1996 Micron Conversion

[thrash]

Hey guys, this is my first mod and I hope you guys like it. I Just started it, so please be patient.


My Plan:

I'll be converting this 1996 Micron computer into a gaming machine. I won't be spending much money at first on parts or water cooling, due to the fact that this is my first mod. Once the design and all the body work is done, I'll be buying high end WC'ing parts and possibly better hardware.

Hardware: Below is the hardware that will be inside...

AMD 3000+ Socket 939 Processor
Asus AN8-E PCI-E Socket 939 Motherboard
6600GT PCI-E 128mb Videocard
430w Thermaltake PSU
DVD Burner
80GB Sata Hard drive
1 GB PC3200 A-Data Ram



I hope you guys like!!!

[Ironcat]

Any pics?

[thrash]

Update 1

I have to apologize to everyone, unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the front panel before I started working. I did however, take pictures of the rest of the case.

This is the front view of the case (front panel is taken off)

This the guts of the case. I am going to gut it all out and replace it with my hardware.

This is the backside of the front panel. I had already cut out the hole, inserted PVC pipe in and cut it down with the dremel.

This is the front side of the panel. As you can see, I bondo'd the PVC pipe and made it look somewhat 3d. Now comes the sanding....

After lots of sanding, a few primer coats, and then to wet sanding... I had it to somewhat smooth.

I coated it a few more times with primer to make sure there were no holes or gaps. To my surprise it turned out decent.

This is laying flat, so you can see the whole panel.


More to come!!!

[Spawn-Inc]

nice bondo work!, will that be a 120mm fan or 80mm?

as for the image thing the x means a broken link... so fix it, do you have any bondo left? when you host the picture from imageshack which link to you take?

i take this(highlighted) link and just copy and paste. (i'm on a old computer so i ahve old IE 6.0

[thrash]

It will be neither! I'm actually going to insert a round piece of plexiglass inside (if you can see i made notches with the bondo for the plexie to sit on) and I'm going to make a small design to etch out (not sure what it will be yet) Then i'll put a color LED inside to show off the etching.

Thanks for the comment on the bondo work, it takes FOREVER!!! And yes i have about half a gallon of bondo left!

[Drum Thumper]

Nice work. I started to work on one of those cases and hated how cramped it was.

+rep for the bondo work, that looks really sweet!

[thrash]

Thanks DrumThumper! It is very cramped. It's probably the worst thing about it. Plus it's very old school and uses very weird risers...

Anyways, thanks for the +rep! That was the first time I have ever used bondo, Next time I'm going to use fiberglass to see which I like using the most. Thanks for the comment!

[thrash]

Update 2

I got around to taking all of the other parts/panels off. This thing is old and it took a lot of force to get it on/off.

I decided to mod the top panel. I am going to make this 3.5 drive holder to either A: hold a power/reset switch (if i can find one for 3.5) or B: use it for extra usb, sound and mic jacks.

Backside of the wooden drive holder.

Put one coat of bondo on it

Side view

Sitting on the top of the case



I'm off to sand this thing now!! i'll post a update to let you know how it looks!!!

[chaksq]

Hmm... this seems very familiar to me for some reason.

I figured out from someone else's Micro project that the same case Micron uses was used by Dell as well. Some older Dimension XPS models had the exact same case but with a slightly different front panel. I have a project based on the XPS version of the case (link in my sig). I love it when people mod these cases.

At any rate I really like your mods to the front panel so far. Should be interesting to see how the top comes out.

[Zephik]

Nice job on that blow hole! I've seen some nice ones and some not so nice ones, that definitely goes under the nice category. ^_^

Good luck on the sanding! I've heard bondo is a major pain to sand, but you seem to know what your doing.

Good luck on the rest of the project! Should be fun to watch.