So there's an old Antec case sitting below my desk. So it's got a window, a custom paintjob, and lotsa fancy lights, bells and whistles. All done by hand, nothing pre-modded about it all. But..it's getting old. And it's loud. Too loud. So I wanted something...different. Something nice'n quiet. Something with a bit of style. That's how Project Clydesdale was born. Why 'Clydesdale'? Well..it's my workhorse. Good for everything, and online 24/7. Next door there's also 'Pony', the family PC. But..back to Clydesdale. Actually I wanted to go for a watercooled setup first.. but then I've remembered that occassionally I'm dragging my box to the one or other LAN. And watercooling and transportable don't mix. Not as well as aircooling and transportable do, anyway. Hence it's gonna be an aircooled setup. The next decision was, whether to go with the common 'window+blowhole' theme seen everywhere nowadays. Everybody seems to have a window. Hmmm. I decided against it. I've done windows before..but somehow I don't like them much. I want a clean setup. And I want it nicely soundproofed from the insides. Noiseblocker mats kinda look silly when stuck to the inside of yer window. <g> Next up: What case am I actually gonna pick for my little project? It HAD to be aluminium. Simply because I like the looks of it. And it had to come..well...pure. No window. No blowholes. No icky front door. I hate those front doors. All the time they're in the way. Or -even worse- yer case looks absolutely icky behind the door. Do I have to say Xaser? <g> Well... my 'victim' of choice was standard Lian-Li PC60. I know it's been done over and over, and the case isn't anything 'fancy' anymore, with all the other aluminium cases that have popped up all over the place nowadays. But I like it. It's got clear, defined lines, a very clean look. It's so nicely simple and basic. Perfect for hacking it up for modding. :> Well.. Two days after coming to that decision, the case was delivered. Feels funny when ya first get yer hands on an aluminium case. The parcel service guy was worried if there's anything inside that big box he was delivering, at all. Half an hour later I was busily working on that shiny new lian-li already. Hmm..two fan intakes? A blowhole on top? And one at the back? I didn't need those. One of the front holes got closed neatly. Scrap aluminium's easier to work with than I thought. (800x600 pic here) The rear blowhole got closed too. I'll install a powersupply with a big 12cm fan later, and an 8cm intake fan to cool the harddrives. That's gotta be enough. (800x600 pic here) About the blowhole on top I had to do something special. Looks icky to have that grill there... Especially if there's not gonna be any fan behind. Well, the box was going to be named Clydesdale. So why not go with a horsey theme too. <g> (800x600 pic here) Next up: Some sturdy grips to haul the thing around on. At the local hardware store I got two reeeeeal nice steel handles. Chromed, of course. $6 a piece, and looking nicely industrial. (800x600 pic here) Now..let's take a peek into the case. To my horror I had to discover this vertical harddrive rack Lian-Li designed for their cases. Icky. First of all it's taking away a lot of space. Second, it makes soundproofing the bottom of the case difficult, with all the corners and angles. Third, I don't want to mount my drives vertically. Nope. Not gonna happen. Fourth, should I later really decide to switch to a watercooling setup, that rack would get in the way. Therefor it was brutally torn from it's home. Hah. Garrr! Instead, I'm gonna use a pair of mounting plates. Standard lian-li accessoires. (800x600 pic here) The mobo tray fell victim to my modding madness, next. I like to have a couple holes there, for cables. Routing them behind the tray provides valuable airflow space. Six Dremel cutting-wheels later the tray looked like this. Yup, I gotta clean the darn thing. Fingerprints everywhere. <g> (800x600 pic here) And then I came across the first severe design flaw of my new lian-li. The front-usb terminal. They could at least have put a spring into it, to keep it closed. For now, a small magnet and some spare iron scrap do the job, for me. Yup, I'm cheap. But it works, no? (800x600 pic here) Since we're working at the front bezel already... just why did Lian-Li seperate the front grill into those two fields? Looks silly. Had to be fixed. There. (800x600 pic here) While working at the front bezel, I also noticed how there's plenty of space behind it. Alright, my case's not gonna have a window. But there's room for two cold cathodes, and I gotta do something about that. First I thought about cutting two vertical lines down along the front bezel. But doing that with the Dremel and making it look all clean and even would have been a chore. I needed some other idea. Gonna go with a different kind of bubble light there. Two blue CCs behind the front bezel will provide enough light to make it shine nicely. (800x600 pic here) What was left? Well..for now, the side panels. I wanted to go with the clydesdale theme again. Thoroughly cleaned both side panels, then cut masking tape and sprayed a nice logo on both sides. Only to tear it off again together with the masking tape, later. Chipping paint. Arrrrrrgh! What, paint's not gonna stick well on aluminium? I'll give ya aluminium! GRRRR! Some hours later there were aluminium filings and dust all over my room, and the logo deeply engraved into both panels. Now THAT's not gonna come off again. No way! HAH! I've won! Gotta llllove my Dremel. (800x600 pic here) So..here's a final impression of the case in its current state. (800x600 pic here) Now if my hardware vendor finally would deliver the noiseblocker mats and blue CCs I ordered TWO WEEKS ago, I could start and write part 2 of my project log soon. But till then, that's it for now. See ya. -Ronny
Welcome to the forums and enjoy your stay I like the horses and etches.... Dont like the cheese-like holes in the front/side. IMO, would have been better with slit(s). But on the whole, looks good.
Like I said..with the dremel being your only modding tool (apart from a power drill <g>) you gotta resort to..uhh..alternatives. I first wanted to cut two slits instead of the holes, too. But doing that by hand and with cutting wheels, it would have turned out anything but straight and even. The holes look okay though, and looks absolutely great with the right lighting. Tested that already with a spare CC I've got here. Just wait for the final pics. -Ronny
Yeah, I really like the engraving work. What kind of bit did you use to do that? Excuse my ignorance.
@KrazyIvan: For the engraving job I used three bits, actually. One's a milling bit. CV- steel, with a small ball at the tip. Looks like an oversized dentist's drill. *shudder* That one was nice for the outlines, and downright dug into the metal sheet. Half a millimeter deeper and I'd prolly have broken though the other side of the panels. <g> For cleaning up I used a diamond-dust ballpoint bit. Same size as the milling bit, but makes lots smoother lines. And requires more time to work with. The insides of the letters were polished with a rubberwheel bit that actually was meant for polishing acrylic glas. Works great on aluminium though. -Ronny
