Good idea with the handle. My birthday is in 2 weeks .
Good idea with the handle. My birthday is in 2 weeks .
Project: Elegant-Li *NEW*
Project: Alpha FINISHED
Project: LEXA Revival FINISHED
Project: LEXA FINISHED Bit-Tech MOTM Nominee October 08
Update
While tearing down the case and transferring everything over to the old 900 case i decided to test a few of my theories for making filters easy to remove i mounted the handles quick and dirty like on the hard drive cage
the fit isn't quite right on the handles, its almost unnoticeable but the bay covers are slightly out of the proper position, nothing a quick tap with a grinding wheel on a dremel wont fix (i will get to that when i start mounting the handles on all the drive cages).
I also bent out the detents and found that they just by themselves they hold the drive cage in very securely, in fact i could probably get away without using screws at all (but where would the fun be in that). The bad news however is that the initially l area i was going to put the slot for the screws to slide is not long enough. I forgot to take in to account that the filter have to clear the handles. So I will have to make the slot from the rear hole instead of the front as the slot now needs to be at least 4cm long to allow the bay to slide out far enough to clear the handles.
now i have to finish up moving the system over and then next week i should be able to start making the cuts and hopefully finish this mod up.
The handles look really good one the front like that.
Project: Elegant-Li *NEW*
Project: Alpha FINISHED
Project: LEXA Revival FINISHED
Project: LEXA FINISHED Bit-Tech MOTM Nominee October 08
*Teaser Update*
It worked!!! I just finished modding the case a few mins ago and my idea for the drive cages worked perfectly... well not at first (more on this later). All that's left is to mod one more drive cage (the one holding my hard drives in my old 900 case) and move all the hardware back over. I should be able to wrap this all up tomorrow after work. After that the mod should be done for the most part. there are a few things i had to put off due to financial restraints but otherwise I'm very happy with the results.
I apologize for not posting any pics just yet. Its 12:30 am and i need to be up in five hours so no time to upload pics right now. But i promise a proper update tonight or Wednesday at the latest.
Glad to hear you got the idea to work. I can't wait for the pics.
Project: Elegant-Li *NEW*
Project: Alpha FINISHED
Project: LEXA Revival FINISHED
Project: LEXA FINISHED Bit-Tech MOTM Nominee October 08
Sorry for the delay in updating but here are the pics. I though i had pulled off all of them from my camera but i think I'm missing a few so if i can find them i'll upload them later tonight.
We will start with one of the parts of this mod that i have been wanting to do for the longest time and that is to drill ventilation holes for the psu since i have it flipped upside down.
Area taped off
I drew out the lines and used a punch to mark the position of the holes.
After i started drilling i realized that my initial layout had the holes to close together though i realized this after i had placed a few pilot holes oops.
I cant find my final pics of the holes but u can see them in some of the other pics when i find it ill add them here.
Next i continued to work on the bottom panel. i got a set of casters for free off an old shredder at work. I first drilled the holes
Then mounted the casters using sheet metal screws. Here u can see the finished holes for the psu vent.
(later i grinned down the tips of the screws so they wouldn't interfere with the PSU)
Next i need to come up with a way to mount a filter over the psu vent. I used black cable wall anchors with a bit of modification and i replaced the nail with a machine screw.
Now with the bottom finished i was able to move on to the most important part modding the drive cages so they would be able to slide in and out without remove the screws
Taped and preped
I drilled a series of holes first to remove as much material as possible
Then came back with the dremel and cleaned up the slots
There are 6 slots total 3 on each side.
When i did my initial test i cut a single slot and test fitted the drive cage and i ran into a problem. The fan housing is plastic and is held onto the drive cage with plastic clips, when i pulled on the drive cage the first time after mounting it and putting the thumbscrews into the slot to hold the cage securely the fan housing popped off from the cage. I went out and bought some 1.5inch long black sheet metal screws and drilled holes through the housing into the cage to hold them securely. I knew i was gona have to counter sink the screws so the filters could slide past them. My countersink bit was to wide to fit past the lip that hold the filter in so i decided to attempt to countersink them with a normal drill bit... that was a mistake
The first one went ok but wasn't deep enough, the following three holes were all epic failures resulting in damage to the fan cabling. I re thought my attempt and modified the filter lips to allow the countersink bit to fit in and everything went smoothly this time
All that was left now was to put everything back together
Mobo Mounted
USB-Header adapter before and after sleeving
The rats nest behind the back panel
It works
Final assembly pics
I still have more planned for this mod i decided i am going to redo my switches and get rid of the storage drawer more on this later. Hope u enjoyed the pics.
You're pretty brave. I don't think I'll be hard modding my 1200, ever.
I think that your 'system' for moving the drive cages, aka cutting the slot for the screws to slide in, is really great. Antec should have included something like that in the original design.
Also: I like your drawer, where'd you get it from? Seems usefull for USB cables/Memory sticks etc.
It could be worse, you could work at Starbucks...
Like me...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811997011
that's the drawer i have in there now i just got it, i use to have a thermaltake one. i use them for storing game cds so i don't have to hunt them down every time i want to play a game that requires a cd to play.