Project: Super Hornet - 16th October - Case Completed

Hey Folks,

Its Summer again, and time to start another case mod I had so much fun with my case modding last year, I could not wait to start a new case mod this year, and capture it in a worklog. Due to the nature of my case mod last year, I couldn't really do a worklog. Since this is a new case, I wanted to do a full WL. So with that being said, lets get into the fun stuff.

Background:

Last year, I modded 2 CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Mid Tower cases (Tribal Eclipse and Dragster), which was a blast!! I wanted this years mod to be a little different. The hard part about modding a mid tower case is that transportation is a pain. The case is just so big and cumbersome to carry to LANs. For this summer, I have decided to mod SFF cases (Small Form Factor).

Initial Ideas / Concepts:

I want this SFF case to be as fast and as powerful as a normal desktop system, just in a smaller form, and at the same time be unique.

So I have decided to merge 2 Hornet SSF cases into a single case. The problem is that combining 2 Hornet chassis will make the size comparable or if not larger then a normal mid tower case. So I will be cutting one of the chassis to approximately half its original height. The half chassis will serve to house all the water cooling parts, such as the radiator, pumps, and what not. The final case will have the same foot print of the hornet, but slightly taller.

Here are some of the Goals for this case mod:
- Water-cooled
- High Performance (SLI)
- Totally Pimped Out
- Killer Paint

Deadline:
End of August. Yup, about 30 days to do a fully modded case. Lets see if I can pull it off. (BTW I have a full time Job and family.. its going to be tough)

First Post / Case Overview:

Here are some initial images of the hornet, as I disassemble all the parts and measure the pieces. My Dremel went MIA, so cutting updates will not be shown till the next post L

Here is a picture of the 2 Hornet cases side by side in its stock form:



Here is a picture of the 2 hornet stacked on each other from the front view. Two full size hornet on top of each other is just too tall.



Here is a side view of the stacked hornet.









Here is a picture of the rear of the hornet. As you can see the hornet is designed for a mATX PSU. Hmm.. running SLI and Watercooling, a mATX PSU won’t be able to meet the power requirement. So I will be increasing the POWERAGE of the unit


Removable motherboard trays are always great to work with.


Here is a picture of all the internal guts of the case.


Here is the just bare frame after all the side panels and internal components have been removed.


Well, that was a little intro to my upcoming case mod. Since this mod needs to be done by the end of next month, updates should be coming up fairly quickly.

Any comments, suggestions, or input would greatly be appreciated.

Regards,

SAD

 

Great idea with joining two SFF's into one!!! Can't wait to see it being done!!!
Spec?

 

ANy sketches of what you are planning? Sounds pretty cool!

 

Thhanks. I thought it woudl be a unique idea. Everyone here at BT are so creative, so I need to come up with something a little differnet

After going over the cases doing a little brain storming last night. I am actually going to be chopping both the top and bottom cases. So hopefully the final produce will be about 1.5 the original height.

I wish I had some nice sketches. Most of my ideas are scribbled in various places on differnet document. So I don't have any "pretty" diagrams yet.

I will be modding tonight and this weekend. I should have a nice update by monday, and hopefully you will see where I am going with this case mod.

SAD

 

looks like this one will be interesting too watch....
good luck

/GNU

 

I love the idea but wouldnt two SFFs just be around the same as one mid tower? Im looking forward to see how this turns out as the title got me interested.


[edit] oops! read your plans more closely nevermind, brilliant idea , subscribed.

 

Hey stwogbad. Yeah.. 2 SFF cases together would equal probably the size of a Mid tower case. I think when I stacked it at stock, it was the same height as maybe an Antect Sonata, which I think is considered a mini-mid.

One of the key feature / aspect I like is the fact that the motherboard will be parallel to the ground. This will really let people see the components and water cooling

I did the first part of cutting last night, and will probably post a small update sometime tomorrow.

SAD

 

Hey Folks,

Here is the update I promised. This pass weekend I didn’t do as much physical work on the case as I hoped. I actually spent the majority of the weekend finalizing some design and mod concepts. With a short time line, I need to put the order for my parts now, so I can have them ready for modding.

Even though most of the time was spent planning, designing, sketching, and measuring, I did find time to whip out the Dremel for some cutting action.

So what I did this pass weekend was to shorten / lower the bottom portion of the case. So here are some pics:

Here is a pic of the bottom portion of the case in it full-uncut view. If you look carefully, you might be able to see the cut line drawn on the case:



Here is a side view of the case before being cut:



I wanted to keep the case as clean as possible. Instead of fabricating a new case flooring, I decided to reuse the original case floor. So here is pic of it:



Here is a pic of the main portion of the case after it has been shortened. It is hard to tell that it was actually reduced in height:



Here is a picture of the bottom portion of the case reassembled. The only thing I need to do is rivet the bottom plate to the frame and I am done. I will actually leave the riveting towards the end. I need to paint the frame first.



Here is a side by side comparison of the shorterened hornet to the original hornet.



Here is a pictures of the 2 hornet stacked together.



I was actually hoping to make the bottom portion almost 2” shorter, but after laying out the GTSBIP240 radiator and the full ATX PSU, it would not fit. So I actually had to stand the radiator on its side to fully fit.

So that is the extent of the physical modding I have done so far. I hope you are enjoy the case mod as much as I am. If you have any comments / questions / suggestions, please feel free to post them.

Regards,

SAD

 

Hey folks here is a little update. Lot of my goodies arrived, so I had a chance to work on the bottom watercooling / power chamber for the case mod. As you know this bottom portion will house all the watercooling parts and power. In addition, I will be mounting the slot DVD Rom and Hard drive in this section. The main reason I am doing this is to remove unnecessary clutter from the top chamber, which will allow full views of the pc components, and give the case a cleaner look. In addition, it is just a little different to have a DVD come out the side of the case

Here is the new booty.

I decided to use ePower / Topower Tiger 650 SLI PSU. EPower / Topower OEM PSU to some of the best companies out there. I figure might as well get the PSU from the original manufacturer. This PSU has so much BLING to it. I love the fact that has a mirror fininish, and all cables are completely modular. This will make it a bit easier to chop and mod each cable to custom lengths.



Here are my watercooling components. I think Danger Den has the best looking and performing watercooling parts on the market right now. You can see I have the Koosah SLI blocks, GT Stealth 240 BIP, TDX CPU Block w/ Universal mount, (2) D Mag II pumps, and 3/8” ID Tubing. I made sure to get the GPU blocks with the 4 hole barb configuration to allow me to plumb the system any way I need.



Enough of the booty, now back to the modding

Here is a before and after picture of the bottom chamber. You can see that there are two flanges that are in the design to hold the CD and HD drives. Since they are in the way, I decided to chop it off.

This really opens up the bottom chamber. I will actually be doing the same modification to the top chamber later.





I will be mounting the PSU on the bottom chamber. Since there is limited room, I didn’t want to starve the PSU from air, which might cause power flucation, or even just shortern the life of the unit. The PSU will be mounted pretty much directly on the bottom tray, so I cut a 120mm hole to allow the PSU to bring in fresh air from out side the case for cooling. Instead of having to draw a 120mm hole, I found out that a CD is about the same size as a 120mm fan. I used a 3/8” bit to drill some pilot holes, and use my jig saw to cut the case. You can see that the final hole was pretty close.









So with all space made on the bottom tray, I decided to do a dry fit of all the components. You will get an idea how the components will be laid out on the bottom tray. There may appear to be a lot of extra room, but that will be taken up by power cables and tubing. I need the extra room to be able to effectively run and hide the wires and plumbing.





I am pretty happy with the layout. Now I need to fabricate some custom shelf / rack for the DVD and HD, along with closing off the back of the case. I hope to get the bottom chamber completely done by this weekend.

I hope you enjoyed the update so far. More updates to come shortly.

Any comments or suggestions are always welcomed.

Regards,

SAD

 

Hey Folks,

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been feverishly modding my case, trying to make sure it will be done by the LAN. Most of the time, I forgot to take pics, but I was able to capture a few. I have done a lot of modding, so I am going to break my update into a few separate posts that will come over the next few days.

For this post, I am going to cover some simple aluminum sheet cutting for this project.

After chopping the case down, the rear of the case looked terrible. The powersupply will be placed where the PCI slots were located, and the former mATX PSU slot is just a big hole. You can see what I mean in this picture:



Luckily I had a 24” x 24” of aluminum sheet left over from my last case modding project, which came in very handy.



Here is a pic of the cut out diagram for the rear of the case, along with the custom HD and CD Rack



Here is some progress shots of the HD / CD Rack being hammered into shape. I don’t have any fancy tools for bending right angles, so I just improvised by clamping a right angle to the table and using my hammer. The results weren’t that bad







I didn’t want to rivet the rear plate to the case, so I instead I used expoy



Here is a picture of the HD rack in place. I had to make custom HD hinges from the a piece of 1” Right angle alum, which I then riveted to the rack. Works out pretty nicely.



That is it for this update. I will follow up with another one in the next day or two.

As always, any comments or suggestions are always appreciated.

SAD

 

Ive seen this done before, but it was 2 Shuttles joined together, one being the main components carrier with the other housing the PSU and Watercooling bits.

What thickness is that alu? and what did you use to cut it? Jigsaw against a straight-edged fence?

It will be very cool when its done, looking good so far!

 

Gr1mey,

Hey.. I've never seen the 2 Shuttles cases joined together before. If you can PM me a link to it, it would greatly be appreciated.

As for the alum thickness.. i'm not sure. I need to check it when I get home. For the cutting, all I used was a jig saw with a finetooth blade for cutting metal. No straight edge fence. I just held my breath, and cut it freehand.

There are going to be a few more cool features coming up with this case mod. I only have about 2 weeks to finish up the case

SAD

 

I would like that link as well

by the way the project is looking good

 

Hey Folks,

Here is another little update on the case on the Super Hornet project. This update will cover the bracket I had to make for the radiator, along with some hinges for the case. Since I want the GT Stealth Radiator to sit on its side, and not mounted to the side panel, I needed to fabricate a hinge.

Here is a picture of the radiator on its side:



So to fabricate the mount, I got out a 1” x 1” Alum bracket. You can see I have the alum bracket all measured and marked for cutting:



Here is a picture of the radiator bracket after I finish cutting it. This was all done with a jig saw and a drill



Here is a picture of the radiator and bracket mounted to the case. I think it actually came out pretty clean. I used pop rivets to mount the bracket to the case.






I wanted to do something unique to the side panels for this case. Since the Hornet chasis is made from alum, the side panels were surprising light weight. So to make the case follow the “Hornet” theme, I am utilizing friction hinges to make the side panel move out like wings.

Here is a picture of the friction hinge mounted to the rear of the bottom chassis. I had the radiator mounted far enough not to obstruct the hinge:



Just like with the radiator, I had to use the 1” x 1” alum angle to make hinges for the side panels. Here are some progress shots:





I made 4 brackets, one for each panel (2 top and 2 bottom).

Here is a picture of the bracket mounted to the hinge, and a few pics of the hinge movement:









That is it for the update. On my next update, I will post pics of the side panels on the hinge

As always, any comments or questions are always appreciated.

Regards,

SAD

 

hehe keep it going man subscribed here

 

This is a really clever idea. I can't say that I've seen ot before. Just keep going . Can't wait to see the end result.

 

Hey Folks,

I wanted to share a little update with you. From my last post you saw the hinges I made for the bottom side panels. I wanted to show some pics of the hinges in action. This same concept will be taken to both the top side panel, and the top panel also. I want to go for a fully close case, to totally open. Seemed like an interesting concept

Here goes with the post.

Here is a picture of the top and bottom chasis held together. This is just temporarily held together with some standard nuts and bolts:



Here is a picture of the side panel in its full extension:



At the end of the friction hinge there is another hinge that allows the panel to tilt back inward. This gives the side panel a “wing” look to it.



As you can see, I did the left panel in the same fashion:



Here is a full frontal view of the wings:



Here is a picture of all the panels on. With the doors closed, it looks like a normal case.



That is it for the update. Its small, but I have more updates coming soon

As always, any comments or suggestions are always welcome.

SAD

 

you and your damn winged/flying/hinged doors.... LOL!
Looks great bro! Keep up the sweet work!

 

TD - Thanks for the compliments.

Hey Folks,

Sorry for the lack of update. I only have less then a week to get this case completed and fully running. I have spent most of my time modding, and often overlook taking pictures of the progress.

Here is the side panel cutting I did this past weekend. No access to waterjet or laser cutting services, so I had to do everything the good ol’fashion way, with a dremel So here goes:

Before cutting, I completely covered both the front and back of the panel with masking tape. This helps protect both sides from stray scratches when it is being cut and handled. I put the hive design on the inside part of the panel. If you ever cut with a dremel, you know that it goes wild on you some times. So any knick and stray cuts won’t be visible on the outside.



To make sure the cuts were clean, I went over the lines with the dremel at slow speed to create a grove for the cutting disc to follow:



After the groove was made, I kicked the dremel to “8” and started cutting into the these side panel. Since I was using the 1.5” Reinforced cut off disc, I couldn’t just cut straight through the panel, since the hive pattern was smaller.



I then replace my cutoff disc with a used disc that was about ½”, and start lopping off each hexagon. After I was done, there was hexagon all over the floor






36 Hexagon cut out later, I used the sanding drum to clean the cuts, and here you have the bottom side panel completed.



On the original side panel, there was an 80mm blow hole, so I got some bondo spot putty and filled in the space.



For the top side panels, I wanted to cut an image of a hornet. After a lot of searching, I was able to find an image that would look good. My buddy Seyeklopz at PCA was able to tweak image to help with the cutting design. My wife was kind enough to help with transferring the digital image to the side pane for cutting Always need to give props, where props are due

Here is pic of the side panel w/ the hornet image on it:



Here is a picture of the side panel after the initial cutting





Here is the finished hornet cut. I used a combination of the sanding drum to clean the cut edges. For the tight corners, like the and feet, I used two tungsten carbide cutters (9901 and 9909) This really helps for those hard to reach areas:



Ok.. that is it for this update. I will post more updates when I get a chance. Only a week left Boy.. I got a lot of modding to do. Wish me luck.

As always, any comments or questions are always appreciated.

Regards,

SAD

 

Love the hex and the hornet desing. Impressive work of cutting.

How about weight? Heavy?