Case Mod - In Progress Project F.O.B. T.C. (FINISHED: 18. jan. 2012)

This is "Project F.O.B. T.C." - Forward Operating Base Tactical Computer.



An army styled casemod (with several twists) by Nutman from Hotmods.net.



Presented in association with Modmycase.dk.



Sponsored by In Win - thanks a lot!



Description/plans
Modmycase.dk asked me if I wanted to mod an In Win case for them - it's to be the main prize in a competition on Modmycase.dk.
In Win sponsored the case and the PSU - and since the PSU is army styled, the rest of the case will also be styled that way.
Some army practicalities/insanities will be introduced, mixed with more traditional casemodding ideas.
Tear, wear and BATTLE SCARS will also be introduced - I'm especially looking forward to that task.
The mindset was/is: "What would the army do?" - and I'll try to work from that point of view. However, I'm fully aware of the fact that the army would probably NEVER have chosen a case like this for a forward operating base computer, but hey; I have to play mthis with the cards that life has dealt me.

Chapters
Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Antenna box and other case peripherals
Part 3 - Sleeving and soldering
Part 4 - Painting, painting, painting...
Part 5 - Assembling and finishing
Part 6 - Final pictures

 

Part 1 - Introduction

Ok, here we go!

First, watch the video; 10 minutes of introducing the case and the project, mixed with a little bit of danish humour - or, just MY humour.
Oh, and sorry for the long video, but I thought I might aswell do a mini-review of the case itself, since In Win were so kind to donate it for this project:



Thank you for watching - I hope you got away from the experience relatively unharmed.

After doing the mini-review, I began to take the case apart.

Here it is without the side panels:






This lightswitch sits on the side panel, allowing you to power on/off the LEDs in the big fan:



Nice little detail by In Win - on the motherboard tray, they have punched in information on which holes to use for the motherboard stand-offs, depending on what motherboard you are going to install:



I plan on only painting the plastic part of the 5.25" bezels, keeping the dust filters and mesh in their current colour, which is black.
So, I removed the dust filters - first, I had remove these 2 little O-rings:



Then I pulled these "mesh locks" upwards:




Finally, I carefully peeled off the dust filter:



There!



To remove the mesh itself, I pulled the remaining mesh locks upwards:



And popped off the mesh:



I did the same with all mesh pieces sitting everywhere in the case.

I wrapped each mesh piece in bubble wrap - I don't want them to be mistreated (yet):



I decided to remove the 5.25" slot-blocking pieces - I figured that the coming owner would do so anyway. Plus, it's very much in line with this being an army styled case: the army would opt to make field material as ligth as possible (OK, not really, but if I was to carry this one around, I'd appreciate not breaking my back carrying it into battle!):



And, there we have it - the case is stripped of many parts:




Next task is to drill out all pop rivets that hold this bad boy together, to dismantle it fully before painting (Yeah, I know, I know... the army would just have spray painted it and called it a day, but I'm no army man!)

 

Off to great start! Great photos and theme to boot

 

Looking good! can't wait to see more!

 

Nice to see a new project from you Nutman. I will follow this log.. Well done until now.

 

in all fairness that case is hideous! Can't wait to see what you do with it

 

If you can make it through the build at the same speed as you unwrapped the case, this one might not take 3 years to finish...lol

 

This is going to be interesting for sure!! Mod on man I am watching!!! Go go go!!

 

Thanks. I'll do my best not to disappoint.

LOL - thanks, Jeff.

Well, it's not my taste either, but at least it's rather cheap

Thanks

Thanks, Bill. I try to improve for each project.

I went down to my workshop in the basement yesterday to take the case further apart, but found an imcomplete work desk I had to complete first - and then I started to play around with a new "modding toy" of mine (video later in my youtube channel, I promise!), so nothing was done yesterday. Later today, I hope....

 

Thanks

 

Fellas, I've hit an obstacle that I'm not familiar with and I need some help, badly!

While sleeving the PSU, I stumbled upon some capacitators that had been added close to the end of each set of the non-modular cables (I haven't checked the modular cables yet - they might sit on those aswell).

Check out these pictures:






As you can see and as I mentioned partly just before. those capacitators sit on ALL the non-modular cables - including the ATX 24-pins cable! They seem like an afterthought on In Win's side, so I don't doubt that they're there for a good reason - I assume they are there to provide a little extra power reserve in times of need.

BUT! I'm not that good at understanding electronics - but since they're in my way when sleeving the PSU, I want to move the capacitators inside the PSU case itself, soldering them to the SAME wires that they sit on already.... however, since I don't understand electronics that much, I'm wondering about this: WILL moving them further away from where they sit now affect how they're supposed to be working in ANY WAY? I mean, IF it did not mean anything where they sit, why didn't In Win place them INSIDE the PSU case in the first place?

Any kind of help is REALLY, REALLY appreciated!

 

smash 'em with a hammer and sleeve over the top. (seriously, they're not needed, they're just sometimes added to comply with EU regulations)

 

OK, got help within 5 mins on MNPCtech's Facebook page - thanks, guys! Especially Bobby King, my new best friend.

 

Thanks. Much appreciated!

 

FYI: the project isn't dead; by any means!

In fact, I'm SO busy meeting the deadline (31st Oct.) that there simply is no time at all to post pictures and videos - however, tonnes of visual material have been shot and will be mixed into 2 videos - one for each upcoming update - along with numerous pictures, too.

So stay tuned and I promise there's going to be something to look forward to here.

 

I don't care what others think about you Nutman, your video was great.

BTW, thank you for your input on my build.

OCM

 

#16: You're welcome - it's a nice build you got there. In fact, I'm re-vamping "Project: Nutman" right now with the very same motherboard, AND I'm also going to use Color-X from MDPC, just like you. Weird, huh?

 

Attention!

The project is done and almost ready to be delivered to modmycase.dk, where HardstylerDK will install the hardware and finally ship the project to the lucky winner.

I only need to shoot the final pics and videos, which will be done tomorrow.

Stay tuned, soldiers.

 

WTF, I've got enough cakes and sweets to last for 3 years sitting next to me so I could keep myself going while waiting for this to unfold. Then you come along and say...Oh by the way it's all most finished...What am I supposed to with £ 14628 worth of sweets now....?

 

Don't worry. You'll get fatter and fatter from following this worklog, I promise.

Due to the deadline I didn't have ANY time to post updates, but I took tonnes of photos and shot many, many video clips - I'm currently preparing the first update. I think it'll be app. 3-4 updates with a video in each of them, so plenty of entertainment still to come.