Case Mod - In Progress Project: Blackout

Hi all,
This is a fairly quick project log, born out of my need to have a case that's worthy of holding my new system. I did some brainstorming last night, and came up with a few ideas, many of which are specific to the way I use my system. I don't have any fancy sketchups, as I don't HAVE sketchup on this pos old laptop. This is a partial list of what I have planned.
-Tinted windows on both sized w/ss harware
-Tinted top window? not sure on this, it may be one window too many, will play it by ear.
-White led interior, spotlighting a few parts
-Touch sensitive switch for led's
-Backlit Motherboard
-USB and audio ports stealthed under left edge of case bottom
-White/Amber HDD/Power Led indicator
-Matte black frame with polished steel highlights -this will be the absolute last thing done, as I will be using this as my main system throughout the mod. Also, painting and then deciding to hack another hole sucks.
I have a few other cool ideas, but I'm not commited to them yet.


Here's my case:



Note the stupid etching in the side window. This is going away first thing.

Also, note the blank right side panel:


I've got to do something about that.


This took a surprising amount of work, as I couldn't simply mirror the main panel due to it being offset for the handles.

The next step was cutting and drilling the new windows:

I actually needed 3 panels, but I cracked one and will have to wait to implement that part of my plan.

The final step for the acrylic was some tinting:

This is actually a prototype I made previously, so don't mind the chipped to heck edges. Shiny, eh? Tomorrow, I will mount the windows.

For some reason, Thermaltake thinks green and purple are an awesome color combination...not!!!

A quick coat of black paint took care of it though.

Finally, here's a prototype of something I have planned for the front door. I can't see the power and hdd led's from where I sit, sooo.....


Until next time.

 

For those who care, here are the system specs. It arrives today!


- ASUS P5Q DELUXE Intel P45
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core
- OCZ Platinum 4GB DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel
- SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4870 512MB Video Card
- 2 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit
- ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
- Logitech G11 Silver & Black USB Standard Gaming Keyboard
-XONAR DX sound card
-Thermalright "Limited Edition" TRUE Black Ultra-120 eXtreme CPU Heatsink(ooh black, I couldn't resist!!)
-Noctua NF-P12 120mm fan(for TRUE)
-2 Noctua NF-S12-1200 120mm Fans (48 CFM)

 

Nice, but did you know you are pitting yourself against TribalOverkill's "Blackout"? (Yeah, All the good names are taken. That's why I use stupid ones.)

The Soprano is a hard case to mod the front of. Do you have any plans for that?

 

Yeah, I was about to say the same thing, lol. Of course, I don't think we'd ever seen Tribal messing with Thermaltake stuff though.

It'd be cool to see something custom up front on these. That Wavemaster-style was always interesting to look at, but I can imagine a bit difficult to mod.

 

Yep the name is taken but oh well. I like this so far. I have only ever seen a few modded Soprano cases. I actually looked at the Tsunami Dream for my first mod, I like it better than the Soprano, it has a full aluminium front door. Sadly the case went obsolete and I couldn't get one in Australia so I settled with the NZXT LEXA instead.