Introduction: Zombie PC Case Mod, Back From the Dead PC With Space Saving Side Mounted Drives.
About 2 years or so ago my PC went bang just when I needed it for some work and i had to go out and panic buy a laptop to get the work done.
A month later I got the chance to pull an old tiny PC out of bro-inlaw's bin a few hours before it was due for collection.
My had been pimped out with uv lights etc that over time had failed and I decide that I would strip those out and try and mount the drives to the side of the case so it would fit against the wall on my bench and give me room for the laptop. I found a video of the old mod with the pointless lights, sounds a bit rough on it though.
This is an old project and I don't pics of all the stages.
Not all PC cases are suitable for this mod I was just lucky that mine was riveted not spot welded.
Tools used Drill, Dremel style tool, pop rivet gun, hot glue gun, tin snips, screwdrivers etc.
Hope you like it, thanks for looking.
Andy.
Step 1: Swapping Main Boards.
First was to swap the main board of the Tiny PC into my case to see if it was working.
Not going to go into any detail about this, I had 7 years in the PC trade which is more than enough for this lifeform.
I don't have pictures of the dismantling of the case, it was held together with alu pop rivets and gave no resistance , just had to drill the tops out with a drill.
And yes before anyone anyone points out the follies of metal fragments and static, yes I did do this case mod with the board in place. I blew it out with the airline when I was finished. But if you are going to do this take everything out of the case first.
I wish my shed was this clean now :-)
Step 2: Mounting the Face Plate to the Side Panel.
Sorry folks, I didn't take any pics of the during stage of this build. this is the only pic of how the 5 1/2" drive bays was mounted to the side panel
The face plate on the case was one of the pop of types so was perfect for this job. again not all cases can be used to do this.
Because this side panel had a plastic window it was easy to mark and cut i used a dremel style tool to cut the holes out.
The drive bay was attached with lashings of hot melt glue. the face plate was screwed to the side panel
The Tiny had a switch unit that was all wired into a plug thing and I just drilled out a floppy drive blank plate and used hot glue to attach it.
Step 3: Strenghing the Case.
Once the drive bays had been removed I found that the hard drive bay was very wobbly so i cut a piece from the Tiny case and pop riveted it in place to anchor the drive bay to the case.
Step 4: Covering the Holes Where the Drives Had Been.
The Tiny case just happened to have a side with a some grilled areas on it and they just happened to be bit enough to make panels to patch the to large hole where the drives had gone before.
I used tin snips to cut the Tiny case up.
I was lucky to have a grilled are on the scrap case, a flat plate would do but i decided to use the grilled stuff to let some air flow round the DVD drive.
Once I had the plates pop riveted in I painted the side of the case to match with the rest of the case
Again sorry for the lack of pics.
Step 5: Painting and Uglyfication
Once all the hard work was done it need a bit of uglification.
I sprayed any no black parts black and added a gold vinyl zombie decal since it had risen from the dead.
Step 6: Job Done.
This pic shows the case back in its place on the bench.
I now had enough space to use the laptop on my bench without loosing the PC case off it.
It sits flat against the wall and still allows easy access to the DVD drive.
This pic shows that my bench was once recorded as being tidy, you would not want to see it now.
That's all folks, hope you liked this.
Thanks for looking.
Andy.
