WORKLOG: GAM'S 'Main' PC - Chieftec BX-01 (56K WARNING!)

[GAM]

Front Panel 5.25" Bay Door LED Lighting Mods
What was interesting with this front panel/bezel was all the noticeable markings/areas for optional fixing holes and such. You can see the little impressions in the areas where I drilled the fixing holes to mount the acrylic/mesh combination. I've also made holes for four white LEDs (inserted).

White 3.5mm LED in black plastic LED mounting clip.

LEDs wired up and powered with pieces of black electrical tape covering the blinding light.

I don’t like blinding lights, subtle emanating colour was the effect I was after. Notice that I had now applied a strip of electrical tape down the entire length of the right had side.

Notice the 100mm CCFL temporarily duct-taped above the top fan.

[GAM]

I decided that I could do better with the cabling arrangements in the front panel and had the idea to install a single connector for all the front panel wires, excluding the front panel ports. 10-pin connector (male and female from Jaycar Electronics) and then the beginning of the soldering process.

Power/HDD Activity LEDs, PC Speaker and Reset switch.

The 2-pin connector on the power switch was now essentially redundant, however I chose to leave it in place as it meant that I could remove the power switch again in the future without disconnecting everything else. The finished 10-pin male connector with tiny heatshrink applied.

Time to tackle the female end and crimp all those tiny metal connectors. And done.

And connected! Not recommended, but the machine was running the whole time with me taking very special care not to short anything, particularly the power connector. By the way, the machine ran for over week without the power switch while it was er.. being fixed. I simply shorted the two wires for a 4 seconds when I needed to. Note the blue 'power' LED is illuminated. The power switch was then reinstated.

[GAM]

Now for more detachable cables. This time the front CCFL. You can see where I have cut the existing wires and soldered on some pre-crimped connectors.

Phew! Still works.

Back to the Front Panel Mods
Now that I could disconnect and remove the entire front, I was ready to continue the front panel mods. I started by making more room for the fans and removing the lip around the existing opening where the 'cleanable' filter used to be. I used the Dremel rotary tool with the standard disc for this.

A quick cleanup with the chisel to remove the furry and melted bits.

I measured the 'light' area of the 100mm CCFL to determine the width of the slot that I was about to cut out of the lip beneath the 5.25" bay door.

Marked out, punched, drilled and ready for cutting.

[GAM]

Several passes with the Dremel's cutting disc and we start to penetrate. I snapped off the melted stuff every so often.



This is a rather awkward area to work on. After cutting, I hit it with the file until I nice clean lines.

[GAM]

The CCFL had one 'flat' mounting side on each end piece and the rest was round.

We're now looking through the underside of the slot with the 5.25" day door closed so that I could trace the outline of the slot into the bottom of the door to cut that out too.

There's less material to work with on the door compared with the top of the bottom section that was cut initially so I opted to remove it all. The acrylic/mesh combo mounted on the door gave it plenty of extra strength so this decision didn't compromise the door's rigidity.

[GAM]

My order of various blackened capped bolts arrived so I the bolt changover on the fans. Notice some of the existing ones with two nuts to reduce the amount of penetration. The fans are attached to one of two pieces of acrylic and the bolts are not threaded into the second piece.

I botched one of the tapped holes and resort to a little 'Loctite' to keep the little one from rattling itself loose. There was some purchase but it couldn't be tightened all the way without stripping out. The Loctite did the job quite nicely. One pair of 92mm clear fans mounted to their shroud.

I wasn't happy with the length of the original fan cables, so I decided to cut them short, close to the fans, and place connectors there in keeping with the other front panel connectors.

The leftover original cables had their connectors replaced, heatshrink refitted and the coupling piece inserted 'fan-side' rather power connection side. This is keeping more of the cable clutter inside the bezel and out of the case interior, etc.

Let's check out the results of the lighting… Mmm, I like it. You can now see the light coming off of the top of the 100mm CCFL mounted in the bottom section, via the new slots.

Another look at the inside of the front panel with the new connectors in place.

Temporary cable management job on the 5.25" bay door LEDs.

[GAM]

Some more connectors, this time for the LEDs. Not a bad crimping job either. These little ones are a nuisance but after you've done a few you get the hang of it.

Electrical tape to hide the pin points of the LEDs is now applied to both sides.

The results!


And powered off!

That's all for now folks. This is where 'Main' is now at – no further mods since, but more planned.
I hope you enjoyed the journey so far.

[SerialSniper]

Good job!

Just a suggestion; maybe you could make a panel to go on the floor of the case to hide all the cables you have down there.

Still a good cable job otherwise

[GAM]

Thanks Sam.

Actually that area is not quite finished and your suggestion is on the cards. Most of the lighting is not permanent or completed. Those wires are still to be 'managed' and rerouted. I believe they will all be hidden behind the motherboard tray along with everything else though if/when I succeed.

[Okda]

Good job

very nice work

[p8ntslinger676]

wow, those are some sick case mods

[sc00p]

Nice one GAM... (and all this time your rig has been out of f@h (j/k you know)) Quite elegant design

[Chewbenator]

Great job, obviously a lot of work. Is there going to be another cathode for the bottom front fan?

[GAM]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the compliments.

@scoop, I know you were joking but I in reality I was so addicted to F@H the whole time that the machine barely missed 3 days in the last several months (the period over which this mods were performed, stage by stage). Most of this time was obviously when it was gutted. But all lights, front panel, duct, side panels mods were carried with both cores @100% Do you recall me complaing that I had mods to do but DIDN'T want to TURN IT OFF!!!

I did accidently short the exposed power wires once, when I wasn't shutting down. Doh.

The intention was to keep the whole thing understated, with subtle bling. That said...

@Chewbenator, yes I'd like to put another 100mm white CCFL beneath the bottom fan, I think the top one looks so good all white that it really must be done! I hesitated originally because I wasn't sure about 4 CCFLs inside. Hearing of inverter explosions, meltdowns, fires and the like, I was a little fearful. But hey, lights are 'off' most of the time!

ps. I just realised I hadn't mentioned the ongoing plans:

Other mods planned for this case include acrylic windows in top and rear panels, upgrade the 2 x 80mm fans in the rear with 2x92mm similar to the front fans. Top, rear exhausting, blowhole (i.e., no top facing blowhole), more cable management with permanent mounting of interior lighting, probably redo the 'replaceable' side panel fan insert with mesh rather than those grills (despite the grills being more efficient for their purpose, maybe some more LEDs around the windows and a full interior/exterior paint job.

I also need to finish off the fabricating behind the front panel fans. The original gutted 80mm fan holes remain.

[TopherTony]

I like it. Keep up the good work.

[nosbusch2005]

The mod looks awesome! Very thorough worklog too. You showed every step along the way
Those 80mm holes behind the 92mm fans were starting to make me wonder. I'm glad you said you weren't done there

[NickS]

Wow, very crazy! Looks sweet dude, tons of work. Nicely done

[GAM]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the compliments. I hope you found some useful info in there amongst it all.

[Jimmer411]

I love how the fan blades light up white where the rest is blue. awesome job

[Sparky]

Sick work man, that's awesome. Wish I had the skills/tools/knowledge to do stuff like that!

[GAM]

Thanks Sparky, Jimmer!

@Sparky, I wish I had your 'electronics' skills!

[sacha35]

Good job, very nice work

[jimwah]

Stonking work GAM, really nice solution on the front panel connector

[GAM]

Stonking work GAM, really nice solution on the front panel connector

Haha, for the sake of the modding (while Folding ) process, that was the best mod of the lot. Cheers Jimwah.

PS. I must credit atOmicShplade of OCAU for giving me the idea to do that in his Modu-Li worklog. Good modding with a focus on electronics. It's a shame it's currently idle.

[JoeBar]

Very nice work!