Notes and Photos on a Computer Build based on the Antec 900 (nine hundred) Computer Case and Asus Striker Extreme motherboard

This page is a holding space for building information and case mods on my computer system, which I finished in May, 2007. The system has the following specs:

Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680i SLi Motherboard: 1333MHz FSB Dual Channel 1333 DDR2 Socket 775 ATX Motherboard w/ SLi Ready 2x PCI Express x16, SupremeFX Audio, Dual GB LAN, SATA 3G/II, eSATA, RAID, USB 2.0, Firewire 1394

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS / 640MB GDDR3 / SLI / PCI Express / Dual DVI / HDTV / HDCP Enabled / Video Card

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.67GHz / 4MB Cache / 1066MHz FSB / Dual-Core / Socket 775 / Processor with Fan

Zalman CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Mid Tower Case

Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA804 16FB3- Retail Specs: DDR2 PC2-6400 • 4-4-4-12 • UNBUFFERED • NON-ECC • DDR2-800 • 2.2V • SLI-Ready

OCZ GameXStream SLI Ready 700-Watt Power Supply

2 x Western Digital Caviar 250GB SATA Internal Hard Drives WD2500KSRTL in RAID 1 (mirror) configuration

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

LG GSA-H22NK 18X Dual Layer DVD+RW Drive

Logitech Media Keyboard Elite Retail PS2/USB

LOgitech LX-3 Optical Mouse USP/PS2

Microsoft Office Standard 2007 OEM

Microsofte OneNote 2007OEM

First off,  I am a total amateur at building my own computer. I decided I needed a system that will allow me some flexibility for future upgrades, and that for once I was going to try and build my own.  Modding was not on my mind initially, but after seeing several before and after photos of some great Antec mods, I decided I had to do something. I have a pretty well equipped home workshop, so the work did not particularly put me off. 

My general modification philosophy: Case modding for bragging rights is not my goal. I have no problem with bragging rights as an end goal, it is not just me. A moderate attention to aesthetics, with an eye to aid cooling performance is my main goal.

There is a lot of detail here. Primarily that may help some beginner such as me in deciding how to go about the process. I am sure there are other equally effective ways of doing things, but this offers a general start.

Considerations for wires

After reviewing some of the great Antec 900 mods, I decided that I did not want the really fancy cable and wire hiding people were doing. Certainly, the mods in general were really great. However, there were trade-offs to consider. First, the more you hide connectors, the more tedious adding and removing components becomes. A good example of this for me was the drive bays. On the Antec, mounting or dismounting the hard drives requires the bays be pulled out.  Many people modify the bays by cutting through the bay and case side to run the power and signal cables along the right side of the case. These mods do an exceptional job of hiding the cables, but in my estimation this slows disassembly quite of bit. Admittedly, reducing the amount of visible cables makes the case look great, especially since the interior is lit by the fans and mb LEDs. Another  component of my modding philosophy is wire length. Many of the more aggressive mods also require extension wires. I wanted to avoid that for several reasons. More connectors means more chance for corrosion and contact problems. Second, more money spent!  So my goals: Reduce the visible wiring footprint as much as possible, not use extension wires, and minimize, but do not compromise ease of removing components. Lastly, I hoped I was concerned I might be one of the far to many people who have had trouble with their Striker Extreme board. Being able to quickly dismount the board seemed like a good precaution.

Designing

I prefer to handle the electronic components as little as possible until the actual assembly, but I did need some way of visualizing the inputs and outputs to the mother board to plan a good layout. So I started by scanning in the mb general layout picture in the Striker Extreme manual which provided most of the details on the connectors. I then loaded the image into CorelDraw. (Any drawing program that shows you ruler bars will work.) By using the ruler bars as size monitors, I enlarged the B&W image so that the board outline fit to 9.6" x 12.0".  I then printed the board layout in two sections using Landscape format. (In CorelDraw you can go to Print Preview and select exactly what portion of an image to print. I then matched up the two sheets and tapped them together as my motherboard pattern. I then decided that I wanted to also have a good idea where the mb was from the inside and the outside. I mirrored the image left to right (different operation from rotation) and repeated the printing process. At this point, I did overlay the Striker motherboard on each of the drawings to get the proper screw hole alignments (there are also ATX standard measurements definitions you can use instead).

I then punched out all the mounting holes on the paper layouts. (I actually drilled out the holes using a 5/32" drill for the outside and a 1/4" drill for the inside, but as long as you don’t make the holes oversize, use whatever works.) I then put all the standoff screws on the case and pressed the drawing in. If you do the holes right, you will not need any tape or glue to hold the plans in place.

For any modifications to an expensive piece of material, I use a modified builder's rule:

Think three times, measure twice, and cut once.

I spent a lot of time staring at other people's mods, tracing the wires, and considering what looked good. However, it became clear that each mb presents its own set of configuration issues, and at some point you are on your own.

In the end, I decided on the following:

1. Run the 8 pin ATX12V power connector along back of case mounted around the rear fan. The OCZ PSU wires were too short to run up outside the case and as I said I did not want to buy extension wires; this configuration also reduces stress on the connector.
2. Run the two PCI-E 6 pin PCI-E graphics power connectors on the backside of the right panel and up to a mid center slot. Measuring the width of one connectors and one wire bundle, decided on a 3/4" x 1 3/4" slot placed 3/8" from the drive bay case This slot started d 6.75" from the case floor.
3. The main power 20+4 cable was again fed from the back of the side panel using a 3/4" x 2.5" slot placed directly in line with the EATXPWR connector. The bottom of the slot was 9.375" from the inside bottom of the case.
4. Tuck one power cable into the outside of the right panel for safe keeping.
5. Run the other power cable up the right side front to accommodate the case front fans and the cdrom
6. Run the second power cable to the back to power the rear and top fan
7. Cut a 3/4" x 1.5" slot in top right side of the right side panel for 200 mm fan wire. Slot was placed 1/4 from bottom edge of the double wall and 1/4" in from drive bay
8. The main slot to move the cables to the back of the right side panel was placed 2.25" from the drive bay and 1/2" up from the bottom seam. The slot was 1.5" x 2.75". This was the optimum size when using a cross section of the bundle of wires to be placed behind the right panel and the cross section of one of the PCI-E connectors.
9. Although it would have been a cleaner build to cut a 3/4" x 1.5" slot through the left side top of the right side panel for the rear fan I decided against this for structural reasons and the difficulty of cutting through two chassis walls.  

Cutting the slots:

The 3/4" slots were cut with a 3/4" bi-metal hole cutting saw on a portable drill from the inside of the case with the case laying on its right side.  This produced a smoother inside edge cut, leaving the rougher cut on the outside of the panel. A 1.5" x 15" piece of 1/2" scrap plywood was placed under the case where the slots were to provide backing to support the panel and prevent the panel from buckling. I first laid out and center punched where the holes should be on the right side panels. I drilled a 5/32” pilot hole and then drilled out the full size hole with the hole saw. A Dremel tool with a fiber cut off wheel was used to cut between the holes. Burrs were removed with a file. A Greenlee punch would have been ideal for the holes, but I had no intention of putting $60 into a used set. The large rectangular hole at the bottom was cut with the Dremel.

Two methods were used to cover the sharp edges of the slots with some kind of protective channel. These were in the form of explorations, but both methods turned out to work well. The final result is a mix of both methods. As with any work you do this at your own risk. Since I am also discussing a variety of power tools, realize that safe work is your responsibility. Know the tools before you use them on the kinds of work I describe here.

You can buy U channel for edge protection. The material is fairly cheap. My problem was that the shipping was going to cost twice as much as the material itself. None of the local computer shops supplied any kind of decent u channel. So I went into creative hunting mode and spent some time browsing the local Home Depot and auto parts store. I found two items I thought would fit the bill. One was vinyl F channel used for suspended ceilings, the other was automotive protective beading. I have caught references to the use of the latter, or some variant of it on the internet.

5/8" vinyl F Channel was also used for trim. (Obtained from the local Home Depot.) A 10' strip is $3.00. The channel can be cut with Dremel, then sanded smooth. I first tried cutting the channel with a table saw with my rip/crosscut blade but that resulted in too much chipping. I then tried a thin diamond concrete cutting blade I had around and this worked great producing a nice smooth cut. (A plywood blade might also work). The edges were touched up the cut edge with a belt sander to give it a clean edge. I rough cut the ends at 45 deg angle with a scroll saw and used my belt sander to smooth the edges, although the Dremel will work for this as well.

The F channel material comes in white or brown. One strip is probably good for a lifetime of cutouts for the casual modder. There are various designs of F channel. The important aspect here is that the material contains two loops of material that make up the arms of the “F”. Note how it pinches together at the base, which is also important for holding. What I wanted was a 0.25” trim around my slots. To get this you can slice the “loop” ends with a Dremel tool using a cut-off wheel. I tried this and then used my belt sander to clean up the cut edges. However, the best way was to use a table saw…

The vinyl loop material that I trimmed off the F channel is not very easy to cut with a knife or razor blade; it can be easily and cleanly snipped with tin snips or side cutter pliers. The large slot at the bottom was covered using this material. 45 deg mitered corners were used as in picture framing or in trim molding for doors and windows.  Although this is a bit inconvenient and takes more time, there is specific reason for doing this. Once the pieces are fit in they automatically interlock at the corners and will not come loose. Thus, no adhesive is needed. The technique I used was to snip the material close to correct size and then use my belt sander with the miter rest set at 45 deg to sand down to the final size.  It takes a bit of back and forth to get good tight corners. Also, start from one side and work clockwise or counter clockwise around the slot. The last piece is a bit tough to getin place because you must slide one end over in-place channel. The vinyl is flexible enough to accommodate this, and there will be satisfying click once it moves into place. Note that this material does will not work for curved slots. All attempts to form a tight curve left me convinced it was not going to be worth the effort. The edges would splay around the curved area.

The second method uses a protective beading I picked up at my local auto parts store. This material can be used for both rectangular slots and curved slots. The bead version I use was sold in two three foot lengths for about $4.00. The material I found came in clear and chrome. Since I was not sure the chrome would stand up to what I wanted to do, I decided on the clear material. This material can be cut with a utility knife or single edged razor. The interior of this bead contains some kind of sticky adhesive that helps hold it in place. However, the adhesive does not hold tight enough that the trim cannot be removed. Cutting for rectangular slots is somewhat easier than for the vinyl used above, because you can make nice clean cuts with a sharp blade.

Covering the edges on a circular opening is more work. The plastic material is quite stiff and does not conform easily to a tight curve. I would not recommend using this material for single holes smaller than a couple of inches in diameter. You’re best bet in these cases is to buy rubber grommets. However, with a bit of effort this did work out nicely for my ¾” wide rounded end slots. The problem is that on tight curves the material does not stretch to easily fit around tight curves. Instead the natural tendency is for the bead opening to bend out of the plane of the curve, making it impossible to fit over the metal edge. To get around this you reform the bead using heat.  First, I suggest you make a “mold” to work with. My first test of the bi-metal hole cutter was on a scrap of thin iron sheet metal, nearly the same thickness as the case panel. This turned out to be a perfect mold to form the bead to a tight round curve. The picture shows what I ended up with.

I used a heat gun to just soften the bead and push it into the curve. This is more difficult than i

 

t sounds. You have to work against the natural tendency of the bead slit to stay shut and move out of the desired bending plane while the plastic is still warm and flexible. Like everything it takes a bit of practice. A hair dryer might also work sufficiently to heat the bead, but I had a paint stripping heat gun available and it heated the bead very quickly. Remember you do not want to melt the material, only be able to stretch it! (You also don't want to burn your fingers!) If you cannot hold the material, you are overheating it. Several cycles of heating and pushing were usually required to get the bead reformed. Once the material was formed I applied just a bit more heat and held the curved edges together to make sure it was going to hold the stretch and keep the outside edges closed tightly against the metal. To get both ends of the bead sized and curved for the full slot is a bit tricky only from the measurement standpoint, but there is enough pliability to overcome minor measurement misjudgments. Make sure you cut the starting piece a bit oversize so you can trim down to snuggly fit the slot. Once the loops are done fit them in the slot and clip off to the needed size.

You can see the results of my efforts in the accompanying photos. The key for the slots in a counter-clockwise fashion:

Top left rectangular slot: Run out (run to thd outside of the right side panel) the fan wires behind right panel and connect to PSU power connectors on outside of right panel. Run out the Zalman cpu fan power and control.

Large oval slot. Run in the motherboard power 24 (20 + 4) pin connector.

Small oval slot: Power cables for 8800 card(s) and SATA power cable

Lower rectangular cut out: Run out all cables for "storage or operations except for power cable for the DVD and upper fan. Run in the cpu fan (FanMate) control cable.

Power cable to run DVD and fan was run up against the drive bays, along with several front case wires.

Putting it all together:

No real problems, but as suggested in a few reviews, putting the hard drive screws through recessed holes in the case mounts was the most frustrating task.

The final wiring array can be seen below:

The finished product:

and: