© 2007-2008 Collin Jordan
 

Projected date of project completion: February 08

December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas! I just got this case yesterday in the post and decided
it was about time to start working on it, at least getting some of the cutting
out of the way.

I decided to go with the Chenming 901-AD case. Its basically the
exact same case that I am currently using, but it has two more drive bays,
and alot more room to work with overall

Some more photos of the case before I started working on it.
 

STEP 1:



I wanted to do a double window cut out on this case, so as you can
see here I traced out where I'm going to be cutting the holes.
I used a roll of duct tape to round off the corners so the molding
will flex nicely around them.
 

STEP 2:

I used a cd to trace the hole out for the 120mm fan I'm planning
on putting in the top.
 

STEP 3:



Next, I centered a grill over the middle of the hole to get
the positions for the screw holes.
 

STEP 4:



I taped off all the holes just incase I went a little bit too hard
with the drill. I definitely don't want to scratch this case!

STEP 5:

On the back of the case there is a removable panel for the power
supply that has a spot for a nice 92mm fan. But this grill has just
got to go. I'll be replacing it with a grill of my own later on.

STEP 6:

I used my dremel with a cutting disk to cut out the grill. But you can
still see some of the nasty bits of metal around the edges of the
hole that need filing down.

STEP 7:



After a little filing with the dremel again we have a nice round
and smooth hole free of obstruction for this fan.

STEP 8:

I got a little ahead of my self here as far as the steps,
but right now I'm cutting the side panel windows out.
I wanted to do a double window, similar to my current
case, so here's the first half down..

STEP 9:

Here's both windows completely cut out! Didn't turn out to
bad if I say so myself. Next step: paint.

UPDATE: December 26 + 27, 2007
 

STEP 10:

Now I'm just getting ready to lay some paint down.
You can see the frame and side panel here are primed.
I went ahead and waited a day before applying any paint
just to be on the safe side.

STEP 11:

Here is the second coat of black paint on the frame



STEP 12:

I got this awesome Dupli-color metalic green paint. One of
the problems I was having was that is was really cold outside
 and I really didn't realize it until someone said something
to me. So I moved inside and finished painting the sixth coat. Here,
you can see what I think is the fourth coat or so, but it doesn't look
like its true color.

At the hardware store today, I picked up some awesome
diamond-plate sheets of metal I'm planning on using throughout
the case. I also got some chrome edge molding, and a nice
big piece of 1/4" Plexiglas for the windows.
 

STEP 13:

Here you can see the paints true color. I applied some of the chrome
molding and sealed it in place with some clear epoxy on the back.

STEP 14:

I started to use that diamond plating that I got by laying
down a piece on the bottom of the case. Looks really nice
except for some of that damn overspray. Oh well its easily
repaintable.
 

UPDATE: December 28, 2007
 

STEP 15:

I picked up this nice subwoofer tube at the hardware store
today which has an inner diameter of 80mm. Perfect for the front
intake. This is the first base coat of fiberglass filler before sanding.

STEP 16:

I also found a nice wooden curtain end that will be used as the
turbine cone. Here it is before priming.

STEP 17:

After a little tricky maneuvering, I managed to cut out the Plexiglas
pieces near perfect. Here they are before applying them onto the
side panel.

And here they are being weight down after being glued to the
panel.

STEP 18:

So far ive made some good progress on this project in a
short amount of time. Here is the front panel sanded down
and ready for another helping of the filler to beef it up a bit
more.



UPDATE: December 29, 2007
 

STEP 19:

Finally the side panel is completely done (excluding the etching).
Heres a shot of the finished panel

STEP 20:

Today, I decided to take on a very adventurous task. I decided
to try and mod my G15 keyboard to match the case. Heres a
shot of the board before any modding.

STEP 21:

For anyone who was wondering how the keyboard actually
lit up, it is lit up by an acrylic panel underneath all the keys which
is lit by 12 super bright blue leds. You can see the boards wired
together with the leds near the bottom of the board in this shot.

STEP 22:

So after about half an hour I finally took apart the board and
pried off all the keys.

STEP 23:

Here is the acrylic board all by itself.

STEP 24:

I had the dremel some of the holes open a bit wider to accommodate
for some of the 5mm leds that I had. I only had 6 5mm leds, and
4 3mm, so I ended up running a little short.

STEP 25:

I glued the leds into the holes to begin with, then after about an hour
I began wiring them together. I had been working on this for roughly
an hour so far.

STEP 26:

Slowly making some progress. I finished wiring the positives,
and here you can see I'm almost done wiring the negatives.
whew...



STEP 27:

I finished painting the board and now just waiting for it to
dry for another hour

STEP 28:

Its finally done! Now to test it out... here goes nothing..

STEP 29:

SUCCESS!! I did however manage to screw up this tiny bracket
that connects the lcd to the main board so for the time being
until I fix the bracket, I wont have the lcd :(

STEP 30:

And to wrap things up for today, the case got a few more coats
of paint (due to some scratching)
 

STEP 31:

The project so far... Lookin good!
(Need to paint the inside of the back panel)

STEP 32:

I etched the case logo and the site logo into the side panel
Plexiglas. Heres a few shots of the results

 

The Project So far..

UPDATE: January 2, 2008

STEP 33:

I finished painting the rear psu mounting bracket and here's
a shot of some molding being glued around the hole to round
out the look

STEP 34:

I also glued some more diamond plate to the case in some unsightly
spots. This plate got glued over the where the drives mount so you wont
see it through the window.

UPDATE: January 4, 2008
 

STEP 35:

Today I got my Soundblaster X-fi soundcard and an ASUS M2N32-SLI
motherboard. Now that the project is roughly 90% done, let the transition
begin!

STEP 36:

I also decided to give my 8800GTS a little face lift. Heres before

And after.

STEP 37:

Here's my new motherboard before I installed the hardware

And after..

STEP 38:

The madness is almost over. 3 hours later I'm almost done transferring
everything over.

STEP 39:

Sweet! the installation of all the hardware is complete and it runs
beautifully!

Heres a closeup

Full case from side

some night shots. Note that all the seemingly blue light is actually
UV it just looks blue on camera.

UPDATE: January 08, 2008

I got some grills in the mail and installed them to round out the look.
You can see I had to modify the grills a bit to compensate for
the clamps

I also finished installing the 92mm fan for the rear of the case.

UPDATE: January 25, 2008

STEP 40:

I added a nice LED light mod to the window. I forgot to take photos
while I was working on the mod, but here are some photos of the finished
product. Here you can see I installed a switch on the side so you can easily
turn the lights off and on.
 

Heres a photo with the lights turned off

And now with the lights turned on. You can see the etching
lights up nicely.
 

And here it is in darkness without the cathodes on.

Stay tuned for more updates on this project