Chenming Mod

§pix

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 9, 2004
Messages
95
A friend and I are planning on doing a mod on a Chenming Full Tower case. Right now we are in the planning stages. I am hoping to be able to order the case today or maybe tomorrow so I might get it Saturday. This is our first mod.

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/11-125-467-08.JPG
This is the case here. Don't really like the front at all. The fan grill on the faceplate has to go. I don't like that at all.

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/11-125-467-09.JPG
I was thinking about putting a blowhole in the top of the case w/ maybe 2x 120mm fans. Then on the horizontal support bar that is going right across the middle of the case we were thinking about putting a CCFL in it facing away from the window that we will be putting in.

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/11-125-467-10.JPG
I beleive that last night when we chose this case that we both agreed that the purple doohickies for the fans have to go. We are both fairly stumped on what to do with the HD bays at the top of the case. (suggestions always welcome)

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/11-125-467-11.JPG
Back of the case is as ugly as the rest of the case. Not much to say here. We didn't really discuss what we wanted to do with the back of the case.

My friend came up with the idea that since the case has feet we could put a CCFL under it so it looks like those extremely gay cars in "The Fast and the Furious" and "Too Fast, too Furious." Only with the case it should look cool. The cars just looked stupid.

(Maybe we should put a NOS button on it too. Or paint it yellow and put angel stickers reaching for the front of the case... Cause everyone knows that when you paint your car yellow it increases the performance :Insert humor here: )

I like his idea. We agreed on a glossy black for the case with a flat black on the inside so that the CCFLs arn't reflected as much... We also agreed on green lighting throughout the case.

We are very open to suggestions... Like I said first mod. I have almost all of the equipment needed for the job probably including a plasma cutter.

Once again any suggestions welcome.

I will post more pics when we get the case. These are just the shitty pics from Newegg.
 
Thinking about a Dial Fan controller that we would be able to use for all of the fans and the CCFLs so that I could control the brightness of them.
 
I'm the friend, I get to waste his money and destroy stuff. :p :D
I got the idea of the black frame from the Antec Sonata mod, thanks Kurtis for the idea. It was just too sexy not to use. And thanks again Kurtis for the mnpctech link, thats where I found the grills for the blowholes, again really sexy.


I was thinking to cut out the bottom of the front panel and cut it into an oval area and cover it with mesh. The fans behind it will need to be green led fans. The front side would need to be smooth, so the area not cut out would need to be bondoed. I'll explain a lot better some time later when I dont have a lot going on.

Side is gonna have a design, dunno what. I've forgotten most of my other ideas. Work has killed a little bit of my imagination and memory.

Or paint it yellow and put angel stickers reaching for the front of the case.

That supra was red dumbass, RED! Get it right. There were two good things about that movie.
1) The girls, and they werent that spectacular anyways.
2) That sweet, beautiful, magnificent charger in the end.......just made me wanna touch myself. :D
 
So much room for watercooling.

So little money too. I had thought of that, but we'll be putting Spixs system into that and he currently doesnt have water cooling, and we're both 16yr old kids with no money.
 
Hey. Thanks for boosting my age up there. I am still 15 for 3 more days. (I feel mighty special. I hope that I can get my parents to front some money for a WC system.) Birthdays are mostly great ehh?

I just found out too that I will have to bye a new Dremel for the one that my dad has had for close to 16 years broke 3 years ago and he hasn't gotten around to fixing it yet. I also need to clean my Airbrush :( Big pain in the ass. Ohh well. Me and CBR will have quite a bit more ideas for the case once we get it. I just have to somehow convice me mom to withdraw her credit card from Fort Nox.

So little money too. I had thought of that, but we'll be putting Spixs system into that and he currently doesnt have water cooling, and we're both 16yr old kids with no money.

.... I have money. I just don't know how much. I will dig out a bank statement here in the next few days to check it out. I also got a $200 check coming for working Memorial Day... Ohh well. I think I will pester my mother some to order the case.

Also... One more thing. My father said that it was going to be hard to cut the side of the case for the window with a Dremel. I have quite a bit of experience cutting stuff but I have never cut a case before. What I had planned on doing was either

A.) Cut out the body of the Dragon in the middle of the side panel. (You will see better of what I am talking about once I get the pics up.
Or...
B.)Cut the outline of the Dragon in the side of the case and then cut a peice of Plexi to fit on the side, andfrost the Dragon on there.

I have experience with cutting steel and frosting windows. I just don't know which one would look better so I really don't want to be wasting a whole lot of materials. Even though I have money I don't want to waste it. Any Ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Spix
 
Since I only have one optical drive I could rig something up so that the radiator took up a few of the Optical slots if I was going to do WC. And do something like ErrOnReq With a cooling compartment on the top. That is one of the reasons that I am buying this case... It has so much room for goodies it isn't even funny.

We have these Ideas so far:
  1. Blowhole in the top
  2. Custom window
  3. Cut the front grill out, mesh it, then put a few fans behind it.
  4. CCFLs. There are plenty of places to light the case up like Fort Nox. There is a bar going horiz. across the middle of the case and you could fit a few small ones in there.
  5. Maybe Watercooling if I can swing it with the parents.
  6. Definatly a fan controller for the noise level. and turning the CCFLs up and down...
  7. Rubber washers for vibration dampening with the fans, again noise reduction.
  8. Replace the fans in the power supply with Green ones... (Voids war. :(.... Ohh well. This one is getting old"er")
  9. Maybe paint the interior a flat black.
  10. Paint case black <--- This is a def.

We are both very open to ideas and suggestions.
 
...card from Fort Nox.

I believe its Fort Knox. :rolleyes:

Any one? Anyone at all to reply? I feel like we (Spix manly) are talking to ourselves.I'm lonely. :( jk

I dont like the dragon idea, sorry Spikky old boy. Seems like too much work. And I'm thinking we'd need a design that would cover up the bar in the middle of the case. Its ugly, and if we're gonna but ccfls in it that would light it up and make it stand out to the eye.

I've got the most kick ass idea. Cut as many holes in the case as it will allow, and fill each hole with a big ass 110cfm fan. Its not like Spix will be spending every waking moment next to it for the next few years. ;)

I'm lazy, I'll type more later.........after some other people post. Ideas people, start with'em. :)
 
Good point about the bar... I have no clue on how to incorporate that. I am thinking if we paint the inside black and then put a few clear coats over it to help keep it from cracking and then spray it with a dull coat (yes they make that. I use it for model aircraft for things that aren't supposed to be shiny). That way it won't show up as much.
 
What I am thinking about doing is instead of having a decal or frosting the window or something like that. Cut this out of the side of the case. Now I would only be cutting the black parts out of the case. Then putting plexi on the panel. This way it isn't showing too much of the inside. It just gives a glimpse of the bar.

This is the pic
 
I wanted to do this for the first cutout but there is just too many things that would be left floating. I was thinking about having it as a backup so I could still do a plexi and then frost this on it. If anyone has any ideas on how to cut it out efficiently I will certanly give it a try on some scrap metal.

Picture here. BIG!!!! 56kers warned. It is big enough to be the size that I would want for the side of my case.

I would really like to do this one instead of the other one in the previous post.
 
gigglebyte said:
that last dragon would make a killer tattoo :D but everything looks nice there

My father said the same thing...

Still waiting to order the damned case. I might just sign up for a credit card so I can do this project and then when I have it all paid off cut it up.
 
I just wanted to comment on the drive cage at the top. It's actually in a pretty good position. Mount some drives in there and a quiet 120mm at the back and the drives will have air being pulled through them (keeping them cool). It's actually a very good idea for a server case. I'd keep them there because they're functional, but if they get in the way of anything you want to do, TRASH 'EM!. Mod on.
 
This is the lighting and stuff like that for the case and the contorllers for the fans and lighting.
Fan controller x2, 1 for fans 1 for lighing.

CCFLs x 4

LED 80mm Fans x7, 2 for PS

120mm Fan x3, 2 for blowhole

I was thinking that maybe I could drill holes for the lighting controller in the back of the case at the top, next to the 120mm towards the door. That way I only have 1 in the front to mess with. Or I could rig it inside... Man I have lots of ideas but I wount really be able to tell what I want to do until I get the case.
 
§pix said:
I
Also... One more thing. My father said that it was going to be hard to cut the side of the case for the window with a Dremel. I have quite a bit of experience cutting stuff but I have never cut a case before. What I had planned on doing was either
Spix

I would concur with him. Find or get a jigsaw or a scroll saw. Personally I like all that room for a water cooling setup, if you get it piece by piece maybe? Or scavenge what you can like get a radiator off an old car.
 
Lets see here. I am buying a new dremel for some of what we have to do. We have a rotozip, scroll saw, jig saw... Acces to a plasma cutter... and whatever the neighbor accross the street has (everything including the kitchen sink).
 
Plasma cutter hmmmm
Were do you guys live? maybe I could just stop by or sent my case over and you cut out a few things for me ;) :D
 
Accually it isn't ours. My brother and I arefriends with a girl at school and her father has one. It would be a tricky situation for me to get him to cut it out and to let me pay him. I always feel like I am taking something from somebody when I ask them to use up their own time and use their equipment for free...

Maybe I am just too nice of a guy :cool:

Ohh well...
Ordering case probably tomorrow when my mom and dads tax's come in. CBRs mom got hers a month ago but here we are still waiting...I will post some pictures and more of what we are going to do when we get the case. Probably wednesday or thursday.
 
Well I finally ordered the ugly thing. I got it for free of charge. Me mommy said that she would pay 100 bucks of our little project here for a BDay present and it was only 90 bucks. Guess I get a 10 spot. It should be here wednesday or thursday. We will have more concrete ideas when it gets here. Bawls for everyone...
 
Well the case is here. Dremel is bought. Need bondo, Tape, band aids, neosporen, alcohol wipes... Yeah... I'm dangerous! :Fake Laughter:

We need to get CBR's mommy to play nice and bring him over tomorrow so we can tape this biotch down and mybe sketch some things on the tape. I got a load of shit from my brother saying that the case sucked for airflow. He said the drive bays were in the wrong spot for cooling... Yeah... I don't think so... Ohh well. We will find out won't we? :cool:

$180 into the project and nothing has come of it yet...
 
Little tip: You can get Bondo from Walmart for kind of cheap (Don't forget the Bondo Spot putty too)
What kind of paint are you guys going to use, Enamel, Kusion?
 
Ok. CBR came over today and we did enough that we got the design on the inside of the side panel. A little later on after he went home I started cutting an outline around it. I got a little more than half done before it was pitch black outside and my back was starting to hurt. I had the 500k light up so that I could continue the work for a little while. I will post pictures of what all happend today in another post. I have to get them uploaded now.

56k sucks teh high hard one! :mad:
 
This is me taping the top... oooo ahhhh. Look and be amazed!
IMG_4658.gif


Look! FEET!!! That is the inside of the sidepanel after I got done with me 1337 taping job.
IMG_4669.gif


See these disgusting work conditions?!?! If I wasn't my own boss I would sue!

That greyish sidepanel is from an older case that me mommy is using right now. We were usins it a an experimental side.
IMG_4672.gif


IMG_4687.gif

Somewhere in cutting this POS out I cut myself on me finger. I have no clue how I did it. It didn't hurt at all. Even when I noticed it no stinging sensation or anything... It was strange...

After an hour and a half of back breaking labor I comes to this. It was about to rain outside (Damned monsoon season) so we took it out real quick to tape it up. I wanted a little more room cause I was feeling a bit clausterphobic cooped up in that damned shop. Then we brought it back inside the shop. We had a table set up close to the door so that the paint smell would go outside... We painted it then took it into the house and I put it in my bathroom with the exhaust fan on. While is was drying we ate dinner and watched the end of that Arnold movie where he goes to mars... Then we got up... Peeled off the template thingy and looked at our masterpeice.
IMG_4690.gif


And here is our masterpeice after it was painted and I started to cut it a bit...
IMG_4695.gif
 
Before any one says it, I have already told him to resize the pics. Did he do it? Obviously not. :rolleyes: Those pics dont do it justice. The template for one is much cleaner looking and the lines arent blurred as much as they seem.

Oh yeah, today marks a very important day in my life. Today is the first day I've ever used a power tool, wo0t! :p

I dont know if spix will work on it tomorrow, I think I'll be spending the day with my girlfriend so I wont be working on it. :D
 
Its lookin great! Keep up the good work! :D

You definately need to resize those pics!
 
I did quite a bit of work today. I was outside for 2 hours cutting before it started to drizzle just a little bit. I packed up as fast as I could and got everything inside and no sooner did I get inside my house did it start raining buckets. It is still raining hard as ever and a few miles away at CBR's house it is nice and dry.

Pics in a little bit. I have to upload them.
 
§pix said:
At this point he started the quad back up and drove back to his house.

I thought you were gonna say he tried to run you over or something. :eek: Phew! :D

Cutting steel is noisy, yes. But I can't believe its noisy enough for someone that far away to hear loudly! Next time cut on the side of your house furthest from him, and if he comes back tell him to go f*** himself! :D

Can't wait for the pics!!
 
I think I am coming down with something. I ache all over, have a horrible headache, a temp of 103, and can hardly keep food down. I feel a setback coming.

Heh. The problem with cutting on the side of the house farthest away from him is that I have other neighbors that are closer than he on that side...

I have a whole shitload of pics that I need to upload. I've pretty much got the bottom half of the dragon cut out. Next post should have some pics.
 
I am starting to think a mild case of heat stroke. Yesterday before the clouds rolled in it was 100 outside and I had to keep wetting my shirt every 5 minutes. I am hella sunburned on my arms too...


The white house that you can see behind my horses is his house. I am about 60-75 ft away from the front of the horse pens just to give you an idea of how far away he is.
IMG_4700.gif


Ohh the monsoon season is here. This is 35 minutes before it started to just pour. It was raining really really hard.
IMG_4698.gif


Another thing that is bad is cutting yourself when you are putting a new cutoff disk on... It isn't a big cut but it bled fairly well. This was taken about 15 minutes before it started to pour. It is fairly blurry but you can see the blood. You can see more of what all I have been cutting when I did this.
IMG_4701.gif


I was feeling a few too many drops a little later so I was thinking, "Ohh shit!"and I started frantically cleaning up everything. No sooner did I step through the door did it start coming down. I waited for it to quit. And I waited, and waited, and waited... Then is stopped. I was all ready to go out again but then it started to drizzle. It didn't clear up enough until my father came home. I went outside and started cutting, while stopping to help him with one of his projects every 5 minutes, and I got the rest of the lower body of dragon out. Bad news though. I only have 10 disks total left. :( and last night I forgot to give my dad a twenty so that when he goes into town next he could pick my up some more 409's. I might be able to finish the last section of tail with the ones I have if I don't push it.
IMG_4703.gif
 
R@Mo said:
I thought you were gonna say he tried to run you over or something. :eek: Phew! :D

Cutting steel is noisy, yes. But I can't believe its noisy enough for someone that far away to hear loudly! Next time cut on the side of your house furthest from him, and if he comes back tell him to go f*** himself! :D

Can't wait for the pics!!

I have already told him that before when I was out helping my dad with another project. We were both trying to keep it civil but then in his drunken stupor that he is usually in he started harrassing us and just shit in general. I just said, "Fuck you!" and went back inside the shop. Then he started to argue with my dad that he shouldn't let me talk like that... ROTFLMFAO!!!!!! ohh well. Back on topic.
 
Spikky if youre too lazy to resize the pics email them to me and I will do it for you.
 
CBR said:
Spikky if youre too lazy to resize the pics email them to me and I will do it for you.

You ever call me that again and I'll rip your throat out.

Jesus grizzy they are only 500,000 - 950,000 bytes. Jeez. Lets see here. Uhh... 2-3 minutes per picture at most on 56k. Woah. I mean... Talk about a lifetime there ehh?
 
Ok. I used the last of my 409's to cut out the rest of the tail and here it is. It was just starting to rain when I took this picture so I was going fast.
IMG_4704.gif
 
§pix said:
You ever call me that again and I'll rip your throat out.

Jesus grizzy they are only 500,000 - 950,000 bytes. Jeez. Lets see here. Uhh... 2-3 minutes per picture at most on 56k. Woah. I mean... Talk about a lifetime there ehh?


Sorry that it sounded like I was being mean, but I am on cable and the pics take 2-3 min to show up, which isnt good

The pics are just over 1mb each, and when i right click-> downloaded them, they were downloading at about 2.5-3kb/s

I also don't really like having to scroll across the screen to see the whole pic

just my $.02
 
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