cm 690 mod (GT)

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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

hi guys!

exams are finished but im still at school (BLEH)

so this guy that i was meant to mod a case for hasn't come back to me since we last spoke about it :? oh well

sadly my mod will be coming to an end by the end of this year as i will have to sell it off before i move to new zealand.
im going to keep most of my components but ill be selling off the case and psu (drop me a pm if your interested at all) but i will finish the mod before i leave


when i get there im going to have to build up a workshop again so no modding for a long time till i get cash....


this is the case im going to try get when i land in nz
http://www.computerlounge.co.nz/compone ... rtid=10170
i wanted a full out lain li case (the ones with absolutely no plastic but i don't have the cash for it yet)

comments welcome
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by Lithe_Joint »

My fovourite part of this mod is the "reflection" you made with the side panel...looks great.

OT:
I'm sure you'll be coining it in NZ, so it won't be too long before you've built up the cash. thereafter, you'd need the time...best of luck, DJ. Hope you find what you are looking for on your journey.
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

thanks man! ja it shouldn't take me long to build myself back up over there. ill have access to much much more (and faster internet :D) ill probably end up building a out building at my dads house and fulling it with machinery. cant wait!
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

hey guys :)

soooooo. im ordering some parts for this mod and for my special force mod too. hopefully they should be here earlier than next month. (finally getting some things)

more info in a later update. but as a hint: gt is going silent ;)
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by DAE_JA_VOO »

WATER!!!
That guy that used to mod cases. Now I take photos. True story.
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by ryanrich »

DAE_JA_VOO wrote:WATER!!!
+++
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

:( i wish:(. maybe next year i could machine my own blocks (been building some cnc machines as a project)

hopefully they get here sat monday:D
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

update time!
so my parcel arrived after much confusion on my and the couriers side. i could go on forever and ever but i wont keep you guys waiting :P

first up we have an extremely small box :| you'll see why i am so shocked in a few seconds.

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teh box

time to gut it :twisted:

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open box with bubble wrap covering 2 120mm fans....

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bubble wrap peeled away

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hmm another row of fans

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and another

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little bits and pieces

The line up

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7 120mm fans, 3 black cable braiding kits, 1 red molex connector kit and a 92mm pwm fan from arctic cooling

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another shot of the gear

Close up time!

first up the fans

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cooler master sickleflow red and blue.

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fan contents

here is something i found quite clever. the red led fan has red wires whereas the blue led fan has blue wires.

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red wires.... blue wires....

then i also got a pwm fan for the cpu cooler

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the plain box doesn't mean its bland

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contents of box

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this fan has little silicon pins that mount it to the frame.

molex connectors

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these molex connectors are for the special force mod

cable braiding

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these kits are much bigger than i expected. they may be cheap but to me it doesn't really matter

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front of packaging

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back of packaging

psu fan change

i decided to change my psu fan because of the noise levels it produced i knew the cfm of the fan was more or less the same as the ones i got so i thought why not.

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very dirty psu with standard fan

all it took was a few screws to be undone and then we are left with this:

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old fan right new fan left. notice the amount of fan blades

and then screw the new fan in place

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ooooooooooohh

i new it wouldn't be that easy though. so i tested it before i put it back and what do you know, it didn't work. i grabbed an extension and put the old fan in it and found this:

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positive and negative cables are swapped

so all i did was grab the new fan plug it in and locate the positive and negative wires

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black wire and red wire must swap

and lastly take a really small screw driver and press down on the pins to push them out

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close up of connector and little pins

then you swap them around and plug it back into the psu. when you do you get this:

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pweeeeeeeeeety!:)

assembled parts

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pwm fan on the cpu cooler (note it is held on with wire for now. i am still working on a real mount) i have reverted back to the standard fan for a while as the fan kept falling off

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all fans running

thats all for now guys. hope you like all the new gear :) more updates to follow soon

comments are welcome like always
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by japie_my_skapie »

Did you note any difference between the new PSU fan that you installed and the old one? Like noise or temperature in the case
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by DJT »

Looks frigging cool! I got same case, and want to put LEDs on the feet like you. Apologies if i missed it, but where did you get power for those?
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

japie_my_skapie wrote:Did you note any difference between the new PSU fan that you installed and the old one? Like noise or temperature in the case
HUGE difference in noise. before i couldn't hear myself breathe now i can pins dropping;) not really but it is way quieter than the standard fan. my psu wont affect the case's overall temperature because Ive mounted it so that it pulls fresh air in and not warm air from the inside of the case.
DJT wrote:Looks frigging cool! I got same case, and want to put LEDs on the feet like you. Apologies if i missed it, but where did you get power for those?
:? i dont think i posted it.
i find the easiest way is get a molex to sata converter or even a molex splitter. then just cut the wires and solder your leads to your led to that (depending on what voltage you want: yellow-12v, red-5v, black neutral/ground/negative) for leds i normally just put a 1k resistor on the led and run it off 12v
hope that helps
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by Sojourn »

Your work and case does not excite me at all.
Please don't take offense.
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by DAE_JA_VOO »

Sojourn wrote:Your work and case does not excite me at all.
Please don't take offense.
:shock:
That guy that used to mod cases. Now I take photos. True story.
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

DAE_JA_VOO wrote:
Sojourn wrote:Your work and case does not excite me at all.
Please don't take offense.
:shock:
cant please everyone:) but its good that people can say so

been a while since i did an update. should prolly do one sometime soon......
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

Like my last post said, I should probably update this project log soon :lol:

Pics and some Awesomeness to come (when I get time to do a write up)
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

Right… Update time!

Lets start with where the mod stands at this point in time:

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Okay so we are a little dusty… that could be due to the fact that something is missing.
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No graphics card!  Unfortunately it died sometime between last year and this year and well I didn’t want to fork out for it. A new one is on order though… 2 weeks is a long time to wait

A few problems I have with the build at the moment:

*The side panel join that I did a while back hasn’t really held up all that well. I’ll have to weld it back together properly this time) and end up re-spraying that panel (hopefully not).

*The cables are everywhere – I’m in need of a fake floor / cable management solution. This will require some thought.

*The drive bay covers don’t stay in place too well.

*I removed all the LEDs inside the case because they looked messy when the panel was removed. Those will definitely be replaces by some new slicker LED strips.

*The top USB port broke :/

I figured out an easy fix for the drive bay covers:
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Just a few elastic bands over the plastic clips and the covers stay in place even when you give them a push. Awesome!

Next up, that broken USB port.
I removed the front panel PCB from the case and added a little heat (thanks to a heat gun) and after some time the broken USB port was out with a new one standing by
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After that was done it was time to put the salvaged working in a new home and clean up the PCB
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That’s all for now… I did do some other awesome things to the case… but the cable I used was far too thin and I had a short somewhere. What resulted was a room full of smoke (blue smoke of death?) and loads of ruined wire…

I will most likely do some more work on the case tomorrow again.
Last edited by djwez on 02 Oct 2013, 22:14, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

It's update time again!

Hello 5m of LED lighting :D

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Thanks to the Chinese guys reels of LED strips aren’t all that expensive (considering these only cost R100 and are waterproof)
These ones can be cut into segments which have 3 LEDs each. It’s actually fairly easy to connect them up.
I took off the panel that was going to get some LED goodness.

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The spot where I’ll be putting the LEDs (note the patches of super glue from previous attempts which ended up in my room full of smoke)

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Next up I measured the strip against the part

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And then snipped it on the mark between the 4 pads

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I then checked to see how much space I still had left for wireing
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3 segments (with a total of 9 LEDs) is a very tight fit. This meant I had to be clever with my wiring but more on that later.
Next is connecting the wires to power the leds. The problem is these strips are covered in silicon to give them their waterproof properties.
In order for us to connect wires to the pads (little copper discs) we need to remove some of this silicon.

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After that the silicon bit can just be cut off or left on.

Next I placed a bit of solder on each pad to make it easier to solder the wires in place

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Then tinned the wires, soldered them on and heatshrinked it for neatness

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Somewhere in the past few days I sleeved the cable and added some sleeving over the LED strip to make it less noticeable when on the case. I also added some connectors since the LEDs will be on the front panel which will probably get taken off sometime in the near future.

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The cables required a few holes to be drilled (the pic is from before I actually sleeved the strip)

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A shot of it before it got put back together

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And finally, we have light!

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A bit before I actually finished this strip, I had actually been redoing the LEDs that I had underneath the case, which I can't seem to find the pictures of now that I'm writing this up. :/

I can't believe how many views this project log has had since i started it back in 2008 :shock:

Comments, crits and general opinions are more than welcome :)
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

Why am I doing an update at this time on a Thursday night you ask? Well I dropped my side panel on my toe earlier and its now gone some weird blue color.
Much pain != any sleep.

Anyway...

Something epic arrived today! but first a bit of a story behind it.

I was trying to get hold of a certain part for my pc about a week back and well no one had stock. so I just placed an order and thought I'd wait it out. Sybaritic told me stock might arrive on the 18th of September. yesterday (or the day before... I cant remember) I got an email from them saying your order will be dispatched this afternoon.

Fast forward to today:

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Yeup, that's my new GPU. Lets open her up

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Opening the box actually wasn't all that easy. Took me about 5 minutes of fiddling to get it open. Sadly the box they sent me didn't include an HDMI cable, Oh well...

Now for the card:

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Now I've been running it for a bit and it handles pretty well. Haven't seen it go over 60c and the fans are barely topping 35% speed (1300 RPM).

All in all I'm happy.

Now for some modding:

So what I wanted to do today (in between my studying) was to fix up my side panel.the little strut in the middle is my main concern.

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After removing all the pop rivets the plexi is free and the extent of the broken section is more visable

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My plan to fix it is to place another piece of sheet metal behind to give it a bit more strength. All of this held together by (my favourite) Quickset Steel

My source of sheet metal - an old case

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All marked up

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Cutting in progress

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And after a bit of cleaning up we have our reinforcement strut

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Roughened up both surfaces so the quickset steel would bond better

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And finally stuck it all together

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After letting it dry for an hour or so I added some more around the edges so it would look cleaner when painted

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That strut is already pretty solid and makes the whole panel feel rigid again. I don't think it will break any time soon (I certainly hope it doesn't)


One of the things I've wanted to do on this mod for ages is add some U channel / edge trim to the cut out for the window. I was considering phoning around to see where I could get some but then I came across some kids idea to make your own. All you need is some old wire (with plastic covering) and a sharp blade of some kind and then you simply do one long cut down the entire length of the cable like so:

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Here's what it looks like on the side panel

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and on the case

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Not all that much of an interesting update actually. I think most of the things ill be doing to the case will be small fixes from now on. There will still be some new gear arriving for this build though... something I've wanted to put in this case for ages!
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by THE_STIG »

Nice card, just make sure to download the 13.8 beta drivers. They work like a charm.

Good job with the leds and sleeving. Where about did you get them, seen it all over but usually much more than R100
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

THE_STIG wrote:Nice card, just make sure to download the 13.8 beta drivers. They work like a charm.

Good job with the leds and sleeving. Where about did you get them, seen it all over but usually much more than R100
I think I got the 13.4 /5 drivers. I might just get the Beta and see what comes of it.

Thanks Stig! The LEDs are from a china shop in Springfield park. I would just check any china malls / china shops for them. Someone is bound to have them cheap ;)
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

Right update time again!

Ive started posting this project log to the Bit-tech forums. Since this is the original project log I will continue to post updates to here.

so the latest update:

One of my main gripes with this build has always been noise levels. Okay, the Cooler Master sickleflow fans aren’t the quietest fans out there and I could probably get something better than them. However, the option that I went for is to just remove the built in metal fan grills on the case. According to <this> article removing the honey comb style fan grills increases airflow and reduces noise by a couple percent. I also like the black wire grills a bit more, so it was a no-brainer!

first off everything had to come out of the case since components and tiny metal pieces aren't a good mix.
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I couldnt find any masking tape anywhere. The next best thing was to just scratch the design into the paint.(some cutting already done)
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Also I couldn’t use my dremel either, so I used an angle grinder and a jigsaw.

All done!
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Leaving out the hours and hours of filing, I now present you with the cleaned up cuts
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While I was at it i cut out the two bottom fan grills (one for the psu and the other for the bottom fan) and cleaned them up.
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Cleaning them up to this extent wasn’t really necessary since I’ll be getting a couple of meters of U channel someday. It has been on my list of things to get for this mod since the beginning and I could just not find any in South Africa.

More updates soon soon!
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by GDI_Lord »

Thanks for the update/necro djwez.

Nice going, looking good! :-)
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by Mike_J.M »

Hey man.
Nice modding so far BTW.
You running a 7790 with a PII x3 720?
Are you experiencing any bottle-necking?
MSI Z97 Gaming 3
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

Thanks guys!

@ Mike Yeup, well technically speaking its a x4 820/920 (I unlocked the 4th core). This mod has seen a bit more of an upgrade which ill be posting soon soon.

I think the only bottle neck in my build would be the HDD . I don't aim to play all my games at ultra setting as I prefer to have decent graphics at about 70FPS. So I think it works quite well (for the price). :)

Should probably get to writing that other update... I got a bit distracted over the last 2 days :P
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Re: cm 690 mod (GT)

Post by djwez »

This should be the last of the not-so-interesting project log updates for a while. ;) also, I have updated the way I do project logs slightly...

While thinking about the things I wanted to change on this build, one of the things that came to mind was cable management. This case doesn't have the best cable management but then again that's why we mod, to better commercially made things.

In order for me to make some cable management cut outs the motherboard tray had to come out.
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Motherboard in place and the spots that the cables will be running to.
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This time around I actually had a roll of masking tape.
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And the marked up cut out design. Note the set square for getting the rectangles square.
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I also made a quick cut out design on the back of the tray to make it easier to remove that massive CPU cooler that arrived recently (more on that later)
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The next stage was cutting it all out. For this I used my angle grinder and jigsaw with a metal blade. I still don't have cut-off wheels for my Dremel :(

Cut outs made and very messy
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A closer look (the first hole was cleaned up before I took the shot)
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Now comes the elbow grease and fine metal shavings
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After a bit of filing, checking the edges and then more filing the final result
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And finally the mother board tray re-pop riveted in place
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In the next update I unbox this
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So grab that camping chair, your favourite beverage and a big-bottom bowl of popcorn and stay put for the next update :D

All images from this post on are hosted on Flickr. So clicking on any of the images will take you to the full res images. Also meant that I could post images at the correct size. WIN-WIN!
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