I've had this thread up on hardforum for a couple of days now; I'm just going to copy over what I have there and then keep it updated in both places. I'm always really impressed when I see the great mods on this forum and over on bit-tech.net; the lighting, the cooling setups, the paint jobs, and the attention to details make all those project logs a ton of fun to follow. That being said I've wanted to build a small, but decently powerful, system that I could hide up under my desk for a while now. I really like the idea of having as much desk space and floor space free as possible and just having the monitor the only thing people really see. I thought about buying one of those HP iMac knock offs but I don't like having to give up control of the components, the price, and having to forgo the fun of building it myself . I also didn't want to spend too much on this build. The parts I used are: Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 Wolfdale 2.53GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500AAKS 250GB Sparkle 270W ATX12V V2.2/ EPS12V Power Supply GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Galaxy nVidia 9600 GT 512MB Low Profile Video Card I also wanted the system to be as small as possible so I wouldn't be smashing my knees on it every 10 seconds while sitting at my desk. The "tallest" two items in my system are the video card and the power supply, both measuring about 3 1/4 inches which is acceptable for what I want in the form factor. However the hard drive, mounted on its side was about 4 inches or so; that was too tall, especially since this case is going to be made out of half inch HDF. And I didn't want to mount it in a normal horizontal position would make the case too wide for what I want. I got around this by ordering a PCIe riser card off of ebay; now the video card only goes up about 1.6 inches. Since the hard drive is only about an inch tall I'd have enough room to mount it above the video card without increasing the height of the case itself. In the end the dimensions of the enclosure are about 13"x10.5"x3.75". That's small enough that I can mount it in the back of my desk in the corner and not have to worry about bumping into it. Below are some sketches of the basics of how the components will fit together and how the case will look: Components only: Case top view: Case front view: Case back view: Case angled view: I've already started on the case itself. The main structure is put together, but I still need to drill some air intakes in the side, cut a back plate out (not sure what to use, metal or plexi, thoughts?), and come up with a hard drive holder I can attach to the inside of the case. Also, I am planning on painting this case (even though it will be hidden) as kind of a practice run for when I create a small case to house a DVD and maybe a card reader. So that means I have a bunch of sanding still to do to get the box ready for priming and painting. I'll post pics of the box tomorrow.
I meant to post some photos of the case yesterday and the progress I'd made on it, but I got distracted by actually building the case and later by my girlfriend and Christmas shopping. However, the good news is I have more photos to post than I did before, and I finally came up with a way to mount this case that I'm happy with. Before I get too in depth on that point tough, here's a rough idea of how the case will be mounted up under my desk: Computer under the desk: The desk itself measures about 5' by 2 1/2' and stands about 30" tall. It's just one of those kind of build your own desks from Ikea; only cost me about $50 and it's pretty damn sturdy. Also, it has no drawers which is the look I like in a desk. The case itself is pretty close to finished, hardware wise. There are still a few things I need to finish: drill holes for the 2 80mm fans drill holes for hard drive support fabricate a back plate for the PSU, Mobo, and Video card prime it paint it clear coat it Here's what it currently looks like. There are some holes I had to fill in on the top of the case that were originally drilled to hold the mounting rail, but then I realized that mounting system wouldn't work. Also, I know some of the screws are pretty visible in the pics; I'm not too worried about them when I paint because I'm mostly painting this for practice when I make the external DVD enclosure. Case front: Case front and bottom: Case side and bondo job: Originally when I came up with this concept I planned on mounting this case using sliding drawer rails like you'd have in a kitchen or a bathroom. However, after attaching those rails to the bottom of my desk I realized there wasn't really any way to secure them, and they weren't particularly sturdy. So what I came up with instead was an L brace bent into a U shape of sorts. Case mounting rail: Case mounting rail 2: Mounting rail demo: Mounting rail demo 2: Mounting rail demo 3: The rails are pretty ghetto looking , but I've got pretty limited tools to work with. This whole project is being completed with a hacksaw, a jigsaw, and drill. Oh and a ****-ton of sanding and filing. Also, I don't really have a good workstation for this stuff. I'm literally having to do this stuff on the back steps of the townhouse I'm renting a room in . Considering all that, I don't feel too bad about the ghettoness of how it looks. The darker gray stuff on the mounting rails is JB weld. The rails are pretty sturdy, and I'm not sure if I'm going to paint them or not. If I do, I'll paint them white. Here are a few more pics for today. Here is a size comparison of a Lian-li mATX board vs. the case I built. The Lian-li is about an inch and a half or 2 inches taller than the case I've built. Here are the rails mounted to the bottom of my desk. They are really solid. I thought I was going to have to apply some adhesive to the tops of them beforehand, but these things are really secured on there well. Here is the case resting in the rails. I put the rails in pretty much perfectly, but the case slides in so tight now that I'm pretty sure any paint job I perform on this case is going to get screwed up. I'll still be doing it though . Any ideas how I can protect the paint job? I'll be taking care of that gap at the top of the case (between the case top and the desk bottom) by applying some thin weather stripping I picked up at the home depot. Here's my not-so-tidy Ikea cable organizer. I'll be redoing this when I finish with the case. And finally, a distance shot of the whole desk. When you're sitting at it you can't see the computer case at all. It's starting to look pretty slick IMO . Oh and I'll be getting a new power strip with keyholes so I can affix that to the bottom of my desk as well.
You could always use some felt strips on the case or rails to protect from damage, and add a bit of vibration dampening. You may need to make the case and rails abit less tight for a smoother slide aswell. All in all a nice idea, keep it up and good luck.
So tonight I got the motherboard screws, the power supply fixture and the fan holes all set up. So I decided to go ahead and test out the enclosure. Here is the case before setting everything up inside of it. Just the fans and the power supply: Here's the case with everything inside it. I don't have a mounting bracket set up for the hard drive yet so it's sitting out in front of the case for now: And finally a view of the case from the front: I'm going to have to figure something out for cable management. I'm thinking of screwing some small hooks in between the two fans and trying to hold down all the cables there.
This is a great idea, and great creation! sleek wire free and uncluttered desks are great, though mine is never that way! I second the felt strips (probably best on the outside and bottom of the case) I don't know how you're thinking of mounting the hd, but you might want to put it under the gfx card. I worry about it falling on top of the card. You could make a single mounting piece that holds both card on the riser as well as the hd and mount it to the other side of the case from the psu..
I had a bit of a setback last night. The computer is pretty heavy all put together so I wanted to make sure the rails I'd built were strong enough to hold it. They may have been, but the sure weren't strong enough to deal with me pulling on them. My rails broke last night; I guess JB Weld isn't as strong as I'd hoped. I'm going to look into some other options (rivets probably) to getting the rails redone. Also, sound dampening has become very important. When this thing was sitting on my desk it made a very noticeable humming now. If I lifted the computer even a half inch off the desk the noise completely disappeared. Hmmmm.... I like the idea of doing the hdd hold and the video card holder as a single piece. I'm going to have to look into that for sure. If I did that I'd have more surface area to work with when screwing the thing into the side of the case. Also, I'm going to remake the rails since they broke and I'm going to make them a little taller and space them a little wider so they're not such a tight fit. I'll be covering the bottom and inner sides of the rails with low duty felt. Since JB Weld wasn't as strong as advertised I think I'll be riveting the rails together this time.
