Hi, This is my very first Mod, this means that I have never taken a dremel or other tool in anger to my pc (or for fun) Just a quick word to any other would be modders out there. When I started this project I had NO TOOLS, NO CASE to mod, and NO CLUE!! (some people still say I have no clue) Ok, here is the original case to start with. Its an ugly blighter but I hope to turn it into a thing of beauty.
I have already done some stuff to this case but thought I would update slowly to give me time to keep slightly ahead. The main side panel (left, not the motherboard one) is going to have the following design on it. I really suck at drawing so I printed this image out to the size that I wanted and then taped it to the panel to make a stencil. And here it is drawn on to the panel. I am now going to leave this until last as the internals of the case need some changes as do all the other panels, and this is the most complex one so I need time to get the minerals to do it. There is room to expand the window out later so that you can see more of the insides, but it will depend on the final placement of the "guts of the machine" Because this shape is not going to be edged in any way I want to make sure I get some more practice with my new dremel which was bought for me as a present when it was found out that I was going to be doing this
Right Had a good weekend so I thought I would update this early today. I Drilled the rivets out for the top of the case and promptly removed the top. Ready for some painting. Now before I continue I would like to point out that i painted this piece before I made any cuts. This was a bad idea but at the time I did this I wanted to practice my painting skills and it would still be a few weeks before all my new watercooling stuff arrived so I had no realistic idea of the dimensions of the equipment being put in. OK, Sanded the top down and put on a coat of primer, began sanding again and it started to get a bit of a mess to be honest. It got worse from there, and I just kept going in circles.. Until I spoke to a friend of mine who works in a bodyshop. He gave me two very good hints. 1) Before painting put the can into a bowl of hot water for about 15 minutes, this helps to stop orange peel and makes the paint flow better from the can, and it means you only have to shake it for a few minutes before using it. Make sure the water is not too hot and be aware that if it is too hot you could potentially have something not very nice happen. 2) After putting the primer coat on and before it dries give it a quick dusting with the final coat (this works particularly well with dark colours) then when you sand down the paint any scratches or marks will stand out and you can concentrate on them specfically, always feather around the area you are working on particularly if they are really stubborn scratches. PIC Dusting the panel PIC Scratch standing out PIC after some concentrated sanding This also shows the feathering I was talking about, I have cleared the dark colour from a lot of the area around the scratch but some can still be seen even though there are no scratches in those areas. After getting the scratches out I got around to some proper spraying, however this being my first time spray painting, This happened (sorry for the flash) So I had to set about fixing that, It didn't take long to be honest I got a bit carried away after that (and annoyed) and as such I completed the paint job and then mounted the radiator and fans but only have the final pictures to show for it. The Fans are for testing purposes I am not sure which one to use. The Antec looks nice in general but it has a temperature control thermostat which has to be bypassed. The other fan (A.C. Ryan) has UV LED's and it glows nicely when dark but look a little naff during the day. So I do not know which one to use yet. To finish this panel I need to make 1 or 2 small holes and put a rubber gromet in to them and feed the fan wires through.
I would buy two of them white fans, that one looks nice and I like it more then the other one next to it. Go for the white!
