First Real Mod Attempt

[TR0GD0RtheBURNiNAT0R]

Allright. I've been wanting to mod my praetorian for quite a while. Now that my PSU is on RMA, I finally have the time. So here goes.

Here is my case as it stands right now (sorry about the blurry pics, I was in a bit of a hurry)

So far, all I've done is dremel out some holes behind the mobo to assist with cable management, and, of course, the WTX.

My plans for this case are:
cut a window
paint the interior black
replace all the LEDs with white ones and add some white CCFLs
add something to hide the wires between the drive cages and the mobo tray
mount the HDD vertically, so that it doesn't stick out so far.

As the title implies, I've never done any real modding, so I don't want to do anything too extreme. However, any ideas/help would be much appreciated.
I should have the window cut & epoxyed by tonight/tomorrow, so I'll post some more pics soon!

 

[Cs-Saki]

Keep it up, i can't wait to see those white CCFLs. You don't see them very often

 

[TR0GD0RtheBURNiNAT0R]

Well, I had some spare time, so I got to work on that window:

My humble workspace

The side panel, masked and ready to be cut

After cutting

The finished product. It didn't turn out quite as nice as I had hoped, but I'm still pretty happy with it.

One question, though: does anybody know how to get epoxy off of aluminum?

 

[R3D3X]

i think the window is to boring

 

[compslckr]

you might want to get a metal file / sand paper and go over the edges to smooth them out a little, you could also look into some molding to cover up any inperfections.



congrats on having the balls to attack such a nice case as your first attempt, it came out alot better than my first mod

 

[Aku12]

i think the window is to boring

I personally dont like windows, but when i do seem them, i like rectangles better than some animal or random shape.

Though i probably wouldnt have cut a perfect square, i would have left the part that covers up the drive cage. But im sure it will look better once you paint the insides.

Good job cutting, seems pretty straight. What did you use? Jigsaw?

 

[TR0GD0RtheBURNiNAT0R]

Thanks for all the compliments. I'm currently measuring for the HDD mounting. That should hopefully look pretty cool as well, but it's turning into a bitch to design.

I personally dont like windows, but when i do seem them, i like rectangles better than some animal or random shape.

Though i probably wouldnt have cut a perfect square, i would have left the part that covers up the drive cage. But im sure it will look better once you paint the insides.

Good job cutting, seems pretty straight. What did you use? Jigsaw?

For the cuts, I used a jigsaw.
As far as the drive cage goes, I'm planning on having some window artwork on that area. That should make things look cool, as well as draw eyes away from the defects in the cutting (look closley at the top cut. I wish I'd have seen that before I stuck the window on...)
Personally, I like large windows, as it shows off my cables (or lack of ) The shape is actually about an inch short of a perfect square, It was the largest I could cut while still being able to get the side panel back on.
If I did it over again, I wouldn't use epoxy, however. It gets everywhere (there are a few patches of it on the metal), and it smells like crap while it's drying.

 

[TR0GD0RtheBURNiNAT0R]

Well, I finished the hard drive mounting. It turned out pretty well, IMHO.

Here it is inside the case:

Well, tomorrow we're supposed to get 6-12 inches of snow (God, I love Colorado...), so my painting plans have been put on hold for a while. I should hopefully have the CCFLS and LEDs done in a few days, but it all depends on how long they take to get here.