I decided I'd go ahead and up these. They could technically be made into a project log, but I decided I have enough of those running anyways. I also wouldn't hear the end of it from some good folks on here for doing so! And I can't come up with any more project names anyways, lol. So I decided to drop these into here for your viewing pleasure or what-have-you. These are a couple of finished builds I did for customers. They are in fact the same chassis with the same mod and both are very similar to the other in most respects. Only differences would be on the hardware level. The case(s) I'm cutting on today is an AMS CF-1006, and is the little brother of the the CF-1009, which is a favorite of both Bill Owen and myself. I loves these cases. Unfortunately, they are pretty much extinct. But I had a cache of these sitting around from an awesome fire sale a while back, and I couldn't pass it up. And I have one left after these that I was saving for a future project log build that is going to be cool... Anyways, these cases are aluminum throughout, and have a thick clear front piece of acrylic on it. It also has no way to breath properly up front, which is why I did what I did, aside from obvious cosmetic issues too. I designed a new custom front to be cut out of acrylic to accomodate the fan and stealthy feel of it. I love that look personally. I don't like a million bays on the case, as many can tell from some of my other work. Stock, these cases have an 80mm up front cantered to the far left and a 120mm in back. That wasn't going to work for me, so I did a little surgery! First off, here's a quick n' dirty mockup of stock versus the modded case(s) for clarification. And the chassis with the front removed and stripped down for surgery. Close up of the front stock fan area. Utter rubbish. But easily remedied! Marked out for the cuts... And done. Easy as pie. Replaced with a new piece of aluminum and drilled out for a 120mm fan. And a quick fan installed for checking fitment. They've since been replaced with blue Yates. The back stock fan spot. Gotta do something about that grill. It's ass. And fixed. I marked out and drilled a top blowhole 120mm fan spot. The airflow is odd in these cases. Because of the CPU cooler chosen, I wanted a front intake with a slow-moving Yate blowing over the HDD's, and a rear Lian Li fan I had laying around not being used blowing into the case as well, and a top medium-speed Yate exhausting. Judging by the CPU temp of 27 degrees under load on a e6600, it works pretty well, and best of all it's bloody quiet. Anyways, here's the blowhole done. Here's what the case stock kinda looks like, but in this pic you can see top handles already drilled and installed as well as new case feet drilled and installed. Stock had those little ass stick on cheapy rubber feet that don't do squat. So, here's the new front I designed for the case cut and installed. I layered white and transparent blue on it for a cool contrasty effect. Looks great! I designed and engraved little symbols for what's what up front in the control panel area. Not that any of us computer people don't know what's what there anyways, but simply for completion's sake. I installed the system going into one of these builds and did some quick cable management to clean it up. This one has an MSI P35 Neo2 mobo; q6600 CPU; 2 gb of OCZ RAM; BFG 7800GT I hadn't used at all that I dropped an unused Arctic Cooling cooling unit on it to silence it down; 500gb HDD; OCZ GameXstream 600w PSU, etc. It's going to be for graphics work, that's all I know. That's all I've got. Hope it was a neat read! I gotta get back to my other projects now, so toodles!
It is. I have one too. BTW, great stuff E.E.L. The engraved symbols were a v. nice touch. Do you own a store or something?
@ E.E.L - This might be an alternative to those cases. Clicky They have the acrylic front & the drive bays are centered. I really like the custom acrylic you had cut for the two shown on this thread.
The laser cut guy must love you. The symbols are a nice touch. -A fire sale you say... Hmmm... Nah, forget it. If I set fire to the local Fry's, they'd just put the melted merchandise back on the shelves at other stores.
Thanks! Thanks, John. Nah, it isn't. But I'd love to get my hands on those too! Thanks, man! Own a store? Yeah, seen those around too. it's not the same case at all though. That case there probably has thinner than 1mm aluminum throughout, and these AMS cases are twice that. Top-notch folded edges, etc. It's a shame AMS didn't continue with this line. I love me too! I appreciate the kind words, man. Man, wish I had a Fry's in the area! We don't have squat around these here parts! Oh wait....Performance PC's. Sorry.
I love that engraving you did!!!! Did you paint inside the engraving to make it white or what? Im trying to figure out what I'm gonna do with my case as Im having touch sensitive buttons so I need just a symbol like that but not sure how to do it properly so its visible.
Thanks, man! Actually, it's simply how the acrylic reacts to the laser or engraving or whatever; it turns a lighter shade or milky in a way to the actual color. All I did was clean it up a bit with some Novus. You could mask off the area with some kind of vinyl or something before engraving, so it gets engraved through the material and leave it on while you paint over the engraving, allowing it to dry. Then peel away the masking to find your engraving whatever color you painted it.
