Case Mod - In Progress Project: Phoenix (PC-101B Orange Case Mod) (Jan 2010 update)

Beautiful work, man! How the hell did I miss this project? I especially like the puzzle-fit window pieces. Keep it up!

 

very inspiring project. keep up the great work!!!

 

Love your mod!!!
Will this work!? I mean won't it be too heavy for the flimsy motor in the dvd drive!? Nevertheless Love the idea!!!

 

I can't wait to see this with all the masking off!

 

I think it's just going to be the flame part that comes out, not the whole front of the case. Cause at first that's how I read it too.

 

Would be cool to make the whole front move though lol. A bit hard to get CDs in though haha.

 

It would be awsome!!

Aaaahhh I see what you meen... hehe now atleast

 

Yes, that is correct, only the "flame" design piece will be attached to the ODD tray.

Thanks for all the great comments guys, I definitely can't wait to rip the masking paper off it all too! It's interesting to see what people think of the "frame designs" since I haven't said what they are supposed to look like (not that they are supposed to look like anything in particular). I guess they do resemble flames for the most part, especially since it will be glowing orange!

Thanks again for the comments everyone, I hope to have another successful weekend of modding coming up, so stay tuned for another update soon!

 

Looking very good. Can't wait to see the final shots.

 

I am stunned. Definitely looking forward to more pictures!

 

A little more work got done over the past weekend; I'll start with the front panel...
With the Rheobus stripped of its LEDs and knobs, I drilled four holes in the front panel and mounted it.


As you can see, it has to stick out so it comes in contact with the new front panel, so I just drilled and tapped two holes (one on each side) in the back edges of the Rheobus. Here's what it looks like with the other drive bay pieces in place:



Yeah, pretty close call there, eh?! It looks a little too close to make me happy, but there's not much I can do about it now! Heres what it looks like behind the front panel:


The two fans are actually almost flush with the edge of the case (which is nice):


And this is what the fan positioning it looks like from inside the case:

...the top fan blows in over the motherboard while the bottom fan's airflow gets directed through the hard drives and toward the PSU. Then it all meets somewhere in the middle and gets exhausted out the top or rear of the case.

Speaking of top exhaust fans, I finalized that setup too. As you can see, the piece of orange acrylic needed to be trimmed:


So I just cut a notch out of each side so they fit together:


Then I had to figure out how I was going to mount the fan. These Arctic Cooling fans are somewhat of an anomaly in that their mounting holes do not go all the way through the fan. Add that complication onto the fact that I wanted to use the same small 3mm button cap hex screws that I was using all over the rest of the case exterior and it was a bit of a head scratcher. This was my solution:

A bit of hot glue and a washer made a nice new mount that seems to hold surprisingly well...


So then I just cut a new piece of mesh that went all the way across the whole area and I think I'm good to go!




The fan actually takes up the first add-in card slot, but I really don't care about that.

Should actually work better since it will be closer to the passive Accelero S1 I have on my X1950Pro and hopefully keep it nice and cool!

That's it for a while though, I'm flying across the country for a job interview this weekend so don't expect much of an update (if any)...

 

Nicely done Blake!

 

Thanks!

 

Nice fan mounting. The fan controller really blends in with the case front.

 

Small update today. Got a bunch of holes drilled for LEDs. I'm using these simple plastic LED mounts...
First up was try try an idea for mounting some LEDs inside the case. For this I just used a heat gun to bend a strip of the thin black acrylic in a 90 degree angle and drill some holes; there's one for each side of the drive cage:






And yes, it is bowed a little, somehow the bending process did that and I'm not sure why. I'll probably use double sided tape to secure it to the case, but may also use screws (which would help straighten it out a bit).

Once those were fabricated, I went on to the LED mounts along the front of the case. I started with six on each side, but decided eight on each side fills it all in more evenly so I went with that:

 

Just a heads up that this project is not dead yet! Here's a little teaser of the fresh powdercoat for you...

 

Very cool look. Looking great.

 

Now that looks sweet. Silver/gunmetal, black and orange, great colour combo.

 

any news?

 

That front curve is great!
Diid you use a hammer to whack the aluminum into shape around the jig?