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achensherd
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2007
- Messages
- 328
This year for Valentine's Day, I opted to build my girlfriend a computer, rather than the usual flowers, stuffed animals, and chocolates routine (though they may still be necessary). Her ancient Dell laptop has seen better days, now routinely experiencing what appear to be seizures every few seconds while doing anything, and running very, very, very slowly in general. So, I started gathering and purchasing parts for this grand project, which was to be my very first case mod/painting.
Now, I couldn't just build her a computer and give it to her in its black, silver, or duo-tone state for Valentine's Day (or any other day, really), so I had to spruce it up a bit aesthetically. The case in question is a Cooler Master Elite 340:
My girlfriend really likes Ms. Pacman, so it was obvious what the theme had to be. I was originally going for a Portal-themed case mod, and the mod itself was headed that way to begin with, but her general disinterest in the game (though to her credit, she tries to be interested for me) and how excited she is when she spots Ms. Pacman arcade machines made the choice clear. Again, this was my first case mod/painting, and being unskilled in any area involved with it, this was very much a crash course in all areas. I didn't take that many pictures during the painting process, but to be honest...
...there's really nothing...
...to see.
That's Goo-Gone in the bucket in the first picture by the way, not what it might look like. And yes, I now know Goo-Gone does little or nothing to paint. Paint thinner was used in the second picture (not the whole bucket).
After many trials and multiple train wrecks' worth of errors, I managed to paint the majority of the case externals:
Most of the paints used were Krylons, and the Ms. Pacman picture on the mesh was hand-painted on with acrylic paint. Everything was then clear-coated for a bit more durability. As for the front panel, which you may notice is missing in this picture, it's in the bucket in the second picture up as a result of finding out that water/latex-based spray paints don't seem to like primer all too much.
Some trial-fittings, sans the complete front panel:
And finally, without further ado, Ms. Pacman PC:
Parts used:
Case: Cooler Master Elite 340
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+
MB: Abit NF-M2S AM2 mATX
RAM: Team Elite 2x512MB DDR2 800
VID: XFX Nvidia Geforce 8400GS
HDD: ExcelStor 80GB SATA
OPT: Sony DVD-RW
PSU: Allied 350W
(the fan controller is a Sunbeam Rheobus, with the blindingly-bright blue/red LEDs switched out with dimmer green/red ones)
Now, I couldn't just build her a computer and give it to her in its black, silver, or duo-tone state for Valentine's Day (or any other day, really), so I had to spruce it up a bit aesthetically. The case in question is a Cooler Master Elite 340:
My girlfriend really likes Ms. Pacman, so it was obvious what the theme had to be. I was originally going for a Portal-themed case mod, and the mod itself was headed that way to begin with, but her general disinterest in the game (though to her credit, she tries to be interested for me) and how excited she is when she spots Ms. Pacman arcade machines made the choice clear. Again, this was my first case mod/painting, and being unskilled in any area involved with it, this was very much a crash course in all areas. I didn't take that many pictures during the painting process, but to be honest...
...there's really nothing...
...to see.
That's Goo-Gone in the bucket in the first picture by the way, not what it might look like. And yes, I now know Goo-Gone does little or nothing to paint. Paint thinner was used in the second picture (not the whole bucket).
After many trials and multiple train wrecks' worth of errors, I managed to paint the majority of the case externals:
Most of the paints used were Krylons, and the Ms. Pacman picture on the mesh was hand-painted on with acrylic paint. Everything was then clear-coated for a bit more durability. As for the front panel, which you may notice is missing in this picture, it's in the bucket in the second picture up as a result of finding out that water/latex-based spray paints don't seem to like primer all too much.
Some trial-fittings, sans the complete front panel:
And finally, without further ado, Ms. Pacman PC:
Parts used:
Case: Cooler Master Elite 340
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+
MB: Abit NF-M2S AM2 mATX
RAM: Team Elite 2x512MB DDR2 800
VID: XFX Nvidia Geforce 8400GS
HDD: ExcelStor 80GB SATA
OPT: Sony DVD-RW
PSU: Allied 350W
(the fan controller is a Sunbeam Rheobus, with the blindingly-bright blue/red LEDs switched out with dimmer green/red ones)
