Coming together....

Here the caster were held in place temporary with these weird bolts I had found in my stash. I have lots of screws and nuts that I will probably never use, but then again I probably thought that of these very nuts/bolts.


That black and white nexus fan look downright tasty! I am really liking the look of the black and white. I really is giving the case a certain level of chicness not commonly found in a computer case. On that note, why is it that so many of out everyday items are made without any soul? Like TV, cell phones, computers so on and so forth. This has never been brought us anyway that I can tell, but computer modding is a craft. It encompasses both the realms of function and art. I suppose that is why it is so badass.


I know a lot of people would have me cut out the fan grill, but I really like the way it contrasts with the white fan, and gives a deeper level of detail to an otherwise straight forward black and white case. Now that I am putting it together, the case looks like it should have been this way from the start. It looks so natural, that some people that do not know what I started with would never have thought that I had done anything at all to it. I think that is the pinnacle of what I am trying to accomplish here with my modding, and will be my calling card so to speak. I hope down the road, many many build from now, people will be able to recognize my work on sight.

The casters now have proper non-weird ass bolts and nuts. I just have a few concerns with the new caster mounting spots interfering with the hard drive cage mounting points. I guess I will deal with that when it comes.




This video is just a quick walk around the case. The last shot is of the hole I drilled for the bottom mounted fan, and the grommet I inserted for the wire.

Grommet Edging ( I know it is a shitty title)

Just found a source for grommet striping. It is the same thing as "u-channel" or "c-stripping". Being as I will need a lot of this stuff for modding, I did not want to pay the premium for getting it in 6 foot lengths. I can get 100 feet for about 32 bucks. It is the difference of paying $1.50 a foot from mnpctech not including shipping, and paying 32 freaking cents a foot, including shipping! If anyone wants the source, just let me know. I do not think mnpctech is ripping people off, but if I want to still have money for parts I have to buy smart.

Moving on to more technological pastures

During my move to my new apartment, working on my project won't be really possible, but I do not want to leave you hanging. I am going to try and post ideas, links, and some of my favorite sources for parts.

Since LEDs are the current topic, I will share my source for them. Unfortunately, they kinda dropped the ball on having the 1.8mm white diffused LED, but they have most anything you will need in the LED department. Great thing about them, it they sell individually, and have price breaks at higher quantities that are reasonable. It can really save you some cash, if you avoid radio shack at all costs. A white LED at the shack will set you back like 5 bucks!! That is just stupid. I am sure there are more good sources for LEDs, but this is what I use most.

http://www.unique-leds.com/

If you could not tell already, case fans get me pretty randy. So far, most of the build I have used xoxide.com. They have decent pricing, and since they are local, they don't rape me on shipping charges. I had an issue with one of there sleaving kits, and their customer service refunded me in full! I did not even have to ship it back. That is what I call excellent customer service, and becasue they are so great I am a retuning customer.

Funny enough, most of my sourcing is done at Home Depot or Loews. They have tons of usefull modding stuff. The coolest find, I think was liquid tape. It is awesome for protecting bare wires, and is a great tool in my arsenel. Just make sure you pick up the black kind, casue they have red as well. That is, unless that is the look your going for.

You light up my life

Here is a video of the LED mods done thus far. I have some white cold cathodes as well, but if they look bad, I am saving them for something else.

Buttons pressing my buttons

So last night I was replacing the LEDs for the power and HDD activity light. I replaced the HDD activity with and ultra violet LED and the power whith an ultrabright white one. For some reason or another, I had it in my head that the power LED also lit the power button. WRONG, so freaking WRONG. Turns out the button needs to be dissesembled just to get to the LED in it, and it is not your standard 5mm LED. It is a 1.8mm Diffused LED. Come on, what the hell. So now I have to track down a white 1.8mm diffused LED, awesome....I did find some on Ebay, but I have to buy like 50 of them. I need maybe 3, just in case I botch the job, not 50. As soon as I can, I will throw up some pics of the monstrosity.

Side note: I would like to apologize for the lack of content lately. I am moving out of my apartment, and stuff has been nuts. On the plus side, once I am in my new place, I will have a dedicated modding studio!

HOLEY MOLEY!!!!

Cutting the hole was pretty freaking awesome. After the failed attempt with the rotary saw, cutting this sucka up felt pretty good. Once the first cut was in, the rest of the cutting was much easier. I really let the tool do the work, and tried not to breath in that dust.

Something about sparks flying just makes me feel like I am getting something done. I was not dumb enough not to wear eyeglasses. If there are red hot sparks involved, wear safety glasses for Christ sake. There is nothing manly about squirming on the floor in pain crying for you mommy cause you just got a red hot piece of metal in your eye.


Done! Now the only thing left to do with the metal is make a sweet shuriken of death! I am not one to be wasteful.


Thermaltake thought is was the best idea ever, to have raised lettering stamped into the metal (t design). I ground that sucker down. I simply won't deal with the question, "are your initials gn". No!

Stupid smooth, and better than that the "gn" is gone.
Here is the first coat of primer. I was pretty happy with the coverage I got with it.