Hi, my name is Aidan and I'm a 22 year old student. As this is my first case mod I have the worklog on a few sites so please comment with any ideas or advice, I'm sure everything will be usefull for future mods (and believe me I have a ton of ideas in my sketchbook) May 15th: This is my first full case mod, starting with a Compaq Evo case, very similiar to this one: The idea for this mod comes from my fiancee, who suggested a Tetris theme. I originally planned a big window on the side with the look of a tetris game, as this rough mock up in SketchUp shows (again, first time with this program): But alas, this was never to be. Unfortunately the Compaq had these awfull cooling vents along the side, which had to be covered up. After stripping the Compaq down to its shell (grr, I hate pop rivets) I decided I would like to move the hard drive enclosure down to the floor of the unit, and covert it to a 3.5" drive, suitable for a SSD at some point, as this is going to be a gaming machine. I really love the form factor of SSD's and that you can squish them in almost anywhere. I also cut away the stock fan guard as is was fugly and made it into a ninja death star, yay. I'm planning on adding an 120mm intake fan to the front, turbine style. I cut away a vent hole in the side panel and backed it with AC Ryan mesh, and eventually I'll get some U-bend piping to neaten it up. I don't have my file's untill tomorrow so everything is a bit rough. You can see the cut away where the tetris blocks will be. I'm going to cut out the squares like this: And behind the plexi add small squares of printed acetate, which will have the original tetris textures. Then some LED's will shine through the sides and hopefully she'll glow. I have a couple of neat ideas on how to make the LED connection as easy as possible, so you don't have to unplug anything when you take the side panel off. I'm picking up my Generic Rotary Tool (hereby known as a dremel) and some files tomorrow and should get a little work done. After that I'm working untill Sunday. I have no idea what components will be going into the case (stuff that fits, hopefully!) but I'm concentrating on creating the case first. Next to be re-designed is the front bezel. I'm thinking about stealthing the DVD drive with styrene in the shape of a long Tetris block, and transplanting all of the switches/lights into a row of tetris shapes. Some will be switch covers, some will be LED toppers. Cut some 120mm and 80mm fan mounting holes in the front bezel: Also tested my rivet gun, having never used on before (hence the redundant 3.5" cage attached to the back of the chassis. Result: gonna have to drill them out, aka working well. I'm sourcing some UK based suppliers for PVC tubing of the correct sizes, might get my Dad to drive me to B&Q. I think I'm gonna buy some green LED fans but spray them black, like Bill Owen did with his biomechanic case mod. Gave a cool effect. May 17th: Finally got my workbench brought up from home and found my dremelesque thing. And one for the ladies... May 18th: I love my dremel, it's got a hanging stand and angle extender thing, so it's really easy to work with in tighter spaces or with detail. Ok so I now have a bad back, after being cramped up in this space (don't have a long enough power lead to get right down into the back yard): I cut away the really wonky edges with the dremel (also, man do those disks wear out quick! Went through 6 this afternoon): Then I used a big ol' file to smooth them off: After that I masked it off and drew up the design, then slowly started to cut out the squares, first by engraving the pattern then cutting all the way through. And finally ended up with this (howdy neighbours): After that I filed the edges smooth then sanded the finish back ready for the primer. After one coat of primer: Next up I started a little fun idea which may replace the AC Ryan grill, I started engraving the 'Tetris' logo into some plexi, and I'll sidelight it in white/green, the same as the Tetris window above... 19th May: Not finished yet, but it's only a test. Just sanded down my first coat of primer, and discovered a few little scratches and dinks and stuff to be filled in with this stuff I ordered from eBay, recommended by my Dad (many years patching up old mini's teaches you something about body filler!) Just for fun I thought I'd post the reflection in the primer, hah. It's too damp to apply any primer now, so I'm working on the PCB design for my side lighting. It's just a sketch for the time being but I'm gonna order some LED's when I get paid and breadboard it up. Till next time (Friday probs)...Thanks for the comments. Apologies for the carbon copy, can't wait for your comments. Aidan.
Looks like a really interesting project, and I love the theme! Good luck with it, looks like it is going well so far.
I'm thinking of finishing in gloss black with this chameleon black 200 micron metalflake clear coat over the black I'm thinking a beautifull bright white finish on the interior, too, with black cable management/water cooling (with white anti-kink coils, fit) FITT.
It looks nice. I would like to see where this goes. The only thing that is bugging me is how you are making the bottom right 6 square rectangle? Is there even a combination of pieces that will make the shape like that? I suppose it could have been made from another layer on the bottom that had been knocked out by a full row, but it is driving me crazy looking at it as if it was a fresh board making that, lol. Great work though. Love it.
You need the tetris theme as the startup sound for your computer. And your password to be able to get to level 20/80 or higher.
The bottom 6 rectangle is a cube block and the remaining upright of an L shaped block, as if the rest has been deleted mid game. I think... lol.
Just got these from eBay. Ace. Also, got the primer on the rest of the case, filled in the dinks and potholes in the window panel and primed it again. Now I've got an 80mm and 120mm fan duct winging their way to me, and some blowhole trim, so I can get the bezel done. I'm gonna have to work an extra shift to justify the paint I want, lol, no-one sells car paint in small tins! In other news the store I bought my Plastic Padding from sent me a gigantic tin of Isopon instead and I kicked off a little, so I got the Isopon for free! (that's saving me £15 and getting a £25 2,2l tub for freeeee!) So, it's all good.
Well i've just found basic kits on ebay for about £70, so it's not as expensive to get into as I thought. Maybe in a few months
Hey guys. Got my new dremel Collet so did my practise run for the engraved plexi logo. First time I've ever engraved plexi: Looks pretty good I thought, especially as it's only a LED torch doing the edge lighting. I also stank out the house with car filler, getting rid of the feet stamps on the inside of the case.
Have you thought of sandblasting the tetris logo on the plexy? I would just cut out the logo on some contact paper and apply it to the plexy sandblast it then remove the contact paper. Im thinking about making some stuff for my side window and sandblasting it myself.
