Project: Super Hornet - Dual SFF Case Mod

[TiTON]

Hey Folks,

Its Summer again, and time to start another case mod J I had so much fun with my case modding last year, I could not wait to start a new case mod this year, and capture it in a worklog. So with that being said, lets get into the fun stuff.

Background:

Last year, I modded 2 CoolerMaster Centurion 5 Mid Tower cases (Tribal Eclipse and Dragster), which was a blast!! I wanted this years mod to be a little different. The hard part about modding a mid tower case is that transportation is a pain. The case is just so big and cumbersome to carry to LANs. For this summer, I have decided to mod SFF cases (Small Form Factor).

Initial Ideas / Concepts:
I want this SFF case to be as fast and as powerful as a normal desktop system, just in a smaller form, and at the same time be unique.

So I have decided to merge 2 Hornet SSF cases into a single case. The problem is that combining 2 Hornet chassis will make the size comparable or if not larger then a normal mid tower case. So I will be cutting one of the chassis to approximately half its original height. The half chassis will serve to house all the water cooling parts, such as the radiator, pumps, and what not. The final case will have the same foot print of the hornet, but slightly taller.

Here are some of the Goals for this case mod:
- Water-cooled
- High Performance (SLI)
- Totally Pimped Out
- Killer Paint


Deadline: End of August. Yup, about 6 weeks to do a fully modded case. Lets see if I can pull it off.

First Post / Case Overview:

Here are some initial images of the hornet, as I disassemble all the parts and measure the pieces. My Dremel went MIA, so cutting updates will not be shown till the next post L

Here is a picture of the 2 Hornet cases side by side in its stock form:

Here is a picture of the 2 hornet stacked on each other from the front view. Two full size hornet on top of each other is just too tall.

Here is a side view of the stacked hornet.

Here is a picture of the rear of the hornet. As you can see the hornet is designed for a mATX PSU. Hmm.. running SLI and Watercooling, a mATX PSU won’t be able to meet the power requirement. So I will be increasing the POWERAGE of the unit

Removable motherboard trays are always great to work with.

Here is a picture of all the internal guts of the case.

Here is the just bare frame after all the side panels and internal components have been removed.

Well, that was a little intro to my upcoming case mod. Since this mod needs to be done by the end of next month, updates should be coming up fairly quickly.

Any comments, suggestions, or input would greatly be appreciated.

Regards,

SAD

 

[xLiquidx]

This looks like it will be pretty sweet with the top sectioned out for watercooling. Looking foward to seeing updates.

 

[TiTON]

hey xLiquidx,

Thanks for the reply. I actually have a lot of different ideas in my head that I need to flush out and bring together into this mod.

As for the watercooling, I am planning to put it under the case. And have all the components on the top portion. That is the way I have it initially layed out right now. I probably won't be picking up the dremel till later this week, so I have a few more days to finalize some of the design aspects.

I will probabaly post a few of my ideas and concepts in the next few days.

Regards,

SAD

 

[xLiquidx]

Ohhh ok, still that would look sweet. Where do you plan on mounting the rad?

 

[tikicult]

This looks interesting!

 

[TiTON]

Ohhh ok, still that would look sweet. Where do you plan on mounting the rad?

Hey xLiquidx,

For right now, my initial design calls for the radiator to be mounted on the bottom of the case facing down. So bascially the rad will suck air from under through case and out the back. By laying the radiator flat, I figure I can make the bottom portion shorter.

I still to lay out the part to see what the optimal configuration will be. I can't wait till this weekend to get time to mod

SAD

 

[Conano]

tag

 

[Stompp]

this could be cool ... gonna watch ... 6 weeks you say?

 

[TiTON]

Hey Folks,

Here is the update I promised. This pass weekend I didn’t do as much physical work on the case as I hoped. I actually spent the majority of the weekend finalizing some design and mod concepts. With a short time line, I need to put the order for my parts now, so I can have them ready for modding.

Even though most of the time was spent planning, designing, sketching, and measuring, I did find time to whip out the Dremel for some cutting action.

So what I did this pass weekend was to shorten / lower the bottom portion of the case. So here are some pics:

Here is a pic of the bottom portion of the case in it full-uncut view. If you look carefully, you might be able to see the cut line drawn on the case:

Here is a side view of the case before being cut:

I wanted to keep the case as clean as possible. Instead of fabricating a new case flooring, I decided to reuse the original case floor. So here is pic of it:

Here is a pic of the main portion of the case after it has been shortened. It is hard to tell that it was actually reduced in height:

Here is a picture of the bottom portion of the case reassembled. The only thing I need to do is rivet the bottom plate to the frame and I am done. I will actually leave the riveting towards the end. I need to paint the frame first.

Here is a side by side comparison of the shorterened hornet to the original hornet.

Here is a pictures of the 2 hornet stacked together.

I was actually hoping to make the bottom portion almost 2” shorter, but after laying out the GTSBIP240 radiator and the full ATX PSU, it would not fit. So I actually had to stand the radiator on its side to fully fit.

So that is the extent of the physical modding I have done so far. I hope you are enjoy the case mod as much as I am. If you have any comments / questions / suggestions, please feel free to post them.

Regards,

SAD

 

[xLiquidx]

Decen't looking mod so far.

 

[TiTON]

Hey folks here is a little update. Lot of my goodies arrived, so I had a chance to work on the bottom watercooling / power chamber for the case mod. As you know this bottom portion will house all the watercooling parts and power. In addition, I will be mounting the slot DVD Rom and Hard drive in this section. The main reason I am doing this is to remove unnecessary clutter from the top chamber, which will allow full views of the pc components, and give the case a cleaner look. In addition, it is just a little different to have a DVD come out the side of the case

Here is the new booty.

I decided to use ePower / Topower Tiger 650 SLI PSU. EPower / Topower OEM PSU to some of the best companies out there. I figure might as well get the PSU from the original manufacturer. This PSU has so much BLING to it. I love the fact that has a mirror fininish, and all cables are completely modular. This will make it a bit easier to chop and mod each cable to custom lengths.

Here are my watercooling components. I think Danger Den has the best looking and performing watercooling parts on the market right now. You can see I have the Koosah SLI blocks, GT Stealth 240 BIP, TDX CPU Block w/ Universal mount, (2) D Mag II pumps, and 3/8” ID Tubing. I made sure to get the GPU blocks with the 4 hole barb configuration to allow me to plumb the system any way I need.

Enough of the booty, now back to the modding

Here is a before and after picture of the bottom chamber. You can see that there are two flanges that are in the design to hold the CD and HD drives. Since they are in the way, I decided to chop it off.

This really opens up the bottom chamber. I will actually be doing the same modification to the top chamber later.

I will be mounting the PSU on the bottom chamber. Since there is limited room, I didn’t want to starve the PSU from air, which might cause power flucation, or even just shortern the life of the unit. The PSU will be mounted pretty much directly on the bottom tray, so I cut a 120mm hole to allow the PSU to bring in fresh air from out side the case for cooling. Instead of having to draw a 120mm hole, I found out that a CD is about the same size as a 120mm fan. I used a 3/8” bit to drill some pilot holes, and use my jig saw to cut the case. You can see that the final hole was pretty close.

So with all space made on the bottom tray, I decided to do a dry fit of all the components. You will get an idea how the components will be laid out on the bottom tray. There may appear to be a lot of extra room, but that will be taken up by power cables and tubing. I need the extra room to be able to effectively run and hide the wires and plumbing.

I am pretty happy with the layout. Now I need to fabricate some custom shelf / rack for the DVD and HD, along with closing off the back of the case. I hope to get the bottom chamber completely done by this weekend.

I hope you enjoyed the update so far. More updates to come shortly.

Any comments or suggestions are always welcomed.

Regards,

SAD

 

[TiTON]

Hey Folks,

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been feverishly modding my case, trying to make sure it will be done by the LAN. Most of the time, I forgot to take pics, but I was able to capture a few. I have done a lot of modding, so I am going to break my update into a few separate posts that will come over the next few days.

For this post, I am going to cover some simple aluminum sheet cutting for this project.

After chopping the case down, the rear of the case looked terrible. The powersupply will be placed where the PCI slots were located, and the former mATX PSU slot is just a big hole. You can see what I mean in this picture:

Luckily I had a 24” x 24” of aluminum sheet left over from my last case modding project, which came in very handy.

Here is a pic of the cut out diagram for the rear of the case, along with the custom HD and CD Rack

Here is some progress shots of the HD / CD Rack being hammered into shape. I don’t have any fancy tools for bending right angles, so I just improvised by clamping a right angle to the table and using my hammer. The results weren’t that bad

I didn’t want to rivet the rear plate to the case, so I instead I used expoy

Here is a picture of the HD rack in place. I had to make custom HD hinges from the a piece of 1” Right angle alum, which I then riveted to the rack. Works out pretty nicely.

That is it for this update. I will follow up with another one in the next day or two.

As always, any comments or suggestions are always appreciated.

SAD

 

[TiTON]

Hey Folks,

Here is another little update on the case on the Super Hornet project. This update will cover the bracket I had to make for the radiator, along with some hinges for the case. Since I want the GT Stealth Radiator to sit on its side, and not mounted to the side panel, I needed to fabricate a hinge.

Here is a picture of the radiator on its side:

So to fabricate the mount, I got out a 1” x 1” Alum bracket. You can see I have the alum bracket all measured and marked for cutting:

Here is a picture of the radiator bracket after I finish cutting it. This was all done with a jig saw and a drill

Here is a picture of the radiator and bracket mounted to the case. I think it actually came out pretty clean. I used pop rivets to mount the bracket to the case.

I wanted to do something unique to the side panels for this case. Since the Hornet chasis is made from alum, the side panels were surprising light weight. So to make the case follow the “Hornet” theme, I am utilizing friction hinges to make the side panel move out like wings.

Here is a picture of the friction hinge mounted to the rear of the bottom chassis. I had the radiator mounted far enough not to obstruct the hinge:

Just like with the radiator, I had to use the 1” x 1” alum angle to make hinges for the side panels. Here are some progress shots:

I made 4 brackets, one for each panel (2 top and 2 bottom).

Here is a picture of the bracket mounted to the hinge, and a few pics of the hinge movement:

That is it for the update. On my next update, I will post pics of the side panels on the hinge

As always, any comments or questions are always appreciated.

Regards,

SAD

 

[goldy]

I like the wings idea! I wana see when its done!

 

[TiTON]

THanks for the compliment on thw wing doors. I figure it went well w/ the "Hornet" theme

As for seeing the completed case, well.. I only have about 2 weeks left to mod So the finish case will be coming soon. Stay posted.. updates should be coming every couple of days.

SAD

 

[TiTON]

Hey Folks,

I wanted to share a little update with you. From my last post you saw the hinges I made for the bottom side panels. I wanted to show some pics of the hinges in action. This same concept will be taken to both the top side panel, and the top panel also. I want to go for a fully close case, to totally open. Seemed like an interesting concept

Here goes with the post.

Here is a picture of the top and bottom chasis held together. This is just temporarily held together with some standard nuts and bolts:

Here is a picture of the side panel in its full extension:

At the end of the friction hinge there is another hinge that allows the panel to tilt back inward. This gives the side panel a “wing” look to it.

As you can see, I did the left panel in the same fashion:

Here is a full frontal view of the wings:

Here is a picture of all the panels on. With the doors closed, it looks like a normal case.

That is it for the update. Its small, but I have more updates coming soon

As always, any comments or suggestions are always welcome.

SAD

 

[TiTON]

Hey Folks,

Sorry for the lack of update. I only have less then a week to get this case completed and fully running. I have spent most of my time modding, and often overlook taking pictures of the progress.

Here is the side panel cutting I did this past weekend. No access to waterjet or laser cutting services, so I had to do everything the good ol’fashion way, with a dremel So here goes:

Before cutting, I completely covered both the front and back of the panel with masking tape. This helps protect both sides from stray scratches when it is being cut and handled. I put the hive design on the inside part of the panel. If you ever cut with a dremel, you know that it goes wild on you some times. So any knick and stray cuts won’t be visible on the outside.

To make sure the cuts were clean, I went over the lines with the dremel at slow speed to create a grove for the cutting disc to follow:

After the groove was made, I kicked the dremel to “8” and started cutting into the these side panel. Since I was using the 1.5” Reinforced cut off disc, I couldn’t just cut straight through the panel, since the hive pattern was smaller.

I then replace my cutoff disc with a used disc that was about ½”, and start lopping off each hexagon. After I was done, there was hexagon all over the floor

36 Hexagon cut out later, I used the sanding drum to clean the cuts, and here you have the bottom side panel completed.

On the original side panel, there was an 80mm blow hole, so I got some bondo spot putty and filled in the space.

For the top side panels, I wanted to cut an image of a hornet. After a lot of searching, I was able to find an image that would look good. My buddy Seyeklopz at PCA was able to tweak image to help with the cutting design. My wife was kind enough to help with transferring the digital image to the side pane for cutting Always need to give props, where props are due

Here is pic of the side panel w/ the hornet image on it:

Here is a picture of the side panel after the initial cutting

Here is the finished hornet cut. I used a combination of the sanding drum to clean the cut edges. For the tight corners, like the and feet, I used two tungsten carbide cutters (9901 and 9909) This really helps for those hard to reach areas:

Ok.. that is it for this update. I will post more updates when I get a chance. Only a week left Boy.. I got a lot of modding to do. Wish me luck.

As always, any comments or questions are always appreciated.

Regards,

SAD

 

[u8myrice]

Looking good so far!

 

[dogbyte_13]

holy!!! ....@!@#@$#$ thats looking sweet!!

 

[indokyne]

omfg. it's a transformer.

nice work so far.

 

[TiTON]

Hey folks,

Sorry for the long delay since the last posting. Trying to get the case done by the deadline was a bigger challenge then I thought. I spent every avialalbe moment modding the case, which prevented me from updating my work log. Two good things did occur. As I modded, I still snapped photos of the progress, and the case was finished by the deadline and made it to the LAN So now that the LAN is over, I am going to post the remaining work log over the next week. So here goes.

After the side panels were completed and cut, I had to focus on the front panel. I wanted to make the front panel look like single panel versus the two-panel look of the sides. The bottom of the front panel was formed by bending edges of the panel. I had to remove the bottom to be able to securely join the two portion together. I used masking tape to mark the area I would cut off w/ the jig saw

For the bottom portion of the front panel, I wanted to integrate a PSOne LCD screen. So I cut the excess material from the panel to clear up some room. I did the cutting with a fine teeth metal jigsaw blade. The jigsaw really speeds up cutting, and is great for straight line and easy patterns.

I wanted to make sure that the front panels were joined very securely. So I use some of the right angle alum pieces I had left over from the hinges. I drilled 4 holes on each alum bracket (2 for the top and 2 for the bottom), and used rivets to secure the pieces together. I was surprised how well the parts joined together.

With the front panels joined, I had to fabricate a new face to the front panel. I wanted to use a very simple design that would be both functional and look good. You can see the design I have layed out. The top portion will have a window into the case, while the bottom portion has and LCD which is flanked by a pair of buttons for the power / reset, and CCFL.

I used a nickel to give me a uniform circle for my button. The nickel is just slightly larger then ¾” and it worked really well.

To make a round hole, I drilled a few holes with my 3/8” bit, and use a sanding drum on the dremel to make a nice round hole.

To follow the hornet theme of the case, I decided to cut a hive pattern window for the top panel window.

I drilled several 3/8” holes, which I used as access points for my jig saw

Here is the completed face for the front panel, before it was epoxied to the case. To make sure that epoxy bond is going to be strong between two pieces of metal, I made sure to sand both parts with 220 grit sand paper.

After the epoxy dried, I applied some spot putty to the edges, which was latter sanded down to make the front face and panel look like a seamless piece

That is the update I had for the front panel creation. My next post will about painting

If there is any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to post on the thread.

Regards,

SAD

 

[jmroberts70]

Looking amazing so far!! Keep up the good work.

 

[TiTON]

Hey Folks,

I thought the priming and base painting post would be longer, till I looked at the pictures I actually took. I was so busy painting I didn’t get that many photos; so I will make a short update with the pictures I do have available.

For the case I really wanted the paint to stand out. So what that meant was I really had to plan a color scheme that would work well, and prep it accordingly. With all the parts that needed to be painted, it went the typical preparation, clean the parts w/ denatured alcohol, sand with 220 grit, and then clean again. For the primer, I use a couple of coats of Rustoleum Automotive Gray primer, which worked well. Here are most of the parts after it was primed and sitting to dry.

After the primer dried, I applied several coat of gloss black to the frame, and the peripherals (keyboard and mouse) to go with the hornet theme.

For all the side panels, I applied Alsa’s Nevada Silver Base coat. Here is a picture of the paint cap. This is the base paint before it is reduced. You can see the high level of metallic flakes. This metallic flake will really help the paint “POP” in the light

Here is a picture of the hornet side panel primed and painted. The top panel is painted with the Silver base coat, and the bottom is just primer. Since it was getting dark, and I didn’t have the flash on, it’s hard to see the sparkle.

Here is a picture after all the parts have been painted will a couple of cots of the Silver Base Paint. It actually looks a bit plain sitting out to dry.

The next post will cover the color portion. The next update will be fun

As always, any comments or questions are always welcome

Regards,

SAD