Asthetic cases

[cyberiantiger]

Maybe I am bragging. Maybe you will hate me for it. But I am proud of the system I have just built. It is a fun project. I wanted not only fast performance at reasonable cost but I want it to look good too. So I have searched for a cool looking case that will still handle the cooling requirements of my overclocked gear. My favorite design was off of alienware.com. The "hydraulic" case was a cool idea. I found a distributor that sells the same case. Directron Keep in mind the case is not truely hydraulic. It uses a "dampened fall" (door slides down on geared track). It works very smoothly and requires no power to open. I have an Asus A7V mobo with 850 MHz Tbird @ 1GHz. Also I have a Radeon 64MB DDR (not yet oc'd). So far the case provides excellent cooling. I purchased the full tower version to accommodate 4 RAID HDD's, and it allows a lot of airflow. Circulating air through the case is not a problem. Since the case is divided into two compartments top and bottom, I recommend a case fan mounted in both compartments.



The case is black. All my components (CD-RW, 50x CD, Zip drive, floppy, DVD) are beige. Not cool when mounted in the case. I went to the store and bought some chrome paint. It is not difficult to remove the bezel from the drives and spray them. WARNING! Be careful not to ever get the chrome paint inside any electronic components. The chrome paint contains metal and will short over your tracings.

The CD drives are a little harder. I wanted the tray to be chrome as well. This requires disassemblying the drive and removing the tray. It is worth it though as you will have one awesome toy.

I am currently doing mods to my monitor and keyboard to match the case. The monitor, I decided, should be black to match the case. The bezel and back enclosure have been removed with no problems. I removed the base and sprayed the whole enclosure with a gloss enamel. Then I covered with a clear coat for shine. The monitor does not match the case exactly. It is a brighter shade of black (ironic huh)with reflective properties, while the case is a flat black.

I bought a black keyboard. The keys are a shiny black with white letters. I removed the housing from the keyboard and will spray it with the chrome metallic. The mouse is an optical mouse that is already somewhat black and chrome.

What do you think?

I friend of mine wants a system that is Corvette yellow with black trim. That should be hot!

Does anyone know what would be involved in installing LED's in a translucent keyboard/mouse? I can get low power LED's but I don't know what is involved in attaching to power.

Let me know any ideas you have!

 

[TSDible]

Pics would be nice....

 

[cyberiantiger]

I don't have a camera but I will try to get some posted.

 

[clay]

What kind of paint -- spray or brushed on, any special brand; and how did you take the covers off? Thanks.

 

[cyberiantiger]

I am not sure what could be best. What I used was Krylon chrome metallic spray enamel. The enamel is supposed to create a hard coat that can be polished. I applied two coats of chrome metallic and polished with a rotory buffing tool. (Model tools are great)I have noticed it may be possible to scratch the finish with discs etc, so I may go back with a laquer coat.

The covers were not hard. I have a Teac 3.5" floppy that was not hard to remove. There are small brackets that snap to the metal housing of the drive. With a small screw driver lift the two lower clips from the housing and peel upward. The disc eject button comes off easily as well. Push back and up and it comes right off. You may want to spray a small amount on some card board and apply with a quetip to any small areas you can't remove.

Similar story with the CDROM but if you want to chrome the tray you will likely have to take the CDROM apart. No big deal for experienced overclockers. Be careful not to contaminate the laser.

Zip drive was same as floppy.

Any ideas on attaching LED's inside translucent keyboard/mouse?

 

[HaVoC]

Come on dude, we are waiting on those pics! sorry...I am excited to see this case as the description sounds awesome. Next thing you know you can put some rims, spoiler and rice it out! just kidding...

My only concern with the silver paint would be durability. Enamel should be the hardest of paints but adhesion with plastic can be an issue. Even the most careful of users will chip away the paint on high-wear areas, or so I would believe.

Though I am not electronics expert, the LEDs should not be too difficult. If you have a wiring diagram of the mouse and keyboard you can just hook up the LED to the DC incoming power (+) and attach the other lead to ground (-). Even without schematics I think you could get a voltmeter and find the power source for the circuit boards. As long as the mouse/kb aren't too expensive I wouldn't think it's a risk to try the LEDs. Blue LEDs would be very cool.

 

[chaevans]

>Does anyone know what would be involved in installing LED's in a translucent keyboard/mouse?

What exactly are you looking for here. Do you want to replace the LEDs used in the optical mouse and the keyboard (Num Lock, etc.) or do you want to add additional LEDs to light up the entire translucent keyboard/mouse?

 

[cyberiantiger]

You got it, chaevans. I want to make it glow. I want to totally pimp out the system. You can spend a lot of dollars on video and sound. Unfortunately, about the only way to dress up a rig is to buy cheesy translucent keyboards. They wouldn't be so goofy looking if they emmitted a soft neon glow.

Soft blue on black would totally rock. Mousing in low light (night is when I usually browse)with a glowing orb in your hand would be the schitt. Oops.

 

[chaevans]

The problem with doing this with LEDs is getting that rather focused light to diffuse so your entire keyboard 'glows'. Not sure that an LED is the best way to do this. For instance I switched out my red optical mouse LED for a blue one. It looks pretty cool but you really don't see much 'glow' from the mouse. I have to lift the mouse up to show friends before they see any effect. Anyone have any ideas what you could use besides LEDs that wouldn't be an electricity hog or perhaps something that would diffuse the LED light?

 

[cyberiantiger]

For diffusing light, you of course cannot use a solid housing. If the housing is transparent, you will see the LED itself. An LED light bar would be nice, you might even want to see it transparently. (perhaps one on each side of the mouse?) I tried sticking an LED into a broken florescent light tube. It was diffuse. However, I know that the coating on the glass is phospherous. Don't need to use that. But maybe the principle would apply. Perhaps a transparent mouse with a blue LED and a thin coat of paint in your choice of shade would produce the desired effect.

But I don't know how to control the thickness of the paint to adjust between not enough and rendering the housing opaque. Also, what kind of paint could be used.

 

[cyberiantiger]

I will try to get some pictures posted soon. I am going to borrow a digital camera. Ideally I would like to make an MPEG to show the sliding "hydraulic" door in action.

Expect just pics though.

 

[Reds]

You could try EL cable. They sell it here beingseentech and a few other places around the net. I've seen a mod where someone ran blue EL cable underneath his keys in his keyboard, and it had a really cool ethereal effect of glowing blue coming up from inside his keyboard. Go browse the Hardforum for more info and ideas like this.


Reds

 

[kgraeme]

If you want to go with the diffuse glow, you might try using the Krylon Frosted Glass spray.

 

[cyberiantiger]

Does the Krylon glass spray come in different colors?

 

[sparkle]

Hey man, why are you teasing us with no pics? When you get some, send them over to me so I can put them in my mod galleries!

 

[cyberiantiger]

Nice site spark-l. I will try to get some pics sent to you. I will be out of town over the weekend. Expect something by the end of next week.

Those LED and neon mods rock! I have some plans to rig some light fx. One pic showed a mirror finish. Was that done with clear coat and then polishing?

 

[cdternie]

Reds, those EL cables look awesome! I'm a bit confused how they hook up to a power source, though... have you used these before or know how they connect to power?

 

[kgraeme]

The Krylon Frosted Glass spray is just sort of white. It's meant to be the economy version of etched glass. I suggested it because if you have something transparent, then the LED will just look like a glowing LED. If you want a diffuse glow you need to shine it through something more translucent that will, well, diffuse the light. I'd try it on something else as a test first in case you don't like the effect.

The other thing I began to think of was quite a bit more technically involved. I was thinking about how to attach one of those mini-neon sticks to your keyboard, and maybe power it off of the USB. I'm no EE though, so that's about as far as I got with the idea.

 

[JonathanTheRed]

For those who want to "pimp out" their cases, Think Geek sells a nifty-looking neon tube + window kit. You cut a hole in the side of your case, install the window, and then mount the neon tube inside. The tube is powered off of a standard power supply plug, and comes with an extra plug so you don't lose one. I haven't done this myself (I've got a cheap-o case that doesn't deserve such fine treatment), but it looks pretty cool.