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Yes, this was a consideration of mine before I started. The fans I have are actually not terribly bright. In fact, in a lit room (I rarely ever watch TV in the dark) these ones are no more visible/distracting than any of the LCD displays I have on other items below the TV as it is. Good catch on that one, though.
Here I am with your weekend update:
Today's top story: Further bondo work.
When I flipped the case over, quite frankly, I felt that this side looked just ugly.
Just like the other side, I wanted to get the body lines matching up better. Once again, I needed to rough it up so that the filler had something to stick to.
Here it is after the first round of sanding:
As per usual, I now applied a layer of the pink stuff:
Then for the usual round of touch-ups. NOTE: here's another case of "I'm an idiot sometimes." I forgot to put something under the case while I was sanding this side, so I marked the bottom all up. Therefore, I needed to touch up some filler on that side again.
Now, aside from some finishing sanding, and some USB ports I decided I'm going to add the front, the outside is about ready to start painting.
What I plan to do tomorrow is some internal work to mount the fans and that will probably be it until my USB supplies arrive next week and I get some time to go out and buy paint.
Looks like you're getting pretty close to finishing. I have to paint mine. That beige textured plastic on my front bezel is starting to bother me.
This for the NES pc, or another project?
But at any rate, beige boxes are both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, people like us can't stand them and are the whole reason behind why we mod - on the other hand, they're blank canvases for us to work on. All these "pre-modded" cases out there are making it harder and (ironically) more expensive to get plan boxes to work on.
ADDITIONAL MINI-KINDA-UPDATE: I have now decided that this case is going to be silver rather than black. I put the in-process case in the entertainment center where it will live, and see that (aside from the TV) more things are gray than black...so, as cool as it would look itself, it just won't look right with everything else.
This is for another project that I have already started, but haven't posted yet. Right now, I think I have all of the plain boxes that I need, almost all from the trash.
The ones that seem really hard to find are ones with nice, flat fronts - no air intakes, or molded curves...you know, so you can make your own air intakes and molded curves. :lick:
Another micro-mini update: I'm still waiting on some parts, so work is some-what on hold. As mentioned, I wanted to add some USB ports to the front, so I'm awaiting those hookups. I ordered that cable, plus some impulse buys of fan-filters, rubber case feet and a needed fan cable from FrozenCPU on Friday. The package actually arrived yesterday, which is fast and appreciated, but - wrong USB cable. It was a simple mistake on their part, and they were more than helpful in getting it resolved. I just need to wait a little while more for the part. No biggie.
This is giving me a chance to go back over the project and tweak a few parts that I wasn't happy with. So, really, things work out. It's always good to be forced to slow down and take another look at things.
One other note: Luke122's comment below made me a bit paranoid :rolleyes:, so, since the system itself is working, I watched some TV last night with all the fans hooked up. Being that they aren't in the case, they were brighter than they'll be in the finished project. Thankfully, they didn't distract me at all. So that's good.
Sorry for that, I didnt mean to get you worried about it.. I'm just the kind of person who tends to focus on little annoyances, and get way too carried away with them. I bought a home theatre a few years ago, and my receiver had an adjustable display on the front so you could dim it.
I wonder how hard it would be to set up a dimmer system for your fans.. ;)
Oh, don't worry about about it, buddy. I was just picking on you. Truth is, you merely got me thinking, that's all. Plus which, it was easy enough for me to check.
Also, assuming I get a chance to UL the pictures, I have some shots of the system test fit together in the case.
Hey! We're back! Someone spill coffee on the servers?
At any who, here is this morning's update:
As I had mentioned before, waiting for parts gave me a chance to redo some parts I wasn't pleased with. The main part of importance was redoing the fan hole on the chassis.
I didn't care for how the fans would mount, nor the solidness of it, so I put a piece of metal in and remarked the holes.
Here it is, cut with fans mounted (with and without bezel):
Here, I temporarily put the nose cones on. I stuck them loosely with tape. (You can tell this by the fact that the lower one started to fall off right as I snapped the picture.)
Okay...nose cones removed again, it was time to test fit the whole system before I paint it. It is certainly a tight fit getting it all in there. In fact, I ended up ordering a shorter, round IDE cable to allow better air-flow.
So, everything in place and closed up, and here we go:
Now, as soon as I get the gumption to take everything back out, I can get it ready for paint!
