WAY OF THE WARRIOR

They were called "Sohei", the greatest warriors of feudal Japan. Originally they were monks of the great temple Enryaku, built in the year 788 among the cypress groves of Mt. Hiei to protect the emperor's new capital of Kyoto from evil spirits... But the pressure of constant attacks of marauding samurai intent upon the treasures of their temple forced them to take up arms, and eventually the sohei abandoned the teachings of the Buddha to follow a path of war.

And it was a bloody path. Masters of war, the sohei priests were mercenaries who fought constantly, leading the armies of conflicting samurai lords in furious combat. But the greatest rivals of the sohei were the warrior monks of Nara, and their terrible feud lasted centuries.

In this great age of Japanese civil wars, the sohei became corrupted by bloodshed and ambition. The power and prestige of the sohei led them down paths of gluttony, debauchery, sin and death. In their pride, the sohei began to dream of themselves as the masters of Japan. Unlike the samurai lords who were careful not to bring their wars to the capital, the sohei sought to control the nation with the dual levers of their religious influence and their military might. By the 1400s the monks of Mt. Hiei were raiding precincts of Kyoto belonging to the very samurai clans that had once preyed upon them.

It was then that the Shogun Nobunaga ordered the destruction of the Kyoto temple and its inhabitants. An unholy alliance of their bitter enemies, the Nara monks and the armies of the Shogun, finally defeated the sohei, leaving the survivors dispersed, powerless and in hiding.

At last a new temple was built in Kyoto upon the ruins of the old, and the monks came home. Forbidden to practice their warrior arts openly, the monks returned to an outwardly tranquil way of life. But secretly they preserved the martial tradition and created a hidden order of shadow warriors. Today the sohei uphold a white banner in a tri-color war wagged across oceans, across time. Locked in a struggle with the black warriors of Nara and the red of the Yakuza, the sohei have sworn a crusade of righteousness in a world grown hostile to such nobility.

Ana Ishikawa is an outcast of the sohei, a renegade from a society of renegades. And Shi is her story.

Born of a Japanese father and American mother, ten year-old Ana Ishikawa witnessed the slaying of her family. The Yakuza left a coin with the Shi kanji on it, which means death. The child is spirited away and raised by her grandfather, Yoshitora. Shrouded in secrecy, Yoshitora trains Ana in the ways of the Sohei. However, Ana's life becomes one of constant inner conflict between her programmed mission of revenge and the Christian leaning she secretly harbors. With her conflicted soul weakened, this vengeful obsession consumes Ana's very being. Ana becomes a master of martial arts and weapons as she transforms herself to Shi - the living embodiment of Death.

Shi is a comic book created by William Tucci, that has run for over ten years with a variety of publishers. One of the most treasured series in my comic collection, I jumped at the chance to do a case mod theme based on Shi and her story. I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I do.

[Excerpts from Shi: The Way of the Warrior, http://www.crusadefinearts.com and Wikipedia.]

This mod is on a pretty tight deadline, so things will be moving fairly quickly starting this week when some additional materials arrive from suppliers. Also I do not have much in the way of a room or space to spray paint, and outside in Colorado, the weather is quite changeable and it is very dry and dusty. So this mod will be constructed with a minimum of additional paint. This doesn't preclude the use of other materials do get the effects desired, however.

WAY OF THE WARRIOR

Hardware to be used:

ASUS PK5-E/Wifi motherboard
Intel E8400 CPU
eVGA 8800GTS 640mb videocard
G.Skill 4Gb (2 x 2GB) DDR2800 SDRAM
Creative Labs X-Fi Extreme Gamer PCI
Seagate 250Gb SATAII hard drive
ASUS 18x DVD-RW
Corsair HX520 PSU
I-Rocks X-Slim Keyboard
Razer Pro Mouse



Case, Parts and Materials (subject to adjustment):

Mountain Mods TwiceSeven case, white powdercoat
MNPCTech aluminum case feet
Swiftech ApogeeGT Waterblock
EK Nickel-plate 8800GTS waterblock
Black Ice Stealth 240 radiator (black)
Swiftech MCP-350 12v pump
Feser-One 3/8" ID UV red tubing
Feser-One UV red F1 cooling fluid
4x120mm Blackfire4 UV red fans
2x80mm Blackfire4 UV red fans
2x120mm Yate Loon D12SM-12 fans
Bitspower DDC Mini Water Tank for Laing Pumps

Krylon primer flat black
MNPCTech vinyl film
Zalman ZM-MFC1 Six Channel Multi Fan Speed Controller
ACRyan AcrylPanel black
ACRyan AcrylPanel clear
ACRyan MeshxPanel Hexx black
Kikboxes 120mm Laser Cut "Tribal Ying Yang" Grills - Black
Chrome Anodized Case Handles
Nickel-plate power and reset switches
5mm white and red leds with chrome fittings



A little bit of a delay for updates. Was sleeving the fans and after looking at the ACRyan Blackfire4s, the stock uv red sleeving is rather cheesy and I wanted them to be consistent with the rest of the case. I stripped all that off, including the zip ties they use to secure the sleeving instead of heatshrink. Unfortunately, there was no plan for that many originally and an "emergency" materials order was placed with Performance PCs. That should be in the mail tomorrow I think. The rip off artists at Micro Center in town wanted $30 for a standard Tech Flex sleeving kit, and they didn't even have true black in stock.

More updates soon, have the Zalman fan controller disassembled and drive bay marked out for drilling. MNPCTech c-strip is going around the fan cuts and a few other goodies.

Thanks for visiting.

WAY OF THE WARRIOR

Here are the rough sketches for this project. Bear in mind some of the implementation may change depending on how it comes together.

The color scheme for the case is white, black and red with some shiny silver accents. Although some of the graphics on the case may have some additional colors, the overall effect will be in the main scheme. I thought long and hard about this, and the duality of Ana Ishikawa's character is embodied in the white and black motif: her dual heritage, the turmoil between the Shinto and Christian faiths, life and death, and the desire for good weighed against the desire for vengeance. The red is blood, anger, desire and passion, and the silver is... well, bling. ;P









This is the fan grill for the 120mm fans (four on the case other than radiator) in black. You'll notice it's the Kikboxes grill!



There will be some surprises perhaps not outlined in the rough sketches. Definitely plans for nice case feet (yay MNPCtech aluminum case feet), a special treatment on the case handles and a bit of a different take on the window etch. Your ideas and suggestions are welcome always, although being a girl, I'll probably do exactly the opposite!

I'm so hyped about this project right now, it is really my first full case mod project. Before this I've only added a couple ccfls, installed an aftermarket cooler and added a window-etch sticker on a pre-mod case. Must admit it has been pretty fun doing everything so far.

WAY OF THE WARRIOR - The Fun Really Begins

Yes! Actually some progress on the mod this weekend. First, thought I'd take a quick shot of my workspace... well worklackofspace is more descriptive. But it's my area and I don't have to pick up things and put them away in between work sessions. Despite appearances to the contrary, this update is not a blatant product placement for Diet Dr. Pepper. However, if they wish to send a few months' supply, it wouldn't be turned down. ;P



One of the first things I did was tape up panels, both for protection and ease of marking. This is the Zalman fan controller I'm using, which will be modded into one of the 5.25" drive bay covers to match. The face is covered in tape and the blue plexi fascia of the controller has been removed to use for marking the various holes for drilling.



Post-marking of the bay cover, with one of the ACRyan Blackfire fans going into the mod. Note that the stock wire sleeving has been removed.



Here is the removable motherboard tray that comes standard with the Mountain Mods TwiceSeven case. It comes nicely powdercoated in white to match. One thing I've noted is that MMods is very accommodating to non-stock requests. If there was more time and I had the inclination, it would have been possible to custom order a black powdercoat tray instead. The stock white suits me fine for this.



This is the u-channel I ordered from MNPCtech to finish off at least the two 80mm fan holes in the motherboard tray. Following that is the after picture with the u-channel applied.





This is the ACRyan HexxMesh in black which will go on both the 120mm and 80mm fans. I've cut it for the two 80mm fans in back. Nice new tin snips made it a quick job.





I test fitted one of the 80mm fans with the Hexxmesh in place. Not too impressive without being lit in all its pinkish glory (ew!). Although the 120mm have the black tomoe fan grills, they aren't currently available in 80mm. The 120mm fans will have both Hexxmesh and the fan grills to finish them off.



Once that was done, the case bottom was taped and marked for drilling. As you can see, these are the feet that will be used instead of the stock 1/4" clear plexi squares that are supplied.





Next up is another new toy... a cheap heatgun.



After reading the instructions thoroughly, it was emphasized that one should not use this as a hairdryer. They gave an example of what could happen:



Narrowly avoiding a bad hair day, I sleeved up some fans, switches, the pump wires and leds, using my heatgun. They'll never resist my heat ray, muahahahahaha!





Two other things to note in the photo above, the Swiftech MCP-350 pump which has had the top replaced with a Bitspower acrylic res and the fan has had the sticker fitted with a vinyl piece in black. That should look more finished on the top mounted radiator.



Last but not least for this evening, a bit of a teaser for the next update. These are some materials that will be used to add some detail and bling in a couple places.



Hope you enjoyed the update. There should be another tomorrow. With any luck the tardy USPS will deliver my package of sleeving, etc. so the rest of the fans can be tidied up. As always, comments and suggestions are quite welcome!

WAY OF THE WARRIOR

Um... I come bearing Oh... My... God! news before my update later this evening. I accidentally got a sponsor...



A huge thank you to Crucial (http://www.crucial.com) for the sponsorship, sending me 2x2Gb of the totally awesome



I saw the mention of them a bit ago on Bit-Tech and thought they were great. I happened to catch a review on 3dgameman Friday night and the little lightbulb went off... These would look awesome for this build! Knowing they weren't readily available and not really expecting even a response, I emailed Crucial to find out if they would be possible to purchase. Needless to say, I was shaking and jumping up and down when I received a reply, asking for an address and letting me know they'll be sending the RAM to me! (Similar response to what most women do when they get flowers or jewelry... I must be touched.) Wow, and I didn't even have to show any leg or promise a first-born male child. Wonder how a mini version of these would look as earrings...

Anyway, back to work and an update late tonight.

WAY OF THE WARRIOR - Make flowers bloom on a tree



I got an email from the Crucial guy today, letting me know they sent out the ram. Simply amazing, this is a great feeling.

On the heels of that good news, the post office found a label addressed to me from Performance PCs. Unfortunately, there was no package attached. Guess that explains why my emergency cable sleeving resupply hasn't arrived. <sigh> Anyway, resent and will arrive on Thursday. This is cutting it rather close with things because of the 22nd deadline, but ha, i scoff at deadlines! laugh in the face of fear! ... bring on the Starbucks for the late hours! Roommate has also been sick for a couple days and sleeping more, so I've not been cutting and drilling. There are other things to do though!

While contemplating what to do with the 80mm fan holes, I turned to the video card and motherboard. First, I removed the stock 8800GTS fan and heatsink, along with the PCI 2-slot bracket, replacing it with a single bracket. It was amazing how thick the thermal pads and grease were from the factory.



On goes the the lovely EK full cover waterblock in sparkly nickel-plate.



The motherboard received a similar treatment, installing the C2D E8400 cpu, along with the Apogee GT waterblock. The black and silver for these blocks should really make the uv red tubing and new ram jump right out with the color.



Other water cooling components include a Black Ice GT Stealth 240 rad in black and a Bitspower acrylic reservoir top for the Laing DDC pump (you've seen a glimpse of that already.) This is a stock closeup of the res, followed by one showing the led lighting in red.




My desire for this case is to minimize or stealth some of the other components to highlight the look of others, especially the watercooling system. With this in mind, flat black self-adhesive vinyl was applied to the two hard drives (a 74Gb Raptor for OS and a Seagate 250Gb for storage) and the optical drive. Painting the shell would have been great, but this was done quickly without having to disassemble the drives for painting/masking and dry time. As mentioned above, my ability to do any painting is very limited at the moment. If, god forbid, one of the drives needs warranty work, the factory stickers and seals remain under the vinyl. Bare Raptor drive, followed by cutting and finished drives.






There are a few tiny bubbles that will be pressed out from under the vinyl.

The optical drive was test fitted in the bay as I was double checking placement with the radiator and fans that will go on that side, venting to the top of the case. The dvd drive will be getting a stealth treatment to match the front case panel. Following it is a side view of the case with side panels removed.




Cutting for the etched window on the motherboard (left) side of the case will start tomorrow. Will have more photos and progress to show you then! Thanks for visiting.

WAY OF THE WARRIOR - Drilling and a test fit

Snow hit Colorado again, which made for a rather achy day. Didn't get near as much done as I had planned, but I have the finished window etch, which I'm REALLY pleased about. My roommate (the Queen of Understatement) saw it and her first words were: Wow... wow.... wow. Sorry you don't get a peek at that yet. I suspect it would need some prep to show it properly with some lighting and all. You'll see what I mean likely over the weekend.

First off, here's a couple inside shots of the case; first one is the motherboard side, showing the tab for a screw to attach the removable tray to the case for added strength and rigidity. You'll see a psu cable poking through the small opening at the bottom edge of the tray which allows neat routing of cables from the power supply side. Rather looking forward to the cable management in this case, as opposed to some of the other nightmares. Second photo is on the power supply side of the case with a Corsair psu in place for a test fit.




I am woman, hear me drill! Went pretty quickly, but realized with my limited Dremel accessories I only had one size of drill bit. Oh well, may remedy that tomorrow if the weather is nice. Eyeing it with the standard Zalman faceplate, it seemed to work pretty well. Tomorrow it is time to break out the files to clean up the holes. Then put it back together with the new front and see how it works. Would much rather there were red and/or white leds in this fan controller. Between time and no experience with electronics and soldering, was best not to try.



Lots of cutting and filing later today. However, sleep sounds real good right about now.

WAY OF THE WARRIOR - Cross the sea under the concealment of broad daylight

Received the sponsorship package from Crucial and took out the ram to fondle... er examine it. It's just gorgeous... unfortunately my photos don't really do it justice.





Was a shame to pull it out of my test rig after taking a peek at the ram lit up. Should look fantastic in the mod, however.

I did end up getting the EK Supreme waterblock and installed it on the motherboard instead of the Apogee GT. I have another build for after this project it will go into. Very nice finish and easy installation. My understanding is the block performs even better with the 775 backplate installed. I didn't purchase one of those and will only overclock this build a little, so won't worry about it for now. If I should feel the need to go for higher clocks, I may get one in the future. The backplate is supposed to allow more pressure to be applied with the block for increased contact and lower temps.



Note the great finish on the copper contact plate:


Here is the new block installed on the Asus P5K-E motherboard. Some additions besides the EK that may be a bit harder to notice: black slot protectors in unused slots, I/O connectors at the rear of the board received a "blackout" treatment with vinyl, and a few small, black heatsinks on lesser motherboard chips.



With that part done and stashed safely away in the anti-static bag once more, I moved on to the 120mm fans and grills. Cutting appropriate sized squares of the hexx mesh.



This is a great place to use the "Modding Tape of the Gods." It is easy to apply and tough as a pitbull. Trimmed up pieces and fit them to the grill reverse. Taking a few last trims to the mesh, applied it to the grill with tape and applied some pressure to assure good adhesion. Flip over the assembly and voila'!





Here is the front of the case with one grill and fan assembly installed. It is a bit difficult to see, but the screw head were all polished using a Dremel and Mother's Billett Polish. A plain steel finish wouldn't do. I did surround each of the fan holes with c-channel before installing the fan and grill. This serves two purposes: it cushions the metal and plastic against the case to absorb some of the vibrations, and hides the white case edge for a finished look to match the black of the grill.



Here is the three front fan assemblies installed, along with the red and white led indicators for power and hdd activity.



Next up the two nickel-plated momentary switches were polished up in the same manner as the screw heads.



Um... kindly disregard the old blue bikini underwear in the photo that I'm using to wipe down the metal after polish. See, there is a use for old knickers!



OMG, what did I just do to that nice polish job? I used the glue from the photo posted earlier in the log to run a bead around the edge of one switch. The other got the glue applied in the center section. They both are getting a treatment with red foil to differentiate between the power and reset switches.



The glue must dry until clear throughout, which takes one to eight hours depending on thickness. So stay tuned for more updates later on, with the finished, foiled switches. Serious cutting and filing on this end for the radiator and window cutouts. Also planning false bottoms on both sides of the case to allow for a clean look with cable management. Thanks for all your suggestions and encouragement.

WAY OF THE WARRIOR - Take one path while pretending to take another



Running out of time to submit this project in The Mod Shop's Comic Challenge, which deadline is Tuesday. So I've made the decision to temporarily go air cooling for the contest submission. This is to be my first watercooled rig (first full-blown project for that matter) and I don't want to skip the 24-hour leak testing. Nor do I want to hurry and make a mistake, possibly ruining some equipment in the process. This will involve temporarily using an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro for the cpu and swapping in an air-cooled eVGA 9600GT video card for the 8800GTS 640.

The worklog won't be ending on Tuesday, as I'll continue to set up and tweak the water cooling system, in addition to other bits on the case. Hate to have physical things get in the way, but such is life. Trying to hold a Dremel steady for cutting when one's hands are an evil combo of pain and numbness is probably not a good idea. Not like I'll let this stop me overall, however!

Anyway, back to work. Look for a larger (real) update late tonight.

WAY OF THE WARRIOR - A Small Update

Got the side panel cut for the window today. Now of course comes the filing... oh, the filing...



The aluminum case feet have been installed now. No picture of that quite yet though. Next I measured out and cut a piece of white aluminum in half. These two pieces will be used as false bottoms on either side of the case to hide the the case feet bolts and wiring for a nice, clean look... after a bunch of trimming and more filing of course.




Finished filing the drilled holes on the 5.25" bay cover for the Zalman fan controller. After assembling the pieces, I think it looks much better than the blue, imprinted front.



One last thing, I marked off the measurements for a small digital temperature gauge that will be installed with the system. The display is red with black digits, which should go nicely. A bit of work with the needle files and that should be done.




Work tomorrow includes window installation, rear fans and likely some outside panel detailing. Thanks for reading!