Project 'not yet named'

[liquid_fire]

Hello all!

I've been reading your forums for a little over a month now, and I'm impressed with the level of expertise and helpfulness of TBC's members. I've recieved a lot of inspiration and insight for my next project. Enough sucking up.. a little about me:

24 yr old recent college grad, finally have time to do what I love, which includes computers and modding (and not homework and papers). I've done a few mods in the past, (like, 3-5 years ago) which i'll dig up the pics from my other computer and show them soon (gotta have a resume!).

I love SFF's, and how little space they take up on my desktop. I like them to look sharp though, unique, maybe even a little extravagant. I'm tired of the 'boxy' look (90 deg edges) and i'm ready to build a case from scratch for the first time. So here goes!

(ps, like the rest of the great members here, i appreciate feedback and ideas, so keep them coming!)

[liquid_fire]

Design:

I'm new with the sketchup, but i've used other cad programs before. It's pretty intuitive, but i've seen much better representations by other members.

Here's a design layout:

You can see the footprint of the case deviates from the normal rectangle. The overall dimensions of the case are about 12x7x12 (HxWxD). The front of the case is about 3.75" wide. This screenshot was made to show a buddy the cooling design for the case. I'm going to design a front face that integrates the facia into a fan grille, rather than having a seperate grille

Here's da guts:
8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Brisbane 2.3GHz Socket AM2 Processor
BIOSTAR TForce TF7025-M2 AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 7025 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
POWMAX PSLP6100AA MicroATX 300W Dual Fan Power Supply with SATA - A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel

I'm parting out my old shuttle too, if anyone wants a 1G of ram, a shuttle mobo & amd barton 3000, or shuttle PSU, let me know. (sry for the seller spam) I'm reusing some of the parts from the shuttle such as trays, buttons, aluminum, etc, but i'd like to make the case as home-made as possible.

[liquid_fire]

Here's a cardboard mockup of the case: (Milwaukee pride!!)

My parts!!

Power test & MC05 install:

Unfortunately my work center is also my play center, so when I work on the case, I have to move all my computer stuff off my desk and store it safely on the other side of the room. When I want to play, I gotta re-assemble everything. (Hence I wanna get this thing done!!)

[liquid_fire]

Making the frame out of 1/2" x 16" aluminum angle from the local ACE:

It's very important to design strength into the joints (overlap / slots) lest it falls apart when you pick it up. Lernt from experience...

Using clamps & whatever surfaces I can to do metal work. Go easy, it's my first time working with sheet metal.

Finished bends, cleaned up a little and straightened with very patient tapping:

Frame w/ front and back panels roughed in: Remember, there's plenty of modding on those panels to come!

[liquid_fire]

First order of plexiglass arrived! Time to experiment a little and get used to working with this stuff. I've used dremels on plexi windows in the past, and if you're patient and go slow, allow for cooling, you won't melt the stuff like everyone says. I decided to try something new and got a coping saw:

It was still a pain, and hard to keep a straight line, what with my flimsy "workbench" shaking and all...

I also got a heat gun, and started bending the plastic. Here's a heads up: once you make a bend, even if it cools...when you heat it up again, it will "stress relax" and you'll lose your bend, so work carefully and get it right the first time. Cool the piece as soon as your done to preserve the form you worked so hard for.

I crimped the bend with a piece of that aluminum, which worked great:

Here's a test fit on the case:

Twas very rough, and this is just a test piece. I have more plexi coming in this weekend to do the rest of the case.

[liquid_fire]

Here's a design I sketched (REAL sketching!! not sketchup! =P) for the front facia / fan grille. See where the fan will fit, behind the flames? the edges of the flames are about 85mm, perfect to cover the fan.

It will be cut out of aluminum, polished, and have some colored plexi btwn it and and the black (eventually lit). I gotta tell you this now, so no one takes credit for the idea: The eyes will be the power & reset buttons, and hopefully will be lit w/ some UV LED's (assuming the black plexi lets enough light thru.)

Here's a lil teaser:

Here's a mockup of an alternative front...

This one is stainless, and could wrap across the contours on the top of the case. I'm def. leaning towards the skull still, cuz its so bad azz.

[Luke122]

Lookin good so far! I think it's a cool looking idea, and hope that you keep the updates coming!

[liquid_fire]

It may seem like there's a lot coming all at once here, but this is about 2 weeks worth of work so far (bout 2 hrs a day, every other day). We're all caught up now.

I'm debating and brainstorming how to access the DVD drive on top the case:

The door on the left would be large and bulky, and create the typical "boxy" look on top of the case. I came up with the door on the right in the shower this morning, which is surprising since I usually don't have a conscience thought until after my first pot of coffee. This door would be small enough to have the drive push and pull the door open & close. Needless to say, I'm leaning toward "Door number 2!" hehe

[Killdrath]

Another possibility would be to attach a moveable section of the "door" directly to the dront od the dvd drive and have it slide forward and back as the tray does. Kinda like how I did my drive in THIS thread.

[liquid_fire]

Thanks for the tip kildrath! I'd like to see what you did in that thread, but the pics are dead. I thought of that as well, I'll have to play around with a few things. I ordered a bit of extra plexi for experimentation, I'll keep you posted.