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!