Project - Air Cube v2

[The boy 4rm oz]

That is a very interesting design, I like it .

[Waynio]

Thanks billygoat & Jase , to be honest I'm absolutely itching to get started on it , but have to save up for a bit longer before I can make an order for the materials but at least it gives me a bit more time to get the design plan to perfection.

Well there was nothing wrong with this prototype of the air cube, easy to work with, perfect air cooling, a tad on the noisy side & tiny bit on the flimsy side but...

It had some kinks like the original design had a psu in mind that had a big fan on the side, but my bro's psu only had a fan on the rear so the flow didn't work as I planned.

So with me getting the prizes from the mag feature & me not exactly wanting to switch from an overclocked q9650 to an AMD cpu at extra cost I figured it's about time I did something with the prizes, the case & psu is great & quiet, the memory is great, the mobo is low end, I'm sure it would be good for a media pc project at some later time.

So I sold the case & psu to my bro, he wanted a quiet pc so I cleaned all the components with the air compressor & spent the evening switching over the gear from the prototype to the fractal define r3, all went quite smoothly, the soft rubber cable pass throughs fall out easily so were a bit fiddly but got there in the end, I added an extra quiet fan to the front, Also I switched the stock fan from the heat sink with a low rpm one which helped reduce noise a bit more, didn't bother with the fan controller, I really like the hdd mount system, ready for ssd's too.

And the bits from the case.

One thing I would change with the design on this case is make it 10mm wider so the side panel goes on easier when all the cables are hidden behind the mobo tray was quite a struggle getting it on.

It seems kind of crazy to me to have such nice internals & no window lol.

Got it all up & running, nice, quiet & cooling is ok but it's definately not silent, I'd say it's about the same noise as my air cube v2 which was definately surprising, but anyway it's a nice quiet system + can't hear the hdd's, it is a very nice case & has the option for 2 extra fans in the top & another at the bottom & another on the side.

I give it 8/10 & would get 9/10 if there was 10mm extra space behind the mobo tray for less cramped wire management.

Would have done a tidier job on it but he's a bit stingy so no colour coordination going into this lol so had to use spare cables & such that I have in a bits box.

Was a fun quick project & a reminder why I like making my own , a normal build is a tiny woo hoo moment, but a scratch build completion is a massive woo hoo moment .

The money from the case & psu will go towards my next project in the form of a 12 inch disc sander which I know I'll use a lot.

And now this will sit next to my frankencase in the cellar but it will make appearances in my mod evolution pics at the end of each scrach build .

And I made a wallpaper of the air cube in 1080p if anyone wants. Just click the link, hover over zoom & select high res image .
http://s433.photobucket.com/albums/q...paircubewp.jpg

[The boy 4rm oz]

Thanks for the wallpaper .

[Waynio]

Just erased the backgrounds of the project from a few of the best pics, resized them & plonked them on this 1080p plain barn door background & used a font to try & give it a burnt on look.
After seeing Attila's wallpaper of his latest but at the wrong res for me I figured I should see what I could do for a wallpaper, so hope you all like it , I made a few others but my bro says they are too busy & he's probably right lol .

[The boy 4rm oz]

I missed Attila's wallpapers, I must go and double check .

I'm pretty much useless when it comes to photoshopping things lol.

[Waynio]

I missed Attila's wallpapers, I must go and double check .

I'm pretty much useless when it comes to photoshopping things lol.

Was my first go on it, couldn't grab what I wanted so instead just zoomed right in and erased around it all, that was the longest part lol, then it was just a resize copy & paste job .

----

Wow, spent an entire day deciding what to do.
System upgrade / 12 inch disc sander for next project / frittering the money away like an idiot .

Done a ton of research about if I upgraded from my skt 775 q9650 @ 3.8ghz with ddr2 to a i7 930 or within my budget i5 760 & honsetly doubt I'd feel an appreciable difference from my current gear so after figuring out what to do over an entire day I had a good sleep, woke up & yeah I've dedicated myself to my next mod instead by getting the disc sander, then all I need to buy is the materials .

The disc sander will be a massive help in many areas like perfect clean mitre joints, perfectly straight edges from material I cut, perfect bevels, it was Frenkie who got me interested in this new tool after seeing the nice bevels he achieved on his stealth mod.
I know very well it will get used a lot in my mods so as far as I'm concerned I've signed the contract with myself to mod on so it shouldn't be too far off before I start but I'll save the new thread for when I've actually started which if I'm careful enough with my money could be within a month (gotta be optimistic lol ).

[The boy 4rm oz]

Disk sanders are fantastic, they can be used for so many different things. I used one to strip back all the stock paint in my Alpha mod, works great. You can also get ultra fine disks for them so you can wet sand or fine sand really large areas. I can't wait for your new project to start mate, also can't wait for mine. My last exam finishes on the 25th so I think it's time to bring the old Dremel out from retirement .

[Waynio]

Looking forward to it mate , all the best with uni too .

[The boy 4rm oz]

Thanks mate .

[Waynio]

So, I made the rough design which I already shown & just spent all day rebuilding the design from the ground up (trimming things down & squishing things in basically just readjusting the design for the changes) so it will now have full length panels instead of separate ones & will be a bit more sturdy, also I'm going to do a 2 tone tint that will all fit flush to the alu so will be a heck of a lot more difficult to do but I believe the higher the challenge the more you learn, sure I could get the acrylic pieces laser cut but there's no fun in that & it would bump the cost very high, oh & it would be over all too soon .

Already ordered the acrylic & the clear acrylic adhesive.
So now it's just a case of saving & raising the cash for the aluminium.

Base panel & motherboard tray is 4mm, 2nd panel, back & sides is 3mm, acrylic is 3mm with a 2mm layer of clear acrylic to properly support the 2 tone flush fit.

I'll be aiming for a whisper quiet case with this by using these fans throughout, they are only 41cfm so are lower than what I'd usually go for but with the orientation of the fans should do the job fine to enable a nice overclock too, they also fit the colours of this build perfectly.
120mm Enermax UCTB12 T.B. Super Silent 11 dBA
http://www.enermax.com/home.php?fn=e...&lv1=32&no=108

Also with me doing windows on both sides I'll be having my first proper go at custom length sleeved cables so it all looks neat on both sides & possibly take a leaf out of Attila's book & make little wire cover boxes to completely hide wires.

The reason there are no vent holes on the curved piece is I have no idea how to do what I want on curved pieces in sketchup, also if you think I've done away with the optical drive I haven't I will make a new bezel for it which will blend with the stripes .

I might get the aluminium anodised black once all the metal work is done rather than paint it this time, depends if I can get it done at an ok price.

I just hope I don't have too much trouble making the curves as I want them, there will be 3mm aluminium flat bars which should be quite easy to do, originally had it designed for 5mm bars which may have been a nightmare to do right, 3mm acrylic should be very easy considering it will be 3 separate fairly slim strips, the 2mm clear acrylic should be a doddle.

I'll be taking my accuracy to a new level too by getting some digital callipers which I'll need to go along with the disc sanding work.

OK after all this blah blah explanation next time I post will be with actual progress on a new thread , so hopefully this year, if not then early next year, so I'd say either in December or January.

This will probably be my last big project for some time as I'm liking the tiny pc's that are popping up, much cheaper on materials & awesomely small yet powerful & not thirsty for electric, seems the way to go imo but I feel I must whoop my first attempt of a tower pc before I go there .

For now though here's a bunch of the revised design pics, say what you think (positive or negative any opinions appreciated) .

So until I get all the materials I'll just keep cheerleading for other modders lol .