Project Index 000 - Start of project 001 - More chassis parts cut + finished motherboard tray 002 - Micro-update: Black RAM 003 - Sanded chassis components + chassis test fit 004 - More chassis photos + thoughts about the theme and other things Hi everyone! After a long pause, I'm back with new worklog. This time it's going to be HTPC/Steambox, but I wanted something more original than your usual HTPC case. Hence I'm going to build it completely from scratch using only hand tools - Jigsaw will be the highest tech tool for this build. Material is mainly 3mm aluminium, but there might be some acrylic too for light effects. Components are pretty basic for this project - Mini-itx board with some fast memory and an APU. Plus Noctua cooler and Intel SSD. Oh, and 150W PicoPSU too. I gathered these parts over a long period of time so photos are a bit random.. But let's start with the APU: If someone is wondering why I'm using 5800K and not the newer 6800K, it's because I bought this CPU several months ago. In fact the system has been in use for a while, but just without the case.. Here's the CPU cooler I'm using. I think it's not recommended for 100W TDP processors, but seems to work just fine since I've disabled turbo and undervolted 5800K quite bit. And by the way, this is my first Noctua cooler ever! Pretty cool packaging too, huh? It's a bit hard to see, but this cooler does have a couple heatpipes: Rest of the components: Components installed: And yeah, I removed heatspreaders from the memory.. Orange color doesn't fit to this project and it was rather tight fit between the cooler and the PicoPSU. Random beauty shot.. And system running: Everything is working just fine.. Surprisingly fluid too, seems like APU+SSD+W8 is pretty nice combo. And now onto the good part! I started building with this easy part. Bending it was the hardest thing to do.. I don't have any fancy metal bending machine so I used a couple aluminium plates and hands instead. Luckily this is the only part that needs bending in this project.. Next I started to cut sidepanels. Drawing is printed on paper which is then glued to the aluminium. Looks pretty good.. After a while I had another sidepanel too and I couldn't help myself.. I just had to make a quick test fit to see how it looks. And yes, it should become a computer case and not a spaceship. More soon..
Thanks guys! Just some misc photos of the progress. Printed drawings: Rough cut parts: Motherboard tray sanded and ready to be painted. Now I just need to sand rest of the parts..
What is this witchcraft! Wish I could run fans with magic too! would save on electricity. Also looking awesome, keep up the good work, love the efficient yet sleek design!
Oh yeah! Another one from you! Wish i could file as smooth edges as you do. Looks like I still have much to learn.
If by magic you mean blowing into the fan to make it spin, then I'll bet your pretty damn magical too! Albeit pretty light headed if your trying to cool your PC that way That was my first guess as to how he did it at least lol
Thanks mate! It's just Noctua's new wireless fan technology.. Cable in the photo is just optional for older systems.
This is fantastic so far! I love the shape of the motherboard tray. Can't wait to see this come together!
Thanks! Just some fine tuning of components.. After removing heatspreaders from the memory, brown sides of the PCB's really started to bother me. Little bit work with marker made them look much better:
Buildlogs like this make me want to have 2 things. Crazy mod skills and a better cam.. Awesome work so far, the finish on the alu is amazing
sixfootsideburns, couldn't agree more. Meelobee, thanks! Your modding skills seem fine to me and good cameras are cheaper than ever.. Sanding these parts took forever..
