Case Mod - In Progress Saint Louis Cardinals theme case! - COMPLETE! 6/11

A Mod for my Wife!! She is a Mega Fan!
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The case I'm using is the Fractal Design Arc Midi











I need to tear it down for painting. The first to go is one of the drive bay cages. I will not be putting it back in either because I'll only have two drives and there's room on the bottom















Next, comes everything else that's not part of the base steel frame



Can you believe this thick filter was on the top? Why the hell would they use such a thick filter over an exhaust fan??



The front comes off too with it's lone fan



There she is....the frame





I start painting with a light red coat



The front and top mesh pieces are painted white



and the front and top panels are painted red



Once dry, I reassemble the top without the thick mesh filter



The front will obviously have a mesh filter, so that's where I start





There will be two 140mm intake fans



under the completed bezel



I need to paint the panel controls and ports area too





And put it back on the case



Once the frame is dry, all the fans and accessories go back in



Now that the top panel and front bezel are on, they go back on the case





I added a matching DVD burner



The right panel finally gets its top coat

 

Looking go so far. What size logo you going to use

 

Great work always look forward to your builds. Have a few questions regarding paint,

1. How many coats do you apply?
2. Do you wet sand in between coats?
3. Also do you use lacquer??

Only need to know as you paint finish is always fantastic

 

This new paint has paint and primer in one, so three.
Yes, about 2000 grit
No

 

I just slapped a BIG decal on the right side because that's what the wifey wants.

It looks good anyway





and then I started painting left side and ran out paint!!

 

I intend to use the other 5.25 bay for a light controller. The NZXT Hue is great little toy, but it's not gonna match like this



So I strip it down to the core components



The top piece, which is the largest will be white. The under layer will be red, when I get more paint...

 

I got the Specs lined up:

i5 3570K



Asrock Z77 Extreme 6



EVGA GTX 580 DS Superclocked



8GB DDR3-1866 Corsair Dominator Platinum & OCZ Vertex 3 240GB



Corsair H110 Cooler

 

does the paint not chip and will it be durable without lacquer? Sorry for the questions.... Lovely build though

 

Why the 580? Did you have it sitting spare?

 

I did have a spare. My wife will use this machine maybe once a week for an hour tops to print coupons!! I thought a 580 would be hilarious!

Should I have given it away here instead??

I never do a clear coat. I've never had a problem with the paint chipping and shiny cases don't do it for me

 

I picked up some more red paint for the mesh



And then reassembled the panel







Then I painted some thumb screws to match



Now the bays are back together

 

Can I just say, awesome paint job, what kind of spray paint did you use? Automotive? And if you do sell that 580, I'd be more than happy to buy it, could sli it in my bro's comp

 

I got an awesome deal on it - $212!!

 

I put the balls on the knobs



I don't know if I like it, what do you think?





I want an STL logo on the front of the case and tried ordering it through a metal cutter. The problem is that it's a copyrighted symbol and no one will cut it for me!

So, here I go:





I slowly widdle it away



Till it's done







I just have to strip, sand, paint, and then mount it

 

Not so sure about the base ball knobs (that just sounds sooo wrong ) They're definitely different but really stand out, S'pose you could graduate them 0 to 11 (that a whole one louder than 10)... Nice colours on the case though...

 

Yeah, I would lose the baseballs. Paint looks good.

 

+1 on losing the baseballs. I think they are a bit big and just over powers the fan controller. If they were smaller they might look good

 

I agree, the knobs are going. I'm gonna order one more and turn them into case feet instead.

 

What would they look like cut in half ? they'd not stand out as much

 

They would still be just as wide