Huge old PC case worth re-using?

[Veraster]

I have an enormous PC case that's probably 10-15 years old. It still has a floppy drive in it. It's been part of my desk for as long as I can remember. It has at, atx and hptx motherboard holes. For all of my past computer builds or major upgrades requiring a larger case, it hasn't even crossed my mind to consider using this for anything until this time around.
Here is a picture:

I've seen high-end cases with similar size and structure cost as much as $300 on newegg. The only difference between those cases and this case is that it's really ugly (it's yellowish white) and has no fan vents on the side.
Obviously, it wouldn't be too hard to buy a window panel kit and make new holes for fans.
Painting the case black might be a challenge. What would be the best way to do this? Can I just go to lowes and buy black spray paint or do I need a special kind? What kind of primer should I use? Do I need to sand anything? I don't need to see my reflection. It just needs to look like you'd expect a computer case made this decade to look like.

My current case is a Storm Scout. Its a good case but it's too small for good cable management, video cards longer than 10.5 inches or radiators for a watercooling sysetm.

 

[PP Mguire]

Problem with older cases is usually the PSU is located in the center and they all have 80mm fan slots. You could use it no problem but would need a good deal of modding.
If my old P1 case from my first computer was ATX I would probably use that but alas, it was AT lol.

Paint is really up to you how long you want to spend. You can sand her down, prime, paint, paint, clear coat or you can simply go get some primer/paint mix cans at Walmart. They are Krylon I believe. I plan on doing this with my Raidmax.

 

[Veraster]

Yeah the psu is located in the center on mine. Why is that bad?

The case does have only 80mm slots but I don't plan on keeping them that way. I'll probably saw out the section where there are four 80mm fan slots and put a 140mm fan and grill there.

Is there any place I can buy clear plastic window kits? It can't be glass because I have to be able to drill holes in it and saw it for fans.

 

[hikaricloud]

PP's right, old cases can be a hassle. I have one myself I need to mod a bit to get it where I need to be, but if you're okay with spending some time on them they can be really nice.

This is the case I have for my server-i-never-get-around-to-setting-up:

To give you an idea on size:

I call it the Road Cone. Unfortunately right now it's serving as a side table/where I put my modem and router in the living room, haha.

 

[PP Mguire]

2 reasons why it would be bad for me personally, and most people. Firstly, cable management. You have 2 sets of cables because of the location of the drives if you use them. Secondly, depending on the PSU with said cable management some cables might not be long enough.
Plus it looks odd.

Ok that's good. If you can put a few bigger fans in there then that will be much better. If you can do this, I wouldn't bother putting fans on the side panel. Just extra cables you can't really manage.

I've never seen a glas side panel window as all retail are plexi. You can find kits at
performance-pcs.com
frozencpu.com

 

[iFargle]

I used an old Dell XPS case for my brothers computer a while ago... It worked, but not very well. No cable management and the side panel wouldn't fit because the video cards and the CPU heat sink stuck out to far

 

[Veraster]

2 reasons why it would be bad for me personally, and most people. Firstly, cable management. You have 2 sets of cables because of the location of the drives if you use them. Secondly, depending on the PSU with said cable management some cables might not be long enough.

Well the case is bigger than my Storm Scout. Would the psu in the middle really make that huge case end up being worse than my tiny case I have right now? The goal is to end up with with an improvement over the Storm Scout case.

I'm planning to have water cooling with a 5.25 reservoir cooled by a peltier. Hot air from the peltier will be expelled out of the 5.25 drive bay. Such a thing might be possible in my current case but it would be very cramped and squeezed in there. With the bigger case I could just use two radiators and forget about the crap-shot peltier idea.

 

[patonb]

Those cases look tiny in comparison to my Blackhawk Ultra..... But my mobo is HPTX so...

 

[Veraster]

wow I just now noticed you have an EVGA SR2 . I'd buy one of those if it supported i7s or something that didn't cost a few thousand dollars per processor.

 

[patonb]

I paid 330 each for my hexs... They're not that expensive. I didn't pay anywhere close to full price for the board either.