B&W Redux: Antec 900 Refresh

[MrGoat]

Note: if you get red Xs instead of images refresh the page. My webhost is being retarded at the moment....

In the beginning,

In November 2006 I built my 1st gaming rig since the Half-life 1 era, an E6600 powered machine with a brand new at the time 8800gts housed in a beat up old Thermaltake shark. Pure PC Gaming bliss! A bit later when it came time to upgrade the case I picked the 900 due to its modularity, high airflow and mostly because its a cool looking case. It's been with me ever since.

A couple years later,

About two and a half years ago I took plunge and added water cooling to the system and got a bit more serious about cable management. The mess in the picture above with the PCI-E power got cleaned up by stepping up from a 280 to a 285 which did not need a 8pin adapter. At the same time I moved from multiple drives to a single 500gb mounted vertically in the rear fan grill.

Below is a recent picture from November when I lost my power supply, rather than take the time to actually replace it I just set the new unit next to the machine and ran it this way for around a month until I had time to take things apart.

That was then, this is now,

It's that time again, yes sir its upgrade time. I took some cash from a recent contract and purchased the following,

• EVGA GTX580
• Intel Core i7 950
• ASUS Sabertooth X58
• 6gb Mushkin Silverline 1600mhz
• Crucial C300 64gb SSD

Since this is a new project I had probably best have some goals in mind before kicking anything off. Here is what I want to accomplish,

• Stuff all of the above plus 2 500gb Caviar drives and water cooling gear into this case
• Clean up the paint and other aesthetics
• Show folks what can be done with basic tools found in a normal garage.

What have we here?

The base chassis with all exterior components removed and new pc hardware installed for the time being while the exterior work gets done.

Santa brought me some NZXT fans, Feaser white tube, black hose clamps, IandH Deadwater and black Anti-Kink for Christmas.

The exterior components ready for cleanup.

The old water-cooling components all cleaned up and ready to install again.

And finally some raw materials, specifically some 16ga mild steel sheet and some perforated steel. This will be used to fabricate the new drive cage.

That's it for now, I'll have some pics up shortly of the new drive mounting and cage, until then good evening and happy modding

 

[MrGoat]

On With the show

I'm a function over form guy so that said I blew the vast majority of my budget on the actual PC hardware. When I saw the side mounted drives on blueonblack's Project ClockworkII I loved the idea. Initially I planned to outright use the external enclosure idea, but it was out of the budget, guess I'll have to do this the hard way.

Drives laid out on the side panel so I can visualize locations and fitment.

Initially I was going to use the Hex head bolts as structure to hold the cover in place and give an industrial look, but I may go with Allen style machine screws instead to match the other side of the case.

Drawn layout with hole locations center punched.

If you are going to be drilling any holes you should own a center punch. I picked this spring loaded one up from Harbor Freight for $9, well worth the investment.

Nothing says committed like a set of 3/8" holes in the side of your case!

The basic procedure I used here was to punch the centers and then start the holes as 3/16" then move up to the bigger bit as the big bit will still try and "walk" out of the centers without enlargement. I drilled into a backing of scrap pine to keep from distorting the sheet as the drill passed through. A utility knife does a great job of cutting the burr off of the edge of any cuts. Even better would be a proper de-burring blade, but most folks won't find one of those in their garages.

First two holes cleaned up with rubber grommets installed.

Test fit of the rubber grommets which will hopefully provide some sound dampening for the hard drives.

1st test drive mounted

Everything fit up perfectly, it's a pretty good start.

Both test drives mounted. Everything dropped in without struggle and even better it fits nice and firm so there should be no rattles etc.

Next post I will be starting to create a cover to go over the top of the drives.

 

[MrGoat]

I'm gonna cut ya!!

I'm sure you already noticed the outline I had on the tape for the drives. Basically what I'm looking to do is create a shape that flows with the existing design as I'm not planning any other major external changes to the case.

16ga mild steel sheet with the basic layout taped to it.

Here we have the patient clamped and ready for surgery

A Dremel type tool is a must for every garage, beyond my drill and screw gun this is my most commonly used tool. When doing long straight cuts like this don't try to cut it all in one pass use multiple shallow passes that go clear across your work piece.

After a little Jenny Craig we end up with this,

One of the freshly cut edges.

With a little patience and a good bit of care a Dremel can make a pretty clean cut. Notice that part of the pen line is still visible, in this case since tolerances are not an issue I tried to make the cut right down the center of the line and was able to make a cut that will require very little cleanup.

The edges after cleanup

After some de-burring, some filing and a bunch of draw filing the edges are cleaned up and ready to go.

All done,

Not bad for being cut by hand.

 

[turbogeek]

I like where this is going.
I'll be watching this.
I've been gathering inspiration over the last few months for the imminent overhaul of my rig.

 

[MrGoat]

Quick Update

Had a little time tonight so I decided it was time to drill some holes,

Everything laid out. Note I taped the whole thing for a reason, you'll just have to see what that's about tomorrow.

Holes drilled,

And Filled,

I changed my mind about the Hex bolts and went with 1/4"Allen cap screws to match the existing hardware on the case. I think with this painted black and the screws left stainless it should look pretty decent. More to come tomorow!

 

[MrGoat]

More Holes,

Today I started to finalize the top of the drive cover. Most of you will be able to recognize the similarity with the Antec 900 windowed side panel.

Laid out,

Rough Cut,

Cleaned up some,

I still have a good bit of cleanup to do on this before its ready for paint but all of the big cutting is done at least until I start the sides.

 

[MrGoat]

One of them days,

Been working my ass off the last few weeks at work to clear some projects only to find out today that I'm officially unemployed. Good news is of course now I have plenty of time to work on this mod

More Holes,

Dropped a couple of mounting holes into the side, the rest of the cap screws will only be for looks.

Primed,

Primed the inside mostly as a rust inhibitor it will be a simple flat black to hide any holes utilized for cable management. Speaking of cabling holes, forgot to add the ones for SATA, doh!

Drive Cover Cleaned up,

After a bit with a polishing wheel and the files got everything cleaned up and ready.

Getting the sides laid out,

WTB Pan Box Break?

Since I don't have a break I need to make due, so I put a piece of sharp edged oak from when I built my desk to keep a straight edge and clamped it all in my shop table.

Getting bent,

After a little work with some oak and a rubber mallet I ended up with a half decent bend. It still needs a little work but we are getting there.

See where it's going yet?

 

[ChocoFish]

Looks nice I really like the similarity with the panel from the 900

 

[MrGoat]

Thanks Choco, yeah when I was trying to figure out how I was going to do the top I had several ideas floating around including a sort of reactor theme. It wasnt until I set aside the partialy finished top and layed it right on top of the side pannel did I get the insperation.

 

[MrGoat]

Taking a break,

Yesterday I wasn't in the mood to do any metal work on this so instead I decided to do some paint and fit some fans.

Side exterior cleaned up and primed, (This time with a hole for the cabling!)

Fans installed on radiator,

These NZXT fans are pretty nice especially for ten bucks each. The sleeve is nice and thick and no wires hanging out at the ends.

200mm test fit,

The original "Big Boy" fan was mounted in with screws that shot into the top plastic bezel of the case. As you can see here the NZXT fan's housing is significantly smaller than the original, so unless I make some clips mounting in the same fashion won't work.

200mm test fit to chassis,

Fortunately it fits perfect to the hole in the chassis all I'll need to do is drill a couple of holes and mount it with screws.

Break over,

Today I got back onto the drive cover part of the project and its really starting to come together.

Cut the bend from the sheet,

Broke out the cutting disks and the dremmel again and did a quick cut down the line. Didn't need to be perfect this time as the cut will be hidden regardless.

First two corners bent,

I cut the angles on the top and did the bends by hand.

Four corners bent,

Here without the top covering it you can see how the cuts were made to allow for the corners to be bent.

Test fit,

After a couple of tweaks the test fit is pretty close to where I want it.

 

[MrGoat]

Just a quick update

Today was work for my wife day so between working on some projects around the house I got a couple of minor updates made to the case.

Painted all of the mesh bits,

If you haven't guessed it yet the BW in the name is for the black and white paint scheme I'm going with.

Here is the cover clamped together,

Initially I primed the top not thinking about attaching the sides which is being done with JB weld. I had to clean it up with a little wire wheel mounted to my drill. A lap joint like this is ideal for soldering, however I don't have a torch around and figure most folks won't have one ether so JB weld should still work just fine.

 

[akifbayram]

That's a huge fan! Looks good on the case though. Nice job!

 

[MrGoat]

Argh!!!

Last couple of weeks have been a bit rough both personally and with this project. My job search has left little time for this and so it's been neglected a bit.

Eeewww....,

This is what happens if you fail to properly clean before painting. I thought I had done this piece but upon turning it over noticed dust etc so obviously I didn't.

After cleaning, a bit of sanding and two coats of primer ,

Fortunately everything turned out OK after some heavy sanding a thick coat of primer and then wet sanding a second coat of primer with 1000 grit.

Finish gloss white in the indents,

All that's needed now is some cleanup sanding and a coat of clear then the rest goes back to flat black.

And another boo boo,

Unfortunately when I JB welded the sides I thought it had set and unclamped it too soon allowing them to shift out of position. Not much to do to fix this without a major rework so I'm going to deal with it as is.

From the front,

From the front with an exterior coat of primer. As you can see its not way out but definitely noticeable. The other side slid in about as much as this side slid out.

Clamped with the center bit installed,

The driver cover with the Center panel JB welded in place and clamped. Tomorrow I will begin work on closing up the back and finalizing this part of the project.

 

[MrGoat]

Quick Update

Its been so busy around here that I haven't had the time to both update this post and work on the case so I've been doing the work and figuring I'll make some posts later. Here is a quick tease shot of the nearly completed project.

This has all the internals and all of the wiring completely mounted and configured.

Doh!!,

I was having a bad day today then these guys dropped by my neighbors place to say Hi. Apparently the new way to say hello these days is with flashbangs and battering rams. I'll have to keep this in mind next time my mother-in-law visits.

 

[mannyman]

Laughing at the SWAT team at your neighbors. Looks very good, is the mobo tray mesh? this is a very interesting idea. Looks good so far im tuned in.

 

[velocityx]

finally somebody moding an antec case

I was thinking of moding my 1200 but I will probably sell it as my water cooling dreams got a bit the low side so no need for such a huge case anymore

btw awesome work with that mesh modeling. was it hard to model the mesh around the plate? any specific tools/work process to do that?

 

[SonDa5]

Great looking bends on your loop.

 

[MrGoat]

Thank you for the compliments.

As far as the mesh goes, its just a cover on the mb tray and doesn't go past the mb standoffs.Bending it was pretty easy. This is really thin stuff so although a proper break would be really helpful when bending it I just used the clamp on the little black and decker bench in the pics to do all of the bending on this.