Completed CM - The Reform 1.0

[feerof]

Hey guys, I thought I might as well share my progress with my case mod. Honestly I was inspired by the fact that I had a case that had so much potential but yet... due to the design, it wasn't very useful... Also I was inspired by MNPCTECH because of their awesome tutorials! I got myself a dremel (what a dream tool. seriously. awesome. best tool I've ever got.) and I decided to use this time to practice some of my never used, never learned, solidworks (non existent) skillz. I looked up some tutorials and went from there... so far solidworks is by far the best program I've ever used.

So here it goes! I'll update as soon as I get more ideas out of my head.

Checklist:

To do:

In progress:

Done:

- Top mounted interior radiator

• fixed some missing cross members

- A bracket for 3 intake fans at the front of the computer.
- Mobo tray hole for back plate
- Buy caster wheels and install them
- repaint the case
- Install crossbar to support the radiator
- install the whole water cooling setup

 

[feerof]

In my opinion this case looked pretty ugly =(... Here's how it looked like back then:

The front and side view:

The side of the case:

The side panel removed:

Yeah... pretty ugly right? Lets see if I can improve it or worsen it... lol =P

 

[feerof]

This is how the case looked like when I removed the PSU cage up top, and painted it black with the help of a friend. This was how the case looked like last year during the winter.

Side panel removed:

Side panel still in place:

front + top view:

Just for the comparison sake of how my rig changed from the past to the present:

 

[bkh2]

Hey look, it's me sitting on the flex ball lol

Looks really good so far. Maybe add a little more pizazz to the vents to make it look cooler. Can't wait to see the loop up and running.

 

[Lpfan4ever]

Holy crap that rad is huge. Also, did you do all the cuts on the top with just the dremel? I assume you fixed them up before taking those last couple of pictures. Either way, looks good. Always nice to bring new life to old stuff.

 

[feerof]

Holy crap that rad is huge. Also, did you do all the cuts on the top with just the dremel? I assume you fixed them up before taking those last couple of pictures. Either way, looks good. Always nice to bring new life to old stuff.

lol thanks!

Umm... yeah I had to do a lot of filing... probably 45 mins - 1 hour worth of filing (as you can see in one of the pictures with the aluminum filings. Oh and I was soooo tired afterwards.

To tell you the honest truth I would not have done this case mod if it wasn't because I was on budget LOL but as it turns out, the time cost of modding a case would have bought me a HAFX lol... worth it? hell yeah, it's so fun and I get some tools and experience out of it!:thumb:

Fun is what matters =P

 

[feerof]

Obviously modding requires a bit of preparation, so here goes what I did to prepare.

This is how the top of my case would look like if I isolated that specific section of the case:

After numerous measurements and redesigns, I decided to stick with this one because of simplicity and easy of cutting with a dremel:

Now to set up the cuts on the actual case... boy was a nervous... even when planning:

Size comparison of the radiator that has to go in the case:

Final setup before I cut it:

Because I don't have a workshop, I had to do all my cutting outside:

After a longgggg while of filing the rough edges (notice the filing bits at the bottom of the case =P ), the final product looks like this:

Hopefully it's looking good to you guys!

Give me suggestions if you'd like! It would be greatly appreciated!

 

[feerof]

As a bonus, I decided to cut a CPU backplate hole... lol... since it was so easy to do with a dremel, here's how it went:

The setup to cutting:

Because the metal barb for the radiator was in the way of one of the mobo support sections, I had to improvise and cut a small slot into that support... just enough so that I can fit tubing:

I had to sand the mobo tray down, however I got lazy and didn't take pictures of the painted version of the mobo tray:

Since I was painting the mobo tray, I decided to paint the radiator also since it was a little beat up (again I forgot to paint the final product, but you guys will see the final product in the water loop setup pics):

 

[feerof]

Now if you guys noticed that there was a missing hole at the top of the case... well that has to be filled in. So here's a ghetto way of doing it... Krazy glue!

Replacement cross members:

Installing one of the members:

oh boy this took a long time... constant filing without a dam vice... horrible. Can't wait to finish up my garage. All of the members in there:

How the case looks like without the paint:

After numerous coats, and mistakes ... like putting primer on the old paint... BIG mistake:

For the people with sharp eyes out there, yes I did install caster wheels that I bought from my local Canadian Tires (suggested by another HWC member)... no locks though =(.
If you guys noticed a reformat in my postings, you're correct, I decided to change the format because when I looked at the bunch of pictures, it didn't really appeal to me... I mean who would want to look at a bunch of pictures with no logic in organization? =P So hopefully you guys like this format more.
Again please post responses of what you guys think! thanks!

Cheers

 

[Pine]

Looks a ton better than what you started with.
Loving it so far.