Hello again, my name is Rodney Reynolds and this is yet another video review. Today I will be looking at a case modification. This is an AT to an ATX case. What I needed to do this model is a dremmil tool or any kind of cutting tool and a hammer. Remember folks, these videos are completely unedited and these are only my opinions.
Okay, what you're looking at here is an older AT case and this of course is an ATX motherboard. Now, if you look in the back here you’ll note that nothing lines up including the holes in the back or the mounts in the base. So there's going to be some or a lot of drilling through metal in this process to actually cut through the case as you can see here. Holes will be cut for the USB, the mouse, the keyboard, the comport as well as the parallel port and even more if you have a gaming slot as well as sound card. But in this case I don’t have a sound card on this motherboard in the sense of off the motherboard itself. So I don’t need to do that.
So let’s go ahead and start cutting here and see what actually I have to cut out to do this and drill. Okay, what you are looking at here of course is the modification which have been completed and what I've done here is basically cut a space in the back of the case to fit the comports and USB, PS2 connectors through. One important thing to remember when doing this is to make sure that you align the slots, AGP and PCI and any ISAOP so that they will actually work and fit properly.
So the only real issue besides of course drilling through the case itself is that lining everything up and actually mounting the board inside and on the case itself. Now there were two screws that are actually fit. So that was actually kind of cool because it lines everything up actually correctly, surprisingly enough. Then I used the little plastic things to keep the board from touching the metal. And like I said, there were two screws which actually went in to the case itself. One right here and one over here. And I did have to, up top here, actually use a twist tie.
So overall, the board is extremely stable in here. And certainly good enough and stable enough to have it such that it’s not going to be moving around and touching any metal. But again, when you're doing this kind of modification. Be extremely careful. Take your time and do a step by step.
Now if you notice as well as along with the modification of cutting, I've actually myself made a few cuts here in the case. And on this situation, I had to actually make a few cuts and actually bang it down with a hammer to be able to get into the comports and the PS2 connections here as well. So aside to the cutting, I had to actually use a hammer to bang it down to make it fit better and enable the comports to be accessible of course. Now something else you should do after you’ve finished cutting is actually cut off or smooth all the sharp edges so that when you are plugging things back in this, you're not cutting yourself. And if you look here as well, you see that of course, the power supply that was in this huge case was massive. And what I did have to do here is I had to, if I can bring the case up here. What I had to do is kind of mod it in a way I had to cut a Jerry rig with a few screws. And what you could use here is maybe some washers of things to just hold it on and make it very secure. And in my case, it is very secure.
Now the power switch on the front of the AT case is quite different than the ATX cases. So what did I do? Well, I use the reset switch to turn on and off the motherboard. And of course the reset switch, it’s just an on and off to give a signal to the motherboard to turn it on and off. So again, I just plug that directly into the motherboard and use it basically as an on-off switch.
And that’s about it, and plug of course all your cards and your CPU, memory, CD ROM and all those other stuff in there. And at the front here, this case was so large. I actually use a few fillers to fill up the front so it kind of looks a little better.
So overall, this was a fairly easy modification. You’re going to need a few tools like I just mentioned before some kind of cutting device to cut through the case and maybe a hammer or some kind of pounding device to flatten some things. And of course, remember, when you’ve finished all the cuttings to go around all the sharp edges and take them out so you don’t cut yourself later when you plugging things in and out. And remember, as any kind of mod, take your time. Have a lot of patience and be very, very careful.
This has been another video review, next week we’ll have a brand new video for you. So check back then. And please visit my website at www.thevideogeek.com.
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