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First Mod!! Lots of Pics! 'Circuit Board Effect'

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safronz

Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2004
Location
TEXAS
Not quite sure how to go about posting an article on a case mod. I am pretty new to overclockers, but I will do my best...

First off I'm sorry for the big boom of a post this is...it is because I didn't have a camera to show progress but now that I have my camera here's my post!

Secondly I'm using my own server to host the pictures and sometimes my server is down for various reasons (such as directly connecting my own computer to the modem so I can host w3 games) but I'll try to keep my server up.

For months I have been trying to figure out how I could give my computer case a circuit board theme. At first I was going to get a whole bunch of PCB board and glue them together and stick them on a case...but the more I thought about the more it became not such a good idea. The case would have been extremely heavy and I doubt I could make glued PCB boards look good. And I bet that would not be good for my computer temperature. I went through various ideas but finally came to combing those strips that you put on your car to make it look like it goes fast and washers. My goal was to make it look something like this:

circuitboard.JPG

My dad brought home this PCB board from work when I was still in my crazy stage of wanting to glue the PCB boards on a case. I used this board as my main guide in designing the circuits on my case.

Before I got started I had to buy all the supplies and what not... here's a list of what I have gotten so far:


Newegg Stuff

1 x CASE LOGISYSCOMP| CS888CL RETAIL ......$87.99
2 x CABLE IDE|24"RD3 UV YELL 2078 TT RT......$8.30
1 x CABLE SLEEVE KIT|CSK-80UV-YL VT RT......$9.99
1 x CABLE ACC|MOLEX CT KIT UV YELLOW RT...$7.99
4 x CASE FAN UV ANTEC 8025 GREEN RET........$19.20
(shipping + $30.01)

Xoxide Stuff

4 x UV COLD CATHODE KIT............................$15.96
(shipping + 6.37)

Walmart Stuff
(lost receipt...but I think it was...)

1 x PLUMBER'S GOOP ..................................$3.00
2 x FLAT WASHERS NW-52...........................$2.00
2 x FLAT WASHERS NW-50...........................$2.00

Did you know you have to be over 18 to buy super glue??? I sure didn't - I'm 17 and have a full time job yet I can't buy something to stick things together with?! Ugh

Pepboys Stuff

1 x TOGGLE SWITCH WITH COLORED BOOTS....$7.53
1 x STYLIN' LINES - SILVER..........................$13.00

The Stylin lines look like this:

stripes.JPG

Lowe's

5 x MINITAURE MX #4-4..............................$1.17
5 x MINATURE HEX NUT...............................$0.87

Which comes to a total of about…do I really want to know this?… $215 … ugh that’s like a week of work! But well worth it.

Everything else I pretty much had at home or borrowed from my boyfriend [Err just to let you know I'm not gay...I am a girl...]

Here are my tools:

supplies.JPG

Unfortunately I didn't have a digital camera for the last 3 weeks so I couldn't take pictures of my progress. The pictures aren't really gradual.

I don’t have my own picture of the original case so here is the one off of newegg:

casebefore.JPG

Yes the fans are very fruity...do not worry they did not stay on the case...at the moment they are sitting lonely in the corner of my room...just as they should be.

[insert pictures of progress here]

And after a few laying (grammar?) down of those car strips and gluing of washers you get...

sidepanel_L.jpg

Okay that right there took hours upon hours of work because I had to make sure all the lines were straight...and that can be a real pain in the .... (I'm guessing cussing is not allowed here, but is *** considered a cuss word?)
Plus I had to glue all the washers on...I really shouldn't have spent 4 hours gluing in my room with no windows open. I think that was my first major mistake.

Here are some more pictures...

case_L.jpg

It's really hard to see the lines because those strips are just like mirrors and so you see the reflections and can't see the strip that well. It's pretty cool because you can see yourself perfectly in them so like if I need to check out my hair during a lan I can just look at my case...haha jk...

fans_L.JPG

Okay now I didn't want to have to bring a screw driver with me to lans in order to open my case so I wanted to use thumbscrews. Problem is with my acrylic case you need longer than your standard screw length to secure the side panel. Okay I did not find any thumbscrews that were longer than standard size. I made a post about that...I don't think anyone really found a place that carried them. I checked out Lowe's to see if they had some but no...oh my gosh did it take forever to get some help there! (one hour!) So I thought about how I could make my own. What I did was bought long screws then at the end glued some washers together with my handy goop. Then my boyfriend taught me how to solder them to keep it secure...here's how the thumbscrews turned out...

thumbscrew.JPG

Not very shiney but I will fix that up with some nail polish remover. The thumbscrews seem to go well with my case seeing how I have that whole washer/circuit theme going on. The thumbscrews are sort of like the capacitors...yea...

Here's my toggle switch that turns on and off my uv cathodes

switch.JPG

Okay time to flip the switch!

panel_ML.jpg


panel_D.jpg


sideview_D.JPG

(side view)

fan_D.JPG


bottom.JPG

See some similarities between that circuit board and the panel?

circuitboardandcase.JPG

Okay so that's my case so far...I sleeved my power supply and fans (I have to thank my boyfriend here for teaching me how to do it right) but I needed my psu so it's in my other case which is the famous aspire case on newegg that looks like this:

oldcase.JPG

I think everyone and their grandma has that case by now. But anyways here's the sleeved psu:

oldcaseview.JPG


powersupplycloseup.JPG

Unfortunately the uv reactive "yellow" IDE cables do not match my sleeving nor do they look very yellow *sigh*

IDEcable.jpg

See what I mean ^?

Sleeved fans...

fans.JPG


panelfans.JPG

Thanks again to my boyfriend who taught me how to solder wires and such. You can see that the wires on the two panel fans were soldered together. Couldn't have done that and made it work the first time without his help!

Work In Progress:

On that aspire case it has that really cool thermometer that tells you the temperature of your computer. Well I would miss that way too much...not that I really look at it that much...but I'd miss it. So I took it out...err my boyfriend took it out because it was very screwed in and I couldn't do it and didn't want to strip the screws...yes I'm weak but luckily my boyfriend is not. But the thermometer casing was tan, ew! And there is no hiding color in an acrylic case. So I painted it black along with my floppy drive because that was also tan. I plan on putting that thermometer right next to my toggle switch. My dad took it to work to make a custom bracket thing for it so I can display it nicely on the drive bay. I love having an engineer for a dad! (More pics on that later)

Here's the newegg picture of the thermometer:

thermometer.JPG

I wish those were for individual sale!

Another thing I’m working on is finishing the circuit board theme! I still have the top of the case to go (and maybe the front and back…and possibly the other side too)

Here's the top so far:

top_L.JPG


top.JPG

I doubt you can see the green lines that I used to mark where I'm going to lay out the stripes. I plan on finishing that this week before I head to the beach! More posts to come.

Please post any comments or suggestions that you have!
 
Last edited:
Wow. That is looking extremely nice. You should defiantly do all the sides, it would look better that way. ;) I really can't wait to see that thing done. :drool:
 
Looks like it's coming along nicely. Very original theme, so far it's been the first of it's kind that I know of. Keep up the good work. And keep the pictures coming!
 
Damn! This is one sick mod. I haven't even begun to think of all the possibilities you could throw into this one. As for the thumbscrews, try going to like True Value or Ace Hardware, and get some Allen screws. They typically come with a tall rough edge for thumb-screwing. There are tons of sizes for them, and they go both metric and standard.

Best of luck.
 
what you could do if you wanted to be cool is use those strips to power the fans and other accessories on the case?
tap into them at the washers and again by the psu for the power
that way it would tidy up the wiring and be hella cool at the same time.
just an idea.
 
19he0

maybe something like that.
drill through the washer where it would tie in and use a bolt or something cool looking to attach the line from the fans (or anything else) to the line and do the same thing at the psu tie in points

*EDIT* also if you have a voltmeter or something you might check this idea if it would even work, it should those strips are probably mylar or something like that
 
that is incredible i love it! original - cant say i have ever seen a case like that before. :)

maybe put ina giant "fake" processor somewhere :D
 
sorry to sound sexist but are you a girl? - nothing wrong with them doing this its kool but its nice to see one on here once and a while doing what we as a comunity enjoy most computers
well anyway smooth mod and try painting some UV paint onto the lines and then it will glow!!!! then you can properly see the lines as there a little to see in dark!

Phil
 
DAMN that is AWESOME! I think you will be winning the next SanLAN case mod contest.

Like some people said, there are so many possibilities with this. I would definately consider making it seem like the strips are powering the fans on the side. What I would do is just grab some wire and put it behind the strip and just run it along one of the strips to the fans. It would be easier and I hardly think anyone would see it.

And if you want to put a proc on it I got on old Athlon you could use. Then you could direct a few of the "wires" to it.
 
<Off Topic>

PHILIP1193 said:
sorry to sound sexist but are you a girl? Phil

You could try reading all of her post :attn:

<On topic>

Verry Cool Mod going. I would do all sides of the case. BTW are you doing it on the outside or inside? Its kinda hard to tell.
 
Mark620 said:
<Off Topic>
You could try reading all of her post :attn:
<On topic>

I know that doesn't pertain to me but I'll just say I didn't have time ATM to read everything. The pictures look great though :) I skimmed through and saw that no one really mentioned this; if you want yellow wires then you can't use blue LED fans. That might be why they look like my green sleeved PSU. So I recommend either using clear fans with U/V LEDs, or just plain clear fans and put either UV LEDs around the case or just UV coldcathrodes.

Keep up the good work :)
 
I know that doesn't pertain to me but I'll just say I didn't have time ATM to read everything. The pictures look great though I skimmed through and saw that no one really mentioned this; if you want yellow wires then you can't use blue LED fans. That might be why they look like my green sleeved PSU. So I recommend either using clear fans with U/V LEDs, or just plain clear fans and put either UV LEDs around the case or just UV coldcathrodes.

The pictures that have the blue LED fans with the yellow sleeving are on my old case. I'm not going to use any LED fans b/c I want to be able to sleep at night without a huge night light going. I'm using green UV reactive fans only.

At the moment I don't have time to post more comments because I'm at work and really should get to work...hehe...I'll be back in 4 hours.

Thanks guys for all the input! Keep it coming!
 
I love it... she has the next SANlan Mod contest in the bag for sure... I'm jealous. You really can't appreciate how much work this took if you dont see the progress, she's been working her butt off for the last week or so just on that one side panel, and it looks wonderful! Keep it up safronz!
 
Very nice looking mod :clap: Only thing is that it needs way more circuit traces !!! :D I think taking an old AMD K6 or something, filing all of the pins off, and then glueing it on there somewhere would look pretty sweet. Great job :)


BTW Moonwolf, I love that quote at the top of your sig :D
 
wow...im just amazed that there is a female pc modder to begin with. and one this talented? very clean, looks like >professional work. i dont want to be an *** but i have heard of that idea before. still i never saw it performed so beautifully if thats any better. my only inquiry is about the toggle switch for the neons. getting that wired up and looking clean looks like it would be more work than people would think. really its coming along nice and i hope you do well on that competition. 5 thumbs up :D
 
I will definitely do all sides now...I see that it is the only way to even come close to feeling complete on this project. There is much to do. Oh yes and I know I talk a lot... here goes more talking:


wow...im just amazed that there is a female pc modder to begin with. and one this talented? very clean, looks like >professional work. i dont want to be an *** but i have heard of that idea before.

Aw well thank you for the compliment...and I actually googled it when I first got the idea to see if it had already been done, I couldn't find anything. I would like to see other mods like this, are the mods you are talking about posted on any websites? Let me know and...



my only inquiry is about the toggle switch for the neons. getting that wired up and looking clean looks like it would be more work than people would think. really its coming along nice and i hope you do well on that competition. 5 thumbs up

YES! I worked about 5 hours on that wire leading to the toggle switch. At first I did it wrong...I had it sleeved and everything but the wires were not sorted correctly so I went back and re-sleeved it and even sleeved the wire leading to the inverters and the wires between the molex connectors (I cut them down, before they were like 5 inches long and would have been too messy, again thanks to moonwolf for teaching me how to solder :D ) I'll post a closer picture of the wire to the toggle switch later tonight, right now I'm at work.



I think taking an old AMD K6 or something, filing all of the pins off, and then gluing it on there somewhere would look pretty sweet. Great job

Hmmm that sounds interesting I'll have to see how that would look...it might not match with the circuits...but I'll try it, good idea.



Verry Cool Mod going. I would do all sides of the case. BTW are you doing it on the outside or inside? Its kinda hard to tell.

It's on the outside, I'll take a pic of the other side...it doesn't look as good so I had to put the strips outside...I know that's not as protected as putting it inside but it just wouldn't have looked right. However the strips are very durable, I mean these are the same things people put on their cars...and that's a lot more wear and tear than my computer will experience *I hope*



Like some people said, there are so many possibilities with this. I would definately consider making it seem like the strips are powering the fans on the side. What I would do is just grab some wire and put it behind the strip and just run it along one of the strips to the fans. It would be easier and I hardly think anyone would see it. And if you want to put a proc on it I got on old Athlon you could use.

Then you could direct a few of the "wires" to it.

Yea the wires leading to the fans seems like a pretty cool idea but honestly I don't quite understand how I would do that and make it look right if you know what I mean. I guess I would have to hide the yellow sleeved wires? I'll test it out, maybe you can show me /\\/3|2o at san lan unless I do it before then. And I might just borrow your proc, at least to see how it would look on the case.



sorry to sound sexist but are you a girl? - nothing wrong with them doing this its kool but its nice to see one on here once and a while doing what we as a comunity enjoy most computers
well anyway smooth mod and try painting some UV paint onto the lines and then it will glow!!!! then you can properly see the lines as there a little to see in dark!

Yes I am a girl. I thought about painting the lines, but first off I should have painted the strips before I put them on the case. It's a little late for that, maybe I'll do that for my next mod, that would be cool. I don't even know if the uv paint would stick to the strips because it is such a smooth surface. I'd also probably have to have a uv light pointing at my case from the outside to makes the strips glow properly. But that would be totally cool to have the lines glowing. Next time!

And you can see the lines better in real life, pictures don't exactly capture it as well as I would like, plus the light isn't yet evenly distributed because I have yet to mount the cathodes in the correct places. Oh yea and I haven't put my computer in it yet! (If there is a background behind the lines they will show up better)



As for the thumbscrews, try going to like True Value or Ace Hardware, and get some Allen screws. They typically come with a tall rough edge for thumb-screwing. There are tons of sizes for them, and they go both metric and standard.

I'll have to check that out! Thanks. I have a true value right by me.



drill through the washer where it would tie in and use a bolt or something cool looking to attach the line from the fans (or anything else) to the line and do the same thing at the psu tie in points

After I finish putting on all the circuit lines and stuff I will definitely have to experiment with that!



Thanks again for yalls help! More pictures later tonight. (No work tomorrow I can stay up late...r)
 
That is very cool looking. Nice work. :beer: Extra bonus because you are a girl who's into case modding. You have a lucky boyfriend. ;)
 
The Allen screws are usually in those special plastic trays that have lids on them. They typically come in flat black. I hope you don't have too much of a problem finding them. :D
 
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