WIP Nyrrium "MbD" Refit

[frontier204]

I've decided to post a few pics for some mods err... hacks I'm doing to my case while awaiting a replacement motherboard for my main rig's M3A78-T. "MbD" stands for "Motherboard Death", while "Nyrrium" is just a random set of syllables that doesn't seem to come up in a Google search. I suppose you can call this a "next time I'll get a better case" act-of-denial, as I hack my Coolermaster Elite 330 to make up for things I don't like about it, uglifying it as I do so.

Note that I didn't buy any extra case modding equipment or materials to do anything I've posted so far (and it shows )

For today's mods (err... the mods I'm posting pictures for):

• Cut out parts of front and back panels of case that restrict air flow
• "Handle"
• Change power on LED

One thing I don't like about the case is the hole pattern for the fans. (see pic below)

The pattern is too restrictive for airflow, and with the fan right at the other side of the panel, it produces a wooshing turbulent sound as the air squeezes around the holes. Although I'd ideally want to just cut a big hole to allow the fan to have an open space in front of it, the front panel blocks the fan anyway, so I decided not to cut out the part that the front panel blocks.
Ten minutes of rotary tool + cutting disc on the front panel gets me this:


The rear panel of the case doesn't have any accessories in the way, so I was free to cut out one large hole shaped as some uneven polygon:


The one modification I didn't get to do for airflow yet is the side panel. CoolerMaster provides a small vent but it is not designed for a fan. I'm debating whether to install an ugly window or an opaque piece of plastic to mount a fan to.

[frontier204]

After making the airflow modifications, I noticed that I created a rather hazardous situation which may make some unsuspecting user (me) cut themselves rather badly trying to pick up the case from the back, where I made a cut out from the fan. Therefore, why not make a handle for lugging this cheapo case to LAN parties?

Sticking to my no new materials strategy, I picked out some rusty fasteners and a scrap piece of polycarbonate from my robot combat days. Since putting large forces (from hauling / semi-dropping a fully-loaded computer) would likely cause the fasteners to rip straight out of the 1/32"? thick steel on the top of the case, I used the 1/16" polycarbonate to help spread out any upward force on that part of the case.

The materials:
<- strap from my camera got into the picture...

This is the end result - two loops sticking out of the top of the case, ready for me to put some twine / nylon strap / coat hanger wire or whatever else I can find to make a human-usable handle:


From the bottom, showing the polycarbonate:


Loctite threadlocker should keep the nuts from coming loose and falling onto my new motherboard.

It's a little off-centre, so it may be interesting to see how the case will swing if held from the handle-loops (or if I can put enough disk drives in the front to balance out the weight of the PSU on the other side hehe).

[frontier204]

I already replaced the HDD activity light on this case when I first got it, so why not replace the other one?

I picked out a red LED to replace the blue one that was installed with the case. The red should match the red LED on my CPU cooler nicely.

Probably not worth the picture, but here are the new (top, without wires) and old (bottom, with wires) LEDs along with the front panel switch / LED mount:


It was a pretty easy job to take off the old blue LED and solder on the new one. The LED just snaps back in to the plastic housing beside the power on switch.

I plugged my case's front panel connector to my university project's +3.3V rail to test out the LED:


The picture doesn't quite capture what I saw - the red glow is much dimmer than in the pic, because the "lens" around the power button is actually coloured blue. It's bright enough that I can see the red in full lighting, but not enough to act as another night light in my room .

More to come when new motherboard comes in from DirectCanada...