I have 2 gutted cases seen in these links. http://www.aberdeeninc.com/abcatg/mb6214.htm http://www.outletemporium.com/PDF/AMI/DSAMI101717.PDF Both have all the bits for their front panels except PS/2 ports. One is missing to top cover, while the other is missing a part of it. I want to turn the two of these into end table, but retain the enormous computer look. The bare metal look is not what I'm after, it's not artistic. But I'm not the best at coming up with artistic ideas, so I figured I'd ask the really creative bit-tech community. Since neither of them have a complete top cover, it mean I need to make a top for them. When considering materials, I considered wood, metal, and plexi. Bare metal is fine in a kitchen if everything else is bare metal as well. But these are not for a kitchen. Wood is too much 'against the grain' of what I want to achieve, so I'm considering plexi. I was considering wrapping the exposed sides in plexi as well. I could have something etched into the plexi and maybe light it up. I wouldn't want any specific designs, I doubt the sides will be very visible when the tables are in place, and the top will have stuff all over it. But I had considered things like basic geometric patterns, or even wood grain because of the contradiction it represents. The cases have a recessed pan at the top where a board went for all the expansion cards to pug into. This pan is still complete and, if I use plexi, I could put something in this area you could see from the top. Some ideas I've had are to see about getting an old circuit board, soldering some LEDs to this board and wire them to some circuitry to make them blink at random. I had also considered an LED clock that can be seen in there. Maybe CCFLs would be more interesting, or something else that may allow the table to function as a sort of lamp. Other than plexy, I had considered some sort of carved/molded panels on the sides to dress up the cases, maybe a borg cube motif? Then there is the issue of what to do with the space for the LCD at the front. While I have the LCDs, I'm considering using them for something else. I also don't think I really want to go through the trouble of creating a microcontroller system to make them do anything, what could I make them display? So what else might be a good fit for the slot, or does someone already have a ready made circuit and firmware to do something interesting? Finally, there is the issue of what to do with the big, hollow innards. Since most of this space cannot be seen well, I don't need to stay that artistic here. There is a lot of structure to cut out, but they are big enough that one idea I had was to put a minifridge in it. Another idea was to try and put speakers in them such as a sub. But I fear the sound quality would be bad. No computer suggestions please, I don't want them to look like computers. I want to keep people guessing as to what is, and is not a computer in my place.
create a huge window on the side and do like a movie theme case mod inside it or something. perhaps like a rambo theme or something, be creative. you could always make a server out of one.
