Project: P182, Cleanup

Ok, so I have been plunking around the site now for a while and decided that I wanted to modify my P182. Where as I did not do anything extreme, I did this with cooling in mind. I wanted to add more airflow to the case, and the major way to do this is to remove the front door grill... if you own a P180/182 and have the front fan installed, just open the front door and check airflow with the side panel off... you will see a world of difference... So, here we go...Here is a photo of the project as it looked when I started.



Here is the PC all torn down, and a bare naked P182... ooooh la la!



In order for this project to go anywhere, no modder should be without a dremel or rotary tool. Having owned and busted 3 "Dremels" I decided to go with a cheaper Black and Decker brand Rotary Tool... Im quite impressed with it! Its sturdy, heavy, and has some nice built in features... best $30 I have spent in a while... as with any grinding, cutting, rotaring, wear eye protection!!!


Ohhhh. Sparks!




Now, I figured that I got my new rotary tool, and accessory kit, I would do something I have seen people with P180s do, and that is add some wiring holes in the mobo tray for the front panel and SATA connectors.... this worked out quite well as you will see later on. Make sure if you do this, you sand/file down the metal to make it smooth, or it may cut the wires, and thats BAD! This is right after the cuts, but before cleaning and deburring them.



From here, I decided to also cut a path for neat wiring management of the burner wires... since these are not SATA, Im stuck with an IDE cable later on, but that will change in the near future. As always, clean your cuts!



Next, I decided to prep the case and paint it flat black. I love the way the P182SEs look on the inside, so I wanted that too. This also gave the case time to dry as I worked on another part of the project back in the house, its HOT out there!


Since the worse thing you can do when painting is apply too heavy of a coat, make sure to make many thin layers. This is how it looked after about 2 coats, got a couple more to go.



Now that the case is painted and waiting to dry, I moved on to the major portion of the project, creating more air flow. Having come from an Antec 900, the P182 is nice, but does NOT flow like the 900. I decided to cut off the restrictive "vents" built into the door. Now obviously, just cutting the vents off would be FUGLY, and Im too impatient to order modders mesh and wait for it to arrive, so after work, I stopped by Walmart and took a stroll through the store letting my brain do its thing, and I came up with the idea to add mesh to the door, and I used this to supply the wire... its pretty awesome, sturdy yet plyable, and has LOADs of airflow. If you are wondering what it is, it is a desk organizer, make of.... well.... wire mesh.



Here I am measuring a how much wire would be needed per door... you can also see the lack of vents on the door.


I cut/bent and formed the mesh to the door so it fit fairly flush with the outside... on the inside, using a pair of needle nose pliers, crimped the mesh down to the lip that was present... I den put a bead of hotglue around it to hold it in place... it worked very very well. It is however, a PITA to get it all to fit right. You will see how it turned out at the end.



Now that the case has had plenty of time to cure (fast drying paint, and 100*f outside) its time to start reassembling. Here is what I meant by the mobo mod.



And with the board installed...




The PSU coupled with the black case, and silver screws made for a nice contrast...



BLAH!!! I hate wire spaghetti!



Here is everything put back into the case. Im surprised that I was able to get my watercooling system out without having to remove and drain the system, but none the less I got it. You can also see where I added another 120 fan to the cage like on the Antec 900, no added noise, but seriously added airflow! This coupled with the higher flowing door dropped my temps about 5*c.



Well, here are the doors. I really am very impressed with how they turned out! Better than I had hoped for. As mentioned, the airflow is supurb! I couldnt have asked for more. The blue LED Fan there is a nice touch as well.



And with the fan lit up...


Test fitting the mesh, making the doors close and latch.



Well, thats about it.. I spend over 6hrs on this! I didnt expect it to take me an entire evening, but once I started, I just kept going... and anyone who mods cases knows that a complete tear down like this is a heck of a job...I hope that you guys enjoy... where as the door mesh is my own idea, the mobo tray mod was learned from this forum! Use it well!

I appologize about any typos, its been a long night, and Im very tired. Night!

wow looks hella nice, i like everything you did to the case, all the wires look sweet. i love the mesh idea, very smart. Good paint job also. and i recommend you buy a new pata cable because that one is fugly and sticks out, also if you changed the coolant to uv blue and put a uv light next to the top 120 fan, it would make your case very very sick lookin.

If that thing cleaned my house, i'd trade my girlfriend for it.

What Im actually going to do with the PATA wires is route it behind the board like the SATA.. because of where I placed the hole, it will fit through there fine if I fold the ribbon cable, and squeeze it through, the reason I did not do it with this cable is that it is not long enough to reach the drives.

I agree, the PATA is really detracting from the looks, and I plan on tackling that tonight.

Definately a nice cleanup, but the whole build took you 6 hours? Must not have let the paint cure very long :\

Actually, the paint I used was rated as ready to handle in 30min. Based on temperature, humidity, and coats applied, it had over 3 hrs to cure... was more than enough, and was definitly cured.

JLangevin said:

Actually, the paint I used was rated as ready to handle in 30min. Based on temperature, humidity, and coats applied, it had over 3 hrs to cure... was more than enough, and was definitly cured.

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Good stuff, got a brand name? Paint type? Photos of bottle? I'm looking to paint my case as well.

I had taken a photo of the bottle, I just didnt put it up...

This is the Krylon Camofauge series paint... I like it because its an Ultra-Satin paint... one thing to be careful of, is that im actually going to tear it all apart again and paint it some more to get a thicker coat... since this is a satin paint, when you paint it, it will get the dusted effect like an etched piece of aluminum anodizing. This makes it very prone to scratching. Im going to repaint it with the same paing, but this time I will take the time to steel wool it between coats. This will make it smooth and have less tendency to scratch.

Plus, it wont have the light and dark spots visible on the camera.... they are not visible with your eyes though, only when the camera enhances the lighting.

Why not just throw on a non-glossy clearcoat?

Very nice job man.

oneil said:

Why not just throw on a non-glossy clearcoat?

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Another great idea.

Here it is with the updated IDE cable. I also reaimed the LEDs in the case.... the illumination is pretty nice!

Looks great Langevin. I actually thought your "before" shot looked pretty good and was admiring that as well. Now it looks awesome. I bet you spend a lot of time now just staring into the computer instead of at the screen. (I remember my wife used to wonder why she always found me lying underneath my table next to the PC after I painted the interior to my rig).

Nice work. This is giving me some inspiration to go mod the new p180b sitting in the back of my closet.

Zenshi - Thats one of the reasons I have NOT added a window, and liked the fact that this case does not have a window.... the more I stare at the inside, the more I want to work on it, lol... however, its a shame that the wiring job cant be displayed. But oh well, hehe... My wife thinks I spend enough time messing with PCs as it is ;-)

In case anyone is interested, Im now gettint 28-30*c CPU temps, 35*c Graphics temps, 28*c Mobo temp, and the drives chime in at 30*c.

If I open the large front door, things drop about 1-2*c more.

Thanks for the compliments.

black i awsome looking....

it honestly looks great.

In order for this project to go anywhere, no modder should be without a dremel or rotary tool. Having owned and busted 3 "Dremels" I decided to go with a cheaper Black and Decker brand Rotary Tool... Im quite impressed with it! Its sturdy, heavy, and has some nice built in features... best $30 I have spent in a while... as with any grinding, cutting, rotaring, wear eye protection!!!

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where can i get that rotary tool?

I replied to your PM, Wal-Mart carries it.

Wow, that's a freaken sweet lookin case! I have a question though. Since you took the metal grill off the front, you don't have the dust filter on there anymore. Does your system get really dusty and dirty on the inside after a while? How often do you go in and clean your case? And what's the best way to clean it? I really want to do the wiremesh mod like you but I don't want to have to clean it every week either... thanks!

I get very little dust. Since I am water cooled, I make it a habit to blow out the computer at least once every week or two, but surprisingly I dont see much dust come out at all. Its not like there is a layer that it coating anything. The fans will have some greyness to the blades, and the radiator will give out a tiny dust cloud on the first blash, and thats it.

As for the filters... they are a HUGE flow restriction anyway, so they HAD to go.

Also, I performed a flush window mod to the case too, this uses bronze acrylic that lets you see inside when it is on, but blacks out when the case is off... its a great effect. This window is flush with the interior side of the panel, and is nearly flush with the exterior layer of the panel.

Nice job really like that acrylic.

Question how easy was it to cut the side pannel? What did you use?

All work was done with a dremel, and an assorment of hand tools... Ive been using a Dremel for about 20 years, so my hand is very steady. The cuts are nearly PERFECTLY straight.... more straight than I would have gotten with a Scroll Saw.... for me anyways.

That's an incredible job you did and if only I could do something like that to my case, maybe some of my friends wouldn't think the p182 is so plain lol. I'd be so afraid to attempt a job like this because I know I'd screw something up.

Is that just a window or something above your dvd burner drives?

Also, what kind of blue fans are you using? Before I purchased a regular non LED fan, I asked if fan lights would shine through a p182 case, and I got responses of NO and that the p182 wasn't really for that, but apparently anything is possible with this case.

Also, is your case still quiet? Or are the fans quiet?

I know I'd screw something up.

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We all have to learn somewhere... Find an old case or something that you can practice on. whenever you cut, cover the area you abour about to cut with blue painters tape... will work well for keeping the edges from being "freyed"

Is that just a window or something above your dvd burner drives?

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That is the Thermaltake 5.24" Drive Bay Liquid Reservior.

Also, what kind of blue fans are you using?

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The are 3 Speed Antec fans. Im going to change them to either Skyth or Yate Loons, and add a 12" blue cold cathode

Also, is your case still quiet? Or are the fans quiet?

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The cases sound dampening characteristics hasnt changed at all. Acrylic is very dense. When mose companies put in a window, they use a very thin piece of plexi or other platic, not acrylic. This is why many will say that the case gets louder if you add a window, but this isnt the case. My window is 1/8" thick, and sealed nicely. No air or noise escapes. My case is fairly noise by P182 standards since I run all 5 120s on high. I dont mind the noise. The PC is about 36db, but when I had my Antec 900 with 6 fans, was over 40db. Since I have my TV or Radio usually on, Wall Unit AC, My dog running around, etc... the noise on high doesnt bother me, since I hardly hear it. If I put the fans on medium, the sound drops drasticly, but the temps rise about 3-5* - Id rather have better cooling.

Thanks for the reply. I know though that if sound properties weren't affected too much after this construction on the case, then I'd put a side glass on my case in a hurry. I just really like the way it looks, and then for those who say that the p182 isn't much of a "light show" , well it easilyy could be.

Once that window is installed and maybe a cold cathode light or something was put in there, it would look so amazing. I'll have to think about something like this for my case.

Is there any chance you could get a close up of the glass and side paneling? I just want to see how the glass and everything is aligned up on the case.