The Build

Making Room

Removing the HDD cage meant that my one hard drive would need to go into the 3.5” floppy bay. No biggy. On the other hand, moving the fans to the outside of the case didn’t sit well with me at first. But, the front fan fit snuggly under the bezel (almost like it was made to be put there) and the back fan, well, I didn't have have any other option.

The Cutting of the Holes

I decided to add a 120mm blowhole after reading numerous posts on the forum about the heat pocket in the top of the case. This meant that I needed to cut two holes: one in the front and one in the top. (I had drilled out the top panel rivets at the same time I took out the HDD cage, so everything was ready to go.)
First, I covered the two surfaces with masking tape. As far as how to drill the holes, there were many different suggestions all over the place. Some just used a Dremel and a steady hand, which wouldn’t work for me since I was leaving the outside edge of the holes exposed. Others suggested buying a hole saw, which was around $45 at Home Depot and they didn’t even have a 120mm size available. I was at a loss for what to do.

Then a friend suggested a Dremel circle cutter. I don’t know why no one on the forums ever mentioned it, but it’s PERFECT! First off, it only costs around $15 and if that wasn’t enough it’s also adjustable so you can use it for any size hole. For an all aluminum case like this one, there is no reason to purchase anything else. I just dialed it to the right size, made two starting holes, and a few minutes later I had a perfect circle. (You can find the center of the hole by first cutting a 120mm hole out of paper, then folding it in half a couple times and marking the intersection point of all the creases.)

I decided to attach the mesh screen to the front bezel instead of screwing it to the fan. This was mainly because there was no room for screws under the bezel (I even had to take the rubber grommets off the fan just to fit the mesh screen in there) but also, this makes it really easy to clean by just pulling the bezel off. Since it’s an exhaust fan, the mesh can collect a fair amount of dust. I then used a Sharpie to color over the exposed metal edge and rubbed it with my finger to remove the glossy sheen. The front fan is really sharp and looks factory.

Removing an LCD cover

It had now come down to the moment I had been putting off for a week, prying open the black cover on the monitor. I was resolute in my decision that it needed to be done, but it was sooo difficult to take a knife to something that I just bought for about $200. Remember, at this point I still wasn’t 100% sure it was going to fit in the side of the case. I had taken the best measurements I could and researched what the monitor looked like under the hood, but I was still in the “don’t do anything you can’t reverse” stage of this thing.

The front and back of the cover were held together with little plastic clips every couple inches. Several articles I read recommended popping these clips off using an old credit card or guitar pick, so as not to damage the plastic. I found that these were either too flimsy or too thick to effectively wedge between the covers. In the end, I just used a regular table knife to carefully pop off the first clip, then used a credit card to finish the rest. (Once the first clip is off, the rest are easy.)