Exterior

While gathering all the parts on the basement I also modified the case. First I made rectangular hole for external motherboard connectors and some holes for power supply controls.

Rear panel

Rear panel with connectors

I installed external CD-ROM drive activity LED and eject button on the top cover of the case and connected them to the CD-ROM drive card instead of standard controls. It was also made there a rectangular hole for CD tray. On the bottom of the front panel I installed Sleep LED, HDD activity LED, Power LED and Reset (white) and Power (red) buttons.

Front panel

During testing my new PC I discovered that the power supply produces considerable amount of heat and needs active cooling. And at the same time, it has become clear that power supply card is 0.16in (4mm) higher then the height of the case. So I cut rectangular hole in the case cover right above the power supply and installed there a lid, made of other old power supply cover. I also installed two 2in (50mm) ball bearing fans. One of them blows inside, other one — outside. They create "local" airflow inside the power supply.

Power supply lid with two fans

I also installed two additional fans, to cool other internal parts of the PC. One of them is 2.36in (60mm) "Thermaltake" ball bearing 7000rpm fan and the other one is 3.14in (80mm) "Top Motor" sleeve bearing fan. The first one blows inside, the other one — outside. Both of them are connected to a switch varying their speed (normal/slow) by changing voltage: 7V or 12V. "Slow" position of the switch is usually used. Other position may be used when the temperature outside the PC approaches to 86F (30C) degrees (so it is a "hot Summer mode"). One more reason to use "Slow" mode is noise. Thermaltake fan at its maximum speed (7000rpm) produces sound like a jet airplane (but I like it — quietness of a PC is not important for me).

The switch and two-color LED showing current mode are placed near 60mm cooler.

60mm fan, speed switch and LED

Above the fan you can see four port connectors: two USB and two Firewire.

In conclusion I made a highlight for external motherboard connectors. It is very useful if you want to connect something "on the fly", speakers, for example, or microphone. It lights when the PC is switched on.

Motherboard external connectors highlight

I only used four bright white LEDs to make such a nice feature.

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