Howdy fellow modders!! I am relatively new to the site so I thought I would look around for all the guide's, tutorials and past examples I could find before jumping in the deep end straight away! The project is designed to be a multi purpose work horse with the following primary functions: Firstly as a media box at home which will record and distribute HDTV, as well as a music station plugged into a 5.1 system. Secondly as a file server, although it is an older system it still is reasonably gutsy. Thirdly as a LAN box, this is where the real fun is at! It will have in built into the case a 25 port HUB and a 10 plug server grade power board. Here is a picture of the case, HUB and power board The wings with the screw holes on them will be coming off with the aid of sparks and a high powered angle grinder! As you can see space will be at a premium so I will be moving all the racks to work with the little space that I have left over. A side mounted DVD drive may be the order of the day but I will see how I go tomorrow! Specs for the box : P3 800 - soon to be 1.4 1G RAM Sapphire 9600XT - waiting for arrival Pioneer DVD+RW 2 x 200G Seagate HD's Antec 480W PSU Fusion HDTV PCI card Audigy 2 Netgear wireless card I have alot of plans for the box and one of them is a roller door front panel, the pic of the material is below to give you have an idea what I am on about. The major difference here is that I won't be able to have it roll into a cylinder like the real thing but I will have to channel on top of the case by using U-bent aluminium strips, the choice of storage options I have are have sliders on top of the case so it is visible at all times or have it roll to the back of the case using and portion of a 5.25" slot - any suggestions? For this to work I will remove the face plates (red boxed area) and dremel out all but the bottom and 2 sides to hide the U-shaped aluminium strips which will be acting as a guide for the roller door. The next decisions I need to make, and make it quick is if I should expose the HUB and power board by cutting holes in the side panel or having the panel on a set of hinges to open out like a cupboard door would - once again any suggestions or personal experiences with hinging a panel? I will be working heavily on it for the next few days so hopefully this log should be short and sweet, as long as nothing goes wrong and I can get the parts quickly .
the roller door is a great idea in theory, but when you implement it you will find that it wont work very well. I'm not sure what the bend radius is on that material you have, but that curve is very sharp, so thats going to be your first problem. The second problem is a smooth open/close. If its just the metal in u-channels then its going to be really really rough and not very clean feeling. Ideally you would use ball bearings in the u channels or on the metal door for a smooth feel to it. Just my .02
Turn angle I just did a dry run and the turn on it is superb but just a litte under what I would have needed if it was to roll along the top of the case. It will how ever now slide through the top 5.25" slot and sit nicely just above the PSU. The smooth open/close isnt an issue as far as my testing has shown. There are plastic stoppers on either side which assist the smoth glide and they prevent a metel-on-metal screech. The bottom will also have a nice looking handle on it to assist in a quick up/down manouver.
What is wrong with them? They are within the 800 max h/w rule if the size of them is the problem. I will thumbnail them if that is prefered.
i get the X for all your images. edit, sorry i should have said this in the previous post. but if you and the other 2 can see them it must be a problem at college.
Barit.....you could have the roller door material removable from the top...this would solve the problem with radius being too sharp....Great idea tho
Im not too sure I am following you on this one. Do you mean that it should simply come off instead of sliding backwards?
i think thats what he means, but IMO that would look bad. At least you have addressed what I had thought of as possible problems, pretty much smooth sailing now
Got a bit of work done today which is good and bad. My original dimensions for the allocation of all the parts was slightly off so I either have to lose the video card or the inbuilt power supply - so the 10 plug board is going to be a seperate module to the case. Here are a few photo's of what I got done. I removed the front and back fan grills and added some decent looking replacements in their stead. After some reworking of the layout I decided to relocate the HUB to the top portion of the case to get a cleaner end look now that the power board wont be going in. This resulted in my newly cut rear exhaust holes being made redundant. But they will now serve as my new PSU hole! well as soon as I rip them apart anyway. With all this new room I am thinking of what I will be able to now fit in the case, I am thinking of a fold down side panel with a keyboard and laptop mouse like these: I am getting my guide rails for the roller door made up over the next few days, so once that is in everything should move along a little faster.
Did you decide not to put the power thingie in? I think it mihgt have added some functionality, and some heft albeit. This case is going to weigh a ton with all the stuff you are putting in, might no be oo much of a LAN box, as a LAN behmoth Good job, kepe up the great work. I cant wait to see the roller door.
I really wanted it in there but the size and weight of it is very sizeable. It weighs around 10kilo's (22lbs) so leaving it out is a better option in the long run and specialy considering it is a el'cheapo aluminium case.
Hey looking nice! It's nice to see someone doing something unique with their computer. What material are you using for the door?
It is a MDF wood structure with a aluminium shell glued to it, the backing is a strong black weave material. The turn angle is about 85degree's for smooth sliding but it can handle 90 to 105 angles with a little bit of a push!
Not to be a hard-on but everything someone does to their PC is unique to them. His idea is just new. Sorry, but that irked me. Will that door be getting much use, because I can't see the chassis of that case being strong enough for daily use.
The door will probably be the most stable part of the whole case once it is done! I am modeling the roller door off an old style bread bin (see pic) so the amount of use should have no real effect on its longevity. I will also be strengthening the entire case with aluminium strips which should hold that baby together through a small hurricane! or a very decent LAN bashing
