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About 9 months ago I put together a system for a friend of mine. We went with an Abit Mobo, Athlon 3800, ATI video, couple of hard drives, blah blah. Anyway, now he wants to pimp that box. Very soon this system will be going to an SLI setup so in anticipation of that switch we are going to mod a new PSU for this case.
ToxBox projects are always a challenge because this computer is used every day. Basically this means that anything we do we need to be able to wrap up in a day so the system can be up and running by the end of the day. The "we" here is Joe and myself. The system belongs to Joe and I help him mod the thing. Up to this point we have completed case handle installs, blow hole installs, 120mm fan cutouts and an interior paint job.
Recap of the first mod day
We got started right at 11 and did not waste any time. We started by taking a series of pictures of all the cable hookup and pin locations. This is especially helpful when reassembling the system. I find it much easier to look through out pics rather than using the cryptic Abit manual and I knew we were going to be pressed for time at the end of the day.
As soon as we had all the pics we wanted we start stripping down the chassis. This process went quickly and we were soon down to the bare metal will the components packed safely away in a box.
The first thing we had to do was get a hole cut in the back of the chassis for our 120mm fan. We elected to cut this our instead of sticking with the intergraded grill on the box. I think it looks better and promoted better air movement. I setup my 4.5 hole saw and we use a little shot of 3 in 1 oil to lubricate the blade. My drill cut through really easily...literally 5-6 seconds of cutting.
Once the cut was complete Joe began the prep work for painting. All the components to be painted were cleaned with denatured alcohol and then masked with tape and masking paper. Joe paints for a living so I left the painting to him and moved on to the blow hole and case handle mods. All the drive cages in this case use plastic drive mounting clips. All the clips were removed, the window was removed and the side panel masked. Joe also masked the bottom of the case.
Once all the masking was complete we shot the frame with a few light coats of white primer.
The next step was to get the blowhole and case handles mounted. For this mod we have a mnpctech chrome blowhole kit and some machined aluminum billet handles. While Joe is working on the interior paint job I set to work on this part of the project.
I made a simple little jig with 2x4's and quick clamps to securely hole the case panel in place while I made the cuts. I taped off the area to be cut and used a 3.5" hole saw for the cut as our blow hole will be a 92mm aluminum case fan. Again a little splash of 3 in 1 oil and the cut was done. I rinsed off the metal shavings in the sink and cleaned up the burrs with my Dremel.
The blowhole kit comes with nonstandard fan screws. In fact, all they are is bolt with alan key heads on them and as a result they do not bite into the fan frame as well. I had to bore out the holes in the fan a little bit but after that it went together really well.
A little extra time was taken with the billet handles just to make sure they were mounted straight. Installing the handles is easy; the trick is making sure your holes are nice and straight. Here you can see the finished product. This part of the project is done and we can set it aside.
Meanwhile Joe has completed masking the chassis and begun shooting the frame. The paint we are using is Hot Rod Green enamel. It's kind of expensive stuff but the finish we get with it is worth every penny. Joe saves on paint by only shooting those areas that will show when the case is open. In this way we were able to get the whole job done with only one can.
Joe applied 2 coats of paint and then we placed the parts in a warm dry room to let the paint cure. The temp in the room was 80 - 85 degrees thanks to a gas stove and since it is November in the Great White North, the air was VERY dry.
After about 4 hours of curing time in a warm dry room we start reassembling the chassis. The fan mount holes were bored out and rubber grommets were installed to help keep the exhaust fan quiet. We also used a 14.5" strip of U-channel to clean up the edges of the cut.
From here on it was just a matter of getting all the parts back in place. We install the motherboard and front bezel first so that we could clean up all the power and led wires. I braided them but them in black sleeving. We did not have time for a lot of other WM stuff but we did make a few changes that allowed us to remove one power cable from the mix and get all the hardware require for the lighting up off the bottom of the case. We really wanted the nice green to show through.
Once everything was mounted we fired her up and got a dim pool error on the startup. A quick flip of our SATA cables and we were off and running. WM is minimal on this project but part of what we like about this look is the UV green cables, even the SATA cables have been replaced with UV green. Unfortunately we were not able to get our hands on the new OCZ memory in time for mod day but it is on order and should be installed by the end of the week.
Joe had the idea of painting his slot covers black. I had never considered doing this before but I think it looks really cool. We pulled it off finishing at 9:20pm short handed. Now it's time to start planning for the next set of upgrades.
Okay, I think I am all caught up...
ToxBox projects are always a challenge because this computer is used every day. Basically this means that anything we do we need to be able to wrap up in a day so the system can be up and running by the end of the day. The "we" here is Joe and myself. The system belongs to Joe and I help him mod the thing. Up to this point we have completed case handle installs, blow hole installs, 120mm fan cutouts and an interior paint job.
Recap of the first mod day
We got started right at 11 and did not waste any time. We started by taking a series of pictures of all the cable hookup and pin locations. This is especially helpful when reassembling the system. I find it much easier to look through out pics rather than using the cryptic Abit manual and I knew we were going to be pressed for time at the end of the day.
As soon as we had all the pics we wanted we start stripping down the chassis. This process went quickly and we were soon down to the bare metal will the components packed safely away in a box.
The first thing we had to do was get a hole cut in the back of the chassis for our 120mm fan. We elected to cut this our instead of sticking with the intergraded grill on the box. I think it looks better and promoted better air movement. I setup my 4.5 hole saw and we use a little shot of 3 in 1 oil to lubricate the blade. My drill cut through really easily...literally 5-6 seconds of cutting.
Once the cut was complete Joe began the prep work for painting. All the components to be painted were cleaned with denatured alcohol and then masked with tape and masking paper. Joe paints for a living so I left the painting to him and moved on to the blow hole and case handle mods. All the drive cages in this case use plastic drive mounting clips. All the clips were removed, the window was removed and the side panel masked. Joe also masked the bottom of the case.
Once all the masking was complete we shot the frame with a few light coats of white primer.
The next step was to get the blowhole and case handles mounted. For this mod we have a mnpctech chrome blowhole kit and some machined aluminum billet handles. While Joe is working on the interior paint job I set to work on this part of the project.
I made a simple little jig with 2x4's and quick clamps to securely hole the case panel in place while I made the cuts. I taped off the area to be cut and used a 3.5" hole saw for the cut as our blow hole will be a 92mm aluminum case fan. Again a little splash of 3 in 1 oil and the cut was done. I rinsed off the metal shavings in the sink and cleaned up the burrs with my Dremel.
The blowhole kit comes with nonstandard fan screws. In fact, all they are is bolt with alan key heads on them and as a result they do not bite into the fan frame as well. I had to bore out the holes in the fan a little bit but after that it went together really well.
A little extra time was taken with the billet handles just to make sure they were mounted straight. Installing the handles is easy; the trick is making sure your holes are nice and straight. Here you can see the finished product. This part of the project is done and we can set it aside.
Meanwhile Joe has completed masking the chassis and begun shooting the frame. The paint we are using is Hot Rod Green enamel. It's kind of expensive stuff but the finish we get with it is worth every penny. Joe saves on paint by only shooting those areas that will show when the case is open. In this way we were able to get the whole job done with only one can.
Joe applied 2 coats of paint and then we placed the parts in a warm dry room to let the paint cure. The temp in the room was 80 - 85 degrees thanks to a gas stove and since it is November in the Great White North, the air was VERY dry.
After about 4 hours of curing time in a warm dry room we start reassembling the chassis. The fan mount holes were bored out and rubber grommets were installed to help keep the exhaust fan quiet. We also used a 14.5" strip of U-channel to clean up the edges of the cut.
From here on it was just a matter of getting all the parts back in place. We install the motherboard and front bezel first so that we could clean up all the power and led wires. I braided them but them in black sleeving. We did not have time for a lot of other WM stuff but we did make a few changes that allowed us to remove one power cable from the mix and get all the hardware require for the lighting up off the bottom of the case. We really wanted the nice green to show through.
Once everything was mounted we fired her up and got a dim pool error on the startup. A quick flip of our SATA cables and we were off and running. WM is minimal on this project but part of what we like about this look is the UV green cables, even the SATA cables have been replaced with UV green. Unfortunately we were not able to get our hands on the new OCZ memory in time for mod day but it is on order and should be installed by the end of the week.
Joe had the idea of painting his slot covers black. I had never considered doing this before but I think it looks really cool. We pulled it off finishing at 9:20pm short handed. Now it's time to start planning for the next set of upgrades.
Okay, I think I am all caught up...
)
