Computer Case Mod

Posted by Gary | Filed under Mods

I decided that I needed more airflow in my case to keep my CPU cool. How do you do that? Cut holes in it baby!

What I wanted to do was to cut holes in my case and then install fans where I cut the holes. The problem is that I have an old U shaped lid on my case instead of one of the newer cases that have a door on the side. How do I fix that? Cut a door baby!

I also figured since I was going to have the computer in pieces it was a good time to pretty it all up.

COMPLETELY REMOVE THE COMPUTER FROM THE CASE!

I can't stress this enough. If you get metal shavings in your motherboard you have a dead computer.
Prepare your work area carefully. Bolt your computer down before you begin working or you will be sorry. However, don't bolt it to some old shelving that has been there since you bought the place and for who knows how long before that as we did. Notice how we cleared our work area before we began working to prevent metal shavings from getting into everything. Oh, wait, we didn't do that.

Notice in this picture how we bolted the computer to an old shelf. We did cover ourselves with an old sheet but we bravely kept our sandal covered feet exposed to the burning hot horribly sharp steele splinters that come flying off during the cutting. That's actually Lenny working on his computer but it shows the sheet and the feet nicely. You can also see my U shaped lid on the right hand side.

Lenny with hole saw

First I decided to cut an air intake hole in the lower front of my case. There was already a fan mount there but it had a stamped metal guard on it that seriously reduced airflow. Time to break out the hole saw. My previous attempts at cutting a round hole with a jigsaw convinced me that a hole saw was the right tool for the job. Those are my feet. Notice that they are decidedly less hairy and repulsive than Lenny's.

fan hole in case

I repeated this process on the back side of the computer and after cutting the holes, we now had some cool Ninja Stars to play with. They are very sharp and would slice your finger clean off. We gave them to some of the neighbor's kids when we were done with them.

ninja stars

Next it was on to cutting the door in my case lid. Notice how professionally I set this up. I used multiple C-clamps and even used a piece of wood to guide my jig-sawing. I even measured it.

cutting door

Unfortunately, although I did a killer job with the jigsaw it turns out that the piece of wood was not straight. Damn you Home Depot.

Lenny expressed confidence in my ability to "Just shave a little bit off with the jigsaw to even it out." It turns out that that he was misguided.  Horribly, horribly misguided. Out comes the Dremel to touch-up my touch-up. Much grinding ensued.

Dremel bits

You can see in the lower left corner of this picture that my U shaped case lid has now become a sort-of J shaped lid. The doors in the background are from an '89 Chevy Corsica that fell off the car as it drove down the road in front of my house. - That is not a joke. I guess the car's owner decided that it was only a matter of time before they fell off anyway and he was glad to be rid of them.

J shaped case

After determining that I had caused enough damage for the day I decided to put the computer back together. I put some chrome grill guards over the holes and put the computer back in the case. This picture is very dark and I'll retake it when I get a chance.

chrome grill

Then I tidied up the cables in my case to help improve airflow and to make it look nice.

nice and neat

And finally I installed my green cold cathode light in my case. Stay tuned for part 2 as I cut holes and install fans in my case lid and as I install a window in my computer.

alien glow

| August 2, 2008