another CompUSA box of CompUSA parts? Think again

The fruit of my labor - Part 3 - Continued





Now you may be wondering, why did I take these pictures in the,*cough* dead *cough*, grass? Well I couldn't find any other clear space to take pix, since I have soo much crap lying around, and I think it shows the colors off a lot more nicely. I hope you all like how it came out, I certainly do.

I really wish the right (window) side panel would have lined up with the silver paintjob a lot better, but it still looks nice. Also, that silver mark on the left side of the top of the front panel in the top view pic, that's light reflection not a painting mistake, just so you know .

 

I almost forgot....

I swapped out the two stock iCute fans that were in the back for two Panaflos! One is an M, and the other is an H, but they both give out about the same amount of air and noise, but noticably more than the factory iCutes, which has helpped my case cooling pretty well.


Of coarse I had to solder off the fan tails and swap them with my modded ones, but that was easy .

 

Finished the last two grills the other night ago, and after I finished them, I got to thinking, these grills have more meat on them, so why not use them on the side and top, and the others on the back? Since the side and top don't have running fans on them, the it really doesn't matter how meaty the grills are. For the last grill, I got it down to an hour and fifteen minutes including the drawing time.

Now, if I do make a grill for the power supply, I think I'll make it out of steel so it matches the PSU, or something. Any ideas?

I also primered, sanded, primered, painted, sanded, painted, clear coated, sanded, and clear coated the two last fan grills tonight, since they were pretty beaten up looking. I just painted it the same silver as the bottom half of the case is, but it looks pretty natural. They're just drying on the top of my monitors and I'll buff them tommorw with some more Mirror Glaze and take pix, and probably install them tommorw too with more pix.

Let me know what you all think of my mods so far.

 

really liked the work you did with the PSU cable... good job there mate

 

That CD-rom is just screaming put a window in me...

And maybe a LED to light it up too.

Looking nice.....

 

Like what you have done with the cables. Simple and functional. The custom fan grills are nice also. Extra points for doing them yourself. How thick is that alu?

 

It's 2mm. I still don't see why HD wanted soo much for it. Any ideas where I could find it cheaper? I still need some 2mm thick sheet metal for the PSU grill

 

I have only seen it at Lowe's here and it is just as expensive. Might try some sheet metal supply places if you have any in your area. That's what I am planning on doing. I don't know if they will sell in small quantities but they might have some scrap that they can spare or sell cheap.

 

As I was reading your post, this came to mind....

I've got a buttload of old AT power supplys without fans that just sit on a shelf here, collecting dust. They are made out of steal as well, and the casing color matches mine. Do you think it's worth hacking one of them out, and using the base of the PSU for a fan grill (maybe even the top)? Dang, this is going to be wierd seeing sparks when working with the Dremel again, since I've been cuttin aluminum for the past two weeks

 

It would probably be easier to use the tops. Should be just about the right size too.

 

Well I was trying to photograph my blue LED lit bubble tubes today and I came up with this awesome (to me at least) mod idea. I have a large sheet of lexen here still and what if I put strips of it over the bubble tubes? Sort of like, windowed light tubes. I think it might give the front of the case a little more of a stealhy look, if you know what I mean.

KrazyIvan: I was goign through your case mod journal and noticed you're painting of your speakers and your "exacto knife" set, which is the same knife set I have, and almost the same speaker set . I have some Aura speakers, but I recently broke the volume/power switch. Mine are the Aspect 30's though, so I dunno if the switches/pots are the same or not. Would you like to check the rating on that switch-pot for me?

 

Clear sleeving...how ironic, it looks really nice though I have to admit. The paint job doesn't look bad, but this might be a good time to try your hand at some simple air-brushing if you have access to the materials and/or money just to make it look more professional. Other than that everything looks good.

 

Will do. I'll check them tonight.

 

Twernmilt, what do you mean when you say the clear sleaving is ironic? I'm not quite sure how to take that comment

 

It's really nice so far, but - for the best look, window the cd-rom, maybe even the psu ( ), make a new grille for it, and maybe even spray the interiour black.

Seriousally though, nice work.

 

lol, its not a criticism i like the way they look, but many people use sleeving to hide their cables and within that mindset it becomes ironic to use clear sleeving.

 

Ahh yes, but what IS seen still looks nice .

I've been planing for a few months to window out the PSU, and have been debating wether or not I should window the CDROM. Considering that's my only CD-R/W drive, I kinda don't want to chance breaking it, as I use it a lot.

 

Clear sleeving looks ok to me
Nice work

 

So long as you do it properly, don't worry it's safe. As to windowing the PSU, make sure the sinks and Such face UP, then put a window so it's viewable fron the top, then put a nice LED fan in.

 

Yeah, I know that CDROMs are fine to play with, I repair CDROMs for other people online all the time. With PSUs, you just have to be very aware of where your hands are and what you're doing, same goes for working on monitors, and I've done minor adjustments in monitors (while they're on ) and minor repairs to power supplies before. Just so you all know...I nor Bit Tech can be held responsible for any damage done to eithery you or your equipment if you decide to follow in my footsteps