Case Mod - In Progress Project [Mini]malist (Jonsbo UMX1 mod) DONE!

Bath time! I think this was 2000 grit?


All nice and smooth. Ready to get some black paint on!


Took the frame out of the case. This was a pain. But I'm going to be cutting out the bottom to mount the radiator and fans on to. Won't be the cleanest, but I just need to get rid of all the excess material that will get in the way of the airflow.


Oh yah! Just a little mockup session. You can see the bottom of the frame that I need to cut out.


Another mockup view.


Almost done folks! Thanks for staying with it.

 

Looking at your last pictures, it seems that you don't really need a case to make it look awesome ^^

 

Just caught this project log and had to comment!

Wow!

I love what you're doing with this build, can't wait to see it finished.

I just hope there's enough room to finish cable management as cleanly as you're doing the rest of this build!

 

Lordy, that is just superfine!

 

Thanks mate! That would be cool to have an open case like that just sitting around...

Yes, I do too. The case doesn't have any false walls to hide anything behind. I'm hoping that I cut all the cables to length properly so it should cut down on extra cable length needing to find a home. I'm also using the mobo to hide some of the cables that need to go across the case. I actually think my choice of water cooling system may be just too big visually, but I'll just have to see how it comes together!

Almost done mate.

So that bottom panel that's attached to the structural frame... this was my day to finish it and assembly everything together! But I failed...

This is my little hobby drill press. I attach my dremel to it and away it goes! Pretty good for small things. Definitely not a workhorse but good enough if you have a few small things here and there.


Starting to get my holes drilled...


And dremel'd! Pulled out the good ole file to smooth things out. I didn't care too much how this looked because its going to be completely covered, but I didn't want any sharp edges to cut myself on. Now why I didn't finish today? When I started assembling the radiator and fans, I discovered that I didn't cut one of the holes in the right spot and I totally forgot to cut off the tab in another spot because there wasn't enough material to drill a hole into.


But this is what it looks like with me being able to use the other mounting holes. Roughly 47mm from radiator to intake screen.





Can't see any of the opening.


Tomorrow... must cut those mounting tabs!

 

Pulled my dremel out at work during lunch to cut for the radiator mounting holes I messed up on. I decided to also just get it as straight as I could. Took out my file again and went to town.


My friend saw what I was doing and he said I was stupid for leaving the bare metal exposed and not painting it over (for purposes of rust or corrosion). He is right. If I'm going to do this, do it properly! Pulled out some sand paper and got rid of some of the paint.


Got some primer on it


Final coat


I also saw that my power button had a little hole in it. I looked at the circuit board and it looked as if there was an LED on the power switch. I powered it up and it was a blazing bright blue. Put some primer over it. Hope its not going to shine thru. I don't like blue on this case.


What's next? ASSEMBLY! THIS IS BEING ASSEMBLED! FINALLY! It will probably take my 2 days just because I have to do it when I get home from work after working my usual 11 hours, but I will post progress assembly photos.

 

More to come! Yes, 90% of the cables are in the box already. Where'd they go? Stay tuned!

 

that's going to be tight looks great though

 

ITS FINISHED!

The hardest part about this small case is the fact its small and I can't hide cables behind false panels! So the majority of my wiring is tucked behind the PSU shroud, radiator, or motherboard.
- ATX12V is running behind the PSU shroud
- PWM fan connector to the CPU header running to my PWM splitter at the very front of the case is also running behind the PSU shroud
- Front panel cables running behind the radiator
- PWM fan cables running behind the radiator

The ones I couldn't avoid tucking behind something were the ATX and SATA, connector which you kind of see floating right now.


Just so small!


This is how I snuck the SATA data cables. It comes out from the clip under the motherboard.


So this is how everything looks without all the stuff blocking your view. Cables to the hard drive, well that can't be helped with how I designed it.


holy, more stuff! Its still quite open even if its packed. So I'm hoping airflow will be good.


The tubes are a little messy. I'll try and see if I can clean them up a bit.


And yes, the side panel still fits!


And this will be its home for now. This has taken much longer than I had anticipated but I found it fun. Thing weighs probably close to 30lbs You wouldn't expect based on the size

 

Very tidy (but dude, no window? How are you going to see the sexy water cooled goodness?).

 

I like how from the outside it is dead simple / minimalist. Great job!

 

Fantastic job on the case, so clean. Amazed you fitted all that kit in there. The use of 3D parts is ingenious and something that certainly opens up the possibilities for case modding. I do have a couple of questions about the build. How did you attach the printed parts to the case and what thickness did you make the parts?

 

Thanks mate. And no window! I saw another UMX1 build where the guy IMO kind of destroyed the look of this case. His rear panel was nicer looking than mine but his side panels were just...

Yeah! That's what I really liked about this case, so I wanted to mod everything you wouldn't normally see to work with my kit. The only one who would really know all the work done to this thing just by looking at it would be me

The actual case where all the stuff fits in is about 30cm x 16cm x 28cm or about 13.5 liters. Only thing missing from my mid tower is a DVD drive!

The parts just have thru holes for the screws. All parts are held in place with screws. The case already had mounts for fans, so I had to design my prints using those mounts in mind. And print thickness varies. Sometimes its 2mm for my thinnest (a little flexible) to 5mm for my rigid parts. After 3mm it's pretty rigid

 

Wow. Very impressive.

 

Just saw this in modding update. Very great work

 

Amazing job! Very clean notwithstanding the little room

 

I agree with Nexxo, shame to hide all the 3d printed watercooled lovelyness. With the standard of the rest of your build im sure you could pull off a good looking window

 

amazing! compliments!!

 

Beautiful job!

It looks more designer industrial machinery than computer components!

 

Not sure what modding update is. Couldn't find that. But thanks for taking a look!

I tried to clean it up a little more. I felt like it could be done.

I agree its a shame to hide it all... but at the same time, I can yank off the side panel in literally 0.25 seconds if I wanted to show it off. No screws, just mounting tabs. At the end of the day I just think it would take away from the minimalism.

Thanks mate! Itching to do a small NUC next for an HTPC... will see!

Look below!

I stared at the water loop and just thought... I can make this look cleaner. And then I looked at the photos and thought, I can take better photos. So more eye candy!











All my fans are PWM connected to an 8 way splitter. But I only have 4 fans connected... So the loop gets nice and toasty until the motherboard decides to kick in and immediately drop the temps. Then the fans go back to like 40% and things get toasty again.


Pretty good temps after it stabilizes. Ambient was 31C, so a delta of 6C seems pretty good. Almost dead silent when its not working.