First post here, go easy on me Basically i have a antec 900 case that i want to put my pc into. Its a nice case but i want to mod it a little bit first. Im gonna cut some holes in the backplate for cable management and gonna spray the inside black to get rid of that ugly grey metal colour. Anyone got any more suggestions/ideas on nice mods i could do ( with basic tools + dremel ). TIA
Engrave the insides. So many people engrave outside panels, but I think internal engraving in a windowed case looks great. Plus you can tie the engravings into the components, like engraving a circuit board pattern around the motherboard as if the mobo traces extended into the case itself. If you've painted it black, then the silver would look great doing that. (Although you'd have to be careful not to chip paint off, unless you wanted to engrave, then mask the pattern, then paint, then remove the masking, but that might restrict how tight you can make the pattern.) Also you could try subtle modification of things like hard disc trays and optical bays, to break up the basic box shapes and give it some form. Its surprising how much freedom there is to remove material from parts like that considering you only need to stay away from the structural parts of the caddy. Plan the cuts carefully first and make sure you don't cut off anything important, and with a little inspiration you can make HDD bays look pretty damn cool, instead of just functional grey boxes. You could also consider a plexi motherboard mount, kind of like a bezel almost. I'm envisioning somthing like this: (Crude MS paint drawing upcoming!) You'd have to modify the design slightly, to make the edges interesting to look at, by your preference. And also to make sure it clears and mobo surface components. (Can't mount it under the mobo, it'd move the mobo up, and then you'd have problems with your PCI plates and screwing in thereof.) If you used UV plexi with that idea it could look VERY cool, too. The 900 isn't the most instant kind of 'blank canvas' case to mod, but with a little ingenuity you can do a lot with even the simple parts of a case. Externally it'd be hard because of all the mesh (Although...)
wow thats a nice idea man. is there such a thing as uv-reactive acrylic, and if so does it cost much?
Its not too expensive, you can buy it in sheets from a lot of online modshops, or from local suppliers of plexi. Selection of colours is a little odd though, and if you buy UV reactive red, be aware that its not actually red, its pink. Best way to get glowing red acrylic is actually to use clear acrylic with red LEDs mounted inside it. It'll glow a vivid red around the edges, although if you scuff it up with sandpaper so it looks frosted, it should glow more uniformly. Depending on your budget it should cost a great amount. and if you're only using it in the motherboard and not mounting any anywhere else, then I'm sure someone on the forums would be willing to send you links to buy some, or some of theirs they don't need. You will obviously need to buy a UV cold cathode to mount somewhere in the case though, otherwise it won't glow. Google should help you find both of those things, just try 'UV Plexi' or 'UV Acrylic', and 'UV Cold Cathode'
There's a very simple answer to that. Make your mounting holes large enough to fit around the mobo standoffs!
ive heard of people putting uv paint on the motherboard to make it look nice under uv light. not sure if its true though, doubt its completely non-conductive :/
thinking about i think that if i flipped the motherboard to make it inverted atx, it would look pretty awesome not sure if i could though without have to rivet/weld the mobo tray back into place.
