How to: Basic PC Mods - Overclock.net

*CyberDruid* · 02-05-06

You will need some equipment so here follows a list of gear and then some basic projects and other tips for modding your PC.

Essential Modding Gear

Ø A dremel or other rotary tool with an assortment of cutting, sanding polishing and shaping tool bits.
Ø A razor knife or xacto.
Ø Scissors.
Ø A ball peen hammer and a center punch.
Ø Soldering gun, solder and common electrical connectors.
Ø Heat shrink tubing, a heat gun and/or a micro torch.
Ø Cable sheathing, spiral or split wrap, wire ties and other cable management doodads.
Ø Pliers, cutters, crimpers and vise grips of various types—needle nose at the very least.
Ø Round, Flat and Half-round metal files for deburring and straightening cuts.
Ø A corded or cordless drill with some guts, an 80 mm and a 120mm hole saw, some basic drill bits, and perhaps a few common taps.
Ø A variable speed jigsaw and some 18 and 24 tpi metal cutting blades.
Ø Masking tape (low tack blue) and some fine point markers.
Ø Sandpaper for paintwork and lapping.
Ø A piece of glass and kerosene or paint thinner for lapping.
Ø Bondo, JB liquid Metal, Denatured Alcohol, Wilbond, tackcloths, Silicon adhesive, acrylic solvent and polish and various types of spraypaint.
Ø Modders Mesh (for grills grates and screens) or expanded metal.
Ø Pop Rivets and a Pop Rivet gun.
Ø Compressed air in the can.
Ø Hot glue gun and hot glue sticks.
Ø Table saw, Band saw, Drill Press, Spindle Sander and router for working acrylic.

How to Mod for Larger Fans
A lot of otherwise decent PC cases are shipped with puny fans or simply not enough airflow to cool a high performance PC. By modifying the case to accept larger fans than stock not only when cooling be improved, but the overall noise from the PC will be less. It will be apparent how large of a fan can be shoehorned into the existing spot. Mark the 4 mounting holes to see if they conflict with any existing parts.

If the location works then draw an X from the 4 points to find the center and drill the appropriate size hole. Using a hole saw makes this easy, but if one is not available there are several other ways to cut or enlarge a hole. Using a dremel or rotary tool and a cut off wheel is surely tedious by comparison but it will get the job done. Be sure to stock up on cut off wheels, as radius cuts tend to use them up. A series of holes can be drilled around the perimeter first. Nipping out the metal between each hole will eventually produce a ragged opening of the approximate size. Using a rotary file or drum sander or a hand file the opening can be dressed to the desired size and shape. Again slow work compared to the drill and hole saw.

Having created the hole and dressed the edge so that it is slightly larger than the blade diameter of the fan, position the fan so that it is centered and carefully mark the 4 attachment holes again—chances are they have shifted from the previous mark. Center punch and drill the holes using a bit large enough to give the fan screws clearance. If the holes bind the threads it will not be easy to draw the fan flush to the case.

Ideally any fan should be isolated from the case with a urethane grommet or washer and fitted with a filter if it draws air into the case.

How to Mod a Window
One way to easily add a window to a side panel or any part of the PC case is too apply the window either to the interior with adhesive or to the exterior with fasteners or a bezel. Another way is to use a special U-shaped rubber channel and trap the window in the opening. Depending on the execution any of these three are equally appealing and functional.

The easiest of the three is to apply the window form the interior with adhesive tape or a bead of silicon. The hole for the window needs to be just about perfect and free from ripples or burrs around the edge. Simply cut a piece or clear or tinted 1/8” acrylic slightly oversize and stick it to the inside of the panel.

The next easiest is to apply a window to the exterior. This can add some textural dimension to the otherwise flat sides of the case. The cut out might look best if sharp angles are avoided. Using paper to make a template, pattern for the window by adding an inch or thereabouts to the opening to give the window a landing. Once you’ve got the pattern transfer it to the acrylic and cut it out. Since the cut edges are visible use a sander to remove any irregularities and follow that with a router to chamfer the edge with an appropriate bit. If desired the edge can be polished until completely transparent again by using white rouge and a cotton flap wheel. Position the window over the opening and mark for holes where the fasteners will go.

After drilling the holes in the acrylic lay it over the opening again and mark those holes onto the case around the opening. If using self-tapping screws make the holes in the case snug enough to allow the screws to fetch up when applying the window. If using nutted fasteners take care not to overtighten the acrylic and crack it around the screw holes. Acorn nuts Rivets, Button, Pan, Allen or Torx Head screws each have their own techno aesthetic. Rather than hiding the fasteners this style of window flaunts them.

The third style of window requires the window be cut from acrylic first—again sharp angles won’t work well with this type of window. Mask off the panel wherever the cut is going to be. Lay the window onto the outside of the panel and position it where desired. Use a 5/16” flat washer to trace around the window with a fine point marker using the center of the washer to guide the marker tip like an axle as you wheel around the perimeter of the acrylic. You should now have drawn out an opening about ¼” wider than the acrylic.

Cut out the opening. What makes this part easier than the others is that the U-channel will hide the cut out and the window so neither have to be dressed to perfection. Feed the U-channel onto the cut out until it goes all the way around and trim it to fit just right. The channel will hold itself in place. Using a little dish soap can help the window into the U-channel. Try using the handle of a spoon or a dull butter knife to spread the channel open and over the acrylic.

How to Mod Cables and Wires
Sheathing cables has gotten easier with entire kits to trick out the PSU. Colored and UV reactive molex connectors make color coordinated mods a cinch. A molex tool, a pack of spiffy new connectors and several yards of sheathing are an inexpensive way to spruce up the interior. Rounded data cables always look good and they help the PC breathe a little easier. For a few bucks and few hours you get a truly custom look that helps keep your rig running cool.

If sheathing is not happening for you a low cost alternative is to custom shorten excessive lengths of power cabling by pruning them back and recrimping molex pins onto each wire. Coupled with clever routing the power cables can disappear from view for an extra clean look.

Likewise if round cables aren’t on the budget, splitting and wrapping standard ribbon cables is how it all began. Some clever folding and a few wire ties can turn data cables invisible.

EL wire can be used to highlight cables by bundling it into the loom before sheathing or spiral wrapping the wires. The translucent white spiral wrap works great with EL wire.

Miniature LEDs are available that illuminate the molex. Blue LEDs tend to work on UV reactive material. Simply insert the tiny chip into the connector and you’ve got glow.

Whether you want the wires to stand out or disappear it’s still modding. Changing stuff around is a good way to find better ways to wire the case. Despite what ModSnobs say, there is no right or wrong way to run the cables in your PC as long as everything still works after you’re done.

How to Work Acrylic
Working with acrylic requires some basic shop skills and a knowledge of and familiarity with powertools. You can still do some fabricating without those prerequisites provided you have the plastics shop do all the cutting and polishing for you. You will still need to know how to measure and draw out or otherwise design the parts for your project. Unless willing to pay the plastics shop to re-draw your designs, you should try and provide them with .dxf files or whatever vector files they use to CNC or laser cut the parts. This assumes parts other than simple squares or circles are relevant to our design.

If you are desiring to cut shape glue and polish the acrylic yourself you will need access to a Table Saw, Band Saw or at the very least a jigsaw with a plastic cutting blade. A drill press and some sanding tools are handy but not essential. For making parts from a master pattern, a router is the tool of choice. For one of a kind creations, the router is handy for shaping edges, but considering the time it takes to make a master pattern, the actual piece could be fabricated instead.

Acrylic can be cut, drilled, tapped, sanded, routed, polished and glued. Gluing acrylic requires a special solvent that most plastic shops stock. The solvent literally fuses the two pieces together forming a water and airtight totally transparent seam. Ideal for reservoirs and ducts, acrylic can also be bent by applying low heat for a period of time and then draping it over a mold. After it cools the bends are permanent.

Some plastics shops offer laser etching onto acrylic. A greyscale JPEG image can be cut onto the surface of the plastic in immense detail. When the sheet is lit from the edge these etched images glow vivdly. Laser cutting is another service some of these shops offer, leaving a glassy edge on the cut acrylic and requiring no polishing. Intricate shapes such as fan grills can be crafted in this manner.

EDIT: Here is a link to a detailed thread about how to do a window mod: http://www.overclock.net/case-mods-g...dow-mod-w.html

CanadaGradeEh · 02-07-06

Good FAQ! Maybe specify some of the tools (like what kind of Dremel blades we need for different kinds of mods), and definitely add some pictures.
+rep. This will come in handy for me soon since I'm getting a new case in a couple of weeks. I can cut apart and play with my two older prebuilt cases.

*CyberDruid* · 02-14-06

Good point--I will gather some useful pix for the FAQ and add them,

The most useful dremel blades or bits are: the cut-off wheel: these things last about ten seconds so buy masses of them--the arbors last a long time; the drum sander: like the cut-off wheels these wear out rapidly so ditto above; a selection of different shapes of carbide bits: they look like larger versions of the pain-inflicting devices your dentist favors--there are ball, cone and cylinder shapes in varying sizes--only the carbide ones are any good for hard materials; buffing wheels: again these don't hold up for long--some are wheel-shaped and screw onto an arbor--some are bullet-shaped and permanently attached to shafts--you will need polishing compound to apply to these--white rouge and red rouge will suffice--white is best for plastics and soft metals like aluminum--red for harder metals like brass, copper and stainless; a flexible shaft accessory can be handy but saps some of the power--however for tight spaces it is ideal.

How are these bits used? Well--the cut off wheel is good if you don't think a jigsaw is appropriate or you don't have one handy--you can cut anything with it--even circles if you take your time and follow the marker line by making shallow incisions--windows can become intricate patterns or even silohuettes--youc an also modify or trim fittings or remove fasteners or shorten overlong bolts and screws with it or make or enlarge slots as needed to accomodate drives.

The drum sander is excellent for deburring holesaw cuts for fanholes or to round or slightly enlarge holes to the exact size--you can also use the drum sander to scallop edges of acrylic or to make the edge opaque for lighting effects (increases the glow of edge lit plastic). Though not really useful for flattening or flat sanding, with a little finesse small areas can be sanded smooth with them as well.

Carbide bits are good for etching acrylic (place the artwork paper behind the acrylic and go to town like you are tracing) and for piercing metal and detailing intricate cut-outs that the cut-off wheel is too large to do. They are pretty much carving tools--good for texturing or knurling materials on a finer scale than the drum sander--unlike the abrasive bits (that look like red and grey stone) they do not wear down and last for(almost)ever.

The buffing bits are a temendous time-savers for polishing any metals to extreme brightness--after polishing quickly tarnished metals like brass and aluminum a quick shot of clear acrylic or lacquer will keep them bright and prevent fingerprints from marring your efforts later. After cutting acrylic and sanding the edge with a block or power sander the buffers loaded with white rouge can make the acrylic clear again--they are also handy for removing light scratches and haze from plastics. doing so by hand would take a really long time--but it is possible.

One caveat regarding the dremel tool--it is best suited for small work--detailing and intricate surfacing--buffing large areas or sanding, or cutting and shaping large areas is better left to larger tools like a buffing or sanding wheel or hole-saw mounted to a drill or better still a drill press.

A good example would be adding a cut-out or pierced logo to the side panel: using a jigsaw to remove the largest parts followed by the dremel to get into the all the smaller parts of the logo or picture you are piercing into the metal--then placing acyrlic behind that and fogging certain areas and leaving certain areas clear for diffferentitated lighting effects. Say you want a Half LIfe 2 logo or UT logo--this could be cut out of the metal and the acrylic behind it could be sanded on the interior surface to make it glow when edge lit with LED or CC lights.

LEDs can be inserted into depressions or cavities formed in the acrylic with various bits which will spice up the lighting effect while concealing the source.Concealed lighting is usually a lot more interesting than a light just hanging there--usually the light is better dispersed as well. Edge lighting plastic requires some part of the plastic to either be etched or scratched with sandpaper to make it glow from that area. Otherwise the light tends to beam from the polished edge like a lense--a picture etched into acrylic will really pop out if edge lit--the light will be totally diffuse and the source can be totally hidden (see example below).

*CyberDruid* · 02-14-06

Window mods can be really simple or extremely involved--what I call piercing is probably the most involved and requires a fair level of artistic and mechanical ability--find a logo or picture tha can be converted to silohuette effectively--unfortunately not all pictures come across all that well in silohuette so the ability to visulize the end result is key to the success ofthe image.

Protect the surface you are planning to embellish with perforations and cutouts with a few layers of good masking tape to keep from putting any deep scratches into the case or finish.

Draw or trace the image onto the panel you wish to embellish and take the time to indicate by cross-hatches or filling-in with marker the areas you plan to completely remove--these are the areas where you either want light to stream through from the interior or you want to see through in order to show off your awesome hardware. With a complicated pattern it is easy to get confused as to what is being cut and what is being left in place unless these areas are clearly marked before hand.

Rough-out the largest areas with a jigsaw--pre-drill several holes to make it easier to make the jigsaw turn and follow your line as required for each cut-out. After you have gotten everything possible with the jigsaw (using a 24 tpi metal blade) use the various dremel bits described above to finish all the various cutouts in full detail.

Deburr the edges and make any changes to your design--paint if needed and then place some acrylic behind your cutouts--are there areas you would like to have glowing different colors? In your initial design leave enough metal in place to allow room for individual pieces of acylic. Are these different colors going to be glowing? You will need to etch, sand or fog them with a sandblaster or other tool for that effect. Paint the edges of the individual pieces of acrylic with black paint (Testors modelling enamel works well) this will keep the light from bleeding over from one area to another. If there is a convenient edge that is not adjacent to any other pieces this can be left clear and an LED or CC light can be used to edge light the individual piece. this way it is possible to have distinct lighting effects that really stand out even side by side, while leaving other areas clear as windows into the PC.

The possibilities are only limited by your imagination and ability.

CanadaGradeEh · 02-27-06

I'm doing my own mod coming up within a couple of weeks (as I said before), and this is definitely going to be included. I'll read it over in detail while I step-by-step so I can give you the uber ultimate review :) heh
Sorry I haven't replied sooner. I've been involved with a number of other things so I haven't been much into the computer forum thingy lately haha. Working on school + ... social thing :P lolz.

Rest assured, it's almost gauranteed that you will be receiving LOLZ TEH NUTHER REP PONT!11oneoentwo

*CyberDruid* · 03-23-06

I need to illustrate this darn FAQ...soon.

*CyberDruid* · 04-02-06

Here are some pictures to help illustrate some of the modding tips above. I have attached them so as to follow the order of the text

1) Cable Management--there are different approaches--this illustrates what I call Cable Tie Mania--an excessive use of cable ties that actually looks okay, sort of...

2) I call this tuck and fold--hiding the front panel wires and usb cables behind the mobo panel.

3) Using round IDE and floppy cables--super simple--an easy upgrade and helps air flow in the case.

4) Another easy winner--the bay-mounted fan controller with temp monitor--why leave a blank slot on that case--stick a device in there--fan controllers are great for saving your hearing.

5) And that old stand by--LED fans. Probably the single most common mod.

Stay tuned for more mods below....

*CyberDruid* · 04-02-06

More mods--these are a little more involved.

1)Complete internal water cooling with extreme cable maagement--every cable that could be hidden has been--every cable is sheathed and/or rounded. The radiator is shrouded--UV lighs, LED fans, fan controllers, ducting all has been fitted internally.

2) L-shaped window for the modded rig featured above.

3) Modders Mesh and custom acrylic shroud for Rad.

4) Another look at the management of the internal WC system

5) Hidden UV Cold Cathode Lighting makes the juice glow--hiding the lights adds to the effect IMO.

*CyberDruid* · 04-02-06

More Mods...

1) This overclocked aircooled rig has duct work from the the modded front panel to an 80mm fan right in front of the CPU HS fan to provide cool air.

2) A detail of the duct/fan

3) Rounded cables, PCI slot fan, but the cable management is still a mess!

4) Nothing some blue CCL lighting can't fix...everything usually looks better in the dark.

5) If you can't afford or wait for proper sheathing--automotive sheathing will do the job--not too purdy, though. In this photo you can see the duct is made from a piece of shop vac hose...lol.