Case mod advice

[Pob255]

A friend of mine is in need of a new pc for light gameing and I offered to help (heck lets face it I like playing with hardware )
He was considering getting an alienware pc however he is currently having cash flow issues so this would turn into a real barginbucket build.
That's the short version of the story behind this now onto the point of this thread

On Ebuyer I spotted this cheap £20ish alienware looking case a while back
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148402 in black
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148401 in blue
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148400 in green

It's cheap and chearful but looks simular to an alienware from the outside and is shiney
he's some other pics
http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=7685
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/i...7313968&sr=1-1
(scan also used to have this case but no longer stock it)

I'm currently considering ways in which I could mod this case for him, generaly increase the air flow and improve the layout

Any advice on cheap case modding?
I was thinking of putting a window on the side panel, which shouldn't be hard.
Also considering if it's possible to redo the layout, which is what I'm unsure how to go about doing and what complexities would be involved.
1 - change it to a psu below the motherboard, this would involve totally removeing the back and motherboard tray to some how swap them over.
2 - hard drive bays, I'm fairly familiar with this cheap case layout (seems most cheap cases are the same inside it's just the outside that looks different) the harddrive "cage" is normally quite nasty so replaceing it with something better/improveing it would be nice.

Anyone know of any other major cheap case mods?
Any sugestions as to what can be used to replace the case back and/or hard drive bay?

The last question is on finance/bits, I'm looking for ways to cut costs.
While I'll not go too much into components that's a seperate thread, I am currently considering 2nd hand bits to go in it, I've got fans, case lights and other odd bits kicking about which I can donate (as well as my time)
but if at the same time I could get hold of other free things that would be handy.

Also sponsership, I see this seems to be a methord to get stuff for a build but as I've never tried before I've got no idea how to approach this.
So any tips and basic requirements I should be thinking about before even approaching people with sponsership requests would be helpful to me, as would how I should go about approaching people with requests for sponsership.

So yes no solid questions as yet, I'm just casting about for advice, sugestions and others experience in this eairly planning phase, before getting stuck in only to find I should of done some simple things first.

[Vimeous]

I like the idea of swapping the PSU around.

One way would be to remove the entire back panel and invert it.
Thing is I've no idea how this will affect the components. Also you still wouldn't get the benefit of the PSU venting through the floor without redoing its mounting points and cutting a suitable hole in the base-plate.
The other thing is geometry. If you move the backplate all the motherboard mounting holes would wrong and you'd need to be very careful redrilling them to ensure the refitted back-plate is square to the side panel.

In fact maybe it would be easier to swap the top and bottom around. That avoids all the motherboard issues and you just need to fix the PSU


As for the harddrive cage. Why not use the Coolermaster 5.25" 3 bay convertor they use in the Stacker and CM590 cases? It comes with a 120mm fan and isolated mounts for 4 HD's.
Just remember the current hard drive cage is the main structural support at the front of the case.


Enjoy the build!

[Pob255]

Thoes are two things I was considering.
Also I've got an old Chifetec case at work with a removable motherboard tray&back plate I could scavenge.

My main worries is that being a cheap case the metal is probably going to be thin and the back is probably part of the overall structure so cutting it out may be bad.
Same goes for the hard drive cage.
Which is why I was wondering if anyone has done this before, or knows of a mod someware were someone did this, to give me an idea of what I'm faceing and any issues that may occure.

[Pob255]

Well the Case was just delivered
Originally ordered late weds/thrusday morning, on supersaver 5 working day delivery, UPS tried to deliver on Friday but I was out, Just have to love Ebuyer for that.

Inital thoughts, Shiney Black, very light (5kg on the bathroom scales), thin metal, pritty much what I expected from a el-cheapo case.

I'll start a project log with pics after I've had a closer look at it and I've come up with some ideas as to what to do with it.

EDIT: Cross link http://forums.hexus.net/project-logs...ect-spork.html