PROJECT: The Cube (101)

Hi,
Welcome to my first mod project! As I am climbing a steep learning curve this project will undoubtedly change over time. However in the meantime I have modified this message to list the material and tools I have been useing as I believe this will be very useful.

Description
This is an aluminium case made into a cube shape with the rough dimensions of 270x270x270mm.

Please note this list is ever growing!!

Case Material
1 x 900 x 900mm sheet of aluminium
4 x 1400mm x 12mm x12mm L shaped angle bars
1 x 1000mm x 10mm U shaped bar
4 x Soft rubber feet (from Antec 3480 case)
1 x motherboard tray (from Antec 3480 case)
1 x back panel (from Antec 3480 case)
1 x Front port usb and audio connectors (from Antec 3480 case)
1 x Box of 100 Rivets
1 x Hard Drive Holder

Case Items
1 x Pioneer Slim DVD Drive
1 x 120mm 3 speed fan (from Antec 3480 case)
1 x 380watt Antec power supply (from Antec 3480 case)
2 x Red/Black Sata data cables
1 x Motherboard (ASUS P5KPL-CM)
1 x Intel Dual Core E5200
1 x DDR800 2gig Kingston

Still To Get
* Switches (undecided)
* Hard drive (I have a few laying about just not picked it out yet)
* LED's (I have purchesed RGB LED's but may just use Red Led's).

Tools Used
* Jig Saw (used a fair bit)
* Hack Saw (used a fair bit)
* Files (used a fair bit)
* Drill (used a fair bit)

The case will fit the micro-ATX format motherboard. The power supply and hard drive bay will also be standard size; however I will be installing a slimline notebook dvd burner as there is NO chance of fitting a full size one in there nicely.

The front of the case will have 2 x USB, firewire and a mic/speaker port. There will also be a 120mm fan taking in air. I was hoping to put a 120mm fan at the back however I can't fit it in so I'm rekuctantly settling for a 80mm. The red line you can see going around the case is in actual fact a 1cm groove.

As I'm going up a steep learning curve this project could change quite significantly along the way possibly involving things such as anodizing, back lighting and penguins. But I guess we will have to wait and see!

Chapter 1:

Logically, on paper, I could get my head around the design pretty well. Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how the back panel and motherboard tray was going to fit into the picture and how it would restrict me in terms of space within the computer.

I found 3 old computers but they were all pretty much useless for scrapping parts off of so I looked into purchasing a motherboard tray for my project. Forums suggested a lan-li one however getting it locally was pretty much impossible and it was going to cost me a bit anyway which is when I spotted the Antec 3480 case.

This case isn't too bad looking and could look quite sexy with a touch of modding however my heart (ok mainly my head) was set on building my own so I went and bought it.

This wasn't just a willy-nilly buy! I did infact research into the case to see what exactly I could get out of it and try to get my moneys worth.

Overall I was pretty pleased with my haul which includes:

• 1 x 380w Power Supply
• 1 x Back Plate
• 1 x Motherboard tray
• 3 x Good quality reusable ties
• 2 x Hard drive mounts
• 1 x 120mm, 3 speed fan
• 4 x low profile soft rubber feet
• 1 x CPU air-intake (not usable for this project)
• 1 x Power and hard drive lights
• 1 x 120mm fan grill
• 2 x 80mm fan grills

The case was very easy to dismantle, the only disapointing fact was that the front panel consists of 4 different layers!!! With the switches and lights all on different layers and were all pretty much glued in making the switches themselves non usable for my case! Ohwell.

One plesant supprise is that while the motherboard tray was riveted in. It can easily be modified and made into a removable tray which is not what I originally intended or thought I would be able to easily do.

This is half my bits and pieces taken care of!

Chapter 2:

I currently live in a small 2 bedroom unit. Luckally there are carports dividing all the units which means I can make a bit more noise than if I lived in attached apartments. I did start off using a jigsaw but I found doing it with a hack saw to be quieter and easier! This workbench is brilliant and I got it half price too!! WOOWOO!

Mum's look away NOW!!

I've started on the all important frame. At the moment it is stuck together with double sided tape and I still need to file them down exactly to size. I can then drill out some holes and screw it all together (it will eventually be riveted).

After this is done then I'll be working on how to implement the removable motherboard tray. While for obvious reasons it's not going to be fixed, I need to know exactly where this is going to sit so I can start doing the back panel.

cool... this is gunna be sweet i hope... loving the design

I told ya I would check out ya mod ;). I really love the design, very original and unusual. I can't wait to see how this turns out. +rep

*EDIT*
After some thought I think it would look best, everyone does black and red, why not white and red. Great contrast and IMO the cube would look better white.

yea i agree but its already painted

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DonT-FeaR

yea i agree but its already painted

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Already painted???

Really great idea for a build. I'm looking forward to seeing this one. I think it would look better white and red but if it's already painted that's a lot of extra work.

lol?? i was thinking bout the renders :) i really am a giddy goat... lol it crowd ftw

Chapter 3: The big booboo!

First of all thanks for the comments :) Very much appreciated! I also agree, the white case would look great infact probably better! My original design was actually white, the only thing is that I have a scanner, printer, monitor, wacom tablet, external hard drive keyboard and mouse that are all black/grey and I don't really want to "mod" all them. The only thing white actually is my Boston Acoustic speakers... and well they are more that offwhite bone colour.

Now... onto my stuffup!

Basically when working out what dimensions to cut the rods for the frame I took into account the thickness of the aluminium which added upto 6mm on each side.

Being my first mod, I erred onto the side of caution and only deducted 2mm thinking I could always file down the extra 4. (that was a week ago)

Today before drilling the holes I re-checked the dimensions with the ones I wrote down and they were bang on! YAY! So I drilled all the holes and put it together with screws... not so perfect but good enough. I then unscrewed it all and riveted everything together.

I then went to add the U shaped groove onto the front of the frame however it was 4mm too short! I then realised that the dimensions I double checked everything with were my "err on the side of caution" measurements and not the proper lengths that they should have been resulting in my frame being 4mm too big on pretty much all sides!!

I have a few options:

1) Just increase the dimensions of the panels by 4mm as I havn't cut them yet. I will just have to go out and buy another aluminium U channel to redo the front section with but it will give me a bit more space inside to play. Probably the easiest option but my case is going to be larger than planed. (set me back half a day)

2) I drill out the rivets and file everything down to the correct size. (4mm off the end). This will also mean that I will have to redrill some of the holes which will undoubtidly touch the other holes and look really messy. A bit more difficult than option 1, but it will get everything back to my original blueprint. (set me back a day)

3) Go out and buy some more aluminium and give it all another go. This will cost me the most amount of cash and will take me pretty much back to the start but should give me the best end result. (set me back 3 days)

Hmmm decisions decisions