Case Mod - In Progress 【MSI PRO MOD S3】What's Her Name?

So this is the first update on 'What's her name?' !

My name is Femke Agnes Toele (aka FAT) and I’m from the Netherlands.
I work together with my buddy Tenzin Rongen, we are a great casemodding team (Team FAT, Femke And Tenzin )

The design for the build is based on a modified version of the Thermaltake Core V51.
We will make it much smaller and a bit more sophisticated !

Lets start with the hardware we will use for building "her" !



We've got:
MotherboardMSI Z170A Krait Gaming
- MSI Geforce GTX 960 OC GPU
- Intel Core i5-6600K
- 6 Thermaltake Riing 12 White
- Thermaltake Core V51
- Thermaltake Jing cooler
- Thermaltake Smart M 850W powersupply
- G.SKILL Trident Z : DDR4 3000MHz 8GB
SSD still has to arrive ! I post pictures of that one later!

First fit, testing everything!













So now everything is in place we can strip down the case!



Drill out the rivets











The front panel!

 

HA!!! Subbed early this time! Love your builds lady. They are always so unique. Can't wait to see one come together, instead of jumping in when they're done!

 

Haha, great ! Hope you like this one too, I stripped the whole thing and cute it up, so now it is one big pile of loose elements!
Always one big surprise how it will turn out in the end haha!

So this time the real cutting starts !
The front panel is first in line! The tape on the front side indicates the cutting lines!









the mesh comes out easy, now the top, the front I/O, has to be removed more delicately.









Here you can see the size for the altered case



Again using masking tape to indicate the cutting lines.









The feet of the case have to be adjusted to the right size again.















tadaa

 

good start Femke

 

Thanks Icelander!

Sooooo finally another update on Whats her Name?
The feet are now attached to the base again !









The Frontpanel has to be attached to the case differently so that means... more cutting up









Thats the first one!






Ofcourse we would like to keep the case looking a bit like its original design, so the front and top panel have to be adjusted to the right size and angle!















The cutting lines will be covered up nicely in the end!

 

Arg! The mesh from the factory parts doesn't line up! That's gotta drive you crazy.

 

Hahaha yes...indeed! That does drie me crazy! Really annoying but I will cover it up nicely in the end...hopefully.. Once you've seen it, it can never be unseen...

Well... some more progress on the build! Making a nice round edge so the case will look al bit like its old self !









The Powersupply has to fit tight to the back panel so any edges of material sticking out have to go.











So here are some before and what the case looks like now pictures















Also my SSD has arrived !

 

Nice work so far! My OCD would drive me crazy over those holes too! But if anyone has the creative talent to come up with a way to solve that problem, this woman does!

 

Haha If you have seen it, you can never unsee it !
Thanks for having faith in my skills, i'm sure if you look at the end result quickly you will not notice it (in an instant at least... ) hahaha!
No, it will be alright !!

Here is another update on Whats her name?
We’ve been busy with the lasercutter! Tenzin cut out a some wooden and acrylic panels.
Now you are probably wondering, "why wood"? Well, wood is easy to work with, light, not very expensive and easy to paint and use self adhesive foil on!
Lately we have bee working with wood more often and it works out really well!
Together with the wood we will use a lot of acrylic and LED light's !




The frame without the additional side panels.



I'm really pleased with the shape of the case so far! Love the 3 round angles and one square!







The case will have a handle on the side, so you can pick up the case very easily! Easy to take with you to a LAN party (just been to one this weekend, and really missed one on my own computer )!



The acrylic sides will light up in the end !







Getting rid of all excess stuff on the panels. We don't need all of that stuff anymore!









Looks much better!









Ok, so next step taking measurements and making new mounting plates for the hardware!

 

Love all the hand tool work that you do. More fun for me to watch than a pile of CNC or laser parts (but I may be slightly partial to hand tools )

 

Me too
Nice case shrink

 

Promising stuff, really impressed!

 

Stuff I never knew existed: laser cut wood. Cool! I love how it browns / burns the edges, even though you'll probably sand that off, or we'll never see that edge anyway once it's built.

 

Thanks Mosquito ! Actually I do a lot more laser cutting these days than I did before . It comes in quite handy with cutting the wood for the side panels! But still, the laser cut panels need a lot of work before they are officially ready to be used on the case. So, yes still a lot of hand tool work to do!

Yes it had been downsized a lot ! Glad you like it!

Cool! Now it is finally starting to look like a real case again! So hope you will like the outcome !

Laser cut wood looks really nice! You can engrave the wood also with the laser, that looks extra fancy ! The layer you burn off will be slightly darker colored, there are so many cool things to do with that! We've made a case for a friend and made it completely out of wood! She loves cubes, so the main design was ... cubes... !
You can see the cubes engraved on the sides layered in different depths.





Soooo, on to What's her name? again !

Whats her name? is actually starting to look like a real case !
We've been making some panels to cover up a lot of the inside of the case. SO in the end it should look real clean and neat!







The wooden panels will be painted black and the clear plexiglas edges will light up !
I don't think i've introduced you to the tool of the year 2015, it is a kind of dremel but than different !
I've named him dave and dave is super useful! He has saved us a lot of times this year! haha



























I think this part look soo nice already!







Just making thread and preparing the case for assembly !

 

Your cases just keep me on the edge of my seat. It looks cool but I can't tell where it's going and I WANNA KNOW!!! Slick I/O panel BTW!

 

Love the progress!! I can't wait to see this develop!!

 

Haha yes, we didn't make a design at forehand this time! Makes it more exciting, because you never know what it will look like in te end! Well the end is drawing very near as the build has to be finished before 31 december! So I have to start posting more buildlogs more quickly !

Thanks Bartacus!! I will update now quite quickly these upcoming days !

On with the buildlog!
We glued the front panel together, and let it dry with the clamps so everything stays in place!



To make the case extra sturdy we used some rivets to attach



Also these plates in the corners give some extra fixation





The RAM module look nice already but the theme is Black and white soooo



paint it black...





We took apart the Thermaltake riing fans to check out how we are going to use them in the case!







Tadaaa the RAM modules look very neat !

 

Here You have a quick update on the panels and where to place them!



the backplate also with the logo !



This was the worst thing that happened during making this build!!!! Dave had an accident!!
Luckily I could replace his powerplug easily and he was up and running in no time again!



Adding the acrylics to the backside so there will be a line lighting up when you switch on the computer.









screwing on the side panel with the FAT logo on there!
The letters will be filled up with acrilycs and wood so the outline will light up when the lights are on!



Adding the self adhesive foil to the backplate of the case.



Glueing together a few plates to create some thickness.









the I/O panel!





adding some extra acryllics to the build !





Extra aluminium plate to make the case stronger.



adding the Thermaltake Riing fans to the build.



Powersupply in place.





creating some extra space for the GPU.











adjusting the Thermaltake fans !





Looks nice if i say so myself! Now glue everyting together!

 

This part is very clever (if I can say so myself ) (and no,.... it was not my idea but Tenzin's, ofcourse haha ... )! If you want to make a rond corner from wood usually you will have to soak the wood in water and bend it with heat.
If you dont have any time left and just want to get creative you can also do it this way ...









tadaaa now fill up the sawing lines with filler





the frontplate is also coming together with the logo.







finishing the backside panel that will be placed inside the case.







The case without the panels.



with the front panel.



With the PSU covered.



The back side without.



And with



Nice Bitfenix extention cables with a white sleeve. We also used bitfenix magnetic white LED strips, a dream to install!!!





The hardware and cables in place





The backside panels are also ready to install.







We took off the Thermaltake logo's because they were much to colorfull for this black&white build.



ok..... we are pretty much ready for the final pictures, Excited ???!!

 

Nice. Are you keeping the silver screws or changing them to black?