The Assembly and Modding of the Lian-Li PC-72 SCA

Date Written: May 11, 2002
Written By: Rabiddog22 aka David Rhea

Let the Modding Begin!

John wanted both his LED's replaced, so as he was fittin' the bill, I obliged. I was hoping that they would have sockets, but again I was disappointed. Oh well, time to kill again , oops, I mean time to solder! I soldered both 5V LED's into their new places, and painted them with liquid electrical tape to prevent shorts/accidents of any kind. Not hard at all really, but I would have liked sockets. All right, I'll get off it already.

Next, I painted the drives. I had to match the aluminum look of the case, so I used wheel paint from Advance Auto, it matched perfectly and was inexpensive. I used Plasticote "toolbox" chrome paint for the primary coat then I used Plasticote # 618 STEEL WHEELS wheel cover paint for the top coat. This stuff is tough, and has to be to keep ceramics from breaking and cracking, and the ceramic clear coat gives it a bright, thick shine.

Now comes the fun part! I get to cut the cake, er, case! John wanted the Batman symbol on the side of his case. A quick image search on Google provided me with the shape I needed. I then took the printout I made to Staples, and had it enlarged. I made sure to get several sizes as I can't lug the rig around with me. I chose a size I thought would look good and showed what I wanted it to show. I placed it in the center of the case to the right of the handle, took a snapshot, and mailed John for his approval.

Thirty minutes later I received the green light from John. It was a go to Dremel! I taped the enlarged picture on some poster board that I had folded double size. I then cut the shape out to make a traceable image. I used my Sharpie marker to trace the general shape on the side of the case. I know my Dremel has a habit of jumping around. Even on high rpm's. So I used the remaining poster board and blue 3m masking tape to mask off the rest. Recycling is good, no?

Ahh, masked and ready to go! I used reinforced heavy-duty cutting discs and set the Dremel's rpm to 6000. I went slowly and did a trace cut before going all the way through. It took about 2 hours and 4 cutting wheels to do the full image, but as you can see it was worth it! Lets' take off the tape shall we?

Looking good, but it's still missing something, I know, the Plexi! I took a ride to the local Home Depot, my home away from home. They sell pre-cut pieces of Plexi Glass and had a size that was just a bit larger than I needed. I took it home and test fitted it. The handle was making the Plexi uneven, so I knew I had to cut around it, as well as cut some length from it. To the workshop!

I originally wanted to use Velcro for this as I had about a 100 feet laying around. But after some thought I realized that only double sided tape would give me the hold I needed. I dry fit the tape and after I knew the height I needed, I applied it in 4 squares. I then peeled of the protective layer and stuck the glass in place. making sure to get out all the air bubbles on top of the tape.

Last but not least, (or so I thought) the neon! I originally bought a 8-inch neon stick from Wal-Mart, as this case does not have much room to spare with the case fan in the way. I grafted the neon's wires onto a 4-pin Molex and tested it.

Hmmm, bright, but not really bright enough for my liking. The customer must be happy! So I called my friend Rick and traded an old 120-mm Panaflo fan for an extra cathode he had. This time after I hooked it up, it was plenty bright. I then realized that it needed an on/off switch. I did not know where to put it though. I must have tried 100 or more switch locations. I noticed after a while that the case had 3 decorative circular grills, on the lower back side. Perfect! I thought, the middle hole was perfect to drill out for the 5/16 switch I needed! The metal looked thick, and for a moment I thought that I might have drilling problems. But the thick aluminum drilled out easily. After the hole was done, I wired and installed the switch.

I wanted to make sure all the mods were done before I finished the wiring. So, I took a quick look around for anything else that needed attending to. Crap! that fan on the bottom doesn't look too good. As I have mentioned before, this case has an 120-mm fan that sucks hot air off of the HDD's and blows air on the PCI cards as well. But there is a hitch, (isn't there always?). The fan bracket has a VERY restrictive grill. I removed the fan and tested the air flow at my work bench. Even with no restrictions on the intake side, the fan was barely putting enough air to blow the hairs on my hand. Time to whip out the Dremel again! Nothing to difficult here, just cut out a hexagonal shape where the grill used to be. This simple mod added nearly 83cfm for a max total of 105cfm.

With the last of the mods done, it was time to finish up. I made the wires as compact and sleek as I could.

Once the wiring was finished, I replaced the front faceplates.

And the parting shot, a look at the complete project. I tried to take some night shots, but alas, my cam would not have it. And you may also ask why the cathode is in the center. Well, with the cathode in this position, you can see everything inside and really that's the only place it would fit. Well that's it! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed doing it.

Questions / Comments? You can ask them in the Overclockers Forum!

-Rabiddog22 (David Rhea)

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