Stock, it looks like this:
I got the case, and was looking over it and decided I wanted to spruce it up a bit.
My case stock looked like the following picture:
First step, completely disassemble the case.
Some of those pictures were taken after I stripped the outside of the case of the feet and all plastic and screws so only the metal inside shell was present. I also had to remove the tooless motherboard slots and 5.25" bay tooless hardware.
My first idea after it was disassembled, : Cut out the mesh holes that the fans mount on to minimize dust buildup by the fans. I didn't need all the fan bays because that would just simply be overkill and I don't want the case to act as a quasi-air cleaner, so that's why I only cut out one. I chose that one because the cpu heatsink would completely cover up the rear fan if I were to mount one there and would basically be useless and unnecessary.
Next step: Paint the dull gray metal inside flat black.
I forgot to get a final picture of when the paint was dry. I used Krylon Flat black to accomplish that.
Next, I was looking at the plastic outside of the case with the mesh grill and brainstormed on that. The plastic is black and there is black mesh grill that goes all over the outside of the case. I figured that it didn't show off the mesh very well, so I decided I wanted to make it stand out more. Since I decided to go with the PC Power and Cooling 750W power supply, it was painted red. So I decided I should make the case's theme the crossfire red color, which is Candy Apple red color. Luckily, this shade of red came in a spraypaint, and so I proceeded.
I had to take off the mesh. This was the most difficult part of the mod because the mesh was held on by tabs that stuck down through slots and wrapped around the plastic holding it on. There were about 18 of these and it was tedious to bend them up and keep them straight so that they could go back in the slots later after it was painted.
This is what it looked like after the mesh was removed.
To protect the rest of the stuff from overspray, i had to put masking tape all over what I didn't want to get painted.
Time to paint! I got really into this and forgot to take a lot of pictures, but you get the idea here.
After it was dry, it was time to replace the black mesh over the red paint and remove the masking tape.
As you can see, it turned out very well. At angles, the red disappears and all you can see is the black mesh, but as you move closer, the contrast of red and black fades in. It's really a cool effect that I wasn't expecting. It looks nicer in person because of the 3D effect of using both eyes. A camera cannot replicate the effect because it's only 2D.
putting the case back together was a chore to say the least. I was so excited to do the mod that when I disassembled the case, I put stuff in places and wasn't very organized about it. I spent most of the time trying to find the stuff I took apart. If you ever do a case mod, be more organized than I was. I eventually found all the parts, so it turned out okay.
But first, I wanted to do some more modding, but this time, not on the case. This time I modded the cpu heatsink and cpu.
I lapped them.
Lapping is basically polishing to the point of a mirror shine to maximize heat transfer from the cpu to the heatsink.
The processor and heatsink surfaces originally looked like this, and sorry about the picture quality, it was a cruddy camera i was using:
After lapping them, they looked like this:
Next, to keep with the red theme, I modded the heatsink, which is a Tuniq Tower 120.
Originally, they look like this:
I removed the stock black boring fan that came with the heatsink and replaced it with a blue LED fan that came out of the front of the case. I wasn't very impressed with the blue protruding from the front of the case anyways and just wanted it to appear black and red, so I put the tuniq fan in the front of the case since it wasn't lighted.
Painted, and reassembly:
The blue LED's on the fan illuminate the motherboard without showing too much light through the grilles of the heatsink, which is a cool effect on the motherboard.
After complete assembly, it looked like this. it is not the final look that I'm going for. I want to post more pics after I get my new motherboard, and after I get a new video card or two. I also added a fan controller to the front of the case and mounted a floppy drive on the inside of the case as well, but I dont' have pics of that yet.
It's still a work in progress.
To this day, the case isn't fully completed. I still want to install a window on the side which will take up as much of the side panel as I can do.
) and you cant add more than one coat of paint onto plexi(it makes the paint look like sun cracked dirt in a desert)
)
i love that metaphor. I have olearnt alot looking at this case maily to undercoat, use car paint and put on a a finish weather it be mat or shine just to stop that damn pealing and scratching. I also would never be able to live witch the side pannle but thats just me im to much of a perfectionist.
