Project: Midnight Blue

James Manns · 13 Apr 2010 at 19:46

hi there,
for a while i had been thinking about building my own PC and had been hovering around the forum and thinking how much fun/interesting it was.

so there i am...thinking, I'm going to do it !

so i looked around my room and gathered up loads of rc stuff from when i used to race them and counted up how much i could get for them, and believe it or not not was quite a lot and nearly enough to buy stuff for my new build.

so i started looking at what i could get with this new found money,
as most of you probably know, you aim high

so i thought about the cm932 or cm690 II but the budget when further looked at could not be stretched that far

.....so i thought, why not a cheaper case, because for my first build i wouldn't really need that much space etc.

One case stood out at me, well built, modern, efficient, good reviews...
many may think its not up to much but i went for the ANTEC 300 !

I then found one for a bit less than new but in new condition,
when it arrived i was very impressed

it wasn't bad at all, it was very nice.
Being a bit of a dab hand at engineering and manufacturing i thought that it was a case with a lot of potential.......that's when the drill and grinder came out !!

so first i had to take it apart+take out front panel connectors etc and drill out ALL rivet ( there is a lot i can tell you!)

then i cut out the grills on the front fan holders as they don't seem to have any real purpose and they will just slow air flow.

used the die grinder on those little bits because the angle grinder discs are far to big to get into all of those small places

then its onto the main case mods

i saw that people were moaning about the cable management in this case so i thought i would do something about it

i used the abrasive ends for the die grinder for the circular bits and angle grinder for the straight bits. (sorry for the quality, i took it on my phone (2mp)

)

As i was looking at all of these more expensive cases i really liked the window idea, so therefor...i had to make my own

the final pics of that and the acrylic later

more later when i put them on the computer of the painted bits

Arthalen · 13 Apr 2010 at 20:50

Looks interesting - looking forward to seeing more!

James Manns · 13 Apr 2010 at 21:05

ill have more up in a sec, just doing all of the links etc

jlss · 13 Apr 2010 at 21:17

Looks good James

Kurisu Makise · 13 Apr 2010 at 21:45

is it goin have a black coat or staying silver?

James Manns · 13 Apr 2010 at 21:54

in a minute i will post the spraying pictures and further modding pics

James Manns · 13 Apr 2010 at 22:22

soo, onto the spraying pictures...

well, wet sanding pictures

thats all of the exterior panels wet sanded, the interior ones didnt really need it as most of them wont be reflecting any light as you will see lower down

on the back panel there is a kind of blanking plate, added for strength i think,
i thought instead of this a nice mesh grill would look a lot nicer and offer better cooling for the rear of the case

as you can see, very boring and needs a bit of modding

i also drilled holes to attach the mesh.

so onto the painting, first off, primer then matt black

i didnt take any pics really of the other parts being sprayed tbh, all i know is it took a hole lot of midnight blue (notice the title

) to do the exterior panels !

after a day or two to let the panels harden a bit and for packages to arrive i started to rebuild her

ooh yeh i forgot to mention a quite big plan for this special 300...
she will be...

WATERCOOLED !

i know people will think, "that case is far to small to be watercooled" well they might be right...for them, i on the other hand think it is fine if you use some "outside the box thinking"

so anyway i had to clean up my radiator i bought second hand, its a thermochill 120.2 and the paint was a bit worse for wear and there is one quite big dent in one of the cores but ive checked and i dont think it leaks.
so i sanded it and gave it a lick paint with matt black.

the finished article, dont really want to try and clean the fins really :rolleyes:

so back to the rebuilding,
for the edges of my mods im using neoprene rubber edging which is very good and stops wires rubbing and finishes it of quite well.

i put it on before i built it as it would be a lot harder to move around and slot it in if the panel was in the case.

the paint is darker than it appears, the flash brightens it a bit

James

James Manns · 13 Apr 2010 at 22:29

more pics up tomorrow

thanks for the comments

chris__stoke · 14 Apr 2010 at 01:32

Loving this cant wait to see how your water cooling goes im very bored of my 300 and have been thinking bout a full system watercool for some months now will keep watching this

pieplough · 14 Apr 2010 at 07:48

Looking forward to seeing more James

Skillmister · 14 Apr 2010 at 09:46

Looks nice. Think i'll be modding my 300 over summer for sure.

James Manns · 14 Apr 2010 at 16:16

thanks for the comments , i will hopefully have more up later

misterPK · 14 Apr 2010 at 18:54

I like the exterior colour, looks a bit patchy though that might be the flash again! I'll be interested to see how it turns out.

PK!

James Manns · 14 Apr 2010 at 19:41

yeh the flash changes it a lot as in person its quite abit darker

Danm54 · 14 Apr 2010 at 19:43

Wow, impressive start to the build, keep up the good work

Kurisu Makise · 14 Apr 2010 at 20:31

looks good so far mate, intrested to see how you will have the liquid cooling set up. im doing the same with my lancool but no room for a rad on the inside so external quad for me.

G-Dubs · 14 Apr 2010 at 20:55

looking really nice.

Were you tempted to do something with the top fan grill??

James Manns · 14 Apr 2010 at 21:35

i was actually, but i didnt think there would be a lot of strength in the top panel and the air coming up threw the case would not be as cool as the ambient air temp...maybe a future mod

James Manns · 15 Apr 2010 at 18:54

ok, now onto the window

so after the midnight blue dying and my acrylic was delivered, i got to work

side panel ready for some transparency

side panel with double sided tape applied, the red tape stuff comes off its just the backing

the finished article, i think it is very nice and it looks really good in person :cool:

after being really happy with that.......i discovered a horrifying issue ! :eek:

the inside of the side panel is suppose to sit flat against this...with the 3mm acrylic, this made the side panel sit out by 3mm :mad:

:

so i thought of what could be done...and there was only one sollution.....
time to whip out the grinder again

for what i like to cal "LAST MINUTE MODDING" or "LMM" lol

i taped paper inside so that the sparks would not hit the paint inside.

the finished result is not too pretty but when the side panel is on, it wont be seen...

and when the grill is on the open hole it will have a bit more strength tha atm

(thanks for the comments

)

Arthalen · 15 Apr 2010 at 19:01

Looking forward to seeing the finished result!

Mmmmm, Midnight Blue, awesome idea, wonder where that idea came from ??

(j/k

)