Yay, just won this beast on eBay: Edit: site does not seem to load image thumbnails http://www.tfbonline.co.uk/images/EbayPix/Aug03/caseleft.jpg http://www.tfbonline.co.uk/images/EbayPix/Aug03/casefront.jpg http://www.tfbonline.co.uk/images/EbayPix/Aug03/caserite.jpg More pics: http://www.tfbonline.co.uk/case/ Bidding in the last ten seconds really works Anyway, I'm planning on doing some major modding. First up, I'll paint it black. I want to add a VFD display to the front. I'm looking at doing some custom USB controlled seven segment LEDs for the front too. I'll probably put in a water cooling system, and some noise dampening material. Oh, and stick some windows in too... actually, a window on the front, showing the HDs might be interesting, and quite original. I'm thinking about putting some LED lighting strips behind the slatted front door, so they are kind of backlit. Maybe tie them to the HD or optical drive activity lights. Even better would be if the slats were motorised to open with the optical drive doors, but that could be quite a bit of work. What other stuff would look good? Preferably cheap stuff MoJo
Images are broken, but the ones behind the link work. Looks like thats got some serious potential, personally i think it would seriously ROCK with a Tron style, all those great angular features, esp with the new tron game coming out soon.
i'd say the vents on the left are begging for some sort of glowing effect, and the tron idea would be good for that if you used red and green (half one colour, half the other) with fans for mobo air intake. Top right panel, small TFT screen, Top left panel, longer slot, 5 1/4 drive, CDRW, DVD what ever Top left panel, shorter slot, one of those 2 line display thingamies, VFD's i think, green would look good against the red/green contrast below. rest of the 5 1/4" slots, removeable HD racks and some intake fans to cool them. Could also put some watercooling inside if you can affording it, got plenty of space in there, the upper left long bay could also have a fanbus put inside. and the row of LEDs (i think) above the slots on the left could be independant HD activity lights. Hope that helps some. deffo like the idea of the tron thing. could make VFD blue too, as there was blue red and grren in tron iirc. that would contrast the red/green glow better
Thanks for the ideas guys... the Tron this is definately interesting! Not sure how it could be done exactly... everything just sort of glows in Tron, which is kind of tricky. Usually, lighting looks best when it's indirect. Couple more ideas I had... first, get some EL backlighting and do a cut-out lighted logo. I have a fairly large bit somewhere from an LCD. I though I'd get another couple of bits from old laptop screens, but they both used plexi sheets with a CCFL and a sort of frosted face with little clear spots placed evenly over it. Might try that instead, should be good with frosting and some mirrored chrome backing to reflect all the light forward. The other idea was to put some LEDs that flash in sequence. Been done before you say, but to make it different I was thinking about having it controlled by a microcontroller. It could do different patturns, in particular I think a quick flash (like a fast moving light) from top to bottom of the case, plused every couple of seconds might be nice. I have built an LED bar graph "graphic equalizer / frequency level" display for a 5.25" bay, but the microcontroller needs work on the code. I am putting together an in circuit programmer to help me do this, so maybe it will eventually get finished. I'll see about some pictures... gonna do a project log anyway. It uses bi colour LEDs, and is RS232 controlled so can do messages etc as well as Oh, and as for silencing... there is loads of room for air flow and massive heatsinks, so I'm thinking of trying for minimal fans. Will probably try and mod a PSU too, go for wire mesh and maybe one panaflo with huge heatsinks. Managed to make a 400W supply run fanless with a massive heatsink (doubled the PSU size!) for several hours. I want to make as much of the stuff as possible software controlled, so that it can be shut down when the computer turns the monitor off. Oh, and this would look amazing doing a HUD display on a window: http://www.circuitcellar.com/flash2002/Honorable/M295-abstract.htm Final thought: colour. How about dark metallic blue? MoJo
