Ok guys this is my first case mod. I've done a few things to my LiLi (lites/ fans etc..) but never really modded to this degree. Since I cannot stand most of the new cases out there and the really nice ones are all over $100+ I just cannot justify tearing into a brand new lian-li or coolermaster. So for now it's beige case mods for me.

Ok this Rig is for the little lady who only requested 2 things of her computer...make it purple and with stars. So with that I took sharpie to paper and jotted down some ideas this is the one that seemed the most doable.

Please excuse the lack of artistic ability. this was drawn drunk on a napkin at 11 o clock at night....as many great ideas are conceived!

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Looks like a fun project. Good luck on the mod.

I did this mod in a weekend so I was moving pretty fast. Sorry for the lack of pics. My family owns/builds/drives race cars. and we have our own fabrication shop. Sometimes this is a plus other times not so much. So in the way of tools I use things that may be considered overkill but hey it's all I got! I do not own a dremel. Though at times on this project I wish I did. It would have meade the detail work easier.

I some how lost the pics of the unmolested case. It was butt ugly. But you'll see a good portion of the build. I wish I had someone's help to take pics...

At this point I've stripped down the frame. Used a hole saw to cut a hole for the 120mm fan. and painted the frame with a few coats of flat black.



The Home Depot is your Friend!



Ok at this point I used the plasma cutter to get the rough shape of the holes cut out, I then used an air grinder to smooth out the lines...





I cut out the front "bubble" of the bezel. I'm going to use mesh to fill in the large front area with a 120mm fan behind it. It was also at this point I was considering using a different case. I wasn't sure I had the skills to pull off what I was going for. Not too mention it was only noon and the temp was 115




I went and pickeup some Krylon Fusion for the front bezel. I found this cool colorshift color that I figured would brighten up the face a bit....well in the fine print it says it sprays on clear and requires a dark basecoat. So I also picked up a can of black fusion. Let me just say I am not impressed with these products at all. Either that or the colorshift stuff I got was a crap batch or something. So I basically ended up with a black bezel. Not pretty or cool. This is what I ended up with...






To get my mind off the dye fiasco I decided to move on to the plexi etching for the "star windows". My girl really digs nautical stars so I decided to try and etch the design on the plastic.

Masked off both sides of the plexi for protection


then sketched the design onto the tape


Then cut out the areas I wanted to frost


Then a quick trip to the media blast booth


The final effect was quite nice as you will see in a minute.

I scrapped the idea for a blow hole and decided to just use mesh over a rectangular hole in the bottom of the case. I alos painted all of the inside of the panels flat black.


Paint was dry time to cover the comp. I wanted to do something a littel different and since this is a chicks computer I wanted to soften it up a bit. So a yard of purple fabric was bought to cover most of the case. This was actually much harder than I thought and it looks. But the look is just awesome IMO.

Before the trim


top and right side covered



Left side going on right before being trimmed. Spray adhesive was used to hold fabric to metal sdes.


I then attached the windows and a piece of mesh for the side fan to the left side panel.
The etching turned out quite well.

Moving on to the mesh face this turned into quite a long portion of the build as shaping the mesh was hard with the size of drifts and hammers I have....it sure as hell isn't a fender lol







with the cloth added...


I figured maybe the fusion wasn't meant to go over black so I used the mouse and Keyboard as to try it again. I also added fabric in a few choice areas to tie in with the PC.




as you can see it just looks like baby s#!t is smeared on it. (I'm really pissed at how far off from the description and cap are from the actual product. GRRR!!!)

Oh well...



And a few different angels of the case before I quit for the day






I still need to fit an aluminum plate here for the power switch & HDD led which will go over this old badge recess. Some minor mounting of the fans and CC tubes as well as the PC components. I should get them done this weekend and have more to report to ya as well as finished pics of the case lit and running.

That looks awesome, IMO. I like the way you used the fabric and shaped the front bezel. Can't wait to see more!

daaaaaaaaaaaamn...thats soo pimp. who woulda thought something like that would've worked. great Job!

that fabric is perfect it makes the stars really pop out at you. looking awesome man and the black doesn't look to bad. hehe total pimp case, that fabric in purple and pink.

oooooooooooo its fuzzy! Can I pet it?

Ok well I've finished this project. here's the final report. Sorry for the blurry pics but I think I was up late wound up on caffine.

Installed the vandal switch where the case badge goes. I was going to add some pimpy alum back plate. But it looked pretty funky so I decided against it. I like the HAL esque look of the of the stark silver on the black background. The case was a bit dusty when I snapped this pic.


Installing on of the 2 120mm purple LED fans


All the goodies inside. this is about as good of a tuck job I could due considering I didn't sleeve the single power wire I was using for this project. The wires just hanging there by the front fanwere moved behind the mobo and wrapped in heatshrink after I took these pics.


clean power this thing has lasted for 5 years Hope to get another 5 out of it


Old ATI 9600 XT. It's overkill for this computer. but the heatsink looks sweet. Sorry about the blur.


Scythe Katana sitting on top of a P4 2.4 478 cpu. the katana kick major ass BTW. I used it for a bit on my OC'd 3800 X2 @ 2.5 keep temps in check


System back together and all lit up. Second 120mm fan is behind the bottom left star.


Front 3/4 view


Rear 3/4 view




BTW none of this work was done with the benefit of a dremel (which I wish I had). This was my first major mod. I have 3 more cases in the works hopefully they'll get better as I progress. Any input you guys can provide would be great!

Thanks to PR for getting me hooked on doing this.

it loosk pretty decked out...have you considered putting the purple fur on the i/o backing...i wouldn't suggest putting it around the PSU because it might cause some overheating..but perhaps you should paint it purple to solidify the theme a bit more...

DAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

man aReyou crazy

i like it i like it

how did you do this paint job ( not paint the Purper thing COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL )

maybe

man this girel what it called if you have link to buy it i need to get one for those girl for my next project !

thanksssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

and good luck

Looks awesome, man. It's not my style, but even with that said, I still like the end result. The plush purple complements the stars to completely makes that starstruck theme. Very nice job. I also love the front mesh.

Question for you... since you've essentially insulated that metal case, your system is depending more on the fans to cool it. How's the temps so far?

Thanks....

Yeah I'm going to take a wild guess and say it isn't most peoples cup of tea as evident by the lack of comments. It's not something I would want on my desk everyday but the ladies dig it. I just wanted to try something different than the usual paint / mesh / fans / lights combo. Another friend asked me to build her one using a victoria secret theme using red velvet. I think I might just do it for the practice. This was meant to spiffy up a case on the cheap. I probably only spent about $60 on materials for this project.

Temps are stable and well within limits. I have the 2 120mm fans pushing air in and the large vent on the bottom really helps. The PSU also has a 92mm and whatever is going out the back (80mm maybe?). The scythe HSF really helps a ton. Plus I only gave the CPU a mild overclock. It's a 2.4 and I'm at 2.6 right now. I suppose I should have listed the hardware somewhere in this build. so here ya go:

P4 2.4 socket 478 OC'd to 2.6
Scythe Katana HSF
Asus P4P800e-deluxe
2x 256mb OCZ Gold PC3200 DDR
ATI 9600 XT 128mb
WD Caviar 80gb 7200 rpm HDD
HP CD-R Burner
Linksys 802.11b WiFi PCI card
(2) Coolermaster 120mm Purple LED fans
(1) Purple CC tube
Pimpy blue vandal switch
Old Skool Biege case

Quote: Originally Posted by no-control Temps are stable and well within limits... P4 2.4 socket 478 OC'd to 2.6 Scythe Katana HSF

Ah, so this is a Northwood CPU with a heatpipe-based CPU cooler... yeah, that will run nice and cool, even inside an insulated case. I bet your CPU temps are around 25C idle and 36-38C under load?

Edit: by the way, do you have a pic of the final work on the keyboard, and may be the PC, keyboard, and mouse all together? Thanks.

Very cool I like how you used the fabric in the case! looks sweeettt!