I sanded down the top panel, mostly just for giggles – but I’m thinking I might JB Weld some metal rod onto the top panel to embellish the edges. This picture here shows where one section of the steel rod I bought will be JB Welded. The piece needs some filing to fit, but I’d rather have it cut a tad too long, rather than too short. Another section of the steel rod will be JB Welded into the back left corner of the case, running completely down the side of the case. It too needs to be filed down, however, it fits a lot better than the first piece I cut (the one which will go next to the IO and expansion slot cutouts). I’ll only be JB Welding these two pieces in just before I paint, as JB Weld needs a paint/primer free surface to bond to. For the next part of the mod (beefing up the PSU area), I originally counted on being able to take the top panel of the case off. So I drilled out the four rivets that *apparently* secure it to the case. Lo and behold, it isn’t that easy. It seems that in order to remove the top panel, I’ll have to effectively drill out the majority of the rivets holding the case together. Because of this, I’ll hold off cutting out the top exhaust until just before painting. I’m not sure if I should take the top panel off now, increasing my chances of being able to make more accurate measurements for the PSU plate (and also having more space inside the case) and also allowing me to get that top exhaust cut out. Anyways, onto the PSU plate – it can’t be longer than 118mm, otherwise I won’t have enough room for the top 120mm exhaust fan along with two 5.25” drive bays oriented vertically…What this means, is that any PSU longer than 118mm (which is most of them) will be extruding from the back of the case. That means I’ll be making a PSU backplate that won’t be attached directly to the back of the case – I have a m^2 sheet of 2mm aluminum, so that shouldn’t be a problem. This picture should give you an idea where I’ll be placing things. In reality, the fan should be about one or two cm away from where the end of the PSU is, allowing room for cables. This means that the two 5.25” bays I plan on mounting vertically will have to be shifted forward a touch more, leaving less space for the fan controller, VFD and front IO ports. Here’s a shot of where the plate will go. It will run from the lead edge of the cutout (visible to the right of the picture), all the way to the back side of the case. In the meantime, I’ll be making a mock up of two 5.25” bays to get a better idea of what I’ll be doing. Hopefully I will have enough time this week to pick up some more of that steel rod and some U-channel window trim. I’ll also be cutting out the plate that will go around the front and rear intakes. Cheers
Nice work so far. I've painted a few of those Inquisitor miniatures - about 40hrs each. Nice and detailed, much easier to paint than 40K The game isn't as good as the miniatures though...and anything GW is expensive these days. Keep it up, will be following.
Thanks for the kind comments. @tkdwarrior The cost of GW minatures and the time required to put them together and make them purty have put me off of the tabletop. Although, I make up for it by playing DoW, reading the books and fanficiton. Anyways, here's a microupdate I derivetted the 5.25” bays, and in the process nearly removed the top of the case. Why I did this, I don’t really know. What I do know is that I’ll be replacing the bays with 2 =][= shaped brackets, each will hold two drives. Here’s a shot of the front intake. I used tin snips to cutout the crappy existing bottom screwholes. I’ve been working on a couple of things at once, as this next shot will further prove. I’m finishing up the template for the front plate, but I’ve also been working on the left sidepanel, masking it upa and getting it ready for the window (no shots of it in this post though). I’ve also been cutting up the parts of the front bezel that I don’t want…which is most of it. Here’s how the bezel looks on the case, with a 120mm fan held up behind it. That’s all for this update. Cheers!
Hi everyone. Mod isn't dead, I'm just working on it slowly but surely. I'll post up a more complete update by the end of the week, but here's a short text version of it. Since my last update I've been mostly planning the drive mounts, for the swappable HD enclosures, the optical drives and I'm also considering making a mount for 4 int. HDs. However, the case isn't deep enough to accomodate the perpendicular drive bays, a PSU longer than 10cm and a 120mm. That left me with two options - A)arrange for the PSU to extend outside of the case, or B)put it beneath the case. I really didn't want to extend it outside of the case, as I didn't want to mess up the clean lines. So option B it was. Unsurprisingly, that lead to planning a radbox for beneath the case. While I was hashing the above out, I also cut out a piece of Alu plate, which will eventually be fastened to the stock PSU mount. It will end up providing a home for cables, inverters etc. I also masked up the left side panel and drew out the outline of the window, which I will be cutting later this week. In the meantime, I'm thinking that the int. colour of the case will contain as much white as possible. ie white sleeving, white paint, white MB stealthing etc. I'm strongly considering scraping the stock front bezel and replacing it with an Alu and acrylic one. I hope my babbling hasn't been totally boring, as I have a question. What thickness of acrylic would be suitable for being mounted on the outside of the case (whether as a window, part of the bezel or just for aesthetic purposes)...I'm thinking something along the lines of 5mm or more. As always, comments/questions/suggestions and criticisms are welcoming Cheers
I have another question. I was going over my plans for the HDD mount, which I'll be working on later today, but I noticed I had only allocated 6mm of space between the drives. Is that enough space, or should I go for around 10mm between them? Thanks
I would go for 10mm, but if you've got active airflow in between the drives then you can probably get away with 6mm.
It will probably be mounted right behind the front intake fan, but I might go with 10mm, just in case. Thanks for the input mattthegamer463.