[Case Gallery] Achilles/check out Achilles 2 for upgrades

[oqsajec]

To view this case mod, go here.



Specs:
AMD 5600+ 2.73 Ghz cpu
4Gb DDR2 PC2-6400 OCZ Fatal1ty RAM
PNY Nvidia GeForce 8600GT PCi-E DDR3 256MB GPU
MSI MS-7325 MoBo
Western Digital 250Gb Caviar HD
Apevia ATX 680W PSU with sleeved cables

Mods:
Thermaltake cyclo HD cooler from the bottom, with 80mm LED fan cooling from the front, both mounted in a 5.25 bay slot. 120mm coolermaster mounted in front (which is not doing much, the front panel covers the air port so i'm gonna have to mod that section and mount a crossflow fan in there) and a aerocool xtreme turbine venting the back, patriot memory cooling fans over the RAM, AzenX blitzstorm GPU PCI slot fan (70mm directional fan directly blowing into the GPU's fan and a 70mm exhaust blower taking out the heat), 80mm fan on side panel (stock) and i took out the 80mm on the top and left it to vent to cool off the PSU, plus the PSU is too big to mount the fan on the inside. All cables sleeved and tucked away as best i could. More, ALOT more additions coming (2 9800GTX's, and a better cpu heatsink and fan).

I don't overclock but i do play for hours, as well as my girlfriend's 3 or 4 hour stints on Star Wars and Tranformers. Hence the reason for the fans, i live in the desert and it gets hot as hell around here. With the AC on its ok, but not as well as i like.
Got some more work done, i mounted a crossflow fan to bring in cool air from the bottom of the front panel. Cut out a section of the 120mm fan port and mounted it sitting at an angle so i could fabricate a port for the air flow. The air brought in had to be from a small port about 1.7 inches long and .5 inch wide! the fan itself is about 3 inches long (give or take a few cm) so the fabrication took a while, made completely from the hard plastic that all my pc components came packaged in! I also added a 120mm on the side panel with an 80mm-120mm adapter, a 120mm on the back with dual blue cold cathode lights. I changed out the old ass IDE cable with a lit up round one, gonna paint it, get a 750TX corsair psu and give it to my 10 year old son Roberto. This was mt first attempt to mod and upgrade a pc except that the mobo only reads X8 on the pci-e slots, it can't take DDR3 ram, and it's maxxed out with the 6000+ 95 watt AMD dual core 3.0Ghz cpu. My next rig is gonna be sick........

 

[steelkane]

Thinking of creative ways to hide or make the wires look good,, is sometimes the hardest part of the build.

 

[legends84]

nice rig.. need to fix that wires and cable bro..

 

[oqsajec]

Yeah, the cables are still in the way sometimes, all those underneath the PSU are hardley noticiable when you look intot he case from my chair, and all the others are either over the DVD drive or tucked into the HD mounting area.

 

[digitalblasphamy]

what is that case, its been my experience that with almost any case you can to some extent hide atleast a few wires behind mobo tray. so im with everyone else on the cables. but props for the machine as a whole looks good. also i gotta ask where you got that clip for the fans over the memory, that looks like a handy device, i can use one in all my machines.

 

[oqsajec]

what is that case, its been my experience that with almost any case you can to some extent hide atleast a few wires behind mobo tray. so im with everyone else on the cables. but props for the machine as a whole looks good. also i gotta ask where you got that clip for the fans over the memory, that looks like a handy device, i can use one in all my machines.

I looked into that but the clearance is too thin, I managed to do a little more with those cables, i tucked the hd sata and power cable underneath it and ran it on the side, as well as the dvd drive power cable. I'm gettin rid of that ribbon piece of sh#@ for the dvd drive and now i'm lookin into a crossflow fan to get more air in for the front panels' 120mm, an adapter for the side panel 80mm (changing to a 120mm), 2 evga 9800gtx+'s http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130339
and i'm gonna paint the interior gloss black with 2 blue cold cathode light bars. One in the front hd mounting area and one on the bottom rail. I got that memory cooler on newegg...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835241001
I'm lookin to up my os to 64bit so i'll be changing out my fatal1ty ram (or keep em and get 4 more gigs) so i may get a bigger better fan if the gpus leave me enough clearance.
The case is an Achilles, but i warn you. To get air in from the front is a bit of a challenge, and if you get a bigger power supply (it came with a 500w) you won't be able to mount the top panel fan, unless you want the fan to stick out from the top.