Bringing it back

[GregoireA]

Have a couple 80mm and 1 120mm fans on the way, no planned components yet. Airflow is minimal so I'll keep it low to mid range to keep the heat and noise down.
The front panel IO was usb 2.0 and firewire so I'm going to replace it with a 3.2 if I can find an internal cable that fits.
Not sure if I'll go with UV lights but once I tidy up the clear panel I'll make a decision.

 

[danmitch1]

omg that case brings back memories, I had one roughly 20 years ago but in green lol

 

[GregoireA]

Pretty sure lots of people had Ultra cases back when the only big supplier was tigerdirect canada. I didn't find out about ncix until 2007.
I imagine that most of these cases got junked because they were pretty junk compared to the stuff that started to come out in the 2010s.
Every panel on my case is bent or dented. Probably made out of steel with rubber in it.

 

[GregoireA]

Change of plans for this build. I'm doing full water cooling so waiting on parts. I'm probably going to keep this as my main rig for years to come so figured I'd put a bit more money into it. So front 80 fan should move air over the graphics card, 80 on the side panel will directly cool cpu vrm and ram, 120 and psu will exhaust. Should be very quiet.

Bent aluminium brackets will be both handles and mounting point for a thick 420 rad. Pump/Res will be a 5.25 bay res.
I'm thinking I may need to cut out a large portion of the mobo tray behind the cpu to make room for mounts. There are strange pre-threaded AM2 holes in there that I can't imagine being useful.

I have a UV light strip on the way as well but I will probably not run it all the time because I'm pretty sure that's a good way to kill a lot of the plastics and other UV sensitive parts. All it will do is illuminate the side panel and tubing which will look cool against a black background.

 

[GeezerGamer]

Cool project, hoping you succeed! Keep posting.

 

[GregoireA]

After much waiting for parts I was able to mash the system together with some minor deviations.
For some reason I decided to go with 1/2" ID tube. I did not consider how inflexible this stuff is.
The Aluminum handles and rad bracket did not work. I could not get good or consistent bends with the equipment I have so I gave up after wasting a bunch of aluminum flat bar. The replacement is 3d printed stands that are held on by the fan screws and locate on the corner of the fan.
I have not printed a bracket for the front usb but for ease of use I may leave those cables dangling because it makes it easier to plug into them.
Retractable usb the new thing for front panel accessories? I hope so.
The peripheral UV led strip is not nearly as bright as I thought it would be, but is still able to illuminate most of the side panel, and nothing else. It is only running off of 5V usb and is probably able to handle up to 12V. I'm happy with it because I don't want it killing the zip ties and other sensitive plastics inside the case.
The rubber front panel on the Alphacool bayres is unfortunately starting to deteriorate. This must have been sitting in their warehouse for the last decade. Not sure if anyone else who has had a German car with the same problem but I had a 2003 golf where the 'soft' plastics started to go sticky like this.
Overall I feel like this turned out better than I thought it would be. With a bit more cable routing the interior will look a bit better. The system runs nice and cool, and it is quiet enough that I can hear a very quiet trickling noise coming from the Res.
That sound is actually really annoying, so I understand why the cylinder style has become so popular.

 

[GregoireA]

Some professionally shot photos

 

[mGz]

Talk about nostalgia...

I still have my antec sonata in storage somewhere.

 

[GregoireA]

Talk about nostalgia...

I still have my antec sonata in storage somewhere.

The average age on HWC seems a bit more mature so lets start the "2000's Retro" PC trend.
90's and 80's PCs look terrible so those retro builds are mainly done as a joke or sleeper.
I would compare the UV 2000's style PC with the ricers and fast/furious style street cars of the time.
Still a joke but at least it looks cool.

 

[GregoireA]

FYI if anyone wants to do something like this most full size graphics cards will be a super tight fit or not fit. I took out(read: drilled and cut out) the 3.5" drive cage to have spare room and airflow. You will very likely need to cut out a large hole on the back of the motherboard tray for clearance with backplates. The universal Alphacool backplate is massive and stands over cm proud from the Mobo so a large 'modification' was required.

With 2 80mm intakes and 1 120mm exhaust airflow is not an issue. Internal air temp reaches around 30C with the fans under 50%. A giant rad on the outside of the case may have some impact on this situation. It keeps what's hot hot, and what's cool cool.