[-=*HERO*=-]

This is the worklog of an old precision that i an going to dis-assemble, mod and use to house my rig while i mod my cm 690. I don't have a theme idea for this case yet and i am open for suggestions, im doing this all with a very limited budget and mostly stuff i can find laying around

Parts list:
MSI K9N2-Sli Platinum
AMD Phenom 9500 Processor 2.20GHz
BFG GTX 275OC @ OC2 levels
OCZ Dual Channel 4096MB OC'd
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB Hard Drive
HP DVD-burner (somekind idk)
Ultra LSP750 750-Watt Power Supply
Creative x-fi Xtreme

Here is what I'm working with

UPDATES:
Update 7.14.10

Update 7.14.10 Continued

Mini Update 7.14.10

Update 7.20.10

Update 7.26.10

 

[-=*HERO*=-]

Update 1 7.14.10

To start i have to get rid of all the stuff inside the case (and hopefully find some goodies, lets see what we got

Ooooo, Butterfly doors, this will be fun

oh -=*HERO*=- what dust you have

Interesting pci clip design dell has here, tool-less, with just a snap crackle and pop and the Gpu and Network cards are free to be removed

Now if I dont find a use for this Agp ATI i could always make some heatsinks

And what do we have here? Ah yes, the good old days, this will come in handy for sure

Chubby hand

not sure what the pic count rule is, but to be safe.... to be continued in next post....

 

[BNT]

Sweet. I love watching dells get torn apart and molded into something useable. subbed

 

[-=*HERO*=-]

Update 1 7.14.10 continued...

A removable MOBO tray, who;d a thunk it

.

getting the motherboard off the tray ended up being a time consuming, and difficult task, the heatsink mounts are clips that need to be squished and pushed. After 10-15 minutes of not getting them off i took a chance and grabbed my dremmel and cut them off. Ithen got yelled at by wifey since she was in bed and it was 945pm

whatcha gunna do?

So now the case is free and i found this gem while going through the photo's

heres some more empty case shots with hidden pics in them

Taking the plastic panel covers was a serious pain too, but i did it

So, all-in-all it wasn't a bad take, lots of legacy (thats code for crap) parts came out of the pc, but there was some usable stuff. heres the innards layed out.

thats it, until next time... -=*HERO*=- out

 

[vspec]

lol is that some rambus I see there?

I have one of those dells laying around, and this makes me want to mod it badly.

 

[k4n3_afk]

wew.. i like how that case opens
can't wait to see the finished product
subed!

 

[-=*HERO*=-]

Mini update? I was going to try to finish up the dis-assembly last night and remove the spare green clips and take the case apart, and maybe start to sand but instead, after recieving my new phone (LINKY)

and then getting in a financial "debate" with my wife

, i was to pissed to patiently sand. Although in retrospect, now that i think about it, it probably would have calmed me down. Too little, too late

ill give it a go tonight or, at the very least, this weekend

Thanks for reading

. . . -=*HERO=- Out

Quote:

Originally Posted by vspec lol is that some rambus I see there? I have one of those dells laying around, and this makes me want to mod it badly.

ya they don't make em like they used too... (thank godness!)

Quote:

Originally Posted by k4n3_afk wew.. i like how that case opens can't wait to see the finished product subed!

ya, the way the case opens is, pretty cool, but unfortunately i had never had a dell like this and it took me forever to figure out the butterfly effect

and why the panel wasn't just sliding off

... thanks for subbing

 

[k4n3_afk]

nothing new? i would like to see an update

 

[-=*HERO*=-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by k4n3_afk nothing new? i would like to see an update

sorry man, no updates, i ended up working on saturday and then completely forgot about it yesterday. tonight ill probably do some cutting (dremmel) and maybe some filing, but we'll see. TBH it kinda depends on wifey

 

[bavarianblessed]

I have oodles of the optiplex GX280's here at work that use that same case layout. They are all 775 P4's though, DDR2, PCIe etc. Never seen a 478 in one of those cases.

 

[-=*HERO*=-]

Update 7.20.10

Here's a short story: my wife decided she wanted to save some $$$

so last night she told me there was a couple of things on sale, so naturally we went to Nordstrom to save money?

women make no sense. just cause you buy it on sale doesn't mean your saving money!

/story

So last night i had planned on cutting out some fan holes. But my awesome wife wanted to go out and Save money

.... so all i got around to doing is cleaning up the case a bit more and marking out the spots im going to cut space for some 120's

Heres the front of the case upside down in the middle theres a couple of hunks of metal that needed to be removed to have the front of the case be a flat surface.

So i removed them

This is the backside of where the metal was being held in place (right drive bay) there's two folded tab that needed to bent up so it would slip outta place so i grabbed a screw driver and stuck it to them

then i found out there was another tab i didn't see, shown here (sorry for the blurry pic

) so i screwed that one too.

Freedom!

This was the Second piece of metal. So I screwed this one too (bent the tabs outta the way)

Then Using my "template" i measured and marked some areas for fans

I also put one on top for good measure, to act as exhaust

I had asked my wife for a sharpie so i could mark the holes, but she handed me a dry erase, which worked out well when i had made a bunch of mistakes and pointless lines. they just wiped away with my finger

Thats all for today, hopefully in the next day or two ill get some cutting done. But, when your married time is according to the womens schedule, funny how that works

Until Next Time... -=*HERO*=- out

 

[-=*HERO*=-]

Alright, its time for update 3, in this update i cut some holes, and buy some toys, lets "get 'er done!"

So first up here's a pic of the where i intend to place a fan. This is the top of the pc and is going to be an exhaust

i don't plan to cut all the way to the side wall of the case, but i just drew the lines to the end no since this is a temp case and this is going to be covered by a fan and plastic, i didn't spend too much time measuring as you can tell.

here's after a couple short cuts (no pun intended

) sorry for the blurry pics, lighting was trash

And... pop goes the weasel

... ok that was dumb

Now, the cut isn't perfect by any means, but, a fan will be there and a piece of plastic/shell. The shell wall will all get clean, measured cuts

ok, i'd like to say that i only used this wheel, but truth be told i used like 5 before i figured out how to "coax" these things to not break

but once i did, i was good-2-go

Now i flipped the case over and went to town from the front

...
This is where the holes are going to be for a lil intake

they will also cool the HDD pretty well too

And just as i got in a groove, the naggy one indoors said its getting late and the "noise" (Mr. Decker) is annoying her

. I love the noise, but my guess is: its because im the one making it

so i told her i would come in when the cutting disc was gone

luckily i got it cut

but i couldn't get through the last one with the same wheel

you can really get an idea of how off my markings were with this picture. Since I'm new to the "Dremmel World" this is about 5 discs later

She asked for less noise, but i was in a modding mood so i get rid of the rest of the green fungus inside the case

then i took the lil beastie upstairs to the cave (after a lil clean up of course

) to see just how bad those cuts were

the cuts are livable there will plastic on top so it wont be noticeable. Next time i'll definitely take the time to do things right, that's what happens when your lazy... regret

I also went to the toy store and got these, i'll update this and put in more pics of them later...

That all folks, Thanks for watching

-=*HERO*=- out

 

[-=*HERO*=-]

bump

 

[Ownaaja]

Gotta sub this

 

[mcpetrolhead]

Moar plz?

Its not exactly good looking but seems like it will get the job done. I'm seeing the next generation of the HAF cases

 

[-=*HERO*=-]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mcpetrolhead Moar plz? Its not exactly good looking but seems like it will get the job done. I'm seeing the next generation of the HAF cases

clever

just wait till it get further, this is just the crappy inside

 

[Wiremaster]

*Subscribed.

 

[k4n3_afk]

I also had a similar problem when I worked on my case. I was lazy and short of time so my holes aren't the best in the world. But it ended out ok since it was being covered.

 

[k4n3_afk]

When's the next update?

 

[CAH]

Subscribed