Blue Kool Antec Aria (my first mod) *Updated 2/21 : FINISHED THE CASE!!!*

I have been searching for a while to find the perfect pc case. The case that i chose for my first project was the Antec Aria. It was good for two reasons; look and size. I wanted something that would be fairly portible and something that looked awesome. I have been intrested in waterless computer cooling for a while, and drew up many sketches of case ideas. The bottom mounting of the motherboard in this case went along with an idea i had a while back. The goal : pull cold air through the left side of the case, run it over the motherboard and out the right side of the case.

The only stock cooling on the Aria was a huge 120mm? PSU fan and small vents along the side of each panal. I decided to add 80mm fans to each side of the case. On the left side of the case i also planned to add a window. I also made a decision to go with a blue theme. Blue case fans and a blue LED.
I picked up the aria at a local circuit city (i work there). I then borrowed a Dremel from my moms fiance. i got some masking tape, drew up some ideas and went to town

Left side of the case with moch up drawlings:


Rightside/front of case:


Case without top panel, side panels, PSU and Drive Mounts


While sketching up ideas, i noticed i would have to cut away at some of the drive mounting for clearance issues with the 80mm fans.


The two side panals with cut out ideas:



The modder's Best friend:


The mounting after the cutting:


The case without top panel, PSU and drive mounting after cutting the sides:


I decided the psu was a little messy:


So i bundled the cables using blue electrical tape:


And finally, here is the case after the end of the day:


My next step is to paint the case metallic blue. I will then purchase my 80mm fans and 2 fan gaurds. At sometime i will also have to find some plexiglass for the window.

The motherboard that is currently in the case is a fried Asus.

 

It was great till that electrical tape instead of sleeving.... I tried that once and I'm glad I learned my lesson. Happily it was only on an IDE cable I was rounding because it would have left something I acutally needed to use a sticky mess.

Still, at least you won't have overheating issues like my friend in that case with the 2x80mm fans

And welcome to the forums!

 

welcome to the forums, nice first mod you got there, hopefully all will go as planned cant wait to see where this one goes keep the good work up

 

The electrical tape will get hard after a while, while when you try to take it off it will be sticky. If it's cheap it won't be that bad. If it's expensive it'll stay bendable.

The best bet instead of actualy sleeving is small zipties. Those worked wonders on my computer.

 

hey nice lil computer, just a tip if dont want to use cable sleeving and just want to opt for some electrical tape for neatness but you have a window, tape all the wires then go out and get some hoses (water, tubing, etc) and do some diy spiral wraps, theres a guide in the atricles, its simple and hides the clutter of the tape but at the same time completes the look

 

a bit of an update. Since the last post ive been working on the primer for the paint job. lots of layers, lots of sanding. this is where im gonna stop for the primer and now im moving on to the silver base coat. after that a blue topcoat.

Side panals


View of side panal's reflective quality (after flat primer)


Right side of case


left side of case (used bondo on window and fan hole)


Random xbox controller


Till next time.

 

LOL. "randon xbox controller". Looking good. more pics needed.

 

So when those pics coming?

 

heres a very small update. this is one of the panels with 4 layers of the metalic base coat on it. i just got done sanding it down with the 1000 grit sand paper. im going to do one more coat of the silver and then sand with 1500 grit. then ill move to a few layers of the blue top coat.

 

Looking good.

That's a nice little case you've got there.

Welcome to the forums

 

Great paint work. Keep it up.

 

ITS BLUE

first coat of the blue topcoat, unsanded. sexy.

 

another layer of blue, and a picture. my white LED fans should be coming in on monday. i hope to be finished the paint job around then.

 

dude that looks sweet, very nice work, im thinking about a blue like that on my shuttle....

 

Looks nice Personally i'd buy some blowhole trim for the edges ones the paintings done, will top it off nicely

 

IMO blowhole trim will wreck the look of the holes and the window...

im liking this antec aria, im considering getting one to make a shuttle-p**s take

as i need an all out multimedia pc, What are the dimensions of the antec aria? as they arent that expensive, and could be quite a good base for a mini multimedia pc.

looking good so far, any plans on painting the top of the case?

 

i dont think im gonna paint the top of the case, because...well i dont feel like it. Good news however. My newegg shipment came in early. I got my two coolermaster white led fans and fan grills. i felt kinda bad tho cause i had to drill a few holes so i could mount the fans, this ment drilling through a 12 layer paint job. however nothing went wrong and now its really starting to come together. i sanded with 1500 grit sand paper and im going to add one more thick layer of the topcoat of blue. then i will use rubbing compund and polish and the case will be done. all i need now are componants.

LED sexiness


Fan and fangrill installed on one of the side panals

 

Looks great so far, keep up the good work (and the prompt updates). I was wondering what heatsink you're planning on using for the CPU, there's not a lot of room with the PSU. I seem to remeber the Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu fits the Aria, there is a LED version but it has blue LED's. If you got a CNPS7000B-Cu you could get a matching video card cooler, the VF700-Cu. It would look awsome in that window!

Also, are you planning on painting the top "ridged" panel? (say "yes")

 

Looks great mate. Just a little comment, I think you'd have sleeved the PSU wiring. A sleeving kit doesn't cost that much, the tape looks good at the beginning, but will get to annoy you after some time. Believe me, I've been there

By the way, why did you choose an Antec Aria, and not a Shuttle of any kind, or maybe even an MSI barebone?

 

I chose the aria over other cases because it looked cool. Also my work (circuit city) offered them. So i bought one from work. Also i plan to use stock cooling on everything. Here is what im getting hardware Wise

Athlon 64 3400
1 Gig 3200 Kingston Ram
Asus Micro Motherboard that supports PCI
PCI Radeon X700 256mb Pro
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
120 Gig Western Digital HD
Logitech MX510
Logitech Elite Keyboard
Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Surround Sound Speakers
Sony CR-RW/ DVD-ROM combo drive