My 2nd case fabricated by me this one is better :D

[Waynio]

firstly here is my ati 4870x2 dual 92mm fan mod
keeps it much quieter the air flows straight on to the stock heatsinks and has taken a good 50c off the temps
the alluminium grill mesh has made it a tiny bit more audiable but it will help keep dust out and they remove easily for cleaning.

before the grills and braiding

on to my latest case

this is basically a worklog from half way through, next case will be fully worklogged.
i made a 2 level case, bottom for power, storage and dvd, top area to be able to hold a true heatsink and still have 35mm above it and so it will hold a 4870x2 with an inch to spare

Google Sketchup front

Google Sketchup side

Front

Rear

Right slide on panel which can sit on the mid panel and at the bottom some accoustic foam where the psu lies on its side taking air from the fan in front of the hdd's then straight out the back.

Left side with full mesh panel which also was able to sit on the mid panel for dvd access.

nice and big rubber vibration killing feet.

2x 4 hdd cages with a strip of accoustic foam in between the base

and here just before i got everything installed

here it is up and running for the first time.

here with a mesh and ccfl lights inside

and here with a grill i demelled into the top of the case for a 220mm akasa fan for exhaust.

I finally got fed up with having to lift the side panel every time i wanted to change a dvd so...

i designed an extension for the front in sketchup, then made a card version of it and thought not bad.

and here it is frashly made

here it is attatched to the front

and here is my 1st attempt at using body filler and priming and painting

Terrible eh lol

here is a design for the side panel ready to be dremelled

done and almost cut a piece in the wrong place nearly wrecking it

close up after body filler sanding, priming and painting, added some holographic black metal flake and added a few coats of clear.
note to self, only use metal flakes once i have proper spray gun hehe.

back to the finnish, i sanded it back down ready for painting again

but still did not look good enough

this is more like it

the top panel

angle shot

and finally up and running

just replaced the last 2 pictures with better ones, i don't have a tripod and just had a go at sitting the camera on a platform and put it on timer and the pics look tons better, i guess i don't really need a better camera, just a tripod .

fans used
200mm 3 speed antec fan set on medium from my old antec 900 i masked and painted it
220mm akasa fan with leds removed
SilenX Fan Ixtrema Pro 14dBA 72CFM Blue LED at rear and in front of hdd's

thinking of making a version 2 of this case, but i might do something different, still undecided.

[billygoat333]

looks nice and roomy, with BIG fans.

[Waynio]

Thanks for the compliment

here are the temps, just taken a picture, ambient temp in my room is 22c

also i appreciate any comments or pointers as i'm still learning

[XcOM]

nice temps dude!

[Waynio]

nice temps dude!

thanks m8

still got to find a supplier that sells decent styrene, if any one knows where to buy in uk would appreciate help, after seeing what paul has pulled off with his exceptional mods it caught my interest, maybe i could make a nicer front panel for a version 2 without the rivet dimples.

the only other things i want to improve for a v2 is to make it more sturdy so it does not move when the side and top panels are removed, going to have a go at making my own mother board tray and back piece the one that paul made for his F117-A looked perfect, and thinking of using 140mm fans for front and top instead of big ones, still not sure thou as i think the big fans on a lowish speed have less of a vacuum effect so less dust, and of course have a proper paint gun to give it a quality paint finnish, the paint job i did on this one was with cans, a few coats of red primer, few coats of matt black and a few coats of clear on top and sides, i know the metal flakes are supposed to be used mixed with clear and sprayed on with a paint gun, but wanted to see how it would turn out by sprinkling some on, i did i light coat of clear then sprinkled some on, then sprayed a few coats of clear over it, was my 1st time spraying anything anyway so not too shabby.
still got to buy a good paint gun and possibly a good air brush.

[XcOM]

model hobby shops tend to sell it, TAGS Model shop is my supplier, im waiting for them to get my order delivered. They can normally order larger sheets at your request.

[Waynio]

thanks for the tip xcom
i hope to create something around spring or summer
hehe i just received 2 awards for completed cases

my gigabyte p35-dq6 died on me something went completely wrong with the bios and tried hdd, flash, floppy, cd to reflash and it was having none of it , so had to temperary use my old evga 680i until today, bought an asus rampage formula, got 8gb in it now also and overclocked to 3.2ghz for the time being, want to push it to 3.6ghz anything higher is a bonus for me, temps are good also.

so with me having to fork out for a replacement board i will not be jumping onto i7 this year

[Waynio]

have a look at the new temps since switching to a Rampage formula.

better results than what i got with a d-tek and tripple rad
Nice
my TRUE is lapped completely flat with mirror finnish and so is my Q6600
it must be because it is further away from my 4870x2

[blueonblack]

I like the overall design on this build. The fan cutouts are very cool, I like the paint work on the side panel and the placement of the Bulgin switches in front also. Nice work. +rep

[Waynio]

Thanks blue, all the best on your Project: Clockwork, looking great so far

if there was anything different i would have made to this case i would have made it more sturdy with angle bars and flat bars, the front extension before filling and painting held the dvd's perfect but only holds the bottom 1 perfect now, seems to be an imperfect fit for the top 1, maybe it could be fixed if i filed the inner panel a bit, but still semi amazed with myself for getting it done lol.

actually thinking about it, rather than make a v2, i could just strip it down and add strength to it and when i finally get round to buying a spray gun, do a better paint job, althou i think i'll stick to using aerosols for the primer.
the dip on the mid panel is probably due to making wrong measurements on my bend and then straightening it out in vice and bending again 2nd time, the bend was not so great so i'll be replacing that mid panel also.
and the strips of aluminium that hold the hdd cages down i originally planned to rivet the back of the strip to the bottom which i did but planned to place rivet nut at front of the strips so it could be properly secured down so i'll do that too.