Crappy Case --> Awesome Case (Modding)

kevior

New member
Hey Guys.

So I'm going to cut to the chase. A year ago, when i was the noobiest noob of nooblands when it came to PC's. I bout a £26 case from CiT and honestly... its terrible. No interior paint, no tool-less bays of any sort. Noisy fans. I could go on.

So after this year, i'm fed up with it. I am going to start with adding more fan mounts. Probably 3 in the floor and 1 or 2 in the roof, depending on if i decide to put a window in the roof or something like that.

The side panel itself is very large and shows off the drive bays which really sucks. I also plan to change this. Taking it a step further i plan to change the perspex in the side panel too to a tinted one.

After all of this i plan to do some painting. Inside and probably outside if i can afford it. Inside, i don't know 100% what colour i should use. I was thinking maybe a denim or dodger blue, jet grey/black, gloss black or matte black. Any suggestions are welcome. And for the outside i was thinking gloss black to closer match the plastic on the front. The paint at the moment isn't matte but its more matte than gloss. The plastic is very glossy and it stands out so much.

Other minor things that i will be adding is dust filters. At the moment there are none and its a pain when you've only had a GPU for a month and find yourself cleaning thick loads of dust off the top of it. Also i will probably add some rubber parts to the feet. At the moment they are just solid plastic. This will also raise the case slightly more to allow more airflow from the bottom fans.

I plan on using an Enermax T.B Apollish in the front to continue the effect of the blue lighting. Im not sure about the rest, though. Possibly more Enermax T.B Apollishes or some other fans that have no LED's. Like some Noise Blocker fans.

I shall post some pictures below of the case in its current state and what i plan to do. Any feedback would be much appreciated and its nice sometimes to just know what other people think :D

Just one question before we move onto pictures how would you guys make the grilles/mesh for the fans? I would probably cut out a hole and add some mesh in rather than try to drill my own honey-comb style mesh. Please let me know if this is the best and/or easiest way.


This is the interior with nothing in it:

PjQBxwP.jpg



This is the standard side panel. I have fiddled about with this, like removing the 80mm fan, and gluing some mesh on:

QrLTYHy.jpg



This is what i was talking about when i said about the difference in reflectiveness between the plastic and metal:

2uOllSl.jpg



This is a basic plan of what i would like to do with the side panel. Possibly a tinted perspex panel too:

QY9NUSt.jpg



This is how i plan the fans to be arranged and where cuts will/can be made:

WElAfnn.jpg



Well, thats all for now. Below this i will put my system specs for those of you who would like to know. Please let me know what you think. Also, where do you guys get your spray paint and primer from?

System Specs:

i5 3570k with stock cooler (for now)
16GB Corsair Vengeance LP 1600 MHz
MSi Z77A-G45
MSi GeForce GTX 660Ti Power Edition
Corsair CX600 Non-Modular Power Supply
Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200rpm
CiT Saturn w/ Blue LED's

Thanks for reading!
 
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Matte. Mine had textured matte black it was nice but smooth matte black defiantly looks the nicest. The outside would look nicer gloss back however. Then a layer of good old clearcoat :p
 
Matte. Mine had textured matte black it was nice but smooth matte black defiantly looks the nicest. The outside would look nicer gloss back however. Then a layer of good old clearcoat :p

Yup. I like your thinking.

Just a quick update. I have found some parts on corsairs website that i may be able to use for this build in some ways.

First up. A 2x 120/140mm mesh insert that could be used for the 2 fans in the roof:

cc-8930036.jpg


Second and last for now, a tooless drive cage that can be cleaner looking and be more practical. Originally for a 500R, but because it has a fan mount on the side, shouldn't be too hard to find a place for it in my build:

500rdrivecage.png
 
Definitely Matte black for the interior. Looks the best imo

Thanks for your say, man!

Also found some rubber grommets. You guys know what they look like so no need for me to post a picture of them really. Does anyone own a corsair case, here? If so i could do with the dimensions of the grommets to see if i can fit them in somewhere and to then cut them if i decide i do want to fit them.

Found some rubber feet too:

cc-8930046.jpg
 
There are two sizes. The motherboard area has the 90 x 45 mm grommets and the back of the case has circular grommets for tubing/cabling.
 
There are two sizes. The motherboard area has the 90 x 45 mm grommets and the back of the case has circular grommets for tubing/cabling.

Ah yeah. Well, now i have two options. There is only like 15mm of room between the motherboard and the end of the motherboard tray. Option 1 is to put a blanking plate on the right of the motherboard tray where there is currently just a big hole and then cut out grommets in that. Option number 2 is to just route the cables as i do at the moment which is just here there and everywhere to be honest xP

I tried to show this here:
FOPoRkz.jpg


Another problem is this up here with the power supply cables. If i can, i will sleeve them. Don't know what sleeving involves or how hard it is but i'm happy to give it a go. Once again, if anyone has sleeved their own cables, please let me know how you found it! :D

Anyway, apart from sleeving, i could also do another blanking plate with grommets in it too. I was also thinking about a plate that completely covers the power supply.I'm not sure how i could do this and still keep the fan effective. But i think as long as i give it room, it will be okay.

Here is a picture of the problem. The optical drive will be moved down, do not worry :D
10D5mZs.jpg


If you guys have any other ideas, they are most welcome :D
 
i redact that last comment, now that i've read the legend for the diagram you have of the case the red blocks are just fan mounts right? i thought you were trying to illustrate radiator placement
 
i redact that last comment, now that i've read the legend for the diagram you have of the case the red blocks are just fan mounts right? i thought you were trying to illustrate radiator placement

In that image yes, but i do plan on putting a radiator in those spots at some point :D

The radiators will fit i have checked. There is room between the motherboard and where the fan mounts will be.
 
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