Modding the Antec Skeleton

[G-Dubs]

Is anyone out there Modding this case? and if so what are you doing / planning to do to it?
Not sure whether what I've done to mine is Modding or just plain tinkering. I've had this case for about 2 months now and have done a fair bit of work on it. So far I've added some UV ccfls and constructed an industrial style switch box to house the switches. I made it from an old CD ROM drive and a drive bay blank from an old tower. I chose retro style chrome toggle switches, but with blue led's in the ends. As there aren't many places to put ccfls, finding little hidey holes to keep them out of sight is a challenge. I have a 10cm UV job secured under the top fan (you'll need nimble fingers and the longer variety of cable ties to hold it in place, (don't trust the double sided tape they come with). The cable is then routed down the left hand strut as you face the unit. A 30cm UV job behind the front panel bar, sitting just on top of the rear of the ports and switches. Then 2 more UVs inside the lower compartment, one in the front gap between the drive bays, and one behind the PSU.
I've also braided all my cables in UV blue and added UV orange anti kink coils to the mobo and PCI cables
I've taken the whole thing apart and put it back together about 5-6 times, and although it is tight in places it's really not that hard to work on. My main gripe though is that it could have been so much better. Currently awaiting a new PSU so will be taking it apart again tomorrow to fit that. I'm also planning to attach the front HDD fan that comes with the case to one of my switches so I can turn it on/off as I choose (it comes hard wired to a Molex so if not altered to route through a switch will just come on when the system is switched on)
Oh and by the way, having had it for a while I can answer the dust question...
Dust does not build up!!! The top fan seems to just blow away anything that gathers over night.
Any way a few pictures, of how it is now and the original build. Love to know what you think and happy to answer questions.

 

[G-Dubs]

Would look good but not sure where everything would go. I think there would be enough "ceiling height" under the top fan for the tubing, but I think the res would need to go on its own out back. The real skill would be putting it togetner in such a way that you didn't have to drain it when you slid out the bottom section to work on it.

 

[G-Dubs]

cheers avrc, I went for an orange and blue theme as I have a lot of copper on the mobo, which has a blue pcb, as have my gpu's. Seems there's not a lot of peeps out there tinkering with this, either that or everyones asleep

 

[G-Dubs]

Conan 257

yeah got mine from ryberg, what about you?

 

[G-Dubs]

Looks great mate, im more interested in your desk/cabinet thing. Is the desk an Ikea Mikael and i already found you said the cabinet was an Ikea Eina.

Keep up us updated with any more mods.

yeah its a mikael. i got the drawer unit also. Inexpensive but looks the part.

 

[G-Dubs]

can anyone recommend a good PSU. In the last month Ive had 2!!! Bequiet darkpro 650, kept cutting the power for some reason so back it went, now have antec truepower quatro 1000w. Only just fits in skeleton but since fitting it yesterday it makes a whining sound, really high pitched and annoying. Also the fan runs flat out after about 30 mins of desktop activity, not gaming, so it looks like it's going to have to go back too. I was thinking about a corsair HX model. Whatever it'll need to be modular and pref not too long, also pref end mounted fan. Last question, does it matter which way up you mount a psu?

 

[G-Dubs]

Corsair are doing some sweet PSU's... If yours is new i'd get the RMA sorted as it sounds like its borked.

Cheers matey. Actually waiting for a refund to come through on a bequiet that I RMA'd after only one month as it kept cutting power for no reason. Any idea re the mounting psu's upside down, I ask cos when you stick the ones with the top120mm fans in this case you have to mount them upside down so that the intake fan is uppermost, i.e. directly under the mobo tray so they don#t get a lot of air flow, but more than they'd get if you put them the other way up.

 

[G-Dubs]

Congrats on your "crisp £10 note" Mr Robert Barlow

My PC was in the mag a while back.

Looking good

not sure what you mean here????

 

[G-Dubs]

Which edition of PC format are we talking about? The last one I got was 222 (which is the Jan 09 issue) I did send in pics of my set up about amonth ago but I haven't seen them in the mag, and my name's not Robert Barlow, but I am willing to change it for £10!!!.
Conspiracy it is then (should have taken the blue pill)
Seriously, I haven't seen any skeletons in PC format apart from the one they reviewed in issue 222 (is issue 223 out yet?)

 

[G-Dubs]

Posted same pics in case gallery, but thought i'd stick them in here also. Still can't work out what to do with the cabling, there's just nowhere to put the front panel cables and I'm begging to think although I've braided them and all they just look a bloody mess under the UV

 

[G-Dubs]

the mystery solved

Its issue 223 im looking at...i subscribe so i do get it a bit earlier than the shops.

Im scared, dun dun...DUN

Just seen what i did wrong there.../facepalm

All is revealed. I'm the other guy. Good old PC format have put the text against the wrong pictures. (my "Tiny Clanger" confirms their editorial clanger)
thanks for forwarding the pics, Can't wait to get my copy
Trying to maintain mature calmness, but Oh boy am I excited.!!!!!

 

[G-Dubs]

you can slide the main component area out of the arched area, although you do have to detach front connectors, but what a lot of reviews don't mention is that you can also just undo the 4 screws that anchor the arch to the component area and lift it off the top, which to be honest is actually easier. to use as a test bench you would have course need some stubby mobo power and reset switches. I guess you could use it like that as a test bench, I certainly do and then when you want to give it some stick put it all back together and fire up the bigfan.

 

[G-Dubs]

So guys, some ideas on how to mod this thing, what do we do to it? It's not like we can cut holes in it and stick windows in so what then?

Suggestions on a post card to...
am I showing my age now?

 

[G-Dubs]

Keep em coming guys, I like the idea of having a go at the perspex thing. I think you can get stuff that's like one way mirror, what do you think to mounting that mirror side outwards placed behind the lower side mesh work, so it looks like a mirror until the internal lights are turned on at which point it becomes transparent. Too much maybe

To be honest I like the rest of it open for the simple reason its dead easy to stick your hand in when you need to (nothing quite like touching your chipset too see if its too hot or not, or you RAM for that matter. Apart from that though from a visual point of view it would look good. Don't know anything about watercooling so can't really comment (like the idea though)

 

[G-Dubs]

Spray it black.

Was thinking of bright orange, after seeing another thread (can't remember name of project but guy had bright orange cube type thing and it looked awsome) maybe orange on this would be too much

 

[G-Dubs]

I have just about fininshed my Skeleton, i`ll stick some pics on here as well.

Looking forward to seeing it.

 

[G-Dubs]

very nice Randell, think that might of taken longer than 60 seconds. Love the shot through the glass, looks v cool in that unit I have to say. where have you put your UV? and what PSU are you using? Could you publish some close ups of how you're tucked away your front connection cables and how you've routed your othercables cos you've done a real good job there mate.

 

[G-Dubs]

Thanks for posting the pics randel, love the idea of the coil covers on the UVs. How are you finding it to work on, I find it a bit tight to get the psu and pci cables fed through from the back up through the hole in th emiddle, but apart from that not bad. Have you worked out that you can lift off the whole silver plastic arch section just by undoing 4 screws, one at the bottom of each leg. Still can't get my front cabling to a state i'm happy with, but might get some more antikink coil and wrap it round a few bunching them together (think that might be what you've done, if so kudos to you).

 

[G-Dubs]

Out of interest, how did you manage to fit that Zalman CNPS9700 HSF, (I have one of them in my Coolermaster case), all the write ups on the skeleton say you cannot fit anything but a standard HSF because of hight restrictions.

Fitted just fine in the normal way, attached it to cpu on mobo tray and slid it in as it should, however it was very much a case of a few more microns of paste and it would've been raised too high. I reckon there aren't too many non stock fans that will fit apart from this type. there's a fair few makes of this "type" around, but look out for the ones with the larger diameter fans as they won't slide in. You can fit some slightly larger cooler types, but the mobo tray won't slide in and out, instead you have to undo the 4 screws at the base of the legs and lift the whole arch assembly off. No biggy really, but a bit more fiddly than just sliding out the whole mobo tray. thought i'd chuck in a few pics to show clearances. Looking forward to seeing a few more pics of peoples rigs here, esp the water cooled jobby.....can it be done????

 

[G-Dubs]

After a bit of research i'm thinking of a Microcool Banchetto if I go for an open case...

Way down the shopping list though.

Did think of the Banchetto myself, as it does look nice. Prob better suited to water cooling than the antec. more of a pure test bed and less of a half breed.