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Modding a Gateway mATX case

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Small update: Not a lot of modding getting done this week. Grad school and married life take priority :D. BUT, my primer paint has finally come in, I'm going to pick up a wire wheel for the angle grinder at lunch, and TOMORROW I should be back at it, getting it prepped for paint. Still don't have a bracket fabricated for the optical drive. I may just pull the trigger on the stuff below. Nice and simple...

Currently in my Newegg cart:
- SYBA 9" SATA to Mini SATA cable (Power Cable length 9") Model CL-CAB40023 - $4.99

- SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model SN-S083F/BEBE - $25.99

- BYTECC Bracket-535 5.25" Metal Tray for 2.5", 3.5" HDD/Slim DVD - $14.99

Subtotal: $45.97 (+ $7.98 s/h)
 
Have a fellow [H] patron offering me a SN-S083 and adapter/cable setup for $30. That seems like a great deal! Newegg or [H] seller? Seller is savvy and a respectable member here at the [H], so no worries there.

Hmm.....

Friday night, depending on the amount of grad school work I get done between now and then, I should be prepping for and laying down a nice flat black primer. It will be very cool to see it all in the same color, not all raw welded steel. Looking forward to that! I'll take post of pictures (as you can see from previous posts I am known to do).

Some manor of self-contained WC is still being considered. CoolIT is an option because of it's low profile water block. Are there any others to consider? Antec Kuhler??? I haven't seen that available anywhere... :confused:
 
What do you think I should do?:
1. Use stock HSF; lower OC to get temps down.
2. Big Shuriken
3. Antec Kuhler (available yet?)
4. Corsair H60 (available yet?)
5. CoolIT 120
6. No HSF; OC and fry bacon on it. :eek:
 
cmadki4 said:
Thanks, I'm growing fonder of the face plate as well. :D Which bracket are you referring to?
Click to expand...

Eh, the whole assembly. I've seen those in their 'natural environment' (there's a couple HP machines in the server cabinets here), but I never thought it would look as good as it does outside the server..
 
A little creativity, TLC and patience can make a bland case cool. I snatched up several of these Gateway cases with the intention of modding them because I saw potential. Good lines, open layout for a mATX, and look a little different from many other cases. Now it will REALLY look different. :)
 
cmadki4 said:
What do you think I should do?:
1. Use stock HSF; lower OC to get temps down.
2. Big Shuriken
3. Antec Kuhler (available yet?)
4. Corsair H60 (available yet?)
5. CoolIT 120
6. No HSF; OC and fry bacon on it. :eek:
Click to expand...

2. Big Shuriken
(but maybe thats because Im building a HTPC with one). If you can get a sealed water loop in there like the Corsair or Antec, you would be "da man"! ..haha
 
Go with the big shuriken. Though if you have room, I would go for the NH-C14.
Should be a LOT quieter and more efficient. Even if you remove the top fan. The bonus being that you can use the other fan in the case somewhere... Should be quieter than the antec you are using on the front.
 
Well, that's 2 for the Big Shuriken! I'm leaning that direction too. It seems to be the most cost effective solution. I think the NH-C14 is too tall even with the top fan removed. I need it to be under 70mm. Not a lot of room... :)

If you can get a sealed water loop in there like the Corsair or Antec, you would be "da man"! ..haha
Click to expand...

I do think it would be pretty awesome, they're so dang expensive! I'm curious to see how much the Kuhler 620 and H60 are going to cost. Uprgade down the road?
 
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I just won this optical drive on eBay for $10! :) Comes with this mini SATA cable, same on both ends. I'm going to modify one end of the cable to receive power from a standard Molex connector like this.
This is the cable now. I'll remove the mini SATA power plug portion of the plug from one end and splice in a molex connector:
IMG_0209-1.jpg

Here's the drive. Yay! It has a housing for me to modify to mount it in the 5.25" drive bay. The bezel will come in handy for giving a nice clean look (though you won't even see it with the door slid shut). With a little cutting and grinding on the housing it should work like a champ :D :
sdsds.jpg

My remaining question is: is the data portion on the mini SATA cable the same size as a regular SATA cable??? It would appear from this picture that they are. In which case I'm good to go. :D Modding cases and now cables! :eek:

Edit: Here's an example of an adapter and an electrical schematic for said adapter. It would appear that the data part of even a min SATA is the same size and configuration. Sweet! :D
 
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Paint! Can I use this on plastic or no? I'll do a little spray test, but curious if anyone else has any experience with this. It does "etch" but I highly doubt it is harsh enough to warp or eat away at plastic noticeably, if at all. The plastic is most likely ABS plastic, the most common thermalpolymer, so it is going to be relatively resistant to acidic corrosion. I guess I'll spray and see!
DSCN2611.jpg
 
I've finally started to lay down some paint. This SEM stuff dries really really quickly and it seems to be going on nice and evenly. It really is looking good. :D I still need to do a little body work on the front panel, so it hasn't received paint yet. I probably will here in the next 30 min. or so. Here you go!:
IMG_0893.jpg

IMG_0887.jpg

IMG_0903.jpg

I think it's looking pretty good. Still need a little bit more paint in some areas, but that will come later once this has dried a little more. Patience... :D
 
To get better coverage I added a light coat of Rustoleum flat black. It's much much darker now. And it's a little shinier... :( I'm hoping that it will dry with a flatter finish.
IMG_0911.jpg

I've got the pieces hanging in the basement with the dehumidifier on them to keep the moister low and air circulating. Don't want lose too many brain cells from paint fumes! :eek:
IMG_0922-1.jpg

I'm going to let them hang and cure/dry for awhile before I go assembling it and putting any components in there. Don't want to scratch the paint prematurely!
 
While I'm waiting for the paint to dry/cure/harden, I'm going to do a little modding to the PSU. Since the case is super small and the PSU is sitting right in the middle of everything the cables don't need to be very long. So I'm going to shorten them and get rid of the access strands. Yes, I realize this severely limits expandability, but there isn't any room in this tiny case for anything more anyways :D.

Here you can see the PSU opened up. Neato:
IMG_0897.jpg


Here you can see where all the strands originate. I'll need to track what it was, label, cut, solder, heat shrink tube them and button it all back up. Sleeving maybe as well?:
IMG_0900.jpg
 
Blahman said:
PSU internals scare me :eek:

The paint is looking great!
Click to expand...

Fear not, friend! :)

Thanks! I've got the heater on them down in the basement now. I'm hoping to reduce the dry time a bit. They are still a little tacky. And I'm not sure that self-etching primer did it's thing; a bit of paint pulled off when it stuck to my finger, right down to the bare metal.... crap. But I'll let it bake and settle for a little a couple of days and hopefully it won't be so tender. :D
 
Small update: the paint has been sitting in front of the heater for about 13 hrs now. The paint is MUCH harder now and the finish has less shine to it too. A few more days of curing at room temp and I'll put it together. I STILL need to come up with a mounting solution for the slimline optical being delivered soon.

I'll post pictures of the PSU modifications as well as the optical/hdd bracket fabrication when the time comes. :D
 
cmadki4 said:
I STILL need to come up with a mounting solution for the slimline optical being delivered soon.
Click to expand...

Where is the case going to sit? on the floor? on a desk? on a shelf? And if it goes to ANY of those places, is there a chance that it'll get moved to one of the latter, say, from floor to desk?

Reason I ask is, If it's on the floor say, under a desk, you could mount the drive vertically, and this would allow for less bending and moving when inserting/ejecting discs. Likewise, if you put it on a desktop or a shelf, you could mount it in the floor of the case where typical USB ports are usually located (which is odd as 80% users put the case on the floor or in a cupboard that's near the floor, seems sorta dumb cause not all computer users are tech guys like us). This is something you must think about for a longterm placement.

Just some thoughts on your thought process. I have been following this one since you posted, and it's very neat, I wish I would have saved my old HP pavilion XL876 case. Unusually wide for an MATX case but it was sturdy, I bet it would have been a fun piece to work on. ALSO, did you know that Goodwill stores and some thrift stores (Value Village local to me) sometimes wind up with old computers for cheap cheap cheap. I bought a 2nd gen Asus EEE pc for $60 from my local goodwill. They couldn't figure out how to login on linux LOL, 13 Hours later WINFLP install :p
So when all else fails on getting a mobotray or having a new case to cut up goes wrong check those places.
 
And here you have it, baked and almost fully cured. I couldn't resist putting it together!

That's it's bigger/taller brother behind it:
IMG_0928.jpg


A look inside:
IMG_0930.jpg


All flat black:
IMG_0923.jpg

IMG_0925.jpg


The GTX260 in there for a little perspective. Love it!:
IMG_0931.jpg

IMG_0933.jpg


I'm going to let it dry inside for a few more days before I go loading it full of components. The slimline drive will be in sometime this week. I'll need to fab up a bracket for it, mount the head/microphone jacks and paint that before I mount it. Also need to fill that gap with some mesh. No problem :)

I'm pretty happy with the results! I think it looks like a champ. I think I've addressed all the potential cooling issues. Plenty of air coming in and hot air going out.
 
xDezor said:
Looks fantastic!:cool:
Click to expand...

Blahman said:
agreed

sounds like the paint is working out, glad to hear it!
Click to expand...

Thanks guys!

SIDE PROJECT: I'm thinking of doing some similar mods to the other case to increased air flow. Probably replacing the window with mesh. AND painting the interior black and putting mesh on the front.
IMG_0935.jpg

This is a DIFFERENT mod, but similar. No need for the case, but I just like modding. :D :D :D
 
xjmtx said:
That's the problem with modding, it's like Pringles, once you pop...
Click to expand...

Yeah... so true. I didn't really even have a purpose for the original mod this thread is covering, but I did it anyways! In fact I have well over 5 cases just sitting around empty! :eek:

I do most of my gaming on my HTPC (PC1 in sig), and PC2 is sort of the office PC for Solidworks, homework, work-work and mild gaming. What I should do is put my gaming rig into this new mod, put it in the office and drop the X2 into the HTPC. But I sure do like gaming from the couch and I'd hate to lose that, haha :D

I'm inclined to pick up an X4/mATX combo from MC, make that my main rig for the office and keep the X3 as the HTPC. That way I can game from either PC via Steam. :)
 
Nice work on that paint. Looks great.

Btw, you SHOULD get that AMD/mobo combo from microcenter. It's just too good of a deal to pass up.
 
cmadki4 said:
Thank you!

What do you think about the Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H and the PHENOM II X4 840 for $135?

I'd prefer to do one of the combo's that's less than $110, but I don't know how I feel about only have 2 ram slots... :(
Click to expand...

well, the 840 lacks l3 cache, and after doing some cross referencing it performs worse than the x2 550 (in fact my 12 year old son is about to make his first computer parts purchase :cool: and i had him reading tons of reviews last night).
That gigabyte board looks like your best bet as far as chipsets go. my son is actually going with the MSI Board for color scheme (he's also starting his first scratch case build for this buy (with little help from dad)) also, you can unlock those extra two cores on that 550 BE, and be all set
 
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I've got an idea, why not have the Kuhler 620 connected to your top 120mm fan spot.
Have the fan on the outside of the case, with the radiator in the inside, and add another 120 to the inside of the case, to have a push-pull configuration.
With that you'll easily be able to overclock any CPU and keep it cool in the process, and still have a vent up top, without any of the CPU heat radiating in the case.

On the CPU front, get a x2 black edition and unlock it to 4 cores, they are great CPU's and cheap. Or if money is no object go sandy bridge.
 
adjas said:
I've got an idea, why not have the Kuhler 620 connected to your top 120mm fan spot.
Have the fan on the outside of the case, with the radiator in the inside, and add another 120 to the inside of the case, to have a push-pull configuration.
With that you'll easily be able to overclock any CPU and keep it cool in the process, and still have a vent up top, without any of the CPU heat radiating in the case.
Click to expand...

Even with the fan on the outside, there isn't a whole lot of room for a radiator. About the only place for one is externally on the back panel, or in front of the 140mm front intake fan, and that would be just BARELY enough room with the GPU there. It's hard to really tell from the photos, but this thing is super tiny now. Smaller than you think. :)

adjas said:
On the CPU front, get a x2 black edition and unlock it to 4 cores, they are great CPU's and cheap. Or if money is no object go sandy bridge.
Click to expand...
This is what I've been hearing. Seems like a good idea. I might have a hard time turning down that combo. :cool:
 
cmadki4 said:
Even with the fan on the outside, there isn't a whole lot of room for a radiator. About the only place for one is externally on the back panel, or in front of the 140mm front intake fan, and that would be just BARELY enough room with the GPU there. It's hard to really tell from the photos, but this thing is super tiny now. Smaller than you think. :)


This is what I've been hearing. Seems like a good idea. I might have a hard time turning down that combo. :cool:
Click to expand...

I'm looking at the microcenter page right now, and to the left of the x4 840 is x2 550, same exact price...maybe you should check the page again?
 
Considering the issues the AMD SB700 / SB710 have with SATA AHCI, I'd avoid those boards and look for models including the newer SB850. You'll get superior AHCI performance for future SSDs, SATA III compatibility, and the potential to take advantage of the extra-fancy fan controller on the SB800 series chipsets, but you might have to dig into the reviews of any particular board a bit to see if the manufacturer actually takes advantage of those features, or instead went with a fast and sloppy solution.
 
spray paint rocks until you get your first scratch.

anyways nice mod! It's nice to see mods like this that anyone is capable of doing in their garage granted they have the skills. Not some emo creating a layout in cad, sending it off and then assembling it like tinker toys. :p
 
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Very impressive and imaginative sir! You have inspired me to look into doing something similar, or at least dream about it...

I assume that the pictures from your initial post were photoshopped concepts?
 
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