First off, hello everyone, I am not exactly new to these forums, but my old account doesn't seem to work, and it's been a couple of years since I have posted anything. I hope you enjoy looking at this mod, I am quite proud of it, and it is my first attempt so be nice. 
When I purchased my P182SE I thought it would be pretty cool to have a chrome finish on a case, and it was for a while. But then it just became a hassle to keep it smudge free and being afraid to touch the panels when moving the case was rather irritating.
So I decided to somehow change the outside appearance of the case, I thought about painting but I wasn't too confident in my spray-painting skills, so I decided on a vinyl case wrap. However living where I live in Australia it was impossible to buy one locally so I went to a local sign writer and just made one from scratch. Also while I was at it, I decided to add a window to the case, tidy up the cables and change the green LED's in the CPU fan to blue, to match the other fans.
I know this is an older case now, but it serves me extremely well, and I will be keeping it for some time.
Cutting into a chrome side panel was nerve-wracking, while trying to hold a dremel as steady as I can.
The window was a little rough, I tidied up the edges with a file but because of the way the side panels are made it was a pain to get them smooth. The side panels are a 3 layer design, 2 sheets of aluminium with plastic in between for noise dampening. Luckily the rubber hides any imperfections. This rubber was my first attempt, as it was hard to find the exact rubber I needed in town, this was rubber tubing that I sliced down one side to make a "U".
This is where I ran into a problem, I had made the window slightly too large and the rubber was hitting the the metal cover over the power supply chamber. So the perspex window definitely would not fit. So I had to trim the perspex window to fit inside the window cut out, and change the rubber trim.
Changing the lights in the zalaman fan was pretty easy, just removing the O-ring from the rear of the fan, then it pops off, and soldering the new blue LED's was pretty easy if a bit fiddly.
After that was all done, all that was left was to apply the case wrap. That was as simple as measuring, cutting and then carefully sticking it to each panel. There was one stuff up with the side panel with the window, but the good thing is if you do stuff it up, you can peel it back and try again.
I went with an overly simple design, as I didn't want anything too flashy. With the left-over vinyl I am going to do my Logitech G15 keyboard as the silver is starting to rub off (like all my previous silver keyboards). I will add a picture of this if/when I get around to it.
I am yet to add the window into the cutout as I still need to resize it slightly, this will be getting done tomorrow morning. After this is done I will be looking at modifying the front intake so it does not restrict the amount of air as much, and then removing the rear fan grill and replacing it with a stainless steel grill that is less restrictive.
If anyone has any comments or suggestions as to how I can improve this case, please let me know. Also sorry for the pictures being sub-par, my phones camera is kinda average.
When I purchased my P182SE I thought it would be pretty cool to have a chrome finish on a case, and it was for a while. But then it just became a hassle to keep it smudge free and being afraid to touch the panels when moving the case was rather irritating.
So I decided to somehow change the outside appearance of the case, I thought about painting but I wasn't too confident in my spray-painting skills, so I decided on a vinyl case wrap. However living where I live in Australia it was impossible to buy one locally so I went to a local sign writer and just made one from scratch. Also while I was at it, I decided to add a window to the case, tidy up the cables and change the green LED's in the CPU fan to blue, to match the other fans.
I know this is an older case now, but it serves me extremely well, and I will be keeping it for some time.
Cutting into a chrome side panel was nerve-wracking, while trying to hold a dremel as steady as I can.
The window was a little rough, I tidied up the edges with a file but because of the way the side panels are made it was a pain to get them smooth. The side panels are a 3 layer design, 2 sheets of aluminium with plastic in between for noise dampening. Luckily the rubber hides any imperfections. This rubber was my first attempt, as it was hard to find the exact rubber I needed in town, this was rubber tubing that I sliced down one side to make a "U".
This is where I ran into a problem, I had made the window slightly too large and the rubber was hitting the the metal cover over the power supply chamber. So the perspex window definitely would not fit. So I had to trim the perspex window to fit inside the window cut out, and change the rubber trim.
Changing the lights in the zalaman fan was pretty easy, just removing the O-ring from the rear of the fan, then it pops off, and soldering the new blue LED's was pretty easy if a bit fiddly.
After that was all done, all that was left was to apply the case wrap. That was as simple as measuring, cutting and then carefully sticking it to each panel. There was one stuff up with the side panel with the window, but the good thing is if you do stuff it up, you can peel it back and try again.
I went with an overly simple design, as I didn't want anything too flashy. With the left-over vinyl I am going to do my Logitech G15 keyboard as the silver is starting to rub off (like all my previous silver keyboards). I will add a picture of this if/when I get around to it.
I am yet to add the window into the cutout as I still need to resize it slightly, this will be getting done tomorrow morning. After this is done I will be looking at modifying the front intake so it does not restrict the amount of air as much, and then removing the rear fan grill and replacing it with a stainless steel grill that is less restrictive.
If anyone has any comments or suggestions as to how I can improve this case, please let me know. Also sorry for the pictures being sub-par, my phones camera is kinda average.
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