[Will go through an add pictures once I waddle up and find camera]
Where to begin...?

I originally bought an Antec SX1000-II at a local comp fair for like $25. I had a Duron 1.6 box built into an old ATX desktop (originally from a Gateway 2000 P166 or P200) but it was just too small for good clearance and to fit my obligatory 120mm exhaust into cleanly.

So I started by slashing the back open to take a 120mm fan; easyish, except I originally thought I could drill out the two rivets that fastened the port area in and use those holes as the fan bolt holes. Mistake; I ended up expanding them til they're the size of those holes designed for grommetted bolts. I bolted a Globe Motors fan from an old 386DX-25 system in it and somehow it stays in place



I also proceeded to paint the case hunter green and cut a really poor triangular window. I hate using a drill, so I tend to do things like driving a nail through a panel to open a hole, then cutting with tinsnips.

I also tried to fill in the stupid "Antec" logo on the front port plug. Honestly, do we need to be reminded we bought an Antec case? Maybe if it wasn't just a warmed-over Chieftech clone, it wouldn't need a brand on the front to remind us.

The biggest change in this phase of the project was that I bought a 10" touchscreen LCD used, and mounted it in place. Since it didn't have a regular mount, I bolted two old drive rails from a HP Vectra XW dual PPro workstation on it, and bolted the end of the rails into the case.

I decided I wanted to break the machine up and see if I could get a few bucks for the parts, and the relative niceness of design of the case kept tempting me to mod it into something cool. My Skyhawk is a nice case, good fit and finish, but my rear-exhaust mod was unclean and poorly thought through (I'd buy another and do it right, but new ones are a pain to find now), and it's a little cramped at the front bottom with too many cables.

So now I had a case with an imperfect fillin on the logo, a scuffed green paint job, and two big holes on one side.



My next plan was Bondo-related. I'd plug the keylocks (having lost the key long ago), refinish the logo plug, and fill the holes.

Now here's where it gets awkward-- I Bondoed, I sanded, and primered, and the Bondo seems to shrink when the primer hits it; the seams filled with it became far more noticable.



I also decided I wanted a front bezel slightly different from every other SX1000-II, so I cut some scrap plastic stock from another front panel, and mounted it as so in a claw-like look. I stacked the plastic on other plastic cut into small standoffs to give it a good height match to the stock ridges.

For colour, I went with black and silver accents; I'm trying to decide if I want a "blood" ornamentation on the tips. Of course, I got overspray, which I will hopefully bury under some hand-painted gloss black. And one "claw" came off with the masking and had to be glued back on :/



At this point, the project is at a juncture: If I put my large box in, I want a cut for the VFD in the front panel, likely in the door. If I leave the Duron box in, not so much. I'm also not sure how to go with sidepanel... considering adding some metal trim and painted-metal "bursts" --



Pondering picking a few "clip art" images hand-painted or decalled in the "bursts"-- perhaps a skeletal dragon (I've done that design on several mods)...

Sounds great. can't wait to see the pic's.

Well, I went on a new course.

Since the SX1000 series has drive rails, it would be comparably easy to invert the case. You just have to hack plastic rails, not heavy metal frames.

You don't even have to hack the rails, just put 'em on differently.



There's a bit of tightness on the bottom (when inverted) drive position, but it works surprisingly well.

Of course, the hard part was locating and drilling out 700 rivets to free the top and bottom so they could be switched. I refastened them with small nuts and bolts, and a drop of super-glue to seal the fasteners tight. Once I refastened the new bottom of the case, I bent it (and the underlying part of the case side) inward so it didn't scrape the lowest drive so badly. It's still requiring of a front panel removal to get the lower drive, but the case WAS ripping the bottom half of the "void if removed" stickers from my scrap hardware!

So far, I'm up to:



The hardest remaining part is now to drill new mounts in the 3.5" cages. I hate drilling. :/


I wonder about airflow: Would it be better to try and reverse standard airflow, with the 120mm rear sucking air in, and it exhausting through the front of the case?

And since I didn't mention it last time, a fix for the minor problem of the front panel, the microscopic unpressable reset button. A little scrap plastic glued on the end of the button and painted to match works wonders.

I also put rubber washers over the bolts to the fan, mostly to hide the huge holes and prevent the bolts from falling out.

New excitement:

Broke out the acrylics and proceeded to ruin the side-panel with a hand-painted ornamentation.



The character was a crude attempt at Ryuk, the shinigami character from the manga series Death Note Originally the clothing was just painted in the dark maroon-red colour, but I thought I should add the black in (instead of relying on the gloss black base coat) to define the outline better, but this added major suckiness. It looks like he's wearing camoflague pants. Live and learn.

I also finished drilling the 3.5 cages. Pics approved:



A hint for anyone else doing this: You can do the hard disc cage eyeballed as follows:

One set of holes is drilled right below the "bump" on both sides.
The other set of holes is right above the "ridge" where the cage is riveted together.

Make them line up with the existing HD mount holes 1 and 3 (starting the count at the edge that butts against the front panel)

You can also do the holes below the ridge on the cage you'll be using for outward-facing drives, so you still have 10 total usable bays and don't have to run drives upside down.

Ponderable further mods:

-Cut out some of the rear panel near the slots and replace with mesh, cos you're gonna have the video card heat just rising up and not being vented in any way.

-Mount a cable so if I decide to put my big box in, the VFD can come with.

-Redo paint on side panel

-Get a new side panel (I saw where Directron or someone will give you one free with the right purchase, but where can I *buy* one?) and redo the window.

I wish the case was about 2" deeper... the thing I really *love* about my Skyhawk is its immense depth which means nothing's cramped, not even the space between PSU and 5.25 bays. I found this wasn't the case when I put some spare kit in this case to test.

lookin good dude!! that painting aint too bad!
i suppose it comes with practice eh? i cant paint like that to save my life!! lol

Well, some significant changes:

1) I decided I didn't like Ryuk enough, and given the machine is named for Kurobi (One Piece), that's who ends up on the left side panel. The cheap acrylics are great... rub 'em off while wet easily.

b) I put the "real" hardware iin. The Duron 1.6/ECS K7S5A setup now lives in the Skyhawk for now.

What concerns me is heat buildup. As you can see from the pic, there's a fanless 7600GS and the southbridge sitting on the top area of the case. Also a TV card and 802.11g card in the PCI slots The only way out for that air would be to be sucked down by the 120mm exhaust at the rear, or to work its way out of the original intake at the front top, which I doubt is happening. I suppose, on the other hand, there was always heat trapped right under the 7600.

Super weird thing: My plan was to use the "fit test" CD drive as a secondary CD drive in the system, as my current secondary was a 36x and the test one was a 48x. But it actually halted booting Win2000 (the blue gradient stopped moving) when I chained it with my NEC 3520A DVD-RW, so I dropped it. I did add a lovely silver-painted 100M Zip drive, for when I find the Zip discs I used in 1999.

3) I abandoned the ugly right side panel with its doesn't-sit-flat surfaces. I ordered a replacement from Directron ($4 plus $8 postage o.O), and will likely be cutting a window which will be frosted and backlit to provide the effect of a light-up logo. In keeping with the theme, my planned cut shape is the Arlong Pirates' symbol.

I also anticipate getting red cold-cathodes (to light said logo) and some replacement LEDs for the front panel, red to match. Are they 3mm? They're definitely smaller than the 5mm ones I have loads of, I could turn a few down I suppose.

Does anyone else with this case have problems with the front-USB-and-Firewire card being very easy to smash back into the case?

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Well, the side panel came in... but although the description said "w/o side fan", it had one... a little 80mm 100ma type. I figured "make do" and moved the cut down to the corner.

I started with the Dremel, but it was cutting so damn slowly I went to tinsnips. Tinsnips rock except that they bend the metal so it NEVER lies flat again and has little "jags". Pounding it against a concrete patio helps, but only somewhat. I'd kill for some alternative tool which works better.

I backed the image with a CD box I "frosted" by sanding heavily, and threw a red CCFL in. The result is slightly better than the photo (washed out photo), but clearly a gradient from top to bottom.

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