Dell mATX case mod? Dude, I got a Dell..

Thats a pretty slick mod. Congrats and thanks for sharing! :)
 
Great job officermartinez.

What did you use to make the holes for the front fans?
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WOW! Thanks everyone for the compliments.. As for the holes in the front of the case, I used these (speaker box bass ports):

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thejawn said:
Amazing mod, Hardly recognizable.
I wish that was my HTPC.
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Thanks for the compliment. I'm "testing" a little with 2gb's vs 4gb's of ram at the moment.. I was a little suprised to see this board not responding as well on 4gb's as compared to 2gb's. Oh well, either way, I am a winner.. After all lowering my bus speed vs increasing my multiplier doesn't really mean much in the long run because its still a HTPC.. LOL.
 
I'm going to be doing a similar mod, but with a new matx case. For the floppy drive slot that was on your case, did you just fill that full of the body filler, then sand it? On mine I have to fill 2 3.5'' bay fronts and one 5.25'' front, just wondering how you did that. And where'd you get the power switch? One more question, did you use a hole saw to cut the metal? was it a "bi-metal" one? On amazon.com they have a nice kit that says bi-metal, but the teeth look too big to cut through metal without dulling. thanks!
 
Just finished reading through this entire thread. I must say, your work is incredible! I am very jealous of that badass case. Great Job! :)
 
football76 said:
Just finished reading through this entire thread. I must say, your work is incredible! I am very jealous of that badass case. Great Job! :)
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Thanks! What really pleased me the most was how well the neon green / black color scheme really came together!

ric0chet06 said:
I'm going to be doing a similar mod, but with a new matx case. For the floppy drive slot that was on your case, did you just fill that full of the body filler, then sand it? On mine I have to fill 2 3.5'' bay fronts and one 5.25'' front, just wondering how you did that. And where'd you get the power switch? One more question, did you use a hole saw to cut the metal? was it a "bi-metal" one? On amazon.com they have a nice kit that says bi-metal, but the teeth look too big to cut through metal without dulling. thanks!
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I used a plastic epoxy filler (purchased at Home Depot) for the floppy drive. Then, I used a 220 grit sanding block followed by a 100 grit sanding block. Of course, everything was primered, painted and then clear coated. It all blended well on the final product. The black delrin switch can be purchased at jab-tech.com or performance-pcs.com. Be prepared to spend about $30 bux for the switch (pre wired and sleeved). As for the hole saw, I stayed away from that. I did it the old fashioned way... I used a jig saw with a metal cutting blade. If I encountered a "touchy" area of the cut, I used my dremel.

It took a few weeks to plan, cut and finialize this build.. Simply taking my time rather than rushing a cut, saved me in the long run.
 
What paint did you use for the green? Like primer, then paint or w/e and how many coats and stuff? Your pics are awesome and I want a green case now for the mod I am doing!
 
Guitarrasdeamor said:
What paint did you use for the green? Like primer, then paint or w/e and how many coats and stuff? Your pics are awesome and I want a green case now for the mod I am doing!
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It's not painted, it's powder coated. The process is much more expensive than painting and not something you can realistically do yourself. Cost will vary depending on the size of the parts in question.
 
Just wondering, what's the little enclosure box thing for, with the DVD drive and the hot-swap hdd?
 
crazjayz said:
Just wondering, what's the little enclosure box thing for, with the DVD drive and the hot-swap hdd?
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Yeah.. The little box thing IS for my hot-swap HDD and DVD drive. All that is required for me to connect it to the "main" rig itself is (2) external SATA cables (I purcased 2 three foot cables that did the job nicely).
 
Hey man, first of all I just want to say I love your work on that case, it is AWESOME. I have an L800r as well and it's been stripped it down all the way just about but I have hit a snag. How do you take off the sliding thing at the top and the other side panel? I have tried forever to figure out how to take it off. Do you have to cut it and if so how did you put it all back together? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can mod this case the way I want to. I'm a little new to the idea of modding but I love taking throw away stuff and making it into something awesome. (Used to make a lot of Warhammer terrain out of garbage.) I'm thinking of doing a red and black scheme.
 
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..... I just crapped my pants. Nice work dude. I would have never believed that it used to be an ugly Dell case.
 
CounterStriker said:
Hey man, first of all I just want to say I love your work on that case, it is AWESOME. I have an L800r as well and it's been stripped it down all the way just about but I have hit a snag. How do you take off the sliding thing at the top and the other side panel? I have tried forever to figure out how to take it off. Do you have to cut it and if so how did you put it all back together? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully I can mod this case the way I want to. I'm a little new to the idea of modding but I love taking throw away stuff and making it into something awesome. (Used to make a lot of Warhammer terrain out of garbage.) I'm thinking of doing a red and black scheme.
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Red and Black would look awesome! As for taking this case apart, mine came apart fairly easily. I removed the "factory" psu mount and made my own at the top of the case. That was the biggest challenge for this build I think. Those green little plastic pieces didn't give me any trouble. Just be careful not to snap off those little tabs that mount to the top of the case. You might need to gently use a flathead screw driver to push them thru the factory holes. Also, be careful on the GPU. I had basically NO room left between the front of my case and the end of my graphics card. But I'd love to see your L800r.

nightfawn said:
..... I just crapped my pants. Nice work dude. I would have never believed that it used to be an ugly Dell case.
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Thanks! It was fun building it..
 
Three years down the road and this thread still delivers! My hat is off for you, sir! :)
 
This is my first time seeing this and all I can say is wow! I hope I dig up my old Dell...
 
officermartinez said:
Hey everyone.. Good and bad news. I was at Microcenter first thing this morning (35 degree F), standing in line at the front door, wait for them to open. At 10:00 am sharp, the doors opened and I made a B-Line to the BYOPC counter. There must have been 4-5 guys behind me. I told the sales assistant that I would like to purchase a Q6600. With less than 10 minutes before Microcenter closed last night, I called to ask how many they had in stock. After 4-5 minutes of being on hold, an associate picked the phone up and said that they had "3" in stock. Great I thought.. In all reality, the store was only going to be open for 2 more minutes. I asked the sales associate if she could put one of them "on-hold" for me but she said she would not be able to do that. So, fast forward to this morning.. When I asked for a Q6600, the sales associate said, "uhhhhh, we show to have -1 quanity".

What in the world??? NEGATIVE 1? I drove for hours this morning in weather that was close to freezing, only for an associate to tell me that they were out of stock. He kindly redirected my attention to their E4500. Guess what my reaction was.. LOL. I held the tears back and said no thank you. It was my lucky day however. The main store manager walked by and could see that my world had just been shattered.. LMAO! He asked if there was a problem and I told him my situation. As soon as I finished my sob story, I saw a small golden halo begin to appear above his head as he said that as a favor, he would be willing to use expedited shipping via FEDEX and ship me a Q6600 (as soon as their stock truck arrived with more Q6600's) if I paid the sale price of $199 today. With the quickness, I whipped out my Visa check card and gladly paid the sale price of $199. The manager said that if there was no Q6600's on this truck coming, he would FIND me a brand new retail boxed Q6600 regardless, if it meant keeping a returning customer happy.

Kudo's to Microcenter. That's just simply good customer service. They've earned my business on future purchases. (If any Microcenter employee reads this, THANK YOU)!

So, the good news: I have a Q6600 coming and it's already paid for.
The bad news: Microcenter in Richardson, Texas has NO stock on the Q6600 or E8400.

As for the parts laying around, I think I am not going to use my "old" 200gb Maxtor drive.. Instead I will need to buy atleast a 500gb Sata drive (Seagate 7200.10 perhaps.. $104). I also need to buy my mATX board. Since the rumored DFI mATX board is only speculation, I will probably end up buying the Asus P5E-VM HDMI board.
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you must not go to Microcenter in NJ.
That place is run by fools
 
DisrupTer911 said:
you must not go to Microcenter in NJ.
That place is run by fools
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Darn shame! I guess it's luck of the draw! Heck, I was pretty upset with the same MC on launch day when the 2600k's were released. However, the manager made it all good b4 I left the store : )

mannyman said:
well very late, but very nice, good job
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Hey, thanks mannyman. I always appreciate the compliment. It was my first attempt at working with epoxy on a computer case..
 
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