Project: Toxic Tower

[Diamon]

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8945/rgblowres.png

Changed name of the project to RGB Tower! Since it will have red, green and blue lights. EDIT: The blue lights broke ^^

Pics of the finished case:
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/6594/dsc00755t.jpg

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/4059/dsc00756u.jpg

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/51/dsc00757ll.jpg

http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/9760/dsc00758ak.jpg

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/4249/dsc00759tt.jpg






Potentiometer for controlling the fan speeds:
http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/6917/dsc00760zp.jpg




The buttons for the LEDs:
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/2162/dsc00761u.jpg

http://img13.imageshack.us/i/dsc00762rt.jpg/

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/968/dsc00765p.jpg

http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9867/dsc00766wb.jpg

http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/3434/dsc00767lr.jpg

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/3117/dsc00769g.jpg

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/8499/dsc00770r.jpg

http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/843/dsc00771t.jpg

http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/9158/dsc00772yf.jpg




Night pics:
http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/763/dsc00774pp.jpg

http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/8865/dsc00776ux.jpg

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3925/dsc00775v.jpg



Hello everyone!
I'm going to make a custom pc case. This will be my first modding project so we'll see how it turns out but i have high expectations. I've previously made a thread in the "Your mods" section where I've gotten some really helpful feedback and suggestions on the design and now I think the project is ready to be started, here's how I have it planned:
First a pic of the blueprints:
http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/4273/finalk.png

I guess most of it is self explanatory, the motherboard connections are facing the front, there's room for a cd/dvd reader as well as a memory card reader above it. The black box at the bottom is the PSU, the white blocks are the hdd's, the grey boxes are rads and the copper colored boxes are fans. The 4 fans at the back suck air out of the case, past the hdd's and through a radiator. The rest of the fans blow air into the case.
It will be made in clear plastic with some discrete aluminum strips along the bottom to hide led's and to keep it together.
The dimensions are 413x450x200.

As for the color scheme it will be purple led's along the bottom illuminating the inside of the case and the sides, hopefully all that plastic will act as a huge prism :). I'll add some toxic green led's to the fans and some red led's to the res and hopefully it will all look really "toxic" ^^.


I ordered the plastic yesterday, made the strips today and bought 2x second hand 120x2 rads. Pics will be uploaded when i get the stuff home :D

-Diamon

[x88x]

Good to see you starting work on this. :D

Looking at your updated design, I would recommend dropping one of the side-panel fans in the interest of leveling out airflow. The ideal airflow situation for any case is to have a pressure equilibrium, or the same amount of air flowing into the case as flowing out. This makes sure that air is constantly flowing over everything in the flow path. If you have more air going into the case than coming out, you have what we call 'positive pressure'. In this situation, air pockets can form in some areas of the case, and air will be pushed out any cracks it can find. If you have more air going out of the case than coming in, you have what we call 'negative pressure'. In this situation, air will be pulled in any cracks it can find, and you won't get as much airflow as you may have planned over components in your planned flow path.

...and, it just occurred to me that your PSU probably has a fan in it, which might make my whole speech there pointless. :P

[StormRider]

It's still a good explanation, so it's worth something.
I'm glad you are finally getting this started. neat idea. maybe you should get some toxic fan guards

[x88x]

Hmm, actually... I might be heading over to Microcenter later this week. Do you want me to check the $2 Bitspower bins for plexi biohazard grills? Here's a good example of them; I think they have them in 80mm and 120mm in a few different colors. Blue, green, and red if the website is to be trusted.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0295390

[StormRider]

you have that kind of job? lucky.
Anywho, if you do go over there, I might be interested in some acrylic fan grills. depends on what's available

On topic: maybe using red fan covers over your green fans might look kind of toxic.
or make your power/hdd activity LEDs red, kind of like a warning light

[x88x]

Actually my job has nothing to do with that...I just do it for fun. :P

It is a 30-50 minute drive, and I'm not over there regularly anymore, so unless you let me know something you'll concretely interested in, I won't pick it up, but let me put it this way; they have two bins, about 2'x2'x3', mostly full of acrylic fan grills of various sizes and designs, thumbscrews of various designs (in this (http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0295352) style), fan size adapters, sleeving kits in various colors, and wire wrap in various colors (the solid kind that kinda spirals around the wires), all $2 each, all bitspower. I think Microcenter is trying to get rid of a lot of their more esoteric stock, which is a shame really. :( It's been so nice having somewhere (semi)local that I could just go and pick up random stuff.

Let me know if either of you want me to pick anything up and I can ship it to you at cost.

[Diamon]

My psu does have a fan but thanks for the explanation anyway :)
I was originally thinking of using some metall minimalistic fan grills, kinda like these ones: http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0253059. But having some "toxic" fan grills might be really cool. And you can never get enough thumb screws, it'd be great if you could pick up some of those for me, about 10 should do nicely.

[x88x]

What size/color/quantity? And for the thumbscrews, I'm assuming you wanted the biohazard design, and 10 screws, not 10 sets (they come in sets of 4)?

[Luthien]

Toxic sounds fun. Can't wait to see more pics.

[Diamon]

Thanks for the offer x88x but I've taken a look at the local computer shops and they seem to have pretty much everything I need, it's a bit more expensive but the shipping from the US isn't cheap either. The only thing I haven't been able to find here is 120mm radiation fan grills: http://www.ipcs.be/IPCS/images/rm038_b.jpg. If you find 5 of those in the 120mm version in metal or plastic, color won't matter since I'll probably paint them black anyway. It would be really great if you could pick them up for me :). It would look really nice to have a green light glowing out of those.

P.S. If you do manage to find 5 radiation fan grills could you please pick up a 10-pack of these for me as well? http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0260736

[x88x]

Sure, if I do get over there I'll take a look. I still haven't decided if I'm going to be picking up a monitor on Friday or not.. I checked online, and a small flat-rate box can go to Sweden for ~13USD, so as long as it's a decent amount of stuff, it'll still be cheaper (since those acrylic ones normally retail for what, 6-8USD?).

[Diamon]

Sounds great, and FYI the poke-protector metallic grills only cost about 3 bucks here ^^

[x88x]

Oh, yeah, the basic metal grills are nice and cheap, I was referring to the laser-cut acrylic ones.

[Diamon]

Fair enough ^^
OK, so here's a shopping list:
5x 120mm radiation fan grills
a 10-pack, or 3 4-packs or whatever to keep it close but above 10, just go for whatever you find, of regular black thumb screws.

If you do go there, thanks in advance.

[Diamon]

OK I picked up all my plastic today and the aluminum strips I'll use to, hopefully, keep it together are done as well, here's a few pics for you:

The strips for the short side, they're really glossy!
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/5233/img0781g.jpg

And for the long side:
http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/5554/img0782b.jpg

And finally all my plastic for the case (the green is only a film to protect if from damage):
http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/690/img0783e.jpg

[x88x]

Fun! Yay for raw materials. :D

[StormRider]

gotta love playing with pieces of plexi/metal/plastic/whatever

[Diamon]

Started to cut the holes for the fans today.

Here's what I'm using to actually cut the holes:
http://img514.imageshack.us/img514/3203/dsc00659bi.jpg

Had to lower the RPM a bit, unfortunately the drill has one of those old gear systems so it took 15 minutes or so:
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/2462/dsc00660ss.jpg

Here's some test cutting on a sheet of plywood:
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/8854/dsc00661cp.jpg

It produced a very nice, smooth, round hole:
http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/4556/dsc00662ji.jpg


Might update again later today with some holes in my precious acrylic 8)

[x88x]

Looks good. I've never used one of those adjustable hole bits before. Looks like it's working pretty well for you.

[Diamon]

The drill bit works surprisingly well.

Here's another update with all of the fan holes cut out!

First measuring out where the holes should be:
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/994/dsc00668s.jpg

The first incision:
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/4262/dsc00669dk.jpg

Turned out pretty good:
http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/4113/dsc00670ea.jpg

The rest of the holes
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/8426/dsc00672u.jpg

..and now: Frisbee time!
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/6867/dsc00675mb.jpg

Will probably cut out the hole for the PSU and such tomorrow ;)

[StormRider]

lol, maybe those can be super-sized case feet

[Diamon]

lol, maybe those can be super-sized case feet

That's actually not a bad idea, but maybe i should make them a bit smaller so they can become regular sized case feet ^^.

[Diamon]

Hello everyone. Sorry for not updating for a while, been kinda busy and having some problems with the hole for the PSU. I'll give you an update on that when it's ready. Now for some fun stuff: At my school workshop they had a pile of old computer things so I went there to have a look. Here's my loot:

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/3051/dsc00682q.jpg

I even found a working regulated power supply!

[StormRider]

lucky. my school doesn't let me have any of the broken computer stuff

[Diamon]

lucky. my school doesn't let me have any of the broken computer stuff

Why not? I mean if no-one else is gonna use it why not let it be put to some use?

[StormRider]

they return it to the district, I think. I'll ask again. I need some monitors to mod
I look foreward to seeing the case for that PSU, if you make one

[Luthien]

I don't know how they deal with old and/or broken computers in your school district, but the community college in my town auctions the stuff off. You can get a lot of stuff for a pretty low price. Some things are fixable and other things are just spare parts. You could ask your school what they do with the old computers. Maybe if they won't give them away they'd at least sell them for cheap.

[Diamon]

they return it to the district, I think. I'll ask again. I need some monitors to mod
I look foreward to seeing the case for that PSU, if you make one

Wasn't planning on making a case for it right now but maybe as a future project. I also got a ~100 bucks tool box when we were cleaning the school workshop before the summer break (they had two left over from something). Seems like my school is very generous ^^.

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/2981/dsc00690n.jpg

Maybe this will be a future project as well.


Now an update on the toxic tower. Decided to remake the backside since I wasn't happy with it so I went to buy some new plastic. Also bought some acrylic weld-on for "gluing" the sides together. Bought case fans, Fractal design 1000 rpm 15 dcb 120mm fans. Will place an order on LEDs, cables etc this weekend. Also continued working on the front side, cut out the hole for the CD/DVD reader and for the USB 2.0 ports.

[Diamon]

OK, my first picture update in a while:

The front is almost finished:
http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/4963/img0797j.jpg

Here it is with the USB-ports and the fans in place:
http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/8079/img0798w.jpg

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/6906/img0799v.jpg

[x88x]

Nice progress on this. If you take some 1000+ grit sandpaper (and later polishing compound) to those edges you can get them nice and shiny.

[diluzio91]

that back panel is coming together nicely... Im not a big fan of working with plexi, (too clumsy) but this is looking good!

[StormRider]

some polishing is definitely in order(makes it look way cooler)

[Diamon]

@x88x and StormRider:
Yeah, I'll definitely need to polish the edges a bit, they're smoother then they look in the picture though since the protective film is making them look all ragged. Especially since I'll be using acrylic cement (the stuff that melts plastic together).

@diluzio91:
Thanks, even though this will be the front panel ^^. Want to have all my connections on one side.

[Diamon]

Update time!
I recieved my fan grills today, thanks to x88x for picking them up for me:
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/3461/dsc00693xs.jpg

Now, I have a problem. I'm not really happy with how the PSU-hole turned out, do anyone of you have any ideas on how to make it simpler?

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/9036/dsc00695pi.jpg

And a picture of it with an old PSU in it so you can see how it looks:
http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/5364/dsc00696lw.jpg

[StormRider]

so that's what uv fan grills look like in the package. x88x, I may have some orders for you in the future :D
the case looks like its coming along nicely

[blaze15301]

hmm i cant wait to see how this whole thing turns out. good luck

[Luthien]

I like those fan grills. They're gonna look great.

[Diamon]

Thanks, and the fan grills DO look really nice. Even better then how I thought they would look :)

[Diamon]

OK, first update in forever:

I decided to drill the LEDs into the fan frame and have them light up into sort of an x:
http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/8389/dsc00722y.jpg

Soldering the LEDs and wires:
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/6541/dsc00730xx.jpg

http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/6840/dsc00732k.jpg

Wire management ^^:
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7743/dsc00744bn.jpg

And the final product:
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/2407/dsc00733g.jpg

[Diamon]

Continuing on the last post:

After drilling the red LEDs into the frame of the case I had a few hours of soldering and gluing to do:
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/5825/dsc00734uz.jpg

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/3161/dsc00735ze.jpg

The buttons for the LEDs (yes that's a crack at the top of the image T_T)
http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/3562/dsc00739zn.jpg

[Diamon]

The case if officially finished! Check the first page for some pics of it.

I know this worklog hasn't been very good, I uploaded most of the pics after the case was finished.

[Waynio]

Nice first scratch build Diamon :up:, those hole cutters are awesome eh, found it much more stable than a hole saw :D. +rep

[Diamon]

Thanks ^^

And yeah, that hole cutter worked really well.