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

KrylonArt said:
Wow, that looks awesome. Very nice!!!
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Thanks! I forgot to post a the final pics (with the case on and with the little rubber feet installed)..

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The distance between the back of the PSU to the front of the case was 4 1/4" inches.. VERY tight fit but I finally managed to tuck all of those wires away. Here are the overall final shots.. Enjoy! (BTW, this lil setup is kickin some major butt for it to "only" be a HTPC)!


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Looks awesome, but the drive enclosure's exterior looks a little off since it is stock compared to the front bezel on the HTPC. Are you going to color match the exteriors or is it just lighting playing tricks?
 
KrylonArt said:
Looks awesome, but the drive enclosure's exterior looks a little off since it is stock compared to the front bezel on the HTPC. Are you going to color match the exteriors or is it just lighting playing tricks?
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They are extremely close in color. So close in fact that if it is off, it is by a single shade.. I think its more of a lighting playing tricks on the photo sort of thing.. So I will just leave it alone (for now).. I am still contemplating about installing windows in the little enclosure but that's a project for another day.. LOL.
 
Special thanks to the following people and places:

Officer J. Lamond, Fort Worth Police Department (donated the Dell Case)..

Joe at Top Koat Custom Powder Coaters..

John at Jab-tech.com for his customer service, side windows and delrin vandal switch..

The top notch customer service crew at Zalman - USA..

The Store Manager at Microcenter in Richardson, Texas (Thanks for ensuring the G0 stepping Q6600 and free Fedex shipping straight to my front door)!

Additional parts were purchased from the following places:

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php , http://www.newegg.com/ , http://www.censuspc.com/home.php , http://www.ebay.com/ , http://www.geeks.com/ and http://www.arcticmod.com/
 
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Hard to tell, but is the window on the HTPC tinted? It doesn't look like it on the second to last pic, but on the last pic it does.

Edit: Thanks for the resources links, always nice to find more resources for work and such
 
KrylonArt said:
Hard to tell, but is the window on the HTPC tinted? It doesn't look like it on the second to last pic, but on the last pic it does.

Edit: Thanks for the resources links, always nice to find more resources for work and such
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It was just another one of those angle shots.. The window is not tinted but in between pics, I did clean the window with some windex.. Kind of made it look glossy..

No problem-o on the links.. I was really glad to see everything come together with very little build issues.. I am WAY exited that I have a motherboard (and quadcore processor) that is capable of running a 500FSB with no issues.. I even gamed on COD4 for a few days on that setting.. I have since reverted back to the "slower" 450 FSB @ 3.4ghz for 24/7 use..

robman_rob said:
you need to run both right?
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Run both of what? The Dell case and the little enclosure?
 
Wow, this is one of the most interesting and well done case mods I've seen. Well done man, you could probably make more of these things and sell them. Small form factor + awesome performance + professional kick ass looks = WIN
 
Brad Gamma said:
Wow, this is one of the most interesting and well done case mods I've seen. Well done man, you could probably make more of these things and sell them. Small form factor + awesome performance + professional kick ass looks = WIN
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Thanks Silent Circuit and Brad Gamma.. This was the first time that I ever played with plastic epoxies.. It's a little tricky but I guess I am a fast learner.. That stuff dries QUICK and hardens to a point that its almost unsandable.. but the benefit is that its DURABLE as heck!
 
officermartinez said:
Thanks Silent Circuit and Brad Gamma.. This was the first time that I ever played with plastic epoxies.. It's a little tricky but I guess I am a fast learner.. That stuff dries QUICK and hardens to a point that its almost unsandable.. but the benefit is that its DURABLE as heck!
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First time? Well I gotta say, the front panel is the best bit so good job. I might try it out one day, sounds pretty versatile.
 
robman_rob said:
yeah it looks really sweet, too bad everything couldn't fit inside the tiny case.
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Thanks.. That's OK.. Since it's a HTPC, the extra external enclosure is actually very helpful.. Changing a hard drive is EXTREMELY easy. My wife brought up a good point. Since I have Call Of Duty 4 and a few other programs on this hard drive, my wife has already mentioned that since its sooo easy to remove a hard drive, can she buy a hard drive and put whatever she wants on it.. That way, she can have her setup the way she wants it and I can keep my setup the way I want it.. Between all of the video's, saved movies and .mp3's, she is somewhere near 400gb's!

Also, my DVD CD ROM drive might get replaced when Blu Ray drives have evolved and come down in price.. Again, it would be very easy to change it out. The place where I bought this 2 bay enclosure has a 5 bay enclosure. Hmmmmm, I could have tons of space for extra hard drives (raid) and/or extra peripherials (ie.. dvd/cd rom, blu ray, thermaltake's 7" touch screen, matrix orbital LCD display, etc).
 
might be the coolest thing I seen here in a while (granted I haven't been on hardforums in years.)
 
Wow, really nice to see it all together! Quite an amazing finished product - small and unobtrusive, with nothing compromised.

Pardon if I overlooked it, but could you post temps for 3.4 and 3.6 GHz - I've got one of these Dells in the back of a closet, and I'm thinking it would make a sweet lan rig with a P35 mATX board and a cheap 8800GTS :D
 
dolphumous said:
The only problem with that is DVDr's can't play BluRay disks. :rolleyes:
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Ughhhhh.. C'mon technology.. Catch up!

Living Weapon said:
Wow, really nice to see it all together! Quite an amazing finished product - small and unobtrusive, with nothing compromised.

Pardon if I overlooked it, but could you post temps for 3.4 and 3.6 GHz - I've got one of these Dells in the back of a closet, and I'm thinking it would make a sweet lan rig with a P35 mATX board and a cheap 8800GTS :D
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Thanks! I appreciate the compliment. Hahaha, it only fuels the fire.. It keeps me wanting to mod even that much more.. haha. Damn you, expensive hobby, I curse you! ..LMAO! Most notably, I was extremely impressed with this little boards' ability to allow my Q6600 quadcore to hit a stable 500 FSB.. I was NEVER able to hit that with my QX6700 and 680i boards.. Here are my temps while I was stressing for roughly 8 hours at 100% on all 4 cores @ 3.4ghz.. If you decide to build on this Dell platform, be sure your cooling solution has atleast (1) 120mm front fan, sucking fresh air in.. I COMPLETELY agree that this setup would definately make a few people scratch their heads at Lanparty's!

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blahrus said:
might be the coolest thing I seen here in a while (granted I haven't been on hardforums in years.)
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WOW! Thank you!!!!! I am glad to hear someone likes it just as much as I do! I've already had an offer to sell it for $200, but had to respectfully decline (more of a sentimental reason). The case was given to me for free. The powder coating cost roughly $75. The Delrin switch and wires were basically $25. The side window was $15. The primer, paint and clear coat was actually a tad expensive at $32! Misc aluminum, case fans, epoxy, bass tubes, etc would probably put MY cost pretty close to $200 anyway.
 
Ive commented on this before, but i still cant get over it. Looks professional.

and, i would buy it from you if i had money ;)
 
illuminate said:
Ive commented on this before, but i still cant get over it. Looks professional.

and, i would buy it from you if i had money ;)
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I appreciate it.. thanks! I've been playing around with my multiplier and FSB a little today.. I am still amazed that this board and Q6600 combo can run a 500 FSB!

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Love the case, Specially like the ability to disconnect the cd drives. Would make a great lan box.
 
Veeb0rg said:
Love the case, Specially like the ability to disconnect the cd drives. Would make a great lan box.
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Thanks.. I've begun to wrap up my testing on this build.. It's a pretty darn solid build. I ran 3dmark06 one last time to check a few settings out and here are the fruits of my labor (not bad for a single 8800GTS 640mb video card)!!!!


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Let me say again officermartinez that your effort has produced an outstanding result.

Where did you purchase the 5.25" card reader in your top bay from?
 
Your creation is the cat's meow! Your design to run the front fans sans grill is final, I take it? If it is, please reconsider. Looking at the work on Project Rogue (NZT SFF) the grill design proposed there is attractive and adds to the looks of the project. I think you could achieve the same result. I don't intend to be critical, I'm just concerned about safety. Continued success to you Sir!
 
etosha said:
Your creation is the cat's meow! Your design to run the front fans sans grill is final, I take it? If it is, please reconsider. Looking at the work on Project Rogue (NZT SFF) the grill design proposed there is attractive and adds to the looks of the project. I think you could achieve the same result. I don't intend to be critical, I'm just concerned about safety. Continued success to you Sir!
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I applaud your concern. If this was a "family" computer or a computer for one of my kids, I would definately grill up the two front fans.. I have the fan grills sitting here next to me actually. However, since this is an "adult" owned case (mine), I'm sure I do not want the added grill to detract from the overall appearance.

(good point to bring up, btw).
 
Pretty sweet xD

Was thinking of doing something with mATX for my first mod (probably nothing heavy), this is the sort of motivation I need to start ;)
 
Great work on this whole project. I like how smooth and well designed the front of the case is.
 
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