Scratch Build – In Progress Project 517 - April 8th

Hello, this is my first post. It's also my first mod.
Sorry for my english but I'm no native speaker.

At first I wasn't going to post this mod, I was going to keep it to myself, but I decided to show it off because my experience could be apreciated by others starting out as I've learned and as I've took ideas from other posts.

Ok, so here is the deal, last september I built my first desktop PC, since the previous ones where OEM or notebooks. The setup is a Asus p8p67 m pro, since I wanted to build a SSF, but a mid-range and sort of powerful PC. The cpu of choice was a Core i5 2500k, 4 gigs of corsair xms3 ram, and a ATI Sapphire radeon 6770. There where a little gives and takes in the hardware. First the Motherboard, I wanted the z8 but there wasn't available in uAtx form factor. Now it is, but that's another story. Then the GPU, i wanted the 6770 vapor x, but they sold the one available 20 minutes before. Another give, was the case, I bought a chinese one, it included the PSU, a keyboard, mouse and some crappy speakers. It was ok for a couple of months until I had money to invest in a quality PSU.

Ok, enought rant, lets start and I'll be detailing things as pictures come. Hope you like It.

The reason I'm building this case is because the chinese one is not wide enough to hold a full size PSU. The psu I bought was a cooler master silent pro 600.
The goals are, in this order, size, temps and silence. Plus a concern is dust. I hate it, and where I live is abundant.

I've no sketches, because, as i said before, this wasn't planned as a work log nor to be shown. But the planning contempled, position of the hardware, airflow, etc. I've decided to go the route of Attila's Cygnus X1. This is motherboard tray in vertical position with the HDD on the back of the tray. To make the case shorter, I've decided to fit the PSU also in this "chamber" thus alowing the CPU & GPU to get fresh air without the heat generated from the HDD (not relevant) and the PSU (relevant under load). I will show some renders I've made, but not yet.

Pics.

From left to right, Thermaltake 120mm Tubo Fan (exhaust), Cooler Master PSU Silent Pro 600 and the huge HS

Cooler Master 612PWM

Aluminum, kobra sleeving and tools, Thermalright x-silent 140mm fan (in take), and wifi module.

4 aluminum sheets 300 x 300 mm and one 600 x 300 mm.

M3 Screw for the panels

Panel Screw compared to a 24 pin removal tool.

USB Wifi Module "stolen" from a Zotac ITX motherboard

USB Wifi Module Soldered to make cables longer, this module, will be conected directly to the MB and will be inside the case.

Thermaltake 120mm Fan. Exhaust

Modded MOLEX to PSU Conector, not the best result, I'm new, I admit it. This was made so I don't have a molex conector bothering me and will be cleaner when mounting.

PSU, I've to sleeve the 24 pin, and both eatx, what do you think? Do I void the guarantee and do it. Or is there other way? Or i just leave it that way (ugly) My main concern is to mess everything up or to kill the PSU when opening.

Motherboard tray mounted on top and botom holders. The tray is made of aluminum and is 1,5 mm. The holes where perforated using a dremel, and it's addition to make it like a router. The bit is a special 2.7 mm. And the thread was a pain to get here in Chile, because they are non standar, except of course in the computer industry. Luckly i found one and made my life really easy, other wise I would have to come up with something.

Motherboard Tray Backside, where the HDD and PSU will be mounted.

HDD Screw that holds the MB tray with the "brackets" L shape aluminum profile.

Screw protuding, it has to go.

Cut to size

Standoffs also had to be sized down.

Dremel + Pulse + Files

Also the pop rivets had to be cut down to size.

This process is easy, you push the pin, take the head and cut it, but REMEMBER aluminum gets HOT, REALLY HOT. I forgot this rule of thumb and grabbed the rivet's head and my finger sizzled like a steak on a pan. Now my fingerprint is "modded" I have a nice line thru it.

Bottom part finished. The top part is identical.

Rivets close up

We cutted the "legs" to size with the dremel, then we filed them down to size and squared.

Measuring to get it squared, this way we started to making the holes in the structures to pop some rivets. We used rivets because is faster and easy to do than screws. Plus they are cheaper and lighter.

Finished structure.

Beer can to apreciate the size.


Sorry for the long post and the pictures quality, I'll work on that next time. Hope you like it, and really hope that my experience can be useful to someone else. This probably would not be the coolest scratch build, but it I have no expectations and I believe in the decalogue of the good design. As long as is well build I'm Happy.

Hopefully nex weekend I will Modd some more, during the week I'll sleeve, with your advice, the PSU, the power switch (that I haven't shown) the wifi/bluetooth module. and maybe a USB Front panel that I haven decided yet.

Cheers.