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Computer Modification GuideYou are encouraged to make links to this article from your website and tell your friendsThe following article is based on years of experience. It is provided as a free service to our customers and visitors. However, Directron.com is not responsible for any damage as a result of following any of this advice. Copying the contents for commercial purposes is strictly prohibited without Directron.com's written consent. However, you are welcome to distribute these computer support tips free to your friends and associates as long as it's not for commercial purposes and you acknowledge the source. You are permitted and encouraged to create links to this page from your own web site. Overclocking is getting popular. This section lists some favorite products among overclockers. Please note that a successful overclocking requires: (1) Special CPUs. (2) Special motherboards. (3) A good case with enough power and cooling. (4) A good CPU cooler (5) Extra cooling with case fans | Introduction | Case Mods | OC Case Badges | OC Baseball Caps | | Aluminum Cases | Water Cooling | Cooling Solutions | OC Forum | | Vote Directron.com on Overclock Top 50 Web Site | - A Practical Guide by Greeps from 7Volts 1. Cut Holes & Add Windows Cutting Holes - Acrylic Windows - Rubber Gasket - Etched Window Appliqu鳦#60;/a> - Glass Windows 2. Add Lights Neon Tubes - Light Cables - LEDs 3. Add Switches Simple Switches - Rheostats - Fan Bus 4. Manage Wires & Cables Wire Ties - Loom - Wrapping - Rerouting - Rounding - Squaring - Shortening/Relocating Connectors - No-Cut Technique 5. Change Case Colors Painting - Powder Coating - Anodization - Chrome Plate 6. Other Mod Ideas and Newest Trends 3D Decorative Structures - BIOS Mod - LED Arrays 1. Cut Holes & Add Windows | Go to Top | 1.1 Cutting Holes in Your Case Cutting holes and windows in sheet metal is a little difficult. For round blowholes you can use a jigsaw and a steady hand with a metal cutting blade (36 teeth or more). Its messy and tiny sharp metal chips may go everywhere. Another solution for perfectly round holes is a hole cutting saw made for metal. You can get these at Home Depot. The hole saws can get a little pricey but since you only need one or two and since the holes are perfect, the hole-saws are a good way to go. For free form holes and windows in computers, the jigsaw is the nicest way to go. If you haven't used a jigsaw before, practice on something first. There's a tremendous amount of vibration so you must remove the metal panels. When you cut with a jigsaw, particles of metal will go under the base plate of the saw so consider masking the case and use 5 or more layers of masking tape where the base plate of the jigsaw will contact your finished case. Use oil to keep the cuts smooth and to keep your blade sharp. Another popular way to cut sheet metal is with a Dremel tool. The reinforced cutoff wheels are usually used. This is slow-going process and it takes patience for a nice result. Still, many people swear by them. With the jigsaw, the vibration and the downward pressure during sawing will take these razor sharp bits of cut metal and grind them into the paint under the jigsaw leaving a scratched mess of your nice paint. For that reason you should heavily mask the non-waste area of the case panel that will be under the saw with several layers of masking tape, especially if you don't plan to refinish the case. Even if you do plan to refinish the case, those metal particles will scratch through the existing finish and mar the metal underneath. It is possible to cut intricately designed holes into sheet metal with plasma torches. One outfit that did this for a while was Case Carvers. However, they've apparently gone belly up; they no longer seem to have a web page. Anyway if you have need for complex holes in cases or sheet metal in general, plasma torches are worth investigating. Once you cut the blowholes on the side panels or the top of your case, don't forget to add finger grills for safety reasons. Some cases are available with pre-made side blowholes. Pre-cutting windows and blowholes are now available commercially. 1.2 Add Acrylic Windows The downside of acrylic is that it is plastic so it will scratch. It tends to maintain a static charge, which causes dust to cling Acrylic is available in 1/8", 1/4", 3/8" and thicker. It's now available in pre-cut, ready-to-mount kits. 1.3 Locking Rubber Gasket If you want to add a window to your computer and want to do it easily, you can get a kit that includes a laser cut 1/8" window and a locking gasket. Overall, it's a nice package and very reasonable and I recommend it. You just use the window as a template, draw a line, cut out your hole, file it, and install the window with the gasket then install the locking strip. It's easy and you'll wind up with a nice professional looking finished window. They've got rectangular, round, and oval. The downside is that you get the window they designed in the size they designed. With the locking gasket you can't have any square corners. 1.4 Etched Window Appliques 1.5 Glass Windows With the availability of locking weather-strip, glass windows become an attractive option. Advantages of glass windows: (1) Glass does not attract dust, as acrylic will. (2) Glass is much more scratch resistant and easier to clean. Disadvantages of glass windows: (1) Glass is more difficult to mount than acrylic. You can't make screw holes in the glass. It must be channel mounted, bracket mounted, weather-strip mounted (a form of channel mounting) or glued with a flexible adhesive such as aquarium sealer. (2) Glass can shatter during installation. A minor inconvenience unless you're injured in the process. Masking tape should be applied to the glass to minimize possibility of injury during installation and eye protection used. (3) Currently, not widely available in the PC mod market. 2. Add Lights | Go to Top | 2.1 Neon Light Tubes The Neon tube itself draws surprisingly little current from the 12v circuit, about 3 watts. Heat production is minimal. Since light is produced by ionization of the neon and there's no filament, the life of the neon tube is very long; in fact it should last a very long time. If you do neon, decide where you'll mount the tube before you buy it. It's easy to get one that's too long for a case. You can easily add a switch to the front of the case to turn it on and off if you don't want to run it full time. While you're at it you may also add a little LED to show when it's on. 2.2 Light Cables "Glowire is electro luminescent wire - a copper wire coated with a phosphorus material and wrapped with two transmitter wires. It is then sealed in a waterproof casing." "Glowire looks very similar to neon when powered." "Glowire is electro luminescent wire which must be connected to a power source and driver in order to glow. The driver takes the voltage from the power source and inverts it to a higher voltage. A driver takes a DC input voltage and provide an AC output voltage of approximately 120 volts. Drivers are available with varying frequencies ranging from 300 to 4000Hz. Brightness is determined by voltage and frequency. The lower the frequency, the dimmer it glows. The higher the frequency, the brighter it glows." Glowire have a limited life depending on the frequency at which it is run. At the highest frequency (4000Hz), which is the brightest, it has a lifespan similar to that of a light bulb, about 1600 hours. At the lower frequency (400Hz), it should last 5700 hours, which should be several years if switched. It is relatively cheap so replacement of the wire itself isn't expensive. 2.3 LEDs If you get a bare LED, you'll need a resistor to reduce the voltage supplied to the LED. The formula V=IR where V is voltage, I is current, and R is resistance can be used to calculate the proper resistance. ?or ?watt resistors should be used. Practically you want resistors in the 400-500 ohm range for most LEDs if you'd rather not calculate it. Most LEDs are fairly tolerant of some degree of improper voltage but they will get hot if voltage is too high. It voltage is much too high; you'll burn them out. Too low voltage will make them dim or they won't light at all. 3. Add Switches | Go to Top | 3.1 Simple On-Off Switches Switches are easy to add especially to an unused drive panel. Holes are much harder to lay out and drill than it would first seem. The easiest way to space holes is to drill another material first with the proper size holes and use that as a template for drilling the drive bay cover. That way you can get the holes properly placed and you can make several attempts before committing to drilling the drive bay cover. For a neon light switch, a STDP (single throw, double pole) switch works well and the other pole can be used for a LED "light on" indicator. 3.2 Rheostats Rheostats offer a solution to supplying lower voltage to fans. These are variable resistors. A rheostat can be set to any amount of resistance up to the maximum defined by the rheostat. A 25-Ohm rheostat will provide a maximum resistance of 25 Ohms. To increase resistance, you just turn the knob. This means you can hook a fan up to one and "dial" about any speed you want within the limits of the circuit you've created. If you change fans, the fan speed at that knob setting will be different but you can turn the knob and dial that fan to whatever speed you want. They're great. For a single case fan or power supply fan, the proper rheostat is a 100 Ohm 5 watt. If you plan to use either a heavy draw fan or more than one fan on the rheostat, you probably want a 25 Ohm. 3.3 The Fan Bus and Bay Bus Suppose you had a little box inside your computer with 4 sets of easy press in wire connectors. You could run as many fans as you wanted from each set of connectors so you wouldn't use all your power Molex connectors. If this little box is inside your computer, it's a fan bus. The advantage to the Bay Bus is neatness and power control. The advantage to the Fan bus is ease and convenience of connection. If you want the ultimate in control of fan speeds, think about using a rheostat (a wire wound variable resistor) or a bay bus kit that allows fine-tuning of fan speed with a pot (potentiometer) in the circuit. Use one rheostat, or bay bus circuit per fan or per pair of fans. 4. Manage Wires & Cables | Go to Top | 4.1 Wire Ties Simple wire ties are the quickest way to really neaten up the inside of a computer. They'll turn the normal rats nest of wires into a very neat installation. It's quick, cheap, and easy. 4.2 Loom 4.3 Wrapping 4.4 Rerouting The true zealots sometimes route wires under components like motherboards in order to hide them. Wires can be lengthened then run through holes in the motherboard mounting tray and brought out beside the board close to the connection. This way you don't see wires or loom. 4.5 Rounding Ribbon Cables To round a cable you separate all the wires between connectors. Then a wire tie will bring the wires together into a neat round cable. This can be hidden in a piece of loom. Leave the wire ties a little loose to allow the wires to slide inside the wire tie or the cable will be stiff and more difficult to route. Don't try to round a UDMA66 or UDMA100 cable; it's difficult and easy to damage the cable. You can square it without much problem though. Commercial rounded IDE and floppy cables are now available to save you from the trouble of rounding the ribbon cables yourself. 4.6 Squaring Ribbon Cables Squaring is similar to rounding except not all the wires are separated and stripped. Several wires are left in each section then sections are stacked. Leave the wire ties a little loose to allow the cables to slide within the ties or your cable will end up stiff and difficult to route To square the cable figure out how many wires you have in your cable. Take the square root of the number of wires or get the nearest whole number. For the 80-wire cable, use 9. Now separate the cable by tearing it lengthwise into strips of 9 wires each and a final 8-wire strip. Stack the strips and you'll have a square block of wires. A few cable ties and you can get them to stay square throughout their length. 4.7 Shortening and Relocating Connectors You can move a ribbon cable connector on a ribbon cable. Before modifying any cable, make sure you have a spare. The best option is to modify the spare and save the working original. You then substitute the modified cable for the original. If you do shorten a cable you'll eliminate festoons of excess cable and really neaten the case. To move a ribbon cable connector you'll need to separate the locks on the connector itself. They're fragile and easy to snap off but it isn't a problem you don't really need the locks. Once you've separated the connector, you'll need to gently peel or roll the ribbon cable off the piercing metal points. If you pull a metal point out of the connector, simply put it back. Be careful, they're sharp. Also keep track of the orientation of the connector on the cable. Now you can move the connector along the cable. Carefully align the wires with the piercing points on the connector then press the connector back together. You'll need to press it evenly along the whole connector so either parallel jawed pliers or a vice works well, or clamps, or pliers. You'll read that you can't modify an 80 wire UDMA IDE cable. You can but you have to be careful. You should never ever modify your only cable. 4.8 A No-Cut Technique to Modify Ribbon Cables If you're not wild about slitting your cables, you can get a similar effect by folding the cables into a lengthwise "W" shape. This essentially reduces the width of the cable to about ?its previous width so gives you almost all the benefits of a rounded or squared cable without any cutting and with very little risk to the cable. Use cable ties to keep the cable in the "W" shape. The downside is that the cables will be much stiffer and more difficult to route, and they'll tend to bend to form square corners rather than gentle curves. Still, this is a very cheap, quick, safe, and easy way to get rid of the very wide ribbon cables. 5. Change Case Colors | Go to Top | 5.1 Painting You can let your imagination run wild. Use masking tape, the best paint you can find, don't use a brush, use many light coats to avoid runs, let dry fully between coats, and try to always cover light colors with dark rather than the other way around. Some of the favorite paints are the "hammered" paints from Home Depot. People like them because they're tough and they won't rub off. Other paints that work well are the "plastic" paints such as "Plasti-Kote Ultra Enamel" (available at Pep Boys), which dries very fast. It's the fastest drying paint I've seen. You can use about any effect on a computer case you want. You can use the water based latex "verde" kits sold in hobby shops if you cover it with a clear coat of enamel afterwards. If the worst happens and you do a horrible paint job, you can recover and have an awesome looking case for $5.75 worth of hammered silver paint, a dollar's worth of masking tape and a sheet of 200-grit sandpaper. For lettering, the wax transfer lettering works well. This should be sprayed with a coat of clear enamel to protect it. Painting Tips: (1) Remove all loose parts and paint separately. (2) Any hole with a button (like the power or reset switch) will require special care. Remove the button; mask the sides of the button. Carefully mask the inside surface of the buttonhole. Even a thin layer of paint will bind the button and it's a lot easier to spend 5 minutes masking the hole with a small piece of trimmed foam rubber or tape than it is to try to remove the paint from the inside of the hole later. (3) For very small areas or intricate areas, a small amount of paint can be sprayed into a cup of aluminum foil and applied with a very fine paintbrush. (4) For very small or irregular areas, you can apply Vaseline to the areas to be masked. The paint won't stick to the Vaseline. (5) For patterns, think about the order of painting before you start. You can build your pattern as you spray each layer on top of the last. Doing it this way minimizes masking. (6) If disk drives are to be painted, plastic hobby model paint can be used for these. Adhesion to plastic is better and wear characteristics are better than generic enamel. (7) For a very smooth finish, sand the case smooth before starting. (8) Sand wet with 1500-grit sandpaper between coats of paint. Use two clear coats, sand before the second clear coat but don't sand the final coat. You can apply an automotive polish, buff, and then apply a wax. 5.2 Powder Coating Powder coating is a tough, flexible, colorful, and smooth coating of colored plastic. You've probably seen it done to hotrods, especially springs and underbody components. The coating is much tougher than paint. The finish can be flawless. It involves spraying a powder onto a charged metal surface then baking the item in an oven. This melts and fuses the powder into a plastic coating. This used to be done by dedicated shops and was prohibitively expensive. Recently kits have become available to allow powder coating at home. These kits are for the automotive segment of the market but are easily usable for computer components such as sheet metal, frames, power supply cases (outer part of power supply case only after removal of power supply internal parts), etc. These kits are available from Eastwood Tools and Supplies. It turns out your computer may already be powder coated. The tough buff colored coating on the outside of computers is either baked enamel or powder coat. 5.3 Aluminum Cases and Anodization I'd be fairly skeptical about this claim until it can be proven. True, the conductivity of aluminum is 150,000 W/mK and that of soft steel is only 46,000 W/mK. We'll ignore the conductivity of the buff coating on the steel case. The design of a case is not conducive to meaningful heat transfer through the sides of the case. In order to act like a heatsink, it should be designed like a heatsink and connected to the source of heat by a thermally conductive conduit. Absolutely no one designs a heatsink with several inches of air (0.026 W/mK) between the heat source and the heatsink material. People do design insulating beer coolers this way though. If the idea is that the aluminum is going to allow cooling of the air as it zips through the case on it's way out through the exhaust fan I'd have trouble believing that would do much good. That said, I really like aluminum cases. The cases are light and attractive. The aluminum can be anodized which gives the aluminum a very hard, colorful, and somewhat thin brittle exterior layer. Non-anodized aluminum is fragile and easily scratched. The anodized coating is reportedly tough enough to require diamond bits to drill. (Actually "coating" may be a wrong word. The surface of the aluminum is chemically changed so the material isn't really coated and its surface is altered) Advantages of aluminum cases: (1) Lightweight. (2) Very colorful if anodized (these are stunning). (3) May be thermally more efficient. (4) Non-anodized cases are easy to cut and modify. (5) Cases usually have additional features tailored to the high end user. (6) They come in nonstandard sizes Disadvantages of aluminum cases: (1) Expensive to very expensive. (2) Limited availability. (3) Limited sizes. (4) Non-anodized aluminum cases are easily scratched. (5) Anodized cases are difficult to drill. (6) Nonstandard sizes (Yup, I know, I listed this above as well, it depends on your viewpoint.) You can change the color of an aluminum case by anodizing it. A few sites offer this service. Check out faradaycase.com. 5.4 Chrome-Plate a Case You can chrome-plate your case. There are two types of chrome and there are several different levels of chrome. There's nickel chrome, which is the decorative chrome that is very shiny and is usually thought of as chroming. Here's "hard chrome" which is an industrial process to add or build up very hard chrome for industrial parts. The hard chroming is expensive and not usually available to individuals. You can hard chrome and then polish to a high luster but that is work intensive. How do you find companies that will chrome plate? (1) Check the phone book under "plating" (2) Local motorcycle shops... people are always chroming bits of motorcycles so they'll know where it's done. Also these people are a bit over the edge so they don't tend to laugh when you tell them you want to chrome a computer. That's reason enough to like these guys. (3) Antique car sources. (4) Hot rod places sites, shops, and perhaps a hot rod magazine if you can't find anything close. 6. Other Mod Ideas and Newest Trends | Go to Top | 6.1 Adding Three Dimensional Decorative Structures You can add 3 dimensional plastic structures to the outside or inside of your case to make stunning changes to the appearance of a computer. The plastic structures are cut to fit flush to the computer then attached with epoxy. Next the epoxy is ground smooth so as to "flow" into the structure of the case. Next the added structure and the adjacent computer body is painted. Now the added structure appears to be a seamless part of the case. With some imagination, the sky's the limit with this technique. 6.2 BIOS Mods Where the BIOS logo (the EPA logo) is changed to a custom logo. This logo appears as a BIOS logo when the computer is booted. To modify your BIOS, you create a simple bitmap, then process by a shareware program, patch the new logo into a flash BIOS upgrade, then flash the BIOS. After this is done, every time you boot your computer, you'll see your new custom BIOS screen instead of the EPA "green PC" logo. Here is a guide on BIOS mod. 6.3 LED Arrays Another case lighting trend is use of arrays of LEDs, usually red, under the case, or in one case, in the keyboard. You can use the arrays to form some design patterns. This article was prepared by and is a subset of contents on 7Volts.com. Links, pictures, and some minor text modifications were added by Directron with permission. Copyright (c) 7Volts.com. Ugh... disclaimers: Text of this article is from 7Volts. Links and pictures have been added by Directron. Opinions expressed here are those of 7Volts and thought to be accurate. All modifications of PC equipment can be expected to void any manufacturer warranty. Use of powered or non-powered tools requires eye protection. It gets worse?lt;/I> Great care should be used to avoid injury. You should not attempt any modification that is beyond your level of expertise and comfort. Unplug all equipment before working on it. Finally, if you damage yourself or your equipment, no one is going to pay you for it. Whew. If you find this article useful, please create a link to it from your website or tell a friend about it. If you have any comments or suggestions about this article, please email information@directron.us | Go to Top | Directron Home | Mod Products |
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