Frankie's modded Air 540 Build

[Frankie]

 

Hello guys.

 

Weather was nice today, so I took the opportunity to start and finish first case mod ever.

 

And it wouldn't be me if I didn't forget to capture some part of the thing I'm working on. I always just go and start working and completely forget about the build log, oh well.

 

 

Front panel masked, with couple coats of matte white paint to match the matte black of the Air 540.

 

 

Then I added the top part and started working on both at the same time to save time. At first I though I would finish one and then do the other one, but that would took forever.

 

 

And both pieces after I took down the masking tape, before cleanup. The little white spots on the black portion are just dry paint flakes from the masking tape. I just blowed them off with air can. 

 

It's already dry, clean, assembled and on the case, but my phone can't take a decent picture without natural light. These photos are with at least some natural light and you though those are bad huh ?  I try to take some decent pictures of the finished product tommorow with our point and shoot. No promises though!

 

[loony979]

looking very nice As an owner of this case ,suggestion for cable management .

This is what ive done small thing but will do good the hot swap cables that are bundled

with the bottom bays take those cables out and use normal ones ,this was the best thing i could of

done with mine ,and thus less cables. have fun it can be a little tricky but it works. Unless

you have all ready done this. happy building.

[Frankie]

7 hours ago, loony979 said:

-snip-

Thank you.  Air 540 owners unite!  Yeah, I will probably take those out eventually because I'm slowly working on little something, something that will let me reallocate the 3.5HDD to the back of the case.

[Nup]

Woot updates. Noice! 

 

The he white and black really came out nice on that panel. Looking forward to the rest of the updates (especially the 3.5HDD replacemnt) 

[Frankie]

4 minutes ago, Nup said:

Woot updates. Noice! 

 

The he white and black really came out nice on that panel. Looking forward to the rest of the updates (especially the 3.5HDD replacemnt) 

Thanks dude.  I took some better pictures of the finished product and will upload them today. The 3.5HDD replacement will take a while to finish, because I spend couple hours in my lair (garage) painting yesterday so I want to relax.

[Frankie]

 

So I took some pictures of the finished product today with little point and shoot Sony camera and it looks half decent, so enjoy.

P.s. I'm not too keen about possibility of somebody stealing my work so I added a little watermark, hopefully it's not too obtrusive.

 

[Smooth Bunz]

Now that looks nice!!

[Frankie]

Just now, Smooth Bunz said:

Now that looks nice!!

Thank you good sir.

[Nup]

Mmm yeah that does look good! Really smooth paint layer you got!  Real professional look  snazzy stuff. 

[jon012198]

1 minute ago, Frankie said:

Thank you good sir.

do you have pics of the inside it also looks great

[Frankie]

1 minute ago, Nup said:

Mmm yeah that does look good! Really smooth paint layer you got!  Real professional look  snazzy stuff. 

Thanks.  The lines are not 100% perfect everywhere, but I call it a win for little bit of masking tape and a spray can.

1 minute ago, jon012198 said:

do you have pics of the inside it also looks great

Thank you, I do have some somewhere on the first or second page of this build log. I however have to take better pictures and I do plan moving the X31 radiator to the top of the case and stuff like that.  Over time you notice little things that can make the build look little bit better.

[Frankie]

 

Update ? Update!

 

Some of you know that I talked about reallocating the 3.5 HDD to the back of the case. There are easier ways, but I was little more creative if you will.  I found out that if you take out the plastic brace that helps to hold the 5.25 cage, you gain a good amount of space just enough to widen said cage to house a 3.5 HDD.

 

 

In need of material two side panels from a junky old case fell victim.

 

 

''Prototyping'' before rivets.

 

 

Getting there. It was a pain to line it all up, but I managed.  The panels on the sides are there, because I needed straight surface for the HDD to sit against. You can see the crevices and shapes that the cage has.

 

 

And old 40gb IDE drive in place. Worked as a template through the whole thing. 

 

It's not pretty, but it works. Function over form in this case.  I will dress it all up with black matte spray paint, but because weather is cold and rainy I will have to wait for that. So at least you have a little update about what I'm up to.

[Nup]

It may be relatively simple but hey it does the job!! Looking good, seems to fit the drive like a glove  

 

Have you tried it with the drive on, how are vibrations? 

[Frankie]

2 hours ago, Nup said:

It may be relatively simple but hey it does the job!! Looking good, seems to fit the drive like a glove  

 

Have you tried it with the drive on, how are vibrations? 

It is relatively simple, but it was pain in the ass to make.  Yeah, it's little tight at some spots, but sure fits good.

 

No, not yet. I want to spray paint it first before I install it for good. I will follow up with photos and thoughts.  I don't think it will be worse than the stock mounting place in the Air 540 though, where it's pretty much held in place with just the SATA data/power passthrough.

[NaLu]

This is some really awesome build log! I like how you paint the case, gonna do the same in my Air 240

[Frankie]

1 hour ago, NaLu said:

This is some really awesome build log! I like how you paint the case, gonna do the same in my Air 240

Thank you! If you want to do the same or similar, quality masking tape is a key. Also prepare that masking of all those angles is not really fun and will take a while.

[Nup]

On 26 April 2016 at 2:28 PM, Frankie said:

It is relatively simple, but it was pain in the ass to make.  Yeah, it's little tight at some spots, but sure fits good.

 

No, not yet. I want to spray paint it first before I install it for good. I will follow up with photos and thoughts.  I don't think it will be worse than the stock mounting place in the Air 540 though, where it's pretty much held in place with just the SATA data/power passthrough.

The pictures made it look very easy  Better that then too loose a design, means you got it right, no?  

 

Awesome, looking forward to it! Some

diy adventures are always fun. Oh that's good to know, I would have thought that the close metal on metal would make them a little louder.

[Frankie]

3 hours ago, Nup said:

The pictures made it look very easy  Better that then too loose a design, means you got it right, no?  

 

Awesome, looking forward to it! Some

diy adventures are always fun. Oh that's good to know, I would have thought that the close metal on metal would make them a little louder.

Yeah, that's true, pictures don't tell the whole story.  Like when I find out I need to space it out a tad more. I needed to take a little bit of material from the black cage with the need metal above it as a guideline and of course the two metals wanted to walk out because of the torque of the drill. Long story short swearing was included... A lot.

 

Sure thing! I love making stuff.  It still might be little louder. I'm just guessing that pretty securely mounted HDD shouldn't make more noise than how it is now. But hey, would not be a first time I was wrong.

 

On another note weather is still cold and the spray paint call for a 15°C (59F) working temperature, so I'm sitting on my ass waiting. If the temperature gets little under 15, I will probably paint it. It will be hidden in the back anyway, so the paint doesn't have to be immaculate. I just want to make it decent looking.

[Frankie]

 

Weather was kinda good for couple of days so I could finally paint it and reallocate the HDD.

 

 

 

The paint helped the looks of the cage a lot.

 

 

I added a little bit of electrical tape on the jagged edge to ''hide the crime'' so to speak. And it's not really visible the flash of the camera make it stand out way, way, more.

 

 

So there's some thoughs after couple hours in use. The cage is pretty sturdy and the HDD fits there tightly. Vibrations improved a lot since it's high up. Before I could feel little bit of vibrations on my table, under my arm and that's gone which is awesome. The WD Blue is not noisy so I honestly can't say how much was inproved on the side of noise. Temperatures are not that different, it's now after couple hours of use sitting at 34C which is fine, it was roughly around 30-32C before in it's ''stock'' position.

 

So I'm calling it a huge success.

[Frankie]

 

Sooo, today was a good day I didn't even have to use my AK so I took the advantage to make something or to finish one part to be exact.

 

 

I was given couple of these menu holders for free = free plexi. Came in handy.

 

 

I was prototyping with cardboard and measuring yesterdayy so I could start working right away today.  Now cut to size.

 

 

 

Holes for HD audio and front panel connector cables.

 

 

''Dry fit'' I sanded the panel with 100 grit sandpaper for the up coming paint to stick. I tried to use higher grit, but that didn't do much.

 

 

Obligatory trash can bag ''paint station'' shot

 

 

Another ''dry fit'' after black matte spray paint. I will be working with it again, so I didn't put in just yet. It doesn't look too bad, only thing that bother me a little bit is that you can still see some of the sanding marks. They are not too visible, but I can be a stickler for detail. Another thing is that the panel is + - 1-2 cm shorter than the whole bottom of the case. I did that because I wanted it to be ''modular'' if you will, meaning I didn't want to dissasemble the whole PC to get the panel out for cleaning and what not. It's a compromise but in the end it's not too visible anyway, you will see after I finish this. Next up is making a little bracket for the SSD, because I don't want to hide it like I did with the HDD.

 

Thanks for reading.

[Frankie]

 

I could of have it completed yesterday, but I cut my thumb so I had to take a pause. Oh well.

 

 

I made this SSD bracket. I didn't take a lot of photos becase it's pretty much just spray painted, bent piece of metal.

 

 

It finally came all together. Looks pretty clean in my opinion, way better than having huge holes in the bottom of the case. And because I removed the SATA power/data combo cable that's in the case, I gained new cable management holes. Win/win.  

 

 

[Nup]

Man, Iv got a good bit to catch up here!!

 

That HDD cage looks super good hidden away there. What a great spot, funny that they didn't put one there  

Also great to hear for vibrations and temps, huge success indeed. 

 

Also I'm loving the simplicity here. Great ideas with great results. That plexi looks super clean. Especially along with the ssd, Like damn! 

 

I'm tempted to try it myself, but white seems like it won't help my poor skill level  

 

 

 

[Frankie]

1 hour ago, Nup said:

-snip-

 

Yeah, I make some stuff happen. Your awesome compliments was surely missed here.  

 

That cage took some time, but sooo worth. I was thinking the same thing. They decided to put the 5.25 bays there, understandable, but I'm sure that they could squeze in one or two slots under the 5.25 bay or something. Oh well, that's the beauty of modding.  

 

Thank you very much! I appeciate it.  Funny how pretty much scrap/free materials can go a long way with just a little bit of paint huh ?

 

Dude, you don't know until you try it. Worst comes to worst you just start over.  This is my first time modding and it wasn't without some rocks on the way.  Like the simple SSD bracket. First one wasn't just right. I didn't expect the bend to kinda change the shape of the whole thing so much and the SSD was floating a little bit (Which woudn't let me sleep at night :D) so I started over. The HDD cage looks easy, but keeping the tolerances just right was a pain too. You just need to keep going.

[Nup]

On 6 July 2016 at 0:38 AM, Frankie said:

 

Yeah, I make some stuff happen. Your awesome compliments was surely missed here.  

 

That cage took some time, but sooo worth. I was thinking the same thing. They decided to put the 5.25 bays there, understandable, but I'm sure that they could squeze in one or two slots under the 5.25 bay or something. Oh well, that's the beauty of modding.  

 

Thank you very much! I appeciate it.  Funny how pretty much scrap/free materials can go a long way with just a little bit of paint huh ?

 

Dude, you don't know until you try it. Worst comes to worst you just start over.  This is my first time modding and it wasn't without some rocks on the way.  Like the simple SSD bracket. First one wasn't just right. I didn't expect the bend to kinda change the shape of the whole thing so much and the SSD was floating a little bit (Which woudn't let me sleep at night :D) so I started over. The HDD cage looks easy, but keeping the tolerances just right was a pain too. You just need to keep going.

haha stuff lying around is the best! I tend to hoard a little (too much) for whatever the next project may be  

 

Keep on keeping on alright! I'm really tempted to do that plexi glass on my case too, looks fantastic. The ssd mount is excellent, but my ssd doesn't look good enough to show off in my opinion hah. 

Bit ocd with the old alignments eh?  makes for a neat looking build though, works out! 

 

 

[Frankie]

56 minutes ago, Nup said:

haha stuff lying around is the best! I tend to hoard a little (too much) for whatever the next project may be  

 

Keep on keeping on alright! I'm really tempted to do that plexi glass on my case too, looks fantastic. The ssd mount is excellent, but my ssd doesn't look good enough to show off in my opinion hah. 

Bit ocd with the old alignments eh?  makes for a neat looking build though, works out! 

 

 

 

It really is.  Yeah... I might or might not have some materials hoarded in our garage...

 

Do it! It really cleaned up the look of the case.  So time for a new SSD ?  

 

Bit OCD ? You have no idea.  I just can't help myself, I'm stuck in my perfectionist ways. Not saying everything is perfect about my build, but you know...  Thanks again dudski. You're pretty much my no.1 commentator