Here are some pics (and video) of my first case mod.
I've made three modifications to my system; front stereo VU meter, side fan cut-out over processor (wave pattern), and the LCD screen.
<- Front Stereo VU Meter
This was the first one, connected to my sound card I have 20 blue LEDs mounted behind the front plate of the case, looks pretty cool without the front plate but a bit too bright. I used some of the air intake ports to hold the LEDs, had to drill them out some to get the LEDs to fit. Took about 12 hours to do one Saturday. See the videos below to see it in action. Details
Side Fan Cut-Out ->
This was the second mod, now that I've plugged up some of the air intakes with the first mod I had to bring some more air into the case. Designed the "wave", printed out a pattern, and used a scroll saw to trace along the pattern. Has an illuminated 120mm fan behind it that has caught my finger a time or two. This was the easiest of the mods, took about 4 hours.
<- LCD Screen
This was the third mod. I had a small LCD screen laying around taken from an old airport internet terminal machine. Had to modify the heck out of the mounting brackets to lower its profile, used a bunch of aluminum offset hardware similar to what you'd use to mount the motherboard. I actually made the profile a little too slim, there's a bit of a gap between the screen and the side of the case when its on. Took about 14 hours. Again see the videos below to see it in action.
Videos
I probably got a little carried away with the videos here but it looks so good in the dark I couldn't stop. All in mpeg format.
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| 46 Meg (2:12) Closed case with the lights on. |
20 Meg (58sec) Open Case with the lights on. |
3 Meg (9sec) Front with the lights off. |
11 Meg (31sec) Side with the lights off |
15 Meg (42sec) Front to side pan with the lights off |
30 Meg (1:26) Front view of VU LED meter with panel removed. |
System Specs
For those that want to know here are the system specs
I guess this would be my second case mod, few years back (when LCDs were more expensive than a nice system) I made a coffee table with a CRT monitor mounted so that the screen was flush with the surface of the table. Had a stripped down chasis mounted directly below the tube.
Let me know what you think about the mods. I'm curious if anyone else out there has thought of these mods before. Have fun modding and feel free to use some of the ideas here. (If you make a crap load of money doing so I'd like a cut :-)) If there's interest I'll post some more details on what I used and where I got it from.
-Aaron
aaron@ephibian.com
January 2005