You guys understand..right?

[jay.2]

Hi Guys,

I have to talk to someone that understands! My girlfriend, family and friends think i've totally lost it, so I come to Hexus seeking refuge

For the past 3 months I have been seeking a case to use as the basis of my new water-cooled gaming/enthusiast rig. After a few weeks of searching, I stumbled across the Alienware predator case. Not being a huge fan of pre-modded computers, I rang Alienware to kindly request just the case on it's own. As i'm sure many of you know, Alienware will not sell their cases seperately and quite bluntly turned me down.

Undeterred, I went about seeking an alternate source for an Alienware case. After a lengthy and unfruitful search spanning at least 2 months, I had just about resigned myself to the fact that if I wanted that case that bad, i'd need to get a full system. Knowing full well that water-cooling and extreme overclocking were on the cards, I really would have had to be nuts to go ahead.

Then it happened - someone was selling an ALienware "Cyborg Green" case on eBay! About a week, and a fair few US dollars later and a great BIG box arrived on my doorstop. Quickly removing the case from the box, I immediately noticed the fair few scuffs and scratches the case had. Nothing serious, but being the perfectionist I am, I set about enquiring how to get the case perfect again.

Speaking to a local bodyshop that specialises in paint matching and repairs, I quickly discovered the paint finish wasn't standard, and that the only options were a full respray or leave it as it is.

We carried on chatting, and I realised that a full respray would mean I could do it in a custom colour. Hmmm! We looked at a lot of paint swatches and an idea formed. "Do you guys have any 'different' paint, left over from a previous job?". They looked at each other for a while, and then went hunting in the store room. They emerged triumphantly holding a tin of paint that had hints of Purple, Gold, Green, Violet - all sorts. The idea was that the paint reflected in all kinds of colours depending on the light. Sounds great!

So we picked out a hi-gloss silver to contrast with this flippy colour, and they told me they were going to spray this mad paint over a pearlescent navy blue for maximum effect.

Well, I picked up the case this weekend and i'll let you see the results for yourself! Suffice to say that I am overjoyed at the outcome, and can't wait to get stuck into the rest of it!

[Allen]

Paint jobbie looks good (had they recently done a TVR Tuscan? ), don't like the actual case though. And where's the window?

[Craig]

Thats lovely! Question is tho... how much did the respray cost you?

[Lord Kordir]

Very nice man. Fine looking machine

[Moby-Dick]

nice finish !!

[brammers]

The paintjob looks nice! I'm afraid big modding like that isn't to my taste, but it looks like you've got a really nice job done there.

[Gordy]

Nice , a very expensive way to get an antec case though

[Jonathan500]

Looks cool, just not sure about the colour of the side intakes in silver.

[jay.2]

The choice of case is definately not to everyones taste, but I personally love it, and nothing I have seen impressed me more than that design.

I was originally going to do the grills and the base in black, but i'm actually glad I went for silver now. In normal lighting conditions, the silver looks very mettalic - almost like polished metal and makes for a good contrast against the flip colour.

The paint is made by Rage, and it's called Extreme Illusion - but I believe that it is very similar to the paint that TVR use to paint their cars.

Gordy: The fact that underneath it all is a plain Antec case is actually a big bonus - I think many would agree that this specific Antec shell is a very good modifiers shell. It would have been very easy to use a more "limited" shell, for the sake of sleeker aesthetics.

I've started the internals, but not got very far just yet. Mainly due to the fact that I can't decide whether to go for an Athlon Barton setup, or a Pentium4. Here's a few shots which show some more detail:

[Craig]

That case looks identical to Cheiftec's cases, not Antec

[bsodmike]

Very nice, it's just a cheify with a funky looking front and side panels... heh. Love the paint job!

[rough_neck]

Originally Posted by Cr4iG

how much did the respray cost you?

Ditto,

I'm thinking of getting either my 201 or 200 sprayed black (or maybe both), but I'm currently into my shuttles, so I would have some nice cases sitting around gathering dust

[iMc]

dont suppose you could tell me whta power supply is in that case and does it come with the braided wires as standard? cheers!

[steve threlfall]

Lovely finish on the case- perlecent reflex purple and chamelon orange of a tuscan at the same time beautiful

[BUFF]

I like it!
Does kind of remind me of a 50's american car (chrome, big wings...)

[jay.2]

Craig: I think that case design has been used by Chieftec, Chenming, Antec etc etc. Knowing the industry, it wouldnt suprise me if they are all the same company, lol.

iMc: The PSU is branded as Alienware, but I can tell you that it is actually just a 420w Enermax. The braiding was done by yours trully (albeit not finished yet) and I used a UV reactive green braiding kit from coolercases.co.uk. To give it something extra, I went for some UV reactive molex connectors too.

I'm putting together a project log website at the mo, as soon as it's done i'll put out the URL. It will have also have guides/tutorials, reviews, news etc so watch out for that. You'll also be able to create a profile and log your own modding projects