Project: ??? (Need a name still ..)

[Saiboogu]

Hey gang - just recently joined up surfing for some ideas, thought I'd post up my project.

The beginning - Yeong Yang YY-0221B Cube Server Case - I've had this thing for years. At first I wanted to give it a nice high-gloss paint job and leave it fairly stock, then I had some plans to chop it up with a big (half a cubic foot or so) reservoir up front for water cooling .. But mostly it just sat around and collected dust. I put my girlfriend's PC in it for awhile when I had no other case available, then I retired it to the garage. Finally got some motivation and ideas, so here we go.

If you want to see the beginning - check the ModTheBox review. Better pics and details than the manufacturer, and I don't have any nice "new" pics of mine: http://www.modthebox.com/review241_1.shtml

All the pics can be clicked for a bigger version.
http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/107-4/Case+001.jpg (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/Case+001.jpg.html)

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/113-4/Case+002.jpg (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/Case+002.jpg.html)
Tape measure is in a lot of these pics because I sketch out ideas at work and need some way to approximate measurements.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/116-4/Case+003.jpg (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/Case+003.jpg.html)
Plastic door was broken in storage, and I never liked the front panel anyway. I'm going to float a panel of steel (with windows) or plexi in front of the PC on standoffs - measuring the depth here to figure out where to mount it.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/119-4/Case+004.jpg (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/Case+004.jpg.html)
Front fan grill - not big enough for my plans. :)

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/122-4/Case+008.jpg (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/Case+008.jpg.html)
Not enough room here either - card keeper and a chunk of the mobo tray need to go.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/125-3/Case+011.jpg (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/Case+011.jpg.html)
PSU bottom mounts. The grill above is for a pair of HDDs (there's another grill above that). The case comes with drive cages that bolt on in front of the grills.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/131-4/Case+016.jpg (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/Case+016.jpg.html)
Side vent - haven't decided what to do with this yet (other than duct behind it to the CPU fan) - need to pick a grill and cut it out.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/143-4/DSCF6586.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6586.JPG.html)
Here's the beastie I'm putting up front. Big fan - 240CFM. I'm going to block up every unused opening in the case, position the HDD in front of one vent, duct the CPU HSF to the side vent, and see if I can cool the entire case with this fan.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/134-3/DSCF6572.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6572.JPG.html)
Beginning to cut out the front, ditched the stock grill first. Also stripped the paint with a flap wheel on my angle grinder.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/137-3/DSCF6580.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6580.JPG.html)
Side panel. Lots of swirl marks. I'm sticking to bare metal (more on that later..), but I don't know if I'm satisfied with the swirls, or if I should go for brushed, or just a more even swirl pattern ... Ideas?

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/146-3/DSCF6590.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6590.JPG.html)

Test assembly for the front. The circle I was cutting for the fan came so close to the drive bays that it was getting a little flimsy. I liked this look better. The mesh on the right will be blocked by plexiglass behind so the air is forced out over the CPU or HDD.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/158-4/DSCF6599.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6599.JPG.html)
The beast looks pretty good back there. :)

About the finish - The look I'm going for is a piece of high tech machinery that's been used & abused, but kept operational, for decades. Imagine one of your mods from today, still purring along in 50 years. I plan on aging the metal - inducing some rust. I may try this reverse electrolysis process: http://www.rustyiron.com/engines/electrolysis/index.html

I've also been looking at chemicals like the Modern Masters Metal Effects line - has anyone used their activators on bare metal - skip the metal paint step?

Anyway, work in progress - Comments and ideas welcome. I should have some more progress soon.

[AMD_TaT3rs]

i thinking, "project cubed". just throwing it out there.

[Saiboogu]

Thanks TaT3rs - I'll think about it.

Update - did some more work last night.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/177-2/DSCF6602.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6602.JPG.html)
Blocked off (cardboard and tape, gotta love it) all the spots that will be sealed in the final case and fired up the fan. Not as impressive in a still, but the air flow is good. There's a video (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6601.AVI.html) too, only plays (for me at least) in IE.

Fan is noisier than I expected at 24v. It could be mounted better (more rubber dampers) and I plan to have a face plate in front of it that should muffle some sound, but I'm also going to see what the airflow is like at 12v because I already know the fan is nearly silent at that voltage.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/183-2/DSCF6606.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6606.JPG.html)
Cutting a new part ... Made a cardboard template, taped it on an old case panel. Hole saw to remove some material first, then jigsaw ...
http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/186-2/DSCF6607.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6607.JPG.html)
Not too bad. Need to square it a bit, clean up the edges.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/162-2/DSCF6610.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6610.JPG.html)
Hole saw was more trouble than it was worth for the last hole, using the drill to get started on this opening.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/165-2/DSCF6611.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6611.JPG.html)
Anyone else see the problem here? :) I don't think I really needed all those holes, and I didn't realize until I was cutting that they were a lot further in from the edge than I liked. Just used them to get started.

http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/d/171-2/DSCF6614.JPG (http://www.saiboogu.com/photos/v/Tech/CaseMod/DSCF6614.JPG.html)
After cutting it out. Still need to clean up edges and strip the paint, but you get the general idea. This also gives me more spots to bolt down the fan, two of it's screw holes hit mesh instead of case before this face plate.

Next up is figuring out how I want to make the front panel (all plexi, steel with a plexi window?) and designing my remote mount control panel (power, reset, etc in a box that will sit on my desk.)

[Scotty]

Looks like a nice start. As for a name it will come to you eventually, they always do.

And Welcome to TBCS :D

[poisonreap]

Great job, it's coming together nicely.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I like cube cases, it will be good to see how this turns out.

Subscribed

[Saiboogu]

Thanks for watching it. May stall here and there while I wait for finances, but I'm trying to work with scrap and available parts as much as I can. Got a few more beige box donor cases for sheet metal. :)

Any William Gibson fans out there? Thinking I like the name "Wintermute." No real connection other than I envision the system while reading some scifi novels, and Gibson deserves some tribute for his work.

[DZ469]

Project "Huge fan" maybe? also you should buy like 4 of those fans
and make the whole front one big fan. that would be cool (no pun intended)

[poisonreap]

How bout Omni, after the fictional time travel device...

[Luke122]

Paint it up like a rubik's cube!

hehe.. that would own.

[DZ469]

Paint it up like a rubik's cube!

Hey, no fair, I was going to do a rubik's cube case!!! :(
just kidding. That would be really sweet. Of course the one i was drawing
up would be plexi but hey, the more cubes, the merrier. Go for it if you want.