Project: Origami
Hello. I’ve been watching this forum for a bit and I think the people here are top notch modders. Thought I’d post the plans and progress for my new system here and see if you all had any input for me.
Here’s the short of it: I’m a professional graphic designer (actually an ‘art director’) I got into modding 3 years ago when I built my last system…and loved it. It’s time for a new system. Basically my use of a computer is purely for the professional purposes of doing design work. Massive amounts of vector illustrations, photoshop, web/flash, and some 3d design. I don’t game. My full time gig is as an art director at a sign manufacturer. I have access to dozens of plastics, computer controlled routers, lasers, vinyl plotter and every manner of saw and drill around. Soooo I think it’s time to build a case from scratch. I’m easily and expert plastics fabricator (and modest too) so I think I’ll try my hand at an acrylic case. I’m also a bit obsessive about good planning. You’ll see what I mean below. (and please be kind, I’m by no means a great 3d modeler)
Here’s what I’m thinking:
Basically what you’re seeing is an acrylic box held together with some fancy aluminum hardware. The cylindrical sections at the corners are a 1.25” dia aluminum extrusion with (2) 3/8” channels at 90 degrees to each other. (4) ¼” thick acrylic panel go between these to make a box. They’re held in place by a rubber gasket inside the channel. The side are also larger pieces of acrylic held to the ends of the extrusions by way of 4 ‘caps’ (think of them as really fancy bolts) They pass through the side panels and thread into the aluminum extrusions. The fancy hardware is made by a company called Gyford that I use in a lot of sign designs (http://www.standoffsystems.com/)
Most of the visible acrylic I’m using here is a reverse engrave type. Basically It’s a ¼” thick piece of clear with a thin layer of black fused to one side of it. The graphics on the out side of the case will be engraved out of the black layer (but don’t go really any deeper than that) which basically makes them clear. I’ll be using blue CC lighting on the inside, which will light up like crazy when it shines through the panel. I did this on a case I build for a Theremin a few friends built and it worked great (see below) Yes, I know it doesn’t have a window…I’m actually not crazy about seeing the inside of a case.
I’m trying something a little strange on the fans. I’d like to try and move air in/out of the case by moving it through a vent just behind the outer graphic panels. I’ll take a piece of ½” acrylic and cut it like a comb. Then I’ll use a layer of 1/8” acrylic, cut 120mm holes in it, and mount an array of fans to pull/push air through the vent. It’ll restrict the airflow a little, but there’s (7) 120’s in there, which is plenty of movement. The 3 fans at the front (right side) pull fresh air in. The 2 in the middle (right next to cpu’s and video card) exhaust hot air. The fan just above those, I’m not sure on. FB-RAM gets super hot, and I’ll just have to test if I want it to pull or push. The 7th fan, which is not really shown is a 120 in the PSU. It blow up, and I’ll have to add vent on the top panel to let the air out there (also not rendered). I’ll regulate the fans so the in fans are going fast than the out fans. I’m on the ‘positive pressure’ side of the airflow argument. The nice thing about the case design is that it is very well sealed (no unnecessary holes), so the positive-p theory could work very well (or at least test the theory on a sealed case)…and hey less dust is great.
The hard drives and opticals are mounted on clear acrylic panels which then mount to top/bottom panels of the box. This again is some fancy hardware. Basically just an aluminum gripper that bolts on the case panel and holds the acrylic panel with a set screw. The mobo is mounted onto a hollow acrylic box. The box then mounts to the rear panel of the case. This does two things: Let’s me pull the whole mobo easily (just remove back panel) and the space inside the box makes for a nice easy place to stash cables. The heat sinks on the Xeons mount to the case (not the mobo), so I’ll need to find some way to hook them to the box, but I’m not too worried about that.
I’m also a bit of minimalist when it comes to hardware. I’m only planning for one optical drive, and the only card I’m using is the video card. The rear of the computer is sealed except for the i/o plate, the psu opening and one PSI (for the gpu). I’m doing a classic stealth job on the optical drive. It’s simple and I’ve always liked this mod. The little twist here is that I’m using it to cover the bay above the optical when will hold a digidoc. I like having temp monitoring and fan control, but once it’s all set, I don’t want to look at it all the time. I know that’ll send some people running in terror, but really I don’t mind.
So that’s the idea. I think it’ll look hot. I think it’ll weight a ton (that much acrylic is HEAVY)…and hopefully the strange fan system will work out. The fabrication is pretty straight forward ( I do stuff like this everyday…really) So what’s inside:
Dual Xeon Woodcrest 5130’s @ 2.0 ghz
SuperMicro x7DAL-E Mobo
4gb Crucial FB-RAM
Silverstone ST75F 750w PSU
PNY VCQFX1500 Quadro 256mb GPU
150gb Raptor HD (system)
(2) 500gb Caviar HD (storage, Raid 0=1tb)
This is a design workstation. Of course this could be higher spec, so if anyone wants to mail me a few Clovertons…I’ll give you my address. I’ll keep this log updated as things progress. I’ll start ordering parts and materials at the end of this week. Let me know what you all think. Suggestions are very welcome (it’s just pixels right now)
Happy new year
PS: if you’d like to see my last system: http://www.xoxideforums.com/case-gal...highlight=hive
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Originally Posted by Slug Toy
i respect u, man!) would make them happier (either use a thermaltake or koolance or homemade block) 
) as i think there is lots i (errrm.. we) can learn from you 
