Optix

So since I won the Tempest I figure what better way to say thank you than voiding any warranty it may have by modding it.

Not all would be done right away but this what I have planned so I'm hoping for some input since I have never modded anything in my life.

1. Extra holes in the motherboard tray - not a new concept. The main ones will be a cutout behind the CPU socket area large enough to accommodate easy removal of after market heatsink back plates for LGA 775/1156/1366 and one in the top left corner to allow for the 4/8 pin power connector rather than looping it over the video card or under the left edge of the card to keep the case clean.

2. Paint the interior black - again, not a new concept by any stretch of the imagination but it looks awesome. Plus my current rig has all black PCB (mobo and video card), black memory, black PSU and a black heatsink. I'll likely even paint the casing of my DVD drive. Are there any tips for painting the interior without taking out the rivets? Also is there a definitive answer about how certain types of paint may or may not affect how heat is transferred through the case itself? I suspect there will not be much of an issue since the case has 6 fans.

3. Replacing rivets with screws – If I remove the rivets to paint I’d like to replace them with low profile screws. I read that 6/32 or 4/40 machine screws will work. Does anybody know if this is a sure thing?

4. Replace the HDD activity LED - my PSU fan has a blue LED, my heatsink fan has a blue LED as does my northbridge cooler (which will become my southbridge cooler when I upgrade to a P55 chipset). See a trend? The only LED that won't be blue aside from the mobo power LED soldered onto the PCB will be the HDD activity LED. It's a simple mod if I can find a pre-wired one like this:



If not I’ll pick up and solder on a plain 3mm round LED but do I absolutely need a capacitor? I heard that they are mostly to help extend the life of the LED’s.

5. Paint the exterior – Ok, now I’m torn on which way to go. Here is a pick of a paint job on an Antec 1200 that looks awesome! Check it out:





My plan would be to do the same as him only in blue leaving any mesh black. Or I could take the easy road and paint all mesh blue leaving the main part black. What’s the general feel on this? I have seen it done both ways and I am leaning towards taking the easy road.

6. Stealthing the DVD drive – another old concept but one that looks great, especially since I have a beige bezel on my drive. As I mentioned I’m considerig painting the outside of the drive but can also do the plastic if needed however my game plan is to use a piece of black plastic that stretches the entire width of the face plate and use double sided tape to secure it to the drive. The great thing about the Tempest is that the dust filters are held in with little tabs. If I can straighten them and bend them down over the black plastic it should be able to hide the entire bezel.

Thanks in advance.

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procupine14

All sounds really good to me. Cutting out the hole in the back of the mobo tray for the backplate is a great idea. One that I may very soon do on my CM 1000

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HTPC/file server: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Phenom x4 9850 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 800 (2x2GB) - 1TB WD Black - 4 x 1TB Hitachi DeskStar in RAID 5 - ATi TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner - HIS Raedon 4850 512MB - ASRock N68C-S UCC mobo - OCZ ModExtreme Pro 500W PSU

GF's Gaming PC: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Phenom 9850 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 1066 - 500GB Western Digital GP - HIS Raedon 5770 1GB - ASUS M3A78-EM - Zalman 650W PSU

Media Streamer: Win 7 Pro 64-bit - AMD Athlon x2 3200+ - 4GB SuperTalent DDR2 800 - 250GB SeaGate Barracuda - MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 - ASUS Raedon 5450 SILENT - FSP group 250W PSU

Optix

I would recommend it. It makes things so much easier if you want to apply fresh TIM or swap out or reposition your heatsink.

Besides, I'm kind of thinking that it will improve CPU temperatures slightly. You've now given the heat the radiates from the back side of the CPU socket a larger area. I may just have to do a stress test before and after the mod.

Man, I'm ramped to get my hands dirty!

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Cow_160483

Sounds like a great plan sorry i dont have much input coz i have never done any thing like that before ; but it looks like you have things under control. My only advice would be for you to make a list or action plan and decide the order in which you are going to do things

GOOD LUCK !!

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Decode!
Muhahahahah!

procupine14

yeah thats the best strategy for me when I mod. I like to plan everything out prior to starting so as to know where to go.

__________________
HTPC/file server: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Phenom x4 9850 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 800 (2x2GB) - 1TB WD Black - 4 x 1TB Hitachi DeskStar in RAID 5 - ATi TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner - HIS Raedon 4850 512MB - ASRock N68C-S UCC mobo - OCZ ModExtreme Pro 500W PSU

GF's Gaming PC: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit - AMD Phenom 9850 - 4GB OCZ DDR2 1066 - 500GB Western Digital GP - HIS Raedon 5770 1GB - ASUS M3A78-EM - Zalman 650W PSU

Media Streamer: Win 7 Pro 64-bit - AMD Athlon x2 3200+ - 4GB SuperTalent DDR2 800 - 250GB SeaGate Barracuda - MSI K9N6PGM2-V2 - ASUS Raedon 5450 SILENT - FSP group 250W PSU

RE III - Frankie

Last case I modded I added "pink" fluro lights to the inside around the panel. People say it looked pimped, but I know how to differenciate colours~!