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old case mod (my first mod)

M

MadHatter

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
150
Well I've been spending a lot of nights lookin thru all the worklogs, and got really interested. I dont have too much cash, so I can't just go crazy on some expensive parts or anything, so I'm trying to do a lot with a small budget. This is my first modding experience, so I'm kind of doing this project so I can learn more about this by doing it myself. I'm thinking after I do this and get the hang of modding the case more, I may move onto a new case, to actually use for my gaming computer. I've decided to just use an old case I have laying around in the basement... Here are a few shots...

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I went to Lowes, and bought a 78mm hole cutter part for the drill (I'm so new and bad at this, please excuse my names for the parts) also I got some acrylic sheets to perhaps mod an old hard drive before i think about doing it to my 120gb ones on my acrylic case. I bought some LED's so I could start messing around with wiring them, which I know nothing about. Ive also taken over "my dad's" garage and his tools to work on this. I'm willing to spend a little bit of money on the mod, but like I said before, I kinda have a low budget for this stuff. I'm thinking of cutting an 80mm fanhole on the top, perhaps trying the ps1 lcd mod to the front, but other than that, I don't really know what to do. This is where I need help...any ideas?!
 
thanks for the ideas guys... well i have a few ideas for the case...

Front: EL wire around it, since there is a nice grove from where I took some cheap plastic border out. I think I might put in some vents or something for the bottom also to help airflow of the bottom two fans. I am making an acrylic cover for the top 5.25 bays which will be lit by LED's placed in the top of the case. Also, there is a cover with holes for usb/firewire hookups. I might make this the control panel for the LED's, which will stealth it.

Window Side: I took out the X metal thing that holds the 80mm fan in place, because I noticed that the hole was already cut for a 120 in the plastic window! So, for the side I will have a 120 instead of 80 and a little nicer window.
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Top: I am making a window with the X that was origionally on the side, and an acrylic panel.
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So far I have cut the X out, and cut it so that it fits on top. Also, I cut the 80mm hole in the acrylic on top. Now I just need some more $ for the fans, EL wire, and LED's.
 
Cool project. I like the x on top, rather than the side. I think the back fan grill needs cut out, those tiny drilled holes in it look too restrictive.

So how do leds get connected, can you just direct connect them to the 12v, or do they need resistors/etc?

Are you doing any ccfl lighting or led fans?

Does the front have good airflow into the case? Does it need a front intake vent?

You have the same holesaw that I just got. I got mine from lowes too. It's really hard on my drill though, maybe mine isn't powerful enough. It gets really hot.
 
the LED's, I'm not sure how I'm going to them yet.. I dont know much about LED's yet, I'm trying to teach myself how to do it, so right now thats the last thing on the list to do..
The front has 2 fans but there is no intake vent! I think I'm going to cut slits in the front to help airflow more... Thanks for the idea of the back fan grill, I think I will drill that.
 
Silversierra said:
So how do leds get connected, can you just direct connect them to the 12v, or do they need resistors/etc?
Click to expand...

An LED will need a resistor to keep it from burning itself out. The average LED will draw between 10 and 20 milliamps (1/1000 of an amp), and will need approximately 2-4 volts (depending on the color and rating). Here's how to figure out the resistor you need:

Take your voltage source and subtract from it the voltage of your LED. For example, let's say you're running it off the 12v line and have a 3 volt LED. That would give us 9 volts. Let's say you want to run it at 10 ma (not much difference in brightness between 10 and 20 ma). The equation (Ohm's Law) is V=IR where V is voltage, I is current, and R is resistance. Put in 9 for the volts and 10/1000 for the current and R = 900. So a 900 ohm resistor in series with the LED will work fine.

You can put several LEDs in series, just subtract the appropriate amount from the source voltage. You can put them in parallel, this will increase the current requirement accordingly, but that's easy to figure out as well.
 
Sorry if this is hijacking the thread, but where would someone get a resistor(and not have to buy 1000+?), would radio shack have them?
 
Silversierra said:
Sorry if this is hijacking the thread, but where would someone get a resistor(and not have to buy 1000+?), would radio shack have them?
Click to expand...

frys has strips of like 10 (if you're near a frys) and depending what size you need
 
ah sweet keep us updated on ur progress.....i would also like to know how i would mod my friend's case which is the same as urs for better intake in the front ;)
 
Very cool! My first mods were doing the exact same things to the exact same case... it's a good one to learn on!
 
for intake fans on the front, what I am probably going to do is make slits with the dremel through the plastic on the front to get air directly to them, the hard part is gettin the clear plastic piece to still look decent after..
 
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