Samuari Champloo

Alright folks, this one is (relatively) short and sweet. My cousin is heading off to college next week so a month ago he asked if we could do a Samuari Champloo computer case for his "off to school" rig.


Just a shameless plug before we start. Here are links to my first two projects:
Monster: Khaos
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ad.php?t=13445
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ad.php?t=15571

DewCase:
http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/f...ead.php?t=9060


Ok, so this is a Samuari Champloo mod. Samuari Champloo is an anime series that my cousin really likes. Originally the design called for a fancy paint job and more bells and whistles, but ultimately we realized that we didn't have enough time before he leaves for school so it ended up being just a short and sweet project. So, without further adieu....

The original case was an old antec case I had lying around. I'm dumb and forgot to take an original picture but it was just the mid tower version of this classic.

Anyway, here is the real front panel of the case.

And here is the side panel with the design sketched on using carbon paper.

Next stop, cutting. My methods are roughing out the design with a drill and jigsaw, then refining the cutout with a dremel. I even got my cousin to do a bunch of the cutting himself.

And using a 4" round hole saw proceeded to cut the hole for the fan in the front.

The hole is for this fan duct from MNPCTech.
http://www.mnpctech.com/FanDuct.html

After getting it lined up on the front bezel, it was on to cementing it into place with Bondo.

And after removing the tape, it was firmly affixed to the front of the case.

Then on to more bondo...

And a whole lot of sanding between layers of Bondo...

And in preparation for paint, sanded and strung up the metal pieces.

Due to time constraints *cough*hedding to school*cough* everything went "gloss black."

That's all I've got for now. Have to resize more pictures and upload.
More to come!

Alright, and for the next installment we have the front of the case.

First.... Primer on the plastic

Then a coat or two of paint on the back.

Then a few more coats on the front. Again... Gloss black

Three days later everything was "mostly" dry. I don't have a kiln to dry stuff out in and plastic would melt under too much heat anyway.

Next i needed to install the plexi onto the side panel.

Fitted in with some double stick scotch "industrial strength" tape

A newegg order later, the guts arrive. Nothing too fancy:

CPU INTEL|C2D E4600 2.4G 65N 2M R
CASE FAN|ROSEWILL RFA-80RL R
FAN ROSEWILL RFA120L-R RED 120mm RE
CASE MOD|COLD CATHODE KIT CLK12RD
MB ASUS P5K SE EPU P35 775 RT
VGA PNY 9600GT RT
MEM 1Gx2|KST DII800 KVR800D2K2/2GR
HD 250G|WD 7K 8M SATA2 WD2500AAJS %
PSU COOLER MASTER|RS-550-ACAA-A1 R
CASE FAN|ROSEWILL RFA-120-K R
DVD BURN LITE-ON|iHAS120-04 20X %

Came to less than $570. Not too shabby.

And assembly begins...

For the front of the case, we opted for the double 120mm fan method. It allows for a larger wind tunnel and a very interesting effect. Especially when adding fan controllers. Sadly we aren't doing fan controllers this round. Might get added later... anyway.... You can get the fans connected with normal fan screws and a very small screwdriver.

And then installed into the front of the case.

And finally it starts to shape up and I can attact the bottom part of the front bezel.

I'll continue in the next post.

Next up I've got a little more assembly.

And the internal assembly. Forgot to take pictures.... But here we are assembled.

And finally. Powered on.

Finally, my cousin brings over his monitor, speakers, keyboard, and mouse for a final setup and to make sure everything is working. He used his graduation money to buy a nice Samsung 22" Television at the begining of the summer. The TV is rated for 720p, but the actual resolution of the panel is 1680 x 1050 which makes it very well suited for PC use. The rest of the stuff he picked up at wal-mart and other various places. Hes not a "hardcore" gamer, so I just told him to pick up whatever made him happy.

All in all, hes got a pretty sweet setup for a kid going to school.

And there you have it. He's off to school on Friday and couldn't be happier. With a little luck, we'll have the time to give the side panels a proper paint job next summer and spruce it up a bit and maybe add a stand for a display sword on top... But when everything is said and done, this short and sweet mod turned out pretty good.

Thanks everyone!


Link To Original Worklog