Biohazard: My First Mod. Finished. Check it out.

This is my first mod. It is not the most elegant or the most challenging that has been posted on this site. I posted 2 designs here about a year ago but ran out of time to get started on them. With the need of a file server being my top priority I decided to just convert my current box into a server using Unbuntu and just find a simple case to do some light mods over time to. I picked the case up from a friend who started to etch the word Battlefield on to the side then lost interest.

So over the last few months I have been slowly (very slowly IE: Slower than a snail) moding on the case and living with my laptop being my only general purpose computer. Last night I finished all of the mods I had planned. I did not take photos of the actual modding as I am a professional photographer and the last thing I want to do at night is take more photos. To be honest I had originally planned to just throw in some led fans and 2 UV cffl and forget it, but as time passed and the modding bug bit I added more and more mods to the plan. So Below I am just going to showcase those mods. Sorry for no proper work log.

Here is how the case started.

The first thing I did was add EL wire to the inside of the front mesh. I used hot glue to hold it in place until I used up the whole 5 feet. Luckily 2 “layers” side by side took the whole 5 feet. This took around am hour because I made sure to keep the EL wire close together so it looked like 1 solid piece. I would glue a spot and after it cooled I would move onto the next glue spot an inch away.

Here is a close up of the wire behind the mesh.

And a shot of the wiring

Then I added a simple audio port since this case lacked one on the front.

The next thing on my list was to add some LEDs for spot lighting.
I added 2 to the PSU.

And with the lights off

They project green spots onto the back of the dvd drive.

And 3 to the front of the case right above the 2 80mm intake fans. These will project green spots on various parts of the mobo and its components.

And with the lights off

One more

Then I decided I would like to finish the etching on the case window. My friend had already started to etch Battlefield on the window but gave up after the B. So with all the green the case has I settled on BIOHAZARD. So some quick work in photoshop and I had a image to print out. I also found a vector of the biohazard symbol and printed it. These are sized for printing on a reagular sheet of copy paper so

Then after about an hour I had this.

Lights off

How it’s wired

The last thing I did was stealth the only optical drive that was going to stay in the computer. The white drive will be removed and the stock “plug” put back in its place.
Open

Closed

And here are some more shots of the case.
psu

Wire Management

Thanks for reading and I would love to hear any and all feedback. I will be attempting a full blown scratch build in the future but for now this will have to do.

Old school mod here. Those wires need less mess, IMO. Engraving and blue/green combo is nice.

looks really sweet man

I like...I like...how'd you engrave the logo?

Matthew- I used a dremel, flex shaft, and a conical diamond bur bit. It took patience and I am not happy with the out come. I will be using a sand blaster to etch in the future. I picked up a small hand held blaster from harbor freight yesterday for $12. Going to pick up a 25lb bag of silicon carbide tomorrow from the local farm supply store. They cost around $8 a bag and I plan on doing the blasting over a large rubbermaid box so I can reclaim most of the blast material. With the small bit of etching I will do this should last me a very long time. The nice thing about using a sand blaster is all you have to go is get a sign shop to cut out your logo in some thick vinyl and then apply it to the plexi. Cover the rest of the area not to be etched in blue tape and then blast the logo onto the plexi. It leaves a nice uniform etch and will produce an even glow. The down side is you need an air compressor. I have a 80 gallon in my shop so I am covered in that dpt.

KUMO- Those wires are not seen from any angle when the case is closed. I install the Mobo and other components today so the other wires will be tidied up then.

Xcom- Thanks.

Man thats cool.

If you have a spare 5.25" bay consider making a box for the cables to go in. its easy and simple way to get rid of the clutter. two old cdrom covers work great.

I like the flat black Chassis Color.


Wear gloves when your media blasting.

[edit] that CD rom cover is kick ass but how do you open it manually?

Can you post a photo of the box your taking about? As it is now I have most of the excess wires tucked into the 3 empty 5.25 bays.

The interior was painted a metallic black using some leftover automotive paint from a hood I painted for a friend. I mixed the Dupont clear with some off brand reducer and unfortunately it caused the clear to flatten. It looks ok so I decided not to strip it and start over.

I always wear some leather gardening gloves and a face shield with a respirator when media blasting. I have been "sand" blasting since around the age of 10. My grandfather restored classic Mustangs and I was always around to lend a hand. I have a pressure style blaster and a siphon fed blast cabinet out in the shop. The small one I picked up at HF is just for etching and small blasting. Here is a link to the same one I bought. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93221

The only way to get to the manually open it is to remove the drive from the case and use a razor blade to cut the hot glue. The way the bay cover is made forced me to layer the hot glue out about 1/4" and then glue it to the drive. With out that 1/4" glue "spacer" the bay cover will not sit flush when closed. I had to move the drive back in the cage about a 1/16" of an inch but that was no big deal. The button is pushed by pressing on the corner of the bay cover which forces a blob of hot glue to push the open / close button. Its crude but I have been running Samsung drives for a long time and never had one fail yet. However this is my first SATA version and also my first drive stealthing.

I have had it up and running for about 30 hours now and the air flow is great. The one mistake I did make was buying a passively cooled Video card. My temp probe is placed right beside the GPU on the heat sink and It was reading 75c earlier while playing BF2 No worries tho as I added a 80mm fan to it and it dropped the temp to around 40c and holding steady after an hour and a half of BF2 on max settings.

I do need a sound card. The on board "HD" audio is so bad. I installed FEAR (which runs fine on my VAIO laptop and has probably the lowest quality audio on the planet) on to the new computer and it wont let me run it because of an audio issue. Up to date drivers and all. Foxcon says to buy a audio card to rule out a software issue. Its my own fault as I am the one who cheaped out on the mobo when I should have just spent the extra $50 and got a simi decent Asus or XFX board.

http://aclasscomputers.co.nz/catalog...ryBoxBlack.gif

Those mounted Backwards with notches for the cables to fit in work perfect.

Yea I always spend the most on Mobo/Gpu.

Cause you drop in a new cpu like nothing.

I hate being limited by the motherboard.

So I had some free time today and after searching the net I found 5 or 6 BIOHAZARD wallpapers that I liked and looked half way decent. Then I got to thinking why not create my own. So I came up with one in photoshop and then changed the color several time and saved them so others could use them on their computers. Here they are below. Under the preview is 2 links. 1 for 1024x768 and one for 1280x800. They link to the full sized image in y photobucket album so you can fell safe they they are virus free. So feel free to right click and save these for use on your computer.

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:bunny::bunny::bunny::bunny::bunny::bunny::banana: :banana:

Green

1024x768 / 1280x800

Blue

1024x768 / 1280x800

Red

1024x768 / 1280x800

Purple

1024x768 / 1280x800

Orange

1024x768 / 1280x800

Yellow

1024x768 / 1280x800

Pink

1024x768 / 1280x800

Teal

1024x768 / 1280x800

+rep, new wallpaper, thanks mate