My latest Project – Project BMW M-Power was born from the day Thermaltake released the Level 10 Case onto the world, as soon as I saw the tie in with BMW design works (even though they are a design house and not BMW themselves). For quite I few years I have always had in the back of my mind a Mod in dedication to one of my old rides, A 1998 BMW M3. Ok the car is long gone and is a bit out dated, but still I thought why the hell not, A M3 case Mod on a Level 10 from Thermaltake would still look nice, especially if I kept to my old cars paint scheme, white body work, red and black interior.
My plan was to do the case white, with some airbrush work with Mpower logo and BMW logo as well as a M3 airbrushed into the case, as my old ride was from the 90s and the case from the 10s I decided to go with a theme based on the modern M3.
So my plan was born and yes it was finally time to get it onto action, before I move on anymore I must first give Kudos to all the companies involved for making this possible the sponsors, who without which this mod would not be possible. Despite it taking me since the release of the Level 10 case for me to get it altogether went above and beyond the call of duty.
First Up – The hardware involved and what I am planning
Yes that is indeed a lot of Thermaltake product and I have to thank them a lot for supporting this mod, anyway here is a rundown of the specs and pieces of this mod.
Specs
- CPU - AMD Phenom II X6 1055T
- Mobo – Gigabyte 890FXA-UD7
- Memory – Patriot G series 1600mhz 4 gig AMD kit
- GPU – Ati Radeon HD 5850
- Main HDD – Patriot 120GB Inferno SSD
- Secondary HDD - 2 X WD RE3 Greens 1TB
- PSU – Thermaltake Tough Power Grand 750W
- Case - Thermaltake Level 10
- Thermaltake Esports Black Gaming mouse
- Thermaltake Esports Challenger Pro Keyboard
- Thermaltake Esports Shock Gaming headset
- Thermaltake Esports Dasher Mouse Pad
I will not never claim I am a expert when it comes to photoshop, so please don’t flame me, these are rough mock ups what I plan to do with this mod and just to give a rough idea to those who are reading this of what my plans are.
With the mouse I want it to match the theme and colours of the case, I don’t want to go overboard with it, but a nice airbrush on the mouse, with the TT glowing logo on the rear coming through the paint rather than being visible.
The same with the keyboard, which I want to keep tied in with the rest of the theme
The graphics card I also want to tie in with the white theme of the case, I especially want this done as the insides of the case will be white too.
I was also planning to do the headset white, and mocked up one of them in white, but when it came for it to be sent out it I noticed a press release for the shock headset and it came in white as well... phew, that saved some time already
what about the case? Well here is the plan for that.
My plan is to get the whole case in white with a little BMW logo down the bottom of the front, on the HDD slots I plan to leave these white to break up the case a bit.
The motherboard section, I plan to remove the stock metal plates (areas in red) and replace these with some red UV acrylic with some etchings, then covered by black tinted acrylic (2 layers of acrylic) with the black on the outer, the reason for this is so that with the lights of, the windows will just look plain black, but with the lights on, the etchings Edges will pop out.
I am in 2 minds on the mobo section on either a clear just tinted section on the top (to give a nice view of the inside as UV acrylic sort of blurs the view) and AMD game logo actually airbrushed onto the mobo section in to right corner, or as picture with logo etched in the CPU area window. I have not decided on that yet.
On the rear of the case the plan is to do a nice M power logo, with the actual M3 car airbrushed there...
but taking a few bits apart, first up was the graphics card.
The Graphics card I just had to separate the top cover from the block itself, I decided to just re attach the main block and plate after doing this to insure the board was not just left lying around bare. The next item was the keyboard.
Striping the keyboard down was a pretty straight forward apart from having to make sure I had enough separate bags for the 25+ screws, especially the really tiny ones. now the main face plate is separated I can put that in the pile with the Graphic cards cooler cover, on to the mouse now.
I am 100% sure Thermaltake mad this mouse so it should never come apart as it took me an hour or so to get the side sections off without breaking the clip, the main problem was the final screw was under the weight tray, which was glued or just solidly in, so I had to play and pull and twist (eww that don’t sound right ;P) for a while just to get these off.
Taking the top layer off (palm rest section) was a lot easier and only took 5 minutes with gentle pulling, one bad thing though, was the centre section I had done red in photoshop was part of the main body, so I will be looking at something else to get that red.
Well,I am going to go with a alphacool CPU water block, only with some 13/10 tubing with 2x120mm radiators, one in the front mobo section were the fan is and one 90 degrees below on the bottom of the motherboard tray, Luck has it that alphacool do a raditor pump bracket (which will be doubling as a mount for each radiator)
And the reason i have gone with 13/10 is because the tubing is white as well
this was just to get a rough idea of how it would really look with some of the plans.
Of course there will be a uv etch added to the lower window as well the tint over it, still mulling over a few things to do, but i thought i would share what in general i am hoping for.
looks nice i painted my 5850 a while back only changed the red to gold ended up alright. cant wait to see yours
a couple more parts arrived during the week,
As you can see I got the CPU block with red mounting plate to match the White red and black theme, also in the above picture is the mounting plates, while these are designed for mounting a pump to the radiator, I will be using them for mounting the radiators.
Another thing I have been playing with is the finish idea, these are a couple of renders of what I would say is the final plan give or take a few tweaks.. also planning to replace as many of the stock screws and bolts with red ones, depends on what I can source really.
This is defo the route I am going down, as I have already said I will be adding a few nit bits but this is the route I am planning for the main side.
The rear I have a cunning plan for and will be kind of like this, except the M power will be replaced with the BMW Mpower logo as on the other side (same as on engine head) and the 3 stripe logo with the M will be going on the top right. The car you see at the bottom left will be airbrushed (hopefully) as seen bellow.
And I have the exact opposite picture of the front of the car that will be etched into the lower window.
As you can see this is the opposite image of the one above (just have to mess with logos) and I will try to place both so they line up (as if car is going through case)..
the keyboard, mouse and graphics card cover back.
They have turned out really well, the Varnished finish is showing up superbly and makes the products look a lot better with the white. Let us start with the mouse.
One thing you may notice, is the middle black section is different than the renders (I had them in red) but it was impossible to separate that part of the mouse from the body. But still I think the mouse came out really well, I also like the way it is white, with black and then the red lighted wheel and red DPI indicators.
The keyboard come out too match the mouse, of course with the added M logo to tie in with the case, I wanted a proper matched feel with this project and I think this achieves it.
I like the way the keyboard looks and the finish, I just am hoping the case turns out just as well.
The theme of white black and red is carried on with the card as you can see I think the red white and black theme going through out the mod is a good combination, I think the ATI (now AMD) brand should go down this route.. Here are some more shots of the card.
quick pictures of the case after it had been airbrushed.
Now to get to work on the windows to replace the standard metal plates, the idea is to have the top one in just black tint, inside the case, but the bottom will be black tint with red UV behind and of course some etching done (the opposite picture to the bmw on the rear).
Well just a quick short update here on the watercooling parts, here is what I have so far, I am debating either a bay res (which is second on the list as I would have to route, tubes to there, or a swiftech micro res, note 100% sure which I will go with, but here is a picture of all the bits minus the res.
As well as figuring out my res options, the only other dilemma is on the cabling inside, I am either going to go with the stock black and all power leads and fan leads ect, or I am going to mix it up, I just don’t want to overdo the white.
I was maybe thinking braiding the Molex, sata and 3 pin cables white, and then Keeping the 8 Pin, 24pin and graphics card Power in black, just to break up all the white. Not sure which way I will go, but I suppose ill just have to braid the connecters and leave the others black, and then decide which way to go.
Well after a bit of a hectic few weeks, I finally got some more work done this weekend on the project, although it was mainly layout work and using a template to line things up,
First up, as you can pretty much see I mounted the radiator on the rear, the idea behind this is I want to keep all the watercooling on the motherboard tray, this includes pump, res and such.
I also made a start on braiding the Front panel connectors as I thought it only right they match the case colour. I just have to wait for the crimpers to do the LED one.
So I spent the next two and half hours after that working out placement of radiator and pump. I eventually decided with this layout. I have to order some brackets though to make the radiator fit better and just zip tied it for now until I can get some mechano parts from ebay to turn up.
The pump I mounted to the rear PCi plates, I know I would not need the bottom 3 so this made this actually very ideal for the pump, so that is 2x 120mm radiators, Pump and res all mounted to the motherboard tray.
Also put Rubber rings under the Pump to get rid of vibration, I am still waiting on a few things to turn up such as the lovely Tecnofont nano res, some mecanno bits and a few little pieces, but I thought I would post this to give you an Idea of what I am working too.
It was a bit tight, but in the end I was able to put it together without any tubes touching, before we have a look at the layout on the motherboard here is the little treat that makes the Tecnofront Res so handy, you just open out the DVD drive bay section of the case and this is the view you get.
So that makes filling the loop up pretty darn easy if you ask me, then to drain it, it would be just a case of disconnecting a few sata cables, a few fnt panel usb cables and 24pin pwr, 8 pin pwr and of course the VGA power cables.
It was actually quite mad setting this up and thank god I did not put the water in until I had the graphics card setup and this is why..
As you can see the tubing is obviously going to get in the way of the card, to be quite honest it is a minor issue, but one that was spotted in time and only caused a bit of re placing the tubes in a different order. Anyway let me place it in with the graphics card and see how it looks.
Now the loop is fixed to how it should be.
There are a couple of issues though I should point out and the main being the 24 pin pwr cable, I am defo going to get a braided extension for it so I can run the cable behind the tubes rather than leave this one with the unsightly wires on show.
I am actually quite proud that I worked out a way to fit the whole loop on the mobo tray, and I was thinking over time of getting individual braided cables for the Lot, If I go down the BitFenix root I can quite literally have extensions on the USB, Audio, Fnt pwr, reset and led and GPU power connectors so that to take the tray out I only need to disconnect connectors round the back. But that is for another time.
Just a shot to show you that I am nearly there, the top CPU window is getting a sheet of tinted acrylic actually placed in the inside of the case to make it flush.
The bottom window is going to get 2 layers of acrylic, the bottom one red and a layer of tinted in front of that, this will be mounted in the same way though as the original metal plate so that it sticks out and is flues with the upper left of the mobo section. The etching will be done on the red acrylic and if the white lights do not make it pop, I am sure 2 uv ones will.
the acrylic is cut.
Obviously the two large sections are as I mentioned for the lower section and the smaller section for the upper, the two lower sections will be sandwiched together with the black tint on the outside, I will be mounting these in a similar position to the original and etching the red acrylic with the front of the BMW seen airbrushed onto the back of the case.. However as the top window needs no etching. Let us see how that looks placed in.
As you can see it slightly tints the opening (will be having lights that can be switched on and off). I actually love the way it sits nice and flush to the panel. Hopefully more of the stuff turns up early this week and I can actually get everything setup minus the bottom windows.
Etching started on the front panel,
Remeber this is on the back
Then in the front lower window this
P.S the etching is on the inside so that once flipped it gets a better lit up effect from internal lights. it will also be the right way so that it lines up with the rear of it airbrushed on the back.
Back again with some more pictures of etching progress, as mentioned the window etch is going to be the opposite of the rear etch.
Here is the picture that we are working from
This had to be flipped for the etching so that when the acrylic is etched it will be on the inside
As you can see its now backwards, but it will be the right way round once done, anyway here is the progress so far
And if we flip it we are left with this so far
Here is a shot of the panel etch side up.
And of course turned the right way
NZXT ones in the beginning, but after seeing the range BitFenix Alchemy cables I decided to go down that route. I have to say a big thanks to BitFenix for supplying these for the mod via Caseking.
Chose white for all the main power cables and extenders, but chose silver blue and red for the USB extension cables and the sata cables. Let us take a look at them
I was really surprised with these having seen some pre braided cables in the past, the braiding was really tight as you can see from this shot.
So I Tried a rough setup just to see how the cables looked and here was the end result,
Thanks to the cables I was able to colour code the usb cables and the sata cables to match the BMW Mpower logo, which tie in with the mod perfectly.
I took the main etch, and the original lower outer plate so I could line up the holes properly, after doing this I repeated the process on the tinted screen as well. After that I just through 4 m3 bolts (lol no pun intended) through both sheets and added a temp nut to hold them together and checked it all line up ok..
As you can see it holds them together, I am waiting on 12 black half nuts to turn up, Ill use the same image to explain why.
I will replace the 4 crappy silver nuts holding the 2 sheets tight together (A) I will then add another nut on all 4 screws (B) to insure that the window still fits away from the case like original panel, I will then used either white tubing or black that fits tight over the nuts to cover this section, then one more nut on each of the bolts on inside of the case to hold it all tight.
Anyway why this is in place to show you what my plans are, I thought I would take a couple of shots of what it looks like.
So far so good, Just hope the nuts get here next week, plus lighting and a few small pieces, Oops nearly forgot, this is a sneak preview of something I plan to do to tie in with the mod.
I will of course add some more as soon as bits arrive and I get more done, I just wish I could get a heli and track em down myself tbh, I have been lacking in any sort of gaming lately and I am keen to get back to it.
So they sent over some black ones to start
They offer international shipping as well for those that are interested, at the moment they only have Blue and Black colouring in, but they have gold, red and green I believe on route so they can offer a wide range of bolts.
I normally don’t link to much in a mod log, but after the trouble I had finding the exact size bolts and nuts I want and colour I thought supplying the link for you would aid you guys as I know how hard it is to find the exact bolts you need.
Back to the mod, after the bolts arrived I had the right combo of stuff alphacool as well who sent me this.
So if you remember the plan from the earlier post with this picture.
Well after swapping out the bolt and adding a nut on the bolt (in area B to stop the bolt going too far in) I finally give the side window that stepped out look like the original case had and now I had the tube making it look good and match the case was easy.
I actually think it came out well, the only thing I am gutted about it my acrylic edge scraper I ordered won’t be coming now as they have no stock no more, eek. I have always used one to clean up my edges so now I need to find a different way.
Before I go here is a shot of the case from the side with both windows in
All I am really waiting on now is a couple of sata extenders as I want the M power 3 stripe cables to stick out a bit more and how they are now is full stretch almost.
Also still waiting for the poxy lights to turn up (grrrrr ebay, double grrrr), but I shouldn’t be mad as they were coming from Japan and I know I should expect the delay.
Spent ages waiting on lights and they finally turned up, but again another issue cropped up.
One of the ring lights I plan to use for lighting the etch was cracked... still though my lack of posts waiting for the lighting to turn up made me eager to start laying out the lighting, I thought I would crack on and get the LED strips In and test fitting the ring light (despite the fact I will have to take it all back out to sleeve them..
As you can see the ring light lights up the etching, In real vision it looks more like this..
Although the uv ring is less visible in real life, you can just about see it like in this picture.
The best way to describe it would be the ring looks as dull as the picture above, and the etch looks as bright as the first few pictures. The reason I am using ring UV lights is I want to put them together to look like the round angel eyes found in the front headlights on a 3 series...
Anyway I will leave you some pictures as a teaser until I get finished, by next weekend, I had hoped it would be done this weekend, but I am now waiting on one ring light.
I also added some under carriage lighting to the mobo section
Well as you know I had issues with the ring lights, determined to get this project complete I went ahead with backup plan of a small UV tube to make the etch pop, This build has been trying and annoying (especially with the ring lights), I have no doubt that I will probably tweak some things at a later date. Anyway here are the pictures of it built finally.
Posted in: Work Logs
