Case Project: KATAKIS

[FabianJ]

"KATAKIS" Case Project

http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/7210/katasf8.jpg


Intro

Hey there TBCS, i've started work on my first case project recently and I thought here would be a good a place as any to keep some kind of record of everything I do.

The project is actually for an A-Level (7th Year of High School in the UK) Design & Technology Project, everyone else is making simple storage units but that just didn't quite work for me so I argued that a PC case is basically a storage unit for computer components and was allowed to go ahead ;)
But that means, if I arse this up completely, I fail the course... no pressure. Any advice, comments and/or cookies are, therefore, very welcome!

The Project itself doesn't actually have a name yet, so "Untitled" will have to do for now, i'll come up with a name for it as the idea develops! So here we go, only 6-7 months left and no time to lose.


Development
Base Unit

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/8443/wip1pr5.jpg
Base Unit - PSU in red and 120mm Fan Radiator for Water Cooling in green.
These aren't the final colours of course, i'm just keeping components colour coded. Final design will most likely be brushed aluminium with details and lighting in red.

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/268/wip2xq8.jpg
Rear of the Base Unit - Exhausts for Radiator and holes for I/O sockets. The motherboard will be housed in another unit mounted above this base unit and USB, Video, Network, etc sockets will be bought down to this unit.

http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/8657/wiprender1ld0.jpg
Quick Render of the base unit so far.

The louder and heavier components like water pump, PSU and one of the radiators are housed in the base unit to give the base added weight and because this part of the case will be lined with sound proofing material from the inside.

I should add that the size of the base is 300x300mm & 100mm high.



To Do

Front Panel Lettering
Base Feet
Base Vents
Side Panel Details
Support Mounts - The second part of the case housing the mobo and drives will be mounted above the base unit on four aluminium supports with wires and water tubing running between the two.


Well, here goes nothing :devious:

[Xperiment]

Looks like you are off to a good start, nice renders - will look forward to the build pics.

Seeing as you will be doing a 'scratch' build my best advice would be to take alot of time over the measurements for the build, This (http://www.formfactors.org/) site will give you exact dimensions for most PC components, motherboards, cases etc.

Good Luck

[cured]

This will be intresting. Can't wait

[FabianJ]

Development
Base Unit

http://www.madfox.net/untitled_img/hdd.jpg
HDD area with intake and outtake fans in blue.

http://www.madfox.net/untitled_img/side_base_front.jpg
Front Panel writing in raised transparent acrylic backlit with LEDs, Side vents for HDD cooling, base vent & feet to raise the whole thing off the surface by 4mm.

http://www.madfox.net/untitled_img/supports.jpg
Supports added to hold the top unit, still need to figure out exactly how these are going to be fixed into place, possibly need to do some welding here.

[Scotty]

Looks very nice. Love the clean look. +rep

Another MAX artist we have here?

[psychowit]

Woah, nice design/computer skills! Good luck

[Trace]

This looks very good. I like the renders. I can't wait to see how this turns out.

[jdbnsn]

Hi Fabianj and welcome to TBCS! If you need any help with the project I am sure you'll find many folks here that love to roll up the sleeves and jump in. One thing I would recommend is at some point you should consider naming your project, at least by the time it's done. You don't have to of course, but "Untitled" doesn't attract near as many visitors as a named thread. Good luck!

Jon

[FabianJ]

Development
Overall Case

Thanks a lot for all the advice so far! The design itself is pretty much complete, just looking to place two front USB ports, power and reset buttons.

http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/5193/design1cs6.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/8158/design2go9.jpg

Any suggestions for changes while I still can?

Overall Dimensions:- Base: 300x300mm Height: 400mm

[Scotty]

One very awesome design.

One issue i see is with the top bit, you have a 250mm fan for some serious cooling but if thats pulling or pushing air in or out, you will want some vents to allow it to suck air in or blow it out of.

Love the cable routing up the middle, might be a bit flimsy so it may need to be reinforced with some aluminum or something.

I really can't wait to see this built, this design is so sweet.

I would rep you but i need to spread it around, so when i have done you'll be getting another batch ;)

[Ap1thy]

thats pretty cool for sure, i wouldnt mind a case like that, to show of my model cars as well as house the pc

[|NQ|Squelsh]

Wow! What renderer do you use? The lightening and the display rocks!

The design of this case is quite unusual, with so much space in the center. I really like it.
+rep for the design and the nice pics!

I ask myself where I gave away all the space in my CUBE Case (300*300*300mm)... You only have 100mm more in height and 50% of your case is empty and mine is stuffed :)
Now I see: You dont have any GPU- or some other card on your MoBo... Only onboard-graphics?

If I remember right, there is a rack-system from some manufacturer who sells glass cabinets. These racks are built of round aluminium profiles that already have 4 slits to hold the glass plates (like the ITEM system but with round profiles). Perhaps you can use them. This could save you from welding... Perhaps I can find some pictures of what I mean.

[jdbnsn]

That is one killer design, very unique and graceful. Love it!

[FabianJ]

Thanks for all the feedback and comments!



One issue i see is with the top bit, you have a 250mm fan for some serious cooling but if thats pulling or pushing air in or out, you will want some vents to allow it to suck air in or blow it out of.

The 250mm fan is only there to get cold air from outside onto the motherboard, good point about some vents in the bottom or side of the case though, i'll see what I can do space wise!



Love the cable routing up the middle, might be a bit flimsy so it may need to be reinforced with some aluminum or something.


I thought that, i might have to add some aluminium bars in between the two acrylic bars.


Wow! What renderer do you use? The lightening and the display rocks!

Thanks, Maxon Cinema4D, I loves it!



Now I see: You dont have any GPU- or some other card on your MoBo... Only onboard-graphics?

I can fit a Gfx Card in using a PCI-E or AGP riser card to turn the card over on its side and then using a VGA or DVI extention lead to take the video down to the output.


I should manage to get a card/paper model of this thing together this week to give me a place to start from with cutting and to get an idea of the actual size and look. Starting to get materials and components in already... and I still need to place the damn on/off switch :think:

[The boy 4rm oz]

Awesome design, I love it. Can't wait to see more.

[DZ469]

Dude build this (or start i guess)!!! That design is so freakin cool.
I had totally forgotten about this, but it is still amazing.

[FabianJ]

Dude build this (or start i guess)!!! That design is so freakin cool.
I had totally forgotten about this, but it is still amazing.

Well, christmas holidays and new year and all that fun stuff are over so I think i'll be starting actual work within a week or two!

[chaksq]

This mod looks to be sweet, I can't wait to see how it comes out. Make sure you get a PSU with long cables. I love the status display in the middle.

[FabianJ]

Finally, PROOF that i've started.

Behold the lower right section this lovely 1500mm x 500mm x 0.6mm aluminium sheet covered in scribbles and cutting lines ready to be cut out into the individual parts of the lower box of the design.

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/9864/ololxr1.jpg
(Those lines mark the location of the side vents.)

The LCD display is working as well and i've played about with LCD Smartie a little, pictures will come when I get my hands on a decent camera!


Very humble beginings there, lets see how it goes... :devious:

[DZ469]

Woohoo progress!!! :banana: Nice to see you start this. Good luck! :up:

[Luke122]

Just a thought on the two fans for the hdd's on the bottom half of the case... Rather than an intake and an exhaust, why not do both as intakes? Then the fans on the PSU and rads will both just push air up and out.

Unless you enclose the hdd's in a separate chamber and keep the intake/exhaust arrangement, you might end up with higher ambient case temps than if you had them both as intakes.

Just a thought!

Cool design though, looking forward to build pics also!

[FabianJ]

Just a thought on the two fans for the hdd's on the bottom half of the case... Rather than an intake and an exhaust, why not do both as intakes? Then the fans on the PSU and rads will both just push air up and out.

Unless you enclose the hdd's in a separate chamber and keep the intake/exhaust arrangement, you might end up with higher ambient case temps than if you had them both as intakes.

Just a thought!

Cool design though, looking forward to build pics also!

To be honest I haven't quite worked out all the fan directions yet, i'll probably stick in some temperature probes in there when its all done and figure out which fan arangements work best, they're easily turned around in the end anyway!

[FabianJ]

Parts & Progress

Started cutting the aluminium panels for the lower part of the case, progress is a little slow as i'm still waiting for some parts to come in the post that need to be measured out exactly (Like lining up the 120mm fan of the PSU with the actual exhaust.) The LCD display arrived and i've had a good play with it using LCD Smartie.

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/2347/image00008dz3.jpg





Naming

At this point i'm pretty much desperate for a name because I need to get the writing at the front in queue for the laser cutter. So i think I might go for naming it after my favourite Commodore game from the good old days (Am I allowed to use that line yet, aged 19?): Katakis! :devious:


http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/7210/katasf8.jpg

No better excuse to stick the commodore logo all over the place, right? And the logo can even be LED backlit in the proper colours, could look rather awesome!

If there ain't a serious influx of objections to the name i'll go ahead and stick with it 8)

[jdbnsn]

Am I allowed to use that line yet, aged 19?

Hahahaha! It was not okay until you mentioned Commodore, that made it legal.

[FabianJ]

Lower Half & Vents

Shocking, i'm actually making progress. There is a little change to the design, instead of using round tubing to hold the whole thing together i've had to use aluminium right angles since I relied on being able to weld the tubing together... but as luck would have it, there's no welder anywhere in sight. Perhaps the school needs more funding if they can't even afford one, but there we are...

... I personally think it'll look better with the angles anyway! And i'll save a lot of time not wasted getting angry over round surfaces to mark and cut straight and all that fun stuff.


http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/8250/image00035vh2.jpg
Front Panel mounted on first "leg"

http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/6294/image00034wm6.jpg
Side vents being cut out. Just drilling in and using a file, excellent, I have no idea what i'm doing!

They don't look terribly tidy on the photo, they're actually perfectly straight... unless the square is also rubbish =D

This is going to need a lot of polishing in the end though. Anyone know how i'll go about protecting the polished surfaces from damage or should I paint it? :?

[Enigma]

Wow, really love the design on this project.
Got to se this one being built, and if you finish it in time you most certainly gonna get an A grade for this.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Yay progress, keep it coming.

[Tavarin]

Great design, this'll look great.
Good luck

[FabianJ]

It STANDS (Kinda)

http://www.madfox.net/worklog/IMAGE_00042.jpg
Still have one more corner to stick on, you can see it in the foreground getting the screw holes drilled.

http://www.madfox.net/worklog/IMAGE_00044.jpg
3 out of 2 of the side vent slots cut out, damn these things are a pain to do...

http://www.madfox.net/worklog/IMAGE_00045.jpg
Test Fan mounted...

http://www.madfox.net/worklog/IMAGE_00047.jpg
Starting work on the bottom to the lower part of the case. Ventilation holes drilled in the center and the 4 screw holes for the feet.


Its taking shape, slowly but surely! I'm definitely going to have to paint this thing, its getting scratched way too much while i'm working on it. Also one major downside is the fact that I -stupidly- didn't factor in the few mm the bolts take up on the inside, so I can only fit a modded PSU inside.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Starting to come together. Fantastic work.