Right, my first post here, though I'm a fairly avid learner. I started modding my case several months ago, but progress is slow so not too much has happened. I thought I'd start logging so i can get some more ideas and inputs. I've quoted and edited my origional post on another forum below, to give a bit of background, and i'll get it up to date after that. If you don't want the history, feel free to skip to the second picture! Thanks for reading. Background So, several months on, the ideas have changed. My origional plan was to build a secondary pc into the case, but I've since got bored with my shuttle SN25p, and am going to transplant the hardware into Phoenix when it's done. That means the end hardware will be: AMD 4400+ (bought) 2Gb Vdata ram (bought) Tagan 580watt EasyCon (bought) MSI K8N (bought but needing to be RMA'd) 4*Maxtor hard drives (bought) Nvidia grfx cards in SLI (not bought) Cooling was origionally going to be a waterchiller i have: Sadly, it didn't fit in the case - no matter! It was going to be modded to fit. Sadly the uni I'm going to prohibits the use of fridges and minifridges in its halls due to power issues, so it's probably going to end up with normal water cooling. The first step So, onto the real pictures. This is the case I'll be working with, complete with black paintjob from its last incarnation. It's a bad picture, I've since got a new (phone)camera, so all the newer pictures will be better. My starting point was the design to go on the motherboard side of the case. The basis for the whole theme of the project. As my mum's a bit of an artist, she did the drawing. I had too many ideas floating round and, well, am lacking a bit in the drawing skills. Here it is. I then masked off the entire sidepanel, and started drawing over the paper design, then drawing in the imprint on the masking tape. I then shaded the area, to give myself a better idea of what it would look like. Now, here i realised something. I wanted shineyness. Lots of it. I've seen several mods on this site with lots of chromed parts (Orac springs to mind... *drool*) With this in mind, i read an article on polishing. Now i can't afford ot have things chrome plated, but i can afford to sit outside on a nice day with some sandpaper... i set to work on a bezel. The three holes were drilled for keyswitches in a previous mod. Thats down to the second finest wet and dry. I already like it, so it's a theme thats going to go through the mod. Now here the pictures dissapear - I started a sidepanel by hand, only to find that where the metal was folded at the edges, the sidepanel wasnt straight enough to sand properly. This proed to be a bit of a problem. The lack of pictures is down to my Digicam being stolen when my car got broken into. I'll post up some pictures from my phone when i go out and buy a new data cable (also stolen...) to demonstrate the problem. However, today i went and splashed out on a detail sander - which I should be able to flatten it all out with. Hopfully I get to have a go with that tomorow. Will post up more pictures. I apologise in advance for the speed of this mod - I don't have much free time or modding workspace at home. And i have no idea if i can continue it once i get to uni, it might have to be finished in the christmas holidays. I'll do my best though. I'll also try and make the updates more picturey, and less wordey for you in future. comment / criticisms / sandpaper appriciated. cheers! RwD
Hm, nuts to the Uni rules. What are they going to do, pull a PC apart at suspiscion that students are sneaking around their rules?
Well i did think of that, and could run with the defense "ermm, it's a pc, not a fridge?" but there's also the slight lack of money at the moment (insurance excesses for my car and i dont have my student loan yet) I do have an offer to mod the chiller into the case though. I may take it up yet, see how it unfolds. I can always fit watercooling, then go to waterchilling as well. I'll also add a bit more detail in the proccesses I'm using in my next proper update. RwD
as Tulatin said- nuts to the uni rules... my uni said to fridges etc... i had a mini fridge right there in my room, carried it past the porter to get it up to my room aswell... no one said anything... The fact its in your pc they prob wont even realise! That is if you already got it- mite as well use it!
Just out of interest, is your phone a sony ericsson? Sorry, just picked up on the cable bit. Anyways, nut's to uni rules, and i'm liking the sound of this mod. Might have to subscribe
Brooxy, yeah, a spangley red K750i (because lets face it, whats the point in having the boring black colour!) It's a better camera than my camera, oddly. The origional idea was to have a removable tray slot in just above the motherboard tray, with the chiller (once it had been remounted) bolted on. The whole assembly sliding out the back. Now, aside from actually carrying this mod out (a problem overcome by getting someone who actually knows what theyre doing with compressors and suchlike) the main problem is the PSU. I reckon this will fit at the bottom of the case, where the harddrive racks go. I'm hoping to strike really lucky and be able to bolt it straight to one of the 80mm fan holes as a mount. I'd loe to patch the front up, and cut a new mount but I'd be lost at sea with trying to bond metal etc. I think i'll try and keep the psu there to be different, maybe mount the hard drive cage up on the back plate. apologise for the ramblings, if i dont note things down i'll forget the ideas i had in the first place. Opinions? The phoenix cutout is going to be backed by perspex. I'm not sure what type though, heres where i want your ideas. It'll be quiet a large cutout as you can see from the template. I've had four thoughts so far: 1) Orange plexi 2) Black mesh 3) Clear plexi 4) Clear plexi sprayed to fade form clear to smoked at the top. This would help in making the 'fire' (the leds) glow and flicker up the window. I'm fairly decent with spraying clear plastic from an old hobby of remote controlled cars... 4 colours, about 24 layers in total, and 3 meters of masking tape I'm thinking a more progressive fade than the yellow / red on that, using the spray on window smoking paint. let me know what you think! I'm drawn to #4. RwD
It said "Phoenix" and "11th September" so I thought this was going to be a symbolic case mod thingy about the Sept.11 terror attack, and how the American society was being reborn from its ashes, like the myth surrounding pheonixes. I guess not. Mod looks pretty cool though.
schumacher SST Touring, but yeah it's an HPI shell. Going to have a play about with the electric sander, my first time! n00b - yeah sorry about that. I try to keep out of politics as much as possible. Thats not to say i don't vote, The dates are really just co-incidences. Think i'll be going for the smoked plexi then. I've got a few sheets from a display board at work, not clean enough to use on the case, but nice enough to have a play with some smoking. Not sure how neatly i can make it fade though, and it has to still let enough light through at the top. We shall see! I'll probably post some pictures of it tomorow if i can get a data cable. RwD
Right, went out and purchased this: Cheepo £15 detail sander! I'm so happy... Came with five sheets of 60, and i bought a multipack of different grits. Using the 60 Grit to get the case down to a flat surface. It's a pretty long process but it works. At the start i had this problem: You can see the dark band round the edge of the sidepanel where the sanding just wasnt reaching to. A few attempts with the power sander and we have: No dark band! And i ended up leaving off at: Apologise for the image quality, my camera was overcompensating for the blinding sunshine outside. I doubt there'll be any updates for a while, as i move to uni accomodation tomorow and won't be taking any of this with me at the moment. I'll keep you posted and update when i do any more though. RwD
