Hi folks! In early february, the idea of building a case from the scratch came to my mind. After much planning and research I finally started building and I want to share my work with you. German readers can follow this link to the german log at the casemodder.de boards Sorry for anything that sounds strange to native english speakers The Idea I wanted to build something extraordinary, so a cube or tower was not an option. As you might have guessed from the thread name, I decided to make an octagon. I wanted a clean look, with a lot of polished aluminum, plexiglass and nice lighting (more on this later), without any ugly connectors all over it, ruining the overall picture. To archive this, the motherboard will be rotated by 90 degrees, with the connectors to the bottom. The Plan You can either scribble dozens of pages... ...or make a nice 3d rendering. As you can see, I did both. This modell were my first steps with Povray and I'm quite pleased with the results. The box above the MoBo is the PSU. The hole thing will be 50x44x44 cm large. Features: Watercooling CPU, chipset and GPU will be watercooled. I will attach cooling elements to the vertical panels on the edges, with the water flowing behing them. This will be the radiator. As I'm not planning any overclocking, it should be enough for passive cooling. Not 100% sure on this, but I can build a small radiator in the top socket as reserve. Light I will sandblast chinese sign on the plexi. Two columns with 6 signs on each side, making 96 signs. This will be hours of fun! Each of the signs can be individually illuminated in red and/or blue (192 LEDs), with 255 steps on each color. The control circuit is a modified Blinkenmini (click for more info). I will post my circuit when it is done. Buttons The BlinkenMini-Circuit can handle 4 SNES-Pads with 8 buttons, so I have 32 buttons which will be hinden under profiles on the sides. Hard to explain, esp. in a foreign language, we will see later. The button are handled by software, so I can use them for almost everything Harddisk The harddisk will hang decoupled (is this the right word?) behind the mobo. I will get two SATA drives for raid and to old IDE drives, making a nice window mod. Mechanics I will try to find a way to lift the top socket with the plexi sides about 30 cm, so I can access the hardware. Not sure if i will use threaded bolts or some kind of linkage. DVD Altough the case is really big, there is not really a place to mount a DVD without ruining the clean look. But I have a crazy (U could say stupid) idea, that will make you This will be a surprise when it's done. Ok, enough talk. Gettin to work now Ordering Yeah, spending money is work, too! Electronic parts: Aluminum profiles: Aluminum and plexi sheets: Gentlemen, start your dremel! In fact, I don't like the dremel much, so I tried to cut the small profiles with a jigsaw. What went horribly wrong After I ruined lots of this stuff, I tried to cut the sheets, with more luck this time. The base plate, above the bottom socket (3mm think) The other plates (1,5 mm): Hint Fixing the aluminum sheet between two thin sheet of wood (my alu came packaged in it) makes cutting of thin material far easier and prevent scratching. I got some (in fact 25) cooling elements for .40 EUR each, but they were way to large. But nothing can resist my jig saw... As you can see, I know what a dremel is, altough i didn't use it here. Just to give you some idea what it will look like someday More cutting, the plexi this time: Some work later, you have 16 sheet of plexi Remove the protective foil and cover each sheet strong adhesive tape (but without reinforcement). Printout a nice template And cut with a sharp knife and lots of patience The profiles were finally handcut: Yes, there are plenty of them. More cutting and sanding. Thank god that I had a machine, I would still be working if I had to do it by hand. Ok, nice work, but I will have to make 20 more of these little *******s, another 2 hours of stupid work waiting) Cutting a plate The inner part will hold the side panels (moving up), the outer part the cooling element (fixed). Some holes in the base plate: Some holes in the profiles holding the plexis (if you take an accurate look, you can see matching holes in the panel just cut) I couldn't resist takin the stuff I already made and putting it all together, with a broken MoBo inside: Nice! Don't wonder about the proportion, this board has 30,5x20cm, while a standard atx-board has 30,5x24 cm. Now, an old case had to die... for this part: It will be polished , perhaps some edges covered with aluminum, maybe I will make one on my own later fitting it into the baseplate: Ok, thats all I've done so far. I've cut some more profiles and more of the f***ing cooling parts. I will keep you up to date. Now I'm waiting for your comments! Happy Moddin'!
wow, excellent work so far, i love aluminum. so the heatsinks that are attached to the frame, will be the radiator for the system, thats wicked cool keep it up man!
Pretty nifty thinking, I like the whole octo idea, though I really don't think it's a practical design, but I'm not stopping you (as a matter of fact I'm almost certain you'll prove me wrong ) IDEA: If you wanted, you could probably use the whole case as a passive cooling device, you may want to consider heatpipe technology (some of the best conducting stuff today), you could like... somehow attach it to the cpu, gpu, ram, chipset... etc, and then somehow run it along the aluminum outsides, and attach it with some sort of highly-conductive material. he stated that he was going to have a water cooling system
Very nice! I love original case ideas, and this definatley qualifies. Very cool design, can't wait to see more. Simplegreen
@ all: thx for the comments @ atomsk: I think I will buy the CPU block, but I already ordered a solid 100x160x10mm piece of copper to make my own GPU and chipset block. But I'm not very used to milling, we will see...
Long time without update, so here we go.... First I had to cut out the signs. 15 plates with 6 signs each makes a lot of work, believe me! Some days later, I sandblasted it, using this tool: It was a horrible mess, unfortunately no pics Next job was to peel of the tape from the plexi. Took me some hours and half of my thumbs nail. But the result are amazing, the contrast is perfect, the surface is evenly rough. Just as it should be. Here a close up: The digicam I borrowed really sucks, looks much better in reality. (Note: protective foil still on the backside) Then I had to equip the plexis with the LEDs. I simply fixed them with transparent silicone. The black stuff is electric tape. Ok, here we go with a little light test. Again, the pix really suck, but I think you get the idea: The blue LED is a little bit to bright, I will fine-tune this later. (Note: two plates are glued together here, so there is now protective foil on both sides) As I already wrote, I want to polish the aluminum to a near-mirror-finish. I made a first try with some small parts and I must say, it hurts! But the results are ok: (polished - sanded - untreated) Thats all so far, but you can expect another update this week. So long, happy modding!
i think that instead of putting the LEDs on the same side where the etching is (how u have it; the LED close to the etch) i think that the LEDs should go on the oposite side of the etches, that way the light will disperse better and not be so bright over the etch.. hopefully that made sense but i like the creativity, it'll look good -DyLaN
very neat design one of the few good custom cases i've seen in a long time gonna be following this one hope to see the final product soon - Hyperdreamz
Beautiful job so far! Especially on the plexi... i really like the led's with the chinese symbols. I will really enjoy following this project log! Good luck to ya!
Cool case, it'd look like a nice centerpiece for any living room! Linear Algebra, doing the same course myself. Fun stuff eh?!
@exavier412: That is true, the light would disperse better and that is what I don't want I want to light up each sign individually, so close to the etching should be the better choice, I think. I should have made some tests before, but I was to lazy @Starfighter: I just thank god that I've passed the exam - all of a sudden with an acceptable grade. I think that says all... My girlfriend works all the weekend, so much time for
I took a picture of all the signs, maybe it's interesting for someone And here some pictures of the equiping process: 1. The LEDs 2. Sanding them down. Qualifies for the category "hand work you could have avoided with a little more brain work". Only god knows why I'didnt simply make the holes in the plexi large enough. 3. Silcone. (Note: it usally sticks better to the newspaper you use to cover your desk than to plexi) 4. Finished! Not really an piece of art, but it works.
