bit-tech.net

The_R1_Kid · 26th Dec 2010, 09:11

Hello all, I figured I would share my Billet PC Build. I Have been in desperate need of a
work PC upgrade for a long time. The main purpose of my work PC is For CAD, CAM, FEA, and
CFD. Needless to say I am in need of horse power.

Specs are:
Intel Core i7 980x extreme 3.3GHZ 6 core
12GB G skill DDR3 SDRAM 1600
ASUS Sabertooth X58 mother board
Noctua NH-D14 SSO CPU cooler
ATI FirePro V5800 1GB PCIE Work Station Video Card
OCZ Vertex 120GB Solid State Drive
Western digital 250GB Storage HD
Running Windows 7 professional 64bit, and Ubuntu

My PC this is replacing specs are:
5 year old AMD something or another 2.8Ghz (I think) 2 core
4gb ram
250gb HD
some cheap unstable 1gb gaming video card.

When It came time to pick out a PC case they all seemed expensive and didn't fit what I
wanted. What I was looking for was a stout case that could take getting transported
between work and home, had a nice carrying handle. And was decently cool looking. So I
decided to make my case...

Design
First step was to get a cad model all the Internal components.

The goal was to make the most compact case I could. So once modeling all the individual
parts I tried to package them in the smallest space possible wile still allowing decent air
flow. Thought not as small as I would like it ended up having the foot print of the
motherboard and about 10.5 inches tall.

Once everything thing was in place I designed the housing around the components. The other gray thing is the new PC next to my work PC mid tower case.

I didn't like any of the buttons available online so I decided to make that as well

Manufacturing

First step was to make a test plate to find the depth of cut for the corner rounding tool
and to test the engraving tool. It had been a few years since I had engraved any thing

After the test plate I needed to make a fixture to hold all the plates while machining. The
little black thing is a Mighty Bite they work pretty good at gripping parts. They push
sideways and bite down. The only down side is they leave a mark in aluminum but it's not
that bad.

Aligning the bottom plate to the machines x axis after being mounted in the fixture

bottom plate inside faced

bottom plate outside pocketed

Top plate switch housing mounting hole Threadmilled M25 x1.5

Top plate outside face pocketed

Front plate ready to machine

Front plate done

The only picture I took of the handle being machined

On Off button housing after 1st op

These are the soft jaws I made to machine the button housing and the button

Button after op 1

Button done

Those are the sheet metal brackets needed for the CD ROM and hard drives. Pretty simple to
make. Just clamp the sheet metal down to MDF so nothing is damaged when it gets machined
though the other side. The only trick is to machine or drill the holes first to secure the
part down with self tapping screws before machining the parts outside contour.

Assembly

That's all the computer parts. They took up my whole kitchen table. 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound box.

bottom plate

top plate

right plate

left plate

rear plate

front plate

on off button parts

I had to trim the massive amount of wires coming out of the power supply. To reduce the
chance of a short I trimmed each wire at a different height so the couldn't touch each other the heat shrinked them.

one part I forgot about was the PC speaker. So I just scavenged one from an old PC case. I
trimmed it down really short and heat shrinked the whole thing. It is pretty stiff and doesn’t flop around.

Most gamers would scoff at the specs and price of this card. But in the cad world the card
needs to work at near 100% capacity all day and remain stable. This card can do it. In my
experience even high end gaming card start having problems after a short time, and then die
an early death.

last part in place

The button lit up is hard to get a decent picture of. It looks pretty good, other than a
internal crack that developed after I drilled the 5mm hole for the LED. Oh well I might remake the button if I dissemble the case to anodize it.

Mattmc91 · 26th Dec 2010, 09:15

Brilliant. I have the same power supply and I can vouch for the octopus of cables.

How are you finding the NH-D14 on the CPU? Mines going on an i7 next month

Lovely build, cost much for the case in total?

Nexxo · 26th Dec 2010, 09:19

^^^ Now THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a project log.

Sheer utter awesome. Don't forget the cheesecake protection system!

Nealieboyee · 26th Dec 2010, 09:27

Yeah Picture and plan, THEN actual build pics, THEN final pics. Its the way its done!

This case is awesome!. Do you have any issues with the cooler hanging upside down, or any of the other components?

That thing looks solid, well done mate.

Kovoet · 26th Dec 2010, 09:56

For the first time on these forums I am speechless and not sure what to say maybe all I can say is OMFG WOW

Mankz · 26th Dec 2010, 10:07

Now THAT isnt a stale copy of a mod log ive seen before.

Matticus · 26th Dec 2010, 10:17

Hells yes, what a build.

I hope I am not the only one that thinks one side should be turned into the mother of all sandwich makers?

Burnout21 · 26th Dec 2010, 11:00

Wish langer would learn from this log.

The idea of a project log is to actually finish the project!

DeadP1xels · 26th Dec 2010, 11:04

wow amazing!

KidMod-Southpaw · 26th Dec 2010, 11:15

WOW, just, plain, epic. What are you using to keep the mobo upside down? I think it'll deform with regular standoffs.

ringo · 26th Dec 2010, 11:15

Cool Case in a nice milled look. Why you don't change the front plate of the optical drive?

Matticus · 26th Dec 2010, 11:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by ringo

Cool Case in a nice milled look. Why you don't change the front plate of the optical drive?

Good idea, would love to see the Dvd drive with a machined alu front.

jrs77 · 26th Dec 2010, 13:11

Very nice machined case.

Now turn the whole concept upside-down with the motherbard flat on the bottom and it'd be perfect.

The_R1_Kid · 26th Dec 2010, 22:29

Thanks Everyone.

The case cost $150 in materials and another $50 for the 1/4 inch corner rounding tool. The NH-D14 is working great. All the reviews I read about it being hard to install were BS. If it does get hot I have provisions to duct fresh air from outside to the heat exchanger then duct it out of the case.

The Cooler is mounted really well to the mother board. Also it is supported with cables wedged between the cdrom and it. I was going to make a bracket for extra support but the wires are doing a good job.

I am using normal stand offs. I'm not worried about anything deforming. I think there is more stress on the mother board when the unsupported pc cooler is mounted in a traditional case. All the components hanging off the motherboard have a secondary mounting to take the stress off the mother board.

I would like to do something with the cd rom faceplate but i need to move on to other projects i may paint it gray. I suppose i could machine a face plate if i get bored one day.

wahoomcdaniel · 27th Dec 2010, 00:03

Very cool PC. Nice work.

jhanlon303 · 27th Dec 2010, 02:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexxo

^^^ Now THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a project log.

/snip

I'll probably get the BanHammer for this, but I disagree.

Let me explain.

It is a beautiful mod. Finally had to happen. Full CNC case. Like Dark Blade. Work of art. But...

It is not a project log in the spirit of Bit-Tech!!! This is Show and Tell.

A project log on Bit-Tech is a social community commitment. Should have interaction with our community. Where is/are the pauses for comments during construction? Where is the opportunity to become part of the social circle?

Have we become viewers of finished projects only?

I see a good Project Log as a commitment to Bit-Tech. An interactive open door into how we modders think, design, build, make mistakes, listen to feedback, comment on such.

This is not a Project Log. This is a "Look what I have done log"

john

talladega · 27th Dec 2010, 04:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhanlon303

I'll probably get the BanHammer for this, but I disagree.

Let me explain.

It is a beautiful mod. Finally had to happen. Full CNC case. Like Dark Blade. Work of art. But...

It is not a project log in the spirit of Bit-Tech!!! This is Show and Tell.

A project log on Bit-Tech is a social community commitment. Should have interaction with our community. Where is/are the pauses for comments during construction? Where is the opportunity to become part of the social circle?

Have we become viewers of finished projects only?

I see a good Project Log as a commitment to Bit-Tech. An interactive open door into how we modders think, design, build, make mistakes, listen to feedback, comment on such.

This is not a Project Log. This is a "Look what I have done log"

john

Nexxo · 27th Dec 2010, 09:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhanlon303

I'll probably get the BanHammer for this, but I disagree.

Let me explain.

It is a beautiful mod. Finally had to happen. Full CNC case. Like Dark Blade. Work of art. But...

It is not a project log in the spirit of Bit-Tech!!! This is Show and Tell.

A project log on Bit-Tech is a social community commitment. Should have interaction with our community. Where is/are the pauses for comments during construction? Where is the opportunity to become part of the social circle?

Have we become viewers of finished projects only?

I see a good Project Log as a commitment to Bit-Tech. An interactive open door into how we modders think, design, build, make mistakes, listen to feedback, comment on such.

This is not a Project Log. This is a "Look what I have done log"

john

1. You can't banhammer Yoda. You can't banhammer Gandalf or Morpheus. You can't banhammer jhanlon303. Don't talk crazy.

2. Nobody gets banhammered just for having a different view. This isn't Sparta, THIS IS BIT-TECH!!!

3. I see your point, and even agree to an extent, but it was more a comment on someone posting pictures of real work in progress in his first post --not just a few concept sketches and perhaps, if feeling particularly creative, pictures of a bunch of parts --or just pictures of a wishlist of to-be-purchased parts, but actual work. Perhaps this log has gone too far to the other extreme, but at least it shows some work and we can ask questions and give feedback now.

Waynio · 27th Dec 2010, 12:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nexxo

1. You can't banhammer Yoda. You can't banhammer Gandalf or Morpheus. You can't banhammer jhanlon303. Don't talk crazy.

LOL awesome

, I agree with Yoda

sorry, John

.

Great solid looking case though The_R1_Kid

.

Unicorn · 27th Dec 2010, 14:48

Two posts?

How is that a project log? When, in the long history of modding and bit-tech, has two posts been a project log?!

I am 100% in agreement with John on this. Move it to the modding section.

It's a great build though, my comments about the log itself are in no way meant to detract from the skill and effort that has gone into creating this. I genuinely admire the design and execution

26th Dec 2010, 09:11	#1
The_R1_Kid What's a Dremel? Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Salem, OR Posts: 8	Machined Billet Alumium Cased Power PC Hello all, I figured I would share my Billet PC Build. I Have been in desperate need of a work PC upgrade for a long time. The main purpose of my work PC is For CAD, CAM, FEA, and CFD. Needless to say I am in need of horse power. Specs are: Intel Core i7 980x extreme 3.3GHZ 6 core 12GB G skill DDR3 SDRAM 1600 ASUS Sabertooth X58 mother board Noctua NH-D14 SSO CPU cooler ATI FirePro V5800 1GB PCIE Work Station Video Card OCZ Vertex 120GB Solid State Drive Western digital 250GB Storage HD Running Windows 7 professional 64bit, and Ubuntu My PC this is replacing specs are: 5 year old AMD something or another 2.8Ghz (I think) 2 core 4gb ram 250gb HD some cheap unstable 1gb gaming video card. When It came time to pick out a PC case they all seemed expensive and didn't fit what I wanted. What I was looking for was a stout case that could take getting transported between work and home, had a nice carrying handle. And was decently cool looking. So I decided to make my case... Design First step was to get a cad model all the Internal components. The goal was to make the most compact case I could. So once modeling all the individual parts I tried to package them in the smallest space possible wile still allowing decent air flow. Thought not as small as I would like it ended up having the foot print of the motherboard and about 10.5 inches tall. Once everything thing was in place I designed the housing around the components. The other gray thing is the new PC next to my work PC mid tower case. I didn't like any of the buttons available online so I decided to make that as well Manufacturing First step was to make a test plate to find the depth of cut for the corner rounding tool and to test the engraving tool. It had been a few years since I had engraved any thing After the test plate I needed to make a fixture to hold all the plates while machining. The little black thing is a Mighty Bite they work pretty good at gripping parts. They push sideways and bite down. The only down side is they leave a mark in aluminum but it's not that bad. Aligning the bottom plate to the machines x axis after being mounted in the fixture bottom plate inside faced bottom plate outside pocketed Top plate switch housing mounting hole Threadmilled M25 x1.5 Top plate outside face pocketed Front plate ready to machine Front plate done The only picture I took of the handle being machined On Off button housing after 1st op These are the soft jaws I made to machine the button housing and the button Button after op 1 Button done Those are the sheet metal brackets needed for the CD ROM and hard drives. Pretty simple to make. Just clamp the sheet metal down to MDF so nothing is damaged when it gets machined though the other side. The only trick is to machine or drill the holes first to secure the part down with self tapping screws before machining the parts outside contour. Assembly That's all the computer parts. They took up my whole kitchen table. 10 pounds of stuff in a 5 pound box. bottom plate top plate right plate left plate rear plate front plate on off button parts I had to trim the massive amount of wires coming out of the power supply. To reduce the chance of a short I trimmed each wire at a different height so the couldn't touch each other the heat shrinked them. one part I forgot about was the PC speaker. So I just scavenged one from an old PC case. I trimmed it down really short and heat shrinked the whole thing. It is pretty stiff and doesn’t flop around. Most gamers would scoff at the specs and price of this card. But in the cad world the card needs to work at near 100% capacity all day and remain stable. This card can do it. In my experience even high end gaming card start having problems after a short time, and then die an early death. last part in place The button lit up is hard to get a decent picture of. It looks pretty good, other than a internal crack that developed after I drilled the 5mm hole for the LED. Oh well I might remake the button if I dissemble the case to anodize it.

26th Dec 2010, 09:19	#3
Nexxo There is no rep for awesomeness. Moderator Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Birmingham, UK Posts: 22,507	^^^ Now THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is a project log. Sheer utter awesome. Don't forget the cheesecake protection system! __________________ "You actually hope to achieve your ideals, I just use mine as an excuse to hate everything" --specofdust "Right wing Republicans, all the murderousness of nut-job Iranian ayatollahs, none of the bearded coolness" --specofdust

26th Dec 2010, 09:27	#4
Nealieboyee Packaging Master! Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Lusaka, Zambia Posts: 2,998	Yeah Picture and plan, THEN actual build pics, THEN final pics. Its the way its done! This case is awesome!. Do you have any issues with the cooler hanging upside down, or any of the other components? That thing looks solid, well done mate. __________________ Bonnie i3-2100T \| H61M-P31 \| 4GB DDR3 1333MHz \| 60GB OCZ Agility 3 SSD \| GTX 260

26th Dec 2010, 09:56	#5
Kovoet Do I or Don't I Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: London, Harrow Posts: 4,390	For the first time on these forums I am speechless and not sure what to say maybe all I can say is OMFG WOW __________________ [Coolermaster Cosmos II] [i7 i2700K] [Hydro H100i] [ASUS GTX680 DirectCUii Top] [16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz] [Asus Sabertooth Z77] [Corsair AX850] [1 x 300gb VelociRaptor] [1 x 1TB samsung F3] [Dell U2312H & U2311HM] [Corsair K90] [Belkin (razer) N52te] [ASUS ROG Vulcan] [120GB Corsair pro SSD] [ Mushkin 120GB deluxe SSD Sata 3 ][Logitech G9x] [ASUS Xonar DX soundcard] Asus Nexus Tablet

26th Dec 2010, 10:17	#7
Matticus ... Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 3,020	Hells yes, what a build. I hope I am not the only one that thinks one side should be turned into the mother of all sandwich makers? __________________ ::i5 - 750::P55M-UD2::8GB Corsair::5850::CM Silent Pro Gold::F3 1TB::OCZ Vertex 2E:: ::giffgaff::

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26th Dec 2010, 09:15	#2
Mattmc91 LOLS I TROL YOU Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Portsmouth Posts: 1,347	Brilliant. I have the same power supply and I can vouch for the octopus of cables. How are you finding the NH-D14 on the CPU? Mines going on an i7 next month Lovely build, cost much for the case in total?

26th Dec 2010, 10:07	#6
Mankz dat steak Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: SW1H Posts: 13,519	Now THAT isnt a stale copy of a mod log ive seen before.

26th Dec 2010, 11:00	#8
Burnout21 Is the daddy! Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Bindi's cupboard Posts: 8,084	Wish langer would learn from this log. The idea of a project log is to actually finish the project! __________________ Project log Mocha70 Workstation: Q6600, DFI P45-T2RS Plus, 8GB Reaper HPC, Quadro FX3450, 60Gb Vertex 2 Game: i7 930, GA-X58-USB3, 12GB Kingston, GTX280, 1Tb Seagate, WC

26th Dec 2010, 11:04	#9
DeadP1xels Music Enthusiast Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 4,312	wow amazing! __________________ deadp1xels@yahoo.co.uk

26th Dec 2010, 11:15	#10
KidMod-Southpaw Making You Feel Old Since 2010 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: Wigan Posts: 9,853	WOW, just, plain, epic. What are you using to keep the mobo upside down? I think it'll deform with regular standoffs. __________________ Project Logs: Refraction - Steampunk Flash Drive Silverstone PS07 - Asus M4A88TD M EVO - AMD X6 1055T - Asus 7790 Cu 1GB - 8GB Corsair Vengeance - Xonar DG - M4 128GB - Frio - Antec 650W - Dell U2312HM X2 - Poker MX Red - Sennheiser HD 598 - IcyBox3219 (WD Red 1TB X2) "The fear in my eyes when my lass almost opened contacts, and with the name Alessandro, yours comes up very near the top." - Blazza181

26th Dec 2010, 11:15	#11
ringo Supermodder Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: lower bavaria Posts: 322	Cool Case in a nice milled look. Why you don't change the front plate of the optical drive?

26th Dec 2010, 13:11	#13
jrs77 theorycrafting Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Finland Posts: 2,533	Very nice machined case. Now turn the whole concept upside-down with the motherbard flat on the bottom and it'd be perfect. __________________ ...and allways remember, that the world is an orange! Define Mini Black [Gigabyte Z77MX-D3H \| intel i5-3450 \| Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600 8GB \| Gigabyte GTX660OC Windforce2 \| intel 330 120GB \| WD AV GP 1TB]

26th Dec 2010, 22:29	#14
The_R1_Kid What's a Dremel? Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Salem, OR Posts: 8	Thanks Everyone. The case cost $150 in materials and another $50 for the 1/4 inch corner rounding tool. The NH-D14 is working great. All the reviews I read about it being hard to install were BS. If it does get hot I have provisions to duct fresh air from outside to the heat exchanger then duct it out of the case. The Cooler is mounted really well to the mother board. Also it is supported with cables wedged between the cdrom and it. I was going to make a bracket for extra support but the wires are doing a good job. I am using normal stand offs. I'm not worried about anything deforming. I think there is more stress on the mother board when the unsupported pc cooler is mounted in a traditional case. All the components hanging off the motherboard have a secondary mounting to take the stress off the mother board. I would like to do something with the cd rom faceplate but i need to move on to other projects i may paint it gray. I suppose i could machine a face plate if i get bored one day.

27th Dec 2010, 00:03	#15
wahoomcdaniel Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: USA Posts: 169	Very cool PC. Nice work.

27th Dec 2010, 14:48	#20
Unicorn Uniform November India Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Northern Ireland Posts: 9,832	Two posts? How is that a project log? When, in the long history of modding and bit-tech, has two posts been a project log?! I am 100% in agreement with John on this. Move it to the modding section. It's a great build though, my comments about the log itself are in no way meant to detract from the skill and effort that has gone into creating this. I genuinely admire the design and execution __________________ \|F@H Rack Farm Project\|†\|Server & Network Overhaul Project\|†\|Celica GT4 Project [PLANNING]\| Email

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