+rep and a /subscribe from me. The Living Dead series is one of my favorites!
Printable View
+rep and a /subscribe from me. The Living Dead series is one of my favorites!
Okay, so I said I wouldn't get started on the construction until the beginning of the month - but that hasn't stopped me from getting started on the destruction.
I needed to take it apart to see fully what I'm dealing with here, since just the back panel shows that this case is going to take some work:
I'm going to have to cut that up and fit a normal ATX back-plate in there.
Next problem - the way the side panel connects:
As you can see, the side and (about 90%) of the bottom are one piece. It wouldn't normally be a big deal, but remember - I'm building a bottom extension for this case. What I will probably end up doing is cutting the bottom away, and then devising something to hold the side panel on without it.
Moving right along, here is the inside:
Yep, all of that is going to have to go. I don't need a PSU tray, and I certainly don't need a PSU/optical drive/3.5 bay combo thingy.
Side note: I spent 15, 20 minutes trying to get the bezel off. I was pushing down on the plastic tabs and trying to pry it off. I wasn't getting anywhere. Couldn't for the life of me see what was holding it on. Then, I bumped the bottom molding and found that - unlike the side molding - it wasn't attached to the rest of that side.
Doh. Screws. Yep, that will do it.
Here it is, stripped of all its plastic finery:
A few passes with drill and file on the rivets, and the drive bay/PSU tray is removed:
This will most likely be cut down and reinstalled. Why spend time building a new cage when the old one is just fine and already has the rivet holes drilled and ready to go? Once I remove the PSU part from it and support the back end, it will be fine.
Okay, so I have the case pulled apart and opened up:
I put the side panel back on, and laid a few things, such as mobo tray, optical drive, HDD cage and fan in to get an idea of the space I have.
After my last project, I could almost hear echoes, there was so much room. In theory, the mobo that will be going in here is (according to the manual) almost the same size as this one. (No, I'm not using a slot-socket P2 in this project.) I find that almost hard to believe, so I guess I'll need to open up the gaming rig and check.
More to follow.
I loved "INTESTINES: Ok that's just gross!". Great link, at least for amusement's sake.Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Crippler
Regarding the case itself: very cool. I love bases on cases (cases with bases) (sorry), and this is an awesome theme.
LPX motherboards... don't love those. But this is a decent-looking case, and it'll do nicely for what you're planning. Besides - nothing some sawing and rivet-drilling can't fix, right? :D
That's the idea! :):up:Quote:
Originally Posted by FuzzyPlushroom
Packard made removing the bezel hard to figure out on most of their post-Pentium 1 win 9x cases. I have one with a cyrix CPU stored away in the basement.
Not much new, but enough for a mini update:
First and for most, that which I hate to do - clean my work shop.
There we go. I really need to get a shop-vac. There was easily a quarter inch of Bondo dust on it, and an ungodly amount of spent dremel wheels. But, it had to be done.
A quick trip to the store, and I'm ready for battle:
Rivets, fresh set of Dremel wheels and 16 feet of angle aluminum. That means that this weekend, I can get started on the frame-work and the mobo mount.
The plan is to cut some pieces to add to the frame make it easier to install the mobo plate:
That will be the first step. After that, I will cut the back panel and test fit stuff so that I know how much room I need to add for the PSU. (Not looking forward to taking apart the gaming rig.)
In other news, there was a killer deal yesterday on newegg fr 4GB of Corsair RAM that I picked up. That will be going in my server, and the 1GB of Crucial will move over to this project with the existing 2GB. (Stupid XP and it's issues with addressing more than 3GB...)
Yeah, that one...thing is, I just got the email yesterday, but it looks like the mail-in rebate was only good for purchases up until the 31st.
EDIT: Looks like they have the same sale still going on, but with a rebate form for August.
Happy Saturday, everyone. Here's today's update:
This afternoon's work was mainly all structural. The first step was to remove the remainder of the back panel that's going to be in the way – mainly, the expansion slots.
This was a simple matter of drilling the rivets out.
...And there we go.
Next step was to cut some angle aluminum pieces to size. The plan is to use them as mounting points for the new motherboard tray
Seen above are the two rails in the locations where they will be mounted in the case. To make sure that I had them at the right height on both sides, I laid a side panel from another case across them and checked.
The very slight bit it's off level is actually the same amount that my workbench is off – so I'm not concerned with it.
A few pop rivets, and it's attached. Next, I cut a new mobo panel from sheet metal and test-fit it.
Not too shabby.
Next step is to get the back panel cut so that I can put in the mounting bracket for the expansion slots and the I/O panel.
Some Dremel work, and every thing's cut away. Here it is, roughly fit:
I'm going to need to do some more reinforcing, as existing openings are right where it needs to be mounted. However, this is good enough for the time being, as it gave me the spacing that I needed to mark out the holes for the mounting posts. (Below)
Here they are. They don't have a lot to bite in to, due to the thinness of the sheet metal. Once the chassis is painted, I'll put some lock-tite on them to keep them from getting loose.
I removed the mobo from my gaming rig and test fit it to make sure that everything is in order. Since it was, I riveted the tray in place.
Remember the optical drive cage?
Well, the time has come to cut it down to size.
Like I said earlier, it made sense to use the existing one rather than make a new one since all the mounting holes for it are already there.
As a last check before I get carried on further construction, here is everything test fit:
I had been worried that the motherboard was going to be just slightly too big to fit in here – it was close.
Well, there we are – that's where I got to today. The next step will be to build the bottom cage to house an optical drive and the PSU.
I found some molds you may be interested in. Here
