[Amateur] Project Graphite

Welcome to Project Graphite! In this mod, I'll be taking the oft-modded Antec 300 and turning it into something awesome.

Inspiration:



Mini history lesson: During World War II, the US government built a series of nuclear plants in Oak Ridge, Tennessee as part of the Manhattan Project. Many of the people who worked at the facility had no idea what they were working on - like the woman above, they simply monitored panels of switches and dials without knowing the machine's purpose.

My plan is to make a case that would have fit in at one of those plants - not an exact replica (I'm not that ambitious, lol), but something industrial, with lots of switches and things to fiddle with, a gauge or two, and a window to monitor what's going on inside.

The Case:






Ah, a blank slate. Time to tear it to pieces.





While I was dismantling the case, the UPS guy delivered the first bunch of parts I ordered for this rig.



Still missing a few parts (nothing major, just the CPU and graphics card ), but I'll be ordering them soon.

First off, I cut some cable management holes. My dremel's cutting wheel is broken, so I had to do it with a drill and a nibbler. Not an easy task when working in tight spaces, but it got the job done.

Test-fitting the components & marking where to cut.



One for the 8-pin power, one for the front panel stuff, and a couple in the optical & HDD bays for the 24-pin and others.




Then I filed the edges of the holes smooth, taped off the top and bottom panels, and roughed up the rest 150 grit sandpaper. I'm painting the interior & back with Rustoleum hammered silver. I considered painting the outside as well, but I like the textured black so it stays.




Here's what it looks like with two coats on.



And here's a closeup to show the texture.



Now to let it dry a few days and put the components in!

So now that my case has had time to dry, it's time to install some components! So I popped my PSU in and...




Uh-oh. The paint didn't stick to the metal at all. I checked the rest of the case and it was just as bad. Looks like it's all going to have to come off. :swearing:

A few hours with a putty knife and sandpaper later, I had the case in a re-paintable state. I also had a work area that looked like ground zero at Glittershima.




This time around, I'm using primer!



Here's the case primed.



And here it is repainted, after drying for 3 days. I tried screwing in the PSU again, and the paint held up.



While I was watching paint dry, the rest of my components showed up. I'm drooling just thinking about what the 5850 will do. Time to put it all together.



I pulled out the I/O plate for the mobo, and damn is it ugly.



I decided it would look much better with the sticker off and a coat of black paint. I had a can of satin black lying around, so that's exactly what I did. I also painted all the PCI brackets for good measure. Between coats, I started putting stuff together.



Yeah, yeah, stock cooling. Gotta save $$ so I can afford the mods.

After I finished painting, I decided to stealth my DVD drive. No Antec 300 mod is complete without a stealthed drive! I started by popping the mesh off of one of my drive covers, then taping off the front so I wouldn't accidentally scuff it up.




I bent the little plastic clips back out of the way, then sanded all the protruding plastic pieces down so the cover will slide more easily. Then i reassembled the cover and layered pieces of cardboard on the back for thickness. Finally, a use for all those newegg boxes I have lying around. I put a couple strips of foam mounting tape on the drive to attach the cover. To push the button, I cut a little piece of dowel rod and stuck it to the cover with more foam tape.




(My cat insisted on sleeping on the sheet, hence the hair.)

Here it is ready to go.



Drive in position.



Drive? What drive?



Closeup of the button-pushing mechanism.



So at this point, the paint STILL wasn't dry (c'mon Krylon), so I started installing fans. Nice RED fans.



I put two in the front and one in the rear to replace the included tricool. Now I just have to paint the 140mm top fan to match.



That's when I realized one of my cable management holes wasn't nearly big enough, so out came the nibbler again.




Much better. Now the paint is finally dry on the I/O plate, so I can put it all together.



Ta-da! Note the ghetto temporary fan controller mounting situation across the bottom. There's a lot of modding left to do, but I'm going to get the rig up and running first.

It's time to sleeve some cables! I'm too chicken (and cheap) to sleeve the whole PSU, so I'll be doing a bunch of extensions: 24-pin and 8-pin ATX, 6 pin PCI, and an 8 to 6-pin PCI adapter.

I started by removing all the pins with an ATX pin removal tool. It was pretty easy once I got the hang of it.




I labeled all the pins & connectors so I wouldn't get anything mixed up.



Three out of four all de-pinned. I also replaced the boring white connectors on a couple of the extensions with black ones for a more uniform look.




I splurged a little bit and bought MDPC-X sleeving instead of the cheap stuff. Looking at the stuff in person, the quality is worth it. The cute little dude on the envelope is awesome, too.



My camera flash makes the red sleeve look kinda orange, but in person, it's RED.



My very first bit of sleeving. It was easier than I expected: just measure, cut, melt ends with a candle to stop fraying, slide on wire, cut heatshrink, slide on, shrink with heat gun. Here's the adapter all done:



I got really ambitious and did the 24-pin extension next.



And then the 6 & 8 pin extensions.





I had a little sleeve left over, so I did my CPU fan wires too.



Here's a shot of everything in place.



Oh yeah.

It's finally warm enough to paint outside, so I decided to paint my top fan red to match all the other case fans.



Taking the fan apart.



Taping off the important bits. I also cleaned off the really dusty blades with isopropyl alcohol.




I bought some "red" thumbscrews, but they turned out more pink than red. so I decided to paint them too.

Before:



After:




Reassembling the fan:




Much better than black. And no more boring thumbscrews!

It's finally time to start cutting up the side panel! I started by marking out the hole for the window. I used a cookie tin lid to make rounded corners.



A bit of cutting later, and voila:




Then I started laying out all the stuff I wanted to put on the side panel: two vandal switches, 3 toggle switches, a thermometer, and 3 fan controller knobs.



Then I cut/drilled the holes...




...and put all the stuff in.




Now it's time for u-channel.



I couldn't find Scotch 4010 tape, so I went with 4011. It's not clear, but it is weatherproof...just in case there's a thunderstorm inside my case.



Here's everything in place, including the window, which is so clean you can't even see it.





While I had the case open, I made a few minor adjustments. I added a small piece of plexiglass in the bottom HD bay to keep the rat's nest of cables under control.




I also put some heatshrink on my power/reset switch leads.




Finally, I wired up the power/reset switches & LEDs. I had to cut yet another cable managment hole to run all the wires through. I also put in my lighting: a pair of 12" red CCFLs. For some reason I didn't take any pics of them lit. I'll make sure to put some in the next update.

With all the side panel doodads installed, it's time to add some decorative touches. What would a control panel be without some labels?



I decided to leave the three switches unlabeled. I think it adds a bit of mystery.

I also had the hole in the front panel where the original power & reset switches were to take care of.



A label takes care of that nicely, too.






(I really need to clean my dust filters.)

Here's what it looks like with the cathodes on:


Next, I decided to tackle the not-so-well-sleeved PSU cables.



I used 1/2" black watercooling tubing to "sleeve" the cables. It shines nicely under the red cathodes.



(I need to clean the window too. )



This mod is nearly finished now, so finishing touches and final pictures should be coming soon!

So after listening to my stock cooler buzz like an angry hornet, I finally broke down and got a CM Hyper 212+. I pulled out the mobo to install it and took some shots of the fans & sleeved cables that are tough to see when everything's squeezed in.







Eeew, stock TIM.



Much better.



Filling in the cracks.



I had to scoot the fan up a bit to clear my ram heatsinks, but otherwise everything fits great.




Now that that's done, I have one last thing I need to fix: my fan control knobs are all kinds of crooked.



Oops. Solution: instead of using little pieces of dowel rod to support them, I'll use some small corner brackets from the hardware store.





I wrapped the brackets in electrical tape to make sure I didn't accidentally short anything, then put them in place. Now the controllers are much more secure and the knobs aren't wonky.





With that fix done, I'm calling this mod officially complete! Time for final pics!