Scratch Build – Complete The Thing 3D Printed Case

Hello everyone,

This is my second 3D printed case.
I wanted to make small openair case that will have watercooling for cpu and air cooling for gpu.

I stole 3x80mm alphacool radiator from my old build and started to design new small case for it.
Now the case size is:
height = 315mm
width = 226mm
length = 315mm

I only have the watercooling parts for this build so i update the log when i know what i am going to put in it

Watercooling
Alphacool 3 X 80mm XT45 Radiator
Alphacool DC-LT Pump
Alphacool Eisblock XPX Cpu Block
Alphacool Cape Corp Res

Here is early pictures of the design:

 

Front panel is made from two pieces

 

Then i added little color for the case so here is colors that i will use

 

I have to take little more from the height because i wanted to print this case as a whole. I am using miniFactory Innovator so my limit is 310mm
So new height is 305mm

I added cut out for the MB so i can route all of the cables there



And cut out / grill on the gpu side for psu intake and rad exhaust

 

It might be really efficient in terms of cooling, with open air hardware, and I like the fact that a beautiful GPU like a founder's edition would be totally visible

 

I dont know yet what hardware i am going to use in this build but i hope i can get my hands on FE card because its looks so good.

Here is more pictures of the case.

I was testing how i can run the watercooling loop.

 

That looks promising. I like the grill pattern.

 

Thanks

Little update for the model

i made holes for the front and back panel.
Radiator will be mounted on the inner front panel and inner front panel is be mounted on the case with 6 screws
Outer front panel is mounted on the case with 4 screw and this will sandwich the panels so i think this will be enough to hold it together.
Back panel is mounted to the case by 6 screws.





Also i made holes for the passthrough fittings and pump bracket

 

This looks cool

 

If you add a spacer layer between the two front panels, It would allow the grill to pull air from the entire pattern, reduce the 'slapping' sound of the fans against a close object, and give you a pocket to add a light strip.
-Also, you could pull a "Defyant", and mount the grill with magnets for a super-clean face.

Any plans for side panels?

 

These are great ideas I think i am going to try and see what i can make.
For now i planned this to be openair case so no side panels.

 

This is a really nice concept. When you add the complete set of cabling, like screen, power, and such, I fear that it would mess up an otherwise really nice concept. You got all the external cabling in the rear, if the rear is downward facing, the always irritating external cabling can be really snugly handled. But it would sort of ruin the main frame concept, as I read your presentation here. Also, the trough and trough water fittings, are pretty far into the design, and may turn out difficult to work with. Your mainsection needs a ton of supports to print, but it you rather made 45deg slopes on the cut outs, and print it rear down on the print plate, it will probably print fine without any support material. Also, all external sides gets the same finnish. Your end-plates, will be facing up or down to the print plate, and thus will have a different finnish. To avoid support material for the motherboard standoffs, you can print them as cone, not a cylinder. If you keep the orientation, drop the rear sims, but channel the external cables through the main structure, that might be achieving more of the expression you might be looking for. MBP (mother board porn) design, with just plain MBs, actually works great and offers a great coherent expression. The main shape is typically associated with construction beams, so a more rough expression would work fine here. Also, you really should print this in PETG or something other than PLA. If you made a slot in the four horisonal ends, this would easily allow for you to print four identical mesh panels (if you do my cable trick), if you use a mesh pattern that supports it. This concept is really great, as it can be tailored to fit many expressions.

 

Somewhere in all that^ was a point I missed. You will need access to the internal plumbing. It looks like you are setting up for flex lines internally already, though.

Welcome to Bit-Tech, Frode.

 

Thanks Cheapskate.

As for the design, the tubes are accessible through the MB cutout as well. I missed that. My bad. But that cutout will need a ton of support to print.

 

You have some good points there. I haven't decided yet if i want to print this in two parts and glue them together because print time is so long and the printer i am using is in my work place.
For the finnish i am going to go my friends paint shop and try to do really good paintjob.

I think that hardest part will be decide best build order.

For Cheapskate´s idea i found these small magnets. So i will attach the inner panel with screws and outer panel with magnets.

 

The are the new version of the front panel with spacer and magnet holes and it did clean the look.

 

I made changes to the back panel.

Psu goes to bottom of the case and grill pattern is bigger. Also i made one 80mm fan mount.

There is room for two 80mm fans but i fear it would cause an issue with cable management

 

Someone used one of my suggestions.

 

It was really good idea

 

Do you have plans on building this for real? Your design looks awesome, man.