Hi Guys, iv been a quiet (very quiet ) member of these forums for some time now but iv been into modding for a little over 2 years or so, this will be my first major project.

The idea is to get hold of and old rust bucket PC case and completly strip it back and make it into something a little bit special. I suppose my main inspiration for this comes from the man himself, Defyant. I was totally blown away by his HP mods, so dont be supprised if you see a little bit of "defyantism" in my work, although i will perservere to be original as possible.

A little about me before i begin, im 25 years old and work for in a Military production facility near Milton Keynes, i live in a nice little house with my better half here in the UK, we have a little lad together who is 3 years old and a little girl on the way, i dont really have a workshop (i wish) so most of my fabrication is done by hand, usually on the living room table or outside if its nice weather. Anyway, enough of my mindless ranbling as this is quickly turning into a wall of text!

On with the show.

Here are a few rough concept sketches, i used a new fangled gizmo, a pencil and paper :O




I wanted a nice clean mod, straight lines and precise angles with intricate cut acrylic details, after i had an initial idea i downloaded sketchup for the first time and knocked up a rough model. (Big thanks to the google 3d workshop for the use of there mobo, dvd drive 120mm fan and hdd premade models)





The panels will be transparent blue plex backed onto black plex, the panels will be illuminated, i want them to glow on the edges to show up the detail of the intricate cuts, im not sure of the method yet, maybe you guys can help me with the lighting.

I kept my eyes open for a few days once i decided to go ahead with the project, noticed this little baby poking out the top of the skip at work!


The Victim:

An old Dell Optiplex, look how innocent and unsuspecting it looks! Whats best is the panels are plastic, i should be able to cut these quite easily, hopefully they dont become to fragile when cut.



Wow, that was difficult! I had to look up on the net just to get this thing open! Theres a little button on the front (bottom left corner) and a catch on the back that allows the side panel to open up, good for security i suppose. Man this thing is HEAVY, all the panels are steel lined!



EWWW! SHOULD OF LEFT THE SIDE PANEL ON! Seriously, there was a whole family of spiders living in there along with a few of there dead relatives! They seemed to think if was some sort of extreme makeover, i gave them there eviction notice and they left peacefully out the window.


One of the many pieces of steel framwork to be cut from this old girl.

Man how did they cram all that stuff in this case!

The previous tentants were not very houseproud.

Pretty filthy, nothing a good hose down wont fix though.


Havnt got a tap outside so i slung it in the bath! A good scrub with some bubbles and the shower hose got most of the grime and crap out of it, ill be working on it a lot so it didnt have to be spotless, just free of cobwebs, the bath looked a complete mess afterwards! My girl was going a bit mad! WTF ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR PC IN THE BATH!!!? HAHAHAHA

I cut away the rear I/O panel and the drive bays as these are all going to be remade out of plex and other materials.


I liked the way the front panel was fixed on, if you look at the top you can see a green thing, thats the latching mechanism that holds the front in place and at the bottom...

are two hooks that fix onto the frame. I will keep these in place.

I had a slight problem, as i had removed most of the steel inside, including the locking mechanism for the side panels, the side panels had nothing to hold onto. I fabricated two small brackets to temporarily hold them on.
(Sorry for the Blurry shots, my cam phone has a rubbish macro mode on it)

Front bracket, drilled and tapped to M4, i added a locking nut to the backets, i dont want the brackets coming loose as id have to rip the case apart to get into it if they did.

Rear bracket, these are just temps, there way to big and will be visable through the window if i leave them. The plan is to countersink the screw heads and trim the brackets down so the bare minimum amount of metal is present.

Looking closly at the side panels you can see a kind of indented design on it, this had to go, the grooves would be visible and look totally crap the way im planning on cutting these panels.


Time to break out the bondo, well we dont have it in the UK, so i drove to Halfords and picked up some Davids P38 from what i could see it was the same stuff.


I sanded down the panels to give a really nice key, i really needed this stuff to adhere to those grooves otherwise it would all chip out when i cut the panels.


Gave it the first fill... MAN THIS STUFF STINKS! i mean REALLY stinks, i felt high after about 5 minutes of working with it, had to open the sliding doors for my health!

I gave it a thin coat at first and left it 24 hours the sanded and refilled. Another 24 hours later i sanded again, then wet sanded from 240 grit up to 1000 grit, man this stuff is silky smooth! I closed my eyes and ran my finger over the panel and couldnt feel any bumps at all.

I needed to get those dam labels off, took me ages at first using a sponge and some warm soapy water, then my friend came over and suggested i use some WD40, MAN this stuff kicks ass! Not only does it eat rust, it also eats sticky goop left behind by security labels too! Within a few seconds it was mush and i just wiped it away!

Whilst i was at halfords i also picked up some Filler Primer. This will help me get a really smooth undercoat.



After 1 test coat, i left it dry for 24 hours then ran my hand over it, totally flawless! Once im finished cutting the panels and im near completion i will give it 3 nice smooth coats of this before the real paint goes on.
Colour is nasty eh? Kinda like mustard

Had a supprise waiting for me when i got home from work today!


OOOOOOOO what could it be!? as you can see by the state of the box i kinda tore into it, couldnt resist!



As far as Plex goes, thats pretty dam sexy!

After speaking with Xperiment from the forums he shared the address of his plex supplier (its kinda hard to get hold of in the UK) so i placed an order at Hindleys for my 5mm thick dark blue transparent plexiglas and my 3mm thick black plexiglas.



I also bought a sheet of Styrofoam which will be used when creating the front panel.

Man this has really given me some enthusiam to get going, but i cant use these mats for a little while yet

On with the mod...

As you can see from the first sketchup pic, i wanted to cut the side panel quite finely. I did a quick mockup on Autocad so i could find the angles correctly, i had one shot at this and really didnt want to screw it up.

I masked it up with some low tack masking tape, i didnt want to put too much presure on the bondo type stuff peeling of tape. I marked up the lines.

Then i drilled the corners out so there was no chance of me overcutting, the corners will be finished with a file later.

I dont have a scroll saw, although i want one A LOT i just dont have the funds or the space right now, so i had to get by with the good old dremel.
As most of your know 3000RPM and plastic do not go well together. I was expecting this so i gave myself plently of room for melting. What i wasnt expecting though was the amount of smoke and the stench the melting plastic gave off!

The dremel kept skipping up and biting at the plastic, NOT GOOD!

I taped a steel rule to the edges i was cutting to protect the plastic if the dremel decided to leap again.


After a good hour of cutting id finished the rough cut.

Broke out the panels.


I agree, rough as a dogs arse! But have no fear, i have a good set of files...

After a bit of filing...

A lot more filing ...


Looking pretty sweet! I finished up the fine corners with a needle file and smoothed down the cuts with some wet and dry.




Im really pleased how it turned out, i was quite worried when it started melting but even with just that amount of material the panel is still quite strong, also the bondo held great! Im so glad i took the time to give it a good key.

Thumbs up for the dremel!!! :up::up::up:



Heres the case with the side panel back on.


and another view.



As you can see from the closeups below, what i was saying about the little brackets i made.



Ill remake those, its no big deal.

Thats it for now guys, hopefully i can make a bit of a start on the front for the next update. Cheers for reading!

I have an update for you guys!

I said before i wanted to get started on the front panel, however i know that if i get all of the interesting jobs done first i will find it more and more difficult to get motivated and do the crappy little jobs that are left over.

So i decided to get some of the internal panels fitted for this update.

The first job is to basically line to inside of the case with the 3mm black plex i got from Hindleys, The biggest challenge with this will be getting the dimensions dead on, preserving the mirror like shine on the plex and making the fixtures and fittings fit in with the rest of the mod.

I started with a measure up of the base and rear face of the case...


Then drew up a quick sketch for reference


As you can see from the sketch, im planning on leaving two small tags on the base panel, more on this later though.

This is the plex i bought

Dont panic! the scratches are only on the protective film, underneath its perfect.

I wasnt sure how i was going to be cutting out these panels, i lack the funds and space for industrial cutting equipment and my local hardware store are worse than drunk chimps when it comes to cutting accuratly. Dremel will work but i dont really want to file away the extra material i leave for melting, i would be filing for hours. So i decided on the only reasonable alternative... THE KARATE CHOP!!!


YA.... SRSLY! well.. not quite BUT there will be violence and unexpected loud noises!...well ok maybe im just going to be snapping it (gasp)

Id never snapped plex before so i wasnt sure how it would go, im thinking it will do one of a few things:-

1. Shatter into a million pieces killing me, the girlfriend and possibly the cat.
2. Snap in a completly random way completely wrecking my sheet of plex and injuring me in some way
3. Crack and chip
4. Snap perfectly straight down the carefully marked line.

I began by taping of the edges with the low tack tape i like, i also measured the edge i was going to be snapping and masked that off too , the arrows are so i remember which side of the tape im snapping on.


I went to the timberyard round my place and managed to snag and old shelf from them, it will make a good scoring edge (metal could blunt the blade). I clamped the plex to the table, layed the straight shelf on top, dead on the edge and then precarioulsy got my knee on top of the shelf... this ba$tard wasnt moving anywhere! Then i ran a stanley blade down the line 3 or 4 times pressing REALLY hard, making sure i went slow and stuck to the line.


After i scored the plex i moved the sheet to the edge of the table so the scored line overhanged the edge and reclamped it, then clamped the shelf on top so only the bit i didnt want was showing, both hands holding the shelf, two knees on the overhanging plex MAN this stuff is so strong! I was perched on the edge of this springy sheet when it finally decided to snap VERY loudly and hurl me to the floor

It sounded so violent i was sure id wrecked my plex, upon a closer look i couldnt believe the result...absoloubtly perfect :up:

Take a look at that edge! Totally smooth and straight!

I was well pleased, Mr Miyagi ftw! R.I.P oh great one.

Now for the test fit into the case, the moment of truth..



Totally gobsmacked with the result, perfect!

The green fixing mechanism to hold on the face plate just has enough room to move with the back plate installed.




I mummified the panel in tape to protect it


Now for the base, remember those two tags i was planning to leave on, well those are going to replace those little metal brackets that hold on the side panel.

I masked up and marked out another piece of plex, making sure to account for the hooks from the face plate and the two tags that are going to hold on the side panel. This is actually attempt no2, the first one i forgot one of the tags, i marked it but ended up cutting it off by accident, i was pretty pissed with myself but it would of bugged the hell out of me if i would have left it so i remade it.

I cut most of the material with a hacksaw then filed it nice and smooth.



I need to bend those tags up to a right angle, but they need to bend so there outside edge is flush with the edge of the base, so i cut two little notches either side of them (above pics).

Im buying a heatgun next week but i havent got one now god damit! So, after consulting my book of ancient case making techniques (written by Mr Miyagi) i broke out this badboy!


DONT TRY THIS AT HOME KIDS!!

Your right, i probably HAVE flipped but i have no other option, bare with me.

I positioned the tags 3mm over the edge of the table.

Id made sure id covered any exposed plastic with tape, direct contact with the iron would melt it, the tape will allow the heat to transfur through without melting.

After about 30 seconds it became pliable so i gently bent it and held it in place with a set square.

the the other one..


Man the came out good...PHEW! I wasnt sure about using an iron to be honsest but it did the job perfectly, i wouldnt want to use it for large bends but for small bends its exellent. Clamped it back onto the chassis for a test fit..


Yay it fits nicely.

I drilled and countersunk four holes on each corner of the base plate to hold it in.


Then i put the side panel back in and clamped it in place.


Then drilled and tapped the two holes to m4. Heres my nifty tap wrench.


Ran a screw through it to check the fit.



Woooo just enough clearance!

Now to tidy up those big chunky brackets slightly, i filed almost all of the material away so that there was just enough to keep the thread strong


Thats it for now, cheers for reading guys.

Hey guys, wow, its been about 2 weeks since i updated this project, ive been so busy at work and at home so its been hard to get anything done.

For this update iv been working on the PSU, i dont know why but i like power supplys, maybe its a case of liking the underdog, what i mean is the PSU almost always gets pushed to the side, overlooked and not very well thought of even though without it your pc wouldnt even switch on! Well not anymore! Gonna spend a while giving this PSU a good makeover and making it a focul point of the case.

Im a fan of the old saying "you cant polish a turd" so for a good PC i think you need a good power supply, im not just gonna bung a standard old 350w generic PSU in this machine, a while ago i bought myself an Antec NeoPower 480W, its been powering my current PC solidly for about 6 months, i wanted to use it for this mod as its a good piece of kit. I took it out of my shark and began modding that sucker!

Took the cover off, removed the switches and power plug, scrubbed of the old antec labels and calibration stickers.

I needed to remove the ATX connector but didnt have an extraction tool so i did what anyone would do.. modded myself one! Taking an old pair of tweezers i ground the ends down to form two very thin spades.

Didnt work first time but after a bit of fine adjustment I could remove the crimps form the housing.

Ill have to make sure i remember to flay the lugs back out when i go to put the crimps back in otherwise they wont grip.

As you can see, the power supply was modular (meaning you can disconnect some of the cables and only have what you need), modular is good, but not for this project. I know what im going to be putting in there so i can plan how many cables im going to have to add to it.

Im going to be using the blue plex i bought as a plate for the front of the power supply, i began by cutting out an oversize piece of plex, i masked it up and marked four holes where the plate will join onto the front of the PSU.

I drilled the holes, countersunk them and then drilled through to the front of the PSU and tapped the holes to M4
Then screwed the plate to the front of the PSU.

Masked of the rest of the box and remasked the plex and began taking away the excess acrylic to match the shape of the PSU

After a LOT of filing...


Now we have the rough shape i can sand and polish the edges, but i have work to do before that, dont want to polish it up and then scratch it up when i work on it.

I needed a way of the cables to exit through the plate, after a while i came across these cable glands. I use them at work so i know they will be perfect for this. They took a couple of days to arrive, here's a pic of one of them disasembled, there is usually a plastic part that slots into the middle piece that grips the cable, however we wont be needing that so i tossed it in my bits box.

There M20 in size, im going to be needing four for the front panel (2 for all the ATX wires and 2 for the rest of the power).

I marked up the plate for the four holes the drilled them out...then re-masked it to keep you lot in suspense! muahah...

Gave the glands a quick test fit...

Perfect!

Now, as you saw before, the PSU has connectors on the front where this plate will screw onto, don't need those anymore so i removed them and marked out the case so i can cut away enough space for the glands to fit, also this semi window will allow the light to shine through the plex plate from inside the psu.


DAM, thats a pain in the arse! I can either just got ahead and cut out the rectangle and hope the plex will cover it up OR i can fill it so its perfect... method one will eventually drive me crazy as I will know its there even if you cant see it so im gonna filll it.

Needed somthing strong to use as a base for the bondo to sit on. Got some thin sheet metal i had knocking about, this stuff is actually RF Cage they use on circuit boards, its about .3mm thick and really sturdy so its perfect for this job. I scored it and bent a right angle so it fit the hole perfectly...


Then glued it in place with some rapid araldite and clamped it until it was set...


Once set i gave it a good old keying with some 400 grit...

Added the first layer of bondo..

Left it for 24hrs then sanded it...



Refilled it, re-sanded it and remarked the cut line (dead smooth now ).

Broke out the Dremel, remember how i was telling you how great my non-dremel dremel is? well its not, its a pile of $h1T! I was using it and the bloody thing got so hot it nearly melted my face OFF, i took it back to the shop as its only 4 weeks old and demanded a replacement, they were happy to replace it much to my dismay as i wanted to make a big Jackie Chan style scene in the hardware store as they had delayed my project slightly, being denied that angered me further! After i calmed down i cut out the window...


I filed down the remaining material but forgot to take pics so you guys will have to trust me that i did it

Right, now i know what i have done so far have been a slight deviation from the original concept sketches but they are only concept sketches anyway so that's ok right? Coming back to the concept though my next job was to cut out the side window for this baby, marked up the maximum amount of space i can use without it clashing with anything... Works out 10mm in from each edge.

The angles are all 37 degrees, same as the side panel so they will match

New dremel power here we come!

First rough cut...

Wow that IS rough!

Bit of sanding a filing and it becomes perdy!

24Hr drying time and sanding between 3 coats of spray filler primer type stuff and it becomes a lot nicer.


Obviously not the end colour, that will be a surprise for later.

Time to tidy up those wires, gonna keep the ATX wires at the same lengh as they are long enough already, unfortunatly i will need to extend/replace a lot fo the other power wires as they will be too short, iv cut them back and tiewrapped them out of the way in the following pics.

Two glands for the ATX wires i said didnt I? Yup, gotta split them up. I routed them neatly to where they will exit through there glands.
Look how invisible the bondo'd hole is now! sweet!


Now its time to lay up these wires! What? Yeah! Lay these bad boys up! I used to be a wireman, my job for 7 years was making cables for the military, a properly made cable has a lay pattern so all the conductors sit in a pattern, they are twisted together to make them more flexable and stronger. In each of the arms we are going to have 12 wires. First we grab out 12 wires, divide them into fours then lay them counter-clockwise (lay NOT twist, twisting stretches wire, gently turn the wires into a twist, no crossovers.)

Once i had all 3 sets of four done like this we lay these together in a Clockwise lay.

See how neat and tight that is? That's what we want, if we have a couple of extra wires we can tuck them in the interstities to make it rounder.

Its really flexable as all the wires travel the same distance around the bend as they are twisted, which means no strain on idividual wires when it bends.

So, after we get really exited about twisting bits of wire together (just me yeah?) we stick some black snake sleeving over the top and cover the ends with black heat shrink to protect it from the metal glands.
Added the plate back on for a test fit, YEP GONNA BE TIGHT DAWG! but dont worry, ill cram it all in there and make it neat...somehow!





Once the cables were sleeved and protected i covered them with the ultimate cable covers...SHOWERHOSE!



I cant take credit for this, Orac3 gave me the idea for this and i am shamlessly going to use it as it looks too awsome to be too proud not to use in this mod.
This is as far as i am with the case at the moment, when i get some funds im going to get an ice blue case fan for the psu and some paint, till then enjoy these shots of the plex naked without masking tape and with the glands and hose installed!







As you can probably tell im quite proud of how it came out!

Thanks for reading guys!

_'J5

Quote: Originally Posted by DonT-FeaR cant wait... hurry up!!

Hehehe iv been working hard man, and its sooo hot here its vitually impossible to move without passing out!

Quote: Originally Posted by Modslinger I'm currently preparing for my first mod. (Still gathering supplies and tools) I bid on a computer on ebay about five months ago. Won it for 5 bucks. It was this crappy looking dell called the "Optiplex". Had I known then what I know now, I might not have bought it. It weighed about as much as a VW Bug, and took just about as long to strip down to the basics. So I'm glad to see someone else knows my pain. At least we are taking something horribly ugly and turning it into a work of art. Congrats on getting yours underway! I look forward to seeing this thing take shape. It's already 5,000,000 times better looking.

I know dude tell me about it! It still weighs a ton even with half the steel ripped out of it!

Anyway, heres another update for you guys, my previous update was me getting about 2/3's the way through my PSU mod, heres the rest of it.

I had to re-sleeve a lot of the wires, they were becoming way too bulky, at one point i thought it was going to be imposible to get it all back in the box!


Heres the PSU case after 3 coats of primer, 3 coats of Vauxhall Platinum and 2 coats of clear laquer, i rubbed down between coats with 1500 wet and dry.


A close up.


Really glad i took the time to prep everything and rub down between coats, really happy with the finnish.

OH MAN! i got a new cat!

Cute hey? He likes to attack me whilst im modding!

Back on topic, heres the case with the PCB inside, also showing how the wires are layed throught the plate/gromets, man its a really tight fit at the front!


Heres that front panel test fitted, it fits nice.


However, the edges of the plex looked like ****e, need a good old polish. Got some T-Cut


And polished that edge for hours! But look at the edge now...

wasnt expecting such a nice result from T-Cut but im pretty impressed, bought it up to a real nice shine!

After putting the plate on and looking at it for a while i decided it was a bit plain, needed somthing more, decided to add some chrome bezel led holders to the front! Went to maplins to get some Chrome LED Holders, the conversation went a little somthing like this:

Me: Oh Hai! i need some of these.. (points to chrome holder with blue led in the catalogue)
Old Man Maplin: We dont have any.
Me: Oh... you sure... you didnt even look on your stock list...?
Old Man Maplin: We dont have any.
Me: Ok, can you just check, i need them.
Old Man Maplin: -Silence-
Me: Hello?
Old Man Maplin: (looks at computer) We dont have any.
Me: Oh...ok, do you have anything similar i can look at?
Old Man Maplin: No.
Me: Do you have the chrome holders by themselves in stock?
Old Man Maplin: Yes.
Me: Do you have Blue LED's in stock?
Old Man Maplin: Yes.

-.-

Anyway, after probably one of the most strangest interactions with a shop keeper ever in my life i got my led holders, i also coaxed him into giving me 4 blue leds for the fan, and 6 62ohm resistors so i can run them of 5v.


Masked up and VERY carefully marked the front plate.


Used a Vernier Caliper to measure the diameter of the holders, there 8mm, i drilled a small pilot hole then added some vaseline to a 8mm drill (prevents melting) and opened up the holes.

Stringy swarf! No melting! Good!

Checked the holders for fit.

Perfect!

Next i wired up the two leds

I used expensive speaker wire, its silver and gold in colour, clear sleeved. I covered it with some black braid but you can still see the silvery sheen underneath. Once i had extended the 5v (red) wires, and the Ground (black) wires i made a back-spur of each which will run the fan and front panel LED's.

I needed to make the window for the side cut out, i was really dreading this as i had no room to work, the wires were so cramped up to the side. I decided to unwind most of the wiring and re-do it to make myself a bit more room, i ended up gaining about 3mm! All i needed though as my plex was 2mm thick, YEAH!


If i leave it clear it will look like a lod of wires in a clear box, so i frosted it up!


Layed it on for a test fit.

Then i mixed up some rapid araldite and carefully applied it to the parts of the window that will be behind the metal, then clamped it for 10 minutes.


I added another fillet round the edges, i didnt want this falling out and electrocolourcoating the cat!

Window finished.

Heres the gap i had to fit it in!


Not much room at all eh?

The cat has been living in the PC desk draw for some reason!
He woke up! hahah

Anyway, PSU is pretty much done, i opened up the lugs on the crimps and plugged them back into the ATX connector.

Time to pour some power in this thing!





Wouldnt be complete without the night shots!



Im really pleased with how its turned out, took a lot of effort but it was worth it.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading, next update to follow soon!

Comments always appreciated.

_'j5

Hey guys, been a while since i updated. Iv been really busy at home, the missis decided we needed to buy new furnature for the whole of upstairs so iv been putting up flat pack in my spare time :dead:

But anyway, i managed to squeeze in some modding time last night so i thought id give you guys a small update.

Going back to working on the chassis for this update, with all but the minimum amount steel frame left on the old Dell it has left it very weak, anyone who has taken apart a Dell before will know how everything inside one either; interlocks / hinges / slides in some way so to make other things fit you have to cut a lot of the sh*te out of it.

Here is a shot of the top of the frame, as you can see there is a big gap there where the old PSU holder thing used to be, unfortunatly if left alone it will be a weak point.


Of course, this will also be where the new PSU will be held, if i was to screw the new PSU to that it would probably buckle in half!

I went to B&Q and bought some ridiculously over priced 10mm x 10mm angle ally.

How they get away with charging nearly 3 pounds for 1M long is totally insane, the money grabbing ba$*ards!

Anyway, i cut it to a rough size with a hacksaw and taped it to the frame.


I went to the hardware shop and got some new mini HSS drill bits, there good for steel and go through it like a hot knife through butter!

Then spotted through 1.5mm, then opened up the holes to 4mm to accomidate some M4 screws.


I then did the same with the other side.


Checked it was square, then added the last piece from the bottom to the top.

(the lovely Helen Flanagan in the background :banana: )

I had to make a little bracket at the bottom to hold the last piece of angle ally on. (sorry about the flash)


So now the frame is pretty dam strong! I put the cat on it and it held his weight, i then put him on the scales next to the new PSU!

Cat Weight > PSU Weight = Good!

The new frame should hold that PSU pretty well!

So now i need to line the rest of the case with plex, i started with the roof.


Im going to add 6 screws to hold the plex to the roof, its going to be supporting some weight so i dont want it caving in on me!

I measured and cut a piece of black 3mm plex, piloted through using my new drills then opened them up to 3.5mm, removed the plex and opened up the holes to 4mm, then tapped the holes in the frame to M4.

Then added 6 M4 hex head countsunk screws.


Flakey swarf means no melting!


Now for the back plate, the PSU will screw onto this, also the Motherboard I/O panel will need to be fitted, oh and the exhaust fan too!

This piece is going to be made from the 5mm thick blue plex, im going with 5mm so it dosnt bow under the PSU weight.

I cut out a rough shape, i knew the frame and back panel were not going to be 100% square so cutting out a square piece of plex would of been stupid, i then trimmed it down until it fit the frame.



Fits like a glove! Anyways, i know it looks crap as its covered in masking tape, not much i can do about it as it needs to be kept clean. I did have a sneaky peak at the panels without the tape though and they look awsome!!

All thats left to do to the lining panels is the one at the front (i ran out of plex) And then tidy up at the places i have filed that im not happy with.

As a side note... CRUCIAL CAME THROUGH!! yeah man, they didnt let me down at all! Has a nice little package arrive the other day.



oooo i love it, recieving packages is like christmas!! even if i know its nothing interesting i still love it!! haha what a geek i am




Yeah man! Thats going in the cupboard to keep safe for when i get my Mobo!

Thats it for today, sorry it was a short one but iv been so busy! Hopefully my Mobo will materialise and ill be able to update you guys with the next week (or two) with the sexy trans blue back panel.

Til then, cheers for reading, comments always very much appreciated.

j5

Welcome to the site and thanks for sharing your worklog with us!

Are you going put feet on the case? If so I think MNPCTECH's aluminum feet would look great with your project.

holy crap bro, sickest mod Ive seen in awhile, plus its moving quick! hope to see another update soon.

Quote: Originally Posted by darkboricua; holy crap bro, sickest mod Ive seen in awhile, plus its moving quick! hope to see another update soon.

Thanks man, hopefully have another update next week if all goes to plan

Quote: Originally Posted by Sparky Welcome to the site and thanks for sharing your worklog with us! Are you going put feet on the case? If so I think MNPCTECH's aluminum feet would look great with your project.

Your very welcome mate! The case actually already has a kind of base to it (best seen in the pic below). Im undecided on weather to keep this as i do like these kind of bases or weather to put some kind of feet on it, what do you think would look best?

Nice stuff! Subscribed.

E

Machined Aluminum Case Feet

Case Feet Computer Stereo

Case Feet Computer Stereo

For all of his modding goodness ---> Case Mod Supplies and PC Modding Gear

Quote: Originally Posted by Sparky Machined Aluminum Case Feet Case Feet Computer Stereo Case Feet Computer Stereo For all of his modding goodness ---> Case Mod Supplies and PC Modding Gear

Hey thanks for the links man, they actually dont look like they will be too hard to turn up on a lathe myself (theres one at work) so i might give it a go!

Hey guys, got another small update for you. Really good news for the project! After a few emails back and forth QuietPC.com have decided to sponsor the project and have sent me some really nice Zalman water cooling gear! This will help immensely with the project so i want to say a really big thank you to Glenn over at QPC for all his help and efforts over the past couple of weeks.

Here is the gear they have sent:

And a lovely little CPU Block


A very sexy 8800GTS Water Block


One Heatpipe HDD Cooler/Silencer, i cant wait to have this next to the trans blue plex, its gonna look so nice!


All the barbs on the block are 3/8 (10mm)

Kinda puts pressure on me to get the case ready for all this new gear iv been sent but i cant wait to get it all up and running!

back to the case, iv been working on the back panel where the I/O plate will be fitted, i went to B&Q today and got some 10mmx15mm angle aluminium and some more 10mmx10mm (below)



I also bought some M3 nylon standoffs from maplins.


I could of used the 3/32's threaded brass standoff's but they were 10x's the price and totally unnecessary as the board is being mounted on plex anyway.

Someone said to me earlier that they thought my little black cat was lucky, iv had quite a shi*y past few years and things are finally going really well, so although im one of the most un-superstitious people i know id say he might have a point!

Update soon, gonna get working on the I/O panel and fit the mobo standoffs. Cheers for reading, comments/questions always appreciated

j5

Wow. Amazing modding! I'll definitely follow this one!

Hey Guys, time for an update! Its been ages, and i have a lot to tell you about so sit back and relax coz this update is gonna be pretty BIG

After a lot of attempts to talk to the right department at AMD i finally managed to speak to a lady called Julia, she said she couldn't help BUT she would put me in touch with her Tech Specialist Ron who might be able to sort something out for the project. Anyway i spoke with Ron for a while beating around the bush about what i actually wanted (i didn't want to take the piss and start demanding stuff you know?). Eventually i told him if he could send the the best he could spare id be very grateful. He took my address and telephone number for the courier and said he would have a look around to see what he could find for me but he couldn't promise anything...two days later...




BOOOOM!!! an ASUS M32-MVP Deluxe!! I nearly wet myself when i opened the box and saw all that copper!! Totally wasnt expecting it!

Ohhh.. wait a tick.. whats that little silver thing laying on top there?


BOOOOOOM!!!! An AMD 9950 QUAD CORE!!! 2.6Ghz!!!

After i had changed my underwear and recovered from the shock that the project just went up about 15 levels i sent Ron a very big thank you email, he just shrugged it off saying it would just go out of date if he kept it! But man, it means a lot. Thanks Ron you made my year.

Now with a spring in my step and renewed enthusiasm i got to work, for some reason i was really paranoid about the Power Supply, iv had mother boards go bang before because of improper wiring, ATX Connectors populated backwards ect, i wasnt go to be taking any risks with all this lovely new stuff.

I looked on quite a few websites to get the pinouts of an ATX connector, once i had four seperate sources i compared them to check they were all the same, they were! (joy) so i wrote them all down in a rough chart and wrote down what voltages i should get from each pin.


Then set about about testing it with a multimeter.


Some of the voltages seemed quite low, 3.3v was sitting at 2.8v, 5v was sitting at around 4.5v and 12v was 11.7v, i looked up the tolerances on the web for ATX power supplies, hmmm +/-5% on the above so it shouldnt be that low, then i read a little thing saying NEVER TEST A PSU WITHOUT A LOAD.

I added 3 fans to the loop and all the voltages pulled up to pretty much dead on! :banana: According to a mate the PSU was switching into "Soft On" (eww) mode as it didnt detect a load, i dont know how accurate this is as he often talks rubbish but having a load on it seemed to sort things out.

Im now fairly happy with the PSU, im not sure if it will be able to handle everything, but it has overload protection so if it dosnt work ill just have to mod another one, a lot of work but if needs be ill do it.

Onto the frame, i bought some more angle ally from B&Q, this time 15mm x 10mm for the top and bottom of the rear of the case, drilled 9 holes, tapped them and added some m4 countersunk socket head screws to secure the back panel.




I really wasn't happy about having screws tapped into ally, its too soft and prone to getting stripped if the screws over tighten, i took it to work and used a Riv nut tool to put m4 riv nuts in the frame.


There really clever, there just like a rivet, except they have a thread inside them, trouble is you need a special tool to insert them that costs quite a bit of cash.

Ignore the dirty looking tape, its very very shiny and clean underneath The back panel is now very secure and solid, the whole case strengh was exponentially improved just by adding the back panel. Time to add the PSU mounting holes and the PSU exhaust hole to the back panel.

I offered it up to the frame, the case is a LOT smaller than i thought before. im used to working on a TT Shark which is a full tower but we should have just enough room.



Had a hard time marking the holes as the darkness of the plex didnt really let me see them. Anyway i marked them, drilled them, then remasked around them and drilled 4 corner holes of the exhaust hole

Then dremeled it out up to the holes


Some Filing (yes those are my legs covered in swarf, there was a lot)

More filing and a quick tidy up, need to polish the whole panel still.

Next was the I/O panel. Didnt know which to do first, the motherboard standoffs or the I/O panel, decided to go with the I/O panel and then use adjustable mobo standoffs to take up the slack.

Marked it up.

Cut a hole.

Made it bigger.

Used an old I/O panel to check the fit.


Fits good!

Fitted the ASUS one, its niiiice




Polished it up.

I managed to get a really nice finish on the edges, thats the dimples on the edges of the I/O frame you can see through the edge of the plex.


Next i fitted the standoffs for the motherboard, getting all the holes lined up perfectly was a lot harder than it sounds, i used some 8mm standoffs and adjusted there height with washers so it lined up nicely with the I/O frame.

See what i mean about the size of this case? Its tiny, there was literally 2mm between the bottom of the board and the bottom of the case.


Still, at least it all fits. Phew.

I added the same to the front, blue plex, rivnuts ect, same as the back except less holes (will be soon though ) so i wont bore you with that, just a few snaps.

Iv been talking to a guy called John Hung after emailing Giga-Byte asking for some hardware sponsorship a few weeks ago, its typical, the day Ron sends me the Asus board John mails me to say i can have a sample of a GA-MA78GPM-DS2H Crossfire Hybrid board, i didnt know what to do, if i accepted the board from John and Ron saw the log he would think im a lying little ****, if i took the Giga-byte board but used the ASUS, Giga-Byte would be pissed. Man i had to email John and explain the situation, i knew Giga-byte do versions of graphics cards with there branding which got good reviews so i dropped a small hint to John about the possibility of getting one instead of the motherboard. I thought id blew it but he replied a few hours later that day saying i could have a NX86T256D!

Couldn't believe my luck, whats more is that the main office for Giga-byte where John works was 10 minutes from my house in MK! So i drove of to meet John at his office, he was a really nice guy, he was asking all sorts of questions about the project, was great to meet him.
Got home with this baby.



Ok so my ATi blocks wont fit, but its a silent pipe! Just need to make sure my Airflow is up to scratch then in a few months when i upgrade ill add the blocks to my new card.

The card looks really nice, the heatsink is kickass!


I put in an order with a UK based water cooling company, im not going to Hotlink them because they totally screwed up the order, it took over a week to arrive first class and it was damaged when it got here due to just being slung in a jiffy bag. After another week and a half my new cooling gear turned up. I used XSPC gear because my budget is low and they got good reviews, if it turns out to be crap ill get better stuff later on, i got a 120mm rad and some 3/8 ID - 1/2OD tubing.



And this nice little compact pump/res.


Hmm the pump has no feasible way of being secured into place, have to mod something

I got the lovely blocks from QuietPC.com, i was a bit worried about the Barbs fitting the tubing but they fit perfectly. I got some distilled water from work and decided to do a little test run, ill add dye later, this is my first ever water cooling setup!


hahaah i got water EVERYWHERE! But that little pump is really good, its so quiet i had to put my ear up to it to check it was on! But it didnt leak :banana: after about 5 minutes i ran my finger across the CPU block, it was ICE cold! Id definatly recommend those Zalman blocks from Quietpc, there made for a reserator but work perfectly with 3/8 tubing. I left it overnight, still no leaks so all good.

Now i can test my hardware!


The Zalman block mmm



Hahah look at that setup, it looks like a mad scientists lab! I fired it up and got POST :banana::banana::banana:

Still cant believe im rolling a 4x2.6Ghz Phenom cpu

Got BIOS!


AHHH BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH FLASHED UP!!!
Then it rebooted :think:

Checked on the net, hmm maybe flash the BIOS, nope still BSOD, changed the RAM, still BSOD, i was convinced the PSU wasnt generating enough juice until i realized...windows :down: Had to go buy a crappy old drive and load on XP to check and it worked perfectly! YAY!

Thats it for update 6 guys, hope you enjoyed reading, comments appreciated.

j5

I'm just staring in awe, and wondering why I would even bother trying to mod when I don't have the equipment you've got ...

This is inspiring, though, so I'm going to mod anyway!