Antec 1200 Modding Questions

[memnoch_thedevil]

Hey all, I recently built my first PC and modded (window mod, cut out grills nothing serious) an Antec P182 SE. Well of course after I built the PC, the Antec 1200 came out, and I like that case a lot better.

Last week when the Egg had their $119 + Free Shipping sale, I talked the wife into an early Christmas present

I love this case so far, I changed out all of the fans, added a fan controller, and now it is quieter than my P182 SE AND cooler by nearly 10 celsius.

What I want to do to the 1200 may not be possible, but I figured I could find out for sure here lol.

The first one is pretty simple, just a window mod, found a good video on Youtube through someone else's post on here about their 1200, only thing it didn't have were the dimensions of the window. I also need to know if anyone knows where I can pick up a piece of 2 way mirror acrylic, similar to the AC Ryan 2 way mirror acrylic, except much larger in size. On the inside of the window, I want to put another piece of acrylic with an etched image on that. The basic effect will be with the lights off, it will look like a mirror, and with the lights on you can see through the window, and then the etched image will be lit up as well. My other question on this mod would be how to mount the second piece of acrylic to the window, as well as the first piece for that matter. Should I rivet the first piece on, or just use 2 sided adhesive?

The other mod is a little more complicated, and I am unsure where to begin for this one. Basically I want the front 3 intake fans with filters to be accessible from the front. It is a pain to take off both sides of the PC and unscrew the HDD cages just to clean a dust filter. I am thinking along the lines of the P182, but I don't want a slat door, rather keep the mesh look if possible, with it able to open from the front and pull the filter to clean it.

Any ideas? lol...

 

[memnoch_thedevil]

47 views and no comments?

 

[memnoch_thedevil]

still looking for some feed back on the doors for the filters...

 

[dystopic]

47 views and no comments?

still looking for some feed back on the doors for the filters...

probably a sign that no one has any advice to offer. since i'm taking the time, i might as well offer something lame and trivial.

it's probably possible - most ideas are - but i've never seen anything like that done to a 1200 or similar case, and i have no idea how to go about it. you'll likely have to come up with something on your own.

 

[chemojay]

I just got my antec 1200 about a week ago.
I see where you are going about the filters. My best idea so far is to use a vaccum cleaner soft brush attachment to clean them instead of actually taking them out.
I felt it needed some handles so I made some for it out of some cheap stainless steel round stock. I didn't replace any of the fans but I did replace all the LED's in the fans with red in the top and back and with in the front. I modded the power supply bracket so I could reverse the power supply unit to mount like it would on the top of a case and have about 2.5 inches of clearance to pull plenty of air through. I also mounted all the hard drives in the second rack up so that the fan on the bottom pulling in would be directed mostly toward the power supply.

 

[epimetheus]

Am I missing something? My 1200 came with a window. Wouldn't the existing window give you the dimensions you need? As far as a source of 2-way (I'm assuming you mean one-way) mirrored acrylic, try US Plastics. I've bought a lot of acrylic/lexan from them in the past. I believe they have the mirrored stock though I've never purchased any myself. On that note, I have always wanted to do a mirrored window mod.

 

[memnoch_thedevil]

probably a sign that no one has any advice to offer. since i'm taking the time, i might as well offer something lame and trivial.

it's probably possible - most ideas are - but i've never seen anything like that done to a 1200 or similar case, and i have no idea how to go about it. you'll likely have to come up with something on your own.

Thanks for the response at least I figured it would be a hard project, I am just not a very creative person lol but I will mess around with google sketch if I can figure out how to use it

I just got my antec 1200 about a week ago.
I see where you are going about the filters. My best idea so far is to use a vaccum cleaner soft brush attachment to clean them instead of actually taking them out.
I felt it needed some handles so I made some for it out of some cheap stainless steel round stock. I didn't replace any of the fans but I did replace all the LED's in the fans with red in the top and back and with in the front. I modded the power supply bracket so I could reverse the power supply unit to mount like it would on the top of a case and have about 2.5 inches of clearance to pull plenty of air through. I also mounted all the hard drives in the second rack up so that the fan on the bottom pulling in would be directed mostly toward the power supply.

I'd like to see a picture of the handles if I could. Thanks for the tip on the filters, I will try that. I am thinking that I would probably have to actually make a new front panel for this to work. I replaced all of the fans in the case except the top 200mm fan. I put 2 AC Ryan BlackFire Chameleon fans for the rear exhaust, and 1 more on the inside middle bracket. I have 2 Scythe "F" in the top to front intakes. 1 Yate Loon 120x20mm in the front bottom intake for HDD + PSU (left over from my P182 SE). All of the fans are connected to a fan controller, and over all the case is really quiet, and temps are 10 degrees ceslius less than my P182 SE. The dust is dramatically less now that I have the fans on a controller, but the filters in the front are finally needing there first clean after about 2 weeks (it was every day before lol)

Am I missing something? My 1200 came with a window. Wouldn't the existing window give you the dimensions you need? As far as a source of 2-way (I'm assuming you mean one-way) mirrored acrylic, try US Plastics. I've bought a lot of acrylic/lexan from them in the past. I believe they have the mirrored stock though I've never purchased any myself. On that note, I have always wanted to do a mirrored window mod.

No you are not missing anything, I just suck with tools, and was hoping that another member with a window cut already would post the dimensions for me lol. Another member here had a window cut in it that is about the spec I want, but no dimensions listed. I am unsure if I would just cut out around the existing window, or does it need to be a specific size for the acrylic etc. Mainly it is me being lazy because I am not any good with tools, and I don't have the money to replace the side panel if I screw up lol. I got lucky with my P182 SE, and they game me a free replacement panel. As for the mirrored acrylic, I thought it was 1 way mirror as well but the AC Ryan panel I used on the P182 SE was called 2 way mirror linky: However that piece is too small for the 1200. I will check out US Plastics, thanks for the heads up!

 

[epimetheus]

Gotcha-the dimensions depend on how you want to mount the window. Since the larger of the existing windows sit on the outside of the panel it will be difficult to create an acrylic window that looks right. Maybe you could do it with a thin acrylic like 1/16". I normally use 1/8", but I would want to bevel the edge somehow if my new window were to bold to the outside like the existing window. If that makes any sense...