The Mini-Rat Small PC.

[Bucko]

I did some work on the front panel today. I decided I couldn't just leave it standard, I had to mod it a little.

So to that end, keen readers will remember this case I was going to use for my Linux Box:

It was a case I only paid $10 for. I liked the DVD drive cover and the power switch. The rest of the case is pretty cheap and nasty though.
So I cut the power/reset switch out of it to use on this mod.

First up I cut out the front panel and also drilled a hole for a small fan:

Once I cut the front panel of the other PC, I glued it in place with superglue, before reinforcing it with Araldite:

When I did a test fit up, I discovered my measurements were out and the fan wouldn't fit after all. So I glues in the piece I cut out back in place, then ran a smear of Bondo over it and sanded it:

Then a quick coat of primer before it gets some spot putty to finish:

The other thing you'll see in the pics above is I cut out the front where the two small vents were at the bottom. seeing as that is the exhaust vest for the PSU, I decided it really could be bigger to make sure it gets sufficient airflow, so the cetre section was cut out and I have some mesh to fit in it.

[Bucko]

Here's how the mesh and the chrome surround will look on the front of the case.

They aren't attached yet, they are just sitting in place for the picture.

[Bucko]

Who's face is that peeking through the power button?

I didn't notice that! It's some guy on the TV which was on in the background.

[Bucko]

I've decided I'm only going to run one DVD drive on the PC, so today I put the second DVD drive cover back on the case, along with the blanking plate and glued them in place, then added some spot putty to fill in the line around the edge.

I also started on the switches to control the fans. They will mount in the case where the 3.5" floppy drive is meant to go. The switches will be behind the floppy drive cover. I cut the floppy drive cover out to allow the switches to go through. In the gap between the drive bay cover and the actual mounts for the switches is around 3-4mm, so I'll light up the area with a couple of LEDs.

Anyway, some pictures.

The floppy drive bay cut out:

The switches roughly taped in place on the case:

And where the switches will sit on the front of the case and the putty work I've been doing.

[Bucko]

I've sanded down the front:

And I've given a couple of coats of paint. It still needs a little more work though.

[Bucko]

I have been thinking my case needs something more and after reading Jergerjon's NLM thread last night it got some ideas ticking over in my head and I decided that for a Mini-Ratputer, it needed more Rat.

So this morning I found a scrap bit of 1/4" plexi lying around and set to work.

First up I marked out the letters I wanted:

Then using a combination of the Dremel, the scroll saw and a file I had the letters cut out:

As to where they are going and what I'm doing with them, you'll just have to wait and see...

I am also finishing off the painting on the front panel today (I hope) as long as the weather holds out anyway.

[Bucko]

I sanded them to give some paint something to stick to, and painted just the A flat black:

The other small thing I did was pull apart and paint a 40mm fan for the Northbridge.

On the Gigabyte DS3 motherboard I'm running there is no Northbridge fan standard, though there is some NB header pins for a fan. Even at idle the NB gets too hot to touch. I currently have a40mm blue LED fan on there at the moment which cooled it dramatically, but blue LEDs don't really fit in with this mod and I had the spare plain black one lying around, so with a coat or 3 of green t will be good to go. I'll just have to do a test fit to work out the length I need for the wires. I bought some three pin connectors from Jaycar a few days ago so I don't have to much around soldering on an old lead.

[Bucko]

Here's what I've been doing with the RAT letters.

First a coat of Iron Paint on them, except for around the circle on the A.

Once the paint had dried, I sprayed the acid reactor fluid over the iron painted plexi. Here it is before I sprayed it on, and an after pic from 45 minutes later:

Here's a sneak peak of what the front of the case will look like and what I'm doing with the RAT letters.

[Bucko]

Just a small update. I've had a bit of a modders block lately on what I need to do. I've come up with a few ideas for mounting the hard drives, but first I needed to trim down the 5.25" bays to the bare minimum, so that is what I have done here:

I'm only using the bits in the bottom of the picture to hold the DVD drive. The rest will go on my modding shelf of spares.

Tomorrow I'll repaint them and install them and start on the hard drive mounts.

[Bucko]

I know I said I'll start on the HDD mounts tomorrow, but I got keen tonight and this is what I have so far.

First up, a piece of mesh from the side of an old case:

Then it was trimmed to the height I needed:

To bend it I just used those clamps and the edge of that shelf for the hard edge, then pushed the mesh over by hand:

After going back and forward between the case and the mesh double checking measurements, I had this made after about 10 minutes of folding and bending:

Which will sit in the case like this:

I still have to do the bolts to mount it, plus reinforce some of it with some plexi, but that is the basis of the HDD rack.