Scratch Build – In Progress Project "Cube" - Small Update [December, 15]

Hello Bit-tech!
I'm not new to reading forums, but a newbie to post a worklog here, so please be charitable.
I am from Odessa, Ukraine.
So, what to begin with? Let's begin with the logo for the build



Hardware, that I'm going to use in my main rig:

Motherboard - Foxconn A7GM-S sAM2+ mATX
CPU - AMD Athlon x2 7750 BE
Ram - Geil Ultra CL4 PC6400 2x1 Gb
Video Card - Sapphire 4850 Vapor-X 512Mb
HDD - WD 3200AAKS 320Gb
PSU - CoolerMaster RS-460-PCAP-A3
Fan Controller - Akasa Fancontrol PRO
CPU Cooler - CoolerMaster GeminII
Northbridge Cooler - Thermalright HR-05/IFX
Ram Cooler - Scythe Kama Wing alu
Fans - 2x Scythe Slip Stream 1900rpm + 2x Scythe Gentle Typhoon 800rpm + 1x Arctic Cooling F9225l 1500rpm

Next I'd like to show you the very first sketch made in Corel, how the front panel should look like -



It's very rough and doesn't display the whole concept of the case. so I made a cardboard 1:1 model of the future case -



Excuse me for the quality of the picture, but i had nothing to shoot with except my Nokia 3650 at that moment
The dimesions of the case are 28(L)x25(H)x36(L)cm, so the work is going to be nery tight. As you can see, the inner space will be divided into 2 parts - lower for the PSU, HDD, optical drive, and upper for the Mobo+Video.

Materials I'm going to use in this build are 15x1mm aluminum angled profile, 1,6mm thick sheets of brushed aluminum for the panels and 3mm thick transparent acrylic for the windows on the side and top panels.

Let's start our dremels, gentlemen!

 

I'm looking forward to this one. Love shuttle-like rigs

 

Wow that's a very good mock up.
The design of the front panel looks nice and stylish.
I can't wait to see the finished product..

 

nice one,
like the cardboard model

 

Whow, thats an real inpressive cardboard mockup model. I like it Gonna follow this!

 

thank's guys! i'm pleased you like my cardbord skills
update is coming soon

 

This looks very promising
Nice color theme to, black and orange can't go wrong

 

Update #1. Hardware

So, here's the first update, where I'll show you the hardware

Motherboard -



CPU -



RAM -



CPU heatsink -



Northbridge heatsink -



RAM heatsink -



Video Card -



Fans -




Here are the main characters of the build, that I'm going to use. Let's begin cutting and sanding!

 

Update #2. Sheet and L-profile aluminum

First of all we have to mark out the panels of the case. I started with the first sheet of aluminum, from which I was going to make the floor of the case and the motherboard tray.



Measuring and marking...



And before cutting, REMEMBER - SAFETY FIRST!



Cutting floor and MB tray



Then using the same technique and one of the old cases, that i found in the office, i made a rear panel with I/O shield an PCI brackets.

Here, I have to apologize, but I've lost my photos of making the frame for the case, so there's no "how to's" of the process, only the result with the MB tray and rear panel attached to the place







The bottom panel will be attached later, when I finish HDD cage and its mounting

 

Looking good so far mate .
I just finished changing the size of my pics on photobucket, all 300 of them, took about 2 to 3 hours so hopefully my projects will get on soon, I think I'll have to repost my current one thou, lots of pics in it and did them all on 1 post, over a month of updates in 1 post , then I checked the proper way, so I think I'll have to re post it .

 

Well, that is gonna be a real nice mod

BUT,
I think cable managment is gonna be a PITA in this situation. I suggest you make some holes on the side of your Mobo tray for the USB, firewire and front panel headers.

 

of course they will be cut, it' only problem of time

 

Tiny teaser-update

So, here's one "eye candy" shot of the current progress




Soon I'll post more updates

 

Looks really nice!

 

Update #3. Lots been done

From the last update lots of modding have been done.
First the fan controller arrived - it's gonna match the color scheme perfectly. I like this model very much, cause it also has temperature monitoring.




Then i moved to Video card - the most beautiful 4850 on the market - Sapphire 4850 Vapor-X



Next thing in the program - lasercutting. I need windows for the side and front panels and a fans mounting plate fo the front intake fans. So I've made a quick sketch in CorelDraw and sent it to my friend, who has a lasercutter.




And soon they returned to me in all their acrylic beauty





With the Scythe Gentle Typhoon fans attached



Next - Ram heatsinks. And here I've got a problem with my Geil Ultra. One of the modules didn't want to let me take it apart, so the heatspreader came off with some memory chips



All i had to do was to go go to the nearest computer store and buy the cheapest 1Gb module I could find. It was Samsung DDR2 PC6400 CL6. So now I'm running dual channel mode with 1 stick of Geil Ultra CL4 and one stick of Samsung CL6 both running 800MHz @ 5-5-5-15 2,08V.

Now it's time for the assembly and test run. Everything fits perfectly, CM GeminII doesn't interfere with HR-05/IFX, color sceme is good too ^__^









So now it's time for cable sleeving. First of all I ordered 10m of 1/8" TechFLEX FlexoPET black and 5m of 1/8" TechFLEX FlexoPET blue sleeving -



I decided to make double-color scheme with non-symmetrical layout. Taking apart all the connectors wasn't very easy, especially using the "staples method"



But I invented a tool, made of a sushi stick and two staples, that gave me an opportunity to work much faster



Here are the mail steps of sleeving -







Half of the 24-pin connector done -



Fully sleeved 24-pin connector



4-pin CPU power connector



6-pin PCI-E power connector



All the main connectors done



At this part I ran out of 1/8" sleeving, so SATA and molex connectors will be sleeved later. But from the old build I have some more 3/8" sleeving, so I used it on mya SATA data cable and front panel UBS cable.





Also I've made a nice IDE cable, that looks almost perfect:









I'm going to use it with my old DVD-RW.


But let's move to the case itself. I've cut more cable management holes, placed the MB stand-offs on their place and temporary attached the bottom panel using the masking tape.







For the temporary feet I'm using Teflon case feet from the FANSIS Anti-Vibration kit. Next i've made a rear panel from the old case and aluminum plate



And now it's possible to test fit everything in the case:




















Almost forgot - for the HDD cage I'm using is the one from the donor case






That's all for now. I'm waiting for the case panels to arrive from cutting, so I could begin final assembling of the case.

Stay tuned!

 

very nice, good clear photos to. looks like it factory made. МОЛОДЦА!

 

thanks man

 

A small question

Guys, I need your advice, cause my brain's going to explode. I don't know what to do with the orientation of the case fans

Should I make the front fans "intake"


Or "exhaust"


Or combine them?


blue arrows mean intake, red - exhaust.

Help me please!

 

Pashtet
Молодец, мне нравится! Хорошо что еще не перевелись "словянские братья" моддеры буду следить за твоим проектом, не вздумай бросить
Я тоже решил написать ворклог своего проекта:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=174110

Pashtet
The good fellow, is pleasant to me! Well that "brothers" modders yet were not Were gone I will watch your project, do not take in head to throw
I too have decided to write log the project:
http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=174110

 

Mixing the intake and exhaust won't do you much good.

I'd be inclined to think that exhausts would be your best bet... I've found that small cases (especially cube cases or cases with subfloors - IE both apply to your situation) benefit greatly from passive intake and active exhausts. It's hard to build up pockets of still air in small cases with good levels of exhaust.

I vote out for the slipstreams... And perhaps incorporate your CPU fans as intakes somehow.