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Hi everyone, I have been planning to mod and repaint my case, and part of the project was to take the whole thing apart. However, since the case was originally held together by rivets, that meant having to permanently remove them and replace them with something, ideally screws as to make future dis/reassemblies more convenient. Since the rivet holes prohibited threading the sheet metal itself, my only option were inserts. I first thought of using rivnuts, which I already had. However, those required pretty big holes even for M3 or M4 screws, and wouldn't provide a flat surface which would be problematic for reassembly. I then considred weldnuts, but since I have as much welding experience as I do access to welding equipement, I wrote that option out pretty quickly.The option I choose to go for were these, self-clinching threaded inserts: These are meant to be pressed into steel sheets using a arbor press of some kind, and when done well are reasonably sturdy while providing a nice flush surface. Sadly, they turned out to be pretty hard to find online as McMasterCarr doesn't ship to canadians who aren't a business, but I did manage to order a set of 50 M3 and another 50 M4s for $13 CAD each on Walmart (of all places): https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/S-M4-0-Carbon-Steel-Self-Clinching-Rivet-Nut-100pcs-for-0-8mm-Thin-Plates/PRD4QOL5V292M6E. I also got some assortments of metric screws from Amazon for about $20 CAD: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B08HXTTYN4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I tried pressing in the inserts with a vice I made in shop class years ago, but that was not enough to get inserts to stick properly (obviously). I then gave in and bought a proper press on Amazon for about $150 CAD :https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B015PXHAPY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Once I had everything, I got to work. As I drilled out the rivets, I made sure to take note of where I would have to install which inserts, as I bought M4s for the "main" mounting points and M3s for the smaller areas that wouldn't accomodate the diameter of the M4s. Then I got to installing the inserts. The whole thing went pretty smoothly, even though some inserts were harder to reach with the press then others. That affordable little press proved strong enough to reliably install the inserts permanently into the sheet metal. I did need to reinstall a few of them after a test assembly of the case, but I'm now pretty confident that they are all gonna survive multiple assemblies and disassemblies. Here is the result: assdf And voilà, the case is now fully held together by screws. While the result is both sturdy and much more useable, all the pressing did cause some deformation in the panels, which led to a small amount of wobble once assembled.This shouldn't be too much of a problem, I'll probably just have to figure out a constraining jig for the final assembly. Overall, while the result is very satisfying, it still did come at a cost: 25 for the inserts, 20 for the screws, and about 150 for the press. This is pretty expensive all considred to just avoid having to use regular nuts and bolts, but if you have access to a press already, I recommend this method. I'm probably gonna do a writeup on this whole project once the case is done painting, but this won't happen until spring as I still need to sand and prime and paint, all things that are better done outside. I just wanted to post this early, as I imagine this is a pretty common problem encoutered by case modders. Hope this helped someone!

Soooooo not sure what goes and what doesn't, I kind of read the rules thing, definitely didn't lurk and learn but instead just jumping in. I mean what's the worst that happens I use a comma in a thread instead of a semi-colon and the punctuation Nazis storm my house; insult my life's work, and I'm forced to watch my thread be deleted and cry myself to sleep. Not like that hasn't happened before so nothing to lose. No regerts. So lets start off with a dream. about 7 years ago, before I had kids and the state showed me some paperwork that appeared to have my signature saying I was married, there was this dream. A dream of building a computer, modding that computer, and playing hardcore graphics intensive games like... Age of Empires III and Diablo and do so with so much hardware that whenever anyone sees what I have under the hood they say crazy things like "You're an Idiot you can run those games on a smart phone why did you spend enough money to buy a car on your computer?!". I don't have a good answer to that question, probably never will. The first iteration before I went broke and the dream was halted included a Phenom Black 9750 if my memory serves me correct, a 9800 GT in a Massive full tower windowless NZXT Phantom. No photo since well. It was a windowless case with a brown motherboard, stock cooler, and enough LED fans to hold a LED addicts anonymous meeting. One thing was learned, Full tower cases are not for me, and you do not have to fill every fan mount with a fan to make a computer run. Second iteration when I was no longer broke but my hardware was useless to mod by this time. Based off the I5 2550k cause that .1ghz guys! a 4x4 kit of blue Corsair Vengence DDR3 1600 Ram to match with my Asus P8Z68-V Pro in this sexy XION Predator Gaming Series Mid tower and a H100 corsair AIO cooler cause stock coolers are for squares. Photo of what my build would have looked like if I took a photo of it. Hopefully that formatting worked... Not the actual stress test but some minor proof for when my brother asked why I was dumb enough to pay for a unlocked CPU. I don't know what really happened after that but somehow I ended up with a white windowed Phantom 630.... a full tower..... yeah I know I said they are not for me and they are not.... but they are just so Damn Pretty! Either way here is a photo of internals since you probably know what a white phantom 630 looks like. mmmmm hot sauce. Now at this point you probably are like "PartyLeader uhhhh those are definitely not a EVGA 550 ti". I know time lines are hard. Previous to this there would have been a 680 Classified upgrade to that 550ti cause well Skyrim ENBs. Then later my brother was building a computer and me being a good human being donated that 680 to his build and suffered through installing dual 970s. Your second question is like hey dude is that a 1000w power supply. And yes, we both can read, otherwise this thread would be kind of awkward for you to be on, especially if my images don't work...... All I have to say to you is Newegg sale and don't you remember my dream? Either way the Phantom 630 didn't last long and with it went the I5-2550k as I learned again. I don't want a huge case. So I picked up the current iteration an I5 6600k a 2x8 kit if Crucial Ballistix Tactical, and a glorious MATX board that supports SLI the ASRock Z170m Extreme4. There was only like 2 boards at the time that did this and the other looked like a race car vomited on it. Then the coup de grâce the case of my dreams a full tower Phantom the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv MATX. Either way I drew up a bunch of pretty pictures trying to figure out what I wanted to do to this gorgeous case. I then ignored them all and started randomly spray painting it Fluorescent Green and White. The Room Rebuilding Now that the dream has started. Hopefully it comes into reality. Not sure where it is going as over the years as you probably..... maybe not have read I just been kinda flying by the seat of my pants and will continue to do so as next is motherboard and component painting. Then after taxes in 2017 water cooling. O Yeah Glam.... Unknown to you I have not looked at my work under the proper light until just before writing this very line. So here it is with a jury rigged Cable mods UV LED strip. Hopefully someone enjoyed this as I enjoyed making it and reflecting on my little hobby I squeeze in between work, wife, kids, pets, and Game of Thrones. Thank You for your time. I will hopefully be back soon with updates as this project evolvs but being in retail and it being the time it is I may not have a day off for a month or so. Wish me luck. Update Installed system and did a little quick detail work with some fluorescent gel pen. Also updated keyboard to a Masterkeys Pro S. Color and photo quality kinda suck do to my phone camera

Here is the start of Project ATS ATS is my clients initials 1 EVGA Z170 Stinger ITX Motherbaord 1 EVGA 980ti SC 1 i5 6600k 1 samsung 850 evo 1 lepa exllusion Replaced with Swiftech h220x2 1 Corsair air 240 1 EVGA 850 watt Power Supply

My screen name on as many games as i can put it as is: Bloodmoney1996 So my cousin, painted my case for me.... i was on a budget, and i tried to make it as future proof as possible, potentially getting the latest processor of the FM2 socket, 16GB of RAM, and RAID 0 an aditional SSD. I built this system using only around $400, and the SSD was majority of that cost. I only tried to push my APU to 4.4 GHz, but with the stock cooler, i leave it around 3.6 (stock clock) Specs: MotherBoard: F2 A85V-PRO APU:A8-5600K (Stock Cooler) Memory:(2x4GB)Crucial Ballistix 1866 Storage:330 intel SSD 180GB PSU:Logisys 550W Case: Out dated one, (Have no clue) Fans:3 Axio 80mm (1 Green LED)(2 Red LED) I know this system isn't the best thing anyone has ever seen, but i plan on making serious upgrades as i go.