Case Mod - In Progress *** PHINIX AURORA *** - 12/10/14 - Grand Finale !!! It is done...

yes, yes we will

 

Curious to see where this goes, keep up the good work so far

 

Thanks guys!
As you can see I'm not dead I was working on something on the side and didn't have time to play with my Aurora. This weekend I had few moments so wanted to do something that will show some colors of my project.

As I showed and did last time I was outside, enjoying good weather (in last few weeks it has been cold and snowing here in Glasgow) I had cut out some rectangles from aluminum. There were going to be support plates for LEDs under drive cage shelves.
So I decided to cut them in half, they were bit too big. Then I drilled holes in them - I wanted to mount them under shelves by screwing them to it.

I marked holes on them...




..then drilled and then matched those holes on acrylic shelves...



Then I drilled holes in acrylic and pushed those brass inserts into the holes.
You can see the pattern there - two 5cm LED strips go in the aluminum plate, then turn over and screw it to the acrylic shelf.




And here's the sandwich
LEDs will be soldered together later.




Now, I had these pieces cut from blue acrylic.
Those are the bits for "drive envelopes" Yes, everything need to have unique names
I needed two 7mm deep/tall envelopes for SSDs and one 9.5mm tall for 2.5" HDD.
Now, those two pieces with lots of holes are for ATX and PCIe cables, I will get back to those later



Big blue piece on goes on white first...
Two small pieces go on each side... small squares will keep drives in place.




Top piece goes on top




Here is a little mock-up of the envelope.




Next two photos is just me playing with colors
I was taking all pieces for a bath.. Time to do some wet sanding on all edges before I start gluing them together...







First gluing long bit... and rest of them, one after another...




Boom.. first envelope ready...






..and glued to the big white piece...










Few good minutes later.. all three shelves ready to go!
Maybe edges don't look perfect, but they're really ok.
I noticed my special acrylic glue become solid for some reason (was waiting in the box for 2 years, so maybe time did its job...). So I had to use super glue, which leaves a bit of bright stains under acrylic bits. But at the end it all looks good I say...




It was time to try out the taller one with some spare HDD...




Fits nicely... good job.. Looks ok. Happy days...





That is all for now. Next time I will prepare radiator cage. Time to screw down the big boy and build it up with nice mesh.

Till next time

 

You're not dead! And that looks great!

 

Holy Acrylic Overdose Batman!!!


Seriously... good skills man.

 

Very inspiring, Mike. Makes me want to grab some sheets and create something!

 

That is a really neat design. Can't wait for more

 

Cheers guys!

I wanted a slightly different shade of blue but this was the only color I could get, apart of dark blue which was way too dark without light.

 

Don't second guess yourself, looks perfect

 

Looking good. We are stuck with a very limited range of colors sadly. The cost of custom or uncommon colors is brutal.

 

Very unique/cool idea!
But I have to ask: Will there be room enough for the cables running up to those hard drives? Won't the acrylic rods somehow block the path of the cables?

 

No, he account for that chance, and put in a little slot like area for the cables to run through right in front of the rod holes.

 

Yah, I saw the slot area, but I still think it will be a bit of a pain-in-the-ass to fit the connectors through that tiny slot. Oh well, we'll see.

 

Looks that you will have a nice case management.

Keep the good work so far.

 

Thanks guys

You're right Cheaps, as you said, those "interesting", different colors are so expensive that there is no point paying that amount of money for a piece of acrylic for our mods
I wish there were a lot cheaper and more available.
Well, what the hell.. blue is blue

Cheers Nutman!
sAnity nailed it - those small gaps right behind the drives will be the routing tunnel down to the bottom of the cage for all wiring.
That means power cable, which will be done 100% from scratch will be measured and cut to size ideally for those 3 drives. SATA cables I got are super small and super thin, thinnest and smallest you can get on market right now, really beautiful cables (blue SATA3 made by AKASA). So there won't be a problem sticking 3 of those ribbons in 4mm hole

Also LEDs wiring will go down there too.

 

more...

 

Those SSD shelves are gorgeous & smart, that will create a nice aurora, really nice acrylic work phinix, excellent progress.

 

I'm back !!!

Holy smokes... Waynio, sorry man, I missed your comment!
After my birthday I was sick for couple of weeks, then there was Easter, then I had my daughters birthday, so was pretty occupied for a last month, that is why there was no update. But I'm back now and did some work on Aurora, so it is time to share

Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, as you noticed those small acrylic elements are meant to give some additional blue accent to the whole internals. It is a bit hard now to imagine all aluminum parts coated in white satin finish, but I think (and hope!) it will make all nice composition.

---------------

So! It's been raining here in Scotland for last few days (more like a week I guess) and it looks like it will rain next week too
It is time to another small-ish update.
I caught some sun today (plus some sudden rain falls too... and did some work outside.

But before this I wanted to show you want I recently received.
Watercooling magicians from EK sent me more presents

As I showed before, EK gave me their waterblock for GTX670.
To complete its look and make it in project's color scheme, EK guys sent me white acetal top for it!
And that is not all!
They also sent me their latest reservoir! With additional white top and bottom bits!!!

Look at that!








I had to try those out and swapped top and bottom bits
What a beauty...



I wanted to thank EK again for all those fantastic items - these will blend in nicely to the whole internals.

 

I showed you guys those L shape frame bits before - these are the elements for radiator cover or "cage" if you like
Front of the case will be occupied by huge dual radiator with two fans. Some, 20mm exactly, will be sticking out from the internal part of the case to the front cover. This front cover is pretty thick so there is more than 2cm of space between end of internal case and front wall. So some part of radiator will sit inside, some in the front part of the cover. I hope that makes sense...

Now, radiator and fans will be covered with a nice wall, made of those L shape bits, narrow aluminium wall on the left and nice mesh inside the case.

Here are the main bits:




This is two pieces put together, left wall of the radiator compartment.
Don't worry those bits are uneven on top, they will be cut to size later on.



But first, I want to show you mounted acrylic "spine" for drive cage
Yep, I finally mounted it.

Here are main bits, two blue acrylic rods and two opal holders, top and bottom one.
As you can see, one on the left is bottom one, will be screwed to the bottom of the case. Top one, on the right, has already installed brass inserts on the side, cause this one will be screwed to the side panel of the case, internal one, which I cut to size and mounted on the right from mobo tray.




Now, these two will be pushed on those rods and will end up in the middle. They will be reservoir holders mounts.




Small adjustment to the case top rail Rods were pretty long




..and rods installed. I let myself to play with different color program son my camera








Oh, this is a part of next update, cause it's not finished, but I will show it anyway
Here you can see brass inserts already installed in acrylic rods. These are the first pair, which will hold first drive cage shelf. I tested it and it look awesome, but need to finish all the way up before show it

Kinda small teaser



OK, let's get back to radiator compartment.
Here is a small L shape holder for a left wall...




..and here you can see drilled and ready to be screwed right side L shape bracket, right next to mounted rods "spine"...



..and the left wall "pushed in". I will use rivets to mount them, so for now they are only pushed, to show the idea. Between those brackets I will install nice mesh and glue it to the frame with double sided tape, to make it look flash. I have some nice mesh left after Nano Tower project, when I got it from Bill, from MNPCTECH.




Three last photos show the middle acrylic reservoir holders mounts pushed down.
Holes are perfect so it was pushed down pretty hard, so they won't slide.
Of course they will be drilled and brass inserted, to make sure my beautiful EK reservoir won't move.







OK, that is all for now. I hope you like this update and will patiently wait for another
Looks like next Monday is a holiday, so will be taking day off to stay with my daughter at home. This may create good opportunity to go out and do some more work on Aurora.

So, please stay tuned!

 

Wow, looks amazing with the blue rods!