My First Mod, 56k'ers be patient.

[craigr1982]

Hi All,

This is my first post so please bear with me. I have been looking through all your mods and case gallerys with great interest and respect. You all seem to know what your doing. I am a self confessed mod noob. Anyway I currently have a SuperFlower case with top and side windows but it isnt big enough to fit my 120mm Radiator!! How dodgy is that?!?! So I went into the loft and found a victim for my modding.

Here is a pic of my current rig. It is a Asus A7N8X - E Deluxe with AMD 3200, 1 GB of Ram, DVD Dual layer burner, EYE-TEK 550watt PSU and my Asetek watercooling, wanted a DangerDen but cashflow dried up :mad:

http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/current_rig.jpg
The wiring is messy despite psu sleeving and my rounded IDE's are a bit too long to hide. It has 2 80mm fans at front, 1 80mm on top and my 120mm rad on the back.

Here is the victim I found, poor unsuspecting thing.
http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/victim.jpg
One VERY NASTY case. Probably very cheap, dont know how long I have had it and I have never used it so what does it matter if I ruin it?

My plan is to strip it down, paint the chassis, remove one of the CD bays as I only need 3, move the fd and hd cage up so I can fit 1 120mm fan at the front. Will increase airflow and reduce noise level. Also want to make a 120mm blowhole on top and then mount my rad on the back with fan obv. I will have acyrilic windows on side and depending on whether I upgrade my rad to a dual 120mm I might have an acyrilic top too.

After a bit of work yesterday I managed to go from this,
http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/chassis_apart.jpg
to this
http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/chassis_cd_fd.jpg
As you can see I have modded the CD cage and moved the HD bay up to allow space for my 120mm intake. Tomorrow I hope to dremel my 120mm diameter hole and mount my intake fan.

When this has been done I will post some more pics.

Let me know what you think so far.

Craigr1982

[Frakk]

me like so far. that old case has so much potential, a great victim for modding. keep it coming.

[Guttenaffe]

What case company is that "victim" PC? I have that same chassis, mine is from the late 90's. Mine has different bezel and top, also the sides of mine had plastic covering them. I was wondering what brand it was as I sort of like it to be used on client PCs. As they have a mobo tray, tons of PUS clearance, 80mm exhaust and room for two 80mm fans on the back.

I see an “E-Star” on the front but that don’t mean anything on most cases… So much re-branding goes on with them it's crazy!

[Xato]

i have one which looks kinda the same, but is older i beleive. I should probly try out modding it.

[craigr1982]

Ah, I love the smell of Dremel in the morning!!

I have no idea what the case is. The box that it is in is just a plain white tower box. No make or model. Your right about the specs though. Plenty of room for all sorts and the removable mobo tray is ideal. Just got to mod all the damn 80mm's into 120mm's.

I might put some LED's on my new front, I plan to put a metal sheet on the front instead of that awful bezel. Any idea where I can get some? I live in UK so need somewhere that ships here.

[craigr1982]

Well, Day 2 has been cut short due to an interview later on. Good in a way cos I get money to upgrade my pc but bad cos I wont have time to finish my mod. But we will have to see what happens. Here's some more pics for you to make comments on.

http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/case_hole.jpg

As you can see I cut the hole including the convex bit, never did like it anyway.

http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/fans_etc.jpg

Heres what I plan to put in. Unfortunately I sneezed while dremmelling the bottom edge. Damn Hayfever!! I will probably remake it at a later date.

http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/case_front.jpg

This is just taped in as I ran out of time. I will mount it properly tomorrow.
http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/fans_inside.jpg

This fan is just my spare one that came with my case. I am using Vantec Stealth 120mm's and once this build is ready they will be swapped over.

Now I will go to my interview, Wish me luck!

[Xato]

GL with the interview...
So was it an inteview for a job?

[Frakk]

you wouldnt have had to cut the whole front out, only the 4 screwholes and the one 120mm. oh well i guess its too late :D

[Malatory]

Looking good so far ... and Dido on what Frakk said.

Sheet metal, check your local hardware store. US stores are Lowels, ACE to name a few.

[craigr1982]

Yes the interview was for a job, but i have turned it down cos it's just not hands on enough, 1st line support = boring as hell. I'm looking for 2nd or 3rd line, network/ server admin or field service engineer. Alot more exciting.

In response to your comments, I did have to cut out the entire fan mount as there was a convex dome for an 80mm fan and if i left it there i wouldn't have had any mounting holes for my 120mm.

Tomorrow should be a good day, I gotta take off the backplate with the slots as its all one unit and remake it so I got room for my 120mm rad.

[craigr1982]

Well, Ive taken a break from BF2 (Awesome Game!!) and started on my case again. I just looked on fleabay and saw this.

http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/cdrack.jpg

Isnt it horrible, So I've just been to Argos to get one. No, not to mount on my wall or hold dvd's in. I will reveal all shortly.

But first I will post some more pics of the foul beast.

http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/rack1.jpg

This is all that I am interested in that came out of the box.

http://www.geocities.com/craigstewart_uk/door.jpg

Now this is my plan.

I'm sure you have all seen Crimsonsky's Doom 3 Worklog and if you havent SHAME ON YOU!

Now I have been looking to hide my CD drives and Floppy for a while and thought of a door like he has covering his LCD, I asked him for some help researching, manufacturing and general advice. He was most helpful but I am nowhere near as skilled as he is so making it myself is just far out of my league. Having it made professionally is too costly £150 for one. Where's my money tree when I need it?

So I plan to use the top and bottom of the cabinet as runners, trim the door slightly so it fits on front of my case and mount it. I plan to incorperate a lock into it also. Maybe when I get some money I will make it servo activated but not yet. I will just leave the room available in case.

If your still in the dark about my plan, I will post pics up when it has been completed.

[Frakk]

I did have to cut out the entire fan mount as there was a convex dome for an 80mm fan and if i left it there i wouldn't have had any mounting holes for my 120mm.

the 120mm hole would have eliminated the 80mm convex dome. you wouldnt have had mounting holes, and thatswhy i said you could drill them out after placing the fan so it wouldnt interfere with the other small holes there. anyways, its too late now, maybe next time :) and that sliding door is gonna look great. ive never liked the usual doors on cases because they take up so much space and look ugly when you open them, but this will be the best choice imo

[craigr1982]

well whats done is done, i've cut one side and the corner off so that I have two identical corners now. trimmmed the sides down so they dont interfere with the cd bays etc. also cut 2 lengths off to hold the door when it is up. so now I just have to mount them. I would show you pics but my camera is playing silly buggers. Maybe time for a new one.

[jonopaul01]

Looking good. I usually don't like doors as i just leave them open because after the novelty has worn off they just get in the way and I am too lazy to open and close them, no matter what they look like. But as this is a mod, who cares about practicality? (except Frakk). Good luck, keep us updated.

[craigr1982]

Sorry about the lack of updates, time and money seemed to be against me but now I really want to finish that case. expect pictures soon.