Project: Charge!

[Frenkie]

New year, New mod.

This time I am building one of the largest mods after my C&C mod. Yet another one with a Half-Life 2 theme. A lot of mods in this theme-genre are allready made, so I needed to make something original and unique. In the game we see our main character Gordon Freeman loading up his powersuit on loading stations throughout the game. So I am building one of those loading stations as a mod, and I call it Charge!.

I did a lot of homework on this mod, also made a lot of screenshots in the game. After that I used my just finished CAD knowledge to make a scale drawing of the actual mod. This way I could use my newly obtained knowledge to a good purpose!

The unit in the game is pretty slim and tall. The first redundant case I got from one of my clanmates (Thanx Enigma) was not only very heavy, but also in the wrong proportions.

After extensive research I had to admit there was not one case that came close to my objective. But then Coolermaster came to the rescue: Why not use 2 (two) Coolermaster Elite 340 cases ? It was so close to the proportions I needed, it was uncanny Thanx Coolermaster !

Actually using two cases was another lucky strike: I need to mod the top case very extensively (read: tear it apart ). Why? Because I got it in my head to make the centerpiece of the Half-Life 2 model also the centerpiece of the computer: The heart of the CPU will be the heart of the mod. And whats in my head, need to be done: Aut inveniam viam aut faciam.

to be continued....

[artoodeeto]

woo hoo! Another Frenkie mod! Looks like this one will be pretty sweet - I really like the HL2 machinery designs!

[Frenkie]

As you can see, the Elite case on top will be severely gutted. The 5,25" bays, the 3,5" bays and the PSU bay all had to go, to make room for the new mobo position. The I/O shield at the rear is now a lot higher and a lot deeper inside the case. That’s gonna be fun fixing that
First thing is to establish a solid point for the mobo to hang on. I drilled the rivets out of the original reinforcement bar, and reattached it again in the new position.

The surrounding of the backshield also has to move quite a bit.

Measurements have to be spot on.

Transferring them to the rear.

There, the first piece is out.

This is how the rear looks now.

Artist impression of the final read view.

[Frenkie]

A very important part of this mod is the CPU cooler.

And I found the ideal cooler at Thermaltake:
The ThermalTake SpinQT VT.

It is HUGE !

After I fastened the mobo tightly, I mounted the SpinQT.

It is still inside the case, but not much

This plate of dark acrylic glass is the base from which I am working the mod, also gives me an ideal opportunity to “play” with light and dark where necessary.

Marking the position of the center hole was easy…

But unfortunately I was rushing this a bit too much and made a boo-boo......

[Frenkie]

In the bottom case I will store the HDD’s and so on, but First I need a connecting hole for cables and such.
Had to remove the bottom HDD and DVD bracket as well, because they were right in front of my new hole.

This is the bottom of the top case

Let’s dremel the World !

To keep enough sturdiness, I dremeled just beside the imbedded profile.

When I placed the cases on each other….

I noticed that the plastic front was overlapping too much, so I dremeled that also nice and flat.

After this I was able to duplicate the hole in the case below..

[Frenkie]

I mounted both cases on top of each other with construction kit.
Next step: the front of the base.
First I'm mounting the sidepanels to both Elite cases.
These will form the base for the new front.

Here they are screwed on, and still untouched.

Marking where the front will come.

Just to give a glimpse with the Forex parts.

Started cutting it up, never afraid of cutting too little
These parts wil support the new frontpanel, but on some place I need to get deeper inside the case.
Everything in between is nice, smooth and semi-transparant.

Mounted them again, deburred and ready for a layer of construction kit.

In the top right corner I used a little piece of the original sidepanel and stuck it to the back of the new frontpanel.

All is now mounted with heavyduty construction kit. Now it needs to dry thoroughly.

[Munty]

This thing is going to be monumentally huge! You must have a big place for all of these projects to live

About that CPU cooler, is there any additional structure for it's mounting? It looks incredibly top heavy and I'm just going to be gobsmacked if it's only attached at the base!

[Frenkie]

This thing is going to be monumentally huge! You must have a big place for all of these projects to live

About that CPU cooler, is there any additional structure for it's mounting? It looks incredibly top heavy and I'm just going to be gobsmacked if it's only attached at the base!

Well, it IS only mounted to the mobo, but I modified the base a bit. It is now bolted with 4 extremely sturdy bolts and nuts. The base itzelf I made from 2,5 mm stainless steel. Not the flimsy standard chinese crap you get with the cooler.
But I agree with you: in any other circumstances I would defenitly use a horizontal mount with these huge babies.

[Frenkie]

After is settled, the panel now looks like this: Front.

And the back. Oh and that little cut I made, after I finished you wont see anything of it anymore. Trust me.

Mounted on the cases.

There you go, now use the 'blueprint' again for the markings.

To give the case much clearer 3D dimensions, I am using this foamplate to enhance the frontpanels.

This foamplate is almost 20 mm thick. (about 5/6 inch ?)

Let me show you a specific piece why I use this foam: by using it I can now bend the Forex plates much further back then otherwise.

These three pieces make up the most protruding parts of the front

Now it need to dry thouroughly again before the next step.

(seems like most of my modding time is waiting for kit to dry )

[TheMainMan]

Nice! I can't wait to see what you're going to fill the two cases with in terms of hardware!