# CoolerMaster Mystique



## Silverel (May 10, 2008)

I've had this case sitting around for a good while now. Already did some hole cutting and wire routing, not worthy of a project log really. Had the thing running for a whole week before the PSU took a dump.

In turn, I proceeded to empty it out, and continue with a few more mods.

First off, I'll just give you a stock picture of it from some random site.







and if you ignore the front panel, there are the insides.






I got this case for a couple key reasons. It was relatively cheap, all aluminum, and stylish enough that I wouldn't be tempted to cut it to ribbons. Seems that didn't really last with all the recent down-time.

Much as I like the HD rack, it was simply facing the wrong way for me. Gonna turn that 90degrees for better airflow. Stock color scheme is irritating. I really wish they hadn't used purple as their color of choice for the tool free bays. Depending on whether or not I can get them off, paint them, and put them back on without destroying them, might be salvageable.





Here's where I'm starting from. Just priming for today. (cell phone camera, kinda blurry)





Already took the front panel off, holes for the fans have been cut out. This was at one time a running machine. See all those red dots? Those are rivets that get to come out. My friend over in the corner there is gonna help a little bit










Stupid red dots. There were more that I missed, some underneath the case as well. Mr. Ryobi did a fine job removing them, and the stubborn ones got a round with Capt. Pliers.





Anyways, with all that stuff taken apart, I had to tape off the bottom black part with some rather handy graph paper. Makes it real easy when taping since you have all those straight lines to work with. Yes, btw, that is electrical tape I used.









Also, since I plan on turning the HD bay sideways, I took that apart as well. Might as well paint it when it's separated. If I do get those tool-free bays off and back on painted, I'll probably leave the 3.5 and 5" bays alone.






Hello Primer.
Use good stuff. It's worth it.





Rounding out the end of the day, we have my Paint Room. i.e. A bunch of newspaper taped to the wall in my basement. I'm feeling quite good after sitting in these fumes for an hour or so.






Primered up!





Thats the last of it for tonite. Need to go out and get some paint, hadn't realized I was out. I'll probably be using a dark red, semi-gloss. All the fans are red when its running anyways. The PCI covers are chrome, so I'm thinking about doing the HD bays chrome as well. Depending on if the paint sticks to it.

Sometime next week I'll be getting a full tower case to play with as well. Gonna be some more painting with that one for sure. Then I don't know what Imma gonna do with it .

Ah well, til tomorrow. Gotta catch some sleep.


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## Silverel (May 10, 2008)

Oh you horrible evil stupid camera/monitor. This red looks beautiful in person, but trying to capture it with a cell phone (or just this monitor), makes it look horribly horribly pinkish. At any rate, 2 coats of primer, and two coats of enamel, and I'm very satisfied with the job done. I've included some stuff, pretty standard red stuff for contrast, IF in the event that it looks horribly pink to you as well, you can see the difference.


















Now taking off that masking for the bottom part worked out really well. The contrast looks amazazing. The lower side panel edge has been left black for simplicity, but the only lower edge visible with everything all together will be in the back.






A little irritated that I didn't pay enough attention to detail to cover up this brace fully, or uncover it. Fixable though, just have to drill it out, paint it, and pop it back in. Something to do while paint is drying I suppose.






Only one other mistake, and thats the goop that it was sitting on getting stuck to the bottom. Not a key area for aesthetic value, but a bit of rubbing alcohol and a paper towel took it right off.










Moving on the the HD bay. I wanted to paint it with some nice chrome instead of the stock brushed aluminum. First I had to pull out an X-Box R/F connector, and a spare PSU cord. One of many, many spare cords.










They got some primer last nite, and are about to receive a second layer of chrome. So far I'm liking how they're coming out, and hopefully when they dry fully, the HD's wont shred all that nice enamel paint right off. Ah well, I'll take what I can get.

More stuff when it gets fully assembled.


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## DanishDevil (May 11, 2008)

Wow!  You've gotten more done than me in the past month!  Can't wait to see it progress.

Yumm....red...


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## Silverel (May 11, 2008)

Planning out is what takes the longest. Having disposable income helps with going out and buying all the last minute stuff too. I'm kinda obsessive about projects like this. It'll be all I do besides work and sleep for as long as it takes really. 

So the red doesn't look like some weird pink/magenta then? Had me worried for a minute, must be my monitor or something.

Gonna take that little support bracket off and finish painting it, put the last layer of chrome on the HD rack, then let it dry til tomorrow nite to assemble it.


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## DanishDevil (May 11, 2008)

It does look a little pinky, but it's not that bad.

And yeah, I spent full nights in SketchUp planning mine out, but I've had so much other crap happen recently that my mod has come to a screeching halt.  I hope to pick it back up within a week or so.


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## Raovac (May 11, 2008)

As for the pinky tone, my 11 year old daughter has seen your mod and now she wants me to mod hers the same color.


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## vega22 (May 11, 2008)

looks great that m8, cant wait to see it finished.


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## Silverel (May 11, 2008)

Bah, it's just my camera phone then. It looks like I slaughtered a farm animal, not like I had a run-in with Boy George. 

At any rate, now that I'm thoroughly buzzed off the paint fumes down here, there's a couple more pics I can show off. Progress on this thing is fast as hell, boredom does strange things.

First off, getting those tool-free slides off was as simple as getting a razor underneath it, and pulling it toward the stop until it passed over it.






Then they just pop right out...






Stripped down bay, ready for paintage. I seem to have skipped over the primer, and my dangling contraption, but it's similar to the HD bay panels.






As for all those tool-free slides. Taking them apart further just revealed that the Lock was welded together (essentially melted), and those got broken apart. The stainless steel-ma-bobs are what actually go into your drives screw holes. Mmm... screw holes...






Got my bed of nails to keep em from getting painted to the newspaper.






Oh, and not to forget the drive bay, all finished painting, drying for assembly tomorrow.


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## Silverel (May 12, 2008)

Omg omg!

It's done!

Damn does it look good too. All the assembly was a pain in the ass, and there's more holes in the bottom than I'd like. BUT! It looks really damn good.

Lemme start ya off with a little something.

The backside came with these nice chrome pci slot covers, looks very good in there. 2 are missing due to the fact that I have a HD3850 waiting on the sidelines.






The back came out rather well. Nothing exciting though.





Here's the jewel of it. HD drive bay got turned (after much guesswork and lots of holes). The Tool-free slides got a layer of black to em. Went back on perfectly sans locking mechanism.






Here's a better shot of one of the drives installed.





Nice front quarter view. Normally you wouldn't be able to fit a fan on the inside of that front panel, but I dug around in there and made a few adjustments. Decided to use a solid black fan so as to keep from blinding myself.






Better shots with the side panel on. Makes the red-black contrast on the inside just a bit better.









Lastly, the front panel attached and DVD drive installed.






Alright, not entirely done. I still need to get all the hardware installed, and route a whole bunch of wires for the final look. Not to mention get it up and running with the meager RED led fans. So I'm not quite done yet, and this thread might be sitting for a couple days before I get the proper PSU. Some of the pictures came out slightly more red than before (it's really not that pink), but it's an even deeper red than that. Maybe I'll go back through with a real camera tonite and get a couple more shots of it's true colors.

I particularly enjoyed how the chrome came out compared to the stock aluminum color, though I'd have to advise anyone using metallic spraypaint to proceed VERY lightly. It doesn't take a whole lot to ruin it and cause it to start dripping.

Hope ya'll enjoyed it! Once I get some gear, I'll toss it in the case mod gallery. Anyone wanna give me some preliminary scores?


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## EnergyFX (May 12, 2008)

hey nice work so far!


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## philbrown23 (May 12, 2008)

wow! this is nice! I cant wait to get my rocketfish so I can make me up a project log!, congrats man!


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## Silverel (May 12, 2008)

Man, I was at BB today and saw a Rocketfish case for 48$

If I hadn't just ordered one the other day I totally would have grabbed it.


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## DanishDevil (May 12, 2008)

They're STILL that cheap?  Dang...I might grab one for myself and paint it and sell it to a stupid friend for $100 

Good work Silverel!  "Pretty in Pink" is looking good


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## Silverel (May 12, 2008)

I'm kicking myself for using my cell phone in the first place!

Redemption!!!


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## MKmods (May 12, 2008)

Very nice job, I really like the colors u used.

Here is a Mystique that Boddaker did (fricken king of detail, lol)
http://www.bods-mods.com/Mystique.html


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## DanishDevil (May 12, 2008)

Wow, that looks a LOT better 

I love the colors, too.  It screams hot rod


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## Silverel (May 12, 2008)

Now just a couple of days for shipping (-145$)

And I get to add in one of these


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## MKmods (May 13, 2008)

very nice, even matches the case color
(well planned out)


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## DanishDevil (May 13, 2008)

Very nice!  Can't wait to see it all assembled!  You better do some great cable routing!


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## Silverel (May 13, 2008)

Only thing I'm worried about is this THING.





It's an Auras Fridge JES-998. That'd be a HD3870 underneath it somewhere. Takes up a lot of space, and makes the case feel crowded, imo. I have a single 120mm fan on there instead of the 2 80's, and it takes up 3 slots. I think I have 1 PCI slot availiable when its installed.

The thing cools like crazy though. 40-50c on a G80 8800gt. Even without a fan it matches the stock cooler. review here

Lucky bastard that I am, I picked it up from someone who does reviews that decided to sell it right here on TPU. Still cannot find them in stock anywhere and it's been a couple of months 

Maybe if I get that Full Tower all prettied up I'll use it as my main case.


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## intel igent (May 13, 2008)

black & red always looks nice! the touch of chrome and the flipped HDD bay 

that cooler is pretty huge! i can see how it could get messy using the two 80mm fans but with a single 120 it shouldnt be to bad, how many other devices will you use? prolly just soundcard?


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## Silverel (May 13, 2008)

intel igent said:


> black & red always looks nice! the touch of chrome and the flipped HDD bay
> 
> that cooler is pretty huge! i can see how it could get messy using the two 80mm fans but with a single 120 it shouldnt be to bad, how many other devices will you use? prolly just soundcard?



Yeah, I've got a SB Live 5.1 that I'm planning on using for it. Mostly because the onboard doesn't play nicely with Bioshock (i.e. not at all in game, menus sound nice though). I was seriously thinking about getting a PCIe x1 TV tuner card too, but it'd kinda kill off hopes of crossfire unless I get a single slot card.

Then again, I haven't seen much need for crossfire after playing Bioshock and Oblivion all maxed out on a 3850.

I think if I moved that card down to the second slot, I'd still have a PCI slot open for the sound card, then it'd probably free up all 4 of my sata ports instead of just two. Not sure if the K9A2 CF has onboard RAID, I _know_ it doesn't do RAID 5, motherboards just haven't caught up to that yet. It'd be ideal to have 2 drives striped and one mirrored to the array.

PSU should be in by thursday, which means I'll have moar pics up sometime that night. Stay tuned guys.


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## Silverel (May 16, 2008)

Craptastic.

The site I ordered the PSU from got the address wrong. I called FedEx to correct it, and they said it would come today... lying bastards.

Ah well, perhaps tomorrow nite. Or I'll just drive the 30miles to their distribution center and put my foot in someones ass.


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## intel igent (May 16, 2008)

i hate when that happens dude hopefully you get it tomorrow and can post some more pix

ya need sound when gaming 

i think they still make low profile tuner cards


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## Silverel (May 17, 2008)

Lookie what I got today. Hehe...











One more little mod that I whipped up real quick. I had a spare 120mm fan that MKmods sent to me, decided it was high time to incorporate it into something. Appropriately enough, a front bay fan mod. The mesh was a piece out of the bottom half of the case. A bit of cutting and fitting to get it set in place right. You can see the bottom edge isn't quite perfect, but I was going for function over style anyways. Most of the time the door is going to be closed.










Now, back to start the assembly and wire management...


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## intel igent (May 17, 2008)

sw33t! 

that PSU looks right at home in there  great job on the colour combo its turnin' out real nice 

luvin' the fan bay mod


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## Silverel (May 17, 2008)

Ah. I wish I had the luxury of something with more room behind the motherboard. Here's the backside, got everything in place, and the panel closes up just fine.


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## MKmods (May 17, 2008)

Silverel said:


> Ah. I wish I had the luxury of something with more room behind the motherboard. Here's the backside, got everything in place, and the panel closes up just fine.


working on it...


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## Silverel (May 17, 2008)

Bad news though, putting it all back together again didn't get the rig up and running. Due diligence would tell me to take it all apart... I'm pretty sure the PSU blew out the mobo when it went though. Sucks.

I'll get some better pictures tommorrow afternoon. I needs some sleep.


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## Silverel (May 17, 2008)

...

No really.



--POWER CORD  ME!--

I used the one that came with the PSU instead of the 5yr old one that I had lying around. :shadedshu

Booted right up. 

At least that's a good thing. Who'd have thought it could be the power cord though? I mean really? That happens?

-sigh- Now I really need to sleep... Right after I install CoD4...


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## MKmods (May 17, 2008)

lol, sleep....who needs it. for the first time in my life I am OCing and its so much fun I couldnt possibly sleep.

I actually had a bad power cord a few years ago, it took so long to figure out. Glad you got it sorted.


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## Silverel (May 17, 2008)

Kinda makes me wonder if the Ultra still works, lol. Ah well, an upgrade is an upgrade. Better to have something brand-new and proven than trying to run an old junker with a 20-24pin adapter, a molex to PCIe adapter, and a molex to 4-pin CPU adapter. Broke it in last nite with 4 hours of CoD (thanks to Xazax), which concurrently, means that I have badly forsaken any semblance of sleep. 

Tonite will be an OC'ing, and benchmarking extravaganza. Gonna clock up my CPU to at least 3.36 like I had it before and post a whole slew of results. Lucky for me, I have two computers to do this on, so I can play a little bit o Halo on my old rig, while the new one crunches some numbers. I took a couple pictures with the lights out, but it was so dark I didn't really want to post them up. I'm really diggin' the flat cables on this modular Corsair. Makes things so much easier with a low clearance mobo tray. Kinda disappointed with it in one aspect though, seems one of the PCI-e ports got a little melted or something.

Ah well, I'll be getting started on the Dark Tower Mod early next week... This one seems just about finished.


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## Silverel (Jun 11, 2008)

Ah, just a few final touches, and I'm done playing with it. Added some ramsinks to the MOSFETs. There's a second revision of this board that had the sole change of a heatsink going across these, and my only option short of buying the new board was to do it myself. Which I prefer anyway. Bit of a tight fit, but they're still holding on tight now.






I also got some black SATA cables, and SATA DVD drive so I could get rid of that IDE one. Much less cluttered now. Also, with the new camera, details are a lot better. You can see the little chipset fan I added to the SB.






Really good macro on this camera... I'm so happy. I might even start posting picks of the Dark Tower mod. lol. It's been dragging on forever since all the waiting.






Not bad for an 80$ camera eh? Gotta love finding sweet deals at TigerDirect once in a great while.


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## DanishDevil (Jun 11, 2008)

Looks awesome dude!  I personally love lots of neat little things rather than one big thing like mofset cooling and cable sleeving.  Looks great 

*hides in the corner when he realizes he needs to get off his arse and finish the cosmos s*


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## steelkane (Jun 12, 2008)

That's quite a bit of work your put in, with the rivets, paint, & cutting. Nice modding, I like the way it turned out.


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## xyzunit (Aug 30, 2008)

That thing is beastly. Makes me feel unmotivated


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## Silverel (Feb 6, 2009)

No no, it's not a zombie poke at this thread. It IS however, a very much desired hardware refresh!

My thanks go out to MKmods for the 2 HD4830's, LiNKiN for the DKA790GX, and BrooksyX for the 2 AC Accelero's!

Now, the sexy shots.



















It is a good day. Now to get it all installed without killing Vista entirely, and more pics tomorrow.


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## DanishDevil (Feb 6, 2009)

Looks sweet!  I never knew how tall those Acceleros were.


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## phanbuey (Feb 6, 2009)

those look so sweet with the S2's... nice build.


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## Silverel (Feb 6, 2009)

Yanno... if I were a smarter bugger, I'd have backed up this drive as I was getting those cards all snazzed up...

I'll have to get this stuff together tomorrow.


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## RevengE (Feb 6, 2009)

Nice Job man Looks Great.


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## Silverel (Feb 7, 2009)

Vista Ultimate is a retarded sexy pimp.

I thought about all the crazy things I could have done to get this working right...

Uninstalling mobo drivers
Wiping out my ATI folder
Some 15 step process to get everything right

In the end, I said fuck it, and just threw everything in here with reckless abandon. If the shit broke, I had my stuff backed up on another drive, and it would have been a format/reinstall.

The retarded pimp came along, and bitch-smacked everything into proper working order. This is how things are supposed to work. I haven't even restarted for the first time yet, and I'm online.

Why people have issues with Vista all the time is so far beyond me... If I did this on XP, it would have had a heart attack, BSOD, shat itself, and then caught fire shortly before giving me the middle finger and pissing on my boots.

I'm going to restart now. Load back in to my desktop. Shutdown, install my second card, then come back to post some pics, and a 3dmark06 run.

Fucking retarded sexy pimp. Gotta love it.


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## Silverel (Feb 7, 2009)

One card working so far. My 3850 scored around 8300, so its a pretty significant gain for me 





CFX Enabled... I think I messed with some other settings when I set it up though. Might also be severly limited by my aging 5kBE


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## DRDNA (Feb 7, 2009)

Very Nice work ! I see its paying off too.......lol you should do side jobs on casesThey ship to you the case ....you ship back the pimped out case


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## Silverel (Feb 8, 2009)

The 8.12's get me another 300 points at stock speeds. Gonna crank em up a little bit methinks.


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## Silverel (Feb 8, 2009)

Alrighty. This is kinda fun actually.

Using Rivatuner for clock setting (AOD didn't work, AMD GPU clock tool didn't work), GPUz for temperature tracking, and FurMark for stress testing.

In FurMark, I'm doing 120s blocks of time in stability mode. Settings are for 1024x768 Fullscreen,No AA or post processing. Doing a visual check for artifacts in the last 30s of each run, and allowing about 30s cooldown inbetween.

So far... My first driver failure at 711gpu/996mem, seems xfire doesn't restart along with the standard drivers either. This probably has something to do with catalyst AI. In the non-working Overdrive settings, the max was 700/1000. My previous tick before that was 700/984. I think I might be stuck at 700/1000 short of a bios flash.


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## Silverel (Feb 8, 2009)

Hell yeah.





Seems the memory OC went quite well... I really like these cards 

idle at 34/42
load at 54/67

The second card is hotter because its on the bottom with less airflow (?)
Don't worry. When this rig gets moved to the Dark Tower, that'll change... hehe


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## Silverel (Feb 21, 2009)

Got 9.2's loaded up. Stock settings seem a bit down for CFX. Gonna clock things up a bit and see if they scale better or something. I'm more in it for stability than anything, so if these start throwing weird crashes around I'll scale em back to the 8.12's I had before.







Oddities continue.

Not really sure why the lack in performance with these drivers. o.o I must be doing something wrong.


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## MKmods (Feb 26, 2009)

I am really glad you like the cards, Beautiful work so far..
(I got my highest 3DMark06 score with those cards, trying to get the 9600s to catch up)
http://service.futuremark.com/compare?3dm06=9195024


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## _jM (Feb 26, 2009)

Very nice mod you have there. I love the color scheme you have going... 10 outa 10 from me. Good to see all the time you spent pays off eh?


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