DarkJedi Mod

So I figured I would do something special for my first official blog post. Well here it is, my hard work and time. I want to start this by saying that I spent no money on the mod itself, begin out of work makes it kinda hard.

So, using what I found around the house (paint wise) and a dremel (the best tool ever made) I was able to throw together a good mod in about a weeks time.

Here are the current specs of the system being modded:

Operating System: Vista x32 - Ubuntu 8.04 - Windows XP (Across 3 systems, Vista on primary.)
Case: Antec Nine Hundred (V.2)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo Q6600 (G0, Quad Core, 2.4Ghz @ 3.2 ~ Air)
CPU Cooler: ZEROtherm Nirvana NV120 120mm
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35-DS4 Rev. 2.0 F9 (Ultra Durable Line)
Power Supply: Gigabyte Odin GE-S800A-D1 (800Watt Quad 12v, Controllable Via USB)
Ram: G.Skill 4x 1Gig G.Skill DDR2 800
Hard Drives: Seagate 2x 250Gig ES (Server) SATA2 Striped, 2x 250Gig Storage, 1x 500Gig Media
Optical: Light-On DVD-RW DL (With custom LED mod)
Video Card: eVGA Nvidia 8800GTS 640Meg Superclocked

Here is what I started with:

Your standard Antec 900 case. I choose this because I have been so disappointed with the airflow of every case I have used before this. The 900 definitely fixed my perception of good cases, with enough airflow for it to be a small win tunnel.

After looking around (AKA doing research) for ideas on what I could do with the Antec 900 case, I decided on some simple cable management and repainting the interior for a nice effect.

The disassembly is easy enough except for the two plastic clips towards the front of the top fan piece, very hard to get to. At this point I had decided on a paint color and started the priming.

Took me about 2 coats to get a nice even finish. I realize now the importance of time and patience when it comes to painting anything, too bad I only had a week to do this in. (I will be repainting the whole thing in the near future.)

I had picked a nice blue color, something close to a Ford Tractor blue (I live on a farm… It was the only color I found) and it was pretty close to what I wanted… So, I lucked out on that. The paint is from Rustoleum and is specially made for metal, and goes very well with the primer I used.

After the first coat. Working back in forth in and on/off style to prevent too much paint where I stop. I was focused mainly on the areas that would actually show when the computer was re-assembled. In the last pic you can see the un-evenness of the paint where the motherboard goes, this can be fixed with more (thin) coats and wet sanding between coats.

Here is the correct way to paint this and any case:

-Strip the case of ALL components.
-Use stripper to remove any sticky areas and anything not metal (silicone/runner feet, spacers, etc.)
-Lightly sand the entire surface to be painted. (Makes paint/primer stick better.)
-Wash surface w/ soap and water to remove any residue and oils.
-DRY the entire case. You don’t want water to drip onto your wet paint…
-Prime (Dark primer for dark paint, Light primer for light paint.) Very thin coat!
-Let dry for at least an hour (dry times depend on temp/humidity).
-Second coat of primer. Still THIN!
-Let dry at least 24 hours.
-Wet sand surface, rinse, dry, wipe with tack cloth.
-Optional coat of primer, 6 hour dry time.
-First coat of color. Very thin as always!
-Let dry for a couple hours.
-Second THIN coat.
-Let dry 24 hours, NO LESS.
-Wet sand color to even surface, rinse, wipe.
-Third coat of color.
-Optional fourth coat.
-Let dry about 48-72 hours before doing ANYTHING to it.
-Optional clear coats. 3 THIN layers, wet sand after second.

Be sure your case is COMPLETELY DRY before assembly. Trust me. You can ruin a weeks worth of work if you have soft paint and decide to assemble.

(This guide is a bit out of order due to my own idiocy and not planning properly, AKA I cut the case after I painted, as you will see.)

After the ‘final’ coat. The only areas I really care about looked perfect (back and bottom) so I decided to move on to cutting for my wires.

Measure twice, cut once. There are a couple ways to do the PSU for a 900. The way I decided to go was with the PSU fan facing up (pulling air OUT of the case) as opposed to turning it ‘upside-down’ and cutting a hole in the bottom of the case so it can breathe. I was lucky in the length of my cables, the 24 pin motherboard cable ended up being just long enough fith it in the following configuration.

The upside down version:

The holes were pretty easy to cut using my dremel and a cut off wheel. I found out why they sell the wheels in packs of 30 or so, they break easily. (Safety glasses are a must.)

For the layout of the holes I decided to run what I could behind the motherboard and have no more visible holes than the two that came withe the case and the PSU hole.

For the 8Pin power cable and the Front Panel connectors I just laid the mobo in the case and marked where the hole should be. Then I drilled 4 guide holes and switched to the cut off wheel to make the final cuts.

You might notice I don’t use any kind of strip of guard for the edges, besides not having anything to use on hand, I don’t really like the look of edge guards. So to make sure I don’t get any cut cables I filed down the edge using the Dremel and a filing stone tool. The edges are don’t cut the back of my finger, so I think they are smooth enough for the cables.

After cutting I did some touch up paint work to cover the areas I ground down.

Now I turn to assembly and wiring. I set everything up and connected it as it will be in the case. This helps me decide what cables I need to route, and how long everything is.

My first task for wiring was to extend the severly short front panel connectors on the 900.

I ended up cutting off a 10 pin plug from a DB-9 ’serial’ header and wrote up a pin list so I could solder it all together.

Since I seem to be missing my wire holder thingy (makes soldering wires together a hell of a lot easier) it took me a while. I was also missing all my small shrink wrap so electrical tape was used.

Now onto putting everything back in the case.

This was the easy part, now I have to figure out what to do with all those cables….

Notice the 8Pin power extender? It’s a must have for this case. Everything else reached what it need to without any modification (minus the front panel cable).

Here is the final ‘back of case’ cable layout. The side panel was a bit hard to put on, but everything ended up fitting.