Well, I have to start by saying the folks here at the TBCS forums have given me inspiration to go all out an mod the hell out of a computer. I've lookied through the forums, checked worklogs to see how the little tricks are done, poured over the forum tips and tricks and got it in my head to mod, truly mod, my system. Now, the most I've done as far as modding goes, is I've pulled a case apart down to the pieces and painted it...I hear you all now OoooOOoo...lol
This mod will be the first time I delve into cutting, painting, manufacturing my own parts etc. Call me chicken, call me skeptic, but I have always thought to stay within my own comfort zone to keep myself from growing broke while envying all of you guys with your ideas. But envy I shall no more! heh.
On to my idea: I have always been a fan of the Mechwarrior series of games, playing battletech until just a few years ago when they came out with the new gaming miniatures (BRING BACK PARTHA MINIS!) so I decided for my first mod to step right into the thick of it and mod a cube and detail it after a Battlemech.
I kicked a few ideas around at first, thinking a mech might be too difficult, but then thought about making the mod reflect the docking bays or hangar that a 'Mech would refit and repair in. I read Crimson's Doom 3 mod, and thought kitbashing was the way to go for all the parts I needed - wrong! A hangar would be too detailed for a person of my skill, so I went back to the idea of making the cockpit and reactor assembly of a Battlemech.
The Mod:
I had a cabinet sitting around here from a past upgrade I did for my last computer, and I needed to find another to make my cube. I looked online to price the cost of 2 basic boxes and was surprised to find out how much a friggin box cost nowadays! So I did the next best thing and checked out my local computer repair shops for boxes they no longer wanted or needed because of customer upgrades. Lemme tell ya folks, there's a treasure trove there I never imagined. One shop gave me 4 boxes of various size, 2 Dells, and 2 no namers - one of which fit almost perfectly to the box I had at home.
Besides getting the second hand cases for free, I got what was mounted to them for free as wel, netting a 40x cd rom, a 52x cd rom, 3 floppy drives and 2 PSU's (One a brand spankin new Antec 350W), and 2 Windows XP Home cd keys from the Dell computers that were printed on the side of the cases lol.
I got my cases home, measured them out and found the match to the one at home:
Which I then took them outside and riveted them together along the insides of the frames. I also took note that one case had removable sides, while the other was a single piece 'U' shaped cover. I noted that so I could figure out how to mount the side panel to that side of the case.
I took the top from the case that had removable sides and cut it into strips, enabling me to use the notches in the tp to mount the removable sides: