Case Mod - In Progress Project: Rogue (NZXT Rogue SFF) It lives! Aug 13, '08

WTF? this is bloody awesome!!!!

 

You're welcome You definately deserved it, and I think even more people would have voted for you if you posted those last pics a few weeks ago. With the leds on it looks incredible.

 

Hot damn! That Rogue grill looks amazing in the dark!

 

Congrats on taking the MotM win Craig ........

awesome looking case ............


Alan

 

Beautiful, Craig!

 

My congrats as well. Awesome look.
John

 

Thank you!

I've got to do a little custom cable wiring before I fire up the LCD, but even I'm not sure what will be on the display. Whatever it is, I'll make sure it fits the theme!

Thanks for all the kind words! It turned out even better than I expected.

I actually did spend a little time staring at it last night... It has kind of a sinister ambiance to it. I really can't wait to get the rest of it lit up, including the accents on the front panel, and the door.

I appreciate it guys! Thank you!

When I was nominated, I really didn't think I was far enough along to be considered for MotM. I didn't think I'd get enough work done for anyone to see what I was trying to pull off. I'm glad I did so well, despite the outstanding competition.

Thanks again guys. I hope that I satisfied a little bit of your picture craving...

 

wow, amazing...can't find words for this. and congrats for the MotM...

 

That sidegrill...OMG, looks awesome!

 

Well done craigbru., this case just looks better and better.

 

I would like to let you know that I joined the Bit-tech forums so I could tell you how awesome this mod is... this mod is super baller out of control awesome.

 

Thanks again for all the compliments guys!

 

Well, another weekend has come and gone... with almost no modding time... I had my sister's kids for the entire weekend, and they needed supervision. I also took advantage of the nice weather, and got a bunch of work done in the yard. Either I'm getting old, or I just overworked myself, because I'm sure feeling sore today!

So, enough about my weekend... what about the case? Well, I did get something done, and will update with pics tonight. Basically, I've decided to add a Griffin Powermate to the Rogue. I originally bought one last fall, and was going to put it on the case, but my design changed, and I just couldn't find a home for it. So, I pretty much forgot about it until this weekend, when I came across it as I was cleaning up a little. I decided to install the software on the Via system, and play around with it a little. As it turns out, the software is pretty awesome, and you can map almost any function you want, and it's profiles work per program. However, the feature I liked the most, was it's mouse emulation. Okay, so how do you control a mouse with a simple rotary wheel? It's like this, rotate left or right, and the cursor moves left or right. To move up or down, you simply press in the wheel, and rotate left or right, which equates to up and down respectively. A single press in the center of the wheel, is the same as a left click. Pressing the center of the wheel, and holding for 3 seconds clears the desktop. Sound complicated? It's really not bad at all. In fact, it reminds me of a single knob Etch-a-Sketch.

So, why even bother with this at all? Well, it has a couple of great advantages. Namely, quick and easy control of the Via, without the need for an actual mouse attached. This could come in handy when the Rogue either isn't running, or when gaming, and Synergy isn't available.

I've got a hole drilled in the door of the case, between the two LCD displays. However, in order to avoid having it look just like some big, stupid knob in the front of the case, I need the perfect knob. So, I've been searching the internet for just such a thing. If that wasn't enough, I've decided to swap on the knobs on the Zalman fan controller, for something a little more beefy. Naturally, all the knobs need to match. Ideally, I'd like the fan controller knobs to be around 20mm (3/4"), and the Powermate's to be between 30 and 35mm (1.25"). Also, the Powermate knob needs to be very low profile, or be able to be modified for a low profile. So, I'm not asking for much, am I? Does anyone have any great sources for me?

 

I'm sure many of you were like me when you were younger? You loved taking things apart... To see how they worked, and to see what was inside. Well, who says that's something you outgrow? I surely haven't!

So, I've decided to tear apart my little Griffin Powermate...









There's really very little surface area left on the front of the case. That means my options for placement are pretty slim. I've decided to put it front and center on the case door. This is why finding the perfect knob is critical. Anything to large, or anything that doesn't match the aesthetics, will certainly look out of place. The knob hunt continues...





I'm currently waiting for a few parts to arrive... they should be here today actually. I needed a few minor things like wire sleeving, and some spade connectors, but I couldn't continue without them. It seems that there are so many little details that have to be taken care of. All cabling will be cut to length, sleeved, and pre-routed. Even wiring that will never be seen, must be in order. If it's not, it will really bother me... So, that's one of the things I'm going to be working on over the next few days.

In the meantime, I had a few details to wrap up on the case face. As shipped, there are acrylic strips that sit to the left and right of the door. These light up red when the case is on. Although they happen to match my theme perfectly, the strip on the right needed to be modified. The LED's from the Zalman fan controller actually reside in the area where the strip is supposed to sit. The fan controller can't be moved, so that meant the strip needed to be modified. This required me perfectly aligning and drilling 6 blind holes in the rear of the acrylic strip.





I'll show you the rest of details tonight...

 

well i sure didnt outgrew taking things apart...
waiting on those details...
goodluck!
did you change the knobs on the zalman fan controller?

 

Thanks!

I will be changing the knobs on the fan controller as soon as I find some that I like. I'm currently looking at some solid aluminum knobs from Mouser, but I haven't committed to buy them yet.

 

Due to the curve a knob will never look right. It would be hard but if you counter sunk it it would look a lot better.

 

You are probably right... A countersunk knob would look much better. I guess I'll need to come up with a creative way to get a countersunk hole in there...

 

I came up with this:


If you could cut a piece of tube and add a base to it and them mount that inside the curve, you could achieve your counter-sunk knob

 

Excellent interpretation! I should be able to do something like that, although the depth of the countersink, will be limited by the depth of the Powermate. I'll give it a shot tonight!