Project: Monster Khaos

Great use of the empty can for the bay covers. Turned out very nicely. Make sure to post pics once your bro gets the system in it.

awesome color theme!

looks niiice!... i also like the bay cover:P

+rep!

That looks awesome! I was very sad about so few posts in the past few months, but this was well worth it. :) Great job, Wag. Can't wait to see the results of all your hard work after so many months!

Ok, its 3:56 in the morning (according to my watch at least) and I have some big news. The case..... is DONE.

Unfortunately, I'm tired, shaky, and can't take pictures worth crap right now... Sooo tired.....

So I'll finish up the formal worklog tomorrow. Thanks for everyones patience (especially my brother who is the recipient of this case!)

I did manage to take one picture that didn't completely suck. Yes, it is the real top of the case... in the dark... under its own lighting.

Now that is a cool pic. Congratz on the finish mate. Can't wait to see the rest of the pics.

woow, that one cool looking pic.:eek:
great work you have done with this case:up:
+rep for taking this pic( it's my desktop right now:D)

Ok guys, the last movement of this symphony is beginning. Hope you all enjoyed the show and sorry that it slowed down there for quite a while. Lets just say that loosing your job doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have a lot of free time, and when expensive things break, you think twice about how badly you need it...

Anyway, here we go!

First things first, I dug out my old orange cold cathode from way back. I knew I had one sitting around and wanted to make sure it was the right color and size for the application.

Looks like it will work just fine.

While assembling the top of the case, i knew I would have very little clearance over the power supply. This was going to cause issues for the lettering over the top. Not only that, but some of the supports on the windowless side of the case were going to be in the way of my cathode. I didn't want to, but some trimming had to be done with the dremel to make everything fit.

You'll also notice that the metal front has a notch cut in it as well. Thats my fault for not measuring properly and cutting the "KHAOS" in the top too far to the edge. The back also needed to be trimmed as well.

As long as I had a little bare metal showing, I took my black permanent marker and touched upthe spots with silver showing thru. I know that no one will ever see it, but it made me feel better.

Then there was the issue of the window itself. Since it was at the top and wasn't going to have the greatest "view" of the inside of the case, I experimented with a few different options. The one that seemed to give me the best light distribution over the lettering was a "frosted" plexi which basically means I sanded the heck out of one side with an orbital sander until it was barely translucent but scattered the light nicely.

A bunch of double stick tape later and the plexi was in.

The power supply will still interfere somewhat with the light where the "K" and "H" are, but there is enough light to make things pretty clear.

Here you can see how much clearance the cathode actually gets inside the case. It's tucked way up in the corner and I am a little concerned about things getting warm up there, but I did include a switch for the cathode in the back if it ever starts reacting to the heat.

I neglected to take a picture of the "M" panel and the acrilic install on there. Lets just say it was very straightforward and simple. It went on without a hitch.

After more sanding and dremeling on the drive bay covers, I was finally able to remove the protective wrapping from the plexi and get them installed.

Finally I could assemble the whole case.

Although they don't match perfect, I did pick up a pair of orange thumbscrews for the "M" panel side of the case.

To be honest, the front and rear fans were something of a disappointment due to them having "blacklight" LED's instead of orange or white ones to accent the transparent orange color of the fans. Although, once they are spinning they do manage to make the orange stick out pretty well. All in all, I'm pretty happy with them.

My brother has informed me that he will be building a completely new system for this case, so I'll be leaving the top drive bay open for the time being.

I'll conclude with some more "finished" shots in the next post.

kris, I have uploaded two new copies of the "KHAOS" picture to my server. they are both in a lot higher resolution for you if you wish to use them for desktop backgrounds.

You can find them here:
http://www.ghostobservance.com/uploa....1680x1050.jpg
http://www.ghostobservance.com/uploa....1600x1200.jpg

Ok, so these are all just "glamor" shots of the case. Nothing really exciting as I'm no professional photographer. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks again to everyone!