Case Mod - In Progress Empire Strikes NEC

I was busy with school and work this week, so I haven’t made much progress I have developed the theme further than the general “Star Wars” from last week. It’s definitely a throw back to the original trilogy (specifically Empire Strikes Back?) We’ll deal with some design later in this post and next week when I hope to have the major portions of the plan fully figured out.

The case is from a stock NEC “Ready 7020;” it housed an Intel Pentium (no letter or Roman numeral appendage) clocked at a whopping 75 mHz, an 850 mb HDD, and 8mb RAM (according to a June of ’95 article, “enough power for all but the most power-hungry multitasker.”) When my mom bought this system back in ’95 she paid $2k. She still has the receipt and has promised to find it for me to post a pic of later.

Here’s the front panel prior to any disassembly. By the time we’re done with this all the beige will be gone, anything is better than beige As you can see it has three 5.25″ bay, one 3.5″ floppy bay, two LED’s, and square power button. The face has two curves and was a lot of fun to model in SketchUp.



The case side panel (which cover the left, right, and top) is held on by four thumb screws. They stick out a bit too much to be so bland, so they may end up replaced by some blue ones from the MNPCTech store (http://www.mnpctech.com/thumbscrew.html .)



Removing the tri-panel. Something is going to need to be done about the weird back panel layout (it’s sideways!) The current plan is to cut the PCI size slots out and tack weld them back on correctly. I know a welder and he may be willing to help. If anyone has a better idea, feel free to comment below.



The tri-panel should be interesting to cut the window in. I may build a 2×4 frame to slip inside to avoid bending or denting it.



As I was attempting to remove the components I had a lot of difficulty getting even my squatty Philips screwdriver into the tiny space. After struggling for several minutes, I noticed a weird line on the ‘floor’ of the case. I turned the case over to investigate and discovered there is a removable panel on the bottom of the case. It’s held on by a single screw. This should be interesting to mod, as I haven’t seen (or can’t recall) a case with a bottom panel. I’m contemplating replacing it with an acrylic panel milled to fit. (By “milled,” I mean painstakingly carved with a combination of a Dremel and a flush cut saw.)



This pic is of the panel removed, old hardware still inside. The plastic front panel has also been removed.



The case, free of all the hardware. It’s rather spacious. There’s one 80mm fan mount in the front. The 8 screw holes above the PSU mount and near the 5.25″ bays are the HDD mounts. I haven’t checked yet, but I’m pretty sure a modern drive has the appropriate mounting holes. The mobo tray is a little more than .25″ from the tri-panel’s wall, which should be great for cable management, as will the many holes on the back side of the drive bays.



I think the inside would look good painted super glossy white, like trooper armor.



This is the image I have chosen for the left side case window. The black vectors coming out will be the metal of the panel. The white will be transparent acrylic. The detail of the troopers face will be engraved in the acrylic, possibly painted. (Has anyone had luck painting acrylic?) The window will have a 1″ perimeter of uncut case metal; the edges will be lined with U-Channel molding from MNPCTech (I can’t seem to find it locally.)



That’s a wrap for this week, hopefully next week’s post will cover starting some actual work and a finalized plan for most of the project. Suggestions are much appreciated, expect polls in the future!

Cody (citizen.evremonde)

I'm going to get the rest of the worklog up on bit-tech asap, I've made more progress than is on this thread as of today (1/23/12) until I post updates check out my blog: sugarlandcomputerER.wordpress.com

 

Cant resist a Star Wars build ...
Gonna be interesting to see what you will make of it!

 

Ow, my bandwidth!

Dude, please resize your images, 4288x3216 is a tad much!

Interesting though, shall be following.

 

+1 to that... I won't be checking this one from home if all the pictures are that big

Looks like it will be fun though

 

I'll take care of the image resizing, sorry guys. I copied the URL's straight from my wordpress blog, where it resized the automatically, however the links were to the original files.

 

I've cut the images down to 25%, my browser is still showing them with the bar that tells me it has resized them and gives the option to view the full size image. Are they okay now? I appreciate you guys telling me rather just ditching the thread

 

NLX form factor! I thought IBM only used that setup...

 

Image sizes are significantly better, thank you

 

Week Two: The Cutting Begins

To get the image the correct size for printing and using as a template, I used Gimp to make it a 13" square and saved it as a JPEG. I created a new spreadsheet in OpenOffice and adjusted the size of the spreadsheet to 2 pages wide by two pages in height. I double-checked in print preview, reduced the margins to 0", and got rid of the header. I printed and trimmed the margins my printer arbitrarily added and taped them together. I measured and marked lines with a pencil on the case to ensure the design would be straight. Here's the result (I'm using my iPod instead of the point-and-shoot from the last post, sorry for the quality degradation.)



With the shims to support the tripanel being held in place with clamps, everything is ready for cutting.



The section I got done tonight. Hopefully I'll be able to work on it throughout the week and have all of this cutting done for the next post. You should wear a painter's mask when cutting with a Dremel. You don't want to breath paint or metal shavings coming off the panel.



A closer look at the cut. I didn't use painter's tape, since I'll be sanding it down after I finish the cutting. Cutting directly through the paper template has not been my best idea. I put out a couple small fires, apparently paper, hot metal, and sparks don't mix well; who knew?



Now to design, here is the case's power switch...



I want this on it, but I'm still working on how that's going to happen... Any ideas?



Thanks guys!

Cody (citizen.evremonde)

 

Week 4: Case Window Cutting Complete and Priming

I got quite a bit done last night. The case window is now completely cut and primed (it will need another coat of primer today.) Now I need to cut fan holes and start working on rearranging the mobo mounting posts.

Some pics:







I took this mesh off the back of a commercial fridge from a neighbor’s trash. I want to replace the lower part of the front panel with it after I sand it down to the “silver” and clear coat it.



I’m thinking matte black for the exterior of the case with accents and super glossy white for the interior. I'm still an amateur (kid, 17 y/o) and would appreciate tips and tricks from all the pros on here.

Until later this week!
Cody (citizen.evremonde)

 

You could work that into the front of your case, maybe integrate the power button in the middle? That might be a little tricky though.

One tip on the empire sign, be sure (if you are into the lore and all...) to check if its the correct symbol, there are like 4 different onces from different times in the history of star wars

 

Sweet! I love mods of old school cases! watching!

 

Because this is a form factor I'm too young to know of, I'll be watching!
But seriously, looks like a good theme to the project- great start- can't wait for more!

 

Thanks, Bladesingerz! I like that idea and have started working on integrating it into the design. Also, I checked Wookiepedia and I think that is the right crest. It appears there were two variations prior to the fall of the Republic, one during the Rebellion, and at least one when the Empire regains power (in extended universe materials.)

Also, does anybody remember the thread where the mobo tray was angled to 45 degrees? I was doing some fitting today and realized that because of the location of the HDD's, the PSU is lowered and doesn't leaved enough height for the mATX board I'm prototyping with. It looks like I'll be angling the mobo

 

Week Five: Front Panel Cutting/Mobo Fitting

Hey guys! I’m finally back with an update. This week I took the plastic front panel and cut off the ‘grate’ that covered the 80mm fan (that mounted on the chassis not the panel.) I replaced it with the mesh I removed from the refrigerator (see my last post for a close up pic of it.) I haven’t permanently affixed it yet because I want to clean up the edges. I will be replacing the 80mm fan mount on the chassis with a 120mm one. I also need to sand off the NEC logo. I’m planning on filling the 3.5″ bay and the space for the sleep button with plastic resin. I am contemplating placing LEDs on the inside of the front panel, along the rows of squares to the right of the mesh. The actual holes are positioned slightly above the squares, so the LEDs will not visible, but light will be cast down through the hole. I hope this will produce a glow rather than a bright light.



I got another computer from a generous neighbor; it has a removable mobo tray. Now I won’t have to rearrange the mounting pegs on the original mobo tray and I’ll easily be able to angle it. I have not decided whether to completely remove the old tray or use it for a radiator mount.



Also from the new addition to the stockpile. I’m going to use the first 4 PCI slots to replace the old ones, which I removed by sanding off the pop rivets (I didn’t think to look for an easier way, does anybody know of one?) I’ll have to cut the back panel because of the angle of the mobo (it’s too small anyway.) I’ll also have to cut for the I/O plate (I’m not using the outdated one pictured.)



Here is the assembly so far. Only the cut side panel is primed (2 coats.)



See you guys next week with some work done!

Cody (citizen.evremonde)

 

Nice start.
Just like Dingo I, too, like mods of old skool cases.

I think you should look into some plastic filler for the rest of that front. The new mesh looks very good, and if the rest of the front could become very clean and smooth (except for the vandal type switch you will most likely install at one point anyway, heh), it would take this to a whole new level.

 

Nutman's a mind reader

Lol, plastic filler has been in the works since the last post. I've been out of town so I haven't gotten started on it just yet. Can you recommend a particular brand? Will the stuff they sell at craft stores work? I appreciate you guys following the mod and offering suggestions. I've never used a forum before and this has been a great experience so far.

 

You can use a drill to get rid of the rivets, just use a drill thats slightly bigger then the rivet centerhole and the rivet will fall off easy enought(spelling?)
thanks to google/someone else for the image, not my own.

EDIT: Maybe i should say something about the build too... '-_-
Good work! love the theme, thought i would have inverted the image But that would have been a more tedious cutout, would you mind if i did something similar in a future mod, not the same pic ofcorse but i makes a really nice sidepanel cutting that way!

 

Welcome to bit-tech and modding!

Great start, liking the designs and ideas, there are lots of great peeps on here to help out if you get stuck.

There are some truly great modders on here, if you havent come across bill owen yet then this link to his mod store should sort you out will most of the basics and quite a bit more.
http://www.mnpctech.com/CaseModTutorials.html

Good luck.

 

Sorry, I have no experience with plastic fillers, but if you use Facebook, you could apply for membership of MNPCTech's group there and put the question forward there. Within 5 minites you'll have your answer, is my guess...