Lean and Green - modular dual PC scratch build

[blueonblack]

just trying to not think of what I might do after this one...

Oh dear God, I'm painfully familiar with that feeling. Can't even finish one project without planning the next.

I'm that position right now also. %$^*#^&*!!!!!

[Waynio]

Oh dear God, I'm painfully familiar with that feeling. Can't even finish one project without planning the next.

I'm that position right now also. %$^*#^&*!!!!!

I have a ps4 or xbox one in mind to redesign.
PS4 looks a good design that shouldn't have a meltdown from what I've seen so the only reason I have to make new case is to get rid of all the plastic so might try & make the same case but in aluminium & a few more details, silly probably but why not lol.

[Waynio]

Final catchup update.


Fan perch, fan just slot on top of it for a good snug fit that has no movement but can be lifted off for maintenance.

More work on the optical plate.

Both pieces in place.

Now the rods for the front corners, they all had to be ultra precise lengths & some of them needed drilling directly in the middle so I made a drilling jig to help on that, typically need a lathe for this kind of drilling, not got one so had to improvise.

Now, the piece I love, aluminium blades on these prolimatech fans, expensive, noisier & not as good performance as akasa apache fans but I couldn't resist the aluminium fan blades, perfect for the custom fans I'm doing, full aluminium fans, yes please.

First bunch of rods went in OK, the tapped ones.

The 3mm rods though I drilled too close to the edge of the panels so 3 easy panels need remaking which will let me fine tune the design of these corner rod parts to be spot on.

Work on the curved & bent front support piece & a fan mount for the ATX system which I did some rough but good enough milling with the drill press.

The sharp bends I wanted made doing the curves smooth really difficult, might remake the piece from 0.5mm sheet instead of 1mm so I can do it perfect & instead of using screws to mount it, JB weld to the support piece.

More work on the curved front & that brings this up to date.

Few bits to remake & tweak, then I can start making new progress, already started on new bits though so should have good new progress along with fixed sections for first new progress update for a year soon.

[TheMainMan]

Wow, this is one seriously awesome custom build!!! The all aluminum fan is ludicrously awesome in its extravagance of attention to detail.

[blueonblack]

Just looking at this makes me feel insignificant.

Carry on.

[Waynio]

Wow, this is one seriously awesome custom build!!! The all aluminum fan is ludicrously awesome in its extravagance of attention to detail.

Thanks Main.

Just looking at this makes me feel insignificant.

Carry on.

When designing this I didn't think for 1 second of how long it might take, figured it looked good so just threw myself into it, was only when I started cutting the first few panels I realised this is going to take a while but bought the materials & dedicated to it so wasn't going to back down from it.

[Waynio]

Back to normal progress, completed a couple of new pieces for the ATX system, the expansion area cooling mount, used lexan because I had no clear acrylic.

It's been a fair while since I designed this & realised the panel I made would have covered up anything inside too much & also cancelled the fan ducts so I could have more expansion height space if needed so I tweaked the design to properly accompany the changes & made a new one.

[Waynio]

Been a while.


Making spacers.

Square bars for the ATX framework.

Disc sander broke down so slapped a face on it & got a new one.

All 28 fan layers done.

Front & rear ATX panel remakes, needed extra internal space for the change of cooler & fancied a different front, but a nasty deep scratch revealed itself on the rear panel when I pulled the protective backing off, that'll need a heavy sanding session.

Subtle differences.

Bought a sheet metal roller for doing smooth precise curves since I had to buy a new disc sander, step backwards, 2 steps forwards.

Some change of direction because I had to make it likable for myself again for 2014.


One piece triple 140mm fan component which slots & clicks into the frame.

Out the box layered fan along with desktop saver stilts.

Changed the pedestal to a shorter shelf unit without walls because of the xbox one being a wide load with an extension to the top of the HTPC for a ps4 shelf & a TV mount.

Designed a multi layered HDD backplane for the HTPC.

Yep I still have the silly stack as an option because I at least want to photograph that option since that was the idea from the end of 2011.

Focusing on doing bigger chunks of progress from here now for updates so they'll be few & far between rather than bitty regular updates, wish I did this from the beginning but I didn't so oh well.

[Waynio]

Hi all.

It's grown up a bit, yaaaay.

No progress shots, been getting stuck into it with wanting this complete before 2015.

Designed & made a very tall (2.4m) shelving unit, blu-ray rack/cable stash unit, another shelf unit & hide away keyboard desk under a shelf for a massive expansion of places to put things in a smaller space.

More when I've got more to show.

[TLHarrell]

Good to see you back at it! I've been missing this project.