Sorry it’s taken a while to update this page. I’ve been busy prepping the work area for some photographs, which I’ll post later on today. I went out and bought a new Dremel, thus finally answering the age old question of Dremel vs. knock off: Dremel every time.

I think there’s some nail polish remover kicking about. I’ll try that: thanks Tybrenis for the pointers.

Was looking into Bondo today! Apparently, Bondo ships to over 100 countries. But, it would appear, not to us. It’s no biggie, I’ll get a substitute; auto body filler aught to do the job I think, but not having used this stuff before, I’ll need to do extra research. I think I need to buy hardener and filler, and then I can saw it, sand it - whatever - without a worry.

I just e-mailed the guy my plans. I suspect that I’m going to end up paying through the nose for the parts that I want. I’m posting the plans for some of the stuff just now so you can see what I’m thinking at the moment. I can probably get some of the cuts done myself with a hole saw or the Dremel; but the vents are probably going to be on maybe 10mm metal, so doing that with a Dremel is out of the question. (if you think otherwise, let me know!)

First up is the vents. Sorry these images are large in size, it’s probably going to muck up the whole thread.

So there will be 4 of these, 2 of each size. This is where the money is going to go I guess. I haven’t got the quotes back yet, but I’m expecting them tomorrow. These will be painted orange in the final cut. I have Akasa amber case fans to go behind them; it should cast a nice effect. They’re not exactly airflow efficient, but when you’re talking about 6+ case fans, at the end of the day a poor airflow efficiency won’t make a big difference and I won’t need to compromise on aesthetics.

This is a pretty piss-poor image, but it gives you a general idea of what it is that I’m going to be doing. The drives will be built into the facade. The whole front section will be able to open up like a door. The massive fan at the front will suck air out of the case, and a side fan will suck air in over the graphics card. The air passes over the HD on its way out, which is cooled with 2 fans. A massive 120mm fan sucks air onto the Zalman cooler, and this air is then sucked out through a rear exhaust and a blowhole in the top. All the fans I’ve bought are of the so-called ‘silent’ variety, and my PSU has a 120mm silent fan in there as well. It works out at:

• 2x 120mm case fans.
• 4x 80mm case fans.
• 1x Dual-fan Akasa HDD cooler.
• 1x 120mm PSU cooler.
• 1x Zalman ‘big flower’ 120mm CPU cooler.

All the fans are supposed to be quiet, but I doubt that all of them together will be anything close. So I’ve been working on an affordable way to silence the fans…and it is kiddie foam! Foam paper, bright orange, and only 75p¹ a sheet. Should keep vibrations to a minimum. My chief concern is that it will melt, but I think I’m safe from that.

Anyway! That’s enough for now. I’ve got to get back to work. Got a lot to do. I’m going for a week’s break on Sunday, so don’t panic when I disappear for a while. I haven’t hacked my arms off in a freak Dremel accident.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback, I’ll keep you posted.