Introduction:

The path to case modification is often paved with different roads offering computer enthusiasts opportunities to build their own on personal dream machine. The simplest form of case modification involves the route of the pre-mod or pre-modified case which uses a cookie cutter style solution. With half the work completed for you all that is required is to add your own hardware and you're pretty much good to go. While this addresses the needs of those individuals who lack the skill or resources, this takes away from the real essence of case modification. The more difficult route, allows enthusiasts to heavily modify an existing chassis so that it’s unrecognizable from the original design or deploy a scratch build process of designing and fabricating their dream machine using a wide selection of materials. The MTB Live Ammo Case Project was created to address the needs for a simple yet portable gaming system utilizing modern system components and a water cooling solution.

History:

The MTB Live Ammo Case project started as a challenge from PC Design Lab owner Dave LaLopa. Home to the QMicra SFF Enclosure, Dave has worked long and hard to develop a new style of mATX based chassis which is precision made using only high quality materials for an attractive finish and long lasting construction. The QMicra SFF is designed to be used with mATX motherboards, ATX sized PSU’s, high performance hardware and large custom heatsinks. Utilizing an advanced front to back airflow cooling solution provides the QMicra with excellent dispersion and high flow rate. Acoustic absorption matting aligned inside the chassis provides enhanced quiet operation. In the process of marketing his design to the North American market, MTB was tasked with the request to completely revamp the QMicra SFF design and create a unique and different look for the enclosure documented as a case modification project.  

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The first step in the process of creating this project involves some initial planning that would be completed in a joint venture between MTB and our good friends over at Moddersmart. It took approximately 2 weeks for the QMicra SFF Enclosure to arrive and PC Design Lab was nice enough to have a sample unit shipped directly from the offices of Maximum PC. Out of the box, the QMicra SFF deviates away from standard mATX based chassis designs by adapting a much larger footprint and dimensions measuring approximately 248mm (H) x 286mm (W) x 356mm (D). The enclosure is very light weight at 2.5 kg and has been designed using a 1/16" Aluminum Base, Stainless Steel Bezel and 1/8" Lexan acrylic front plate.

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The QMicra SFF Enclosure is a mATX based enclosure but supports the use of a standard sized ATX PSU for support. Cooling has been maximized with the inclusion of 4 x 80mm cooling fan mounts that have been positioned in the front and rear of the case. The external shell of the QMicra SFF Case follows the same traditional pattern of most desktop cases and is designed in a "U" shaped pattern. The only change in the design is that access is granted to the case by removing the four bottom mounted case feet. A closer look at the top portion of the case reveals that PC Design Lab has included two 5.25" external drive bays and one single 3.5" drive bay. The case includes aluminum drive bay plates that can be easily removed to in order install any optical, monitoring or LCD based device. The rear of the QMicra SFF Enclosure has been sanctioned off into two sections with the PSU mount towards the top. Below the PSU mount is the location for the rear fan mounts and ATX I/O plate. Towards the right is the location for the AGP/PCI/PCI-E slots. All slots are secured using a two thumbscrew mounting system that keeps the cards in place. Once the external shell has been removed, a view of the interior reveals that the case is both spacious and well laid out.

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Internally, the QMicra SFF Enclosure uses a custom suspension mechanism that is positioned over the external drive bays and anchored by thumbscrews. Four hard drives can be mounted vertically for those consumers who require maximum storage requirements. While existing mATX based cases include front mounted USB, Firewire IEEE1394, and Audio ports, this feature has been excluded from the QMicra design. The case includes a Bulgan switch for Power and plastic Reset switch. All the front mount fans include aluminum mesh filters while the rear fans included chrome style grills.