- Joined
- Jan 24, 2017
- Messages
- 3
- Motherboard
- Gigabyte Z170 Gaming 3
- CPU
- core i7 6700k
- Graphics
- RX 480
Hi guys, im completely new to case modding, i must have read each of the posts on here 10 times before i got the case off ebay to mod, I dont have all the PC parts yet in fact i only have a gigabyte z170 gaming 3 motherboard and a thermaltake 650w PSU (but i may be swapping that out... im hoping to add some things that i havnt seen on other mods as of yet, but its really hard as there are a lot of brilliant mods of these cases already out there.
I hope to bring to together a few things i've thought of myself and a few i've seen and thought, that would look brilliant, i started the case modding about a month ago and have taken loads of pics, its mostly trial and error as i go along so certain things change a few times over the time period as im thinking, that wont fit i need to change it lol.
My case mod is far from finished so after you have read this thread you will have caught up with me. I bought the G5 off ebay for £29.99 it was a non working dual 1.8GHz CPU machine, i took everything out of the case that i could(i had to come on here and read up to find out how to remove certain things like the heatsinks for the cpu and the shroud that covers them, and the top shelf!)
this was the specs the G5 came with
i started removing all the obvious easy components first
then got onto the guts of the machine(i still have all these bits if anyone wants to make me an offer)
I got an old ibm e machines server case donated to me by a good friend as a donor machine so i could cannibalize it for parts like the MB tray
warning dust hazard!!!
donor pc insides
its an intel socket 775 chip i think
donor case emptied out
this pic was so i could send the measurements off to the custom side panel place, but they came back saying they couldn't do the tab that runs along the bottom so when it arrived it was full thickness
So i dismantled the donor case so i could cut out the IO panel and motherboard tray, i decided to try and keep the G5 origional card slot exit holes on the back of the case( as i love making my work 10 harder than just replacing the whole back panel at once lol)
so i laid the donor case on top of the G5 case to try and see how much i would have to cut off each case, you'll have to forgive me here guys, im no expert craftsman or DIY expert, i do most things by eye and use whats around me, though i did purchase a dremel for this project.
the mounting pins in the G5 case all pop out with either a pair of pliers and a bit of brute strength or a few light taps from a hammer
this is the indentation you are left with after pulling the pins, watch out because some of the edges at the base of the pins are razor sharp
A bit of cowboy measuring seeing where i need to cut and transferring that cut to each case
1st rough cut of donor motherboard tray and IO shroud
getting ready to cut into the G5, the linings for the ports on the back all pop out(might need them later)
cut a rough pilot hole where the back of the cpu usually sits just in case the fixing screws or back plate for the cpu cooler need some room later on
stuck an old amd board i had lying around on the tray to help with gpu and other card placements
again lining up the card slots and seeing where i need to cut for the IO shroud to push through
rear panel cut out done
OK I made the decision to move the front panel, power button and usb slots somewhere else on the front panel so i dremeled the unit out
soooo... where could i put the power unit cluster... i know
its obvious really, i dont use an optical drive anymore and if i ever need to i have an external usb one i can plug in at a minutes notice
using scrap from the panel i cut off the back panel i try to make filler pieces for the front panel
I stick masking tape on the insdie of the case and position the filler piece into the hole ready to fix
the piece is lined up as good as it could be ready for the filler
the new placement of the switches is looking good, but matching up is proving harder here as i had very little spare back panel left to work with
word of warning DO NOT USE THIS STUFF it gets everywhere but where you actually want it, its very hard to work with and the end result didnt hold the plates at all(maybe its just the B&Q version but i found it almost impossible to do what i needed in the 4 minutes before the stuff starts curing)
epoxy putty round 1
wasn't very happy at all with the epoxy putty so read some posts on here and ordered this
the difference is like chalk and cheese, the jb weld is brilliant, so easy to work with, yes i still got everywhere, but the 6 hour set time gave me time to put it where needed without rushing
1 sanding back of the jb weld
jb weld round 2
sanded it back and tried to drill holes to continue pattern... ferked the top right corner up so jb weld round 3 lol
i bought one of these off ebay, to cut circles for the 90mm fans on the back panel, holy crap this thing got caught in the back plate and and started spinning it round like a helicopter blade even though i thought i have secured it enough, it ripped the plate 2 new a holes that wernt round at all, so i thought i would use this plate as a rough copy to get measurements and make alterations to
as you can see the holes are far from round! and the thin aluminium was like rice paper to the hole cutter
but it gave me something i could offer up to get the IO plate dimensions for when i make a proper one
fitted an old card into one of the slots and screwed it in place so i could an exact placement for the motherboard tray
theres a lip running around the side panels with little bolts in it, and you cant push the motherboard tray out to the level of the new backplate without it lifting about 2mm so i made the decision to take out 3 of these bolts and trim down this lip to a lesser height
so i've now got a rough copy of the back plate i need to make from thicker aluminium or some steel panel from the donor pc
Right so some bits and pieces arrived from china, so i took a break from the front and back panel and decided to give the side panel a crack, i've been thinking long and hard about what i could do for a side panel, smoked gray plexiglass side panel, you say thats been done to death, i agree but im adding a few little twists that might help mine stand out from the crowd
first of all i needed to mod the inner clear panel that came with the G5 case
basically i dremelled the hell out of it and cut the middle out leaving me with an edge piece between 2cm and 7mm in places around the edges
I needed something that would still sit in the frame and stay there
I made a rough wooden frame that would in the frame and could be removed easily
I taped it to the clear plastic edging so that would hold it in place while i worked things out
i sanded and smoothed the wooden frame out so it fitted perfectly for my needs
the frame gets a couple of coats of matt black paint
I then rough fit the LED strip i got from china to the inside of the frame
some more bits arrive from china, i can now proceed with the plexiglass part of the side panel
the chinese company i bought the brass cap ends from didnt send me the screw ends i was supposed to get with them so i sourced some of my own from a guy who selling pc screws/footings/nuts at £1 a bag i managed to find 22 screws that fitted the thread of the brass cap ends plus if i needed them some stand offs also fitted them so i could customize the stand offs if i needed to or need to!
so i removed the inner frame from the aluminium side panel of the G5 and transferred it across to the plexiglass panel using the screw holes to mark where to drill the 4mm holes id need in the plexi glass for the brass cap ends to fit
this is the inner side of the plexi glass ready to test fit the frame
So nowi needed to try and make the long tab along the bottom myself, being honest i was crapping myself, then i thought, why does it have to be one long tab, why not 3 1 inch tabs, they would do the same job and would 100 times easier to do so i did a rough measure and got to work with the jigsaw and dremel
this is after the initial jigsaw cut, the 3 tabs are still full thickness and wont slide into the slot on the side of the case
my attempt at thinning the tabs down with the dremel
this took a few attempts of trial and error but i didnt want to rush it and end up going too far
so i got it sitting pretty nice in the groove and pleased as punch with myself
so i thought to myself, why dont i drill 2 holes in the top left and top right of the plexiglass where those little spikes are inside the aluminium side panel on the G5 and i could fashion some sort of stud that could do the same job, I guess my ego had over took me at this point as i was drilling the last hole in the top left corner the drill fell through the hole and hit the plexiglass cracking the corner clean off( many many many expletives later) i decided this piece would now also be used to rough work and i would have to order another pice for the final build and be super careful when drilling(i will not be putting the corner holes in the new panel!!)
So i ripped the protective sheeting off the plexiglass both sides and attached the plexiglass mirror i had bought to the other side of the black wooden frame,
i sat the black frame with the LEDS and mirror inside the larger frame of the case side locking it with the clear edging i had removed earlier, i then sat the plexiglass side panel onto the side of the case making the plexiglass,clear edging and black wooden frame 1 unit, so i used a portable power bank i had lying around and plugged in the LEDS... here is the results of my custom side panel( but not the full results")
yes its an infinity mirror, all made by little old me which im very proud of, but this now brought a new list of problems with it, mainly the thickness of the black wooden frame meant i couldnt sit the PSU in the bottom of the case, so i actually sat for almost 2 days pondering the different things i could do to fit both things into the case, i finally decided i would have to mod the case at the bottom to fit a standard sized PSU in without it interfering with the infinity mirror framework
oh this is the framework i made to hold either 2 fans 120mm or a double radiator and 2 fans for cpu cooling, it was one of the 1st things i made and has been altered and adjusted so many times lol, and now it would have to be done again as the PSU would have to slide in below it (its upside down in the pic)
so i used the casing from the origional G5 PSU i cut it shorter and made it thinner, then cracked out with the jb weld again, oh and the pop rivet gun started to make an appearance now
this is the underneath of the case as of yesterday 26/01/2017
test fitting a PSU before i tack it in place
tacked in place and framework added to support the framework for the fan holders
so this is the framework as of today 28/01/2017
the middle of the frame where the fans will sit is held in place by 1 screw (the ones you use to hold fans in place) at the top and bottom so you can remove it to get to your fans/radiator if needed
I've tried to think of every eventuality at every stage and tried to make the parts im putting in easy to use or dismantle, you have caught up with me now, i dont do stuff to it every day as i have a life outside of doing this mod, even though im thinking about almost every minute im awake lol, I hope you like what im doing so far and any feed back and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks Richard
I hope to bring to together a few things i've thought of myself and a few i've seen and thought, that would look brilliant, i started the case modding about a month ago and have taken loads of pics, its mostly trial and error as i go along so certain things change a few times over the time period as im thinking, that wont fit i need to change it lol.
My case mod is far from finished so after you have read this thread you will have caught up with me. I bought the G5 off ebay for £29.99 it was a non working dual 1.8GHz CPU machine, i took everything out of the case that i could(i had to come on here and read up to find out how to remove certain things like the heatsinks for the cpu and the shroud that covers them, and the top shelf!)
this was the specs the G5 came with
i started removing all the obvious easy components first
then got onto the guts of the machine(i still have all these bits if anyone wants to make me an offer)
I got an old ibm e machines server case donated to me by a good friend as a donor machine so i could cannibalize it for parts like the MB tray
warning dust hazard!!!
donor pc insides
its an intel socket 775 chip i think
donor case emptied out
this pic was so i could send the measurements off to the custom side panel place, but they came back saying they couldn't do the tab that runs along the bottom so when it arrived it was full thickness
So i dismantled the donor case so i could cut out the IO panel and motherboard tray, i decided to try and keep the G5 origional card slot exit holes on the back of the case( as i love making my work 10 harder than just replacing the whole back panel at once lol)
so i laid the donor case on top of the G5 case to try and see how much i would have to cut off each case, you'll have to forgive me here guys, im no expert craftsman or DIY expert, i do most things by eye and use whats around me, though i did purchase a dremel for this project.
the mounting pins in the G5 case all pop out with either a pair of pliers and a bit of brute strength or a few light taps from a hammer
this is the indentation you are left with after pulling the pins, watch out because some of the edges at the base of the pins are razor sharp
A bit of cowboy measuring seeing where i need to cut and transferring that cut to each case
1st rough cut of donor motherboard tray and IO shroud
getting ready to cut into the G5, the linings for the ports on the back all pop out(might need them later)
cut a rough pilot hole where the back of the cpu usually sits just in case the fixing screws or back plate for the cpu cooler need some room later on
stuck an old amd board i had lying around on the tray to help with gpu and other card placements
again lining up the card slots and seeing where i need to cut for the IO shroud to push through
rear panel cut out done
OK I made the decision to move the front panel, power button and usb slots somewhere else on the front panel so i dremeled the unit out
soooo... where could i put the power unit cluster... i know
its obvious really, i dont use an optical drive anymore and if i ever need to i have an external usb one i can plug in at a minutes notice
using scrap from the panel i cut off the back panel i try to make filler pieces for the front panel
I stick masking tape on the insdie of the case and position the filler piece into the hole ready to fix
the piece is lined up as good as it could be ready for the filler
the new placement of the switches is looking good, but matching up is proving harder here as i had very little spare back panel left to work with
word of warning DO NOT USE THIS STUFF it gets everywhere but where you actually want it, its very hard to work with and the end result didnt hold the plates at all(maybe its just the B&Q version but i found it almost impossible to do what i needed in the 4 minutes before the stuff starts curing)
epoxy putty round 1
wasn't very happy at all with the epoxy putty so read some posts on here and ordered this
the difference is like chalk and cheese, the jb weld is brilliant, so easy to work with, yes i still got everywhere, but the 6 hour set time gave me time to put it where needed without rushing
1 sanding back of the jb weld
jb weld round 2
sanded it back and tried to drill holes to continue pattern... ferked the top right corner up so jb weld round 3 lol
i bought one of these off ebay, to cut circles for the 90mm fans on the back panel, holy crap this thing got caught in the back plate and and started spinning it round like a helicopter blade even though i thought i have secured it enough, it ripped the plate 2 new a holes that wernt round at all, so i thought i would use this plate as a rough copy to get measurements and make alterations to
as you can see the holes are far from round! and the thin aluminium was like rice paper to the hole cutter
but it gave me something i could offer up to get the IO plate dimensions for when i make a proper one
fitted an old card into one of the slots and screwed it in place so i could an exact placement for the motherboard tray
theres a lip running around the side panels with little bolts in it, and you cant push the motherboard tray out to the level of the new backplate without it lifting about 2mm so i made the decision to take out 3 of these bolts and trim down this lip to a lesser height
so i've now got a rough copy of the back plate i need to make from thicker aluminium or some steel panel from the donor pc
Right so some bits and pieces arrived from china, so i took a break from the front and back panel and decided to give the side panel a crack, i've been thinking long and hard about what i could do for a side panel, smoked gray plexiglass side panel, you say thats been done to death, i agree but im adding a few little twists that might help mine stand out from the crowd
first of all i needed to mod the inner clear panel that came with the G5 case
basically i dremelled the hell out of it and cut the middle out leaving me with an edge piece between 2cm and 7mm in places around the edges
I needed something that would still sit in the frame and stay there
I made a rough wooden frame that would in the frame and could be removed easily
I taped it to the clear plastic edging so that would hold it in place while i worked things out
i sanded and smoothed the wooden frame out so it fitted perfectly for my needs
the frame gets a couple of coats of matt black paint
I then rough fit the LED strip i got from china to the inside of the frame
some more bits arrive from china, i can now proceed with the plexiglass part of the side panel
the chinese company i bought the brass cap ends from didnt send me the screw ends i was supposed to get with them so i sourced some of my own from a guy who selling pc screws/footings/nuts at £1 a bag i managed to find 22 screws that fitted the thread of the brass cap ends plus if i needed them some stand offs also fitted them so i could customize the stand offs if i needed to or need to!
so i removed the inner frame from the aluminium side panel of the G5 and transferred it across to the plexiglass panel using the screw holes to mark where to drill the 4mm holes id need in the plexi glass for the brass cap ends to fit
this is the inner side of the plexi glass ready to test fit the frame
So nowi needed to try and make the long tab along the bottom myself, being honest i was crapping myself, then i thought, why does it have to be one long tab, why not 3 1 inch tabs, they would do the same job and would 100 times easier to do so i did a rough measure and got to work with the jigsaw and dremel
this is after the initial jigsaw cut, the 3 tabs are still full thickness and wont slide into the slot on the side of the case
my attempt at thinning the tabs down with the dremel
this took a few attempts of trial and error but i didnt want to rush it and end up going too far
so i got it sitting pretty nice in the groove and pleased as punch with myself
so i thought to myself, why dont i drill 2 holes in the top left and top right of the plexiglass where those little spikes are inside the aluminium side panel on the G5 and i could fashion some sort of stud that could do the same job, I guess my ego had over took me at this point as i was drilling the last hole in the top left corner the drill fell through the hole and hit the plexiglass cracking the corner clean off( many many many expletives later) i decided this piece would now also be used to rough work and i would have to order another pice for the final build and be super careful when drilling(i will not be putting the corner holes in the new panel!!)
So i ripped the protective sheeting off the plexiglass both sides and attached the plexiglass mirror i had bought to the other side of the black wooden frame,
i sat the black frame with the LEDS and mirror inside the larger frame of the case side locking it with the clear edging i had removed earlier, i then sat the plexiglass side panel onto the side of the case making the plexiglass,clear edging and black wooden frame 1 unit, so i used a portable power bank i had lying around and plugged in the LEDS... here is the results of my custom side panel( but not the full results")
yes its an infinity mirror, all made by little old me which im very proud of, but this now brought a new list of problems with it, mainly the thickness of the black wooden frame meant i couldnt sit the PSU in the bottom of the case, so i actually sat for almost 2 days pondering the different things i could do to fit both things into the case, i finally decided i would have to mod the case at the bottom to fit a standard sized PSU in without it interfering with the infinity mirror framework
oh this is the framework i made to hold either 2 fans 120mm or a double radiator and 2 fans for cpu cooling, it was one of the 1st things i made and has been altered and adjusted so many times lol, and now it would have to be done again as the PSU would have to slide in below it (its upside down in the pic)
so i used the casing from the origional G5 PSU i cut it shorter and made it thinner, then cracked out with the jb weld again, oh and the pop rivet gun started to make an appearance now
this is the underneath of the case as of yesterday 26/01/2017
test fitting a PSU before i tack it in place
tacked in place and framework added to support the framework for the fan holders
so this is the framework as of today 28/01/2017
the middle of the frame where the fans will sit is held in place by 1 screw (the ones you use to hold fans in place) at the top and bottom so you can remove it to get to your fans/radiator if needed
I've tried to think of every eventuality at every stage and tried to make the parts im putting in easy to use or dismantle, you have caught up with me now, i dont do stuff to it every day as i have a life outside of doing this mod, even though im thinking about almost every minute im awake lol, I hope you like what im doing so far and any feed back and suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks Richard
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