I was wondering what are those floppy power connectors for other than floppy disk? Each rail has one, I have 3, not using it anyway. I thought of cutting it. |
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03-28-2005, 08:57 AM
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#7 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Essex, UK
Posts: 982
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Nice work mate, looks very neat and tidy
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Intel Core i7 920 2.66GHz | Asus P6T SE| 6GB Corsair ram | XFX Radeon HD 4780 | 2 x 250 Gb Maxtor SATA II (in RAID 0), 1 x 250GB SATA II | Creative XFI soundcard | Coolermaster 650W PSU | ThermalTake Tsunami case My new website -Carp Fishing Forums |
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03-28-2005, 12:13 PM
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#8 |
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Anime:Any-may
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Kota Bharu, Malaysia
Posts: 2,447
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Redone the IDE cables, the rounded goes to the HD, the normal one to the optical drive. Removed the NVsilencer back to stock. I need some PCI space for the fancard, and the silencer was bulky anyway. Will sell it soon.
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03-28-2005, 06:07 PM
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#9 |
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Member (8 bit)
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Rock Hill, SC
Posts: 188
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Didn't mean to cause any irritation asking about that. Sorry mate if I did. Im not ganan bring it up again. How exactly did you fix your panel with a lego?
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