Digital Transformation - 14 Aug - More beige gone, window added

After many months of lurking, I've decided to mod a case for the first time.

I got a hold of an old Digital Prioris AT server case that housed a Pentium 100 server, and though I'd try modding it to house my system.

This won't be like some of the great mods in here, but mainly to give it a go, and see how it works out.

Comments are welcome along the way.

Oh, and I don't get much time for doing this, so updates may be far and few between. I only have a crappy camera, so I apologize in advance for the pictures.

OK,on with the show.

The victim, oops I mean volunteer.


With the front panel removed.


The inside. I really like how the case is seperated in to two zones (top and bottom) and the area for hard drives.


The Back.



OK, after a quick trip to www.formfactors.org to get the measurements for an ATX board, and several cutting discs later (jigsaw wouldn't fit), we get this.
Also cleaned up area for the power supply.



The front panel houses a 120mm fan, but with all the little holes it gathers a lot of dust. So, cut a hole for the 120mm front fan.



OK, even though that hole won't be seen with the front cover on, I don't like how the cut through all the little tiny holes looks.
So, aluminium, pop rivets and ye old bondo type goop to the rescue.




Thats it for the day.

 

Ummm may wanna fix your picture links

 

Ok, I'm new to this, anybody want to enlighten me?

 

You're using html.. you gotta use BBcode

Do it like this:

Without the space ofcourse

 

You can't use html in the forums. Use the tags .

edit: what he said ^^^

 

when you post there is alittle picture to the right of the use bullets button, press it, and paste your urls into that

 

Pictures Fixed

Thanks,

Pictures now work.

 

some day they'll add <a> and <img> to the allowable html tags in the cpanel (well I dunno if vB supports it, phpBB does tho)

Anyways, nice start, keep at it

 

Fan holes

Added a 80mm blowhole at the top, and a 120mm hole for an intake fan at the bottom. Still some cleaning up to do, and obviously I'm going to paint this case when I'm done cutting holes out of it.

Also drilled some holes for some lighted feet I've made.

This case is made of some solid stuff. I used my holesaws on my current cheap Hairong case to remove the grills covering the fan holes, but they would not cut through this case. All it did was draw a nice circle for me to follow with the jigsaw.

120mm bottom intake



80mm blowhole



Still a few more holes to cut here and there.

 

WOW a big at case

 

old pentiun powa lol those case 10 years ago were OMFG look that awesome case now OMG look that dinosaur xD

 

That case is really cool for being that old. Cant wait untill youre done with it

 

Tidied up I/O area

Spent some time tidying up the motherboard I/O area. Put in a piece of metal over the old extra plug cutouts, and then bondo'd it.
Also put in another piece of aluminium to finish the edge.

I/O area



Went to a local computer shop and asked if they had any dead ATX motherboards. Now I have one for free that I can use for test fitting.

Test fit



Until next time.

 

Front panel work

Today I filled in some of the ventilation slots on the front panel and gave it a quick tidy up.

It's nowhere near finished on the front yet, and all going to plan I'm going to fit a 4x20 display in there, but first I have to cut away more of the front panel metal.



I'll lose ventilation over the first two hard drive bays, but as I will probably never have more than two hard drives, it won't be a problem

 

Cut LCD Hole

Today I cut the hole out for the LCD.

It's off centre so that the orignal locking mechanism for the case side panel and front door can still work.

As usual, still a bit of tidying up to do on the bevelled edge.

 

Cutting Day

Today was a cutting day.

First off, cut out the front panel metal to allow the LCD to mount on the front bezel. As usual, covered the rough edge with aluminium strip.



Next, cut out the obligatory window.

Decided to only show of the motherboard area, and leave the drive cage and top area invisible.



On the case.



Last thing today was to use the metal waste from the window to make a panel for the power supply. The old AT one taken out of the case is massive, so I need to fill in the hole. Then I'll cut it to mount my 450w ATX power supply.

It's only held in by some screws temporarily, once its cut and rivetted in, I'll probably bondo it.



Well, that is it for today.

Still heaps to do.

 

Another talking to myself post

This case only has one 3 1/2" bay and I want to put a fan controller in the front.

So, where should the floppy drive go? Before you say in the trash, it is still handy for flashing BIOS etc, especially when you run Linux, so it stays.

Came up with an idea, and using some spare steel, this is the result. There is a heap of room above the power supply, so relocate the floppy drive to the back.

If I decide to keep this, then I'll tidy it up.

 

go for it, NOW GET CLEANING!!

Good work so far!

 

Looks like an old case, can't wait to see its finished makeover

 

Oops

When fitting the floppy drive, I didn't notice it interferes with the blowhole I cut earlier.

It is going to have to stick out the back about 10mm. No big deal, just have to come up with a plan for a new bracket.