Hello everyone. I'm Kurtis Kronk, co-owner of www.thetechlounge.com and I'm going to attempt to mod my Antec Sonata. This will be my first real mod ever, so bear with me! Also, pardon my lack of creativity, maybe you guys can help me come up with a name later... First off I'd like to say that I think there are a lot of very talented people that frequent the forums, and I am excited to see what everyone here thinks of my mod when it's done. I had already started this log but I just found these great forums, so I'll post up to what I have done right now. [Begin Worklog] Basically the whole 'purpose' of this mod, other than looking cool, is to improve airflow/cooling, and get rid of dust. As you may or may not know, the Sonata has some holes drilled out on the top of each side panel which let a lot of dust into the case. To fix this problem I will be using some acrylic to essentially seal the whole area. But I won't just be putting acrylic there, I'll be using some special lighting in combination with a little sanding of the acrylic, to make a really cool effect on the sealed Antec holes. To be able to use the acrylic on the side panels, I have to use a smaller power supply than the Antec one though, so I will be using a 200W SeaSonic PSU (that's enough power, believe it or not)... Also, some air will come in from small openings on the side of the door on the front of the case, letting in even more dust... I plan to fix this problem, perhaps with some rubber U molding... In addition to these two problems, the front of the case restricts airflow, and the fan mount location isn't exactly ideal. Plus, those little rubber 'screws' just suck... So I will be adding a 120mm fan duct to the front of the case, and a little more good stuff, I'll get to that in a second. The Sonata's main selling point is Silence. As such, I will be using water cooling to keep my processor cool (probably not my FX5950 Ultra though...). The radiator will be mounted in the hidden 3.5" area. I'm not completely sure how I will mount the radiator, probably will craft something out of the acrylic to mount it... And what would a mod be without cleaning up the inside of the case?? Well, it would be ugly inside, that's for certain. So I will be doing a custom wiring job on the whole thing, sleeving everything nicely, blah blah blah... I think that about covers my plan of action... I'll keep you all updated on my progress.
I guess I'll get started with the first step... To make sure that my acrylic idea would even work, I had to install the SeaSonic PSU and checkout how much space it left me on each side, etc... Well, it was just the right size, so now it's time to make it look cooler Here is the case with original power supply: This is the SeaSonic 200W power supply... Warranty? Nope. Swapped the stock fan with a Vantec Blue UV LED 80mm fan. Wired it up @ 5V. This is how she looks after this quick mod. Today I worked on re-mounting the hard drive elsewhere. I'll finish that up tomorrow if I can get a hold of some paint... I'll be working on making some of the acrylic stuff (for side Antec holes) tomorrow.
Well... I decided to go back tonight and try to play with the acrylic to see what i am getting into tomorrow... It was basically a disaster. After scoring one thin strip that I needed for one of the sides of the 'acrylic cage' if you will, it cracks in several places as I tried to break it off... So basically, I think this means that I should probably only use one piece of acrylic on each side panel, and use wood or something for the rest of the frame of the acrylic cages that you won't see anyway... That is, unless someone has a better idea. To give you an idea of what the acrylic cages are I am trying to make, they are basically 5 sided boxes (with the side panel making up a 6th side). I need the side that parallels the side panel to be acrylic for the lighting effect to work properly, but I don't care what the other 4 sides are constructed of. So again I ask, any ideas?
Here's a few pics of me working on the acrylic to tide you all over until I get some more 'finished' pics. Nothing really exciting going on, just to show that I am actually making progress... me cutting the acrylic with my noobie skills first acrylic piece cut out yay, no scratches or cracks! Okay, I got the 120mm fan duct today from Directron while I was working on the acrylic, so I decided to stop where I was with the acrylic stuff, and do a test run with the fan duct... I grabbed the front of an old HP case I had in the closet, and got to work. cut the hole, no problems... duct fits as expected or does it... Again, the case the fan duct is in is not the one I am modding, I was just doing a test run, and it's a good thing I did because now I realize that since the front of the case is not flat, I will have to do something to make it look good on the sides of the fan duct... My first guess would be that I should use epoxy or something like that, but I've never used it before and I don't know how to use it. Any ideas on that? I will be using some rubber U-molding around the hole in the actual mod, but that won't cover those big gaps on the sides of the duct... one possibility might be putting the fan duct in the oven after I get the whole cut in the front of the Sonata case, and then while its warm, mold it to fit perfectly on the Sonata. This would save me a LOT of work with buying/figuring out how to use epoxy, getting primer/paint etc that I wouldn't need otherwise... Problem is, I don't have the recipe for a 120mm fan duct Any idea / tips?
Okay, I finished cutting most of the acrylic (enough for the first acrylic 'cage' and most of the second)... Here's another pic of the acrylic on my makeshift workbench With the acrylic cutting done, I decided it was time to ghetto rig some acrylic to make sure I would get the desired effect. I took one of the spare pieces of acrylic that I had from cutting earlier, sanded it in a circular motion with one of my dremel's sanding wheels, which is pretty fine grit, by hand (was too lazy to go downstairs and get the sheets of fine sandpaper i have )... and then I ghetto rigged it in place with some good 'ol scotch tape and styrofoam to set it back from the side panel a little bit. I then put the blue meteor light in position under the acrylic pointing up towards it... and this is the result... and here is a link to a really short clip I took of the ghetto rigged side panel lighting thingy... http://www.thetechlounge.com/articles/antec_sonata_mod/worklog/worklog_movie_1.mpg please make sure to right click + save as... if you want to view it Now, please note that this is NOT the final version of the side lighting I am working on, this is just a ghetto rigged test to make sure I'll be getting the look I want. I'm quite pleased with how it looks, so now I'm going to get to work on putting the actual acrylic cage together and stuff... I should have it done by late tonight if I don't fall asleep let me know what you all think so far
Last night I fiddled with the acrylic 'cages' for a couple of hours, and then I finally decided that I was making it too complicated. I decided to go ahead and just use one piece of acrylic on each side panel and stick it right up against it. This will work better in the long run as well, because NO DUST will get in the case, or on my acrylic. If any dust does get on the acrylic, now it is easy to clean off, since it is right up against the case. I was quite pleased with the effect I got from putting the acrylic right against the side panel, much to my surprise... You can't really tell that there is acrylic right against the side panel when you look at it... Also, something I noticed when I got the acrylic on the side panel was that my DFI LanParty KT400A has some really bright red LEDs on it that would make the blue light shining on the ANTEC name look purplish... So I will be painting over these LEDs (or something... lol) Anyways, I only have the acrylic on one side panel, and it's just taped temporarily... So I am going to go ahead and install both pieces of acrylic permanently, and then I will post some more pictures.
That's a hella fast post . I watched the short clip, I think the effect is nice. But I prefer no moving lights in a case myself. But good work! Great look and nice job!
Okay, I've been hard at work on my case, here are some pictures of my progress: Before I got started cutting up the case, I taped around everything I would be cutting... On the front plastic part I drew out a template for where I wanted to cut the hole for the fan duct... This part was easy, just cut out this large piece with a dremel cutting wheel. Probably only took 5 minutes, 10 tops... When cutting this plastic piece, I needed a more precise hole than the previous piece, so I went ahead and used a cutting wheel to cut well inside of the circle I drew... I then used a grinding stone attachment on my dremel to expand the hole to the needed size. It took me around 30-45 minutes to finish the hole in this piece probably... Breathing in steel probably isn't a good idea, so make sure to be safe and use goggles and a face mask... I started cutting out the hidden 3.5" bay area... Unfotunately for me, this part is connected to the motherboard tray, so it's a pain to cut it out... I made a little extra room for myself by cutting out the piece you can see in the 2nd picture... This is about as far as I am so far... Oh and don't mind how sloppy the cutting job looks inside the case, it will be pretty when I am done
Alright... I got the rivets out today finally... Thanks to my new right angle adapter and drill bits for the dremel, it was easy I will probably have some pictures tonight. Next step will be cutting out some of the front of the case and then to mount a plate there which I will be mounting the radiator onto later. Once I get that plate in I will need to sand down the insides of the case, prime, and paint. I'm getting excited
Funny thing is that by the time I finish, the inside of it won't even look like a Sonata lol... I just finished doing some steel cutting and now I've pretty much got all the cutting done I'll be doing... Here's some more pics Here you can see that I finally cut that piece loose from the mobo tray. It was a real pain to get out, and its still a little jagged edged, but its flat. I will be putting some rubber u-molding around the edge later to protect myself from getting cut. It will also make it look cleaner. Before I got to cutting the outside parts of the case, I wrapped up the nice black exterior with some painter's tape. Scotch tape would have done the job, but obviously it would have taken forever because its so skinny... This is where I marked before cutting the front of the case... Well, there's no turning back now, the front is destroyed... Next I'll have to mount a steel plate there for mounting the radiator on.
I didn't show very good pictures of the ugly inside of the front of the case before, but here you can see that I cleaned it up on the top and bottom of the hole on the inside. No more ugly half-circle holes from what I cut off earlier... Next I drew out exactly the shape of the plate I need to mount on the front of the case for me to mount the radiator on later... Looks funny, but you won't see it later anyways, and it has to be shaped funky like that to be able to close the case and to be sturdy as I would like it to be. Didn't take me long at all to cut this piece out once I had it all drawn out. Probably took 20 minutes to draw out, and 10 minutes to cut out... Ah, she fits! Here's a look from the inside. This is just about what it will look like from the inside later, except it will be a little cleaner, and all the insides will be black. Here's an overall look at the inside of the case, it doesn't look much like a Sonata anymore does it? The bottom picture was taken from my review of the Sonata, back when it was intact. You can get an idea of how much of the case I ripped apart by comparing them
Put the front of the case back on to make sure the steel plate doesn't keep it from clipping into place... And it fits... -like a Guh-LUV!- (Ace Ventura ) Measured and marked the case for where I needed to cut the holes for the nice handles Bill from MNPCTech sent me (Thanks Bill). One down, one to go. And.... it fits On to the next hole! Ah both handles in! Its glorious. The next step will be drilling some holes through the top of the case to screw the handles into place permanently. But I'll be painting the whole inside of the case soon, so I won't leave it in permanently yet This week will probably be a bit busy at school, so I'm not sure how much else I'll get done this week. Let me know what you guys think so far though
well my fear was semi-confirmed... I managed to get all of the holes drilled for ONE of the two handles, after charging the RYOBI twice... While waiting for the drill to charge - AGAIN - I went ahead and screwed in one of the handles and did a lift test. Me likey handle Its perfect, and the case doesn't give a bit when I pick it up. Of course, it's empty right now, but hopefully that won't matter I'll be drilling the other holes in a little bit after the drill charges up again... (tick tock tick tock...) Did I mention this Ryobi drill is a piece of crap?
alrightey, i just got back from home depot, got myself a good corded DeWALT for ~ $60.00 This should do the job nicely (and future jobs of course)
I used a couple different types of tape, stickiness wasn't a problem with either. The big blue tape is 'painter's tape' and the other tape is just plain old scotch tape. I go crazy with tape just to make sure nothing gets scratched. You can never be too safe! Well, I quickly drilled out the holes in the top of the case thanks to the new drill... Unfortunately there's a bar hanging right under where some of the holes were drilled towards thr front of the case... I chopped it up a little with the dremel to make room for the nut/bolt to screw the handle in, but I'm undecided as to whether to cut the thing out or just leave it... Taking it out would definitely look better (i think...) but i'm not sure what effect that will have on the sturdiness of the rails when i mount drives in the 5.25" bays... Suggestions? Oh and um, I've got some more pics, nothing extremely exciting, but just some pics of the handles installed New drill, MUCH better than the Ryobi Handles are installed now, yay.... See what I meant about the inside? Well, I went back to the garage, mounted the steel plate (drilled holes and mounted), then dismounted and measured where the hole would be for the fan duct... then I drilled the holes for mounting the fan, and, well, then I mounted it with some rubber grommets and standard fan screws... Ah, check it out when I put the front of the case back on, looks pretty shwag I think Still gotta get the duct to fit the curve of the case, but that's not priority, I can do it later... I think next I will start filing down all the sharp edges of the inside of the case where I cut it up, and then sand it, then prime, prime, prime, paint, paint, paint.
There is DEFINITELY no turning back now Next step will be painting everything as I said before. Not sure if I will sand down everything first or not, but I definitely need to spray it down and clean it with soap and water to get rid of all the debris on it... Is anyone else as scared for my case as I am?
hmm... paintjob not as good as i like, but it will all be covered up mostly, so it's not crucial, what's important is that it is black
Well that's the shell finished... you can see some obvious flaws in my paintjob... I'm not sure if this is due to my sanding before painting, or uneven coats of paint, or a combination... I don't know, but I'm not very happy with it Good news is most of it will be covered up by other stuff, so as long as it is black it will look good when the case is put back together... Ah well... Now I have to paint the left panel and the rest of the stuff... If it rains in the next couple days I will probably work on finishing up the duct...
