Silver and Blue ULTRA Dragon

[Lawdog]

Howdy everybody. Here's the start of a rig I doing for a friend. She picked the colors, but the rest is up to me. I'm starting with a case I really like, a silver ULTRA Dragon mid tower. It is very roomy, looks good and it's built well.

This is my first build and definitely my first attempt at modding, so the pre-modded window is necessary. With any luck, it will turn into something pretty sweet by the time I'm done.

For starters, I am going to do the interior in anodized blue, using Dupli-Color Metalcast. It is a two-stage process.

Here's the case to start with:

Another view:

 

[Lawdog]

Here is the PSU before and after (my first sleeving attempt). I will not be using the SATA power supplies, so I will not sleeve them. They will be hidden.

Before:

After:

 

[Lawdog]

Got the painting started tonight. I'm using Plasti-Kote white sandable metal primer. Here's a couple pics. I suppose some wet-sanding is in my future now. Back with some updates soon, I hope!

 

[DooLocsta]

I am in the process of doing a Dragon myself. Keep this updated with pics so we can all see the progress. Good job so far it should look great with the colors that were chosen.

 

[Lawdog]

Howdy DooLocsta, thanks for checking out my little project here. As this is my first attempt at this, this is of course my first worklog too, so if anyone has any comments on this, by all means jump in. I hope to complete this by the end of the weekend, but we'll see how it goes. I'm tripping over parts and boxes in my office, so I'm well motivated!

About the case choice, my friends and I like working with the Dragon cases (basically just a dressed up Chieftec/Antec design) because they are easy to work with, no sharp edges and look pretty nice up on a desktop right out of the box with no extra work. I have one myself for my main rig (you can see the edge of it in one of the pictures above). But, with a little TLC and some time, you can really dress em up nice. All in all, not a bad case for about $75 shipped.

I'm a little embarrassed to even be doing this modest project in front of all you folks much more creative and talented than I am, but I thought I'd take a flyer and see what comments come in. I actually saw someone using bondo on a case in here, among other things! You guys are amazing and an inspiration.

On a quick note, I want to say thanks to everybody who comes into these forums. I have learned so much here and am now ready to make the jump into building on my own, with a little help from my friends.

Planned schedule:

Tonight, I will be wet-sanding the smooth and visible surfaces of the interior of the case and the drive bays and then will put on the "ground coat" of the Metalcast. It is a two-stage process: first goes the ground coat, which is a silver/charcoal colored speckled primer type thing, if I understand it right. Then, after one or two coats of the ground coat, the color coat goes on top of it. I am eager to see how it turns out.

Then, tomorrow, will wet-sand that and inspect it. If okay and not needing more layers, I will throw on the first color coat. I'll give it as much time to dry and cure as my patience allows, then will wet-sand and may do second coat color coat. I say "may" because the color coat layer has to be thin to achieve the desired "annodized" effect. Too much and it would merely be a pretty blue. I anticipate this will be done by Saturday a.m.

While we watch the paint dry I will sleeve the fans and lights up and get the mobo and stuff put together so we can throw it in. I'll post new (and smaller probably) pics up as they happen.

Till then, Lawdog out.

 

[Lawdog]

Tonight is a mixed bag of updates. I learned that painting is both fairly easy and damned hard at the same time. It is going faster than I expected... I did not have to wait before starting the color because the Metalcast directions say to apply color no more than one hour after the ground coat.

Here are the paints I'm using:

One problem is that the temp dropped where I'm at about 15 degrees it seemed in about 90 minutes. This would cause some problems... more on that in a minute. The wet sanding of the primer went smoothly (pun intended) and I was able to put down the ground coat.

Here's a shot of that:

Another one:

The ground coat is metal speckled and looks EXACTLY like anodized metal. Very cool stuff. If only I quit there.... I was stoked to see this going so smoothly and eager to get to the actual color layers.

After waiting 45 minutes, I began to put on the color. Right away, I noticed the blue was dripping out onto the floor and down the side of the can as I painted.... Not little drops either, but nickel to quarter sized when they landed. Dammit! Got to be careful not to drop on the case... I think it was too cold to paint, but I was committed and pressed on...

Next problem was trying to figure out how to paint the far side of the interior of the case--can't get too close after all. All I can say is if you have the expertise and are not afraid to drill out rivets (like I was), then do it so you have a clean shot at the back wall. I didn't and got some spotty coverage back there on the first coat. Let it dry, then came back for second coat. Hmmmm... how am I going to get more color in those tight spots in the back?

No problem... I'll ignore common sense, instructions, and every paint "How To" I've read... I'll just paint part of it a little closer... Sweet looks good. Whew. Off to relax a bit... let it dry...

Okay. let's see... OH CRAP!!!! I have paint runs down the back!!

I guess it's time to call it a night. Nothing a little sanding, a lot of masking and some sun warmth can't cure tomorrow. Sigh.

 

[Captain Colonoscopy]

I would seriously recommend drilling out the rivets and taking that thing apart. That's really the only way your going to get the coverage you want without huge runs and drips all over the place. I realize you're a little afraid of that but it's not too difficult and a snap rivet gun is only about $10-20. It makes it a helluva lot easier to paint. I've done a few cases now and it's not as hard as you might think to get them back together. Just cover the head of your riveter with some masking tape to reduce the chance of scratching up your new paint.

Good job so far. I'm interested to see how the paint turns out. I haven't used metal cast before. Is it going to look a little like those expensive "Mirage" paint kits?

 

[Lawdog]

I would seriously recommend drilling out the rivets and taking that thing apart. That's really the only way your going to get the coverage you want without huge runs and drips all over the place. I realize you're a little afraid of that but it's not too difficult and a snap rivet gun is only about $10-20. It makes it a helluva lot easier to paint. I've done a few cases now and it's not as hard as you might think to get them back together. Just cover the head of your riveter with some masking tape to reduce the chance of scratching up your new paint.

Good job so far. I'm interested to see how the paint turns out. I haven't used metal cast before. Is it going to look a little like those expensive "Mirage" paint kits?

Howdy Captain. You're absolutely right: I was/am a little nervous to start taking this thing that far apart, but I think your advice is good. I am going to grab a rivet gun on the way home and will try to take it apart... I thinking that I might try to remove the mobo panel/tray as opposed to the drive bays. You're not pulling my leg here, are you? This will all go back together fine? Will a regular old basic Arrow snap rivet gun work or will I need to find something much smaller to work in the spaces? Can you give me advice if there is a good order to put things back together, or is it going to be pretty obvious?

About the metal cast paint, this is my first time with it. The ground coat went on great--easy in fact and it looked fantastic. Just like an anodized finish. However, the color can started dripping pretty early on in the process, which made things interesting to say the least. I did get one SPLAT on the PSU support bracket, so I have to grind all the paint off it and start it over. I can't say for sure whether it was the temperature or the paint that caused that runny/dripping problem. But, after thinking about if for a while, I think it's the paint because it is supposed to be very thin, so you can see the ground layer through it.

Still, it looked fantastic this morning and was glass smooth in most places without any sanding. The runs are confined to a small area on the mobo tray. So, like I said, I think I will try to yank it off by itself and sand it, re primer it, etc. If I can't easily do that, I'll pull the drive bays and start it over, with a lot of careful masking as needed. The temp will be over 60 today, so I think I can get it all done and still finish it this weekend.

I have not used the Mirage kits before... I'm pretty new to this stuff. I'll post some pics of the blue later... I wanted daylight and my tripod for a sharper picture. The others are a bit on the soft side...

Later...

 

[Captain Colonoscopy]

Really, I'm not pulling your leg. It's actually quite easy. Just try and remember where everything went, take notes if you need to. My case is basically the same as the one you're working on and I completely took the thing apart to paint the inside. I ended up riveting something back together in the wrong order but it was easily fixed with a drill. As far as what type of rivet gun to get, I have a crappy "Tool Shop" brand one that I picked up at Menard's for $12 with a bunch of snap rivets. It works fine. It's a little bulky, but it works.

 

[Lawdog]

Well, it was great advice from the Captain... bought a new rivet gun from Lowes called the Arrow Twister for $20. It has rotating head to let you get into smaller spaces if needed. I'll post a picture later...

As he said, the removal of rivets was not too big a deal once I figure it out. I removed the HD bay supports, but left the optical drive cage in. There were about 15 rivets that I could see holding that sucker in place.

I painted the mobo tray in place, then for a lot of reasons, decided the blue was not looking too good back there. So, I sanded it down again and put the silver ground coat on again. I have a very mixed opion of the Metalcast paints. I bought a new can of the blue to see if I maybe had a bad can, but it too dripped and ran all over itself as I tried to paint. Let me tell you what: you want to expand your vocabulary and invent a few new words, try having a drop of paint fall on something you just sanded down and primed already. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Anyway, I'm in the middle of building three machines, so I will try to put some pics up later tonight.

Till later, Lawdog out.

 

[Lawdog]

PAINTED!!!

Well, the painting is finally done and I threw a few things in so it would begin looking like a computer again. Here are a couple quick snaps of the case with some fans and lights installed. The lights are pretty well hidden because I like the interior illumination when they are on. but not the brightness of the actual bulb, so I hide them behind other stuff. You'll see it all together here in a day or so....

Here is a view to show generally the scheme. The PCI slot covers are silver anodized, not stock. It's really trick in person.... As you can see, I abandoned any hope of getting the back mobo tray blue. We all agree on this end that the contrast looks better with the blue bays against the silver backdrop. A little wet-sanding and some rubbing compound will get those swirls on the back to disappear. I am also going to do a final wet-sand and rubbing compound on the bottom of the case so that it will reflect the contents... At least I hope it will. It's a bit reflective already.

From the front, you can see the CCFL inverter box for the lights that will be on the "ceiling" of the case.

With any luck, this should be together tonight... will update soon.

REQUEST: I like to give each machine I assemble a name, so any suggestions? My project name wasn't too exciting either. And, in case you were thinking of it, the "Amateur Painter Debacle" has already been taken.

 

[altec]

F it BLUE DRAGON

 

[CrimsonSky]

Love that MetalCast paint...It's tough to work with, but once you get the hang of prepping and laying down a nice color coat it looks fantastic--keep up the great work!

 

[Captain Colonoscopy]

I'd like to see that rotating head thingy you're talking about on the rivet gun. Sounds useful. Good work on the paint so far.

 

[Lawdog]

Well, got the whole thing together today. Brought it into my office, plugged into the KVM and gave it power.

Turned it on, it started to spin up, went about 3 seconds, suddenly quit.

Oh oh...

No standby red led on the NF7-s v2... I suspect the PSU is DOA. Brand new Enermax too, but I should know more tomorrow when I pull it all apart and try a different PSU outside the case.

Sigh... updates as events warrant....

On the bright side, my paper weight is beautiful!

 

[Lawdog]

R.I.P. the DOA PSU... An Update

Howdy everybody!

I removed the Enermax Power Supply last night and hooked up a spare and it promptly started right up, so I am RMA-ing the DOA PSU to NewEgg and with any luck will be doing the final build in about two weekends.

Last night, I received two new books in the mail, one called the Maximum PC Guide to Extreme PC Mods. What a wonderful and absolutely necessary book for anyone trying to do these things. To my happy surprise, it is written by none other than Crimson Sky who actually took the time to stop in and view my modest little project here. I am honored pardner!

Everybody, seriously, go check out this book and buy it. Great pictures and great detailed instructions and advice.

* * *

As for the project itself, I did a little mod on the front of the case for some switches for the interior lights. Instead of using a hole saw, I used a 13/16 inch Speed-Bor bit, also sometimes referred to as a spade bit. This worked well. I went a 16th inch bigger than the usual 3/4 inch recommended because I could tell the switch was going to be a hard fit. Two things of note here:

First, when working with the drive panels on the Chieftec cases, if you look on the back, there are plastic ribs that run lengthwise down the back of the panel itself, about 1/8 inch tall. These are for strength of the panel and give it more rigidity. These will be in the way when you try to punch a hole in them and with a hole about the size of a nickel, you will hit both with your bit. This will essentially make your drilling more than twice as deep as it would otherwise be if you were only drilling the plastic face itself.

To fix this, take a sharp utility knife and cut down through these pieces until you hit the back of the panel itself. Do this about 1/4 inch on either side of where the outer portion of each hole will be. Then, you can grab onto the rib and flex it back and forth a few times until it just snaps off. This will make the drilling much easier than it otherwise would be.

Second and related, if you don't do this, your drill bit will likely grab this plastic and this may cause it to spin rapidly. It did for me and it broke off one of the side tabs that the panel snaps into the case front with. No problem--I have plenty and only ruined one.

Another suggestion for drilling the front panels is to be gentle when clamping them down, but to keep them from spinning, put a clamp on your work surface and butt the drive cover up against this clamp so that it cannot spin. Then, you can more gently clamp the cover itself.

After figuring this all out and finishing it a few days ago, I read through the "How To" section on this issue in the book and sure enough, he says use a spade bit. Here's where I pat myself on the back. Anyway, I will shoot some more pics and put them up--including of the rivet tool--soon.

Take it easy!

Lawdog

 

[Lawdog]

She's all done and up and running.

I had the same problems with the new PSU. This made me suspicious, so I looked at the power cord connector and it is kind of chincy and loose. If power cord is not being pulled down by gravity--that is, resting on a desk, or braced in place, it is okay. Not impressed with this Enermax PSU for this reason.

But enough of that--on to the pics. And yes, I will be finishing up the cable management before it goes out the door...

First, some old business--here is the Twister River Tool: It works well. Next build, I will force myself to slow down and take more time. I will tear that case down to the bare essentials. We'll see if the twisting head is helpful then.

Here's a side shot of the window and the interior. I'm very pleased with how it turned out:

Here is the custom CCFL light switch panel I made:

My custom case badge: K-9 systemz

A shot of the side with the lower CCFLs turned on:

More to come...

 

[mohammedtaha]

all you need is perfect cable management and that picture would be perfect

 

[Captain Colonoscopy]

looking good.

Where did you pick up that rivet gun? Looks like something I might have to buy for my next project. . . .

 

[1337m0dd3r]

That looks wonderful. Awesome job

 

[Lawdog]

looking good.

Where did you pick up that rivet gun? Looks like something I might have to buy for my next project. . . .

I got that rivet gun at Lowe's for $20. Pack of assorted rivets was another $6 or so. Thanks to my buddy Chris for turning me on to that... he's a tool guy.

 

[Lawdog]

System specs:

Abit NF7-S rev 2 mobo
Athlon XP Mobile 2600 @ 2265 (have not really started on the serious OC yet)
XFX nVidia 6600 GT OC 128 mb video card
512 mb Ultra ram
Thermaltake Volcano 12
Seagate 120 gb HD
Enermax Noisetaker 370w PSU
NEC 3520-A DVD burner
Sony CR-X320 E-B2 DVD Rom
Windows XP Home SP 2

I have not started any serious OC'ing because it's not my system for one and my friend hasn't put anything on it yet to see what she will need. One of these days, though, we'll push it up a bit. But, already this sub $1k machine has some serious speed:

 

[zapperfish]

whats everest, and why oh why are you using AVG-shit

 

[Lawdog]

whats everest, and why oh why are you using AVG-shit

Howdy. Everest is a CPU analysis program, kind of like CPU-Z. It has some benchmarking tools, but I use it for the quick and easy look into your system specs, such as driver versions and so forth. Makes it easy to diagnose a system hiccup if it happens. It's free and works very well. I recommend it.

As for AVG, that's a funny comment.... I used Norton on my machines for a while, but it's just too cludgy. A friend who is an IT guy pointed me to AVG because it's free and uses minimal CPU resources. So far, I like it okay. Obviously you have another thought? Do tell!

And thanks for all the compliments guys. I just ordered my PSU for my next build... this time it's for my own new rig! Once I settle on a case, unless I just start with my Ultra black Dragon that my current system sits in, I will get after it. I'm leaning toward a Lian-Li or something like that. And so it begins!

Lawdog

 

[DarkMonkey]

Yep, I love AVG, 'tis way better than Norton.


You should've seen the look on my mother's face when she found out I had been using AVG for the past 2 years while she was still paying for Norton updates.


Anyways, looks good dude, nice work.