Modding my Buddies PC

Someone I work with has been having problems with his old HP and asked if I could fix it. I told him that it would be better to buy a new one, but he just doesn't feel that he could afford it. So I told him that I could upgrade it for cheaper. He also said that he's just sick of looking at the case and said he wanted a new one, but I assured him that a little paint will go a long way. He didn't choose any specific color, he just said "surprise me".

I forgot to take a pic of the entire case prior to modding, but you'll get an idea of what it looked like before. Here's the bezel.

It separates at the bottom, which will be cool later.

This is the right panel before

Here's the panel after.

I decided to go with black and green theme for the case.

Here's the old system.

AMD 1.0GHz
384MB PC133
OLD video card, sound card

I gutted Paradise Lost and put the parts in his system.

P4 2.8GHz (FSB 533)
80GB Seagate
HD cooler with LCD temps
512MB PC2100
Onboard video and sound

I painted the bezel black and the floppy and DVD drive green.

The lower portion of the front I painted green

And put it on.

Here's the panel for the window.

Flipped over you can see what I'm cutting.

The window gets cut tonight.

darn, i destroyed a case just like this in order to digitize the atx components inside.. the mb tray, the back panel.. now i think i'll put it back together :) it's pretty nice (lots of potential), except for the very poor alignment of the psu just above the cpu... the project: very nice!!!

yeah, lots of older cases have that crappy PSU over CPU design, I have a few around here, it really limits the mods, or you have to work around it, which isn't too bad.

Nice case BTW, the green almost looks translucent.

I am not sure, may be its just the pics, but green doesnt seem to be even. I'd say it needs a few more coats of paint.

After several coats the paint looks the same. I'll clear coat it a couple times too, but I don't think it'll change much. It's still a hundred times better than before. I'm rushing because he gave me a week. I need half that much just for painting.

Question. Under the motherboard the area where the holes are is slightly raised. If I use standoffs here the motherboard will be too high for the IO plate, but if I don't it looks like it'll short out the board on that surface. Am I just too worried or what?

So, I cut the window.

And painted the inside of the panel black. . .

And the outside green.

I painted him a mouse to match.

I do like the way it turned out. Obviously I took the time to make sure he had a real clean wiring job.

The only lighting I added was this green bubble light.

That case came out pretty pimp. And thats probly as far as you could take it before bondo comes into play =P

Exactly.

Very nice.. The first few pictures definately don't do the color justice.

Lucky friend..

yep..lucky friend:).. and a nice modd.. still.. there is one thing.. the psu colors.. :) .. and maybe a small quick etch:) on the next window?
this is very nice and like i said, it makes me wish i wouldnt have vivisected my old case... but.. as long as i have my bondo fumes... i can forget :)