Darksider

oily_17 · Mar 9, 2008

OK...I have decided to mod my old case instead of buying a new one for my next PC build.

The name "DARKSIDER" is because this is my first step on to the darkside and also my first modded case build...so here goes.

All inspiration goes to MKmods,and his excellent thread here,which gave me the kick I needed to start modding my case-

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=53743

This is what I'm starting with,just a cheap ass case,any hints or tips are very welcome!!

MKmods · Mar 9, 2008

first , Thanks :respect:

now on to the modding...do you have a pair of these?
http://www.cooperhandtools.com/brands/CF_Files/model_detail.cfm?upc=037103580122
get them, Home depot has a set for like $10, thay cut metal like paper. The red handle versions cut left circles(yellow is just straight). Dremel tools are nice(and expensive) and so are hole saws but these compound action tin snips will last for YEARS and help you with tons of things.

Than take a circular fan grill, hold it over the rear of the case and draw a circle around it and cut on the line.

Thats gonna make whatever fan you use much better and quieter too.

PS: nice case to start with. The front is already modded,lol

oily_17 · Mar 9, 2008

Yeah..will have to bust out the Black&Decker on this one...no tin snips will maybe invest in some.

Was thinking for the rear fan, of mounting the fan to the case,just the blades not the actual housing, and cutting the excess metal away from the case...hard to explain will have to take a pic of what I mean....might be loud with vibration till the case.

Would luv a Dremel ..seriously want one keeping an eye on Ebay.As for the front yeah going for the stripped naked look. :laugh:

oily_17 · Mar 9, 2008

Sorry double post ...but if you take the legs of fan and imagine them on the case back with the rest of the metal cut away..

and then a hole drilled in the centre and the fan blades mounted till it..

I will be using the case as the mounting bracket for the fan blades in actual fact,not really worried about noise as I will probably water cool this anyway and cant see it being quiet.

MKmods · Mar 9, 2008

very nice idea. I was going to mount a fan that way inside my cooling tube but keep getting sidetracked.

oily_17 · Mar 14, 2008

Just a small update,haven't had much time this week,but got my window cut in the side panel

Have also applied primer to it and the bare case ready to paint.

I also stripped the front panel down and sprayed some of the parts ready for top coat and some modding.

I am going for a Rover Tahiti Blue pearlescent paint for the outside colour.
Here are some of the front panel pieces sprayed with it.

Not really a good pic ...still need rubbed down and a couple more coats :ohwell:

MKmods · Mar 14, 2008

what did you use to cut the window? It looks like a very nice cut..

oily_17 · Mar 14, 2008

MKmods said:
what did you use to cut the window? It looks like a very nice cut..

Cheers!!
An electric jigsaw with a fine tooth steel blade and then gave it a clean up with my hand file.Also got myself some moulding for the edge and clear perspex for the window.
Will probably just clue the window to the rear of the panel.

MKmods · Mar 14, 2008

that will give a cleaner look instead of the screws. Nice Job..

oily_17 · Mar 14, 2008

Here is my idea for the rear fan..

I will cut out the four segments and leave the X to support the fan blades in the middle.I intend to mount the fan blades by drilling a hole through the centre and maybe a rubber grommet insert.

MKmods · Mar 27, 2008

how are you coming along with the fan mod?

oily_17 · Mar 27, 2008

Well not had much time but got a few more small parts done.

I finished painting the case inside and trial installed some parts to see how it will all fit inside.

The new PSU is not lining up with holes so will have to alter them a little and also changed my mind on the rear fan as there was not enough strength to support the fan.

Got my new switches for the power and reset and the rest of the parts back on till the front panel,just a few more small bits to do there.

@ MK,was thinking of trying your mod on the rear fan but I can see what you mean that the normal fans are NOT round and sort of squashed looking.Just removed the metal to give better air flow.

Only to add plexi to side panel window and paint the rest of the outside now.

Maju · Mar 27, 2008

Looking good, Like the colour and the fan mount. Might even have a go at something similar with a smaller fan to cool the gfx card ram.
Let us know how it works out.

MKmods · Mar 27, 2008

Very Nice paint job!
(that blue goes very nicely with the silver)

oily_17 · Mar 27, 2008

Thanks!! Want to try mounting the LCD poster from the mobo in one of the front panels,will give it a try tomorrow if I get time,should look good.

imperialreign · Mar 27, 2008

great job so far! That front panel looks sweet, man, I dig the darker shade of blue with the silver.

When you cut the window, did you have any issues with the sheet metal warping at all? Last window I cut, even as careful as I was, somehow the panel ended up being bowed pretty bad.

damn, all these threads with people coming along on some nice-looking mods is making me feel rather pathetic that I haven't gotten off my ass and got started on mine yet.

oily_17 · Mar 27, 2008

imperialreign said:
great job so far! That front panel looks sweet, man, I dig the darker shade of blue with the silver.

When you cut the window, did you have any issues with the sheet metal warping at all? Last window I cut, even as careful as I was, somehow the panel ended up being bowed pretty bad.

Thanks!! man.
When I cut the window I used an electric jigsaw with a 32 teeth/inch metal blade.The finer teeth help stop the ripping of the metal and prevent it bowing,also make sure it is well supported underneath.

imperialreign · Mar 28, 2008

oily_17 said:
Thanks!! man.
When I cut the window I used an electric jigsaw with a 32 teeth/inch metal blade.The finer teeth help stop the ripping of the metal and prevent it bowing,also make sure it is well supported underneath.

yeah, I had done all that with my old case - like I said, I was as careful as I could be . . . not really sure what happened, really :confused:

Only thing I could really think of was that I had taken the cut too close to the rear side of the panel, not leaving enough material for support - or, the aluminum panel was relatively thin.

Oh well, I might order up another panel at some point and try again - or maybe order the side panel with a window already in it, and etch the window . . . will see . . .

keep up the great work though! I look forward to seeing you progress!

Braveheart · Mar 28, 2008

oily_17 said:
Cheers!!
An electric jigsaw with a fine tooth steel blade and then gave it a clean up with my hand file.Also got myself some moulding for the edge and clear perspex for the window.
Will probably just clue the window to the rear of the panel.

glue usually moves when you first put it on and will loose it's stick after time, try this

oily_17 · Mar 28, 2008

Braveheart said:
glue usually moves when you first put it on and will loose it's stick after time, try this

Yeah,thanks for the link, I have seen that 3M tape before,you could use any industrial strength tape to hold the plexi in place.

The glue that I use is an epoxy type glue and once applied is very strong and will not move once it is cured.Have used it on various types of plastic and holds well,no probs yet.

Processor	Q9550 @3.8
Motherboard	Asus Maximus Extreme
Cooling	Custom water cooling
Memory	4GB Patriot Viper DDR3 1600MHz
Video Card(s)	2x HD4870 512MB
Storage	2x 500GB
Display(s)	3x LG L226WTQ 22" Widescreen LCD
Case	Modded TJ07
Audio Device(s)	On board
Power Supply	PC P&C Silencer 750
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate

System Name	Crossflow III
Processor	AMD 965 (4.04Ghz)
Motherboard	Asus Crosshair III
Cooling	Air
Memory	4 gigs Mushkin 7-7-7-20@1T
Video Card(s)	single 9800GT
Storage	Raptor 150's in Raid0
Display(s)	LG Flatron 24"
Case	Custom
Audio Device(s)	AuzenTech X-Raider W/OP637
Power Supply	Custom modded Corsair 750HX
Software	Win 7 64/Solaris Utility
Benchmark Scores	3DMark06--21963 so far

Processor	Q9550 @3.8
Motherboard	Asus Maximus Extreme
Cooling	Custom water cooling
Memory	4GB Patriot Viper DDR3 1600MHz
Video Card(s)	2x HD4870 512MB
Storage	2x 500GB
Display(s)	3x LG L226WTQ 22" Widescreen LCD
Case	Modded TJ07
Audio Device(s)	On board
Power Supply	PC P&C Silencer 750
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate

Processor	Q9550 @3.8
Motherboard	Asus Maximus Extreme
Cooling	Custom water cooling
Memory	4GB Patriot Viper DDR3 1600MHz
Video Card(s)	2x HD4870 512MB
Storage	2x 500GB
Display(s)	3x LG L226WTQ 22" Widescreen LCD
Case	Modded TJ07
Audio Device(s)	On board
Power Supply	PC P&C Silencer 750
Software	Windows 7 Ultimate

System Name	Crossflow III
Processor	AMD 965 (4.04Ghz)
Motherboard	Asus Crosshair III
Cooling	Air
Memory	4 gigs Mushkin 7-7-7-20@1T
Video Card(s)	single 9800GT
Storage	Raptor 150's in Raid0
Display(s)	LG Flatron 24"
Case	Custom
Audio Device(s)	AuzenTech X-Raider W/OP637
Power Supply	Custom modded Corsair 750HX
Software	Win 7 64/Solaris Utility
Benchmark Scores	3DMark06--21963 so far

Darksider

oily_17

Attachments

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Maju

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imperialreign

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oily_17

System Name	My quiet Cosmos
Processor	AMD64X2 6000+ @3.0 Ghtz
Motherboard	ASUS M2N32-SLI Delux
Cooling	Custom Watercooling setup
Memory	4*1gb OCZ Platinum
Video Card(s)	2 * XFX 8800GTX
Storage	2*Western Digital 250GB sataII, Hitachi Deskstar 250Gb sataII, Maxtor 160GB ata
Display(s)	V7 22inch TFT
Case	CoolerMaster Cosmos RC1000
Audio Device(s)	Audigy 2 ZS platinum
Power Supply	OCZ GameXStream 750 Power Supply + OCZ 520w modstream
Software	XP pro SP3

System Name	УльтраФиолет
Processor	Intel Kentsfield Q9650 @ 3.8GHz (4.2GHz highest achieved)
Motherboard	ASUS P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi; X38 NSB, ICH9R SSB
Cooling	Delta V3 block, XPSC res, 120x3 rad, ST 1/2" pump - 10 fans, SYSTRIN HDD cooler, Antec HDD cooler
Memory	Dual channel 8GB OCZ Platinum DDR3 @ 1800MHz @ 7-7-7-20 1T
Video Card(s)	Quadfire: (2) Sapphire HD5970
Storage	(2) WD VelociRaptor 300GB SATA-300; WD 320GB SATA-300; WD 200GB UATA + WD 160GB UATA
Display(s)	Samsung Syncmaster T240 24" (16:10)
Case	Cooler Master Stacker 830
Audio Device(s)	Creative X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro PCI-E x1
Power Supply	Kingwin Mach1 1200W modular
Software	Windows XP Home SP3; Vista Ultimate x64 SP2
Benchmark Scores	3m06: 20270 here: http://hwbot.org/user.do?userId=12313

System Name	mystie
Processor	intel Q9450
Motherboard	gigabyte EP45 UD3P
Cooling	coolit domino ALC
Memory	4GB DDR3 1333
Video Card(s)	sapphire 4870x2
Storage	250GB barracuda, 1.5TB barracuda
Display(s)	15" phillips, HannsG HD 28"
Case	custom built plexiglass cube
Audio Device(s)	Creative audigy SE
Power Supply	Silverstone Strider 700W
Software	Vista home premium 64/ Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 64