The Basics

mmm copper.

Today I came up with a slightly different direction on the design so let me know what you think.

Black & White (still fits with the "basic" theme)

For the outside of the case I'm thinking a more "rough" but still minimal style so paint everything flat black and I'm still planning on putting in the two 120mm fans up front with a blue lit vandel switch in the center, maybe add some blue glow to the fans. A couple louvered vent style grills for the fans, kinda like the bottom right in this pic:

Then maybe 2-3 80mm fans in the back with the same style grill. I want some kind of window/s but I haven't decided where or how they should look to stick with the outer theme. That's the black part of course the inside will be the white part.

All white, smooth, with blue accent, white lighting and chrome sleeved wires. I was thinking since the case will be pretty empty with the lack of gfx card and dvd drive I could rig up the sleeved wires with a bit of thicker wire inside so I can bend them to shape, keeping them in straight lines and 90 degree angles.

Sorry if this is hard to understand but I'll try and get something drawn up to better convey the idea tomorrow, if you do understand what I just said let me know what you think or if you have any better ideas.

I personally like satin black better than matte black. just a thought. not quite gloss, but not so boring as flat black. :D

I agree, also satin hold up better than flat as far as handling goes. With flat if something rubs against it at all it gets a little shine to it that you can't really get rid of with out re-painting, unless it was powdercoated. Powdercoated flat doesn't have that problem unless it's rubbed with some pressure. Liking the ideas so far. :up:

Ok you guys sold me on the satin black lol, but now I'm re-thinking the whole white inside thing. The one thing I keep thinking about is how should I mount the fans to the front, should I keep the faceplate and do alot of bondo-ing and sanding or should I ditch it, cut and make a new one out of plexi. I'm leaning toward the plexi idea right now cause it sounds a little easier. Also I'm starting to think it might not be a bad idea to add a cd/dvd burner in this rig, there so cheap anyway.

Ok it seems I'm having trouble picking a design so I'm just gonna start working on the case and hopefully ill figure out exactly what I want to do on the way. I'll be drilling out some rivets to remove the drive bays and cutting a bit off the front. Ill try and get some pics of the progress for the thread.

Great concept, I love minimalistic mods!! Can't wait to see some work done here!

Here is yet another concept for this case haha, basically the whole front would be a louvered design but I would still have access to the cd drive, power button, and card reader.

Cd drive closed:

Cd drive open:

To open the drive I would slightly lift the third slat down which would hit the eject button

Slats mounted to drive tray:

This would be the slat used to open the drive:

I would do the main power button the same way as the eject button but maybe have it so you push it in instead of pulling it up. I still need to find a way to mount my card reader somewhere in there, any input?

You could put your eject button in somwhere else, just soldering some cables to the existing button :D

For the card reader maybe you could make the top slat with a hinge, lift it up and tadaaa

Yea that crossed my mind, maybe I'll take apart an old disc drive and see how difficult it would be cause I would much rather have the slat push down then pull up.

Anybody see any issues with this design so far?

EDIT:

Just took some pics of the case:

I removed all the rivets, took out the drive bays and motherboard tray, and sandblasted everything. When it's ready everything will be riveted back together and I'm thinking about ditching the MB tray all together and just making a simple one out of plexi and some standoffs, is there any downside to doing it that way?