I like my current case . . . Silverstone LC-10, but there are a couple of things about it that annoy me. I’m going to rebuild the entire system for Windows 7. So far I’m planning on removing the stamped metal fan grills and replacing them with smaller wire mesh ones. Also going to replace the big thick 60x25mm fans with some nifty 60x10mm fans I found.
Questions I have, though . . .
Anybody know where I can buy a hard drive cage to mount lengthways up front? I’m going to remove the cage permanently in front of the video card, as well as the mounting spar, and utilize the dead space to mout the hard drives side to side rather than back to front. I think I have enough spare parts lying around to rig something up, but I know that PCAlchemy used to sell replacement hard drive cages for the old-style Zalman HD160’s. If I could find something like that it would be PERFECT. Alas, Google and Bing are failing me at the moment.
I’d also like to internalize my IR receiver. I’ve got a spare one that I removed the housing from. It was an OEM model that came with an Acer Aspire HTPC and it is noticeably smaller than the standard Microsoft one. I’ve considered removing one of the four USB ports up front and placing the eye in there. Does anyone know of a source to get the IR-transparent plastic used in these housings? I wasn’t thinking and pitched the housing after I disassembled everything. However, the receiver was round and probably wouldn’t have worked in there anyway. Maybe I’m chasing my tail all in all. I’d really like to get one of the new LC-10Es, but I don’t think they’re available in silver. Plus it’s a lot easier to sell a piece part upgrade to the wife instead of replacing a whole case – especially when the darn things run 200+ nowadays