Hi Guys
The reason for the mod:
About a week and a half ago, I came home from work and wanted to check out some reviews on the net. I turned on my computer and my CoolIT Vantage A.L.C. started beeping like mad. I opened my case and saw that the display was showing that there was no water circulation. I turned it off, tuned it back on, but still no luck. I figured it had given up on me (I've had it about 3 months, hope this isn't a common issue with these ) so I took it out and brought it back to the dealer and they RMA'd it for me. I went back home and pulled out my stock AMD cooler, and began to install it, now while doing so I looked around in the case and though this has begun to seem a bit old and worn out, and I started getting this great idea to mod it somehow. I went on the web and started look at other mods for inspiration, and finally got the motivation to start doing some mods to my old case
Now I live in an apartment on the 3rd floor and don't have access to any fancy workshops or garages filled with glorious tools etc. so I have tried to come up with alternatives in ways of modding my case, without make too much of a mess (my girlfriend has already threatened to kill me, so I try to behave )
The hardware:
It's all in my sig
The case is an old Lian Li PC-A10B, which I have been very pleased with, giving me no real reason to change it, but since it's old, it has become a bit boring too look at, and this is the perfect time to do something about it
The case:
I wasn't planing on doing a worklog, but figured I might as well share it with you guys and also get some feedback an suggestions while doing so. Regrettably I didn't really take any pictures when I started, so I've found some on Google:
This is what it looks like untouched:
First thing I have started out with is the front. I was looking VERY old with the floppy drive bay still mounted, never actually having been used, so I would remove it and spice it up with a LCD of some sorts, and this is where I found the NZXT Sentry LX fan controller, which already had the same color as my case, so I thought it perfect. Order sent, and all I had to do was wait until it finally arrived:
My dull looking front:
Starting to tare it apart:
I found out that these supports were mounted, and decided that I they really didn't have any real reason for being there, so I thought I'd remove them:
To do so I had to take a look at the side and start to unscrew the whole thing, thinking I'd remove the gray plastic drive locks as well:
I think it makes it look "cleaner"
Removed the floppy bay:
Installed the Sentry:
Sentry turned off:
Sentry in action:
All done, but this still wasn't enough so I've come up with a few more things to do:
- Cable sleeving the PSU, USB cables, Audio cables etc.
- Adding a window to the side of the case. (Finally a reason to buy a Dremel)
- Adding some new color inside and possibly outside the case.
- Make some more holes with my new Dremel
- Spend some more time waiting for my A.L.C to return from RMA
Now it's getting late, so I will stop for today, but will return with more updates tomorrow.
Thanks for looking so far
The reason for the mod:
About a week and a half ago, I came home from work and wanted to check out some reviews on the net. I turned on my computer and my CoolIT Vantage A.L.C. started beeping like mad. I opened my case and saw that the display was showing that there was no water circulation. I turned it off, tuned it back on, but still no luck. I figured it had given up on me (I've had it about 3 months, hope this isn't a common issue with these ) so I took it out and brought it back to the dealer and they RMA'd it for me. I went back home and pulled out my stock AMD cooler, and began to install it, now while doing so I looked around in the case and though this has begun to seem a bit old and worn out, and I started getting this great idea to mod it somehow. I went on the web and started look at other mods for inspiration, and finally got the motivation to start doing some mods to my old case
Now I live in an apartment on the 3rd floor and don't have access to any fancy workshops or garages filled with glorious tools etc. so I have tried to come up with alternatives in ways of modding my case, without make too much of a mess (my girlfriend has already threatened to kill me, so I try to behave )
The hardware:
It's all in my sig
The case is an old Lian Li PC-A10B, which I have been very pleased with, giving me no real reason to change it, but since it's old, it has become a bit boring too look at, and this is the perfect time to do something about it
The case:
I wasn't planing on doing a worklog, but figured I might as well share it with you guys and also get some feedback an suggestions while doing so. Regrettably I didn't really take any pictures when I started, so I've found some on Google:
This is what it looks like untouched:
First thing I have started out with is the front. I was looking VERY old with the floppy drive bay still mounted, never actually having been used, so I would remove it and spice it up with a LCD of some sorts, and this is where I found the NZXT Sentry LX fan controller, which already had the same color as my case, so I thought it perfect. Order sent, and all I had to do was wait until it finally arrived:
My dull looking front:
Starting to tare it apart:
I found out that these supports were mounted, and decided that I they really didn't have any real reason for being there, so I thought I'd remove them:
To do so I had to take a look at the side and start to unscrew the whole thing, thinking I'd remove the gray plastic drive locks as well:
I think it makes it look "cleaner"
Removed the floppy bay:
Installed the Sentry:
Sentry turned off:
Sentry in action:
All done, but this still wasn't enough so I've come up with a few more things to do:
- Cable sleeving the PSU, USB cables, Audio cables etc.
- Adding a window to the side of the case. (Finally a reason to buy a Dremel)
- Adding some new color inside and possibly outside the case.
- Make some more holes with my new Dremel
- Spend some more time waiting for my A.L.C to return from RMA
Now it's getting late, so I will stop for today, but will return with more updates tomorrow.
Thanks for looking so far
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