Alienware rebuild

M

mattym

Weaksauce
Joined
Dec 21, 2007
Messages
94
Hey, guys i been reading the work logs and the whole forum here for a long time. And i think its about time i got started on my own. Ive got an old Alienware tower from around 2000.
For a while now ive been meaning to upgrade it. And after seing how little my laptop can handle the newer stuff, i see now that i need up to date hardware.

What ive got is this only in silver.
Believe it or not i was almost imposible to find a pick of it. (Pics of mine will follow later)

blue_alien_big.jpg


As far as hardware is concerned im gonna be replacing everything.(Part specs to follow)

Now for the case itself i wanna give it a new look. I will be adding a window so that i can show off the internals. The silver color that it has currently is perfect and i will not be changing that. I do however want to redo the inside chassis.

Thats were i want some input. I was thinking of giving it a nice bright or slime green color. To keep with the alienware theme. Or maybe a red one. And that being siad i kinda want to put a tinted window on it. Would the tint be a waist if i colored the inside or would it look good? And of coarse i would be illuminating it with a cold cathode. Again would i want a clored one of just normal white and let the tint do the job?
 
I think a clear window would be better. If you paint the inside red and use a red window it will just be redundant.
 
I know that the case is based on a chieftech dragon series, might be some panel mods available for it with some searching, maybe even some pre-made window side panels if they still have them since it's an old case.
 
The case is a rebadged Chenming. They were very popular a few years ago. You could probably find parts for it quite easily.
 
I have 2 silver side panels for this case, if you are interested. One has one fan hole the other has two. They are steel.

I bought them through Directron for about 25 bucks.

I currently have a windowed side panel in my case, the Alienware cases of that type are Chieftec Dragons, made from steel.

You can order windowed side panels made from Aluminum (thats what I have) from here:http://www.isitoday.com/cgi-bin/isi/SPX02-B-AL.html. I got mine from these guys a few years back. Make sure you measure, but I am stone cold certain this one fit like a glove. This company was easy to deal with and I think it took less than a week to get it.
 
I will likely be doing my own window work. Due to the fact that i want it to show off the Hardware, not the 5.25 bays(not much to see there). And i will do the cutting from the existing panel.

As far as colors, i think i will do green on the inside with a green window tint. To counteract the redundancy i would go with a white cathode. This way the true green of the interior paint would show up better. But i guess it will be trial and error. I can always get a different plexi.
 
Man that is the beginning of the Antec/Chentech/Chemnig era where EVERYONE had that case after alienware started using it. Checkout directron.com they have tons of parts for that case
 
Pretty sure its a cheiftech, cause thats what the case fans say on em. Anyway here are the pics of what im working with.

Pulling it out of storage.
storagewn7.jpg


The Inside. I know its messy and dirty.
insideaw4.jpg


Though id show off the nice latches that are on the drive bays. Should make repainting real easy.
hooksmw5.jpg


And lastly the main attraction. The side panel
paneles8.jpg
 
sorry if you cant see em, i hate using image shak and my web hosts FTP is down atm.

Also
paneldiq6.jpg


The red lines are my planed window space. The blue zone is possible extension of the window tho that would just show the 5.25 and 3.5 bays, which i wanna say away from. Green spot is just teh really nice old school alienware grill. Im gonna pop that off and set it on the plexi with a nice illuminated fan on the other side
 
The steel will be hard to cut unless you have a rotozip or a commercial jigsaw.

I'd save myself the trouble and frustration and buy one. (the windowed panel,that is) Put the energy into the inside.

Trust me, I modded that exact same case, except in black. The steel was.....well, [H]ard.

And, like I said before; I have two of those exact panels that I bought in case I screwed up my mod. So if you bust that one up trying to cut a hole in it, let me know.

I still chuckle when I see those old Alienware computers. I think about how they were marketed to be some sort of rocket-ship computer. I can make the inside prettier than that with little effort and the company was all about the highly skilled wiring jobs they did.
I'm not dissing your purchase, I had the exact same model myself.
 
Yea ive got a basement full of tools. Probably will need to get a better blade for the Jig saw however. My dad really only ever used it for wood and the blade is kinda old. Plus we have a full work shop at work and i can always take it there and have someone do it for me, do it myself on my lunch break.

Today i got word that the professor for one of my later classes will be out. So having class in the city will finally pay off. Im gonna head out and search some places i know for some plexi and paint.

Edit: Just got to work and realized i forgot my camera. Oh well i guess ill have to be really good at describing what i find as far as paint color and such.

Also this being the first time im gonna be painting case parts i need some tips. Like i said im going with a green(slime like probably). I want to give it a nice finish with shine but not that metalic look, like the outer case. I know ill need a primer and should get primer and color byt he same brand. Any recomendations on that brand? And will i need to do a clear layer? Also should i get a special primer for the metal, or just an all purpose primer?
 
I don't know about cutting the case, cutting this case is like cutting a classic car up to be "retro"
 
Sorry to bump my own thread but any info on the the paint would be appreciated so i know what to shop around for today. :)
 
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