The patient is on the operating table.
First step is to get this honking rad to fit in the case.
Rad is about 6-1/8" wide (156mm)
Space between top rails is about 5-1/2" (142mm)
Rad also will extend down into the optical bay (which is also too narrow at 150mm).
Using my Fein Multimaster I trimmed the rails and optical bay.
Some Buna-S Edging trims out the edges.
Now the GTX420 fits like a glove.
O.J. Simpson's glove.
Scant clearance between the optical and the front fan, but there's no way around it. At least it's far enough away to avoid annoying cavitation noises.
I elected to leave that top PSU brace intact. The mid rails give the optical bay support where I notched the bay. The tubing will easily pass through the existing opening.
The rear 120mm rad with it's push pull Ultra Kaze fans definitely overhangs the CPU socket...but a pair of BP rotary 45 degree fittings and a rotation of the EK HF block solve that fitment issue. There's a whole 1/16" of clearance
The front rad is a tight fit. It misses lining up to the existing mount holes by 3/16" or so. The cutout for the fans is tight too.
But a careful enlargement of the mounting holes allowed the GTX 280 to sock up with it's Push Pull arrangement.
So there you have it...the three rads are test fitted.
Cyrus agreed that the optimal airflow would be for all fans to pull air into the case. Obviously some exhaust vents would need to be made.
I started with the bottom of the chassis. Using a step bit I made a few holes in a staggered grid, much like the hole-pattern Lian Li uses in their HDD caddies.
A step bit is a wonderful thing. It leaves a nice burr-free hole and can be used as a chamfer to clean up any edges rapidly. I'll be making some spacers to elevate the feet so the bottom of the caase has sufficient clearance to make use of the bottom vent.
I've done this before, but I took this picture anyway as a reference before I took it to pieces for powdercoat.
Each of these aluminum parts gets coated.
It's probably one of the more time consuming mods, powdercoating these small parts; after they are powdercoated each hole will need to be reamed for clearance before reassembling...but it would be a crime to leave them bright when every other part is coated.
So much for a neatly organized bench...that was 12 hours ago
I'll have to reorgamanize everything in the morning when I get back from the powdercoaters.
I removed all the stickers and plastic bits and now the chassis is ready to powdercoat.
Loose ends? Yep. I need to assemble the dual DDC pump and create a custom mounting bracket for it. I also need to double check that nothing else needs to go to the powdercoaters before I hit the highway.