My First Case MOD!!!

[7angofragger]

Hey all!!! I am new to this forum and i cant wait to meet all of you. I have always viewed the mod progress on this website, but i have never really done a mod. I currently have a Raidmax Horizon case for my system. I have always been into cooling my PC. So i decided to find an old case in my garage, and do my first case mod. My plans are the following:

The Primary Side Panel: 4x 120mm green LED case fans as intake.
The Rear Side Panel: 2x 80mm Black case fans an intake on rear side of motherboard to cool the opposite side of the CPU and PCI/PCI Express slots via cutting 80mm hole in motherboard tray.
The Front Panel: 2x 80mm green LED case fans as intake (No cutting required).
The Rear Panel: 1x 80mm green LED case fan as exhaust (No cutting required).
The Top Panel: 2x 80mm green LED case fans as exhaust.
The Bottom: 2x 120mm green LED case fans as intake.

Once all the fan holes are cut, I plan on painting the case black inside and out. I will use all my current hardware, except for an AeroCool Gatewatch 2, which i plan on buying after i get finished. Just to explain the rear side panel fans. I am going to cut two holes to accommodate 2 80mm fans that will be outside of the rear side panel, blowing in air straight on to the back side of the motherboard to cool the component on the other side. I will cut a hole in the motherboard tray also to let the air pass through.

Here are the first pics of the case before i will start:

The front and front side panel of the case:

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/152.jpg

The inside of the case (if you cant read the text, save the image and zoom in)

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/153.jpg

A good view of the bottom and top of the case

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/157.jpg

[7angofragger]

Its getting too dark to cut anymore so i am going to wait till in the morning to cut all the holes...

[7angofragger]

the total price will be just a bit over $100 bucks for all the fans, the AeroCool GatewatchII, and the paint/clearcoat... tomorrow we will cut the holes, and hopefully paint it within the next 2 days

[simon275]

Welcome to the forums. Thats a really neat idea with having a hole behind the mobo to cool down the back of it where the back of the cpu is.

What color are you gonna paint it?

Also be careful cutting metal remember to file down the edges so you don't cut yourself.

+rep

[7angofragger]

thanks man... we are going to paint the case black inside and out, and have either green or blue led fans... the original plan was going to be green, but i found a box full of blue led fans, so i may just use them and save the money... and we couldent help it... it just turned 12am and we decided to pull the eclipse around and use the headlights and start dremeling :)...

[7angofragger]

just before we started cutting at 12am

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-09-07_2358.jpg

[7angofragger]

cutting about 2 mins later

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_0000.jpg

[rendermandan]

Why are you doing this outside, in the dark with a car for light. You really should wait untill its daylight out or atleast go in your garage and turn the lights on. You need good lighting to see what your doing. Not to mention the safety factor of modding in the dark. Hope you have all your fingers in the morning. Later! Oh and welcome to TBCS.

[7angofragger]

yeah, we brought out the big lights so we got plenty of lights now...

Done with the first 120mm hole in side panel

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_0030.jpg

[7angofragger]

A Perfect Fit!!!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_0041.jpg

[7angofragger]

Please post all your comments and suggestions!!!

[7angofragger]

Cuttin' It Close!!!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_0114.jpg

[simon275]

Nice job so far. Dam it must have been 11 at night when you did your last post in the states. Any way good cutting so far. needs a lot of cleaning up with a file. Hopefully you haven't cut the edge to close but I don't know how thick the metal is from the pictures.

Also who is this we business are you working on the case with a mate?

[7angofragger]

Well, we lost the screw that held in the cutting blades for the dremmel, so it looks like were done for the night until we can run to walmart in the morning... please stay tuned, because we should get all the holes cut by tomorrow!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_0223.jpg

[7angofragger]

yep.. we started at 11:25pm in the states, and were done at 2:28am this morning because we lost the bit... so i figure in about 9 or 10 hours we will start posting again... me and my friend are doing this case together pretty much to just have something to do.... i am still kinda confused on what color fans i should use... i thought since i wont have a side panel, i could just go with black fans all around and throw 4 12" green cold cathodes... but i just don't know....

[3pcon]

Well, we lost the screw that held in the cutting blades for the dremmel, so it looks like were done for the night until we can run to walmart in the morning... please stay tuned, because we should get all the holes cut by tomorrow!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_0223.jpg

this room looks kinda familiar...

oh yea when tango is referring to we i am the other person helpin out with this mod

[simon275]

Again welcome to the forums. A modding team pretty cool. Soo who gets the finished case?

[Computer-Geek]

You have the same case as me lol except the front of mines is different . I will be watching this . good job on the cuts you did so far :up: Also welcome to the forums :D

[7angofragger]

i get to keep the final product. i am going to swap out my current case for this one when i get it finished. I really want to see how cold i can get my processor and 8800gts without watercooling... i just woke up so it will be about 2 hours from now until we get started again...

[7angofragger]

Just got back from walmart! Putting on the blades, getting ready to start cuttin!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_1151.jpg

[7angofragger]

Just before we starting sanding em down

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_1213.jpg

[7angofragger]

Almost done sanding

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_1233.jpg

[7angofragger]

Just got done cuttin and drillin

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_1334.jpg

How it looks, looking straight on the side

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_1335.jpg

An away side view

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_1336.jpg

An angled profile shot...

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_1337.jpg

Now all we have to do is sand down the entire side panel and start on the bottom of the case!

[7angofragger]

The test fan screwed up perfectly!!! Now for the bottom of the case!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-10-07_1355.jpg

[SabreNoose]

i can forsee an issue you may have with those fans, as they are so close together, you may find that they will not be able to fit in the way you have designed due to the "lip" around the outside. i hope it goes well.

[7angofragger]

we have already took in account for that and we have fit 4 regular black fans in there and slid the side panel in... only thing i we will have to cut to make the side panel fit is just a little notch out of the bottom 2 5.25 bays... but that will be fine because the Aerocool gatewatch 2 that i am going to buy will take up the bottom 2 5.25 bays. the gatewatch's depth is only about 2.5", so it will work out fine...

[7angofragger]

Here we had to make room to fit the top right 120mm side panel fan. This will not affect the mounting of the AeroGate sensor.

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-11-07_0016.jpg

Here is the hole in the bottom of the case... The plan just changed when we found some spare plexiglass... We are going to mount a section of plexiglass on the bottom of the case, and then mount the 120mm on top, allowing more light to shine under the case, giving it an underglow affect

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-11-07_0202.jpg

Here is how it should look..... should....

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-11-07_0203.jpg

A closer view of the bottom of the case

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-11-07_0204.jpg

[7angofragger]

Cuttin the hole in the plexi for the 120mm fan

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-11-07_1341.jpg

Holes cut, and fan mounted!

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-11-07_1346.jpg

How it will look in the bottom of the case

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-11-07_1350.jpg

A closer shot....

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-11-07_1351.jpg

[Eclecticos]

You may want to make a Frame for the four fans, and fill in the Hand Grip.
Looks Good so Far!

[m0h3k4n]

Thougt something like this might look good, where you cut away the thin stuff and attach all four fans in the center with the floating piece.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f3/m0h3k4n/Untitled-1.jpg

[3pcon]

yea that would be cool but i would have to talk to my friend its his case and hes not here right now... i just do to the cuttin he wants to do...

[psychowit]

Damn good idea that'll look pretty sick!!! has to be perfect though

[3pcon]

casey wasnt here today he had other plans so i finished mounting the window in the bottom of the case just screws and nuts to hold it in...
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/226.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/225.jpg

another pic of the case so far
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/224.jpg

again any comments or suggestions would be awesome hopefully casey will be back tonight so we can get some more work done!!!

[NocturnaL]

You guys should invest in a drill press, they work wonders. But that doesn't look too bad for dremeling, nice work

[intergalacticman]

Whats up guys!!! long time no see eh?

anyways, thats quite an ambitious project there.
but how will you remove the side panel if there are fan wires binding it to the case?

[Xpirate]

I like it. I bought a case just like that for my folks. It is nice to see a completely generic case like that get customized.

[3pcon]

well got rid of all the little holes in the front and the back of the case in the 80mm fan location for better air flow

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-13-07_0218.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-13-07_0217.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-13-07_0216.jpg

next we are going to start cutting the holes in the mobo try for the 80mm fans then we can start getting the frame ready for paint

comments and suggestion are awesome if you have any ideas we are open to design changes so post on people!

[slytherock]

Nice work so far. Man this will be a noisy rig...
waiting for the next step

[3pcon]

Just got done cutting and sanding down the holes in the mobo try for the 2 80mm fans in the back side panel... next we have to cut the fan holes in the top of the case and the other side panel and then we move on to paint. At this stage we are still not sure what color we will be painting the inside of the case at first it was going to be all black with green LED fans, but now its blue LED fans so we are thinking about painting the inside UV green and getting black fans and putting a ton of black light CCFLS... but still not sure

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00088.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00087.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00085.jpg

[3pcon]

we started the day out by cutting out the fan holes for the other side. these hole will let us cool the back of the mobo in its most crucial spots with the mod yesterday by cutting out the mobo tray to make room for the fans. And the day started out wrong first thing we broke a drill bit...
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00089.jpg

a few shots of the rough cut
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00091.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00092.jpg

now the finished sanding and cutting all that is left is to drill the holes to screw the fans in

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00093.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00094.jpg

and now after the holes are drilled

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/IMAGE_00095.jpg

[7angofragger]

looks pretty good so far.... i am gonna try to come over tonight so we can work some more...

[intergalacticman]

kinda off topic, but i was looking at your LAN site, and your LAN party looks pretty simmilar to mine. anyways, for the fan behind the mobo, will it suck air out or blow in?

[3pcon]

thanks for checkin out the site... um the fans behind the mobo will blow in onto the mobo... heres some updated pics not done with the sanding yet i got about 3 more hours of sandin left to get it perfect....

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-19-07_1516.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-19-07_1517.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-19-07_1518.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s210/coal1t1on_lan/06-19-07_1519.jpg

[TheGreatSatan]

Nice work so far. Man this will be a noisy rig...
waiting for the next step

Ditto, waaaaay too many fans

[psychowit]

bro u got some nice cars back there! And nice mod btw. lol

[3pcon]

hey sry ppl we have been really really busy the past week or so but we will have some more pics up soon...

[elbarto241]

im really intrested on seeing how he is going to fit those 4fans in such a tight place, GL anywayz ^.^