Scratch Build – In Progress Project Vika.A

Blabla

Just recently i felt the need to build myself a media-storage (and possibly backup) box. I chose the Intel Essential Series D945GCLF2. Beside that i already had 2 1gb ddr2 modules (only one can be used in the board - what a waste) and an enermax psu, 1 80gb pata (system) and 2 1tb sata disks. So far there's nothing special about that.

The "catch"

I have an Ikea desk (it's called Vika Amon/Vika Annefors - whatever) with 2 racks left and right. I wanted my new storage-box to sit nicely in one of the compartments. I didn't find a tolerably sized case, so i took the chance to enter the world of case-modding and build one from scratch.


I started to "design" what i approximately had in mind in sketchup (thanks to all who posted stuff to the Sketchup Components Collection).







Now, with a plan and numbers at hand i ordered myself some plexiglass

4 x 25mm thick, 130 x25mm
2 x 10mm thick, 155 x500mm (Left, Right)
1 x 10mm thick, 226 x270mm (Harddisk-Tray)
1 x 10mm thick, 226 x180mm (Mainboard-Tray)
3 x 15mm thick, 226 x155mm (Front, Back and Middle)
2 x 10mm thick, 525 x246mm (Base, Top)

from the exceptionally nice Mrs Schneider. Meanwhile i bought some brass pins, grub screws, allen screws and a jigsaw so work could begin as soon as the plexi arrived.














After i completed the structural parts i started to cut out holes for the psu and mainboard.











As you can see - i have no nerves for jig-sawing. I will have to do some serious improvements on these cut-lines with a file and sanding paper, but this will be subject for the next update.

Thanks for reading, sorry for the bad pics. Comments and especially tips welcome, but go easy on me, it's my first time.

 

very very nice and clean

 

Looking good so far. Some filing would help alot, but I see you are going to do that.
So how are you going to turn it on and off?

 

absolutely

Uhm. I'll find a place for a switch... probably above or below the 2 fans.

I didn't decide on a switch yet. I just placed an order for 1x120 Enermax Twister Cluster (to replace the PSU-fan) and 2x92mm Enermax Twister Cluster fans, so a white ring bulgin switch would be my favorite atm. I have to find a retailer where shipping isn't more expensive then the switch tough.

 

minor update

I did lots of filing today. Looks better now - i'll do the finishing touches when i remove the protective sheets..

I replaced the psu-fan with a pretty awesome new enermax twister fan i got from here.

 

Just had half an hour, so i cut out the front fanholes.

 

That looks very nice. Function with a touch of flair! much better after the filing.
what are grub screws?

 

thanks

the small one to the left is - as far as i know - called grub screw (or maggot screw if it's translated literally from german to english )

i used them to keep the pins fixed if i remove the allen screws.

 

I cut off the upper part of the separator between HDD-compartment and mainboard-space so the fans will have a chance to serve their purpose.



Result - again after some filing and sanding. Also note the totally useless angle i took the image ..

 

Lately I cut some holes for cable management.





Up next:

.) more PSU work (shorten cables)
.) power switch
.) aesthetics

Concerning the 3rd point I'm pondering wether to

.) leave the whole thing clear and spend time with sanding and flamepolishing or to paint the inside of the case white to make it blend with it's natural environment (the table). One of the pro-painting arguments would be the airbrush-equipment including lots of white color i found at work in a cupboard.

.) keep the corners with sharp 90° angles or to soften them altough i don't have tools that would help getting a nice result.

What would the experts do?

 

I do not profess to be an expert but I can try to offer some thoughts.
First off the work so far is very nice. You have some hole drilling skills. Mine never turn out straight, so ..
If you paint the inside white some of the holes and screws will still show from the outside. Remote control cars are painted from the inside and look good. Maybe not paint the whole thing but tape off areas inside that will be like windows when the tape is removed.

An all clear case is not a bad thing if you spend some time on cable management and details.

My thoughts.

Now my question. What is that keyboard in the pictures?

john

 

I already tried to paint a piece of leftover plexi from the back and the result is quite nice.

Keeping parts of it unpainted is a nice idea, should have thought of that myself.

Do you think painting the holes would help? I guess those brass pins will scratch the paint too easy but i'm not too happy with the idea of visible pins if i paint it.

It's an old (G4-G5 time) Apple keyboard.

 

looks very nice and professional, also are you going to put grills over the fans? but you'll probably have that under anesthetics.
Looks Great!

 

Thanks

Probability for grills: ~80% yes

 

nice storage box and in plexiglass really good. keep it up man

 

Thanks, i'll try hard.

I decided to paint the case white from the inside and keep parts of it see-through (left, right and top of the hdd-section and the top above the mainboard). I'll also paint the hdd/mainboard seperator in the center and the false bottom, where the hdds will be sitting, but probably in a different color (red? black? or should i stay with the white?)

On a side-note: I ordered white cable-sleeving material and a white-ring-illuminated vandal resistant switch.

 

After a bit of christmas holidaying it's time for an other update.

My last plans where to work on
.) PSU (shorten cables, braiding)
.) power switch
.) aesthetics


My bulgin power switch got delivered and i managed to put a hole into the front of the case. So far for the success-part of this update.
Where i completely failed was the PSU. I shortened the atx-cable to an ok length and added white cable braiding but when i tried to plug it into the mainboard it didn't work. Shorting the black and green cables of the atx-plug i the fan of the PSU was spinning but it refused to work as soon as i connected the mainboard. I spent approximately 12 hours searching for the problem - of course i didn't find it, so in a moment of weakness i threw the PSU away and got another one. I'm a bit intimidated to start over with my "enhancements" concerning braiding and shortening so i decided to put that to a hold and go on with aesthetics.
I began to prepare the plexi-pieces for painting. I sanded the inside with 180grit paper and left parts of the pieces covered with protective foil to get windows.



Top panel with 2 rectangular windows above mainboard and above hdd comparment





Front panel with the hole for the power-switch.



Heap of stuff to be painted. Sadly i won't be able to do it before the weekend around Jan 24th.

 

It's looking good so far.
Sorry to hear about the trouble with the PSU and all that wasted time troubleshooting. I know how frustrating that can be. Without knowing the details of what you did, I'd guess that the connector pins may have been reinserted into the molex either in the wrong locations at some points, or may not have been fully seated. (Since I'm assuming you tried it with the PSU before you started to mod it.)

 

Firstly - thanks for sharing your thought.
Yep, it worked before my little operation.. I noted the color layout so i wouldn't mix anything up (and i believed to remember that "same color" always means "same voltage") but you're probably right and thats where i ruined the PSU. I'm pretty sure all the pins have been fully seated tough.

 

due to some really silly coincidences i lost the images between my latest post and the weekend, so there the only thing i can show you are the final images.

i decided against painting after some test-spraying; the paint (2 layers) was very easily scratched and i didn't want to go for an additional layer of clearcoat. so i chose adhesive film instead of paint.

i then dropped the window-idea - as you can see in the last image - nobody would ever see it


so this was my first mod... thanks for all who read my log and helped me with their input. i learned a lot and am already looking forward to my next case