Modding a Gateway mATX case

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keybladejon said:
Very impressive and imaginative sir! You have inspired me to look into doing something similar, or at least dream about it...

I assume that the pictures from your initial post were photoshopped concepts?
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Yes, those pics are photo-chopped. :D Just to show the concept. Pretty shotty looking, but not bad for MS Paint! Haha :) I need to learn Gimp or something... It turned out to be fairly similar to the concept images.

I'm still working on mounting the slimline optical drive. It's being a pain. Nothing even worth photographing yet. I made some regretful cuts that I'll need to weld back up. :( It's slow go with grad school midterms right now. But once that optical is in, I'll mount it all up, snap some photos and do some thermal testing with CPUID or HW Monitor, etc.

On a frustrating side note, I may need to do some repainting. I'll probably sand the existing paint down a little with a fine grit pad and spray on some harder paint. That self-etching primer isn't holding like I thought it would. And at $16 a can I was expecting more. Needless to say I will not be buying SEM stuff anymore. Back to Rustoleum; the tried and true.

Lessons learned so far:
#1 That whole 'measure twice, cut once" philosophy only applies if you designed it right in the first place.
#2 Take your time and enjoy the mod. As soon as you stop enjoying it, stop and go do something else for awhile. :)
#3 Flat black paint, though cool looking, marks really easily. :( Matte clear coat protective layer, perhaps?
 
So I got a little more done tonight, wrapping up some loose ends. I made the bracket for the slimline optical and hdd. I also cut holes for the headphone and microphone jacks (just below the optical drive. Progress!
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Works pretty well! I salvaged parts from an REALLY old gateway case. Like PII era. And here's the results:
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I added a some additional support and styling on the side with the mesh. It ties the two brackets together, adds some stability, and makes for a cleaner look than two separate pieces :) :
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I also cut the little piece of mesh for the gap above the optical drive and it and the newly added parts are currently being painted:
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So it's coming together! Rolling to a finish. Once this paint dries, all I need to do is mod the mini SATA cable, adding in a molex power plug, and put it all together!! :D :D :D

Stay tuned! :cool:
 
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Here's the big reason I went through the trouble to use a slimline optical: CLEARANCE!: Look at all that room over the motherboard! :D Love it! Not only is a slim dvd drive shorter by almost 1.0", but it also has the cutout. Perfect!
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I've been following this thread since the beginning. I just had to shine it and say that this is a very interesting and well done mod! Me likes!
 
Everything has been pretty much wrapped up now. Every component has a place to be and a way to breathe. I can't wait to get it all put together and fired up! I will be putting a Big Shuriken on my CPU rather than mess with WC.

Tonight, I'm going to do some touch ups on the paint. The next couple of days should be sunny and warm, so I'm going to try to take some natural light pictures (no not pictures of that nasty poo water they call a beer).

I'm pumped! This whole mod started without any intention of actually putting a PC in it. But as it progressed I liked it more and more. It's a mean little case. :D
 
Just ordered the egg:
- Scythe Big Shuriken low profile CPU cooler
- Blue cable sleeving kit (rather than black to add a little color)
- 140mm fan grill

Yay! :cool:
 
Yay sunshine! Windy, warm and sunny are great for drying some fresh paint. I put on a little more Rustoleum satin black to even it all out and add some durability to the finish. I'm pretty happy with the results. :)
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The new dvd and hdd bracket is looking clean. I'm glad I added the mesh to the side. Really ties it into the case well:
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A little perspective using the rattle can to give you an idea of the size of the case. The side panel mesh looks cool. :cool:
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All around I'd say it's looking alright. A few imperfections here and there, but non that stand out like a sore thumb or that you'd even notice if you weren't the one who made it.
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I even got an honorary fly-over to commemorate the final painting and near completion of the case mod by the Army Reserves and National Guard.... And they checked out the floods while they were at it ;). Pretty cool since this is a military themed case. :cool:
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Amazing work! I just read through the entire thing and its looking fantastic.

Reading others case mods always gets me in the mood to do another one.

Keep up the great work.
 
Thanks!

Not much left to do but modify the slimline optical mini SATA cable for molex power, do some cable sleeving, modify the PSU to reduce the number of cables and their length, and load it up with the components! :cool:
 
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Anyone have a good link to someone who has shortened/reduced their power supply cables? I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm doing, but it's always reassuring to see how someone else has done it before you. Seeing as how much this modded case is so small and the cables on the psu are so massive, I think this wise to fix. :)
 
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24 pin cable looks brutal, probably insanely time consuming. I know that silverstone 100% modular PSU's you can get a short cable kit from silverstone. Don't really know how short they are but it might be something to look into.
 
I would honestly spend the $10 for a pin tool. Buy some pins, cut the cables and crimp new pins- skip the whole messy soldering deal. I imagine it would save some time and effort and will turn out a much more professional result than the soldered wire joints- less chance of a failure due to bad solder joints too.
 
Flyinfinni said:
I would honestly spend the $10 for a pin tool. Buy some pins, cut the cables and crimp new pins- skip the whole messy soldering deal. I imagine it would save some time and effort and will turn out a much more professional result than the soldered wire joints- less chance of a failure due to bad solder joints too.
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Ooh, that sounds like a much much better idea. And you're definitely right; less points of potential failure. I'm great at soldering, but 40+ joints there is bound to be some error. I wonder if that tool and pins are available at my local Shack? I'm looking to do this mod tomorrow evening.

Thanks for the great suggestion Flyinfinni.
 
Sweet! Just found one these in my desk at work. I wonder if that'll work? We shall see...:
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i grabbed one of these kits years ago (sunbeamtech branded but this one looks identical) . I have sleeved every cable in my computer which means taking every single cable out (100% modular psu so 2 connectors for each cable) with the tool and it worked fine. I have no idea what the people in the reviews were doing wrong but they just failed basically http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...oval_Tool_Kit_-_M-TOOLKIT.html?tl=g44c133s257 it also comes with everything you could need in terms of fan, 24 pin, and molex removal tools. The one linked by fly is much higher quality though
 
The tool I found today worked for the round male molex, but that was about it. For everything else I was able to push them out using some creativity and a small steel dowel and tiny flathead screwdriver to depress the pin retainers. The tools you guys have suggested would have been a lot easier, haha!

For my slimline optical I found a molex to SATA adapter and salvaged the molex part. I spliced this into the miniSATA/power combo cable that came with the drive:
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I also dove into the power supply. Too many wires!
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I cut out all the redundant cables that I won't be needing. I left enough wire inside the housing just in case I have a change of heart and need to add a strand back to it.
Removed:
- SATA x2 + Floppy
- Molex x3 + SATA
- +4pin motherboard
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What I'm left with is only the cables I need. I have an inline clip on tie-in SATA power plug for the HDD.
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This is about the length I'm looking for. Once I'm done, all the cable will be about this length and sleeved in blue (except for the 24pin which will remain in black).
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Tomorrow, my misc. parts come in, including sleeving, 140mm fan grill, some more RAM, and a nice Big Shuriken low-pro cooler! Looking forward to it. :cool:
 
this came out looking really good and the slim optical perfectly solves the clearance issue. I love it when stuff works out that well.
 
Unsurper said:
not bad but will suck if you need to add one back :eek:
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Hopefully that won't be the case. But like I said, I left some wire (about 50mm) inside the housing just in case I need to add a strand back on. No biggie. :)
 
Very cool, and very unique.

There's nothing better but a PSU that supplies the bare essentials.
 
Arcygenical said:
Very cool, and very unique.

There's nothing better but a PSU that supplies the bare essentials.
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Agreed. I'm going for the bare minimum, militaristic purpose driven design. Once I get the cables sleeved and routed, it should be a pretty clean and bare bones finish.
 
My fan 140mm fan grills, blue cable sleeving, Big Shuriken, and RAM are currently "out for delivery". No grad school work tonight. My wifey already made dinner in the crock pot this morning. Not much have to do tonight. Maybe I'll get around to putting this thing together tonight!?
 
if you're lucky (sarcasm) like i am at home UPS/Fedex delivers at about 5-6pm, post office is like 3-4. Ends up killing most of the day waiting for a package
 
I don't get home til around 5pm, so hopefully they'll be waiting for me there. Sitting pretty on the front porch. :D Small town, so when they say "out for delivery" by 7am it usually gets delivered by 3pm or earlier. :)
 
LUUUUUCKY, my components won't be in until Thursday, and I will have to keep hands off until Friday. garh!
 
The start of assembly. Big Shuriken is mounted along with the fans and dvd drive:
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My headphone and microphone jacks installed:
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Inside view without the power supply:
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Gets a little crowded with that PSU in there:
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Short PSU cables!!!!! :D

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How about those short power supply cables, eh!?!?! Took quite a bit of length off them. It was a bear, but I managed... :)
Cable management, or at least an attempt at such:
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Rear view:
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There are still a few loose ends to tie up. I need to get power to the dvd drive. And few other things here and there. It's a tight fit. A REALLY tight fit. I'm a little concerned about how much that Big Shuriken can breathe. Not really any space between it and the PSU... crap. Well, I won't be OCing the X2 more than likely, but it runs pretty cool in the first place. I'll have to wait until power up to see.

But dang this little guy is SMALL!!!!! I did achieve that much, hahaha! :)
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Looking good! I think the Shuriken will be fine, mine is half covered by the optical drive and I'm running an OC'd 2500K, 32-38C idle, 50-60C normal loads, 70-80C prime95.
 
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