Scratch Build – In Progress Massively Dysfunctional *MDF* (Update Nov.30th... Final Pics!)

I started this project/log roughly about 2 months ago. I didn't want to end up like 1 of them logs we all see that get 1/3 of the way finished just for the builder to find out its too hard or he just doesn't have the desire to finish, so until now Ive only posted this on a small company's forum.

Well its safe to say that's not gonna happen with me, the build is close to done being built and the paint stage is near..... IM HOOKED so its time to post this were it belongs.

This build was nameless for weeks... Until a cousin was in my shop a few weeks ago sayin how crazy it was and how I must be dysfunctional in my head for even think of doing such a thing, massively dysfunctional. This instantly stuck since the case is made 99.9% of MDF board. They kinda go together.

Hope every1 enjoys the journey as much as I do....Here we go



Ever since I started building systems Ive wanted to build my own cases for em,but due to living in an apartment that was never really an option without renting a space for a workshop.(Came close a few times lol)....Last fall I moved to a condo with a fair sized garage.
I tryed a few times over the winter to setup a workshop in the garage but its unheated and due to our extremly cold winters here in alberta we couldnt last more than 25-30mins out there before freezing heh.

Spring is still struggling hard to show here(Its snowing this morning so I figured Ill spend some time posting) but we have had enough nice days that Ive got the workshop setup and after 2 attempts at rearranging I think this will work...I had to move all the cutting tools to there own sealed off space.

Getto mod the garage time...weres some cardboard.

Door in the corner(double doorway with cardboard and a sheet but the sawdust still gets thro)

New cutting room


Aight so my idea for this build is Ive always wanted a case that would show off my motherboard and cooling but be able to hide everything else.Something really clean lookin.Here we go....

1st thing I figured was I wanted to have the motherboard showing out the front of the case and not the side like normal cases.So time to make a base.

The base ended up being just over 20" wide and just over 16"deep(measuring the PSU bay)

Next I added a backboard.

So far the case is 2feet tall(without the CD drive bay..it will be built ontop)

 

Next I built the framework but due to me being in "the zone" there are no pictures for this part.(Ill try not to do that again)

Onto the CD drive bay.To keep the system simple and clean lookin I will only use 1 CD/DVD burner.Really all I ever use anyway.

Everything will get sanded down eventually.

This is were things really started to take off.We had close to a week of nice weather.I cant count how many times I built something just to rip it apart the next day when my plans changed.You might see things in some pics that end up getting removed in the end.Ive always just gone with the flow,it works against ya when doing this type thing.

PSU bay next.





All the room you could ever need to hide all them PSU wires.

The whole PSU bay is removable.

 

Im at the point now were you can see what the system will look like when finished.When I 1st started I wanted to have the FZEs in the top 2 corners like so: (FZE = Coolit Freezone Elite)


This so far is the 1 thing Ive changed from my original plan.Ive decided to put the FZEs on the bottom with the motherboard uptop.Structure-wise this just made more sence once I started going.

Heres a mockup of were things will be placed.The motherboard will sit in the case upsidedown with the CPU on the bottom portion of the cutout.Still have alot of work left in this area.

So far Ive managed to keep it so the whole thing slides together.Everything will sucure into place with a few screws in the end.(it slides together very tightly,screws wouldnt even be needed but will be used)Heres everything pulled apart.


Next onto the HD bay.I figure with the size of HDs these days 4 bays would be more than enough.






Alright time to slide it altogether and show ya what I have so far.Windows will be cut out on the 2 sides around the FZEs.(front and sides)

I added a door on each side to get to the HDs and back panel hookups.

The back was still alil plain for me so I figured I would sink the top of the motherboard back just a bit more than I originally planned.Now you can see it sticking out the rear of the case.This way looks much better.



Heres a look at the side doors removed.(still a very rough cutout but you can see how it looks inside)

A closer look.This is were the rear panel/vid card connections will be located.

(sorry about the bad pic on this 1,no setting seemed to get a good pic)

Thats about sums up the build so far.Theres a ton of sanding and filling I hoped to be done long ago but Ive been really busy latly and havnt done as much as I would like.

Ya gotta get outside sometime.

 

Now that I finally had the outer shell to a point I could measure final measurements off of I was able to work everything on the motherboard tray out.Theres still going to be some minor things done to the motherboard trays housing(for lack of better words we'll call it that)but that part is almost ready for primer.

I knew there was going to be some precision in making the backplate but it was even crazier than I thought.Even 1mm off on any cut and it was causing ripple affects in later measurements. Overall Im really happy with how it turned out so far.

Im only going to be using a single vid card so the backplate is worked out to hold a single card.(holds a card very solid)..but I still left room to hold other addin cards if needed.

Motherboard inside the "motherboard tray housing"...The 2 cutouts on the bottom are going to be windows to showcase the FZEs


Other than that majority of my time spent working on the case has been sanding.In last last few weeks I think Ive spent close to 80 hrs hand sanding it...Those corners are really hard on the fingers.

The FZE's new home.

Spent some time playing with my drill...PSU will have fresh air it doesnt have to share with anything else.


More sanding....

The back is almost ready for a coat of primer...Top cutout is for a fan controller.


Speaking of primer..The hard dive bay was the lucky part to get a coat 1st.



Pretty happy with this so far...Any cracks or uneven surfaces will get another coat of filler than it all will be sanded and primed 1 more time.(all parts will be done this way)

...But so far it pretty much looks like 1 solid piece.


I find I spend tons of time going back and redoing/adding/fixing things that Ive already done and was 100% fine and happy with...It seems my OCD gets worse as the build progresses ....This build might take alittle longer than I 1st thought,but at the same time its turning out much better than I could have planned...Guess its a toss up.

 

Very unique, look a little like a mad lian li 'special'. I will keep an eye on this one.

 

amazing, truely amazing, that wall
great job on the case 2

 

@ VadimWolf - Thx... I notice a Mozart tx in your avatar... My main system is in 1 of them beasts... Fun case to work in.

I had a customer that brought me a brand new dell that had died on him... While fixing it he asked "Man, is there anything good about a Dell"... I showed him that wall and said "you can make a super sweet wall from there boxes"

 

Whow, impressive shape and size! Also nice finish

 

Damn man that looks good! You got some mad woodworking skills! Looks like it's gonna be a fairly hefty case in the end, too.

Lol that's the same way I work most of the time. Keeps people guessing

 

Thanks guys... I am lacking power tools big time... Everything has been done with a dremel,jigsaw and a 8" mitre saw. So with absolutely no power sanding tools I am sanding everything by hand. I worked in the auto body industry when I was a teenager and when it came time for final sanding we always did it by hand with wood or styrofoam type blocks wraped in sandpaper. It works well here too.(although my fingers would really love some power sanders)

Thanks, this is really the 1st woodworking thing Ive ever done.(I also used to be a house framer.. buts thats really all the woodworking experience I have)
And yup so far its quite heavy... weighs about the same as my Mozart Tx system fully loaded running on air... (water is another story )




Alright this post will update every1 to were I am now(I started the build 10 weeks ago.)

1 of the last things to work out was the air flow, heres what Ive done......

All the air will enter the system in through the top holes on the sides of the system via a 120mm fan and will be propelled into the motherboard area by another 120mm fan.

Left side intake... Had a PIA time trying to figure out how to mount a fan to push the air into the mobo area... in the end I decided to build a metal bracket into it.

Had to make access to mount the top intake fan... a hinged door seemed to be the way to go here.

Right side intake. The air will flow around the top of the motherboard tray housing, hit the deflector and be sucked down into the mobo area.

Left side (front panel on)

Right side (front panel on)

The air will passively exit the motherboard area via holes drilled infront of the motherboard on the bottom, along with the holes cut for wires. It will exit the system through the FZE's.(if this does not work good enough I will flip the right side air flow to exhaust air.)

Final overview of the air flow.



Besides that the system should be completely air tight.All the smaller cracks and gaps will be filled with wood filler than Ive been going over everything again with "dyna patch". It gives a finish very similar to "bondo".... Its drys to a rock hard finish and can be sanded extremely smooth.

All the bigger gaps (mostly the cavity in the back main portion of the build) will be sealed with "DapTex", its the same type of thing you use to seal drafts around your windows and stuff. This foam is latex based instead of polyurethane so it doesnt overexpand and can be sanded/painted very easily compared to poly foam.(not to mention poly foam is 1 of the stickiest things Ive ever handled while this stuff isnt.)


This pretty much brings the build portion to an end... I have a few holes to drill out for mounting fans, a little bit of filling/sanding and a couple of corners to round out. Other than that I hope to transform the woodshop part of my garage into a spray booth the next few weekends and move into the paint phase.

 

looking great man.. i like it

 

Good progress. i really like the mobo tray.

 

huge Case, and a good work.

 

It's nice to see something different, looking good!

 

Thanks guys

Alright I transformed the woodshop of my garage into a paint booth and even managed to keep enough room to still have a mini woodshop.

Before pic

After pics

Otherside(better view of paint booth)

I built in my own exhaust vent out of my old shower curtains that will take all the fumes out of my garage via the rafters and blow it out near my roof. (needed new shower curtains anyhow lol)

It works better than I couldve imagined... once I leave the spray booth I cannot smell paint anywhere unless I go outside.


After that was done with I blew out all the gaps and cavitys in the back with my ghetto air compressor. I look similiar to this while using it.

Good ol' Bendee straw with heatshrink.

Time for the foam!!! I love using this stuff.




After letting it dry overnight I decided to try a couple ways to finish the fan mounts. 1st I tryed thinning down some Dyna Patch.

Than I painted it over the cut foam.

The other way is a little more difficult but like everything else, with difficulty comes the best finish.
On this 1 I cut the foam like the other 1.

Than cut some strips...

Pushed them back into the foam making a wall around the fan socket and drilled some pilot holes.

Nailed em into place.

Than filled all the gaps.

I think the 1st fan socket will get re-done like this along with all the openings I left to spray in the foam.

I also revieved a package courtesy of the boys at CoolIT yesterday.

I guess you could call it great timing but the vid card in my main system died over the weekend so it has been RMA'd. So I took the chance to switch my Mozart over to air so I can clean, drain and prep my old loop for this system. Damn cats, no matter how many fan filters and how much tape I use on cracks with all 12 120mm fans going the hair will find a way in that mozart.

Not sure if I am going to go with a sealed loop or keep everything yet, just know for sure that I will be using 2 FZE's... We'll see how it goes.

Thats it for today... Yay time to paint something.

 

Looking sweet man! and hey, you are not the only one that lacks the proper tools for the job lol

 

Thx mark... I invested in more tools.


Alright update time...

Time to ditch the straw!! Found some good deals on a compressor, nail/staple gun and a HVLP sprayer. (Its been over 10 yrs since I used a sprayer, hope its like riding a bike )

I think I might add another tank to the compressor. I seen a friend do this once to his little compressor, it speeds things up a ton when spraying.

I had an idea 1 night. Theres an old case laying around my house somewhere that had a built in clock, temp sensor and power/reset button. I might be able to use that.
Well once I finally found the case I was so excited to rip it apart and see if it still worked I forgot to take before pics, but heres an idea of what it looked like.(Im sure a few of you have seen or owned 1 of these cases) Turns out its works but its finicky, leads me to think its a bad wire somwhere.

My lucky day, I have some help with the wiring issue.

Heres the main unit.

Some USB ports I could use on the other part of the unit.

I cut off the front of the mic, headphone and 1394 to mount it easier.(dont need em anyhow)

Fixed!... Not sure which wire did it, but 1st thing I did was get rid of any wire I didnt need. After that,problem solved.


Enough wiring for now, back to building. I had to make room for the DVI/HDMI, sound cable, etc. to leave the inside of the case.

You can probably see the cracks, The piece shattered during cutting. Just screwing around I wanted to see if I could salvage it.... It worked!!!

I finished the fan/window frames, I did end up redoing them all the second way I mentioned earlier. It looked so much better, and will stand up to more fan changes than the otherway. I also did the same thing to any other opening... The inside cavity is now sealed tight.

Made a home for the clock/power buttons.

And to bring every1 up to date, I managed to get a coat of primer on the outside of the case, wasnt really necessary yet as I still have a few more things to build into the inside but I really wanted to seal everything on the outside.





Some teaser pics with a few parts in place.
Heres the USB ports, fan controller and PSU installed.(well sittin in there place)



The clock/power buttons.

Backside.... Had to make some mounts to get it to work, Im very happy with what I made.

And of course the pics wouldnt be complete without the FZEs (There not sitting even there, 1 has a 38mm fan the other a 25mm but ya get the idea)

I had a pic with my motherboard installed but I dont remember what drive it was saved on so I used my 'template'. (probably have close to 1000 pics of this build on different drives, I need to organize )

Alright well thats what I have for today, enjoy!

 

Still some amazing stuff, man, I'd love to have such a great case! A nice motherboard hase to be seen! great job on this!

 

Very unique... I'm hooked.

Different approach to the convection currents... Rather than design around hot air rising, it seems you've chosen to let cold air fall.

Can't wait to see more!

 

Looks fantastic!