MrMonroe
12-24-2007, 03:26 PM
So, I finished a "quick" sketchup model and I put a copy on picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/pkposter/ConceptWork/photo#5147229583839807458) to share/get comments. (only took me two hours or so) It's nice to see how things really stack up next to each other, my hand drawings had the mobo about 12" wide (normal ATX) and 15-16" long, (definitely not normal) so I had to get a little more creative in terms of where things go and the actual scale. I think I will probably work out a way of pushing it all the way to the back of the case again, but
Original concepts:
I wanted to do something really unique, but I didn't want that to mean just slapping a Dragnet theme over the front of a regular old tower. I've seen motherboards upside down, flat on their backs, "rightside" up, but none of those configurations appealed to me and all have been in their own way kinda difficult to work with. My priorities were originality, ease of use, and obviously, style. I figured, 'how do you hold any other flat object while you're looking at it or working on it?' Obviously, with a book, cell phone, notepad, pretty much anything, you hold it on an incline facing you, so that's what I did with the motherboard.
I had been inspired to try out some watercooling, so that odd grouping of shapes in the back is a 360mm radiator with six fans, three on each side. The pump will probably go just on top of the radiator and under the plane on which the motherboard sits. In the front of the case (and I haven't sized these objects accurately yet) is a pair of HDDs, the PSU, and an optical drive on an incline facing towards the ground in front of the machine. You can see the mobo and my 8800GT (the mobo is to scale, the GT is not) pretty clearly in the middle of the unit.
Here's where the "ease of use" thing comes in: The top part of the case will be on a hinge at the very back of the case and will rotate away from the base assembly. I'm thinking of putting a couple of screen-door hydraulic pistons on either side connecting the base with the top component I'm just going to grease a pair of washers to create the hinge. The top assembly has six 120mm fans, three in the front and three in the back. (another reason I wanted to push the mobo forward despite the difficulty with cords-better airflow from the front fans) You can probably recognize the three windows in the top assembly, even if I couldn't get a lot of the irregular faces to fill in. Sketchup was also nice in that I could make a group of the top assembly and then rotate it exactly the way I want it to in real life. Turns out that without any serious modification, the top plate will rotate up to about waist height if it's set on the floor.
I'm thinking of going with a mottled green and black kinda theme for most of the case, and I'll probably accent the side windows with some green and black stencils of jungle plants/animals and maybe one lone guy with a gun on one side. Jaguar on one side, man on the other, maybe? All those stencils would be at the bottom of the windows so they don't block the view of the guts. The top window will be clear with maybe an extremely light green spray from the inside of the acrylic, (or whatever I use) to cloud it a tiny bit.
Comments/Suggestions welcome. I'm not really happy with the size of the thing, I think I could tighten it up a bit for a better overall effect. The one thing I don't like about a lot of custom cases I've seen is how fargen' ginormous they are. I don't want two full towers stapled together, I want something nice and compact. I will probably push the mobo back to the rear of the PC, render the pump so I know how much space I need for it/tubing, and try to shorten the case longwise and heightwise. I might have to sacrifice the rear fans in order to do that, but we'll see.
Original concepts:
I wanted to do something really unique, but I didn't want that to mean just slapping a Dragnet theme over the front of a regular old tower. I've seen motherboards upside down, flat on their backs, "rightside" up, but none of those configurations appealed to me and all have been in their own way kinda difficult to work with. My priorities were originality, ease of use, and obviously, style. I figured, 'how do you hold any other flat object while you're looking at it or working on it?' Obviously, with a book, cell phone, notepad, pretty much anything, you hold it on an incline facing you, so that's what I did with the motherboard.
I had been inspired to try out some watercooling, so that odd grouping of shapes in the back is a 360mm radiator with six fans, three on each side. The pump will probably go just on top of the radiator and under the plane on which the motherboard sits. In the front of the case (and I haven't sized these objects accurately yet) is a pair of HDDs, the PSU, and an optical drive on an incline facing towards the ground in front of the machine. You can see the mobo and my 8800GT (the mobo is to scale, the GT is not) pretty clearly in the middle of the unit.
Here's where the "ease of use" thing comes in: The top part of the case will be on a hinge at the very back of the case and will rotate away from the base assembly. I'm thinking of putting a couple of screen-door hydraulic pistons on either side connecting the base with the top component I'm just going to grease a pair of washers to create the hinge. The top assembly has six 120mm fans, three in the front and three in the back. (another reason I wanted to push the mobo forward despite the difficulty with cords-better airflow from the front fans) You can probably recognize the three windows in the top assembly, even if I couldn't get a lot of the irregular faces to fill in. Sketchup was also nice in that I could make a group of the top assembly and then rotate it exactly the way I want it to in real life. Turns out that without any serious modification, the top plate will rotate up to about waist height if it's set on the floor.
I'm thinking of going with a mottled green and black kinda theme for most of the case, and I'll probably accent the side windows with some green and black stencils of jungle plants/animals and maybe one lone guy with a gun on one side. Jaguar on one side, man on the other, maybe? All those stencils would be at the bottom of the windows so they don't block the view of the guts. The top window will be clear with maybe an extremely light green spray from the inside of the acrylic, (or whatever I use) to cloud it a tiny bit.
Comments/Suggestions welcome. I'm not really happy with the size of the thing, I think I could tighten it up a bit for a better overall effect. The one thing I don't like about a lot of custom cases I've seen is how fargen' ginormous they are. I don't want two full towers stapled together, I want something nice and compact. I will probably push the mobo back to the rear of the PC, render the pump so I know how much space I need for it/tubing, and try to shorten the case longwise and heightwise. I might have to sacrifice the rear fans in order to do that, but we'll see.