Ever since seeing all the lovely casemods here, I also kena poison d..no thanks to uncle and his whole gang... And so, when I saw a decent (but generic) casing sold cheap in the garage sales with the seller somewhere near my area I couldn't help but grab it with the intention of modding it. First up, I would like to thank the following people for directly or indirectly helping me to come up with this mod:-

-@meno, for discussing with me most of the ideas

For inspiring me through their work
-allngap
-ianho
-uglyvamp
-pmmonkey
-and a few others I can't recall; I'll add to this list when I remember

Index & changelog
-will implement direct links once each section is done

Part 1 - Legacy Alpha
1 - Introduction
2 - Case cutting
3 - PSU mod (Painting & sleeving)
4 - Case painting
5 - Front panel, drive mods & my 5 cents so far

Part 2 - Legacy Beta
6 - Introduction & System setup update

Changelog


Part 1 - Now renamed as Legacy Alpha

1 - Introduction

Basically, this system is an old system I purposely set up to run Win98 programs (mostly games) that don't run well in WinXP. I actually wanted to set up a NF3+939 X2, but it was out of my budget then, plus I couldn't sell off my IS7.

System Setup (Mk 1)
socket 478 Pentium 4 Hyperthreading "Northwood" 2.8GHz/512/800 rev M0 30 cap -thanks to wacky_angel
Abit IS7 motherboard -thanks to viking2k
OCZ Platinium EL DDR400 -thanks to aljebat
Aopen Geforce 4 MX440 SE -thanks to faust
Seagate 160GB -thanks to armind
-sending for RMA, can't read properly after a badly done overclock on my AM2 system
Samsung DVDRW - bought from Sim technology
NMB 450W server power supply -thanks to 3431
Logitech keyboard & mouse -keyboard bought from Gadgetzone, mouse from an old friend on lelong.com
Viewsonic VG2021m -thanks to kunyit_kampung

What's still lacking IMHO is a good graphics card (I'm thinking a X1950 when I got the cash), and might get a cheap WD raptor to use as the boot drive. I haven't decided which CPU cooler to use (I have a couple lying around), for the moment I'm using a very generic Thermaltake to boot and set up the system. I will eventually run WC on this baby (once I can setup one which is low mantainence) since the system is actually quite hot and I intend to overclock it kau kau..come on, with all those handpicked parts who wouldn't?

The Victim -thanks to redart


Ever since I came up with my first casemod (a really minor one that doesn't deserve a worklog) I have come to like my casings have a rather simple but elegant design, with clean lines and very few things that portrude from the surface. I also require these of my case design :-

-good ventilation & cooling
-low noise (means you won't see me building a 'fan farm' like allngap, and I'll always favour large fans)
-room for watercooling
-neat layout, with visual emphasis on the hardware rather than the case

I will not be lighting this case, however there are a few things I may still do which I haven't decided with after I'm done with the mains stuff.

These are pics of an iCute casing I bought from darnell and the generic casing which was my first casemod (more like a facelift than mod-just a paint job and cutting out a proper fan mount). The design of these to casings got me to like minimalist designs



This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 13 2007, 07:27 PM

2 - Case cutting

First I took the whole casing apart,


Since I'm such a sucker for a silent (well almost) system, I decided I would expand the intake and exhaust to 120mm. I made some initial cuts on the front and rear to remove the parts jutting out before I masked the part to draw the final cutout. For the front, I clipped it off with a pliers while I made full use of a coping saw to cut out the whole fan grille section for the back


Had to drill out one of the rivets because it was in the way of where one of the fan holes (turns out, I would have to remove the other rivet in the end as well).


I placed a fan to make a rough outline of what to cut because I wanted to practice my cutting skills first as this is my first major casemod. Previously I'd only been cutting and enlarging simple fan holes.

Front



Back


Did I mention that I don't have any power tools? Had to do all the cutting by hand like allngap..brought out the heavy artillery for the next cut

Seriously man, I gotta get a dremel..and a power drill too for that matter..

Result of the 'heavy artillery'. Not a pretty job, but it works


The front panel is a different story. Because I couldn't afford to take apart the casing to individual sheets (no rivet gun to put it back together-another thing I gotta buy), I could not use my coping saw in the front due to the hard disk rack obstructing. Tried the grinder too but could not manuver the casing well enough to cut properly. So I did a 'machinegun' with the hand drill..god, I must have been crazy..


A bit of banging with the good ol' chisel and the thing came off.


Added:
Just discovered the picture limit per post..looks like I'm gonna have to reserve me more posts..

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 13 2007, 07:30 PM

With all obstructions cleared and gotten enough practice for the finishing cut, I finally measured out the fan hole and masked it out.



Drilled out the fan holes at the back and made a few small cuts with my coping saw (as luck would have it, I finished the whole packet of blades at this point)


Completed the back with a file


The front fan hole all cleaned up with a file


And that ends part one. Gonna get to part 2-modding the PSU. Boy, uploading so many pics to imageshack is a real pain..

Update:
Moved everything to photobucket. Hell lot easier and faster too.

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 13 2007, 07:25 PM

Wah..all manual...hand drill...gud job bro..where's the update?

Bro i hope you can prove the real deal of the old skool grinder.

Quite promising work so far.

Still waiting for more and more updates..

wah very long no update d

Sorry for those waiting for such a long time, I've been hung up with my internet connection (more like none actually) and also not much time to casemod since Aug. Hols coming soon, and I'll be revamping the casemod, gonna repaint and ditch the front panel altogether for a new design of my own. Partly this is stalled also because bombman keeps forgetting to bring my modding stuff from his workshop (been almost 3 months already), hoping to raid his workshop within a weeks time.

Other than what I've uploaded here, what is finished but not uploaded is my PSU mod, case painting (which I'm gonna redo due to scrathes) and front panel mod (which I'm gonna ditch anyway).

Hope to see more updates from you soon bro.Gud luck in the modding.

Fuyoh, drill also manual. I had one, really ancient... donno where is it already. Now only I discovered your thread. Good to see you started.

This post has been edited by MetalZone: Nov 15 2007, 09:03 PM

Yeah, hols start this weekend, can finally finish this thing..

Actually I've been sort of 'finishing up' this system thoughout this semester, though the casemodding part has been somewhat stalled. Partially also due to another stalled casemod, that one because of bombman.

The chassis at night so style

Good luck on it bro..can't wait to see the finishing results..

hehe..i wonder hows ur project looks like now..but im very sure u got very interesting result to show off..hahaha..i know lar..enjoy urself!!!

Finally, the long awaited update..too a while to transfer all my pictures to photobucket..fuh! Gonna dump imageshack after this..so cumbersome to use though can keep high quality images. Photobucket is a lot easier to use when dealing with a lot of small, web-sized images..


3 - PSU modding

Here's my PSU, nothing remarkable right?


Stripped off the sticker to reuse later, just like in my cap ayam PSU mod..but turns out this sticker is not cooperative

I'm guessing those of you who know how to read PSU ratings are probably yawning by now..the rest probably asleep..460W only..

Lets open it up shall we?

OMG, is that a dual storey PCB?


Hell yeah

Damn, its like 2 PSUs in there..no space even to squeeze in a 120mm fan..


Oh well, lets butcher the punched out fan grill and clean up the airflow a bit

Here's something that really pissed me off (literally)..my nieghbour's dog came along and pissed all over this cos I left it outside while I went in for a drink. Had to redo the whole mask, damn it stank like anything.

Chop chop..

You should know by now, I couldn't have dremeled this..don't have one..

Sprayed painted the PSU, and while waiting for the paint to dry I did this


All ready for sleeving


This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 13 2007, 07:32 PM

Back to the PSU case..its dry now..lets see how it looks like

Though I would later come to regret my lack of spray painting experience..I didn't sand the thing before I painted it..

Sleeving all done, and with new connectors! Damn, it almost looks like a PCP&P, though I can't remember which one was it that I saw..


A little mod of my own..PSU does't come with anything other than 24+8, bunch of molexes and a floppy connector.

fuh!like highend psu la bro
nice job dude
try to modularizes the cable la bro..sure gempak

haha..this psu..sure u won't yawn when u see it by urself...hahaha
i had my shocking moment also..hahahaha

Haha, how did you know I was planning that?

Later I post up multimeter readings..

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 10 2007, 11:41 PM

why don't u replace the white connector to black or blue one

I will, when I get some from bombman. Don't have matching sata & 8 pin connectors in my current connector kit. Also getting some more sleeving, ran out just as I was doing the parts between the HDD connectors.

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 13 2007, 09:41 AM

It will be SCARY...
When i saw the readings in front of my own eyes for the first time, i was like wtf...
Wat kind of a muthaf***a PSU is this i was asking myself...

keep going bro..want see more ur handwork..i and my friend before this also use manual to make a hole for side panel..borrow drill from my lec and cut it with gergaji besi... but i'm just helping him.. his 1st mod.. but we not creative as u TS... nice job...

did u mind i post that pic here???

This post has been edited by tapirus: Dec 13 2007, 05:41 PM

The look on your face was priceless

Sure, why not? I always welcome ideas and inspiration. As it is I've revised this casemod at least 3 times already, might post a changelog when I'm satisfied with it.

but it only simple mod by newbie like me and my friend...

Nice job you did there, even if its just a fan hole. The edges are pretty well done, especially considering its done by hand tools, first time some more. I myself have never done any major metal cutting before this, but I have some experience with hardware stuff. Nearly all my tools were inherited from my late grandfather. Guess I took after him in that sense.

Another long overdue update.

4 - Case painting

I actually did this at the same time as the PSU mod, painted both cases together. As you can tell from this pic, I've obviously got a lot to learn about spray painting. For starters, you might notice that I did not sand the original paint at all, much less strip it off


The side panel and the front panel


Another mistake I made was to use three, yes THREE different brands of black paint. So if you look carefully, you can actually see 3 different shades of black here. To make things worse, one of them was candy paint (no, its not sweet or edible ) and one of them was flat/matt black. However, I did take a liking for the candy black (you'll see why in a minute) without realising it, and set it aside to use as a final coat for the exteriors. After roughly 3-6 coats of paint total, I let it dry for a week then washed off all the excess paint dust. Here's a shot of the casing drying outside my house.


Shiny, isn't it? Even without smoothing and polishing, and its because of the candy paint final coat followed by a protective clearcoat.

The whole thing reassembled, but without screws as I wanted to take it apart in a moment. Now you can really see how shiny the side panel is.


The contrast between the inside and outside is really striking here. Inside is really dark, which means the only thing that can be seen is the hardware, which was my whole idea all along.


This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 13 2007, 07:50 PM

reserved for
5 - Front panel, drive mods & my 5 cents so far
-to be uploaded this weekend or shortly after. Moving in to hostel tomorrow.

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 13 2007, 07:53 PM

You should sand it first bro.Then apply some coating (primer).
If you want the paint to stay longer,apply a can of clear coat.

IMO,Im sure,after u done everything,u installed your hardware,there will be minor or small scratch.
How many coating did u apply?

Yeah, gonna do that in Part 2/revision beta of my casemod.. getting some paint stripper this week..only need a bit of free time..

About 3-6, lost count halfway though..was kinda busy with other stuff..

This post has been edited by lohwenli: Dec 14 2007, 07:18 AM

Keep up bro.
Its ok as this is ur 1st time mod.But seems to be interesting.

3-6 coting is more than enough,but normally that can make a mirror/gloss effect already.

Do some rubbing (compound) and it will be more shinier,and also apply scratch remover.

the secret if u wanna get a mirror look is....flat surface..but need hardwork and time to get the absolute flat surface..have to sand many time..again and again until it is FLAT and FLAT!!!then..u can even c ur image from the painted surface!!

What do u mean by flat surface bro?
I painted my panel mirror effect just by wet sanding using 400 and 800 grit.
Applied 3 layers of coatings and a layer of primer.

Actually mine already can see reflection..thanks to the candy paint..
But I'm not planning to make it mirror finished, even as it is with a not so smooth finish its already a horrible fingerprint magnet..if mirror teruk le...

Hehe, forgot to celebrate getting another star in LYN ranking

WOW NICE JOB

Ganbatte man !!!

really nice job, especially with the PSU looks like some high end PSU

hmm to get those mirror effect need to wet sand only ar ??? how about normal sanding ???

You have to wet sand it, then polish it with car polish. Preferably, wax it too.

Thats a good point.Other that that,do apply some rubbing compound and it will remove the small dots on the surface and will last longer the paint.