Project: The System

[Tavarin]

Thanks guys, I'm finally starting to get proud of this build.

Update 13 - Another Panel

I got a fair amount of work in the last few days. I wanted to have this update ready for last night, but I had to compete in a video competition and didn't get home until quite late.

Anyway, the first order of business for me was to attach the switches I have to the frame:

I used epoxy. I also glued the panel supports in for the last time, I have a plan for them.

I also want two fans to go on the plexi side panel. Well I made one hole for now, because I have to see how much room I have with my hardware mounted. I used a big drill like circle cutter to make a 120mm hole in the plexi:

A few mistakes, but a fan guard can cover those up.

I then drilled four more holes, for each screw, and mounted the fan:

This fan is going to physically sit right above the CPU, and will be pulling air in.

The next order of business for me was to make the other side panel.
First I mapped out the cuts and bends that needed doing on the side of some sheet aluminum:

You may not be able to make sense of it, but I can.

I then made all the cuts with an angle grinder:

It probably makes sense now.

And then bent the sides in over the black lines, to reinforce this panel:

And now I have another panel.

Well this panel needs some corner supports so I cut out three triangles of steel:

Yay I love triangles.

And used a LOT of epoxy to stick them in place:

A lot of clamps to.

And then a test fit of the panel:

The panel arches out in the center, which is a good thing. It means I only need to put screws to hold the panel in place at the center, and it will stay there.

So I drilled some holes and, since I lack a tool to thread holes, glues some bolts behind the holes:

This is my first attempt, with superglue.

But the superglue didn't hold. Neither did epoxy. So I used some bonding putty and surrounded the bold with them, which held them perfectly to the frame.

Anyway, I mounted the side panel to the frame with two bolts:

Yes, it looks good.

And here's a picture of the other side panel, now with a fan:

Looks pretty good to me. Also I mentioned that I was gluing the supports on for the last time. That's because I drilled holes though them and the frame, and bolted them in place. you can see all the bolts in the previous picture.

So now I need to get some fan guards for the side panel, and the top panel fans.
Also, since I have everything I need to build for the frame built, I shall move my computer system over to it tomorrow, and give it a test run.

After I have my system in I'll make some actual buttons for the switches using some of the black plexi. Then I'll give the reverse side panel a nice paint job. Then I should be done.

To Do

- Make power and reset buttons
- Paint panels
- Make last fan hole in side panel
- Get fan guards

Thanks once again for reading.

Cheers

[The boy 4rm oz]

Nice clean fan hole. Please tell me your leaving that side panel silver, it looks so god damned awesome. A bit of polish and it would look even better.

[Tavarin]

That panel will stay mostly silver. I'm thinking of painting a smallish black tribal logo on the center of the panel, but the rest will stay silver.

[Tavarin]

Well I've moved my system over to this case, and it looks good. I'll post pictures of it tomorrow, since I just picked up a new Canon PowerShot A720 IS, of which I'll do a review in a few days if no one has already.

Anyway I did run into a problem though, which I have posted in the mobo section and the cooling section of this site.

Pretty much all of the fan ports (inputs) on my motherboard, but the CPU fan, have stopped working. They are not powering the fans when I plug them in. I have an Asus M2N SLI-Deluxe motherboard, and the 16 vold resistor (transistor, whichever is a brown cylinder) in front of the first PCI E port has broken off (it was crushed by my video card). I pushed it back into place but I'm not sure if I made contact. This could be what's causing the problem.

Anyways, if anyone knows why all the fan ports on the M2N SLI Deluxe mobo stop working, then please help.

Anyway, the update is coming.

Cheers

[scar~face]

that really sucks man

[Tavarin]

It does suck, a lot, but I've found some temporary solutions to keep all my fans running.

Update 14 - Moving In

So as I mentioned in the previous posts I moved everything over from my old case into this fresh new case. I did run into some trouble, as stated in my previous post also, but it has been dealt with (sort of).

Anyway here is my computer from the side:

I need to sleeve some of those cables. But contrary to how it looks, I have cabled this in an organized mess.

And I do so love having an easily removable bottom panel:

It's so easy to access my motherboard's bottom inputs. And the molex covered in electrical tape is actually powering my rear 80mm fan.

And here is how I'm powering my Zune dock:

I had some USB ports that are supposed to be mounted in the back, but decided to glue them to the bottom of the drive bays. This made it so I didn't have to route a cable from the outside, and now I have another place in case I decide to make another dock.

I also had to mod my top panel a bit to make room for the extra large bundle of cables exiting my power supply:

Cut out a hole, and remounted the bars.

And here it is in place:

You can also see in those pictures that I was painting a skullcandy logo onto the power supply using their stencil. It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped:

But it still looks kind of cool, so I'll leave it like that for now.

So I plugged in the system and started it running so you could all see it powered on:

You may be able to see the switch for my cold cathode tube. It's mounted on the back of the frame behind the door, for easy access. It's the little red square on the left.

And in the dark:

And my CPU is now running much cooler than it was in my previous case. In this case it's running 35 C on idle and 40 C under load. My previous case was around 48 C idle and 55 C under load. So a very nice improvement.

So this case is turning out rather well in my opinion. But I still have some things to do.

To Do

- Make power and reset buttons
- Paint panels (might do this)
- Make last fan hole in side panel
- Get fan guards

Thanks for reading

Cheers

[Tarenmor]

Looks amazing. +rep.

Personally I like how the light inside isn't super brite. It's nice and dark. When it's sitting on your desk, you can look at it in the dark and not be blinded. >D Very awesome.

[The boy 4rm oz]

Messy, nice lighting though.

[Tavarin]

All right, I haven't had much time to work on this case the last week.Right now I am in the process of moving. Unfortunately until I graduate in 2 months I have to live in a motel near my school, so I won't have any room to mod. After that however I am moving to an apartment in downtown Toronto where there is room to mod, and a big balcony where I can use power tools.

So I still have things left on my to do, but right now I haven't the time to do them. So it will be some time before there is another official update, and I am sorry to the people watching this log.

But I have two questions right now I was hoping you guys might be able to answer.

1) Does anyone know of any good fan guards that I could order online, and have delivered to Canada, that would suit my case?

2) Is there a way to cut a perfect circle out of a thick piece of plexi using a drill? I don't have a jig saw, and the plexi is too strong to sand down from a square into a circle.

Cheers and thanks in advance.

[b4i7]

congrats tavarin!