Adventures In Case Modding

Finally got around to getting my PC's innards into a new case that I got. Pretty strange how I got this case. A guy at work asks me if I want this case that he's had sitting around his house for two years. I said sure, and he gives it me. It's completely unopened. Still in the box and all. It's a no name brand case, so I thought it was going to be nothing special.

When I first took it out of the box, it indeed, looked rather plain. A standard beige case, with a plastic front bezel. I thought I'd use it as my server, so I got my Athlon XP 1600, plus mobo and RAM out to put into it. Well, when I slid off the access panel, there was one thing that I found particualrly striking. The inside of the chasis had a rather cool robotic look to it's assembly. It's kind of hard to explain, but most cases that I've worked on have had a rather machined in look. By that I mean, it looks like it started out as something else, but at the last minute, they decided to make it into a case. This one was diferent. It looked like everything had a purpose. Lost of rivets on the back plane of the case give an almost circuit board look to it.

I then removed the front bezel, and was rather shocked. The entire front end had a beautiful brushed nickel finish. It looks amazing. I removed the top of the case, as well as the back side, and sure enough, the entire chasis has the same finish! The coolness of this is that this is usually found in more expensive Lian-Li type cases (most cases are just straight up aluminum, and that's it). Anyway, this sucker is full on mod-able, and that's what I intend to do with it.

Step One: Buff the paint off the top and side panels. Under that paint has to be that same finish.
Step Two: Replace the standard power switch with a military switch.
Step Three: Find someone who can do laser cutting cheap (I'm not holding my breath). I'm looking for someone to do the "born" poster that is in Half Life 2 on one side, and the Quake 1 logo on the other. I do all my own case cutting (love my Dremel), but this would be far too intricate for me to do on my own.
Step Four: Line the inside of the side panels with high impact acrllyic, and finish it off with some blue EL Wire.
Step Five: Enjoy! (you have to add this step, right?)

I'll post some pics when I'm done. Until then, check out these very nice case mods from pimprig.com.

Picture One
Picture Two
Picture Three
Picture Four

And then there is of course the Half Life 2 case. This guy even modded his keyboard and mouse! Tight!
Black Mesa Mod