I will be, with coarse wet and dry paper. It shouldn't take too long, an hour tops? Just gotta be careful, the black stuff is a bi*ch as it gets everywhere...
Ooh another Lincolnshire modder! I'm down the road from you, the other side of Boston Nice mod mate ... in regards to the paint and lacquer ... leave it more time to dry or you will get more finger prints on it. I learnt it the hard way and had to sand back and start over.
Hey! I'm from the city itself, moved up for Uni and since graduating I've stayed here... --- I've hit a brick wall - the CD-RW/DVD Combo drive wont eject 100% of the time, it never used to but I put it down to it being old... it now ejects maybe 10% of the time if I'm lucky - not good for a 'new' PC. So I've just put in an order for a Sony CD-RW/DVD Combo in BLACK! I know it's not pink and I wont have time to change it this week, but it may be a future addition. Fingers crossed that it arrives on Friday, as that's my personal deadline - wanting my fiance to see it finished. I'll post a log in a bit, just writing them to .txt in preparation for the project log forum changes coming soon.
Pink PC Project Log 08 - 6th September 2005 On with more modding... ^ The parts finally arrived! I was surprised at the size of the packaging, my immediate worry was that they'd forgotten something. ^ The Celeron 330, 512mb 3200 and 160gb SATA Maxtor. ^ The AOpen XC Cube and 17"/12ms TFT LCD Monitor packaging. ^ Once I'd removed the AOpen chassis, I sat back in awe - the thing is tiny! ^ My hand is slightly bigger than the front face plate for comparison! ^ The cube out of its packaging - it's not really a cube though. False advertisers blah blah blah... ^ The 'cube' from the back, 6 x USB 2 for a start, with Intel Extreme Graphics and 275w PSU. ^ The CPU Fan/heatsink assembly even comes equipped with a smiley face - to make you happy! ^ The 'cube' all naked. ^ Even the foam packaging that was inside it was pink! Think they're trying to tell me something. ^ The finished mouse for comparison - the shell should be the same in colour if everything goes to plan... ^ The Celeron up close. ^ As with all far eastern instruction manuals, there are some funnies... ^ And another - I was feeling quite immature when reading through the manual. OK, so that's all the hardware unpacked and examined - now for the installation!
Pink PC Project Log 09 - 6th September 2005 Installation begins... ^ With the drive cage removed, installation of the SATA 160gb Maxtor took place. ^ Then the CD-RW/DVD Combo (pinkified) was installed. ^ The attention to detail on the AOpen is insane - they've pre-folded the IDE cables for you... ^ And sheathed the PSU cables too. ^ The 512mb Elixir 3200 DDR Ram in place - the AOpen supports dual channel up to 2gb, which is handy for future expansion. ^ The pinkified drive in place. The AOpen has the ability to stealth the two drive bays out of the box! ^ The AOpen next to my main rig to show the size difference. ^ After 3 tries, I managed to get it to POST. The first two attempts resulted in a loud beeping noise - which I put down to overheating. The first time I used the supplied thermal pad. The second time some arctic silver, and the third a decent amount of arctic silver. ^ To prove it is doing its job - temp readings from the BIOS. I'm very impressed with the smart fan, it runs at full speed when first turned on, then slows to an almost inaudible level after a few seconds. ^ Hurrah! Windows setup. ^ Another shot of the naked chassis. Now to colour the shell and install the Software...
Pink PC Project Log 10 - 7th September 2005 More painting... ^ The keyboard shell finished (finally!) ^ Replacing all of the keys... slowly. ^ I tested wet/dry sanding the shell of the chassis. I was reluctant at first to spoil the finish, but soon gave in to temptation... ^ The finished keyboard - tell me that's not cool. The pink is more than acceptable! ^ The start of the sanding process on the chassis' shell - water, wet/dry... ^ Gloves were important, the black paint gets everywhere and is a biatch to get off. ^ 30 minutes later and I decided that sanding it back to bare metal was taking too long. I know I should have taken it all back, but I opted for a rough sand instead. The primer will take care of any nasties... ^ And here's where the project is at the moment. The shell has 1 coat of primer applied. I'll sand it down later and apply the first coat of colour - fingers crossed, there's not a huge amount of pink left! Tomorrow I plan on applying the second coat of pink (a.m.) then the first coat of lacquer (p.m.). Hopefully luck will be on my side and the new drive will arrive on Friday. Hoping to have all the Software + all her old documents installed on the PC by the end of the weekend. The set-backs have hindered the project, as it wont end up being as pink as I originally planned, but in most people's eyes, a minute amount of pink is still too much! Stay tuned!
Ha! Love the "immature stuff"! And surely you aren't gonna be painting the shiney new "falsely advertised" cube? Its gorgeous! EDIT: You seem to have posted some more piccys before I posted this. Damn yoooou, you killed the cube
I know! The black was sooooooooooo nice I was tempted to keep it for myself and order her a second. But it had to go, the PC is going to be Pink afterall. Though I'm keeping the front fascia black, as it will fit nicely with the black/pink theme and the silver strip will distinguish between the fascia and shell. The finish on the AOpen is very good, the quality of the case, the packaging (manuals, leads etc.) and the actual black finish is top quality. Although I've only had it 24 hours, I'd highly recommend getting one!
^ Just got in from applying the first coat of pink to the shell, and I thought I'd post a teaser picture. It seems as though there is enough paint in the can for one more layer of colour - talk about cutting it fine! Tomorrow a.m. I'll apply the first coat of lacquer. As there is now a delay with the Software side of things (awaiting new drive) I'll setup and start backing up with my new ICY Box external drive tomorrow. --- A quick plug for www.aria.co.uk (the first UK supplier to sell 17" LCD's at <£100 [-vat]). Their speedy packing and delivery has enabled me to practically finish this project within two weeks of starting it. It also means it will be ready for when my fiance moves back up to Uni at the weekend.
I'm not sure about keeping the front black because of the pink drive trays. I think you should spray the fron pink. Do some photoshopping and see what it looks like?
As I said before, very VERY nice painting job, but I would've kept some part of that nice polished black case, it would have done really class with your pink drives... but then again, it's your mod and my opinion, so do it as you want!
I may end up painting the front pink too, though once I've got hold of another can of pink. The drive trays unfortunately wont be pink anymore, seeing as the Samsung CD-RW/DVD combo wont eject properly anymore. The black sony will replace it. The pink parts are reduced to the shell of the case, the mouse and the keyboard. Once I source more pink, I'll look at possibly doing the monitor, the front fascia of the case and the new Sony drive... Tonight I think I'll whip out photoshop and come up with a nice pink desktop background for the whole thing.
Ya know, for a pink computer this one really isn't turning out all that bad. Is it going to be all completely pink, or will there be a slightly darker shade of pink for some sort of design? Perhaps a hello kitty face?
The computer is finished as of today, except for a few more installs on the HDD the asthetics are complete - for now! I'll post pictures of the finished rig soon, though I still have a few plans for it. If I can get hold of more pink from B&Q then I'll colour the front fascia of the AOpen and the new Sony CD-RW/DVD drive too. Hopefully I'll have a go at the LCD too. As it stands, she's extremely happy with it - when I said it would be black/pink she was sceptical, but after seeing it in the 'flesh' she is ecstatic.
Pink PC Project Log 11 - 10th September 2005 The finished Pink PC! ^ A view from the top - notice the plastic protective cover is still on the case - it will be removed once the PC is situated where it will stay... ^ The black somehow compliments the pink... ^ Just need the monitor to be pink now, along with the fascia and drive... ^ The Pink PC in all its pinkified glory. I know it isn't as pink as I originally planned, but several set-backs affected the overall pinkiness. Firstly the pink components (LEDs, cable mesh etc.) weren't available. Secondly I ran out of Pink paint, so didn't have enough to do everything. Thirdly my original time constraint of October was moved forward to this weekend. If I get the time (which I will soon), I'll get hold of more pink and colour the Sony CD-RW/DVD drive along with the AOpen X-Cube's fascia. I may even have a go at the LCD monitor! The project fulfills the original aim, to create a new Pink PC for my fiance, as her current PC is getting old and needed updating. She's happy, I'm happy. Stay tuned for more pics of the Pink PC in situe, and hopefully more updates to the log with further progress - I have a spare drivebay stealthed, so any ideas what I can do with that would be appreciated!!!
