Case Mod - In Progress Project Aurora (New Direction 20 Feb)

Hi,
time to open my first log!

I have a NEC powermate case which, to be honest, is crap for cooling! It acts as a big heatsink but holds the heat in... Image time!




Stripping it down:









(yes I like taking photos)
As you can see the only cooling fan is the one I added to the vent in the side panel. This will all change!

I've ordered some supplies from MNPCTech which should arrive shortly.
Smoked acrylic, Modders mesh, Cable routing stuffs. More will be ordered soon.

The first aim of the mod will be to enhance the cooling, second aim will be looks. I am working on a sketchup model at the moment.

As you can see the case has 2x areas for 3.5 drives, 2 drives in each spot. This will most likely house 4x 500gb sata drives, in raid 0+1. The dvd drive will move one bay down and the bay above it will be a media bay like:


And yes i will be replacing the PSU with a better unit soon.

Anyone modded one of these cases before?

 

I have that same mobo, my only complaint is the ram speed, 800mhz

 

yeah it's not spectacular.. but looking at options there was no extra features on other boards until i payed over 30% more! this one cost me NZ$83

 

Its a great budget board capable of gaming. So what are your plans for cooling, gonna get your feet wet?

 

theres no real room for a decent setup for cooling. i will probably go water when i upgrade to a crossfire board and get a second 4850 though. Will probably set it up for it as part of the mod, 2x120 fans on the side or top (i think on the top where the front of the cut is pretty much marked with the mouldings) and room for pump and res.

 

Plans for the evening - transfer the system out and put it into a temporary case so I can strip the case properly in prep for cutting and paint. need to buy a dremel!

 

Planning:
I'm going to leave the top as is at the moment, and planning on using 2x 120 fans on the right side as intake, then 2x120 fans on the left side as exhaust (where there will be space for a rad for future use)

 

Update!
I have set up the cutting lines for the side and interior..


and some mesh work! Thanks to MNPCTech for the supplies

 

Your first worklog! Congrats confusis! I love watching old desktops get customized.

Don't forget to cover mesh with clear coat paint, if you planned to leave it plain silver? otherwise it will oxidize.

 

Yay from sketchup to real modding cant wait to see what you do with that old thing

 

it's not particularly old - the original contents were a 775 pentium about 2 years old?

mesh will end up...orange! although you might have guessed considering my SU work

 

Update: managed to get a few cuts done but the tool selection at my fathers has diminished so a few things i was unable to do. Might have to splurge on a dremel clone... will add pics later today

 

Looks good, can't wait to see how this turns out. I like the side panel design.

 

Thanks guys for your comments! Have a new panel design for the right side - there will be no room for a faux window as planned to match the left side with the cable routing behind it..

a vinyl print possibly, similar to this:

 

Top almost done.. need to paint the mesh and paint the clip-on sides. Also need to design a new mounting setup as the hole I cut out had all the hooks it used to mount to the case. The mesh still needs the base folded over and hot-glued to the plastic.


The cuts in the side panel are so nasty i will tidy them up before I even consider posting pics!

 

Looks like you are off to a good start.

Could you post some pictures of the retention for the expansion cards on the back please?

Thankyou

 

lol what an odd request. will do in a few minutes

 

Some folks have odd fetishes...

 

And the rear panel as promised:




Problem: I'm starting to like the black/silver :/

 

And i just noticed how wonky the mesh work is in photos!