1. That funny pattern you see is overlapping aluminium, rather than 1 large sheet we are have lots of smaller ones wellded together! 2. This is the front panel, there will be a door there which will be hydraullicly controlled which will also open vents on top of the case. At the mo we only have one sponsor but we are very greatful to them. They are a great little company that will turn you 3d CAD files into a computer case. They are making some drive caddys and loudspeaker holders for us! Protocase: This is a very special case indeed, one wall is to be lined with loudspeakers and the other shall have a window, we intend for this to be lit up with green neon!
Fortunately I was already aware of this so I have ordered some anti magneticmabob cases for them that are inlined with rubber and as an update the Aluminium is in the post + the colours are decided! Chrome fitting with a matt grey-ish colour. We are using powdercoating.
I'm confused. What is this "anti magneticmabob" you speak of? Last time I checked rubber doesn't exactly stop a magnetic field. You can route the magnetic field through another material (not the electronics) by covering it in a material with high magnetic permeability, but you cannot stop a magnetic field.
First off...... the picture is really really too small. --------- Secondly...... blocking magnetic fields.... The usual material that is made specifically to do this is called "mu-metal". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu-metal Mu-metal is a steel alloy that is good at conducting magnetic flux, but its properties don't really become impressive until you get up into RF frequencies, where it can conduct 100X the magnetic flux that steel can. For static magnetic fields (like, from a permanent magnet) it may only work a few times better than regular steel, depending on what kind you get. Crutchfield used to sell small 1-square-foot pieces of mu-metal foil for $20 (they sold it for wrapping home-theater speaker magnets) but I can't find it there now. Other places online sell it, but it just looks like regular steel foil or sheet, it doesn't do anything special when you hold a magnet up to it and it's tough to find any experiments to show off its unusual properties. The "permeability" values are engineered to work at different RF frequencies. The high-perm stuff conducts the most, but even so, it looks and acts just like regular sheet steel in most situations. I have some around and you really need to have an RF signal generator and an oscilloscope to show that it does anything unusual. Some speaker companies would wrap it around the magnets of front-stereo surround sound speakers, to make sure the speaker's magnet didn't cause distortion in the CRT TV's picture. They only used this stuff in the front stereo speakers, because those were the only two that were supposed to be put close to the TV screen. ,,,,, Good speakers would have a mu-metal cup of sheet metal around the front speaker magnets, where cheaper speakers would use the foil. Really cheap home-theater speakers would just use steel, because (like I said) it works fairly well and costs much less. Aluminum will not work for diverting static magnetic fields at all, because it's got no iron in it. The iron is what's magnetically conductive, and steel is an alloy that's mostly iron. Pure iron foil would work better, but pure iron is too brittle to make into foil or even thin sheet--when bent it would easily crack apart into pieces. Mu-metal is expensive, cost is 8-10X or more compared to regular steel. If you want to "block" static magnetic fields, just use regular sheet steel. It will work nearly as well and is much cheaper. Finally,,,,,,,,, mu-metal (or steel) can't really block magnetic fields at all, it can just divert them by providing an easier path to travel. The only thing that can block magnetic fields is a superconductor, and that's why magnets will float over it. ~
Thanks I did have my worries, I will look into this+The picture displays that big but if you click on "view this image in full size" you are sorted. Metal will arrive by friday and the cutting can commence!
I know it's possible to build speakers into the computer as I've already seen it done on one mod, I can't remember when there, I'll have to try and find a link. Edit: Found it (as you can see there are 3 speakers built into the side of the case):
Such small speaker cones aren't going to have any effect on anything, but slapping bigger cones right next to the HDDs might be a bad idea. Magnetic fields aren't really powerful and with any sensible distance between the speaker and the HDD there isn't going to be problems. There are also magnetically shielded cones with second magnets slapped upside-down on the actual ones, which reduces the unwanted magnetic field. Such can be used next to CRT-screens etc. Good luck and please, PLEASE get a better picture. In Sketchup just go file -> export -> 2d picture. Should give you a nice .bmp or .png file.
Moved to modding. Project logs should start by containing at least one photo of actual work in progress (not a heap of parts). This thread will be moved back when we see some pics!
Hiya another post, I have now recieved the square cut aluminium so I should start production on sunday. Plus this is a 30cm wide case so there will be space betwteen the speakers and mobo. I got 1 inch diameter 2mm thick aluminium square cut and its 5.4m long!
