Fan Control Makeover Mod

    There are a lot of really cool bay devices on the market, whether they have a finish similar to your case or are completely different - as in the case of the Zalman fan controller

The victim.

    The first thing you will need to do is disassemble the bay device and get some measurements of the hole sizes, for this I used a drill bit sizing guide.  The hole sizes are 17/64, 13/64 and 1/8, since I only had a 1/8 bit on hand I had to make a run to the hardware store.  If you want your mod to come out looking professionally fabricated you must use the proper size drill bits, if you don't it will come out looking half assed.

 Next you will need to prepare a drive bay cover by removing the side tabs, I prefer to use a nibbler for this because it's easier to keep the line straight and also little risk of marring the finish.  If you have never used a nibbler before I will tell you that it doesn't take out a very big bite at a time, the pile in the bottom right corner of the picture below shows the size and amount of the material removed so far.  I then filed down the rough edges where I removed the sides.

    The original faceplate is going to be used as a drilling template and rubber cement might not be the best thing to use for this next step, but it works.  Apply a thin coat to the back of the faceplate and a thin coat to the front of the bay cover, let it dry completely and then carefully position one atop the other and press it down.  Double sided scotch tape would probably work to hold it together as well.  I also used some masking tape to makes sure things didn't slide around on me when drilling.

    I carefully drilled the holes making sure to keep the drill bit straight up and down, take care when drilling not to rock the bit or you will risk cracking the template or incorrectly drilling your hole.  When all the holes are drilled take off the masking tape, separate the two pieces and clean off the rubber cement residue.

    Since the original blue acrylic faceplate was thicker than the Lian-Li bay cover I used a small lock washer on each screw to make up for the difference in thickness.  I put everything back together, cracked a beer and admired my handiwork.

    The Zalman ZM-MFC1 has been transformed from something ordinary into something awesome with a mod that took just over an hour to do.

    And finally here is another shot of the finished product.

Happy Modding.

- Guide written by Troy, aka ARTbyTROY.

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