Case Mod Another Blue CoolerMaster HAF (12/13/12 Small Update - Watercooling soon!)

[ModaRobby]

Intro

After posting on these forums and watching the dedication and precision that flows out of every project log I have decided to do one of my own. I'm not going to be CNC cutting anything, covering everything with acrylic, powdercoating or any of that awesome stuff. What I do plan on doing is a lot, most of it budget oriented but bad-a** nonetheless.

I basically got sick of the red glow my HAF 922 was emitting. My favorite color is a bright blue, or a cross between light blue and electric blue. I used to house my hardware in a NZXT Guardian 921 and loved the color scheme, but hated the internal design of the case. I was inspired the most by Luna, Neptune's Trident, and Project Flow. Who could forget those?

So here I am armed with a Dremel Tool, some spray paint, sand paper, files, a rivet gun and a random assortment of hand tools. But maybe I'll make something worthy of awesome or maybe a jawdrop. Haha. Enjoy.

The Planning

While I was broke a few months and only had Bit-tech and other modding websites to scour for ideas, I created a long list of things I wanted to mod to my case. So I think a small list is in order so you can know what to expect out of this Log.

1. Blue LEDs in front 200mm fan and upper fan
2. Military switch array for lights etc.
3. cold cathode set-up
4. Blue acrylic/aluminum panel between mobo and PSU
5. Slotted AC-Ryan Mesh for HDD Bay Painted Flat Black to keep with the color scheme. (awesome stuff)
6. Black sleeve/blue HS color scheme
7. A custom illuminated reservoir
8. Internal and external case painting (DIY ghetto style)
9. Clear Side Panel
10. iPod Dock
11. Blue LED activity lights (IDE and power)
12. LCD Temperature Monitor
13. WATERCOOLING!!
14. Mobo Tray cut-outs for easy management

6/9/10 - The list increased already.


Well I'm sure I will add to this list a lot as I go along and I'm sure a lot of you will suggest things that are just plain awesome. But that is the to-do-list so far.

Before Pictures

Front Shot


What the HAF looks like when it is all tidy


What it looks like when it is not all tidy


The untidiness continues (apparently that's a word)


An actual update soon.

[AnG3L]

Nice buddy cant see what you up to. One tip though, re-size your pictures to 800 X 600 pls are way too big for forums.

[ModaRobby]

Originally Posted by AnG3L

Nice buddy cant see what you up to. One tip though, re-size your pictures to 800 X 600 pls are way too big for forums.

ImgShack was supposed to do that for me :/ I will use Irfanview to resize, then re-upload shortly.

I think the pics are the right size but ImgShack leaves the link up so you can see the pics bigger.



Subscribe my friend!

[ModaRobby]

Post Planning Update (planning for future parts coming soon)

I can't use my scanner so I will show the planning for future parts later. This project will surely take me into July but I will be updating the mods along the way. The watercooling goodies will unfortunately come towards the end due to money...

A pic of the iPod dock i've been working on at the top of the case. It shows a bit of work on the inner rim, I had to Dremel and file it down to help the end of the cable fit.


The flip side.


A little bit of hot glue. Weapon of choice over epoxy


And you receive this after got glueing the cable to the dock.


Sorry for the blur. It took me ages to figure out all the iso settings and what not. I decided to change the activity lights to blue while I was at it.


And this a picture of life without a sodering gun and lots of heatshrink.


And after inserting the LEDs into their plastic retainer and screwing the PCB back down...


iPod dock and blue lights shot


Also I decided to scratch another thing off my to-do-list. I went ahead and tried to change the LEDs. Now this definitely requires a soldering gun, and 3mm LEDs won't really fit in a 5mm hole...


I need to go to Radioshack soon and get new blue ones. And avoid having to get a whole new blue fan. It defeats the purpose of posting in a modding forum.

So I pulled my nice new dremel set, lightly used. I proceeded to saw a hole in my front mesh grill to mount an LCD screen in.


A lot of pictures went missing. Well next time there will be many pictures as I just got all my painting gear together. Stay tuned and don't forget to subscribe.

[Anubus]

This is going to be a nice mod.
Can't wait for another update^.^

[Editor22]

Looks like your off to a good start mate, keep the updates flowing

[Remmes]

looks good so far mate, keep up the good work

[ModaRobby]

Originally Posted by Remmes

looks good so far mate, keep up the good work

Originally Posted by Editor22

Looks like your off to a good start mate, keep the updates flowing

Originally Posted by Anubus

This is going to be a nice mod.
Can't wait for another update^.^

Thanks guys. I just woke up this morning and it is pouring rain, literally pouring. So I don't think painting is in order for today

The Painting Products

But I can show you the paint I'm using and a color sample


And everything else I need to paint this case; cigarettes, water, cell phone, color, primer, clear coat, wet sand paper and dry paper. And of course the Dremel tool which always has a use.


A pic of what the paint will look like. I got impatient and decided to paint one section on my back patio using the box to stop the overspray. It wasn't too much of a hassle, I just had to take the rivets off of this particular section.


This is all the stuff I have spread out over my bench outside. I decided to go ahead and take apart the case on my patio and worry about the clean up later. I'm sure I will have stepped on a lot of metal pieces before it's all clean. While I was dismantling the case, I also took apart my two case fans. They will also be painted Sail Blue. If you are observant you may also notice that I dismantled the "No-tool" drive bay assembly. You will see that later.


So maybe if the sun comes out I can start to paint this thing. It's gonna be a lot of painting...

[ModaRobby]

It rained all day today, so no painting except for the sample. I did manage to draw out a shape for the side panel cut-out which I will do tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a new day, one full of Dremeling, filing and sanding. Pics then!

[ModaRobby]

Got bored this morning so I decided to make a sort of sample for the color scheme of the back of the HAF. I started to do the side panel so some pics will come later tonight after I leave from work.


I dont have Photoshop or sketchup on this PC so windows Paint program had to suffice. Lol.

[DeadP1xels]

Oooooooooo i like this one

One thing i would say is when you upload your pics rezize them to 640x480 (iirc) it does'nt just help people watching but helps you its so frustrating when the reply box is bouncing around as your pictures are opening :P

[ModaRobby]

You're absolutely right. I've fixed the problem now. When I use my Imageshack uploader I've been resizing them to the "Message Board" setting which is 640x640.

Glad you like it.

[Mpovh]

To me, is an honor my case inspire someone Very Very good project!!!! Nice Start!! The Haf 922 is beautifull, with the black/blue theme then.. perfectly!!! Congrats for theme choice!!

[ModaRobby]

Originally Posted by Mpovh

To me, is an honor my case inspire someone Very Very good project!!!! Nice Start!! The Haf 922 is beautifull, with the black/blue theme then.. perfectly!!! Congrats for theme choice!!

Good to see you found my log Subscribe and follow along

[dembones]

Should be good, keep up the good work.

[phenoptix]

Have a HAFF 922 myself and I'm curious to see your case, all I can see atm is 403s from image shack. Someone suggested using facebook for image hosting recently which I thought was a pretty goodish idea.

[AnG3L]

Go for photobucket my friend all your pictures are down at the moment. Spend 30 dollars and go pro on photobucket it will help you a lot

[ModaRobby]

All the pics were down because I was in the process of deleting the old 800x800 ones and reuploading to 640x640. All should be well now. Update #2 coming in mere minutes.

[ModaRobby]

Well I'm extremely aggravated because I decided to re-upload all those pics so they would be the right size but imgshack decided to now change the size to 640 and just leave them at 800 with the image resize notification bar at the top...... ROAR!!

Update 2: Side Panel Time!

But anyhow, I spent yesterday before work mangling my side panel with a Dremel tool. So that's what this update will feature!

I originally decided to do a side panel like Luna's because it was so perfect just to be able to dremel out that trapezoid shaped piece of mesh.

Sorry for the lack of progress pics. I have a lack of cooperative family members over here. Lol.


But where is the fun in that? I took it upstairs and put it next to my Guardian 921 my hardware is currently housed in. I had to use this case because if I left my hardware just on top of a piece of cardboard like some of you guys do it would be toast in a day. Someone in my house would spill a drink on it or something else ridiculous like that.


But back on topic now. I decided that copying Mpovh's idea on Luna and cutting out that part would be thievery. So I taped it off again and drew some lines!






My tool of choice for rounding the corners uniformly? Abe Lincoln of course!


So after all the drawing and taping was done I pulled out my trusty dremel and began the process of cutting along the lines while avoiding shrapnel from exploding Dremel cut-off discs.

After completing one side.


And rounding the corner! Or avoiding it anyway


Halfway done now folks.


And done cutting the actual center out. I was thinking that maybe I could use this with some bondo on another project. Hmm. The two scratches in the middle of the cut-out piece are from when I got mad at my Dremel disc (because it wouldn't break ) so I kept pushing it into the metal until it exploded. Well that's how I have fun anyway.


Now I just have to deal with those corners.... using this!


The corner ready for surgery. The cylindrical grinding stone was making the tape bunch up and I couldn't see the circular edge I drew with my marker. So I took out my x-acto and trimmed up the tape a lil.


And after some grinding and a small bit of filing.


Heres a shot of the 5 casualties of the cutting of the side panel of the HAF. of the of the of the of the of the nom nom nom.


And finally, some finished shots!


Ignore my hairy gorilla legs...




The entire panel will be painted Flat Black with a clear gloss Polyeurothane (or however you spell that) coat. Which means that I will have to paint the top-exterior panel and the opposite side panel. Otherwise, the colors will not match... Dammit....

Well until next time guys. I promise it will be some painting. I haven't up to de-riveting the entire thing yet. Tomorrow is Sunday so I have no plans. See ya then!

DONT FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE!!!

[ModaRobby]

While I'm thinking about it, what color should the acrylic panel be? Clear, smoked or blue?