Hi Basically, I've been floating around these forums for a couple months checking out the amazing work you guys have been doing etc. etc. So when a few weeks ago I was asked what I was going to be doing over the summer holiday(I'm at Uni) apart from working? Which is when I decided that actually this summer I would quite like to build my own case! So over the past weeks I've been throwing around ideas, and today I sat down and started to put my ideas down onto SketchUp, I've used SketchUp a couple of times do "muck around" with but never to really do anything like this, so some of the stuff I've tried to do in SketchUp hasn't really come out very well!! I intend to build most of this case(possibly along with a mate who's looking at building a case as well), I should be able to lay my hands on most of the tools I'll need however I'm not at all sure of what materials to use, currently I'm thinking Alu and Acrylic however I'm not really sure whether these would be a good choice for this build having never had any sort of experience in this type of thing! So due to limited funds, I'm intending to build this case for my current pc(AMD 3000+ 1.8ghz, 1GB DDR ram, 600W psu and a couple 160GB hd's), however I am keeping a open mind that when I have a few more penny's chances are I'll completely over-haul it. However I mainly use the pc at the moment(and more than likely in the future) as a HTPC and I am aiming to keep the size of the case as small as possible at the moment(if only to make it easier to get it to and from uni!) Right before I get on to the design I think I should explain a few ideas which haven't come out very well in SketchUp; I'm thinking of having this of trying to get this case made out of(or something that looks like) brushed chrome and having clear acrylic around the edges to be lit up by "pulsing" blue LED's. Also the switch's, I couldn't find in SketchUp any nice power/reset switches etc so I just made some up, I have no intention of having these switches on the case but I have no idea what they are going to look like( I do like the idea of having touch buttons for the power, reset and eject but I'm not at all confident about my electronics). My final idea/attempt is the one I'm the most not sure of; I do not like noisy pcs. Therefore I want to try and sound proof this case, so I want to basically build one larger case and a slightly smaller case and then layer the larger case with something like http://www.frozencpu.com/products/7...ampening_Pack_APL.html?tl=g33c117&id=35bdPniw and then place the smaller case inside? And then I can use the smaller case as a mobo tray etc. However not convinced that a) it'll work and b) it'll really be worth it! So after all that waffle on with my general design, currently I have three external desgins floating around with the internal layout exactly the same: Internal: So basically, there isn't too much inside it, air cooling etc. I didn't want to mess around with adding in fans etc. The system fan I forgot to add in, I intend for that go on the back panel beside the PSU, however this may in retrospect be next to the CPU cooling fan so may not be much use there. Also I have the two hard drives, which are currently in Raid 1. these are mounted on a 45 degree slope which hopefully will be on a removable platter so you can easily change the hard drives. I wanted the DVD drive to be high up so I've basically put it on legs, wasn't sure how else to mount it! As a point of reference in the first design the DVD is a "normal" drive whereas the other two desgin's the DVD drive would be a slot loading drive Design One: (this was my first really attempt at using SketchUp so I'm sorry!!) So apart from the hideous colour and the general horrible desgin, I almost like this, the DVD drive is slotted away which would make it more than difficult to get to the eject button! also got the two uninspired buttons. I initially thought of this design because it seemed to strike me as it would be possible to fairly easily soundproof the case however the major problem that shouts at me is "I HAVE NO AIRFLOW". On the upside I do like the blue streak(which should actually be clear acrylic lit by a blue pusling LED's) but that is in all of my designs! Also the case lid would be the top of this case(in case you hadn't guessed) and would slide of towards the back of the case. The two following designs are very similar but I think implementing then would require two very different methods! Design Two: Front: Back: Again a slightly odd colour but I quite like, please ignore the buttons still couldn't find anything I liked. So this time taking in from my earlier comment about no AIRFLOW I've added in a few large "vents" on the top, I wanted to try and get them more wave like, however my own limitations in SketchUp came into play and I couldn't get them as wavy as I would've liked, my issue with these vents(which I quite like) is that I think they may pretty much destroy the entire of soundproofing the case!!! Another change to this design is the blue streak is that there is more exposure of the acrylic(blue thing) streak(not got metal on top) all the way around, which I quite like but can imagine would be a pain trying to attach metal to acrylic. Another small point which doesn't come across in this picture is the acrylic streak actually continues along the front of the case just underneath the front edge. Again the lid would be the top and just slide off towards the back Design Three Front: Back: Again, ignore the dodgy colour and if you could imagine it in a nice sort of brushed chrome colour that would be fantastic!!! As you can see this design is pretty much the same as the previous design however in this one the top of the acrylic streak is covered by the metal which, well I'm not sure what its actually there for, but I imagine it would still look nice!! Also you can see the streak on the front as well. Another concern I have about this case is one of the original design specs was to design a small case, which I don't think this is really(its currently longer than my current case), however, when i do a mock up I may realise that I can make it smaller. So all in all thats my current ideas and I welcome any feedback, suggestions, criticisms because as I said I have never modded before so have very little knowledge of this. Also I would like to thank jezmck for his SketchUp model collection which I've stolen a couple models from and which I think is one of the best ideas I've seen in a long time, made my life much easier! Also I would like to thank you for reading through my ramblings, because I don't know if its helped you understand what I intend to do, but it's sure as hell helped me understand what I'm trying to do! Apology's for such a monster first post and apology's if I've broken any forum rules (but I don't think I have) (I'll also re-read this in the morning and try to make sense of everything I've just written and re-write everything that doesn't make sense ) Cheers ZthDimension
Hmmm I can't say I like it. But that doesnt mean others won't! I'm not a fan of artistic builds though. ahaha keep at it!
Hmmm... my thought's on this one are quite disorganized at this time, so bare with me... 1. I would definitely go for the slot in DVD if you plan to mount it towards the front. 2. If you've never shaped sheet metal before, then you might have trouble with the curved surfaces, but it definitely looks better, so if you think you can do it (or have someone to help you) then go for it! 3. Since you plan on having a brushed alu ("chrome"?) finish on the case instead of painting it, I think it will be hard to make three identical waves that look like that, cause you can't 'cheat' and shape them with body filler or vacuum form them in plastic. Hmm.. I just thought of a possible solution... lemme sketch and scan...... ...if you design it like this, with less curved waves, you could use a _thin_ alu sheet for the front+top and glue it down on some supporting structure underneath. You should be able to bend it by hand for this to work. You still have the option of having flat pieces of hole mesh on the back of the waves, but if you manage to bend em nicely around a large pipe or something it would look awesome! 4. If you go for the wavy top and don't already have a name for the case, I have two suggestions; WaveBreaker or Tsunami. 5. I've heard that it's not advisable to mount HDDs at an angle cause this makes the bearings wear down quicker. I don't know if this is (still) true or not. Does anyone know? [edit] 6. I think a lot of noise will escape through the hole mesh despite having sound insulation on the case walls. You will need to place sound dampening walls inside the case that absorb and redirects noise away from the hole mesh. [/edit] That's my €0.02, take it for what it's worth... say €0.001 or so ;P Best of luck!!!
Cheers Macros and PatrickJ @PatrickJ: I keep looking at in and thinking that I don't like it! but it does keep growing on me. @Macros Glad someone else thinks the same! My mate who's looking at building a case with me has just finished converting his Suzuki SJ so prob going to steal his ability's! Ah I didn't actually mean chrome have no idea where that came from, I was quite tired sorry. I intend to be using brushed alu. I hadn't thought about problems getting them to look the same! I do like your suggestion and will probably include it in the final design, I wanted to do something like that in SketchUp but couldn't manage to draw it! I had forgotten about naming it! Hadn't even thought about that, but I like both of those names I was wondering why I had never seen a HDD mounted at an angle before!!! Would make sense though That was my thought about the sound dampening too, got to have a think about that
Hmmm cavity wall insulated computer, interesting idea As Macros_the_Black said the vents will counter any noise efforts, unless you have a sound absorbing material, so you could get some foam and shape it it into a noise catching shape, you know, the half diamonds and stuff like that, thats if the size of the case would permit it. What a shape you cant polarised sound waves Then you could just filter it out, ah well, suppose I'll have to continue my experiments on that one... Trance
I just thought of something... does the waves really have to be the same?? I mean, take a photo of three consecutive waves hitting the shore, they won't look the same. What if you made your waves more true to nature and made them all different. Soft, medium and hard front edge curvature (the edges facing toward the back of the case)... I'm not sure this would look good... I did a quick sketch and I kind of like it better than my other sketch, it gives the case a more organic feel... but then again, I'm so tired I'm almost hallucinating, so I'll have another look at it tomorrow. =_=
If you want the waves to look the same, then you just have to make a form out of MDF or some other material. Then make the waves using this form. Oh and the modified design by Macros looks really good.
@oldbynew: Are you thinking about vacuum forming plastic now, or other method and material? Thank you! *blushing* @Trance: By polarized sound waves, do you mean Active Noise Controll / Cancellation? That would be _very_ cool!! 8D¨ @ZthDimension: Here's what the sketch I made last night looks like... and I have still not made my mind up which I like more... ..keep in mind that these are only very quick sketches, and both alternatives could probably look better if refined. [OFF TOPIC] ...and yes, I usually scribble sketches and notes and calculations all over old envelopes. Gets messy sometimes... looking at such "notes" from a few month back can sometimes be very confusing. <=D [/OFF TOPIC]
@Trance: Ah, Cavity Wall insulation, I'd been trying to work out to explain it in words, didn't even think about Cavity Wall @Trance & Macros_the_Black: I've been looking at Active noise control( just out of interest) and found a vaguely interesting link http://www.analog.com/library/analogDialogue/archives/34-02/noise/ which I thought was interesting! @Macros_the_Black: Thats beautiful! I love the way the wave builds. I've been thinking about it today and I'm thinking about turning the waves around, so that the face of the waves are facing the front of the case, so in theory it would be like the beach with the waves hitting the shore, and the swell building from the back. In regards to the vents I would put them on the back of the wave(so sort of the same location they are in at the present if you get what I mean). I've also been thinking about with the current design moving the waves so that they are on a angle! Cheers for all the help, it's been really useful! Love the sketches too(I'm the same but I haven't got enough room on my desk for a printer and a scanner)
