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Antec Sonata Mod Worklog

When cutting this plastic piece, I needed a more precise hole than the previous piece, so I went ahead and used a cutting wheel to cut well inside of the circle I drew... I then used a grinding stone attachment on my dremel to expand the hole to the needed size. It took me around 30-45 minutes to finish the hole in this piece probably...

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Breathing in steel probably isn't a good idea, so make sure to be safe and use goggles and a face mask...

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I started cutting out the hidden 3.5" bay area... Unfotunately for me, this part is connected to the motherboard tray, so it's a pain to cut it out... I made a little extra room for myself by cutting out the piece you can see in the 2nd picture...

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This is about as far as I am so far... Oh and don't mind how sloppy the cutting job looks inside the case, it will be pretty when I am done :D
 
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Kurtis, I would imagine you could heat that duct carefully by sliding it out, heat an area, slide it back in and press it against the front cover to get as tight a fit as possible, slide it out, heat, rinse & repeat until you get the desired effect... [yes this was a run-on sentence]

Now, if you want to do it the way I would & have, ;) trace a pattern onto 2 pieces of 1/2" plywood and cut them out. They should be flat on the bottom, convex on top when standing on edge. The curve in the wood should exactly match the curve of the case cover in the area of the duct cut out.
Now, using a piece of hard board or equivalent, screw it down tightly to your 2 patterned boards (keep them far enough apart to just let the duct pass between them). You could probably use 1/4" plywood if you make sure to turn the grain parallel to the bend. Cut a hole in the hardboard for the duct.

Place the duct in the hole, heat it up as much as needed and the wood form will allow you a sturdy jig to press the duct firmly against it while heating to get a tight fit.

When you get it shaped just slip it into the hole in the case and it should match very well.

Now w/ all that explaining, I could have built the jig in the same tine frame. :p


BTW: looks great. Nice attention to detail! :cool:
 
IYIENACE: Thanks for the feedback. I am considering just using some rubber U-molding in place of the flange, but I need to see if I like how that looks first. If I do not like how something looks, I won't use it, period :p I want this mod to be as perfect as my newbie skillz will let it be :D
 
Originally posted by Kurtis
I started cutting out the hidden 3.5" bay area... Unfotunately for me, this part is connected to the motherboard tray, so it's a pain to cut it out... I made a little extra room for myself by cutting out the piece you can see in the 2nd picture...
Click to expand...

I thought you just had to drill out the rivets from the hidden 3.5" bay?
 
nope, its actually part of the motherboard tray unfortunately... so it's a real hassle to get out... Still haven't gotten it all the way out yet, rivets are giving me hell...
 
Thats weird because I have no problem drilling the rivets out of my old Lanboy case. Now I just have to find some replacement rivets....
 
i don't have a drill i can fit inside the case and maneuver with though, just my dremel... perhaps if i get a right angle adapter and the right sized drill bit?
 
For the rivets at the top of the tray, use a cutting disk and very carefully use it to grind away the top part of the rivet. I had to do that. The back part of it though, is it actually a physical part of the mobo tray, or is it riveted as well? Im at work, otherwise I would download your pics and draw circles to what I mean.
 
Originally posted by Kurtis
i don't have a drill i can fit inside the case and maneuver with though, just my dremel... perhaps if i get a right angle adapter and the right sized drill bit?
Click to expand...
Oh, I just use my dremel too. I thought they had one of those for it? :confused: I think I use the 1/8 bit one the ones with my case, can't look right now since I'm moving this around in my room and the bits are up away.
 
Originally posted by Tanis143
For the rivets at the top of the tray, use a cutting disk and very carefully use it to grind away the top part of the rivet. I had to do that. The back part of it though, is it actually a physical part of the mobo tray, or is it riveted as well? Im at work, otherwise I would download your pics and draw circles to what I mean.
Click to expand...

I think you may be confused as to what rivets I am talking about... :p

I think I know what to do to get them out, I may finish cutting the case up tomorrow. But after all the stuff I've done to the inside, I'll probably have to sand her down, prime her, and then paint her... fun fun...
 
Alright... I got the rivets out today finally... Thanks to my new right angle adapter and drill bits for the dremel, it was easy :)

I will probably have some pictures tonight. Next step will be cutting out some of the front of the case and then to mount a plate there which I will be mounting the radiator onto later.

Once I get that plate in I will need to sand down the insides of the case, prime, and paint. I'm getting excited :D
 
is the single fan on those antec sonatas good at cooling? is the 2nd 120 mm fan reccommended? so 2 case fans are the most you can have in that case? nice review by the way!:D
 
the cooling in it was just okay before, that's part of why I am modding it :) I'm greatly improving airflow in the case, and it will still be quiet.

Funny thing is that by the time I finish, the inside of it won't even look like a Sonata lol... I just finished doing some steel cutting and now I've pretty much got all the cutting done I'll be doing...

Here's some more pics :D


Here you can see that I finally cut that piece loose from the mobo tray. It was a real pain to get out, and its still a little jagged edged, but its flat. I will be putting some rubber u-molding around the edge later to protect myself from getting cut. It will also make it look cleaner.

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Before I got to cutting the outside parts of the case, I wrapped up the nice black exterior with some painter's tape. Scotch tape would have done the job, but obviously it would have taken forever because its so skinny...

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This is where I marked before cutting the front of the case...

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Well, there's no turning back now, the front is destroyed... Next I'll have to mount a steel plate there for mounting the radiator on.

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Looking sweet man! I plan on mounting a heatercore around the same place.
 
I'm working on the case more today, I got the front all cut out already, as you saw before, and today I cleaned it up a bit to make it look nicer. Now I am working on the steel plate I'll be mounting on the front in the holes place, so I can in turn mount the radiator. Also, I think I may be making the holes for the nice black powdercoated case handles provided by MNPCTech :)

I'll have more pics tonight
 
I didn't show very good pictures of the ugly inside of the front of the case before, but here you can see that I cleaned it up on the top and bottom of the hole on the inside. No more ugly half-circle holes from what I cut off earlier...

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Next I drew out exactly the shape of the plate I need to mount on the front of the case for me to mount the radiator on later... Looks funny, but you won't see it later anyways, and it has to be shaped funky like that to be able to close the case and to be sturdy as I would like it to be.

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Didn't take me long at all to cut this piece out once I had it all drawn out. Probably took 20 minutes to draw out, and 10 minutes to cut out...

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Ah, she fits!

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Here's a look from the inside. This is just about what it will look like from the inside later, except it will be a little cleaner, and all the insides will be black.

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Here's an overall look at the inside of the case, it doesn't look much like a Sonata anymore does it? :D The bottom picture was taken from my review of the Sonata, back when it was intact. You can get an idea of how much of the case I ripped apart by comparing them :)

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Put the front of the case back on to make sure the steel plate doesn't keep it from clipping into place... And it fits... -like a Guh-LUV!- (Ace Ventura :D)

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Measured and marked the case for where I needed to cut the holes for the nice handles Bill from MNPCTech sent me (Thanks Bill).

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One down, one to go.

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And.... it fits :) On to the next hole!

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Ah both handles in! Its glorious. :cool:

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The next step will be drilling some holes through the top of the case to screw the handles into place permanently. But I'll be painting the whole inside of the case soon, so I won't leave it in permanently yet :)

This week will probably be a bit busy at school, so I'm not sure how much else I'll get done this week. Let me know what you guys think so far though :)
 
nice car :) an infiniti g35 sedan?

oh yeah, by the way, looking good i guess on the case, but i highly doubt you'll be able to tell it's a sonta by the time you're done with it.:p
 
Originally posted by misfitsfiend
nice car :) an infiniti g35 sedan?

oh yeah, by the way, looking good i guess on the case, but i highly doubt you'll be able to tell it's a sonta by the time you're done with it.:p
Click to expand...

wow, how'd you make out what model car it is lol... you can barely see it in the pics... But yeah thats what it is :D

Lol, I hope you won't be able to tell it is a Sonata when I'm done :) That would make me happy lol :p
 
Damn thats looking nice! I've been thinking about getting those handles for some time now but they have always seemed rather expensive..but they do look nice and sturdy so I'll probably have to get some.
 
I recommend them... Very shallow, so won't be in the way, and they come with a template and everything you need to install them... And they look sweeeeet :)
 
I'm gonna go drill the holes for the handles now, hopefully the ryobi battery-powered turd of a drill i've got won't have any problems going through the steel :p
 
well my fear was semi-confirmed... I managed to get all of the holes drilled for ONE of the two handles, after charging the RYOBI twice...

While waiting for the drill to charge - AGAIN - I went ahead and screwed in one of the handles and did a lift test. Me likey handle :) Its perfect, and the case doesn't give a bit when I pick it up. Of course, it's empty right now, but hopefully that won't matter :p

I'll be drilling the other holes in a little bit after the drill charges up again... (tick tock tick tock...)

Did I mention this Ryobi drill is a piece of crap?
 
damnit, drilled 3 more holes and it died already... i'm gonna go buy a new drill lol...
 
alrightey, i just got back from home depot, got myself a good corded DeWALT for ~ $60.00

This should do the job nicely :) (and future jobs of course)
 
what kind of tape is that you put over the case before you cut it ?

looks like masking tape, but that would be kinda sticky. I'm going to be doing a job on my old case soon and that tape looks like a good idea instead of just cutting up the case and accidently scratching it.
 
Originally posted by Kurtis
alrightey, i just got back from home depot, got myself a good corded DeWALT for ~ $60.00

This should do the job nicely :) (and future jobs of course)
Click to expand...

Hurry up and get back to work! We are waiting.... ;)
 
I used a couple different types of tape, stickiness wasn't a problem with either. The big blue tape is 'painter's tape' and the other tape is just plain old scotch tape. I go crazy with tape just to make sure nothing gets scratched. You can never be too safe! :p

Well, I quickly drilled out the holes in the top of the case thanks to the new drill... Unfortunately there's a bar hanging right under where some of the holes were drilled towards thr front of the case... I chopped it up a little with the dremel to make room for the nut/bolt to screw the handle in, but I'm undecided as to whether to cut the thing out or just leave it... Taking it out would definitely look better (i think...) but i'm not sure what effect that will have on the sturdiness of the rails when i mount drives in the 5.25" bays... Suggestions?

Oh and um, I've got some more pics, nothing extremely exciting, but just some pics of the handles installed :)

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New drill, MUCH better than the Ryobi :D


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Handles are installed now, yay....

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See what I meant about the inside?

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Well, I went back to the garage, mounted the steel plate (drilled holes and mounted), then dismounted and measured where the hole would be for the fan duct... then I drilled the holes for mounting the fan, and, well, then I mounted it with some rubber grommets and standard fan screws...

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Ah, check it out when I put the front of the case back on, looks pretty shwag I think :) Still gotta get the duct to fit the curve of the case, but that's not priority, I can do it later...

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I think next I will start filing down all the sharp edges of the inside of the case where I cut it up, and then sand it, then prime, prime, prime, paint, paint, paint. :p

I've got an exam on Thursday this week, so don't expect me to accomplish too much until this weekend.

Since so many of you are viewing my worklog, how bout some feedback? :p The view - feedback ratio is to high lol :D thanks for your support guys.
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Very nice! It looks very sweet IMHO. Kind of looks like a submarine propeller type thing. Very nice job. Keep up the good work.
 
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