Having been modding for less than a year, John Ibanez may say he’s a “Rig Noobie” but in looking at his work it’s obvious he’s not a noob. John is an avid gamer and that’s what he had in mind when built this beauty. Here’s what he had to say:

“The goal that I had was to have a pc with a minimalist yet elegant design, water-cooled and must have enough raw power to play the latest games. First of all, choosing the case to house my components was key to the overall design so I opted for the Lian Li PC-A77 case. The case has decent room for water cooling which I planned to do. The case internals were powder coated in flat black to give a nice uniform black all over.”

Read on and see what else John had to say.

THE SPECS:

Motherboard: XFX Nvidia nForce 780i
Graphics cards: 2 x EVGA 8800gts 512mb g92
Case: Modded Lian Li PC-A77
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer Quad 750w
RAM: 4 x 2gb Patriot DDR2 800
CPU: Intel Q6600
COOLING: Dual Loop water cooling
HDD: WD Raptor 150gb OEM

What type of modding did you do?
The mods done in this rig was a cut out top panel to be able to fit a Thermochill pa120.3 radiator along with a laser cut grill for the rad. There’s also a custom hard drive cage which was fabricated out of aluminum to hold my two hard drives which also to supports the front radiator for the graphics card loop. The first pump was mounted onto the motherboard tray and the second pump is mounted on a custom elbow acrylic so that the outlet of the pump faces the inlet of the front rad. There’s also some perforated aluminum cut out to cover the 5.25 bay cage on the side of the case to match the case's front perforated covers.

What was the biggest challenge in creating this mod and what did you do to overcome that challenge?
Aside from the case mod itself, the biggest challenge was how to fit all the water cooling parts and to achieve the best loop possible to make it look clean. It took about a month just planning and trying out different ideas before finalizing on what would the setup would be. At first it seems you could fit just about anything into the Lian Li PC-A77 case. However when all the components are installed such as the motherboard, hard disk cage, and video cards, it starts to get cramped inside. So placement of the pumps, radiators and reservoirs was critical to the mod to achieve the best tube routing at the same time maximizing the flow of water in the two loops.

What suggestions do you have for other modders or for someone who might be new to modding?
Just two words: Patience and Dedication. If you want to do some modding, you just don’t take out your Dremel and cut out some part of your case or just drill out some holes to mount your stuffs in there. Careful planning is required so that your case or any parts you have do not end up wasted. Do some research first for ideas and added knowledge and know the do’s and don’ts if you’re modding and water cooling. And lastly invest in time. You just don’t rush your mod just so you could use your pc right away.

In your opnion, what is the most important feature of a high-end customized enthusiast system?
Aside from great performance, it has to be neat and tidy. You can just buy about anything with money from 3-way SLI to water cooling parts and so on but making your pc look neat and tidy is another story. You don’t just cram in the stuff you have inside your case and just power it on. A high end customized pc needs also to look good. From great cable management to individually sleeved power supply cables, a tidy pc looks way better than a messy pc.

What games are you currently playing and why?
Call of Duty 4. For me it is currently the best fps game I have played. At the same time you don’t need a very powerful system for you to play it to its maximum details.

What game are you planning on buying in the next three months and why?
Crysis Warhead, Farcry2, Fallout 3. See if my current system can play these games at high graphics details. If not, upgrade is a must!

How long have you been modding and how many other mods have you done?
I have been modding for less than a year. I’m actually new to the modding scene. I had one previous mod and isn’t with me now.

If you want to see more of this beauty and how it was built, check out John’s build log here

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