I'm planning on cutting a top window into my current mod, the design I've drawn out is 15cm at it's widest point. My concern is that I have 16cm if metal surface to work with. To compund it, there are 4 rivets on the top of the computer that support the 5 1/4 drive bay framework underneith the location I'm wanting to cut! If I cut my design on the top window, and then remove material from the computer framework that is below the cutout area of the top window... then I will likely be taking out these 4 top rivets. There are front mount rivets on the drive cage, and they are punched through the front of the case framework, so I know that if I were to cut out the top ones, the drives still have some support. But is it enough for 2 hard drives and 2 CD drives? Anyone had any experience on this? TIA!
This coming from a (forum) noob, you would probably want someone elses response. I believe your drives will have enough support, despite the top rivets. Of course it wont be as structurally sound as before, but you will be able to do the mod.
It's not just the weight of the drives you should be concerned with, but the vibration of them too. Can you design a window that allows you to leave the rivets? Can you add another support system for the cage to take the place of the rivets? Grump
I'm guessing that I should just resize the cut design on top. I can loose the 2 side flame accents, maybe that will be enough. Or maybe I should cut out the top section of the case (leaving the rivets in place) and the trace tha back onto the top cover. That would tell me where my cutout can be. The rivets obviously need support, and seeing that this is a steel case, I am thinking O can remove the metal in the middle of the rivets, leaving the side rivet's steel alone. Something like this ASCII art will hopefully represent: Front of case x |-------| x |cccccc| |cccccc| |cccccc| x |cccccc| x |cccccc| --ccccccc-- |cccccccccc| |cccccccccc| |cccccccccc| |cccccccccc| ========== Rear of case Make sense? Is this safe? The art is not displaying properly, it is removing some of the leading spaces on the upper section. I would be cutting out the areas where there are c's listed. The upper cutout would be rectangular in shape between the rivets, leaving the material between them (long waya) unmolested.
