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stateofbean

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So yeah, I've had the same Chenming/Antec case for a few years now - the all aluminum full tower in black with the side window. Unfortunately the plexiglass is scratched to hell.

I'd let it go, badly, after a few upgrades and part swaps, and eventually took the lights out since it just looked so horrible. All my cable sleeving was frayed, it was noisy with crappy fans, it ran hot due to half the fans being dead or dying...

Well.. I spent a few hours redoing it tonight. I still have LOTS of cleaning up to do - both physically and wiring wise. It had a drink spilled on it about 2 years ago, still very evident on the back of the motherboard tray. I've ghettorigged all the wiring behind the tray as well, to keep it hidden - I'd like to eventually switch to distribution blocks or a newer, modular power supply.. or just something to tidy it up. I went ghetto with the cable wrap too, it's plain electrical tape. But still, IMO, looks better than exposed wiring.

Instead of posting the images here, go to http://home.comcast.net/~lifeofbean/ - sorry for the crappy layout, used Comcast's page wizard (I'm tehsuck with HTML).

System specs are nothing too exciting:

3 year old Chenming case w/blue power LED and white HDD LED, Hard|OCP badge from years ago :rolleyes:
Antec TruePower 480W PSU
Generic silver rounded IDE cables (1 is old and yellowed, other is brand new)
Gigabyte K8NS (nForce3 250)
AMD Semperon 2800+ o/c'd to 3000+ (stock AMD HSF)
1GB Corsair ValueSelect + 512MB Mushkin
60GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm 2mb cache
120GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm 8mb cache
Pioneer 12X DVD-ROM (slot load)
LiteOn 4X DVD+RW LDW-401S (firmware hacked to 8X DVD+/-RW LDW-811S)
ATi Radeon 9600 128MB
Belkin PCI Firewire card
D-Link 802.11b/g WiFi card
Hawking Omnidirectional high gain WiFi antenna
3 Vantec UV LED fans (they were on sale damnit), running at 7 volts
1 Sunon fan on the hard drive cage, also at 7 volts
Some off brand of green CCFL lighting from Fry's
Ancient Samsung SyncMaster 753DF 17" monitor
An old Logitech 4 button dual optical mouse - model # rubbed off over 2 years ago, on an original RatPadz
Sony DSC-F717 plugged in now and then.

That's pretty much it. Nothing special.
Suggestions on cable managment? Different lighting? Currently there's a 12" CCFL at the top and another at the bottom. Can't afford any serious upgrades to the machine right now.

Anyone know where I can pick up a new side panel or plexi that will fit the factory cut side panel for the Chenming 601? Mine's scratched to hell :(

Thanks!
<edit> Yes I know I'm missing slot covers =P
 
Suggestions, hu. Well...

I assume your talking about one of the old Dragons ( Chenming 601 ) since you say Chenming/Antec. How dare you spill on a classic case like that! I hope it was at least Bawls and not something weak like diet Pepsi or something! Clean that up!

I don't know the exact thickness of the stock window, but you can get plexi at home depot, or what ever their company name is where you live ( they have a couple different company names based on region I think). Cut the plexi your self, or see if they can use the old window as a template and cut it for you.

Looks like you got a lot geared to the quiet ( 7v fans, Seagate drives). forget the 7v mod fans and go for the SilentX fans, http://www.3dcool.com/Products.asp?id=447 , 14db or below will help, along with the increase in airflow. And you can eliminate some wiring there.

Speaking of wiring, walmart sells 1/4" spiral wrap, 2$ for 6' in their auto section. Add a 3$ package of double stick black black clamp holds. I did all the power wiring/SATA in my case like this in one straight line. So it has one black tube, two blue IDE cables, and nothing else.

Since you are interested in replacing the window, why not go for the ultimate cheep mod effect? Strip the case completely and paint the frame! Having a cool color inside to set off the black will make that case look like the @#%$!

The plexi might be a little expensive ( +20$ish?), and the fans are pricey. but none of the other suggestions should cost you more than 20$ each.

Oh, one more thing... When you are done, Post some pics/worklog! If it is a dragon, I'm still a big fan of those cases, and would love to see the final result.
 
PCJ said:
Whoa, that spill is pretty damn nasty!
Click to expand...

Yeah, I didn't even realize it'd gotten in the case until months later. Since it's on the back, I really don't care about it *shrug*. I mean, look at my wiring back there :eek: - though that wasn't meant as a permanant solution, just meant to tide me over until I can get some sort of either baybus or distribution box(es). My (slot loading) DVD-ROM still has stains from it, but thankfully nothing was damaged - I unplugged the system real quick when it happened and dried up what I could see.

Dregan, yes, it's a 601. I don't have the cash to spend on the fans right now, and kinda like the rice ones anyway (I'm sure I'll be sick of them in a month though). My power supply has a dedicated fan output, so all the fans are just connected to that (it varies the voltage from 6-12V depending on temps, usually stays around 7V). I'll eventually get a baybus of some sort though. And as for the window, I may visit home depot for that - I've been wanting thicker plexi anyway, and I think (painted) metal rivets would look far better than the plastic ones holding it on now. As for the drives, I didn't buy them for silence - I had no idea how quiet they were until I bought them. Bought them more for speed and reliability, and I got a killer deal on the 120 gig ($50 mail in rebate, $89.99 + tax store price, so I spent $47.41 on it total)

I'll grab some of the spiral wrap - I almost did while I was at Fry's, but I was low on cash already after the fans, a replacement IDE cable, and the el-cheapo CCFL lighting. They do carry a huge assortment of fans, ranging for no-name sleeve bearing to Vantec's silent line, along with Aerocool's X-whatever lines (high rpm, low rpm, etc). No Panaflo though :( I used to have all the wiring sleeved with nylon sleeving, but it starting to fray over the years, so I ditched it. I definately need some kind of sleeve/wrap on the wires though, the tape-wrapped wires are ghetto-licious.

Don't know if I want to invest the time/money into stripping and painting it though - the case is warped as it is (thanks to a family member placing a VERY heavy object on top of it when the side panel was off). It's a good idea that's well worth looking into though, I may do it :)

Thanks guys.

(oh yeah, it was something weak.. Dr Pepper :rolleyes: )
 
Dregan said:
Oh, one more thing... When you are done, Post some pics/worklog! If it is a dragon, I'm still a big fan of those cases, and would love to see the final result.
Click to expand...

Will do! In fact, I'll go ahead and post links to photos of it in its former glory - pre spill. I'll start a worklog (more like, a history session) as soon as I find the very first pics I took of this case, back when it had a single white CCFL light and a rats nest of cables. In these pics the nylon cable wrap was already starting to fray (and I was still missing a damn slot cover :mad:

But yeah, this is what it looked like about 2 years ago. Can't really tell, but one CCFL was white (the top one I believe), the other was blue.

http://home.comcast.net/~lifeofbean/rear.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~lifeofbean/inside.jpg
http://home.comcast.net/~lifeofbean/side1.jpg

Specs then:
Antec TruePower 480W PSU (same one)
MSI K7N420 motherboard (original nForce chipset)
Various Athlons, I think it had a Thunderbird 1.4 when that was taken. It had an XP 2400+ when the motherboard finally died a couple of months ago.
Alpha 8045 heatsink w/cheesy Antec blue LED fan.
Mushkin 512MB PC2100 (whatever their higher end 2-2-2 stuff was)
More cheesy blue fans
Seagate Barracuda 60GB 7200 rpm 2mb cache (same one I have now)
VisionTek GeForce 3 Ti 500
AVerMedia TV tuner card
Pioneer 12X DVD-ROM (same one)
Don't remember what CD-RW was in it at the time... it was probably some kind of 8x or 16x.
 
Anyone following (nobody, lol)..

I added my old blue CCFL back into the case, mounted vertically behind the drive cages. The contrast is nice, think it looks a little better. I do need to move the blue light up a little bit so that the end of the tube isn't visible, but it's just kinda tossed in there for now until I figure out something more permanant.

Now I just need to build a baybus - badly - so I can actually turn the damn things on and off... along with fan controls.

bluegreen.jpg
 
Ancient Samsung monitor? Man I have one of those, and I don't think it is over 2 years old. One of the best CRT's I have ever owned.

Looks good though. Onebad thing about windows is the annoyance factor at lan parties. We have a rule that you have to turn off all the lights, other than power and hd led's.
 
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