Antec 900 Fun

[theburan]

Ok, well, I got my fans and my ccfl's in the mail today, so I got down to it, swapped out all the antec fans and the apevia's that I had with scythes, and took the apevia fan I had on the side of my case off. Also put the 2 4in. ccfl's on the side panel, to light everything up. I'm actually really digging how it all looks right now, to be honest.... if I can just get the front of the case to light up red like it did before with the led fans (without resorting to led fans), I might be content with that and not paint the case at all. Gonna have to think about that.

But in the mean time, i've noticed that 12 inch ccfl's just aren't going to work good in this case, lol. Not many places to put them on the side panel... mgith be able to put them up on top though. But there's not much point to that.... I am gonna have to try and get another 4 inch kit though, try and light up the front of the case.

Also, overall the case is a little bit quieter, but I'm pushing a bit more air than I was before at the same time, if I remember right, so that's working out nice.

And now for some pics!

50 dollars worth of fans, and some ccfls:


Swapping one of the front fans: (900gigs of hard drive space is pretty heavy, lol.)


Picture from the side.


Need something up front still....


Ok picture of the whole thing:


I'm really liking how it looks now, but the front still needs something, and I need to do some crazy wiremanagement stuff to teh case still too, but it's a start.

Also, my desk needs some cleaning too: (my 4th hard drive is sitting on the desk there, glowing orange. I love esata!)


EDIT: Hmmm, I think the biggest indicator of how my case is quieter is my gpu's fan speed... before, I had it running at about 60-70% (don't forget the exact number... i think it was around 70 though), and I couldn't hear it over everything else, but now I have to have it around 50% to keep it quiet, lol.

[theburan]

Well, I went and found a home for those other ccfl's I had, I put them behind the doors, along the up and down portion of the case taht all the hard drive cages and 5.25in drives screw into, and not only do they fit, but they do an ok job of lighting up the front of the case. Not quite as much as I'd like, but it's cool. I still need to take a dremel to the case and sleave alot of the cables... but I'm liking how it looks compared to a normal antec 900 case.

And sorry for the blurry pics... my camera just doesn't seem to like taking clear pictures without the flash.

EDIT: Pictures removed for failing miserably.

[Yellowhello]

Originally Posted by theburan

And sorry for the blurry pics... my camera just doesn't seem to like taking clear pictures without the flash.

That's what happens if you try to take handheld pics in low light with no flash. Do you have a tripod or even a table (or any other steady surface) to put the camera on reduce camera shake?

[theburan]

Hmmm, I have like, 30 boxes and books and stuff around here. I'll try that instead of freehanding it.

EDIT: Ok, yeah, that was much better. I'll have pics that don't suck up soon, lol.

Ok, here's some better pictures.

[Yellowhello]

Much better! Now get back to work!:reddy:

[theburan]

Work? I only work friday through sunday! This is my last day to be a bum, lol. (although I am getting my abit board tomorrow, and several of my classes were conviniently cancelled, so I'll have a chance to hook that up and make sure it all works).

I don't think I'm going to use the abit board as my main one though, I found a 2nd 7600gt for dirt cheap, so I'm going to use it as a cheap sli rig in my room (1 7600gt tends to have a rough time with gtr2... I'm hoping 2 will be ok!).

I also should be getting a sweet deal on the mushkin redlines that I want (or something similar). I have a friend at work who I helped piece together a computer for, and that + covering a shift for him should net me some of those redlines for half price . After that all I'll need is a new cpu and I'll be good to go.

I've also got the urge to swap out the ligths on my case with red leds (both the hdd light and the dvd lights). Shouldn't be that hard, but it'll make the whole thing even spiffier, I think.

[gvblake22]

Swapping out the HDD LED shouldn't be hard, you can actually get them pre-wired and ready to go. The LED on your optical drive is a little trickier as you have to desolder the existing LED and put a new one in its place.

Check out this guide...
More optical drive modding madness here too...

[theburan]

Sweet, now I just need to order... well, craploads. Still need a cpu, more ram (although newegg has some sweet, sweet mushkin ram in stock, a 2x2gb kit rated at 1066, even higher than the redline is rated at... yummy), some led's, and maybe some model paint for the inside of my case, and a few other odd's and ends that I'm sure to want here soon.

On another note, my abit board came in today... and dang, it's sexy. While I'm still not planning on using it in my main rig, it's going to look amazing in my clear case with a pair of these: http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t...7/P1020241.jpg in sli.

I'm gonna hook it all up here after I get out of class to make sure it works... but dang, it's a pretty motherboard.

[gvblake22]

What Abit board did you get again?
You better get used to ordering lots of parts because when you start getting into modding more and more, you're find that a an order of fans, lights, cables, and other accessories can easily reach $200 in no time flat!

I'm getting ready to place what is hopefully my last purchase for parts to be used in my current case mod project and the total is about $175 and the single most expensive item is only $17!

[theburan]

hahah, I'm already used to it, actually. My order of fans, lights, and a pair of headphones (creative fatal1ty headphones... really nice for the money, to be honest, better than my plantronics) came out to 125, lol.

I have to admit though, I just love shopping for parts.

And it's an abit fp-in9 sli board, I'll try and get some pics up later.