CyberDustin777

I've re-modified this post to be more official. We are away! 
 
I've kept this under wraps for a little while, but now is a better time as any to get this going. It'll help me kick myself into gear to get it across the finish.          Meet my mascot - Tina the stuffed Alpaca. Tina approves of the V71.     Worklog   First off - I stripped the case. Top panel. Front Panel. Side panels. I stripped it down 'till it was #### naked. This is an easy process with the V71.   And now, the hard work begins.    I grabbed the case front panel and very patiently (which may or may not have had excessive amounts of cursing) began prying the front mesh away from the front plastic.                  I am by no means a handyman. But I love to learn, and I love to do things as best as I can.    I reached a point where I had no choice but to dremel two of the centre mesh metal clips. Several thousand more curse-words later - I did succeed in separating the two.     If you're wanting to do this at home, I recommend a pair of long nosed pliers, a thin towel/fabric and patience. Don't resort to the dremel like I did. I felt like Jeremy Clarkson after with a chainsaw.      I decided that because the colour of choice was necessary to be bright as possible, I had this notion in my head that a white primer was best.    After a lot of cleaning, de-dusting, de-oiling with some light metho - the primer was applied.    I've been told there are grey primers that may have been better than what I had chosen - nonetheless I went ahead and primed:                 (I note that the above images is over two days. We had some nice hot days in Sydney, Australia during this process which really helped.    I also had some modder's mesh lying around for a different case mod and I decided to test the bonding between the paint and the primer.      This turned out to me mostly good, however I noticed that the paint did take a lot longer to dry.  I've been told that primers and paints can have different chemical mixtures and can sometimes have issues sticking to each other. Anyone else have this experience?   Unfortunately, Sydney Australia was hit with a huge number of storms and this delayed more painting greatly. There were a couple of great sunny weekends to do more painting, but we were either reluctant for fear of more whacky weather, but also the fear that the paint wouldn't correctly stick and we monitored the modder's mesh test closely.    I've managed to get the first coat of red onto the front. It will DEFINITELY need some sanding to get the coats right, but it's a labour of love as I'm sure many of you know.    But the red was a good choice.       The reason for such a bright red is because I want the end result to have two very different looks.  By day - it will have layers of red and black all compiled together. The mesh will be staying unpainted and as-is. The red honeycomb will peek through the mesh exactly like this:     And by night? -Well - that's something I'll have to show when I have the parts. (Still on the hunt for CPU cooling, GPU, SSD, Fans, 3mm LED's and many other little items to add - Saving in November with Xmas around the corner is just - INSANE!)   Just in case I drop the ball on the painting, I'm ordering a second front and top panel (with thanks to this forum for directing me there. Thank you guys).   I'm also calling up some friends who are handy with a soldering iron to help me out further. As soon as my funds come through, I'll be investing in some more paint and some tools to commence dismantling my PSU.   

Patience is absolutely key. Thermaltake have really done well to attach the mesh section with several metal "tabs".You definitely need a pair of long nose pliers and to take your time. Bend gently on the metal "tabs" firmly but as close as you can to the plastic. When you're separating the two, I used a big flathead screwdriver with a cloth covering the end.
Bend too far and you'll bend the mesh. Not enough and the metal tab slots back into place.
I didn't succeed with some of the tabs and I had to dremel two of the centre tabs. They're a bit shorter as a result, but it's still recoverable. I hope this helps and I'd love to see how you approach it!
 
I'll drop a line to customer support and hopefully they'll be open to sending me a replacement.

Sweet, thanks for the tips. I will keep this thread posted.

Hi Renegade, I plan on doing a similar mod in the future and would like to know how difficult it was to remove the mesh.  I am working on a Thermaltake / AMD build and would like to paint that same piece red.  Also, try contacting customer support for a replacement panel. I had to get a top panel replaced and it was fairly easy to do.

Sorry for the bad quality.

Little bit of cleaning up but turned out good I think.

Gday,
 
Just thought i'd share what i ended up doing.
 
Worked out pretty good. Easily dropped max. gpu temp. by a good 10-15C (especially the top one - now both cards are within 3C of each other at 100% load). And case is 20C cooler than my old 650d.
 
With the fan on the side don't really need any lighting IMO.
 

I am a huge Punisher fan and this is an excellent build.  I am going to feature it on our Facebook page today.  Great job!

My new Gaming Mouse, the Black Combat White.  I'm liking this a lot, nicely weighted, smooth black rubberized grip.  Good job Thermaltake and Tt eSports.
 

Nice demonstration and an efficient way of utilizing aluminum mouse pad~  Thanks for sharing with us!

Just a little something to tease you all with.  I just set up AMD Eyefinity across 3 24" Acer monitors, it's quite stunning to say the least.  Now I just need to finish my desk build this weekend to show it in all of it's glory.
 

Thank you all.   I got an update for everyone. Added a second R9 270X graphics card I purchased for my birthday.  It is massive compared to the original one.  Also I have an Adata 128 GB SSD coming in tomorrow for my OS.

I figured it out...lol.

Looks to be an awesome mod you got there AlShuryan. Keep us posted.

In Progress, PUNISHER V 2.0

Solved my issue with the mouse pad bungee and rubber pads.  Just a little liquid nails in there and their are snug as a bug.

Nice build

very nice battle station ya got there!!  great work!

Just a little something to tease you all with.  I just set up AMD Eyefinity across 3 24" Acer monitors, it's quite stunning to say the least.  Now I just need to finish my desk build this weekend to show it in all of it's glory.
 

Luna 20 will hit USA stores early Oct

Just a little something to tease you all with.  I just set up AMD Eyefinity across 3 24" Acer monitors, it's quite stunning to say the least.  Now I just need to finish my desk build this weekend to show it in all of it's glory.
 

Why does everybody do Blue LEDs?  It would be nice if there were a triple LED with switchable lights or if the fans were changeable without voiding warranties.

I figured it out...lol.

After waiting for a few months I finally got one of my own.  This is a very sturdy, well made mouse pad for the gamer in everyone.  With four rubber feet on each corner, and two spare feet in the box, it doesn't move across the table.  The cord bungee keeps the mouse cord off the table so it doesn't get tangled on items on your desk.  I have found my new favorite mouse pad, get yours today.

recently acquired a NZXT Spartan helmet!
 
 

I have modded just about everything in and on this build.  If you have any questions please feel free to ask.