Custom case made from old elevator parts.

[ElevateThis]

Hello all, i have been doing some research into case modding communities to join and TBCS looks like the best to me. I have been into gaming pc's for almost a decade but i have never done much in the way of case mods (other than adding fans ect.). I was at work a couple weeks ago and i got some inspiration from a 30 year old elevator that we are tearing out.

The elevator controller (the brains) is a cabinet that stands about 7 feet tall, and is full of old pcbs and relays. This controller has these big drawers that hold racks of circuit boards. These drawers ride on these really heavy duty slides that allow the entire drawer to tilt into 5 different locked positions. As i was troubleshooting one of these elevators i could not help but think of how cool it would be to have a computer case that held the MoBo in one of these drawers so it could just be slid open and tilted for easy access.

The drawers have a grill on the face, as well as several 7-segment lcd displays and a bunch of other led's and toggle switches. I may try and repaint and use the faces, or i may have some pieces made that are similar but cleaned up with some of the unnecessary holes removed.

My plan is to take 2 of the drawers (once we begin the tear-out of the next elevator) and build a shell for them to be mounted to. I want the top drawer to be for the MoBo and hdds, and the bottom drawer for psu's, water pump, radiator and other misc stuff.

Obviously it is a unorthodox design with several inherent issues that are going to have to be engineered around. Mainly i am going to have to come up with a way to make all the wires and hoses running from one drawer to the other long enough and routed well enough so that the drawers can be freely moved without stressing them. I would also like to make a stationary I/O panel that was mounted on the back of the case and had loops of wire running to the mobo so it could be pulled out while all my cables coming into the I/O panel would remain stationary.

My ideal end outcome will have a retro and almost military look to it, with lights and simple lcd displays showing temperature info and big toggle switches to control case lights ect.

I would love to hear some ideas and suggestions on this build, i will get some pictures up of the drawers in the next couple of weeks (i am temporarily removed from that building) so you can see what i am talking about. I am going to need some help from the more experienced members on a number of things, namely the I/o panel, exact component selection and placement, wiring and plumbing (i have zero experience with liquid cooling).

Thanks for reading this wall of text, Please help me make this happen!

[Fuganater]

I don't really have any suggestions yet but his will be an epic build if you pull it off.

[xr4man]

this sounds cool. i'll be keeping an eye out for a work log.

oh yeah, welcome to tbcs too.

[mDust]

Welcome to TBCS,

This will be epic indeed. I'm having trouble picturing what the tilting slides look like and their configuration, but pics will clear that up when you're able to get them.
For your rear I/O, I think the easiest way to do it would just be to run some M/F cables from the mobo to wherever you want the panel. The collection of female ends would be the panel.
This build hasn't even started and I already like where it's going!:D

[ElevateThis]

Thanks for the encouragement, i can already tell i joined the right community.

It's funny that the term "epic" came up because the particular vintage of elevator controls that i am getting the parts from is called "EPOCH-1" and most of the guys pronounce it as "epic 1". So i think from now on i will refer to the project as "EPOCH-1", i just hope i can make the case mod a bit more epic than the terrible elevator controls that it's named after.

As for using the M/F cables, i had that idea as well, but i can't picture how i am going to secure them to the case, i wish i could find female ends that were designed to be flush mounted on cases.

I will try to swing by the job and pic up one of the drawers tomorrow, the one that has already been torn out is missing some of the pieces, but it serve as a mock up so i can start making some drawings. Hopefully i'll have the complete doner units in less than a month.

EDIT: has anyone seen a case mod that used drawer(s) before?

[ElevateThis]

Just found these: http://www.datapro.net/catalog/panel-mount-cables.html should work nicely.

[mDust]

Two hurdles down: the project has a name, and the rear panel is sorted out.

I've seen drawer slides used for various things, but not actual drawers.

[xr4man]

let me know if you need help finding any cables. i'm pretty good at locating electronic componentry.

[ElevateThis]

Ok, so i was able to swing by the building and grab some pics (sorry for the quality, they were taken with my scratched up phone camera):

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/6412/img20110708145143.jpg

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/7904/img20110708145118.jpg

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/6522/img20110708145108.jpg

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4174/img20110708145056.jpg

Just image the 2 drawers from the second picture, cut down to be a little shorter, painted a VERY low gloss black with a orange glow coming out of the vent holes.

As you can see in the 3rd picture, you pull the "y" handle and then you can rotate the drawer to a new position.
I would be moving this from the ideas section to the work logs tomorrow if i could steal thiese parts. But alas, i have to wait a few weeks.

The top picture is a removable panel that covers some of the relays on the lower end of the controler. Just like the drawers, if you push the buttons on the tops of the black handles it releases and can be removed. I am thinking of making the side panels come off in a similar fashion.

I am thinking of replacing the big bank of square LEDs on the front of the drawer with a fan controller, or i might make a plate that fits inside of the hole and mount some toggle switches. I need to really plan this all out, i REALLY wish i had the drawers now.

[x88x]

Sounds like some awesome ideas! Just don't let it go the way of Top Gear's projects ("Ambitious...but Rubbish"). ;)

What I think would be really awesome for the front panel is to work with the existing LEDs and have them display the various data you want. Have the front nearly indistinguishable from the original. :D

Either way, I think this is going to turn out pretty sweet. Good luck and welcome to TBCS!

[ElevateThis]

Sounds like some awesome ideas! Just don't let it go the way of Top Gear's projects ("Ambitious...but Rubbish"). ;)

What I think would be really awesome for the front panel is to work with the existing LEDs and have them display the various data you want. Have the front nearly indistinguishable from the original. :D

Either way, I think this is going to turn out pretty sweet. Good luck and welcome to TBCS!

I would love to be able to pull that off, but the necessary circuitry to make a modern motherboard talk to that old insanely complicated 125V DC stuff is a bit beyond my talents. Those square LEDs are all mounted to a big board that is driven by a maze of rainbow ribbon cables.

[ElevateThis]

So I've been making some mock-ups with Google SketchUp, i have a couple questions that i could use some more experienced brains on.

1. How important is it to have the back of my PSU exposed to outside air? I understand that if it's not it will just dump hot air inside my case, but if i am liquid cooling everything, does that matter?

2. will a three 120mm radiator be sufficient to cool a i7 and 2 x GTX560 ti's? I don't plan on extremely overclocking them, and the radiator will have good air flow when they are overclocked. (pulling the bottom drawer out 5 inches will completely expose both sides of the rad to outside air).

3. maybe i should ask this in the water cooling section, but here goes. Are variable speed pumps worth the extra cost? My impression is that the only benefit is that you can slow them to reduce the noise.

4. Why didn't anyone tell me how awesome Google SketchUp was????

[TheMainMan]

I can't answer 2 and 3 as I have no experience with watercooling but 1 will depend on how good the airflow through your case is as even watercooled computers need airflow to prevent hotspots on the motherboard. As for 4, you didn't ask 8). It's pretty awesome and there are some great sources of computer part models in the warehouse and a few sites online.

[ElevateThis]

I can't answer 2 and 3 as I have no experience with watercooling but 1 will depend on how good the airflow through your case is as even watercooled computers need airflow to prevent hotspots on the motherboard. As for 4, you didn't ask 8). It's pretty awesome and there are some great sources of computer part models in the warehouse and a few sites online.

I love that I can just draw a circle and a path and extrude to see what my hose routing will look like,it's magic.

[Fuganater]

So I've been making some mock-ups with Google SketchUp, i have a couple questions that i could use some more experienced brains on.

1. How important is it to have the back of my PSU exposed to outside air? I understand that if it's not it will just dump hot air inside my case, but if i am liquid cooling everything, does that matter?

2. will a three 120mm radiator be sufficient to cool a i7 and 2 x GTX560 ti's? I don't plan on extremely overclocking them, and the radiator will have good air flow when they are overclocked. (pulling the bottom drawer out 5 inches will completely expose both sides of the rad to outside air).

3. maybe i should ask this in the water cooling section, but here goes. Are variable speed pumps worth the extra cost? My impression is that the only benefit is that you can slow them to reduce the noise.

4. Why didn't anyone tell me how awesome Google SketchUp was????

1. It gets pretty hot... I would say pretty important if you only have 3 fans in your case.

2. Not sure... I run a 2600K and 2x 560 Ti's and they get pretty warm even with my WC setup. Idle they are only at like 28C but folding they get up to they low 50'sC. Air cooling they were at almost 70C. My CPU idles at like 32C and folding hits 53-57C. I'm running 3x 200mm fans, 1x 140 and a dual 140mm rad. GPU's have the DD full block and the CPU is using a XSPC Rasa block.

3. No. Buy a single speed because they are not that loud at all. All of what I said in #2 is quieter than my wifes PC running 3x crappy 140mm fans.

4. Indeed it is awesome.

Hope this helps you some.

[mDust]

1) Having your PSU venting inside the case won't hurt anything, but all temps will be quite a bit higher. You'll need extra case fans bringing fresh air in and exhausting all the much hotter air. Generally, you want the exhaust fans toward the top, since heat rises, and intake fans towards the bottom so air moves through the entire case. If you allow the PSU to dump heat into the case without adequate airflow, you'll just create an oven...which is only bad until the temp reaches cookie baking temperatures! Once it gets too high for cookies it becomes bad again.

2) If you plan on OC'ing all 3 then even with excellent airflow a single 360 rad will not be enough to maintain decent temps. The 2600K will be happy at <70C under full load when OC'd. Aim for 50-60C max though. It will throttle down at 90C, and dies at 100+C. GPUs are a completely different animal. They don't mind 90C at all...keeping them below 60-70C is a good idea but isn't necessary. The problem is the 2 GPUs will be dumping a lot more heat into your loop than the CPU (in 3D mode, 2D will not be a problem). Which leads to higher water temps, which leads to a higher CPU temp. OC'ing will exacerbate this.

3) True, the only benefit of an adjustable pump is noise reduction. Running the water faster does not have any effect on temps. Some pumps are noisier than others, just like case fans. If you're sensitive to noise get the adjustable, otherwise, it does not make a difference.

4) We didn't think you were ready for sketchup yet. Also, we, as a community, very much enjoy saying mean things like 'why didn't you just use sketchup, noob!?!'...especially after something major goes wrong during the build.

[Fuganater]

2) If you plan on OC'ing all 3 then even with excellent airflow a single 360 rad will not be enough to maintain decent temps. The 2600K will be happy at <70C under full load when OC'd. Aim for 50-60C max though. It will throttle down at 90C, and dies at 100+C. GPUs are a completely different animal. They don't mind 90C at all...keeping them below 60-70C is a good idea but isn't necessary. The problem is the 2 GPUs will be dumping a lot more heat into your loop than the CPU (in 3D mode, 2D will not be a problem). Which leads to higher water temps, which leads to a higher CPU temp. OC'ing will exacerbate this.

I'm only using a 280 Phobya Rad and temps are great... I OC my 2600K to 4.8~4.9 and both 560 Ti's to 990Mhz. If your doing some EXTREME OCing then thats a diff story but you cant go much high that what I'm at and still be stable.

Is a 360 rad worse than a 280?

[mDust]

I'm only using a 280 Phobya Rad and temps are great... I OC my 2600K to 4.8~4.9 and both 560 Ti's to 990Mhz. If your doing some EXTREME OCing then thats a diff story but you cant go much high that what I'm at and still be stable.

Is a 360 rad worse than a 280?

It depends on a lot of variables, but I would say that generally a 280 would be better than a 360. The 360 would have about 4 sq cm more fin area but it would be negated by the dead space under the extra fan. Also, higher speed 120mm fans would be required to match the airflow of 2 lower speed 140s. If the system is in a fully a/c'd room, you can get away with less radiator. If it's not, I'd definitely get more.
I had a 240 and 120 rad in my last loop and got only acceptable temps with a q6600 (4-4.1ghz) and HD2900 (mildly OC'd, forgot what exactly). I had to get some 180cfm Deltas to OC either any higher. We really can't say that the observed results from my hardware will absolutely apply to anyone else, especially with different hardware, but it can still be taken into consideration.

[ElevateThis]

Alright, thats a lot of info to take into consideration, I'll post my sketchups in a couple days if i get some time. I think i may have thought of a solution to my psu placement problems. Thanks for your time gents.

[ElevateThis]

Ok, here is a few pics of what i have sketched up so far.

I can tell you that the wrong way to use sketchup is to draw what looks like your model with no actual dimensions, then try to re size it to scale later.....

Mind that these are a bit rough, i will be butchering more holes in the drawers for cables and hoses and airflow (oh my!). The overall dimensions are to scale tho, so i am almost ready to start modeling the outside around these drawers. It's hard right now tho since i don't have them in person, i have to go to the building and take down measurements then come home, and i always seem to miss something critical.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/1281/sketchupcase1.jpg

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/7093/sketchupcase2.jpg

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/269/sketchupcase3.jpg