Zotac ZBOX Sphere OI520 Death Star Case Mod

The inside of the Zotac OI520 has everything except the power supply.

Like any other case mod you have to take things apart and this one was no different, but with everything being so small it was rather easy to do. But this also creates the challenge of where do you put things into a case that is only 6 inches across and most of the inside is taking up with hardware.

Here we see the main parts out of the case. I removed the hard drive, the memory, WiFi antennas, and the blue LED ring.

This is small I mean small. Just think about it as the case is just 6 inches across and this has to fit inside of that.
Here is a quick mock up of how I wanted to lay out the details of the mod.

My first stumbling block was that the OI520 axis is kind of at a 45 degree angle through the case. This really made me think about the placement of the laser gun. Do I make it where it should be, just above the trench or do I make it at the position that your eye would catch it more. I went with just about the trench because If I did not I knew I would get a bunch of crap about it. The blue tape with the line through is a leveling point that I would use to help guide me lay out the ray dish and the painting if the surface detail.

So what is the easiest way to make the hole, well with a hole saw in a drill. Oh yeah then all you have to do it flip it over and you have the con-cave section of the laser cannon… uh not quite. Using the hole saw means you have to remove material with the cut and that leaves a gap and the piece you just cut out will not fit.

So I cut a circle out of some styrene plastic sheet and found something that I could use as a mold to get the right curve to the piece. Using a heat gun I got the piece hot, press down on it with a glove and molded it.

I glued it into place and added some decoration to it help make it look like the laser cannon. I know it is not 100% like the movie version, but I am taking artistic creative freedom.