McCracken is pleased with the side panel window’s frosty coating. “That is a special glass spray I found at a craft store,” McCracken says. “It’s meant to make a crystalline finish on glass jars. So I thought it would make a great touch on a computer window for a frozen-looking case. All you do is spray it on as one thin coat and let it dry. The spray creates the crystalline look all by itself. The only downside is that it’s not permanent, it can be scratched off with a fingernail.”

McCracken used an 83mm punch bit to cut the holes for the intake fans at the bottom of the system. He burned out a drill in the process.

McCracken skipped his original plan (to light the system’s interior via blue LED fans) in favor of mini spotlight LEDs that he can direct onto the icicles.

This photo shows the original clay mold of the saber-toothed tiger. McCracken used this to create the cast that he later poured the epoxy into.

McCracken wasn’t able to fit some of the long icicles into the case. He used Velcro to attach the icicles so he can easily remove them when he works inside the case.

“At first I thought there wasn’t a way to paint fans because the spray paint would easily spray into the sleeve and coils, but I found that if I used some strips of foam and pressed them into the open area, they would make a great masking tool,” says McCracken. “It’s worked so far, none of the fans have stopped working.”

“I tried to think up a way to make a fan grille that wouldn’t take away from the eye candy,” says McCracken. “So I started cutting away at the top panel and tried to make it appear like stalagmites and stalactites from an ice cave.”

Thanks to an LED embedded in the tiger’s head, you can see the beast in dark environments. “Since the saber-toothed tiger is clear epoxy, it absorbs all the light and glows,” says McCracken.

McCracken chose a Sunbeam Chromatic Windmill fan controller for his PC. “At first it wouldn’t fit because it was about a half inch too long and would hit the two fans in the top panel,” says McCracken. “So I had to take the controller apart and cut it to fit. Then I painted the front of the controller the same sparkly blue to match the case.”

“I planned on adding yet another fan in the window, but after installing the Jet 4 heatsink and fan, there wasn’t any room. So I made a small Plexiglas cover to fit over the fan hole and attached it with rubber fan mounts. So if I ever installed a smaller heatsink and fan, I could also install another case fan.”

McCracken painted the entire case, including the front bezels of the external devices. “I tried to paint everything to match the case,” says McCracken. “I thought it would look tacky to have a blue bezel with black and white drives, so I took off the drive bezels and painted away.”

“The frost is made from spraying a special glass effects spray that makes surfaces look crystalline,” McCracken tells us. “When looking at the crystals from different angles they absorb and reflect light differently.”

"The first thing I painted was the chassis," says McCracken. "I used a satin white spray paint and coated it several times. I didn't coat it as thoroughly as I would have liked, but the motherboard and hardware hides most of it anyway. I use my own custom spray booth to paint all my modded cases. I designed and built my booth from scratch so I can paint without making a huge mess or breathing all the chemicals."

McCracken tells that mounting the tiger head was a chore. “I had to drill 1-inch holes in the back of the casted epoxy resin and push some anchors into the holes and screw it on through a hole in the bezel,” says McCracken. “It was very difficult to keep it straight.”

“I’m pretty unhappy with my cable management because this case turned out to be smaller than I thought,” McCracken tells us. “I have several empty cases at home and decided on this one because of the front bezel shape and the metal panels. It’s tall but thinner than most cases, so hiding all the cables was impossible.”