well after delaying over and over (and over) again i'll finally have some time once the semester ands im thinking of switching to a wood case idea because its much easier for me to work with wood then metal the case will be a bigger and heavier but i dont mind i imagine a 1.5cm~2cm thick wood would do the job but i dont know if its true and also... need to think what wood to use? plain MDF, some "real" wood need advice from wood modders that worked with wood before
depends on the type of look you're going for. you can use 1/2" mdf or plywood... baltic plywood if available... if you're looking for specific grain and color, you can use hardwood plywood... and your finish is also equally important... if solid color, then go mdf and save money, but if wood grain, then google for hardwood plywood that's available in israel. mdf makes a LOT of dust... get proper respirator and decent dust collection... good luck
i plan on painting the whole thing black in the end... don't want the wood look, just use for the build
In which case MDF or plywood is what you want really- neither will warp & are 'stable' woods, and easy to drill, cut & sand etc. You will need a dust mask & shop-vac ideally to keep the dust down ( or work outside ) as mentioned. The thickness of the wood you require depends very much on the design of the case, but 10-15mm should be plenty thick enough for most standard 'box' cases.
mdf is pretty good in that once you paint that sucker or seal that sucker, you'll see the rigidity of it go up many folds... it also has an interesting "fiborous" look to it when sealed with clear coats... if you're watercooling it, then i suggest you find some ways to protect the mdf against moisture/leaks as it'll swell up and make a big mess if exposed to water.
As I've build myself three PC-cases out of wood I can only recommend HDF over MDF and plywood. HDF is much more dense then MDF or plywood and just as easy to work with. Also, it's as rigid as MDF with only 6mm thickness. Most usually it is precoated with a waterresistant laquer and so there's way less work needed for sanding and painting. Here's two pictures of one of my cases using 6mm HDF. I'd say it's the best material I've used so far for building a PC-case, especially if you got no proper tools (most importantly a bending brake) for working with sheet-metal.
