Disassembling case - Removing rivets

Since I removed the parts held down by screws, the next step would be to remove the rivets. This is important if you want to paint the insides or separate the panels for easier painting.

By default, the 912 advance comes with the insides painted black.

Less talk and more pictures!

Start state. The case with most screws removed.

Drilling the rivet

 Removing the rivet is pretty straight forward. I use a 3mm drill bit and just drill into the rivet. After drilling for a while, your drill bit should fall through the hole and the rivet would have dropped out.

After removing the rivet

This is a left over piece of part of the rivet on the drill bit after drilling through

And this is what happens if you are too lazy (like me) to remove each individual piece after drilling

Some screws that I missed out. This is on the front panel which holds the 2.5" HDD cage

First part to be removed, the 2.5" HDD cage

There are 3 screws holding the motherboard tray to the case

Removed all the rivets from the back panel

Plastic holders for the 3.5" HDD cage is held down by rivets too

With all the rivets removed. Each individual part separated.

Aftermath of all that drilling!

Now that I'm done separating the case, next is to come up with the design for the case and buy the necessary parts!

HAF 912 Advanced Case "Mod"

So I recently decided to build my own PC and decided on the Coolermaster HAF 912 Advanced edition as the price was rather affordable and aesthetically wise, I found it rather pleasing (NOT everyone likes the HAF looks). Furthermore, the side window is a must for me to gawk at the hardware which wiped out one month of my pay! 

HAF 912 Advanced Edition

Despite the nice basic design, it felt a little boring and the fact that this is quite a common case around compelled me to think of ways to spice up the looks of the case and make it stand out.

As with my first time building a PC, it will also be my first time "modding" the case. (I'm not exactly modding the case but just painting and add sheets of plastic)

Regarding the design, I'm going with a Starcraft 2 Terran theme as that is the race I play. (Starcraft 2 is practically the only game I play as well)

Hence, to kick off the long and arduous process of painting the case, I started with disassembling whatever I could with a screwdriver.

 

Removing all the parts that I can with a screwdriver

Parts that I removed with a screwdriver (in chronological order)

- Left panel

- Right panel

- 5.25" drive bay cover (mine came with the USB 3.0 slot attached. You need to unscrew two screws at the side and use a little force to pull it out) (Drive bay cover has no screws)

- Front panel

- Front fan

- Top fan

- Back fan

- 2.5" HDD bay

- 3.5" HDD bay

- Top panel (the part that houses the power, reset buttons and the USB slots. The top panel has no screws. Just clips like the front panel)

 To disassemble the case further to remove the top panel or back panel and the 5.25" drive dock, would require me to remove the rivets holding them in place. Unlike the screws, removing the rivets requires more work and assembly would be troublesome as well.

 In the next post, I will remove the rivets to isolate the parts of the case that I want to paint.