eMachines eTower Mod...(56k-ish)

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

Ok, Now that i got my new job, and i have paid for my new build, i figured i'd go back to my "micro machine" mod...This mod is going to be fairly simple...but the end result should look pretty dope...this is my first mod...but so far things aree going well....

First things first...the window mod, aka. the easy part...Mask off the side panel, check...heavy duty dremel cut-off wheels, check....
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I got this piece of lexan, and got my mom to cut it to the shape i wanted...she's an aircraft structural technician, in the airforce...
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And here's the side panel all cleaned up, and prepped for prime and paint...
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For the rest of the mod, i have this planned:

- Front panel LCD display, where USB/Audio used to be...with a little sliding door that covers it...i may have lost the door, so i may need to modify the plan even :P

- 3.5" 4 channel fan controller...you know those little silver Vantec ones?? i'm gonna modidy the front of the case to accomodate it....

- The Tricky part...in this mATX case, there are two HDD spots...and they are sideways and lay flat against the front of the case, i'm going to move the HDD to the spot on the left and put the floppy drive on the right, so the floppy drive will be sideways on the side of the case...but i'll make so the side panel slides to fit around the floppy drive...

- I'm gonna add a grille to the front...iunno how yet, but i'll figure it out...

Watch for updates!!!

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

And here's the window mock-up, just to see how it looks....hmmm, not bad for a mATX rig...
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[Avid6eek]

Everything is looking very nice. great job on the window. How did you manage to get rounded corners with a cutoff wheel?

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

i cut them off 45 degrees, and used the contour of another drum-shaped grinding bit i had...

*edit* in like 2 weeks i'll update, cause i need money for the fan controller, fans, and LCD display before i can start cutting again....

[blueice]

Looks good cranswick. When you are done, you will have to call it the aMachine.

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

it's pre-titled the micro machine...just cause it's gonna be one mean mATX, uhm, backup rig...the case will be sweet though...

I still haven't figured out the floppy drive situation yet...i still need to buy the fan controller first...

[yahooadam]

thought i replyed to this ...

very nice so far

u gonna tidy those wires up a bit more (Their pretty damn tidy already though) but seeing as u r gonna display the guts

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

yeah, i got my PSU cables sleeved with electrical tape temorarily, as well as my ribbon IDE cables....i split them in sections of 4-5 and then wrapped them in electrical tape...just so it wasn't crazy messy in there...other than the HDD cabling you see on the right, that big black thing is the ATX main power, and believe me, there's not a whole lot of space in a mATX case....so hiding the damn thing is near impossible...lol, i'm using a regular ATX powersupply too, so you can see how tight it is in there...

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However, i'm getting a UV reactive rounded IDE kit...and for my PSU i'm actually using a powerlabs 450W psu that's coming with my new case for my A64 build, but of course i got my liberty 400w...but anyway i'm getting uv sleeving for that too...just because in a mATX case it's too hard to hide cables when all you bays are full so you might as well make the cables pretty....

[PCgeek]

If you use regular cutoff wheels instead of the reinforced ones cutting a rounded edge is pretty easy as long as you go slow.

[JoshKorn12]

If you use regular cutoff wheels instead of the reinforced ones cutting a rounded edge is pretty easy as long as you go slow.

Yeah, just watch out if one breaks, they can fly across the room, imagine that in your eye.

[yahooadam]

thats why u should wear goggles while using somthing like a bloody saw blade

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

yeah, one time one snapped off (cheapy ones that came with rotary tool) and hit me in the bottom eye lid...and i always wear safety glasses...so if i wasn't wearing them, another centimeter or so, i'd have been blind in one eye...safety first kids

[yahooadam]

the only thing in my house that scares the **** outta me is my dads 24" odd circular saw

god damn, that thing is vicious

i really would hate to go head to head with it

[chris000001]

the only thing in my house that scares the **** outta me is my dads 24" odd circular saw

god damn, that thing is vicious

i really would hate to go head to head with it

Im sure it would win

[yahooadam]

Im sure it would win

maybe it might be slowed down by a 12" piece of steel, but not much short of that

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

Ok, so i was at the computer shop today, cause i was bored, and i decided to buy two 80mm fans and a fan guard...Nice drop in temps...nice pretty blue glow...anyways...next time i get some cash i'm gonna do the 3.5" fan controller to vertical side panel floppy drive mod...should be a good one...

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[yahooadam]

are these fans actually any good .....

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

well they were 14 bucks each...and at full throttle they're not much louder than with no fans at all....my dying hard drive whine is still the most irritating thing in this POS...

[saurongt]

So are you overclocking the celeron now?

[-=CrAnSwIcK=-]

i already have...my idle temps before the fans were 38 C on the CPU, and 28 C system....now they are 30 C on the CPU, and 17 C system....and all these temps were recorded with my celeron 2.4 @ 2806mhz...the mobo doesn't have a PCI lock, so that's as high as i could go without any hiccups...