Modding Small Scratch Build

I've had an Intel Atom board with 1 GB RAM and a 500 GB hard drive sitting on the shelf for over a year. It's been running as a light network server at my house. Mainly file storage, torrents, and DHCP. Though I was really starting to get nervous with it sitting on the shelf out in the open. So over the past four months I've built a small aluminum and plexi case.

The case is approximately 12in x 8in x 5in ignoring the fan on top (that adds 1.5 in). The sides and top are made of smoked 1/4 plexi and the bottom is solid black plexi. I gave the angle aluminum a brushed look to hide the tooling marks. It contains a mATX board w/ 1 stick of RAM, a 3.5" HDD, and a modded mATX PSU. I still need to rewire most of the components, attach the LED strip, find a smaller SATA cable, touch up some of the outside parts, and find some feet.

I was too distracted and impatient during the actual build to take pictures, but I've got a few now. I'll take some better ones when I get more batteries for the camera and fix the settings again.







In real life it is easier to see inside and the LED's are white not blue.

Comments and suggestions appreciated.

 

Looks good. How does the air get out of the case?

 

That looks really cool! How long did it take?

 

@Monkey Puzzle - There's a row of holes on the back and right side 0.5in from the bottom. It's an effort to get air to pass over the HDD.

@DAVEtheRAVE - I got most of the parts the last week of Janurary and worked when I could up to the end of March when I run out of funding. Last week I finally got the last few things and finished it. Maybe 100 hours of work? Plexi and metal are basically new materials to me and I have a limited selection of tools. I shattered the first back panel I made.

 

Looks good, and the fan grill goes along well with the theme.
Any chance of seeing the insides?

 

Small and neat. I like this one a lot. Gives me ideas.

john

 

Thanks guys.

I'll probably open her up tomorrow to cleanup the wiring some. I'll take a few interior shots then.

 

love the aluminium joins, great work

 

really like the compact case , it's got an industrial look about it . nice work .
i know what you mean when you said " I was too distracted and impatient during the actual build to take photos " i was the same !

 

I like that, simple and purposful, nothing wasted, but still has shiney things !! Good work

 

That is one beautiful little case. It's simple, clean cut and works.

 

I like. It looks tough.
What do you have to do to get inside it, though?

 

@Oreon - The joins were a pain but I didn't think I could get compound 45 degree cuts on the aluminum to look good. To easy to be off 5* and screw up the corner completely.

@Metz - I was originally going to paint the frame green but it just looked too nice. I gave it a light brushed look with sandpaper and sprayed it with some clear.

@Cheapskate - Oh, I only need to remove 20 screws.

 

Only 20. If you had a solid state drive you could play catch with it.

 

Nice work! I love socket screws too

 

I do this with my Dell Mini 9.
I also jog with it as my mp3 player.