Case Mod - In Progress Project MicroSuperFly by E.E.L. Ambiense - April 17th Pics

The MicroSuperFly case started life as an Ultra Micro Fly M-ATX case. I had snagged one a while back for next to nothing, and quickly lost interest in it. It sat in a dark room occasionally getting kicked whenever I'd go in the room (not on purpose though!). I decided I'd modify what I didn't care for on it, which meant removing the whole front fascia and rebuilding the case. New paint, new acrylic, etc. I recently co-started a graphic design & screen printing company, and I needed a personal rig to be used for the business.

Stock, it had a single 80MM fan up front and a single 120MM in back; removable mobo tray, etc. I decided I wanted to open it up a bit, so I cut out the bottom-half of the case's aluminum up front, and replaced it with a new piece of aluminum. I sketched out and digitally designed a new front for the case, as well as incorporating 4 USB 2.0 ports, HD audio ports, and a firewire port all using a 3.5" Silverstone add-on. I measured and designed the front, laying out where the three 80mm fans were going to go, as well as the aforementioned external ports. Also decided to use an unused lighted Bulgin switch for the power switch.

In back, I decided to leave the stock 120mm UV fan, as it was sufficient and quiet enough for use here. I spliced together the three 80mm fans to one power-lead (the Sunbeam Rheobus has 20w of power on each channel, so this didn't even make it break a sweat), sleeved and shrinked all fans and the CCFL tube; shortened, cleaned up and sleeved the CCFL power switch lead.

Stock case had a slide-in HDD rack on the right side of the IDE bays when looking at the front of the case. In it's stock form, there was no airflow at all to the HDD, relying on the bare-metal aluminum contact and using the chassis as a sort of heatsink for the HDD's. Using a Raptor, this just wasn't going to work for me (I like my HDD's cool as hell...which is an oxymoron...but I digress). So I tossed the stock acrylic windows and designed new ones, and the side that the HDD is on also got a low-profile 80mm intake fan right over the HDD.

Sanded down, lacquer thinner cleaned, primed and painted the case in a metallic blue flake instead of the stock black paint (that was already ruined at this point anyways due to my previously-mentioned darkened room negligence).

Summed up: Replacement panels measured, digitally designed, and lasercut. Case was stripped to individual pieces, modded and cut, sanded, lacquer thinner cleansing, primed, and painted with rattlecan paint. 2 layers of primer; 2 layers of paint, and one layer of clearcoat. Left to dry for at least 24 hours, then oven baked. Everything tied together using black buttonhead socketcap screws (some of my favorites).

System specs:
Foxconn M-ATX 6150K8MC-KRSCH2 mobo
AMD 939 3200+ CPU (2.0 stock; no OC...I know...OLD! I'm gonna replace it with an X2 at least)
1GB Corsair DDR400 RAM
WD Raptor 74GB SATA HDD
Ultra 400W XVS-series modular PSU
Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu LED CPU cooler
Sunbeam Rheobus
Stealthed Samsung SATA DVD-RW Drive
Cooler Master UV 80mm fans (intake; spliced & running in series)
Ultra UV blue 120mm fan (exhaust)
Hiper UV blue thin 80mm side HDD fan

Results:
Case is very quiet; almost no noise at all. HDD runs at 30 degrees under load. CPU, 32. board, 30. Overall, I'm satisifed!

OS:
Dual-boot Ubuntu and XP Pro x86

P.S. I apologize whole-heartedly to any of you who actually view this post for my longwinded typing...I tend to ramble...and the terrible pics; filthy benches and junk everywhere, and very amateur! They were done at work since I spend most of my time there anyways, and where most of my modding is done. Quiet, space, no distractions, and power-plugs!

Here are the images of the case...

Stock Case (not my pic but simply a decent pic of stock case)


Modded Case


Modded Case Close-Up of Front


Modded Case Close-Up of Side HDD cooler


Modded Case Nightime Shot


Modded Case Side Panel Nighttime Shot


That is all on this one. Hope it wasn't too painful. Thanks for your time. Drive safely and stay clear of significant amounts of saturated fats.

 

D*mnit, EEL! I want a proper build log out of you. If your next build is summed up in a single post...
You're GROUNDED, mister!

This is nice work, give them some time. Like the honecomb pattern, how the heck did you do that? I want to see it!

 

Thanks Cheapskate! I've got my main big sucker rig coming up soon after all these small-fry. I wish I could do proper build logs, lol. The problem is, I'm a bit of a mod-hermit. I tend to do everything alone (that doesn't look right...), so in the middle of the action I tend to not snap photos (that really doesn't look right...).

As far as the work itself, I'm a graphic designer by trade (I make t-shirts mostly). I draw everything to exact size and lasercut it out. Acrylic's my favorite canvas for casemodding!

 

I have a Micro Fly too. Houses my P4 2.8 GHZ OC to 3.2 on air. Mine came with windows top and both sides. I use the bejeezes out of it as my daily driver at home. Had to take the top and sides off - getting old and and overheating.
Please show us more pictures of this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John

 

LOL. Sure, when I get the time to clean it up soon. It's a little filthy right now as my work computer. Thank you kindly for the interest!

 

Super Sweet Mod!

Question: How did You cut out for the 1394a firewire....?

 

Thanks for the kind words, man!

I hand measured (and triple-checked) the measurements by making a vector template of the 3.5" add-on drive with the USB, audio & firewire ports and laser cut everything. When the acrylic panels were installed, they lined up perfectly with the 5.25" and 3.5" drives.

Thanks for your interest!

 

This is done right. On the stockMicrofly the button is on the right and the firewire in the middle with just one 1 two post USB connection. I think this puts things where they belong plus adds 2 more usb. Well done indeed.
John

 

Well, that explains it! But that cuts me out, so I'll have to continue to look for another way.....

I really dig SFF mods and You've really done a Great Job!

 

LOL. Use whatever tools you have access to! You can do it by hand too; just make sure your measurements are pretty close. Drill out/dremel out, then I'd needle file them down to the correct shape.

SFF mods are cool. I just hated this case in it's stock form, so I set out to change that. lol.

Thanks again for your interest!

 

I love it! More pics though please, MORE PICS!!!

 

BOOOOO! BOOOOOOO! No worklog? Where's the love, EEL?!

*grumble mumble grumble boo*

 

hhahahahaha!!!

 

March 22nd System Update!

Alright, alright...enough grumbling and whining about me supplying more pics of this damn case. Gawd! It's not like it's cool or anything. I mean, come on....am I pushin' drugs on you guys or something here?!

Okay, seriously....I needed to update the system. It's....old. And I had a fan whining/grinding up front, which usually means it's gonna die soon. Figured I'd rectify certain inequities as far as the mod itself is concerned, i.e. fix what I wasn't happy with. The system had been running great for a couple years, but I decided with prices so dang cheap right now on lower-end stuff I'd go ahead and upgrade for the business' sake. I know, bad excuse right? Oh well. It worked.

Alright, to start things off, here's the case as it is (was).



And the insides...



First off, I....don't like lettering/branding on stuff. I'm weird about it. I get all freaky and twitchy, and I start dremeling stuff off things. I know...loony. Well, same thing with the Rheobus from SunbeamTech. Nothing against you guys, Sunbeam, but come on...I hate the lettering on these things! I can't tell you how many times I've modded a faceplate and reinstalled these controllers onto it to get rid of the graphics and stuff. Not to mention the airport landing lights/LED's they use on these bloody things. I'm not blind, nor do I want to be. I'll probably go blind from other ways...

Stock SunbeamTech Rheobus....



I'm gonna go ta work on 'dis 'ting.

Disassembled...



Those heatsinks are impressive. Anyways...here's a leftover stock Cooler Master bay cover from my 'Building Better Worlds' project. It'll work perfectly for this.



I've done this so many times, I actually have a template saved for just this!



And drilled out. Great! This'll look better... I'm going to spray it with a slight updated color. It's nice. Trust me.



Here's the inside of the case before I begin taking the front off to remove the fans.



Now, all of you that have asked how the hell I installed three fans instead of the stock single fan in this case, well I've already explained it at the beginning of this thread. I removed the metal via dremel, and riveted/JB Welded a new plate in it's place. Then I hole sawed new holes for the fans to match my template of the modded front I made for the case. Then cleaned up/installed. Bingo!

Here's a simple pic so you can see what I mean. It may look sloppy a bit, but it doesn't matter one lick because it's covered with acrylic anyways.



On to the new hardware going in it...

A Cheapy mobo for $30 as well as a new AM2 CPU for $50. Decent upgrade for a decent price! Now I'll be running twice the amount of RAM for only $25 more bucks. I'm happy.



I shot a simple fan grill with the new color I'm using... I sleeved a brand new in the box cheapy CM 120mm LED fan I had laying around. I installed the grill on the fan as well. It looks nice, so I left it.



Here are the fans I'm replacing the old CM UV fans with. Sunbeam LED chrome fans. I had them laying around and hadn't been used at all, so I figured what the hell.



Old PSU is getting removed and replaced with this old beast I had...



It's from my main rig after an upgrade to a new 1KW unit. In this rig, it'll be overkill. But that's okay, it'll give me an excuse to install one of the 7800GT's I have that aren't getting used at all. That way, I'll be able to game when I'm not working.

Whoops, a stealthing grill for my main rig that went on here... er, let's get that outta the way.



Okay. Lovely.



...And installed.



Now, remember the modded bay cover for the rheobus? Well, here's how it turned out after a layer of black followed by the new blue metalflake.... And I replaced the knobs with some custom ones I had laying around. Looks nice, I think.



Gorgeous. I love this new color.

...And I jumped the PSU to make sure all the fans/Rheobus/DVD drive all work fine. They do.



-----------------------------------
I'll update this thread again when I've gotten an AM2 CPU cooler. Probably beginning of next week or so. Then I'll button everything up and take some finished shots of the case! Thanks to anyone who looks in, and to all that were interested in the mod in the first place.

 

Dude. I thought I had stuff "Laying around". You got me beat hands down. This is what we wanted to see, the inside. Mine is so stock Thank you
John the admiring fool

 

Oh, trust me John....I'm a computer packrat! For example on the bench right there, I have a perfectly-working 370 mobo. CPU's gone, because....I....made it into a keychain.

Thanks for lookin' in, man!

 

Looks good there EEL

I'll be keeping my eye on this one for sure.

Darkened

 

Mine has Sacrilege, the Cooler Master 620. and a $5 160Gb Tivo Series 2 I picked up today. G5 in the bathroom for a book stand. I gotta get a bigger room!

 

i like it.

 

Thanks E.E.L.!!! That was what I really wanted to see; the work you did behind the acrylic front panel. Make sure you post plenty of pics when you start bolting this little wonder back together

I really don't know what it is about this little PC, but man do I love it! You're an inspiration to me to get my own