Hi all, First of all: if this thread is placed in the wrong forum, please move. Thanks! I have been looking at a lot of projects for about a year now. Seen a lot of projects that i like and admire. This and a couple of other reasons have made me want to do my own modding. Got a very big, very old (and very filthy) case from someone at work. Pictures are shown below: Front Back Inside I've allready installed a 120mm fan at the bottom-front of the case and want to do a couple of other things to it. But i'm running out of ideas very fast (i'm on a very tight budget). My goal is to get the best airflow possible for this case. If people have any "non-expensive" suggestions about what to do, i would really like to here them. Thanks!
wow, an old (& Large) AT chasis - have you got a spare ATX chasis to make a nice MB tray? Sadly all the rest of my ideas cost money: Tonnes of room for water cooling, room for an LCD screen... sadly modding is not a cheap hobby
Going to make my own ATX-tray. Got some spare case i'm not using As for the LCD-screen... I've got a psone screen. Sadly it's team5-brand, but it works through my video-out. Never got it working with the VGA-mod. Water cooling is just a bit over my budget.
I nice paint job with a few spray cans perhaps? And if you have good tools then maybe a window in the side panel.
You are gonna have a hell of a job with that case lol make sure whatever u decide to try and do with it do a lot of planning before hand, and as the other guys have said get urself an atx motherboard tray and see if u can fit it without major troubles and ofcourse get plenty of washing and cleaning supplies.
I suspect that if you moved the PSU you could put TWO boards into that thing (might have to use m-atx though). [geek alert] Actually, now that you mention it, it looks like something from the first ST movie.
rofl.. how bout cleaning that filthy ******* up first? anyways, thats a really nice and large case, cut some cool designs in it if you have a dremel, and paint it in a cool color oh.. and PLEASE dont square window and bloo cathode it that is very tacky IMHO
The idea of two mobos is cool, why not have a mini distributed system in 1 case, and then even add a nano-itx board in somewhere and use it as a server, that would be three computers in that beast of a case!
that shiny black (it is shiny isn't it? hope it is ) looks nice, but the beige.... YUCK!!! get rid of that color first, and put a nice system in it with kick-ass water-cooling. You've got enaugh room for that... If you lack the funds for watercooling, just try to make it a double computer (like mentioned before) One very silent basic system as a downloading (maybe webserving) computer to leave on overnight, and a gaming system that would be very cool
Thanks for the ideas! Putting 2 comp's in this case is a pretty cool idea, going to look into that. Got enough spare parts laying around. But first i'm going to try to put an ATX-tray in there and see how much room is left. 2 mb's require 2 psu's Don't worry, i don't like square windows. Going to put in a window, but don't know the shape yet. Thinking about making a couple of interconnecting windows to show only the good stuff and mask all the wiring. The shiny black strip on the front case is actually a strip of dark grey plexy. Was thinking about replacing this for some other color. Behind it i want to put a couple of LED's (harddrive activity, etc...) I'm thinking about painting the case black with highlights in de same color as the new plexy strip. Want to put a dvd-player and a dvd-burner behind the door. But also want to put the LCD-screen in there. Hope it's going to fit. About that cleaning and washing of the case. It is really, really, really filthy. The chassis has been cleaned with a steel brush. After drying i've put the first layer of paint on there just so i can touch it and don't have the urge to go and wash my hands everytime. With the paint on, it looks really good (and clean!) The front bezel has been cleaned under the shower and looks pretty good.
1. Cut out space in the side panel and put a window or two there. 2. Move the Power Supply down to where that framework is. 3. Cut out the back of the rear panel, put some mesh there with mounts for exhaust fans. 4. Cut out the area bove the Power Supply on the top panel, put some mesh there with mounts for intake fans, which will cool the HDDs. 5. Make a 3.5'' drive rack and place it above the Power Supply, but back and down from the rear and top of the case to allow room for the exhaust and intake fans. 5. Keep the top two 5.25'' drive bays, clear out the remaining ones and expand it if you have to. 6. Put a touchscreen LCD in the bottom 5.25'' drive bays for monitoring purposes. 7. Lights, lights, lights! 8. More fans, fans, fans! Well, those are my ideas. This could be a very good server.
A picture just to show how clean the chassis can get with some scrubbing and some paint After BTW still no atx-tray. Thinking about adjusting the at-tray if that is possible
Yeah its possible to redrill and tap the old AT tray, done it recently to an old server case i wanted to use which was AT. Personally for the case (might be a bit late but nm, not sure if any of this has already been suggest wither, if so, well done, great minds think alike ) I'd move the PSU to the very top of the case as its currently the biggest blockage between the entrace 120mm fan and the exit fan(s). With that there you could put a 120mm fan in place of the psu, then if you want to go WC route later, you could put a single 120mm rad there and not have too many issues with rebuilding it. Similarly you could put the rad at the front of the case to catch the colder fresh ait (perhaps best) and then just have a 120mm exhaust above the mobo. You could alays make provisions for two single 120mm rads i the top of the case where there are already holes, or perhaps a 3x120mm rad. either way. A few other people have suggested LCD, not sure if they were thinking behind the door in the top few bays or now, but you could then window the door if you wanted so you could still see the screen, perhaps also relocate any buttons behind there aswell so the front looks at clean as possible. You could perhaps also move the HDs to ifront of the 120mm exhaust fan where the psu is now, that way you're not cluttering up the front/bottom of the case if you want to WC. Try and get an ATX mobo tray and make some rails for it. (I may have a none sliding atx tray depending on where you are located (sorry ive forgotten already) which i could try and dig out, not sure about sizes or if i'll need it, but i can check). Cant think of anything else, just off the top of my head Edit: Having just read up a bit (sorry i'm knackered and really should be asleep atm). you're in NL so posting a big sheel of steel is a bad idea , can give you measurements of stuff if you cant find them on the net. As i said before, i'd swap your plans for the PSU and HD rack round and put the LCD at the top of the bays, if its mid way down the case and you've got it on the floor, it'll be a pain to do anything with, at the top of the case it'll be _much_ easier to make use of. (i'd say this was a bit of a beast to put ona desk having done it myself in the past).
Hmm. I agree that a paint job would definitely be a good idea. Perhaps a colored window such as red or yellow. We don't see those colors much these days. In the cleaned up skeleton photo, it looks like there are rectangular holes at the top. If that's the case, you can play with some ducting and use one as a large outlet and one as a large inlet, with some sort of short barrier in between the two. Two 120mm fans can be placed there, going at somewhat slow rpms. That *might* provide decent cooling without excess noise, cost, or modifications.
