Project : Dude, I'm modding a Dell 4700 (first mod)

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beginnermodder213

n00b
Joined
Jul 5, 2005
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Hey, this is my first mod i've ever done any first time using a dremel, take a look at what I have so far and im open to tips and suggestions because i dont know much about modding.


















I've bought some plexi glass and im about to install it, im still working on sanding the edges to look smooth if anyone has tips on how to do it good it would be appreicated.

I am planning to remove the green cover, replace it with 2 LED fans, and also add a temperature monitor in the front of the case.

I plan to paint the box with some automotive grade/touch up spray paint.

any tips or suggestions would be awesome.
 
I can tell its your first time with a dremel ;)

If you have the sanding bit for it, that's the best way to go, I'd think.


Looks very nice :)
 
TheGamerZ said:
If you have the sanding bit for it, that's the best way to go, I'd think.
Click to expand...

Ya take down the big s**t with the sanding thing. Then use a file to get'er nice and CLEAN. But if you have the time 400G sand paper after the filing would be the next stip.

Anyway looks cool lot of people are modding dells these days.
 
Cool, that's a lot like my dell mod. It's in my sig if you want to look, and maybe get some ideas.
 
I got tips on sanding....learn to use a dremel...

dude....put the little sanding barrel accesory on and sand the edges and get all the lines smooth...

it's really not hard and use light pressure..take your time.
 
Plexiglas and acrylic are easy to cut and shape out. As you can tell, steel isn't as simple! One of the great things about acrylic is that you can paint it from the inside to cover those mistakes in the metal. You mask off the acrylic from the inside, cover the whole front of the glass, and paint the remaining inside edges black. The part that makes the transparent window will be the mask, so you can do any kind of pattern easily in comparison to cutting metal. You'll need to go nuts cleaning up those steel edges anyway, because one little scrap of steel falling onto a circuit board will kill and sometimes even set your rig on fire! But if you mount the acrylic from the outside, those steel edges don't need a great amount of work. A sanding wheel on a dremel works great to shape and semi-finish the edges of acrylic. And after getting the edges fairly smoothed out, some high-grit sandpaper will do the trick to make it nice. You can also use a propane torch to VERY CAREFULLY flame-polish the edges of the acrylic, barely getting the edges near the flame. But this step is optional and can destroy your work in a quick way.
 
Give the man some credit.
He did use Masking tape to prevent the cutter from slipping! :cool:
 
For a first timer, definately thats a really good start.

The next thing your going to want to do before installing your plexiglass, would be to grab a file, and smooth out those edges.
 
thanks for everyones previous input!


ok well now ive sanded the edges with the sanding bit, looks alot better. currently i just put a temporary piece of plexi glass that is masking taped on. I got 2 coolmaster blue LEDs in the mail and i put em on the back and put the old fan in the front for intake.



they look pretty good at night




I ran into some problems with this setup, within 2-3 minutes the CPU over heats, i tried every way possible to cool it WITHOUT the green thing but sadly i gave up and put it back with the original stock fan. Looks like im goingo to have to either paint the green thing or make my own duct somehow. I wanted to replace the heatsink with a better one but Dell's propietory heatsink base is rectangualer while regular 775 heatsinks are square.

So i put it back and placed one fan in the front and one temporarly put in the middle of the plexi glass.






Currently the fans are only taped on.

I had to remount the harddrive to the floor whicih is also currently.. taped on...

I'm still planning to get some grills, a temperature monitor and some sleeving done.
Painting is also on my list

any tips and suggestion are greatly appericated.
 
Hmm, instead of ducting the hot air out the back, you could vent it streight out the side, all that would take is a pipe superglued onto the back of that fan you've got attached to the plexi :D
 
"I had to remount the harddrive to the floor whicih is also currently.. taped on..."
Cool, that's what I did with my hd in my dell mod. I took the original hd mount and bolted it to the floor of the case.
 
Hey Dude, I too like OEM mods. Looking good so far.

The little green duct thing on the Dell cases effectively makes the rear fan a CPU fan. Without the green duct thing, you are running without a CPU fan on your system. A virtual impossibility with todays CPUs. You either have to find a way to mount a fan to the OEM heat sink, find a way to mount a third party heat sink with fan, or find another way to blow or suck air directly across the OEM heatsink.

I like the idea of mounting some tubing on the side fan to blow air across the heatsink. Unfortunatly, that leaves you unable to run the system without the side panel in place. The next best option is to figure out a way to mount an LED fan to the stock heat sink. Hey, can you have too many LED fans in a modded case?

Also may want to do something with the OEM power supple. Maybe a red led fan to contrast with your plue leds already in the system.

What kind of paint job are you considering?

L8R

Don
 
nice window, i cant tell that its a first try with the dremel, should have seen mine :p )

i aggree with the last poster, ghetto mount a fan of 2 to that heatsink if hte fan is to big, make some L brackets or something

or you could mod the fugly green thingcome clear windows, maybe smoked an LED fan sucking air out, or something


also try and tidy the wires a tad it will help with airflow
 
take a piece of plexi/lexan and cut it just a tad larger than the side of the green duct, then use a heat shrink gun to head the plexi bend it to match the duct, then cut the duct and paint it black, trim the plexi to fit perfectly to the duct. then using that smoked spray paint or tinting apply that to the plexi and glue the plexi on to the duct, so u have a clear window in the duct, and u can still use it :D
 
Hmm, I don't know how metallick blue will look...but If you look that my dell(the one I linked to earlier), you can kinda see what it would look like with flat black. When you need to take the stickers off, use a hairdryer to heat the sticker up, then slowly peel it away, it worked great when I did it that way! :D
 
EXreaction said:
What are you going to use to attach the window to the side?
Click to expand...

If i decide to mount a fan onto the heatsink ill just get rid of the side fan and put it somewhere else, but if i leave it there im gonna put 4 holes in the side panel and just screw them in with the screws it came with and also attach a grill of somesort.
 
About your processor overheating - what kind of thermal interface material are you using? The stock Dell heatsink has a TIM pad, which is definitely not what you want. If you haven't yet done so, take off that pad and put some nice Arctic Silver on. :cool:
 
Doesn't sound bad, I used epoxy myself, and I have broken the side off 2 times now, so do not do that! :D

I have been thinking of riveting the window on mine.
 
Here was my last computer. If you owned one of those clam shell opening type of cases of dell's then you'ld notice there isn't really a way to get a side window in there. Well I squeezed one in and added a neon light around it. I also carved out the dell letters and got the "dell" word to glow with that same neon light string I had. It took a lot of work but I wanted something that I doubt others had done. I no longer have that case (nor a dell for that matter) but its now at the place I work at so I can still "admire" it. The picture is kind of fuzzy, was hard to get a good picture with my crummy camera. I bumped into this thread and figured i'ld post this.

my_dell.jpg


What ya think?
 
heheh... I have a 4550 with a p4 that I have run into the same cooling issue. I put the stock HSF from my AMD64 3000+ and it fit PERFECTLY on top of the HS. Used Zalman cooling in my new rig. I replaced the TIM pad for AS5. I also replaced the TIM pad for AS5 on the northbridge cooler as well. Much more efficient cooling I feel. Just my $.02
 
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