With the Concept tacked down pretty completely, my next challenge was how to implement it. A very common problem in Modding; Vision is present, but the means are lacking.

My original parts list read something like:

• 2X120mm Radiators
• AMD 64 CPU
• DD TDX waterblock
• ATI X800 video

I wanted to expand on some of the methods used in my previous mod Gluttony, and improve upon the cooling, and silence. This was not going to be simple, but it would be quiet. As I began to visualize the tubing running all around, this was not appealing. Hiding tubing is tough, and often hampers performance.

Lo and behold! Thermalright released information on a new heatsink, Intel released information on a new socket, Plextor released a SATA DVD-burner, and Nvidia released information on a new mid level video card.

I opted to vary a great deal from my previous work in almost all aspects:

• Intel, high performance 3.6 on the 925 chipset
• Air cooling via the Thermalright 120XP
• NOT maxing out video capabilities but stay quiet with the 6600 series, which matches performance well with the selected Dell LCD.
• NO fat IDE cables
• Plextor SATA DVD, it was speedy, Dual Layered, and quiet as hell according to reviews (they were dead on, I can hardly hear it spin up).

I already had a SATA harddrive, so I merely had to build while I waited for the other components to come down the Pipeline...

So, on to Construction itself:

The Lubic system presents some unique challenges; A flexibility in mounting or attachment that presents you with conflicts at times.

Will I need to move this later?
How many mount points will I need?
Will the Cube need cross reinforcement?

All of which were worked out eventually, and after several reassemblies to add several more sliding nuts. The smartest move I made in using the Lubic was to put 4 sliding nuts in EVERY chaseway except for the exterior ones that might be seen. This left me with over 80 possible mount positions for all kinds of stuff, including the Cross bars that became necessary for the PSU mount, Water Feature, and Drive cage.

As my brain worked out the little complications of the hinging, I went about looking for a Fountain. I could build one, get some plastic, and start cutting, but I also wanted a Sound Soother like you see at Sharper Image. I went online, searched, found little, went to Linens' N Things and finally, at Bed Bath & Beyond, found the keeper…

Nice shape, made raindrops, 6 built in sounds, and it had a round opening. Major problem was the Cherry grain finish on it. Fake wood, not OK.

I also opened up the front a bit with my Dremel, working off the round opening to make it more of a Keyhole Doorway, and decided I had better cover the openings with clear acrylic to prevent spills/drops/splashes from landing on components, or getting out at a LAN onto something else nearby.

So I sanded down to 1500, wet sanded, and started painting. The result…too orange. Repainted, juuuuuust right! Not the piano gloss finish I was trying for, but probably my best paint yet. I'm no Sky (bows to Paint Goddess).

Below you can see that progress—

First the masking for shape.

Then the cut itself.

And the Painted result.

As I worked on the Water Feature I came to hate the lame Grey mortar between the fake pebbles. That entailed another hunt for the right look. I ended up using a “no fire” glaze that was designed to look like finely flaked Granite. So I watered it down, used a large bore plastic Syringe from Tap Plastics, laid the Water feature on its back and began injecting the fluid between the fake stones. I would constantly have to shake the syringe to prevent the flakes from clogging or settling, and then I would wait for it to dry. After 2 or 3 applications I was pleased with the results.

I was quite pleased with the final result, and ready to move on to the next major feature of the Mod.

The Shoji doors were my next complex element. How should they move? How much of an opening could I provide?

My first visualization was to use the sliding nuts and make a 3 section sliding door. One fixed panel at the rear of the track, but in the frontmost position, then a middle panel in the top track that could hide behind the first, and finally a third panel on the inner track that could hide behind the other two.
_______________________

                                   <---------------------------------->

                                                                                    _____________________

Although the idea was an elegant solution it was very difficult to achieve. If the bars weren't exactly parallel, it could bind. If I needed cross supports on the bottom panel, the inner door couldn't move. Overall it only offered 66% opening if I needed to work on this behemoth.

I changed to the Bifold door concept, in two sections. This could easily provide close to 90% opening, when the hinges are perpendicular to the sides, like in a common closet. But they would either be open or closed, all or none. I wanted an intermediate level for showing internal components since I had no windows. A clever idea struck me...make one panel shorter than the other! The geometry solved the problem perfectly. When the center panel is slightly shorter than the outer panel, it can tuck behind it as long as the hinge can swing all the way around. This is why I ended up with two different height panels. The outer panel is tall enough to cover the Lubic bars of the top and bottom, and doesn't need to conceal itself. The center panels must fit INSIDE the top and bottom bars so they can slide along and conceal themselves behind the outer panel. This gives me any number of variable positions with the doors close, partially open, tucked away, or fully open.

During this time I worked out a means to form perfectly square cutouts for the Bifold Panels. It’s counterintuitive, but it doesn’t involve cutting an opening at all. Much like a picture frame is made by joining 4 Miter cuts, I was going to form a square frame by joining 4 Dado (kind of half dado I guess) cuts.

I simply set my router to 1/8” (its table mounted) and worked the plastic back and forth until I had a tight 1” fit between the pieces. Cement in a square frame vise, and Voila!

After working on the hinged doors for a while, it struck me that having my Motherboard in a vertical "plugs down" orientation posed some install problems. So...HINGE IT too!! Man that worked out slick. Probably the single most useful feature of the entire case is swingin' up the back panel, and droppin’ that Mobo down flat!

In Seconds! No bolts, thumbscrews, sliding this, unplugging this or that (except the PSU). I went to work with Tap Plastics to properly mount the hinge motion for the Front and Back panels. Anytime I can skip picking this sucker up, I just open it up, work on the plug or component, and swing the cover back down. As long as I can walk around it, I can get at just about every little wire and bit. :)

During all of this, little details like the power/reset switch, basic wiring pathways, and fan location were worked out, sometimes revised, and refined as completion for PDXLAN 4.05 neared.

I tried LEDs to pump up the brightness, even went and chopped up a 1M Candle power flashlight (heat was a problem at that point, ugh). I wanted to project a starfield onto the ceiling at a LAN. That would have rocked.

But alas, I was not satisfied. Next, I tried to use the pattern of holes to set fiber optics into the housing itself. Another experiment gone awry.

After pondering it for some time and much frustration, I decided I better just design my own. I liked the Fiber Optic tests, and just had to invent a means to achieve the design.

I settled upon drilling very tiny holes in a sheet of the same gloss black plastic, and I could cement or use SuperGlue to hold the tips in place.

How to illuminate it? I had the MX5 which could run as many as 10 LEDs directly (8 GPOS and Tx/Rx). I preferred to use the high power GPOs for my fans, so that left me with 5 LEDs at 5V. You may have heard lighting techs refer to something called a “Light Pump.” This is what they call the device (usually with a color wheel) that provides the illumination for Fiber Optics in homes, and Artwork. They almost always use Halogen bulbs, and the aforementioned Color Wheel (a small motor turning a circle of plastic with different color variations on it). I had to design my own using 5 LEDs and I wanted each LED to brighten a different region of my Starfield.

It’s not pretty, but it was just a test bed. I figured it needed to be smaller, and I found a nice little project box at Fry’s one day. I set about cutting and shaping mirror plastic to line the box. My light theory was that in a mirrored box, any single LED would make the Fibers glow, but only an LED pointed directly at the Fibers would cause those ends to glow BRIGHTLY.

I soldered them up, and crimped them on to .1” female pin headers…perfect for directly plugging into the MX5 low power GPOs and Tx/Rx header.

Then on to the drilling! Ugh. Starting at drill size #80, then some at #75, fewer at #65, and then 10-20 at 1 or 1.5mm.

All by hand in a pin vise! Ever wonder how easily a drill bit that is only .25mm across snaps? Pretty damn easily. I broke 3 #80s, and 5 #65s. Why those two? Dunno. I stopped asking and just bought extras. LOL

The gluing process. Acrylic cement didn’t seem to hold well…so I stuck with some Gold Glue (hobby high grade, 10 second cure).

The results:

Me LIKEY! :) BTW, that is only ONE LED on a 4 second shutter exposure for clarity.

The Starfield was now primarily complete, the only thing left mounting it and running the Fibers into the pump. I left it out so my work wouldn’t damage it. Later on I positioned the light pump, and worked out connecting the fibers.

The basic procedure was like this:

1. Drilled five 2mm holes opposite the LEDs
2. Took the heaviest Fibers, measured to different holes, and did a rough trim
3. Stuck them into the holes
4. Took next size Fibers, measured to available openings, and did a rough trim
5. Stuck them into the holes

Eventually I ran out of little openings and drilled more openings for the extras. After I had all the Fibers into holes, I did a test light, and then used my Gold Glue to cement them into place. When I take out the starfield, the light pump comes with it. :)

Off and on during this time I was figuring out what I wanted to do to cover the exhaust fans. They were just too likely to end up with fingers in them…and some dusty fan isn’t too pretty to look at either.

I considered modder’s mesh, expanded sheet metal, regular grills, but wandering through a local Hardware an odd product caught my eye.

Trim to desired size, lightly sand with 300 and 1500, and spray with Black Vinyl Dye. Nifty eh? With so few round or “organic” shapes in the Mod, I wanted little touches like this and the curve of the Water Feature to offset all the Geometry of the doors and Glossy flat surfaces.

Another difficulty of the Mod was to use the LCD monitor in an interesting way. Most of my LANs around here provide the Gamer with a 3ftX3ft table area. With the Cube taking up 18inches on a side, this meant the remainder of my table space would be tight.

I wanted the most flexibility possible when positioning my LCD monitor, and the provided base station did OK, but took up too much Real Estate. After hunting quite a bit for a VESA LCD mount, I found just the ticket.

OmniMount LCD arms

The mount uses two bolts to attach to a wall (or in this case the Lubic bar). It provides a great range of motion with adjustable friction on all axis.

It was a simple matter of the right sized bolts, some washers, and lock nuts. At this point, there is no hardware in the Cube, and that LCD will tip the whole thing over. This was the time when I decided I DID need those cross braces, and it helps prevent the torque of the LCD’s mass from distorting the shape of the Cube.

For a final touch I wanted to have an accent feature on the back panel…it was so…big, and…flat…and shiny… lol

At the same store I found the Shoji paper, they had a good selection of Fans. Some sifting and, a good candidate since it matches the Red color of the Water Feature.

By opening it fully and taking a measurement, I could measure the distance between the holes. This goes the same for the vertical axis to center between the PSU cutout and the bottom edge. I then used two more Chicago 2 piece rivets to attach it through the holes. It’s simple and keeps the whole thing wide open. This just polishes the appearance of the Back Panel so much IMO.

So, there you have it…well, most of it anyway. There are innumerable little bits here and there that contribute to the overall final product:

• Power rails run from the Ultra PSU via 4 Strand speaker wire. It’s all black, and since its 16Ga O2 free copper, pretty safe for higher loads. To conceal it further I slid it through some hollow square acrylic tube and ziptied it to the vertical bar behind the Water Feature. It looks so much like a Lubic bar you might not be able to see it in the pics. That was the idea.
• I used PCI Molex brackets behind the Water Feature to distribute the power from the Power Rails. Short SATA/Molex adapters are used, and a Floppy cable extender connects the front Hardware to the power source. I left some wires unsleeved just to know something is there. Others I sleeved and hid.
• The USB cables are hand made from 10 strand rainbow wire and hand crimped to length to run back past the Harddrive, along the lower bar of the User’s side (the LCD side) and through black Marine wire guides. They follow underneath the Power/Reset PCB so that swinging the Mobo tray down doesn’t pull on them. All plugs can stay on the Motherboard when moving the tray. I left the SATA cables red since they are decent match to the water feature, and let the viewer know something is there.
• I found and ordered a 3Ft DVI cable since the 6 footer that came with my LCD dangled on the floor. It turned out to be pretty hard to hide that cable, so I just left it for convenience’ sake. Its tons easier to move this Beast when you take the LCD off the swingarm.
• I used 2 piece “ Chicago screws” to mount all the bifold doors. I only used the flush looking side, and found black, hex drive, dome head screws for the inside. The Hinges had to have countersunk Philips head screws for clearance only. I could find no other alternative after much searching.
• The DVD drive stealth is simply a properly cut piece of the same gloss black plastic, and mounted using a particular “gooey” type of double sided mount tape. It’s very sticky, and provides just enough flex to allow pressure on the lower right corner to trigger the Eject button. J
• To hide the MX5 when it’s off, I used 95% tint Limo Film, and secured it left and right with double stick masking tape. Simple, cheap, and easy to replace when fingers/scratches appear. It has the flexibility to allow the keypad to still be used.
• I stripped apart a spare MX900 Bluetooth base station that a friend at Logitech got me. I discovered that it will operate without the Keyboard wires! That was exactly what I wanted, so I made more USB cables, tacked it onto the Bluetooth PCB, rewired the LEDs so they peer out between the MX5 and DVD faceplate, and used more double sided mounting tape to secure it in place. It works wonderfully with no external wires to view. I will eventually wire the 5V charging PCB so I can hang my Mouse inside to charge. I have to find that little sucker amongst the rubble first!
• I used all Vantec Stealth fans, even on the CPU Heatsink. Its pretty darn quiet, idles in the low 40Cs, and peaked at 61C during the LAN. I noticed little variation even at my 3.96 Overclock.
• I originally had mounted some carved Wooden feet to support the whole thing about 4” off the desk. They worked, sort of. After a while the Allen heads would loosen, and they could wander a bit off plumb. Late one night, 5 days before the LAN, I had an idea. Instead of a box base that would cut off air flow to the intake fans, I could use and H shaped base that would be open in the front, have a support under the center horizontal crossbrace, and an open back to allow me access to my ports without swinging the Motherboard down at the LAN. Luckily Tap Plastics made it overnight. This allowed me time to measure, mark, drill, and tap the 4 mount holes…$80 well worth the time savings IMO.

That about covers the Lubic Zen-Feng. Hope you enjoyed reading this journey. I hope you like it, but if not, IT’S MINE! :)

Well there you have it from the man himself. This beautiful mod has been admired by many but built by only one. Congrats on a job well done. You’re sure to be seeing more of this mod if you live in the states or UK as it’s hitting a couple of the magazines that support case modding. We’d like to thank Jeff “Dgephri” Kaiser for offering to share this piece with GruntvillE and for the incredible worklog he created in the forums. We invite you to browse through his gallery in the DawG House or his worklog in the DawG PounD to see and read more about this incredible mod.

We hope you enjoyed our first casemod feature. Not only is it a work of art but a full fledged gaming machine. If you'd like to see the rest of the worklog details or ask him a question, Click Here!