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benji2412
This case mod all started on a peaceful weekend morning. There I was playing DoW, when I rested my foot next to the side of my rig and thought ‘thats a little too hot!’. I took the side panel off and realised that my airflow was next to poor. My lovely 8800GT had been heating it up for me. Of course, doing this while playing DoW, I worried for the times I sit and melt playing WiC and CoD4.
I couldn’t fit a fan to the front of the case as it can’t draw in. So I decided something drastic, I’d put one in the side just below the 8800GT heatsink. Also I thought, why not add a side window too? The mod then just got more ambitious as I went on. So I thought I’d share the experience!
So this is how the case started:
A cheap £20 case I picked up from a local shop. I did previously have an Aplus Blockbuster with the side windows. As nice a case it was, the air flow was really really rubbish. Those looking hard will see I have an IDE and SATA HDD in there. There is a perfectly good reason for this I promise!
The Blowhole:
So here it was all marked up to be cut with my dremel, and this months mag.
Case Window:
And theres the windows marked off, I did go too high to start with so I just redrew the lines a bit further down. At this point I didn’t realise how much of a pain this window would be!
I had to also cut into the chassis so the 12cm fan would fit into the case against the runner at the bottom:
Cut!:
And there it is all cut out. I had also at this point drilled the holes for the case fan. On eBay I picked up a grill that would hide the imperfect circle that I had just filed. The point with me making this mod was on a small budget. So I couldn’t just buy a circular saw for a drill.
I then primed and sprayed the side panel:
I then wet sanded the panel so I could T-Cut and wax the panel later on. In the meantime I added the fan and grill:
The Acrylic:
Of course, the important part of the window mod. I bought some red tint acrylic 3mm off eBay. The company cut to the size I needed :D. To fit the panel I used B&Q double sided carpet tape. The rubber moulding I used was from www.kustompcs.co.uk
The Case:
In the meantime I decided to spray the inside and the rest of the case to match the gloss black I used on the side panel. I used Plastikote black enamel for the case and the same in metallic red for the front. To start I pulled everything out and masked off the lights for the front.
and finally the front panel:
So for comedy value this left me without a switch for my computer. So i just tapped the jumpers together on my Mobo:
Painting:
So I finally got round to painting. I always sanded and primed then gave about 3-4 layers of gloss black on each panel. The inside of the case I used about 2 layers.
After a few days and coated, I left the paint to dry, wet sanded gently and not too much. I then T-Cut the panels twice and waxed the finish:
The key is not to use too much T-Cut because it melts the paint to hide the scratches!
I then popped the front panel on:
The black trim I hand painted on using Games Workshop water based paints. I didn’t want to mask the red and spray on fear of getting tack on the paint. I then tidyed it all up and included the switch resesses and LED’s. Note my attempt at cable hiding.
With this sorted I added the acrylic to the side panel along with the rubber moulding:
Then I actually painted this side of the front panel black and left this:
Da-dah!!
Well, I wish this was the end, but theres still a few things I need to do. Gloss the black and finish T-Cutting the side panels a bit more. My DVD drive needs shifting a little further forward and I need to replace the ‘red’ cathodes so they are actually red and not pink.
The advice I think is really useful is when putting the modded side panel on, check it’ll fit before you wedge. The acrylic I had was a little to wide and when removing the panel it locked against the backplate. I sawed the difference off and now its fine. I did lose patience with it a little though!
I need to add a little more detail over the next two days, I wont say what. But I’ll pop the pics on when I’ve done!
Thanks for reading, please tell me what you think!