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OGKwon - Chieftec Dragon Modding


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WOW!!!!! that's awesome. I used to have the exact same case. I remember it being very heavy. Great job.

 

Appreciate the kind words!  It is extremely heavy for a computer case.  Although the extra case I picked up for the side-panels is the aluminum version and that did make the case lighter.  I have been swamped with work recently but I plan on getting back to the sleeving in a couple weeks after a business trip at the end of July.  I'm really hoping to have it all finished and the old computer running in it by the end of the summer.

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  • 4 weeks later...

So I think I'm done sleeving for the most part.  At least far enough along to start putting the PC back together and work on some cable management...  Routing cables behind the board is going to be a task with this case since it comes from an era before cable management was really a thing.  I will hopefully get it all set up and running the way I want by the end of next week.

 

For now, here are more shots of the sleeving.  CPU power cables this time around;

 

OGKwon-44-SleeveCPU24Curve.jpg

 

OGKwon-45-SleeveCPU24Close.jpg

 

OGKwon-46-SleeveCPU8Pin.jpg

 

OGKwon-47-SleeveCPU2Extensions.jpg

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Took some time but it's mostly put together. As far as most of the aesthetics are concerned, it's basically done. Going to try and get a Samsung 950 Pro to work as a boot drive on the X58 platform and add that as well. Then I will be adding a hard drive bay in 3 5.25" slots for some HDD lovin'.
 

OGKwon-50-BuildMoboClose.jpg

 

OGKwon-51-BuildGPURAM.jpg

 

OGKwon-52-BuildTopDown.jpg OGKwon-55-BuildOnTopOpen.jpg

 

OGKwon-56-BuildOnSideOpen.jpg OGKwon-57-BuildOnNoFlash.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

So I'm pretty much officially done.  The computer is up and operational operating as a full time media server, part time gaming machine.

Put in a Samsung 950 Pro 512GB NVMe SSD with a PCIe adapter and a 3x5.25 to 4x3.5 hard drive hot-swap bay.  I will see about fabricating something for the top section to cover the cables later down the line.

A little over a year after I started;

The end! Wish I had a better camera for dark situations without flash. Always gets blurry because of the lights.
 
OGKwon-Small-Info.jpg OGKwon-Small-1.jpg

 

OGKwon-63-BuildOpenNoFlash2.jpg OGKwon-65-BuildOpenNoFlash4.jpg

 

OGKwon-Small-5.jpg OGKwon-Small-2.jpg

 

OGKwon-Small-3.jpg OGKwon-Small-4.jpg

Edited by xenkw0n

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I still have my dragon case too with my old p4 system in it but i lost the side panel in one of my many moves i have made over the past few years that thing looks great wish i had the time and money to do another build but buying a house right now so no spare cash laying around

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Very nice mod for the dragon. I did mine quite some time ago. Photobucket has sense deleted my photos but I still have the case in the garage. One of the things I did different was I used 2 120mm fans but left the Louvers in place. I may have to get a system going just to put it back in service. Just to say its back in action again. lol. I have all but a mobo and proc to do it.

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Nice!  Yea, this case originally came from an old Alienware system with a P4 and GeForce 3 Ti 500.  I'm also saving up for a house so that's more of a reason to just call it a day with the computer.  Most of the money really came from the hard drives and they'll work in any system so whenever I do decide to upgrade again (years++) they can still be used.

 

@Boinker - What do you mean by leaving the louvers in place?  You mean the front grill with the bars?  I wanted to open it up and expose the fans more.  I was able to keep 2 of the 3 3.5" bays available while still fitting in the 2 120mm fans which is a win.  I could put another 3.5" device or extra hard drive if I needed to.  The case itself is just a classic.  The biggest problem with it compared to today's cases is the lack of any real way to do decent cable management and the fact it comes with 5 x 80mm fan spots.  Upgrading them to 2 x 120mm in front and 2 x 92mm in back really helps airflow and being able to use bigger, quieter fans (which reminds me I will be replacing the fan in the hot swap bay since it's the loudest thing in the case.

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  • 3 weeks later...

@Boinker - What do you mean by leaving the louvers in place?  You mean the front grill with the bars?  I wanted to open it up and expose the fans more.  I was able to keep 2 of the 3 3.5" bays available while still fitting in the 2 120mm fans which is a win.  I could put another 3.5" device or extra hard drive if I needed to.  The case itself is just a classic.  The biggest problem with it compared to today's cases is the lack of any real way to do decent cable management and the fact it comes with 5 x 80mm fan spots.  Upgrading them to 2 x 120mm in front and 2 x 92mm in back really helps airflow and being able to use bigger, quieter fans (which reminds me I will be replacing the fan in the hot swap bay since it's the loudest thing in the case.

 

Yes the grille bars. I thought it would look wrong in my case but It was done in style on your part. I lost both my 3 1/2 bays. the intension of my mod was to mount water cooling internal of the case. And it worked out. just have not got anything in it as it seems I only have one system at a time. lol. But in other news its nice to see another modded dragon. thats for sure.

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Ah ok, yes - The grill took some TLC.  I used the dremel to cut out the bars but because it's plastic it started to melt as I was using it from all the friction/heat.  Did it well enough to cut the bars off without digging too much into the sides then hand-sanded the little stubs I left behind until it was flush with the inside wall where the bars used to connect.  Once I primered and painted it looked like it was meant to be that way with the 240mm grill I used against the metal part of the front case.

 

I luckily still have all of my 3 1/2 bays (so that makes 5 in total that I didn't take the dremel to).  I even somehow managed to keep the keys that came with the case 18 and 16 yrs ago since I have 2 originals.  I use the silver case for my mothers PC, it was the case to a computer she originally bought back in the early 2000's so when I rebuilt a PC for her recently I repurposed it for her.  She actually likes the silver of the case and that it still looks very clean with the door attached (I hate the doors).  The one I modded here is my media server and my main PC is in a Phanteks Enthoo Pro.  I'm glad I have this one set up as my media server since it was used as my main rig for the past 3 weeks as my X99 build had it's 2nd processor die in the past 15 months.  3rd time's the charm, huh!?  I got ASUS to send me a new board too since I'm inclined to believe the processors aren't all defective and the motherboard was probably killing them.

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