My CXV II case mod project log

[zCexVe]

* CXV II – Case Mod Project Log *​

[Warning : dial up users : This thread contains 92 pictures worth 5.1 MB]
[If you need any help on these or to purchase this please ask me on the thread or by PM.]

It was some time after my first case and I sold it off. TBH it was a disaster as I had minus knowledge on modding. After the first, many people around here tried many mods, I lead some of them, now I have some say in it, I thought of a second mod.

Everybody thought I’m crazy and I will buy a new case after throwing away the old. But it didn’t happen. Now they say it cannot be done well and needs whole lot of money.

I had to prove that modding is not only for rich and even though we do not have all the tools and requirements we can still achieve that. So some show off and kick ass case should be made out of nothing.
Some plans I had in mind came into these papers.

 

[zCexVe]

Designing

Note that the main designs are always in the mind. It is just woven around dreams and mods you see online.

The basic front in – rear out negative pressure air cooling with a transparent side panel. Hopefully with some painting and cutting.

Another designs sketched. In my mind that is. Also I thought of some parts to be added to the front drive bays.A handy box and a handy panel .This draft includes all sides.

Cooling plan followed up.

You know, to put these designs into reality I need a case.
A bigger,tougher,modable case.
Hard to find those things. After 2 months of searching found a case without PSU for 1500 LKR. It was imported by a PC reseller PC house(whom I hate) , Made in Thailand, Even had few cockroaches in it as it was old. A plane Jane.
But they say “Old is gold “

 

[zCexVe]

In to the case


Without knowing whats inside and how it is we cant plan a mod.So lets see it our selves.More you feel about it,the more the mod will become easier.

Weight is 9.2 kg as it is solid steel .Had a protective paint coated in the inside too.
It was bit larger than standard cases.
L x W x H is 435mm X 425mm X 208mm.

Face first. Features 4 x 5.25” bays,2 x 3.5” bays, power and reset buttons, power and HDD activity LEDs, Front panel with 2 x USB 2.0 and mic+line out.
A transparent glass look with 6 knobs on the front.An old beauty.

A close up on the buttons.

On to the side.Side panel locks.wOOt !!(Don’t mind the blue markings,they are my work)

Inside look.The fan duct and the lock.

Look at the inside. wOOOOOOt!!! Cable management holes, Toolless mounting for 5.25”,3.5” and 2 HDD bays. Front 120mm fan supported. Back is 92mm supported but had a 80mm. Good air ventilation coz of holes and size. Rounded edges for safety. Back panel plates has some additional Copper attachments to tight fit the cards.

A close up. Chick is not my GF, she is some ASUS poster I have.

Tool less mounting.

To the back.
Standard feature set + some old port support.

The other side. Again a lock

Side panel removed.Can do a good cable management with it.

A close up. Notice the dots on the place for side panel? Prevents scratching the paint. Cool!!

 

[zCexVe]

Disassembly


To the disassembly!!
It took exactly 80 minutes to remove that nasty knobs in front of the case Got two thre injuries on my hand too. Behind those there were 6 screws.

Another face plate? Awesome!!

Both plates removed.

USB bracket

The buttons and its holder.

Buttons.

Tool less mounting disassembled.

The accessories and the manual.

That’s all. Lets pack the unwanted.

 

[zCexVe]

Modifications

So the modding ideas of mine changed accurately and specified to the case. Side panel window without a fan is a must and the first.

Use Masking tape for drawings. The tools you need are on the board. For patience and to cut ambient noise use your Mp3 player. In my case a very rare one.

I decided to have the lock. Its cool isn’t it? It adds a cool look.

Standard fan grill. REMOVE it.

Standard front panel and additional port cables go through these locations into mobo ports. So I should have pockets for cables at these.

Back side marking. Locations are marked for PSU cable lot + 8 pin EPS [on an ASUS].(Top Left ).For the front panel cables.(Right) For the other cables(Bottom Left)

This doesn’t suck hard PERIOD.The fan grill is covering the whole exhaust
A single 92mm for the whole exhaust is inadequate. I planned to fit 2 x 80mms as 120mm cannot be fitted. Panel should be edited.

Exactly like this.

 

[zCexVe]

Cutting


When you have a friend who is willing to help you and who owns an Iron workshop with Oxy-acetylene flames, let him help you

All are done in a day.Gotta love ur friends

Back panel bracket hole

Cable management holes

The top panel exhaust

Look from the front.
My mom says It is possessed by rats who eat steel so it has lots of holes

The side panel.

Use a file, sanding papers of 100, 200, 600 and 1200 for smooth edges. Rough work. But it takes lot of courage, hard work and dedication for a mod.

A rubber hammer to fix the bends.

Now I’ve finished everything involving cutting the case. I purchased a rubber hammer and sand papers. It cost me 375 LKR for all. I’m at 1875 LKR.(Cutting is free Always help others regardless of the matters. It always comes handy )

 

[zCexVe]

Case Paint Job


I wanted metallic paint as they contain metallic particles so the heat transfer will be assisted very well.
I had a Black and silver theme in mind. Cheap, uncommon yet so attractive. Blend in some red and it will be awesome.
So I went and purchased Auto paint. Toyota Metallic Black was my choice as it was great and the only Choice. 750mL is 750 LKR. And I purchased TOA metallic silver and TOA gloss black spray cans. Purchased Paint thinner retail 4 liters costing 280 LKR. Total is 1700LKR.

Metallic paint needed to be sprayed. So I need a air spray gun + air compressor. For me everything comes in a phone call.
Friends are always useful.A friend with a motor garage this time.

3 coats of metallic paint sprayed.And sometimes 4 on some places.Really covered it up.Sanding is required before painting but the case had anti corrosive sealing paint on it so only roughed the outer surfaces.
If paint is left , just paint the neighbourhood girls cloths. Awesome work

Side panel

All things

Did a bit of wet sanding to brush it up.Using 1200 grit sand papers.

Front face was edited for better air intake. Two grills made out of old auto stereo speaker cover(I’m a cheap person ). Painted it. There was some unnecessary plastic behind the button plate. Removed it. Did a paint job on it too.
Since I had an imported Front panel in mind ,stock FP was removed.

The metallic silver paint can.

After that project was halted for 6 months. Money and time issues. Covered it up but dust had it covered when I brought it out. Time to finish off what I’ve started. Took out and cleaned it a bit.
Usually paint needs at least 6 weeks to toughen 6 months were more than enough.

 

[zCexVe]

The Transparent sheet works


Went on and purchased the transparent plastic sheets commonly known as “plexi”.3mm thickness 18” x 18”.
525 LKR bill for it.

Now finally time to call the mod team. Single face is over.
We have two great pairs of hands in our mod team. Designing was done by me ,and they just cut it out in 8 minutes. We decided to use double sided tape (1m is 35LKR) for the side panel, pop rivets for the back.
We forgot to take pictures of side panel making as we were so focused to it. It was to 0.5mm precise measurement. No room for error. We used our Jigsaw for the cutting. Used the 1mm blade for wood. Drew the design including the cutting 1mm ,exactly on line.

The 1mm gap between the borders of glass and the panel. Precision is excellent.
See the quality.

The back fan bracket.

It took 3 minutes for both the holes. You really need good hands for that much speed and accuracy.
Drill a hole in middle, come curvy because then only you can go accurate on cutting a round shape. Do a bit of sanding to smooth the edges.

The double side tape.1m is 35 LKR .We got 2m and did some work that cant be included here.

We had some left over parts and time
Everybody says it is hard to cut the ASUS logo. Is it,eh? I changed the logo a bit so that Jigsaw can handle it well and two brothers did their work.
Say hello to ASUS logo!!

You can make back plates with these too. Use double side black tape to paste it.

The 5.25” bay covers suck. I only need 1 slot. Why not replace other 3 ?

You can have more un with those transparent sheets. These are just examples.

 

[zCexVe]

Styling and stickers [6666 post]

I had to add a unique style to my case. If not it is still a plane Jane. A paint job isn’t enough for a case. My Photoshop and Illustrator skills came in handy. I wanted to paint the flames on the side panel, ASUS ROG snake eyes on top with my nick name. In case of me screw up the paint (which is rare), I had stickers designed.
Since I wanted to save money, I didn’t put my designs into stickers. Just printed them out, pasted them on cardboard and cut them my self. Then I glued them with normal glue. So after I paint the design I can put the panel in water for few hours and remove the card board. Prints cost me 100 LKR.

Flame design

The ROG snake eyes

If I ever screwed I had backup stickers to cover the screw up. I’ll show you the side panel design.
At the time the design was made based on a Striker Extreme and a C2Q 6700.VGA is printed on the sticker.

Flame design printed out and on cardboard. Still cutting.

Glued on the side panel. Covered up with tape for protection. Use Iso Propyl Alcohol to clean the painting surface. In day to day use it is called surgical sprit.

ROG Snake eyes

The panel and logo painted.

Fixing some card board to save the basic paint.

And cardboard removed .wOOOOOOOOOOOt!!! I haven’t screwed it.

Have to clean it though.

 

[Michael]

Made In Thailand?

Lot Of Work To Do Ha!!

 

[zCexVe]

Final assembly


Now I need to assemble the case once again. Hopefully all the hard work is finished.
I need two back panel fans + one exhaust up. Al 80mm fans and grills. A fan is 150LKR (a black one without sensors) and a grill is 75 LKR. I went to my friends PC shop. Found some fans removed from DELL GX-110 PCs. With some sort of a fan bracket. They had a wired + built in sensor too. Awesome isn’t it? Bought 3 fans for 150 LKR. Thats awesome again. And with the creativity in mind , look what I have done to them

I removed the mobo sensor wire as it has a sensor on fan and custom wired them in to molex.

Plastic fan grills made from stock Dell fan brackets.Thanks Michael Dell

Side panels

Removed the square edges of two fan grills I made and super glued them into the back fan plate.One is attached as it is to the top.

From inside

Top

The optional 120mm intake fan hole is covered with a grill + a metal net. Grill is 50 LKR. Metal nets must be used as they get – ion effect to attract dust.

And a disaster in the last minute now. Import of the lights and front panel couldn’t be done. Who cares? I have the mind and ability.
I had the remaining 3.5” bay covers painted black and silver. And the left over USB bracket. This is modding from the first step, isn’t it?

Large went removed and made half the size.

The glue is called Araldite. Never think of disassembly after using it.

The two LEDs were changed into red, to make it look a bit fearful.

And the face assembled !!!.There is a see through plastic sheet in the drive bays. But it is extremely clear so you see it as empty. Now case has front air vents and a Front panel too. Front panel is not awesome but saved me from a catastrophe.

 

[zCexVe]

Assembly of parts…

Cable managing

Left over parts

Face fully fitted.

Side panels..

And Done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally it is over I felt something very deep at this moment. All my efforts have succeeded.

 

[zCexVe]

Final photos..

I can add few things more. Case lights, case feet/wheels ,a handle, a tattoo for the front see through and some logos. It will take sometime to add them.

It took me approxly 3750 Rs to do this.A case with PSU is the same price.But I do agree, I get some services free.
It just needs creativity mainly.Other than that some steady hands, artistic mind and things.Nothing much.Try your self.Who knows what might turn out at the end?

 

[zCexVe]

Now to the thanking part.

Nicknames are used as requested.
Sumu , Lani , Puna ,Patiya in mod team.Always with ideas and alternatives.

Dilan and Prasanna ayya for free cutting and painting support.

sri_lion for the idea of a project log.
Geethq for bugging me.
Decter.morgan.666 for his support.

My parents for tolerating every crazy thing I do and occasional help.

If you need any help on this division I will be always there for you.

Happy modding!!!!!

 

[zCexVe]

Please Rate the case on a scale of 1 to 10.So I can improve my self.

 

[AL1717]

maxxa macho ela

 

[geethq]

ahh meka daala neda

 

[geethq]

mata pic tika balanna cafe ekakata yanna wenawa:S

 

[zCexVe]

LOL why? I'll give em to you with the HDD.
Anyway I got to setup a Dialog broadband which uses WCDMA.That vodaphone thingy.Awesome.Can connect in GPRS or 3G areas.Speed is 7.2MBps .Maxxa.1GB is 1000 rental and unlimited is 3500 Rental.Unit is 9k.

 

[yashan]

Maxxa. Maara creative porakne.