Hello again bit-tech! It's been a while since I was here, a year and a half more precise. Last I time was when I made a log for my previous build Tilia. Well, it's time to build something new again. I don't really have a name for it so for now it'll just be Tilia v2. The goal of this build is to improve the previous design in a few key areas. Compatibility with components - Within a year or two I won't be bound to ITX components and it would be great to have the opportunity to have access to wider variety of components. Heat management - With components growing hotter and access to a future office in a new apartment, the idea is to mount a MO-RA on the other side of a wall to keep heat out. I want to make access to external rads as clean as possible. Current design also pushes heat out toward me when the intake collides. Not ideal. Hide IO - Currently the IO at the top is visible and I can see all cables. I don't really like that. Currently I have reached a spot where I am something like 80% done with an initial design. There's a few things to fix. Here's a list in no specific order. Make sure rads and fans can be mounted on the sides Slim down dimensions LED list for the distro plate Re-do all the fasteners of the panels Make fasteners for the backplate Mounting for fan filters Cable management channels on the back Better PCI-e card notches behind the motherboard. 2.5in SSD mounts Fan-hub mounting I am probably missing some stuff here as well, but I have time since I won't be able to get started properly for another few months anyway. ----------------------------- As a break on the practical things, let's discuss some visions for the projects. The main inspiration is the reeded (lined) glass. The apartment on the ground floor of my building has it on their windows facing the street. I've walked by them for two years now and they have kept fascinating me with how the light and objects is portrayed through them. So here's some of my latest renders of the case. And with RGB lights I hope it will refract the light in a cool way like shown here Sometime this week I will dig up all the old screenshots I have and post a bit more of a design timeline of the build. Until then, have a good weekend!
LOVE IT! Welcome back. I don't know about "more access" though. You should mock up that gap in the end chambers and see if you can get you hand stuck in it. You could probably save money and time by using angle aluminum for the end brackets.
Hi I am a big fan of your solution with fasteners and panels with wires going through the Motherboard tray/back plate.It's a simple and ingenious solution to problems with custom cables that need to be exchanged It looks good! NoX
Crazy right? I am getting my hands on a 3D printer this fall, so I am considering if the brackets holding it all together could be 3D printed. I am gonna have to test their strength then. I am basically going on vacation entire September, but when I am back in October I am going ot make a cardboard model and test how accessible the bottom chamber is. The top one you can take a lid off of, so that's fine. But I reckon that if I remove the side panels and brackets, the bottom chamber is fairly accessible. I don't think I'd access it too often either, but it's 100% worth investigating. Thanks for calling it out Thanks! Yeah I spent a fair bit of time thinking about how to pull cables through nicely. I mocked two other variants where I just covered the holes with metal sheets. But in the end I realised that just 3D printing those fasteners would make more sense. I am gonna revise the hole placements so it'll be compatible with future hardware changed. This way I can also make sure that my cables are neat and tidy and aligned every time I change components
I noticed your "cable clips". I had the same idea with clipping them in place. I did print them with a 3d resin printer, but did not work for me. The resin I used (standard resin) was too briddle/ too hard for the clips and they broke off. When I reinforced them with thicker material, they did not "clip-in" anymore and adding more force made them brake, again. But I did some cool stuff with the resin printer, even watercooling parts are possible and standard threads for fittings work well, too. I have no experience with other extruding 3d printers, maybe they work well for the cable clips.
That's good information! I am probably getting an extrusion printer so I can report back results. Maybe I can just have them stick with some friction as well? It's not like cables move much right?
Hi I noticed that you have chosen a black Power Button, would you have any brand that delivers. Thanks in advance
Hey, sorry for a very late reply. My plan is to do a combo of a keyboard switch + 3D print a custom top to it. So won't really be any brand one. And a small teaser for a larger update: I redid the entire interior and in my opinion it's much more functional now. Instead of mayyybe 2x280 rads internally, I can now fit in 2x420 + 1x280 rads as well asa pump/res combo. It just feels more spacious.
Getting rid of the FAT curvy plate lost some of the sex appeal, but I have to agree it's a lot more functional like this. -And no one but the construction nuts would care about that anyway. It would be invisible as soon as you closed the case.
Yeah, it's the form v. function equation basically. When I took a bit of a break I wasn't fully happy with it. The appeal of using the thick metal is great, but the layout of it all wasn't optimal. A rough list of what I was disappointed with would be: Too reliant on external cooling. I wanted more internal cooling. No option to fit a D5 + res anywhere except integrated into the distro plate. Modularity in case I would need it in the future. If ATX standard were to change, or I wanted to remove the distro, I would have to have an entire new "spine" made out of thick metal. L-brackets to fasten everything felt meh. Top and bottom compartments were too big. By going with the thinner metal and having multiple parts I address #3 and #4. Some layout changes fixed the rest. This is a more practical version overall, and when closed up it's almost the same. I do miss the nice curves from the thick metal though. Who knows, maybe there's time for another revision of it in a few weeks to find more of a middle ground! One thing's for certain, I can now officially build this next year. In my current apartment it wouldn't fit, but since I am moving in March that will work itself out!
The side panels are still screwed in, but the screws are hidden in the recesses. The glass will be connected with ball studs and plastic clips securing them. I hope this will be the solution for the top and back as well, just for ease of access. But that would require welding a 1mm frame (that holds the studs) to the 4mm panels, and I am not sure about how accurate it will be. So I may opt to have recessed screws for those as well. I don't mind showing some well places screws like that.
Hi It looks good! Did you consider mounting light in the bottom with the manifold? How is the Air flow between the 3 Radiators ?
