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Totalchaos
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2006
- Messages
- 128
Hi Guys, and welcome to my first "real" casemod
I've installed casewindows and such, but this one went just a tad beyond that, hence
"real" casemod
It's going to be just a little bit of background info in the beginning and then pictures
all the way, so please bear with me for a moment.
This project started when I decided an X2 processor would be a nice upgrade
for my 3500 Venice
Unfortunatly my Asus A8N-SLI board decided not to play nice with the new processor.
Random rebooting, hanging and instability were my share of fun.
I must have reinstalled windows almost on a weekly basis updating the bios
to the next version and finishing that with a clean install
Finally I contacted Asus with my problem
And after a couple of days a nice chinese gentleman mailed me some tips and
a bios version that was way ahead of the ones on the site.
That bios did the trick and she was rocksolid since.
But being a very impulsive person, I had already ordered an MSI K8N Diamond plus
mobo. So when it was time to activate xp (2 days left) I stripped and rebuilded
the computer with the MSI board
Now I had a perfectly good mobo and processor lying there, haunting my dreams at night (hrmm)
And I did have an old AT-case in the shed, yes that's AT not ATX.
Wouldn't it be neat to spoon in a full ATX board in such a small case?
Hell yeah it would.
So that old AT-case "evolved" to an ATX housing, with a little help from some cutting tools.
Final goal for the pc is a linux box or I might give it to my parents to replace
the trusty Pentium3 500MHz they use
Let's get on with some pictures shall we
So this is the case
completely oblivious of it's fate
started gutting
Cleaned out
Now this is old: this powerline ran from the psu to the powerswitch
First mockup
That's a cardboard 1/1 model of an ATX mobo
The psu cables exited nicely next to the 3.5" bay
Plenty of space with the optical drive
Opened the psu I was going to use and removed the "unnecessary parts"
Insulating some cut wires
Extending the main lead
Close it. it's a perfect fit
Once again, testfitting
The original psu on the left, the one up for duty next to it
You might see scrap, I see an extra casefan and some nice sockets
This is were the power connection should come
Cutting time !!!!
first (and only) victim
The hole for the psu is made
looks decent enough, remember this is the bottom we're looking at
Plenty of space for cables
Rear panel get's it
A blank canvas for some metalwork
I found the creation of the backplate very hard to do without good tools
bending the 1 mm plate sharply just clamped to the table wasn't easy
And I'm not perfectly happy with it, next time I'll do this differently
Testfit
Fits nicely in the top
The other side needs bondo
Starts to resemble a computer
Some structual reinforcement
Cut out for the IO-panel and powerconnections
First testfit with the actual mobo
I will place some foam here to prefent it from touching
With some extra components
Cable still looks good
Plenty of space
And a casefan
Tight fit? Nah just lucky I guess.
Looks like the real deal
Had a hard time finding this in Belgium
Ready to be sanded and painted
The front panel then.
Reused the old switch, I just removed a little spring to convert it to a momentary switch
Now, what to do with this?
Mixing filler
Filling the logo, don't need that
And filling the forth LED, don't need that either.
Sanding time
Primed
Ready for some color
Concentrate boy, concentrate!
Finished with some satin clearcoat
Rebuilding
Front view
Front mounted
Starting cable management
Mounted psu and some feet
Powering the psu
Rest of the internals
The only thing I actualy had to buy
got it on ebay: brandspankingnew for 50
Mounted the processor and hsf outside the case, a little more room to manoeuvre outside the box
Mobo in place and guess what?
The ATX12V cable is too short
Not realy a problem
I decided to place the harddrive in a 5 1/4" bay so I only needed to use 1 IDE cable
It was pretty solid but still I made a little bracket for it
Installed
Pretty pleased with the cable management
Grafics departement in place
Finished
I did paint the dvd front with my very last bit of paint but totaly
ruined it by reassembling it only 2 hours after painting (DOH )
So it goes now trough life aluminum colored
Hey it even works
I've installed casewindows and such, but this one went just a tad beyond that, hence
"real" casemod
It's going to be just a little bit of background info in the beginning and then pictures
all the way, so please bear with me for a moment.
This project started when I decided an X2 processor would be a nice upgrade
for my 3500 Venice
Unfortunatly my Asus A8N-SLI board decided not to play nice with the new processor.
Random rebooting, hanging and instability were my share of fun.
I must have reinstalled windows almost on a weekly basis updating the bios
to the next version and finishing that with a clean install
Finally I contacted Asus with my problem
And after a couple of days a nice chinese gentleman mailed me some tips and
a bios version that was way ahead of the ones on the site.
That bios did the trick and she was rocksolid since.
But being a very impulsive person, I had already ordered an MSI K8N Diamond plus
mobo. So when it was time to activate xp (2 days left) I stripped and rebuilded
the computer with the MSI board
Now I had a perfectly good mobo and processor lying there, haunting my dreams at night (hrmm)
And I did have an old AT-case in the shed, yes that's AT not ATX.
Wouldn't it be neat to spoon in a full ATX board in such a small case?
Hell yeah it would.
So that old AT-case "evolved" to an ATX housing, with a little help from some cutting tools.
Final goal for the pc is a linux box or I might give it to my parents to replace
the trusty Pentium3 500MHz they use
Let's get on with some pictures shall we
So this is the case
completely oblivious of it's fate
started gutting
Cleaned out
Now this is old: this powerline ran from the psu to the powerswitch
First mockup
That's a cardboard 1/1 model of an ATX mobo
The psu cables exited nicely next to the 3.5" bay
Plenty of space with the optical drive
Opened the psu I was going to use and removed the "unnecessary parts"
Insulating some cut wires
Extending the main lead
Close it. it's a perfect fit
Once again, testfitting
The original psu on the left, the one up for duty next to it
You might see scrap, I see an extra casefan and some nice sockets
This is were the power connection should come
Cutting time !!!!
first (and only) victim
The hole for the psu is made
looks decent enough, remember this is the bottom we're looking at
Plenty of space for cables
Rear panel get's it
A blank canvas for some metalwork
I found the creation of the backplate very hard to do without good tools
bending the 1 mm plate sharply just clamped to the table wasn't easy
And I'm not perfectly happy with it, next time I'll do this differently
Testfit
Fits nicely in the top
The other side needs bondo
Starts to resemble a computer
Some structual reinforcement
Cut out for the IO-panel and powerconnections
First testfit with the actual mobo
I will place some foam here to prefent it from touching
With some extra components
Cable still looks good
Plenty of space
And a casefan
Tight fit? Nah just lucky I guess.
Looks like the real deal
Had a hard time finding this in Belgium
Ready to be sanded and painted
The front panel then.
Reused the old switch, I just removed a little spring to convert it to a momentary switch
Now, what to do with this?
Mixing filler
Filling the logo, don't need that
And filling the forth LED, don't need that either.
Sanding time
Primed
Ready for some color
Concentrate boy, concentrate!
Finished with some satin clearcoat
Rebuilding
Front view
Front mounted
Starting cable management
Mounted psu and some feet
Powering the psu
Rest of the internals
The only thing I actualy had to buy
got it on ebay: brandspankingnew for 50
Mounted the processor and hsf outside the case, a little more room to manoeuvre outside the box
Mobo in place and guess what?
The ATX12V cable is too short
Not realy a problem
I decided to place the harddrive in a 5 1/4" bay so I only needed to use 1 IDE cable
It was pretty solid but still I made a little bracket for it
Installed
Pretty pleased with the cable management
Grafics departement in place
Finished
I did paint the dvd front with my very last bit of paint but totaly
ruined it by reassembling it only 2 hours after painting (DOH
)So it goes now trough life aluminum colored
Hey it even works