ATCS 840 by Coolmiester

More Modding

Inevitably, the case would need side vents which I now seem to be noted for so after many hours searching the net I found what I was looking for in the shape of inward vents which I thought would look better as the 840 is already a wide case so didn’t want to add to its width.



The vents were a little trickier to fit than usual as they were attached from the inside rather than the outside so great time and patience was needed with filler and wet sanding to achieve the factory look. I got there in the end though and all the time searching and fitting the vents paid off as they did end up looking factory made.

From day one I hadn’t liked the top mesh Cooler Master had added to the 840 so I decided to get rid completely and replicate the front aluminium piece to give the case a more of a balanced look. Using 8mm aluminium, I cut out the basic shape then curved both edges with a belt sander to match the front bit and centre sections were cut from both pieces to aid in air flow.



I applied modders' mesh to the reverse so the fans would still be safe to the odd stray finger poking in there. I finished it off with three rails of aluminium bar, recessed so that they fit into the openings - I rounded the ends and finally polished them for decoration only. The effect was simple but looked effective when applied to both front and top and the chrome shiny finish would end up complimenting the gloss paintwork.

As most of the big water block manufacturers hadn’t brought anything new to the table for Core i7 and many only choosing to adapt the hold down brackets of the previous 775 blocks to accommodate the new hole spacing, I decided again to try something new.


Using Danger Den MCP-Chipset copper bases I hand cut Delrin tops for both CPU and chipset, making a nice unique matching set of laminar flow blocks that would be far less restrictive and free flowing. Moreover, once the rest of the blue heatsinks on the motherboard were painted satin black and the Delrin tops were both flame polished, they would fit in better with the rest of the motherboard's colour scheme.