Mike's Case Mod - Vinyl/Acrylic/UV

[mikeo01]

Hi, wondering if anyone could give me some heads up help appreciated. Of course looking for cheapy options as usual.

Strange title but wondering if there's any caution I should take, things I should go about, colour mismatches etc etc.

I am not going to be modding my case, but instead adding stuff.


Acrylic window 2mm thick, motherboard stand offs, 4 drill points. It is going to cover the whole left side, so clear, no fan holes.
Vinyl matte or carbon fibre texture alternative to paint.
Internal lighting - thinking about LED strips and UV gel pens. What UV backlight could I add?


As to the vinyl, could this damage or short components, any fire risk? Never used vinyl before

As to lighting, looking for low powered effects. Not overly powerful but a nice tinge of light to look good through the acrylic.
Looking towards either UV pens or UV paint. Maybe sleeves for the cables too.

I know in the past I do put things off, but the simple acrylic solution sounds good, about £6 on eBay for the size I require.

Lighting, £5 for amber 15cm x2 strips, runs off single molex apparently. Vinyl, 0.99p for 1.5m roll, self adhesive.


Any suggestions or criticisms welcome. I know the whole light show isn't for everyone but fancy doing something different with my case instead of hacking it to kingdom come

Thanks all

[Pob255]

Personally I'd not go for UV and other lighting, one or other.

Also a tip, look for glow-in-the-dark paint or plastics, glow in the dark stuff is actually charged by UV light as a result it actually fluoresces under UV more than fluorescent paint does, also still glows after UV is turned off.
Simple UV security pens might be good here, depends on the effects you want, while not as bright as glow in the dark, it will be near invisible until you turn the UV on.
Remember none of these will give much effect without a UV light.

Acrylic, be careful here, you want cast acrylic not the cheap extruded acrylic or even polycarbonate (Lexan is a brand of polycarbonate)
you can use extruded acrylic or polycarbonate but both are lower density with lower melting points, which mean they are more difficult to cut and shape and more prone to flexing and resonance vibration noise.
Thickness no less than 2.5mm but 5mm is more what you want to aim for esp if it's a large window

[mikeo01]

Thanks for the suggestions!

EDIT: See below.

[mikeo01]

Been doing reading on everything and have came up with some final ideas.

Inside case: Matt black vinyl
Bays: Matt red vinyl

Window: Cast (may have to get extruded if I can't find it) - Matt black vinyl as a border (to cover see through chassis). Outline boarder with EL/UV cable for outter glow effect.

Lighting:
Option 1: Leave LED fans in case (orange effect)
Option 2: Akasa/Sharkoon UV dual 12" cold cathode
Option 3: Phobya twin 5mm LED bulbs HERE. There are UV ones on eBay but that's the idea.

UV Paint
HERE

Concerns!
Scare stories of cathode inverters burning, huge current required.
Have to sell all my LED fans, don't know what to replace them


I will post back results when I start it what I did, give a little something back to the community on my little mod

(Heading to break up my long paragraphs!)

[mikeo01]

NOTE: Sorry for the grainy images bad camera quality
NOTE: Pics are not final, continuation of mod and stuff will be updated much more to change but here's the initial idea

So finally got around to modding my case, it has been on going for a while but I kept it very simple for simples sake

It isn't completely finished but my first attempt is looking alright but I would say that

Before The Mod Began
Quite untidy, didn't like the metal looking finish too. My goal was to use black matt vinyl as an alternative to paint so I could get the PC up and running instantly.



Vinyl on Side Panel Unfinished

There are cut holds and gaps in my case so I wanted to get a new black sleek finish on the side panel behind the tray so it can be seen when all finished, looks better in person! But you get the idea.


Finished


Front Panel Finished

Front panel as in the bracket to allow the panel to mount, I did this too.



Shaping the I/O area

The biggest pain I encountered, getting the vinyl to fit nicely over the metal without bubbles, bit of slits and it worked.



Rear Fan Area

You may be thinking "what on earth", this part I basically covered the rear and popped holes in the rear. Mind you I will be removing the whole rear mesh soon to allow open airflow.




Whole Case Complete

General idea of the vinyl complete, whole HDD area filled, I just pop holes when I need to screw a device in so its a pure black finish. There are still some areas where there is metal showing, these are going to be painted UV red so it glows.

The actual motherboard area I left, simply because its too much hassle, you won't see it and I don't fancy vinyl heating up under my motherboard. The bottom is also covered so that gives up a unused bottom fan mount to give a smooth black bottom area.



Acrylic Measuring

General idea of the acrylic, it is extruded but was cut fine, I decided against an all expensive piece of acrylic so went for a cheap 3mm A3 pre cut acrylic sheet which will slot in nicely to leave my HDD rack exposed which turned out quite nice.



UV Paint - Ahh looks Pink!

Just a small overview on what I am doing with the UV paint, I won't be covering everything to give Vegas a run for its money, just small UV reactive areas. I will be painting my fan blades with this.



Acrylic Window Installed!

Acrylic window cut and installed, slots in perfectly. This is unfinished I am awaiting EL wire and will be installing a cathode very soon. Painting isn't complete. The fan is for show, I am actually awaiting my new fans which will be painted so they should give off a nice red UV tinge.



I will continue to update this, haven't completed everything yet but just to show what I have been up to over last month not much description yet, just piccis


Things to do:
Install UV cathode
Paint components, heatsinks, fan blades UV red
Run EL wire around acrylic window
Cut out rear mesh for better airflow

[Pob255]

Yep that's a big problem with vinyl, it's good for flat surfaces and single direction curves (eg a cylinder) but in 2 directional curves or lumpy surfaces it gets far more tricky.
You've done a good job there.

You could do with a smaller paint brush for that UV pain getting some white artist acrylic paint might help, paint the white on first then you'll not need to slam the UV red on so thick, also go for more thin coats not one thick one.

Keep it up.

[mikeo01]

I realised that when applying it, very tricky but fun to do!

Yeah that brush is a tad big! thanks for the tip on applying the UV paint! I will be sure to pick some up before I carry on.

Thanks again Pob!

[Macadee]

Recommend using spray instead of brush applied for fan blades to avoid wobble at speed.

[mikeo01]

Thanks for the tip

I was thinking about dotting every other blade rather than a full paint to give an unusual effect, maybe?

[mikeo01]

Hi all, just an update to show you some of the UV paint. It isn't complete just need to add another layer to the top area. BUT I had a very nice shock, my nylon cable ties and my GPUs PCB are both fluorescent. So I am going to keep my ties against the window like below

But here's what it looks like now, just a general idea. Cathode up and running now all is left is to add EL wire. I had a plan and I thought I will run the EL wire from top to bottom around the HDD area, it has a switch so I can create a nice glow outline. I also have another 1M strip of EL wire, no idea where to place this one yet

General case Paint areas

Here's the areas where I painted the case. Which are!:
Outline of the physical case
Motherboard screws
SATA heads
Sound Card PCB
PCI area
I/O area
TO DO: Cut out rear and add a fan grill, painty!

Not a clean finish yet got to tidy it up a bit. My camera flash over exaggerated it a bit. However when the paint is set it actually goes a deep-ish red.





The Effect!

Right here's the effect, this is the first time I have turned the thing on for a proper look so far so good, a bit of clearing up and second coats and it should be done!

Whole Case View

View of the whole case, soon as I clear up the edges it should look nice



Inside Case View

To show where I hid the cathode and wires



Bits and Bobs View

The SATA cables, PCB and cable ties!





The whole right area is dark, this is where I will put my EL Wire for additional effects, not at the same time though. So I have the option for a nice left side UV, or a LED'd right side with my HDDs etc. What do you think so far?

Of course, Ima lovin' it

[mikeo01]

THE OH NO UPDATE:

Yes, as I was writing this I wondered, "why can I smell burning" and "why did I just burn my hand on the heatsink". Oh yes, turns out I forgot to plug my fan back in and my CPU was hitting 90c! Yes 90c, the PC didn't even turn off, no thermal threshold? Let's pray it's OK

[Pob255]

Opps!
Hope it's ok. You might want to reapply the thermal paste (depends what you use)

On a side note have you considered painting the top of the heat sink with the UV? just painting the top of the top fin should have almost no effect on the performance, only real worry would be the effect of the heat on the paint.

If you want some more glow you can get UV reactive cable sleeving

[Gilderien]

Fluorescent cable ties, you say? I have to say that was a stroke of luck, they look awesome with the rest of it!

[mikeo01]

Yeah it's all OK, this is my fault ooops.

Hmm yeah I was thinking about the top of the motherboard heatsinks, I don't know whether it may look too over the top you know?
Yeah was thinking about cable sleeving that'll look great! thanks for the suggestion, is there any specific sleeving I need to get as in thickness?



Gilderien: The cable ties aren't even labeled as fluorescent, they're just bog standard 99p cable ties that graphics card above with blue PCB, that's fluorescent also and funny enough the Xigmatek fans (which I have now sold!) blades are also fluorescent!


This may turn into an addiction

[mikeo01]

Mod Update
Rear Grill

So decided to cut the grill out but I am left with rough edges, anyone know how to cut this manually or some way or smoothing it?



Used vinyl to cover/hide it for now



Fun With Cable Ties

So thought of a cool way to use cable ties simply tied it around through the HDD screw holes, pretty funky if you ask me.




Arctic F12 UV Fun

Decided to take my little unused Arctic and try some UV paint. I will also be having a go on another fan, this is one was just for testers!



UV On Voosh

It will turn a deep red, but for now...



As it span it coloured the edges of the fan frame, looks funky.

[mikeo01]

New Fans - Thermalright TY-143 in Action

The Fan - 130CFM @ 100% RPM

Nice orange!



On the Heatsink (Ah they're BIG, can't fit window back on gets in way of RAM!

Massive, 150 width 140 height.



From the front, I am missing one, there will be two here

Picture from the front, there will be two here



Ooo, these glow slightly too

Actually slightly UV reactive, can't see in picture but my front most fan glows orange-er




Initial Thoughts on These Fans

Unbelievably powerful, they kick serious air, my last fans (Xigmatek XLF-F1453) you could feel a slightly draft at full whack, these you can feel the air being pulled with your hand 10cm away from the front bezel. I don't use a rear fan as the rear fan on the back of the heatsink forces out more air than any of my previous actual rear fans could. Thumbs up from me.

On the plus side they're silent at 40%