Completed New Life for an Old Box – Lian Li v1200 Plus Mod

[boots]

The Pasti-Dip coating is not actually necessary since the glass panel does not vibrate on the aluminum ledge even when the pump is set to maximum (since the glass was cut at the same time as the opening in the case roof, the glass sits flush with the top panel). However, for greater certainty, I coated the edges of the glass in Plasti-Dip to give it some vibration dampening.

The other reason and benefit to this approach is that the edge of the glass now melds into the black top panel (i.e., the waterjet cuts are no longer as stark) although the Plasti-Dip is not a precise colour match. The next pics are of the final installation of the glass panel in the roof of the case from a variety of angles. When I was first thinking about updating this case, I briefly considered putting a 360 rad in the roof but decided that (i) a glass panel roof would be more interesting especially with a reverse ATX design and (ii) that adding a 360 rad to the front and figuring out and doing all the necessary fabrication work was a more interesting challenge.

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[boots]

The next set of photos show the cabling behind the motherboard tray and in front. The PSU is a 750w Seasonic Prime Titanium. I redid the GPU and CPU 8 pin cables myself by buying some pre-sleeved graphite metallic cables from Daz and replacing the PSU connector to GPU/CPU connector wires one wire at a time to avoid any problems. I was however not confident in my ability (or patience) to do the same with the main ATX power cable, so I had Cablemod create this particular cable in the right length (Asus included a Cablemod discount coupon with the Strix Z-370 Matx board so I figured I might as well take advantage).

As noted in earlier posts, there is not a lot of room behind the mobo tray for cable management but it is sufficient for the I/O, GPU and fan cabling. The ATX and 8 pin cables are routed in front of the motherboard through the PSU shroud. There are 2 Samsung EVO m.2 nvme drives for storage, each is 1 TB in capacity (although with the size of game installs these days, I may migrate to 2TB); one is the primary system drive and one is for back-up (the m.2 standard really helps to reduce cable clutter).

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[boots]

The next set of pics are of the internals from a variety of angles. I decided to go with a more organic look for the GPU cables and so I opted not to use any cable combs.

The fittings are Monsoon EV2 and the tubing is Monsoon 3/8 x ½ PETG. Since this was my first attempt at hardline tubing, I figured I would stick with one brand, but at the same time I thought I would try a different manufacturer as opposed to using stuff from the usual suspects. I swapped out the acrylic D5 pump top seen in some earlier posts for a delrin top (the acrylic appeared to have some tiny cracks and I did not want the hassle of a complete teardown within a month or two if these expanded).

In addition to the 360 rad in the front, there is a Darkside low profile 120 rad in the rear – so plenty of cooling for the CPU and GPU in a case that was never designed for radiators. The CPU is an overclocked i5-8600k and the GPU is an overclocked MSI GTX 1080 Seahawk EK. The only lighting inside the case is from the MSI GPU block (it came with two holes in the waterblock for mounting 3mm LEDS) and the ASUS logo on the mobo. With a glass roof, glass side panel and polished aluminum internals that provide for lots of reflective surfaces, I don’t think it really needs any additional lighting. For now, I like the understated effect but you never know, I may add some additional lighting down the road to highlight the reservoir. The CPU block is a Watercool Heatkiller IV. This PC is both for gaming and productivity (excel, word, powerpoint) and I use a relatively old HP ZR30w (30” 2560x1600 at 60HZ) which is still going strong.

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[boots]

Overall, I am happy with the result – I figure this case should last me another 5+ years (although the internals will be updated as technology advances). There are some tweaks that I will eventually get around to regarding this build. These are, in no particular order:

Polish the aluminum to a more mirrored finish based on the helpful advice from lowfat.

Touch up some of the painted surfaces which were scratched in the final assembly.

Countersink the screw holes in the false floor that hides the front I/O wiring and cut-out a channel to route the fan cables underneath the floor.

Maybe remove the MSI and EK stickers from the waterblock although I may have upgraded the card by the time I get around to this.

Any questions or comments, just let me know and thanks for all the comments and thumbs up to-date on this build – it was a fun process to resurrect and rebuild an old case and post a worklog on the process.

 

[JD]

Looks really good! Great craftsmanship.

Nice to see "old" cases resurrected, back from a time when the norm was much different than today. Everything was focused on lots of 3.5" and 5.25" bays.

 

[boots]

Thanks JD - although the case came with 5 5.25" bays, I think I only ever used two of them.

And if there are any moderators who pass by this post perhaps they can tell me how to change the worklog prefix from Work in progress to Completed - I cannot seem to figure this out. Or perhaps they can change it directly.

 

[sswilson]

I've updated it, I'm not sure if you have the right buttons for that, but if you did it'd be under the first post editing options (I'm assuming you don't have an "edit thread" option).

Looks stunning! I'm always amazed at how much planning and work goes into a full-on case mod, and again... that pic of the back only serves to highlight how far we've come WRT cable management options. That harkens back to the days of having to ensure your cables are as flat as possible, and even then having to force the side cover on over them.

 

[boots]

@sswilson – thanks for updating the prefix and comments. You are correct, I don’t have an “edit thread” option.

It’s interesting that innovations such as routing cables behind the mobo, grommets for the cables, PSU shrouds, black coated internals etc. which seem so obvious now (and really not that complicated) were not always so obvious.

 

[Bond007]

Impressive work. Looks fantastic, and the modding seems to have all turned out very well. Love the aluminium on black.

 

[lowfat]

@sswilson – thanks for updating the prefix and comments. You are correct, I don’t have an “edit thread” option.

If you edit the first post, you should have an option to edit the prefix.

It’s interesting that innovations such as routing cables behind the mobo, grommets for the cables, PSU shrouds, black coated internals etc. which seem so obvious now (and really not that complicated) were not always so obvious.

True, but modern cases also use way cheaper materials too. Almost all of them are steel and plastic. If they use aluminum its generally paper thin.