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I like a challenge, but have I bit off more than I can chew?

hexsys

Posted in Uncategorized on April 20, 2008 at 12:04 am

I have been into computers since the days of the ZX81, and I have always been fascinated by the hardware more than actually using them. I have always built my own PC’s and have never bought an off the peg rig. One thing I have never done though is to build a fully custom PC case, until now. I have been looking at acrylic cases and was inspired by the BobSlay case from Mountain Mods, I even considered buying this case instead of building one, but there would be no challenge there!

 Before I started the project, my current system was housed in an Antec Nine Hundred, but it isn’t exactly watercooling friendly and I soon got bored with it. My system specs are as follows:

Asus P5K mobo, Leadtek 8800 Ultra Leviathan, C2D E8400, Corsair DDR2-800 4GB Kit, ThermalTake toughpower 750 PSU. I also have a watercooling loop which cools the graphics card and CPU, using a Danger Den MC TDX 775 & EK 8800 full cover waterblocks, with an XSPC RS240 radiator and 750 res/pump. The barbs and tubing are 1/2″ and I use Feser 1 coolant.

 As you may know, this is quite alot to fit into an 900, and I thought it looked too busy and hopefully I could do better.  After scouring the net for ideas, I decided upon a cube shape which would be large enough to house all the hardware and have enough room for future expansion. I didn’t do any drawings or plans other than measuring the mobo and adding enough room for cables/ tubing to the measurements. I decided upon a 400mm square cube, with the PSU, pump/res, and drives to be housed on the bottom, with a shelf housing the mobo and components at the top.

 I first thought about a completely acrylic case but after some thought and research, I decided that an aluminium frame would be easier, especially as this was my first attempt. I wanted the case to be easily accessible too for cleaning and maintenance/upgrade purposes.

 Here’s a shot of my first attempt at the framework, minus the supports for the shelf. I placed an old mobo in to give me an idea of scale:

I used 20×20x1mm and 15×15x1mm aluminium corner lengths, which came in 1m sections. I bought them from B&Q for £30ish. Once I got this frame sorted I then needed to decide how to make it secure and how to fix the acrylic so I would be able to gain easy access. I used 3mm nuts and bolts and in the photo the nuts are inside the case, but I decided to reverse them so the bolt was sticking out and tightened with a single nut, and the acrylic would then sit on this and be secured with a washer and dome capped nut to pretty it up. Not ideal and if I had a welding gun, I would have tacked the nut internally, but it was the easiest and best method I had available. The supports for the shelf were T shaped aluminium fixed with nuts and bolts under the shelf support so the wouldnt be visible.

I hit a problem straight away with the aluminium, it was covered in B&Q labels and I would love to know what sort of gum they use to stick them with. It took me nearly 2 hours of scrubbing and sanding to get them off. I tried soaking the case in hot water, nail varnish remover, CIF and pure alcohol, but in the end it took some real elbow grease to remove all the gum! I finished the metal with a light sanding of fine wet&dry.

Next up was to order the acrylic, I got this from a local firm and I got 4mm thick 405×405mm for all exterior faces, and 6mm for the shelf. It cost me £26 for the acrylic so the total cost for the basic materials was around £56. Then the fun started!! I didn’t have alot of tools when I started the project and I ended up buying alot specifically for this project. I ordered a dremel (which still hasn’t turned up!!) and bought a jigsaw, cordless drill and file set. This set me back a bit but I knew I needed them when I started the case so I wasn’t worried. I was worried that I didn’t have any plans to work from and all the ideas were in my head, but I felt confident I could make it work.

The next step for me was to figure out a drive cage and the I/O and PCI slots. I decided to go the easy route on these parts, and I salvaged them from some old cases I had. The drive cage is a 4 bay 5 1/4″ one and I needed all 4 bays. The reservoir/pump is a double bay, and the other two are used by the HD and DVD RW. The I/O & PCI slots were worrying me as I didn’t want to be cutting the holes for each slot in the acrylic. As I said earlier, this is my first case build and I didn’t want to over complicate things. I managed to salvage a complete I/O & PCI plate from an old case and it was just a matter of drilling out the rivets to remove it.

Then it was just a matter of cutting the right size hole in the acrylic rear panel and fixing the plate with some nuts and bolts.

With most of the internals decided, I pressed on with the cuts required on the acrylic. I started with the mobo tray and cut 2 rectangles on either side of the mobo and a larger one at the front, to allow for the cables and tubes to be routed from the bottom level. Then I done the rear panel next and made the cuts for the PSU and I/O etc. I had hoped my dremel would have turned up by the time I started cutting, as I am not the best with a jigsaw. But I managed OK, even if a few of the cuts aren’t exactly straight

I decided to mount the 240mm radiator at the front of the case, on the top level. This was so that the mobo would benefit from the 2×120mm fans, which are air intakes. I also cut a hole for a 120mm fan on the top panel, near the chipset. The only other cuts required were for the vandal proof switch and the DVD RW and reservoir/pump. The cutting was probably the most daunting part of this project and I was glad when it was over!!

Putting everything together was quite easy, and it required some improvisation at times. I have nearly finished the rig and am just waiting for some AC Ryan chrome brickie grills to come and I also need to polish out some minor scratches on the acrylic. One thing I added that I never planned for was an LCD 2 line text display from and Antec Fusion case I had laying about in the workshop. I think it works well with the design. I also have to get some lighting and am going with blue and UV CCFL’s. Nothing to garish though. I will post some more pics when I can find my camera, hopefully tomorrow.

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