11
Apr 2002
Revised
13 Apr 2002
or
Mungler's Adventures in Case Modding
[Editor's
Note: This is not a hardcore case modding article. Instead,
it's an article that tells of a first adventure into the world
of case modifications. Hopefully, instead of being overwhelmed
by other case modification articles, you will be inspired
to try your own hand at case modding.]
I
think to start off this article, I shall talk a little about
the case I am about to mod, the Lian-Li
PC-60 USB. Recently these cases have been the hot topic
on many websites. With their style and good looks, they have
been on many people's wish list for things to get for their
PC.
Below
is the lovely Lian-LI PC-60 with no mods installed, up and
running. What a lovely blue power LED. I'm sure that's a laser
diode and not a normal LED. The HDD LED is also a stunning
red.
.
The
first thing that stands out is the fact that the floppy, Zip
and CD-ROM faces do not match the case. Unfortunately, plastic
and aluminum don't match. So the first thing I wanted to change
was the good old beige fronts on the drive bays. After a little
investigation, I saw three options.
My
spare drive covers...little did they know what was in store
for them!!
Shown
above is the first cut. You need a good metal saw and a lot
of patience. Cut the side off of the blanking plate and file
it until it is flush with the two other adjacent sides of
the plate. Repeat this for all the blanking plates you intend
to use. Make sure that the side of the blanking plate is free
from burrs and does not spread outwards. You don't want the
plate to get stuck when you want the drive to eject!
As
you can see here, I have cut and filed both sides of the blanking
plate. I have also used the original button from the drive
itself. I found this an easier way to make sure that the button
made contact with the eject component in the drive. On some
drives, once you have removed the front plates there is no
turning back. I had this situation myself. I had removed the
front plate from this particular drive and a small piece of
plastic fell out. I later came to realize that this plastic
was a retaining clip for the front plate. It was safe to say
that it did not go back on the drive. The
point of no return had been reached and passed. After this,
cutting another piece of plastic off of the eject button (seen
near the center of this picture) was no problem. Talk about
your voided warranty!
In order to place things properly inside the blanking plate,
you need to mark out the position of important things. In
my case I needed to know where the button should be placed
and also where the draw of the drive bay would contact with
the plate. I achieved this by placing the original front over
the top of the blanking plate and using a mechanical pencil
(with about two inch's of lead extended) to trace though the
holes. This will serve people who want to keep things like
the LED activity light or even the headphone hole accessible
as all of these can be traced though the old front.
Unfortunately,
due to poor photo quality above, you can't see the pencil
lines that I have drawn on this plate. Basically they outline
where the draw contacts the plate. Using this knowledge I
affixed sticky foam pads (usually called prit tabs in England)
to the three black squares marked on this picture. I chose
this type of fixing as it was sturdy, but also allowed for
the flexibility of being able to press the corner of the plate
to activate the eject button. So even in DOS mode, you can
still get CD's out of these drives. The eject button is fixed
to the plate using a very strong, double-sided sticky tape.
I re-attached the front bezel on my PC and pressed the blanking
plate into place. Having the front bezel attached and the
drive still mounted in the bay gave me the chance to align
the plate perfectly so that the drive did not scrape on the
case during eject and insert.
Note:
The sides of the Lian-Li blanking plates are slightly wider
than a normal 5.25 inch drive bay to ensure a snug fit, if
you really want your plate to slide in without scraping, then
you will need to bend the sides in slightly.
Above
is the final product with both of the drive bays closed. Which
ones are the drives??
If
you had guessed doors 2 and 4 you would've been correct!!
Thus end's my first mod on my Lian-Li PC 60 USB. Part two
will be my Window mod! Watch this space. [Ed. note: It's
a shame to keep that purty case in a little cubbyhole like
that.]
UPDATE:
In answer to a number of questions we received, here is some
additional information.
Paint: The paint was purchased for a mere £2 from a pokey
hardware store in the middle of nowhere. I doubt seriously
that it is available on an international scale. The paint
is Plasti-Kote
109S Silver (written on the barcode on the cap). Sorry
about the focus...this camera doesn't do well with closeups
:-/
Dust:
I have enlarged the image below to show that the blanking
plate I mounted on the drive, when closed, fit's over the
shroud of the drive sealing it completely. This stops dust
and dirt from getting in more so than the original front plate
as there are no holes in it. I admit that when the drive is
open, it is exposed to a greater chance of getting dust in
it, but the amount of time the drive spends open is so small
I felt it wasn't worth the worry.
Time
and money: This mod was completed with very little money.
It cost £2 for the paint, £3 for sticky pads and double sided
tape. If I had to buy the metal saw, that would have cost
approx. £5. As for time? It took me about 3 days to think
about how I was going to do the mod ;) Then one evening to
do the whole mod.
Comments?
.