Project : Solitude : an excercise in n00bness

Hey all...

I've been tooling around these forums for a while, and finally decided to mod my first box....

don't expect anything spectacular like some of the crackheaded schemes some of you people come up with ....

this is the first box i've ever ripped apart and decided to customize, so any advice people have would be greatly appreciated.

The victim?....a nice spiffy new aluminum chieftec dragon case...i bought an antec tower a few years ago, and fell in love with the style and design of this case, and figured it'd be a great case to start off with for a first-time project...

i haven't done any sort of hardware specs yet, but i want a machine that's going to be able to run some of the upcoming games at full tilt, including some overclocking, and a stab at a full-blown watercooling system

Here's the basic skinny of what i had to work with




mad kudos to Xoxide, for getting this to me overnight....already impressed by their customer service and whatnot

first things first, take that door off and cut out that ugly panel, and start prepping it for a plexiglass window...i already know that i want to hook up some cold cathodes in the front panel, to give a nice warm glow from the drive bays...




next, cut the top off to prep it for the upper window(which i still haven't figure out what design i'm inlaying in yet )



and unfortunately, seeing as how it's pitch black(blame work for keeping me away from wanting to completely dismantle my new toys ), i had to call it a night on this one...

next on the list, is finish cleaning up the door, sand off the burrs and cut out the inner lip so i can inlay the window, then start prepping the case for painting...

ideas?...well, i want to get rid of one of the drive bay chasis trays, so i can install a colored plexiglass hard drive mount..i figure it'll give it a little bit more personality, than those ugly generic trays ...also i'm debating on whether or not to cut out the front grill on the lower half of the front bezel...the only thing that concerns me is the USB/firewire slot in there, and relocating it...

additionally, i'd really like to get rid of the fan mounts, and open up the option of mounting grills on the back and front fan bays....windows on the top and side panels....i'm also debating mounting an aluminum barrier between the upper half of the case and the lower half, so i can make a nice two-color interior....whether or not that happens, is yet to be seen

color scheme?...i'm currently waffling between a black paint job...or a deep midnight blue, or blackish-blue....i guess the ending decision will be what i can find when i go dupli-color shopping...also i'm wanting to install 2 sets of cold cathodes, a purple set, and a blue set, so i can change moods without having to reinstall stuff....all in all, i want the case to have a very soft, mellow feel, soothing, relaxing....obviously to mix with my very rampant need to obliterate everything in all the games i play

a few questions for everyone, if anyone has some advice...

has anyone successfully converted one of these cases to a screw-based fan installation, instead of those gaudy purple mounts?.....that's one of the first obstacles i've come across when building this case...

secondly....any suggestions as far as painting a mixed black/blue paint job?....what i was contemplating was an overall black look, with a shimmering dark blue look, almost a deep blue pearlescent, but not....

bah i'm rambling...anyways....advice is very very welcomed, and encouraged ...wish me luck

--J

 

Good decision on aluminum, the steel ones are a turd to cut. Love the Dragons though, I've gone through 2 of em so far and would by more.

 

Hey nice idea's and nice looking case already

Anyway..

I haven't.. but wouldn't it be the easiest way to fill the holes and locate the new screwholes somewhere else and mount them from there? Or try re-making a mount like that purple ones outta alu or I dunno..

If you go for a black/blue sceme.. (which in my opinion can look really cool) try not to make it a to bright blue - but you already said deep blue so I guess you know that - and just go for it

Gl with your mod

 

Well, thanks to a very busy week, I haven't been able to touch this case for a few days, so I decided to skip work today to....have some away time lol...

Decided to get the top panel of of the case knocked out, and get the rough cut done...

The outline is kind of hard to see, pencil on masking tape is a little light sometimes


An hour of hacking and we came out with this...have about an inch and a half buffer between the cut and the edge of the panel, and it came out a lot better than I expected. I was skeptical about what it would come out as, and figured i could trim out another half inch if i didn't like it...but yay i do..

Not bad for the first time ever hacking at metal with a dremel. It was a little shocking to see how easily the wheels would break if I cut the wrong way...snapped a few in half *really* easiliy..heh...


As you can see, I still need to buff out these edges a little more...any suggestions on how to go about making nice rounded edges on these things, and how to deburr these?...just generic sand paper?...


One last shot from the inside, just to give a feel for what the unpainted window might look like without the masking tape jacking up the visual LOL

--J

 

For getting those corners round, I have found something along the lines of this: http://dremel.com/productdisplay/bit_template.asp?SKU=952&Color=009933 to be quite helpful - then I'll go over the edges with sand paper to get it smooth.

 

It's looking good mate, I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

I guess for the edges you could use a file or a sanding drum on your dremel?

 

I'd go with either a sanding drum on the Dremel or one of the drum/cylinder shaped aluminum oxide grinding bits.

The alu-ox grinders work nicely on sheet steel - I cut up my old case to add fans for a friend recently, my first actual cutting attempts... found the sander just trashed itself against the steel and didn't remove material very fast. The alu-oxide grinder lasts much better and cuts/grinds better, w/o being uncontrollable. Got decently circular fan ports w/ a sabre saw & Dremel.

Alu sheet might just need the sanding drum; those're cheaper that the alu-oxide grinders, anyway!

EDIT: Duh... I'm talking about exactly the same thing nleahcim is... didn't actually load his link until after I'd posted this...

 

No updates as of late, unfortunately, I'm going to finish up the top panel tomorrow after i buy some new bits for the Dremel.

I've been doing a little bit of pricing and whatnot, and checking on some parts, and was hoping to get a few critiques on what I've looked at so far....(yeah yeah, i can hear the groans already..heh...i just figure that you guys probably have a better grasp on the various brands than I do..I'm way too "one-track minded" when it comes to parts...)

Mobo = DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D ATX AMD Motherboard *OR* DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR ATX AMD Motherboard...I haven't decided yet if I'm going to do SLI in the future...probably not, but honestly, if there's the tiniest hint that i *MAY* do it, wouldn't it be better to spend the extra $40 to get the SLI capable, instead of rebuilding later on?
CPU = AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor...this is one of the spots i'm not sure about...yes I'm going the OC route, but I've been so out of touch with processors that I've got no specs on the AMD's out today, and what they're capable of
Video Card = XFX PVT45GUD Video Card
PSU = Antec TRUE550 550W Power Supply *OR* OCZ OCZ520ADJ 520W Power Supply

Of course there's still the minor things, like the DVD burner, floppy drives, blah blah blah blah blah....then there's the memory which I haven't started pricing yet....

then there's the WC system....which...like a true n00b, i am *totally* oblivious on. I don't even know where to start with that behemoth...I just know i want the CPU/vid card/HDD's in the loop...so meh

suggestions, changes, thwapping about the head and shoulders?

--J

 

Im in the same boat as you man, im new to watercooling and im going to put it in my new rig that ironically has the same mobo (SLi one) and proc as you. Im just having truoble getting my case in so I can mod it then order my parts (hoping for them to go down a few dollars untill the ) And you have the first case that I had (but I think everyone has had that case at some time...

I'd say go Sli, If you dont do it its only $40 and if you do it then thats money you didnt have to spend to buy another mobo becasue you didnt think you were going to do it.

Anyways keep on modding that case!!

 

meh....that chieftec/chenming/antec/(might as well call it an acme case)...it's just so sleek...i can't help but love it ...i picked up the antec version on my last case, and thought that it would be perfect for a first-time n00b modder like me...that, and they've just got so many possibilities for customizing...definitely a very user friendly case

--J

 

I have discovered that Nibblers make a much better cut than a dremel-especially if you have no practice. I made a nice case window in my Sister's PC-and I didnt even have to sand the edges smooth. They also make lovely curves

 

I couldn’t agree more!

Also good luck with the mod. As for a suggestion: you said you wanted to make a soothing case mod. Think about noise suppression. Make that sucker quiet. My hard drive makes a racket

 

Actually, I was kind of surprised at how easy the dremel cut through...the cut came out a lot smoother and straighter than i thought it would...i figured it'd be a complete nightmare cutting it...we'll find out this weekend, though, how the curves go....i'll probably have a totally different opinion come saturday

oh, and one other thing....i was using the extension thingy with the dremel when i did the top window, and when i took it off...the inner spring came *COMPLETELY* out of the arm....is it going to jack up my tool, if i just slide it back in, and re-attach it to the dremel?

--J

 

Hmm, on my Dremel clone, it doesn't hurt, just slide it back in.

 

I must be one of those freaks in the world who can't sleep without the soft dull drone of a computer fan..LOL....2 computers, and they give off a soft ambient spin sound....and the world just doesn't feel right without it heh

--J

 

bleh...lack of updates suck...so does working too much

well....i got to spend some quality time with the case yesterday, and got the top lid cleaned up some more, only thing left on it, is to go at it with a file and make the edges nice and pretty...after looking at it though, i may have to cut into the 5 1/4" rack cage to make the plexi fit..we'll see after i put the rivets in...

also, i started hacking away at the side door...got all the straight edges cut, and just need to cut the round parts out...

i'll post pics when i get home from work...yay me

--J

 

well, as promised...

here's the rounded out top..all that's left is to file it down, smooth out the cut a little more and it's done...


but....with that pretty windowed top.....here's the problem...


as you can see, the drive cage is hella close to the lip, stupid me didn't even think about that when i was measuring it.....measure twice, etc etc....it looks like i'll just end up having to trim the drive cage a little bit to make room for the plexi/rivets...not a terrible thing, but at least it'll be a nice big window to see more guts


Also went through and decided to cut out the mesh on the front grills, for a little bit better airflow...i'd like to cut the rear mesh out too, but i'm not seeing any mounts for any sort of screws for grills...anyone had any success mounting grills on the rear of these dragon cases?


and tadah....the first run through on the window cut...got all the straight lines cut out, and sometime this week, or this weekend, the corners will get knocked out and smoothed down, and that step'll be comleted...


and the obligatory untaped shot...yay n00biness!

thanks for all the kind words, it's definitely helping keep my motivation up to finish this job

--J

 

not to bad for youre first. This is where you will learn the most and trust me you'll learn reall fast after you mess a few things up. (sadly im speaking from experience)...

 

heh...well if the top window is a big enough sign, i've already had my first trip-up ...meh...it'll come out good...even if i've gotta saw the drive cage...and i think it'll look a little spiffier too with the bigger view window...it'll give me a little bit more area to pimp things out with

hopefully...i'm anal-retentive enough about things that i won't fubar stuff *TOO* much...i'll sit for hours just staring at the case, mentally drawing a blueprint of what i want and don't want, and fitting things to see if ideas will work before i even break out a tool...by the time i'm ready to pull the tools out, i'm usually ready to go without any plan changes...

now if i can just figure out a way to eliminate the murphy's law mistakes...i'll be golden

--J

 

Nice start. I think finding a way to fix mistakes is the best part, and can lead to a much better mod in the end.