Case Mod - In Progress Black 'n' White (an Antec P180 Mini mod) (Update: 16.7.2010: The last update]

Welcome to the worklog for my project:
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A short story before I start:
So, this is my first casemod here at Bit-Tech, so be kind with me.
A couple of months ago, I started this casemod, with a worklog at the Norwegian forum, Diskusjon.no and now, I wanted to show it of for you here at Bit-Tech forums. Since I started this casemod in january, I will put every picture which show the process in one single post, and then I'll post updates when I does some work related to the case mod.

This is what I started with:
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Index:
Update 0: The first pictures
Update 1: Resleeving the molex to SATA -cable
Update 2: Cutting the fan grill and sleeving the HD-audio
Update 3: A new sponsor!
Update 4: The package from Fractal Design has arrived!
Update 5: One little update
Update 6: A little update on the grill
Update 7: White slot covers
Update 8: Some spray painting
Update 9: Burner almost done!
Update 10: Painting the keyboard
Update 11: Keyboard is finished
Update 12: Painting the PSU
Update 13: The PSU is finished!
Update 14: The last update, for this time




My hardware at the moment:
PSU: Antec NeoPower 550W
MB : Gigabyte GA-GA78GM-S2H Socket AM2+
CPU: AMD Athlon X2 7750 Black Edition @ 2,7gHz
RAM: 2x2GB Kingston HyperX PC6400
GFX: Nothing yet
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Green Power 500GB + random disk on 120GB

I'll do some hardware upgrades when I get enough money to that. I'm thinking 'bout a Phenom II CPU, a HD5770 GPU, 4 or 8GB's of DDR3 RAM and some new harddrives on 1 or 2TB each. The idea behind this casemod is to combine the best of the two colorways the P180 Mini come in. I've own both a white P180 and a black one, and I've put the white panels from the white one on the black frame from the black one. I'll also sleeve the cables in matching colors, and get black/white -fans from Nexus or Fractal Design. The Big Boy fan will be removed and replaced with a black acrylic plate, and instead I'll put two fans in the front and one in the back to make a positive air pressure inside the case which will reduce the dust level. But enough talking, now I'll dump my pictures.

 

To do list:

[v] = Done
[x] = Undone

Hardware:

[x] New GFX
[x] New motherboard
[x] New CPU
[x] New RAM
[x] New harddrives
[x] SSD?
[x] New CPU-cooler
[x] Sleeving of PSU
[x] New fans

This project is proudly sponsored by:

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The pictures:

Well, this is what I started with.


Molex to SATA before sleeving


And after...


My brand new white P180 Mini


Sexy!


Going to mod the frontpanel and disassemble the case


Nuff' said


The power and led -cables sleeved


Removed the pointless AC97


Going to switch the panels


Removing hardware. Dusty...




Sum' hardware


A lot of dust...


But now it's nice and clean. Toe is pleasured.


Blærgh Lots of dust


Well, the grey case after assembling


With hardware. Going to use this case until I've finished the black and white one


Ready for use!


Removed lots of dust


Starting to assemble the black and white one


It's looking nice!


SEXY!


Innocent


Sister and brother


Going back to her nest


Some sleeving and screws from MDPC-X and some screws and connectors from FrozenCPU


Love theese drawings


The stuff from Nils!


Beautiful screws


Screws, cables and connectors from FrozenCPU


Thumbscrew, unfortunable it was to small


Fanscrew


Connectors


Going to sleeve the SATA-power -cable


And this is how it went out


Test-fit


A sleeved SATA-cable ​

And this was everything for this time. Tell me what you think 'bout this project.

 

Any comments?

 

Update 1
My first update at this forum: Resleeving the molex to SATA -cable​

Okay, I was disappointed how my first attempt to sleeve the molex to SATA -cable, so today I tried again. This time I chose to sleeve the cable the "unisleeve"-way instead of the ugly "duosleeve", and this is the result:

Disassembled


Taping the cables for a nicer finish


The result!​

I'm still not completely satisfied with the result, because I used a regular lighter, and not a heatgun or jet-lighter to shrink the heatshrink, but it's possible that I will put on some new heatshrink when I got gas on my jet-ligher.

But, what do you think about my project? I would be very happy for some comments!

 

I like the black "guts" with the white cover way more, than the other one... but nice work so far =)

 

B&W

Good sleeving.

 

Finally some comments! Thanks both of you!

 

Clever idea to switch the panels around. Looking good!

 

Tanks! I'm satisfied with how the case turned out after the panel switching, and when I've finished the sleeving of the PSU and done some other mods on the case, I'm really sure that the result will be very good!

 

Update 2
Cutting the fan grill and sleeving the HD-audio​

Well, it's have been a long time since my last update, so now I've decide to make a small update just to sustain the thread. I haven't done something major since last time, much because I don't have so much money (I'm a student, heh). But I will receive my scholarship money in two weeks, and then I'll buy some spray paint and some small things from FrozenCPU. But here are the pics of what I've done the last days:

Removed the fan grill. I'm going to put some rubber edging and a ordinary fan grill here.


A little reminder so I remind where the cables shall go after the sleeving.


The sleeving itself it's on. Didn't bother to sleeve the whole cable since only the last half will be visible.


The sleeving is finished! This is the best finish i could get, and the cables are barely visible.
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And now I would be happy for some comments. I know that it's not to much to comment, but a comment from you is always nice!

 

Looking forward to seeing this one evolve, I like the case, and black & white is a slick color combo.

 

Thanks! And I completely agree, the black and white combo is awesome!

 

Update 3
A new sponsor!

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Well, I can proudly tell you that I've got a new sponsor, Fractal Design, the company who have the smooth R2 case and those beautiful black and white fans. I've since the first time I saw their fans been a fan of their products, and i must say that their Define R2 case really beautiful. Feel free to click on their logo and take a look on their website!

Thank you Fractal!

 

Update 4
The package from Fractal Design har arrived​

Yes, today I got the package with fan that Fractal Design sent me. Thank you Fractal! The package contained three 120 mm fans and one 80 mm fan which i'm going to use in my PSU mod.
I took some pictures of the fans, and here they are:

The beautiful fans






Test run! ​

Thanks to Fractal Design for these fans!

Do you have any comments?

Sponsors:

 

Very nice, so far, dude!

 

Thanks buddy! I were planning to buy some spray paint last weekend so I could color some details white, unfortunately the spray paint in my local hardware/household -store was too expensive for me, and it wasn't even in the color tone that I want. But when I got some money again, i'm going to buy some spray paint in the nearest city and paint the PSU, PCI-covers etc.

 

Update 5
One little update​

Finally, I've bought some spray paint. Yep, it's not expensive, but I'm a student, and my money goes to lots of other thing than a can on spray paint. I bought a can of semi-glossy white paint.

This night, I painted the fan grill I'm going to use on the back of the case, and I think I will paint my DVD-drive and maybe some other things this upcoming weekend.

The spray paint


The grill after painting. I had no string nor hook, so I took an old USB-cable and a nail and made something I could hang up the grill on ​

This update wasn't too big, but I would still like to hear what up think 'bout my project.

Sponsors:

 

Only pure geek have more USB-cable than string. But I love the white and black mix.

 

He-he, thats right! I don't have any strings, but I've lots of computer-cables.

And thank you!

 

Looking forward to seeing where this one goes, it's looking pretty good so far. Going to spray the expansion slot covers white like fractal's own R2?

Yslen