October 4, 201015 yr I had the toughest time removing the tabs on the Antec 1200 case to install the 5 in 3's I ended up buying a nibbler, but it was too big (about 6-7 inches tall) and couldn't get enough leverage to remove the tabs. It would only clip the tip of the tab. I then tried using pliers to bend the tabs, but they would only bend about 45 degrees cause the pliers would get in the way. I tried a Dremel and realized how long it would take to work. (Unexprienced at it too!). Final result.....just bent the tabs with the pliers at about 45 degrees, stuck the pliers in front the other side of the rack mount and just jimmied them to the other side. Result.......dinged up deformed case, with the tabs bent and out of the way....jagged edges so when i jammed the 5 in 3's in, they scratched up the entire side of the cage. Anyone else have these problems? Just frustrating!
October 4, 201015 yr Had to remove the tabs before. I used the dremel but I had a little more patience than you You can get it done neatly but it takes time.
October 4, 201015 yr It took a little practice, but I just bent the tabs with a set of pliers. The technique that I eventually worked out was to bend them from the inside to about 45deg as you describe, then twist it just a little so that I can grab the tab from the outside. From there you can easily bend them out of the case providing a perfectly smooth interior. By the time I did this for all the tabs the last tab only took me a few min to do, and none of them have sharp edges. The whole process took a while but most of that time was figuring out what the heck I wanted to do with them. That metal is definitely thick and resists bending, but once I used the above technique it wasn't a big deal.
October 4, 201015 yr Rather than cutting, I just squished mine with a 3x4.5" Deep Throat C-clamp like this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CCXVX/ref=wms_ohs_product I've done it on both my Antec 1200 and a CoolerMaster 690. Only took a few minutes for all 4 tabs and no sharp edges.
October 5, 201015 yr I love the C clamp idea, and I think I'll try that next time I need to do this. I also found a nibbler to be ineffective (as it only clipped the tip as you described). My method was to start the bend with pliers, then to use a small hammer to smooth the tab down. I wouldn't hit the tab, instead I would use the hammer's handle like a lever against the side of the case, then smooth out the tab by sliding the head of the hammer along it. The result wasn't terribly pretty, but quite functional (and no sharp edges).
December 23, 201114 yr Any way to take the motherboard panel off? I've successfully used a small c-clamp on three columns of tabs but I can't get to the tabs near the mobo. I've checked a couple of hardware stores and nobody has a deep enough c-clamp. Ah well, I guess I'll have to use the pliers and hammer. So frustrating.
December 27, 201114 yr Any way to take the motherboard panel off? I've successfully used a small c-clamp on three columns of tabs but I can't get to the tabs near the mobo. I've checked a couple of hardware stores and nobody has a deep enough c-clamp. Ah well, I guess I'll have to use the pliers and hammer. So frustrating. I used a Dremmel before someone posted the tip about using a C-clamp - on my Lian Li case.
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