Hey folks- Oracle is now on what may be a permanent hiatus, so I have started to fiddle around with another project. I seem to be a fan of the cube, and this is no different, being 11 inches on all sides. The case should be almost entirely plexi glass as I happen to have piles of 3/16 acrylic laying around that needs to be used for something. The design really isn't that far out there, but what I plan to do with the lighting and paint should really set it apart. No previews or hints on that, you'll just have to wait and see. Now on with the pictures! Everyone knows how much I love sketchup... :beer: Working on the back panel. I still need to work on the curves on the PSU portion of the acrylic, they didn't turn out quite the way I wanted them. This little nub will be where the PCI/ AGP/ PCIe? cards screw in. Note the edge. That's just been rough filed and flame polished. All the exposed edges will be filed, sanded, and flamed polished to a glass-like finish before all is said and done. Waiting to become the hard drive racks. I'm trying to figure out a way to get a little rubber involved to insulate the rack from the rest of the case a bit. Haven't given it too much thought yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Now a little guessing game, 10 points to anyone who can figure out what new toy I bought, and what new toy I'm building:
Hmm the tools I have no idea about but that new toy you making looks like either a solar oven or solar collector of some sort.
O rings You could go for o-rings to dampen the hdds. 75mm, I'm not sure about the measurement in inches, which goes around the drive and is fastened to isolate it from the case. I've no pictures, but a common way is to use a 5.25" drive, and use strips to fasten the o-ring at each side. If you click here there are some pics that is quite self-explanatoric. Some people reports that heat may increase somewhat due to loss of contact with the cabinet, but with a custom case you should be able to direct the airflow in such a way as to take care of this.
10 Points! The only problem I have with suspension is it takes up way more space than I have if done traditionally. I've never really been a big fan of tradition anyway, and you gave me an idea, thanks! E
And the plexi bender is 99% completed! That would be a 14 x 5 x 1/4 piece of acrylic There is a little bowing in the middle, but that's my fault for not holding it long enough while making the bend. Playing with some 3/16 stuff. I left the last bend on there too long so it bubbled a bit, but I've got the timing down pretty well now. I still have to do a little cleanup, add some more sheet metal, and hook up the thermostat, but I'd say for a project that cost me all of zero dollars, this has turned out pretty well.
I've roughed out my plans for the hard drive rack, emphases on rough. All these pieces were taken straight from the table saw to glue, so no filing, polishing, or finishing was done. It might not make total sense to everybody just yet, but I'll have the whole thing made tomorrow, so bear with me. Someone on HardForum has asked me to try to watercool this thing, he's also been nice enough to donate some money to that cause (since I'm a broke college student ha). So tonight I'm going to try to figure out if its even possible to watercool an 11 inch cube internally. I'll post my results.
Well, technically it's possible. An 11 inch cube with a completely internal water cooling system? Apparently it's not outside the realm of possibility. We'll see...
assuming the 11"x11"x11" dimensions are outside dimensions and the plexi is 1/4" thick, that leaves 10.5" of vertical clearance inside. The smallest 120.2 I know of (MCR-220-QP) is around 11.5" tall.
The acrylic is 3/16, but other than that you're exactly correct. Notice the ports are all pointing to the side?
It's complicated, I'll post something in the Oracle project log thread in the near future explaining what's going on.
It all depends on your definition of reasonable haha. Two individual 120's have about an eighth of an inch in between them. What people don't seem to realize is how much space the end caps and hose barbs take up. If you look at my model, the barbs are turned to the side, that's the only way I can get that much cooling capacity in that small of a space. Make sense?
Please dont try to paint the tabs on top of the enclosure. It will turn out ****. Go ahead and paint all of the areas that face the HDD's that will look pretty damn slick.
