Mod in a Week // Giving new life to an old mod

(COMPLETED) Mod in a Week // Giving new life to an old mod

Hi Everyone,

As the title says, I have decided to do a full project (mostly painting) in a week. I will be using my first ever non-beige computer case that recently came back to my possesion. (I had given the pc to my sister around 8 years ago and she finally got a new one). I originally bought the case around 10 years ago and was my first self built PC.

You might be asking, But Luciel, why use that old piece of crap when you could be using an awesome modern case? Well, I would say nostalgia and a way of getting back to my roots and "upgrading" them to my current skills.

I have no idea of what the case´s brand or model is, I bought it in a computer fair in the UK back then when the whole pre-modded case market was starting.

The idea came to me last night (or, this night if you´re picky about it technically being the same day) when I was lying in bed from 3am till 7am with no success in sleeping (Spain) is bloody hot right now at nights. So I decided to get up, get down to my workbench and start it up.

I will continue the log as soon as I upload the pictures (on a rather embarrasingly slow connection here) and detail everything I´ve been doing. Enough to say I have dismantled the old crappy hardware inside it (although the ASUS A7N8X-E was pretty epic bac then) and the case itself, cleaned it as best I could (the age really shows) and will proceed to sand it as soon as the shops open ( it´´s 8.45am here) and I can get some sanding paper! and prepare it for paint which hopefully I will start today.

The hardware that´s going to be used in this build is the following:
eVGA 790i Ultra SLI
Q6600
4x2 DDR3 1600 Corsair ram (yes I know it will create a bottleneck, but this are second hand parts I have laying about).
2x GTX275
3x Seagate SATA2 750Gb
1x dvd rewriter
1x memory card reader
Thermaltake bigwater b770 CPU wc system
SB X-FI platinum pro

I will also be ordering an MCP water block as the mcp in this board gets notoriously hot in SLI configs (right under one of the cards)

I will also be painting the gpus, sound card, hdds, and dvd drive casing to go with the design.

This system will be replacing my current main PC (the fallout case project shown in this sites case gallery, which, if anyone´s interested I´ll be selling, just the case) As my P67 asus board is being RMA´d so will be using the LGA 775 for now, and I will sorely miss my i5 2500k).

Agasin, I will be updating this thread with info and pictures of the whole process as the day goes by (I need to buy everything needed this morning as my car will be in the garage for a week getting fixed and re-sprayed).

As a last message for now, I encourage anyone to try the one week mod challenge, It´s not my first time and it can be a lot of fun : ) (even if its just to ebay it afterwards).

Thanks in advanced for all comments and suggestions : =)

It´s now 11am, I just got back from leaving the car at the garage, and apparently I may get it back before the end of the week (awesome)! But more importantly, I got back from buying the paint, and other supplies I needed for this project.

So, here it goes (excuse the crappy camera, I have already asked a friend for his much better camera that he will bring down tomorrow):

I went down to my work-area and, admitedly, I hadn´t been down there for a while, as most computer related work I´ve done in my room recently as I´ve had nothing major. Problem with this kind of thing is that, if you need to store something, you end up putting it there and thing, ah I´ll sort it out when I need space to work (lol, yeah right).





So, rather than actually try and sort things out (it´s 7.30am!!!!!!!!) I figured I´d just "relocate" stuff off the workbench.

Sorted...



So here is the case, with the original pc still in it, now, as you can see, it´s not in the best of shapes and it´s had a hell of a lot of use and while it has been taken more or less care off, 10 years doesn´t do any favours to a pc tower.















So, first thing, dismantle the whole thing and... most likely throw away that old hardware, most of it is on it´s way out aniway.



Dirty, let´s clean the whole thing up.



Well, that´s as clean as it´s going to get, at least the chasis, I will be sanding (is that the right word?) down all the panels and getting them ready for painting. I shall be doing this as soon as I press submit reply on this post.

On the side window I have opted to get rid of the acrylic, which is in really bad shape (brown with smoke and scratched to hell). I could replace it with some left over acrylic I had from another project, but I´m really liking the idea of mesh (i´ve used it before for a sidepanel and loved the look, the only downside is that the insides aren´t as visible as with acrylic, although I guess I could try and find some really fine mesh, any suggestions on this?

Until later!

LDNL said:

I second the mesh. You could take a leg and an arm off that X shape, have 2 triangle mesh covers and have something funky in the middle circle.

Click to expand...

I do like your idea, but your avatar makes me distrust you : ), but, I do not have metal cutting tools in my workbench (ugh!) so if I can borrow one before the end of the week, I might just do that! (although I do kind of like the original X)

Bo$$ said:

use some arcylic, mesh wont look so great

Click to expand...

I´m still thinkin on this one, thankfully it trully is something that can be left to the last minute and does not affect the paint or anything else since all the holes are already in place be it for mesh or acrylic.

Thanks for the comments so far guys : )

It´s 11.45am,

I have finished sanding all the parts, I hate sanding, plus I could never get it quite right when there where imperfections in the original paint to begin with ¬¬ (removing them), I had to use some dissolvant to remove the sticky pads left behind the original neons (back when they where actually neons, as opposed to cold cathodes or leds). The fumes... weeeeeeeeeeeee





Ok, it´s 13.30pm, nearly time for lunch here, and I have now given the 3 coats of the base color (in this case, black) to all the parts of the case (a big thanks go to whoever invented fast drying acrylic car paint, a bit more expensive than normal acrylic, but totally worthied if you don´t like waiting for paint to dry, and let´s face it, who does).









Right well, I think I deserved lunch, plus, I really needed fresh air after that, awfull fumessssssssssss, plus, stake for lunch,

After lunch I will proceed with the next stage of painting.

Bo$$ said:

Well, with that kind of system, i would want to be able to look inside it clearly

Click to expand...

Yes, which is why I am still considering acrylic, specially since I intend for the inside bits to match the look of the case

Bo$$ said:

then it's a no brainer man, get some nice white LEDs and show it off to the world!

Click to expand...

I´m convinced : )

PS: Finished lunch, back to work!

It´s 15.00pm,

I´ve now prepped and base-coated 2 of the devices in the case, the dvd rewriter and the memory card reader (with bluetooth, because, everything is better with bluetooth).











I am currently preparing the case, as a whole for exterior painting (using masking tape from the inside on any holes so paint does not get inside the case).





Short update due to me having to come up for the backplate of the mobo, might as well paint it with the case since I´m at it (rather than having to paint it seperately later).

Thanks Matrixlord : )

It´s 16.30pm,

I have assembled the case, taped the stripes I want to remain black (more on that at a later point),





and given 2 coats of the radioactive green (surprise! or not if you guessed due to the mobo design, if so, kudos!), here´s the first coat, to which I, before anything, added a few loose drops (squirter cap) of alloy silver, and while the pictures, due to shitty camera just show blobs of paint, I assure you, the end result is random drops of extra shiny radioactiveness.







And the second coat:









As you can see, this is why I used a black undercoat, because if I had used white, it would look pale and matt as seen on the masking tape. However the problem with this is that, also as you can see, it still has a few coats to go, acrylic paint needs loads of coats to become one solid (or like I´m aiming for here, almost solid color, and since it´s a dual layer color (this color includes an extra base coat and the color itself) it takes twice as long to dry, so 25 min between coats.

Next Update:
End color result, and removal of the tape.

I am considering repainting the mobo backplate black, as the psu and pci port sides will also be black, to give a nice contrast.

Also, it´s curious how the acrylic paint takes less coats on plastic than metal.

It´s 17.45pm

I have now given everything 7 coats (yup, 7) I can´t believe it took that much to actually get to the final color in an even way (I decided to go fully even, as the shades I tried didn´t quite live to my expectations with this color).











I really hate how this camera doesn´t do it justice, it kind of makes it look matt, when it´s completely metallic but ok.

I will now give it one hour to settle, I will then proceed to give it 3 coats of clear lacquer, normally I will only give it two, but considering the ammount of coats it needed, I feel it really needs a third, this whole process should take about an hour, once dried (another 30 minutes on top) I will remove all the masking tape and take pictures with a much better camera so you guys can see the real final result on the paint outside. While there´s a few details I want to add on the black parts (the stripes, again, more on that when it´s done) at least you´ll get an idea of the final look of the paintjob side.

If, and I stress the if part, I feel like it, I will begin the cable management and add the mobo.

Things to come:

Cable management
I really should buy green sleeving.
Painting the GPU casing in that same green (remember, the interior remains black, so it will give a nice contrast).
Re-assemble the front panel, I have decided to keep the original black X on the front as a nostalgia part of the original case, however, since the logo is gone, I will find out where I can order a new one (different one from the original).
Buy 2 led flat green bulbs to replace the blue ones in the frontal detail.
Painting the Water Cooling pump and radiator.
Buy an acrylic cpu waterblock
Buy an acrylic mcp waterblock
I had though on painting the ram coolers but because I can´t detach them of the ram itself, I´m not going to risk it, they will have to remain silver.
Paint the top half (the safe part) of the 3 hdds.
More cable management (yay).
Paint the casing of the SB X-Fi

I´m proably forgetting something (oh right, more cable management) but this is all I can think of right now, do make suggestions.

Thanks again for watching/reading about this fun, but hectic, project.

Thanks BraveSoul

It´s Tuesday, May 31st, 8.15am

Last night I gave all the parts 2 coats of clear lacquer, while waiting for the second to dry, I figured I´d have some supper, after that, I started watching Clear Skies 3, an EVE Online Machinima, and while not boring whatsoever, the fact that I had sat down and relaxed, after 40h wihout sleeping (remember, I couldn´t sleep the night before) my body gave in and zzzzzz on the computer chair (cliché or what!) about 45min later I woke up and moved it to bed.

Aniway, I woke up, at 8am, and went downstairs to have a look at how it looked, looks great but as I said, I rather give it 3 coats of lacquer, so I´m going to start.

It´s 9.15am

I´ve now give then last coat of lacquer to all the parts and I´m waiting for it to completely dry so I can remove all the masking tape, no photos here as with this camera´s quality, you wouldn´t be able to see the difference, however, in an hour or two I will have the better quality camera.

I´m going to get some breakfast : )

It´s 14.00pm

It´s taken me a while to update as I had a crysis, it seems that a part of the masking tape on the front side hadn´t stack down well so paint got under, so i had to re-do the coats on the surroundings + lacquer in order to fix it, but all well now!





And the rest of the parts:









Time for lunch and I have to go out afterwards, but for this evening I will get rid of all the masking tape on the case, assemble it, and do cable management + mobo.

I´m actually quite pleased with your comment Matrix, it´s one of those that´s not that hard to do, but always looks great afterwards (or at least I like to think so ), I´m going down after lunch and one of the things I´m doing is getting the much better camera, I promise the next set of photos will rock ; )

It´s 22.00,

The exterior of the case, aside from a couple of details, is done and all pictures from now on are taken with the better camera, notice the difference? Also, the inside of the case is NOT stained, that´s just a reflection, don´t worry : )





I´ve managed to save the plexy for now, until I can order a new one (using heat to clean really hard stains and fix most scratches).





Now painting the 3 HDDs (again, just the safe side), the casing for the front end of the x-fi, the casing for the WC pump and the mobo heatsink.



Also, the current look of the gpus without cooler (being painted), one of the GPU coolers and the mobo without mobo heatsink (being painted).



Feeling tired but I think I´ll prob do a bit more before dinner, it seems I´ll be using the laptop tonight.

It´s 00.25am

A quick update before I get some dinner and go to bed.

HDDs are finished.





So is the sound card frontal unit.





And here a preview of how the case looks with the psu, dvd rewriter, memory card reader and sound card frontal unit in it.





See you tomorrow!