Wow, i only noticed this thread just now. Pretty cool concept, it's actually not that far away from mine that you already saw Here are some ideas: - make sure those side handles are hinged, and can fold away for transport. - slide the LCD out from side. This means store it in the upper sidepanel, and rollout/fold it into position to operate the screen. That way you still have airflow for that RAD up front, and also a cool eye-popping feature for the judges - You could do more with the sidewindow you cut, especially in combination with the holes in the side handles. Give these a uniform design, that "swoops" across the entire case. I'm very curious about how you manage the insides. You have a little bit more room to play around with then me, but you also have the Pico and extra HDD to fit in there, plus larger rads...
That's not a bad idea at all. I really like where you are going with it. I'd likely have to modify it slightly, as in move it forward though. The LCD is as wide as the the opening in the front of the case, and I need to ensure air can flow freely into the radiator. What can I say? I've got an affinity for small boxes. I've also been wanting to get back to a touchscreen LCD after using one few years ago on my L.O.S.I.A.S. project. (Speaking of your project, the SN25P was my all time favorite Shuttle... ) -Hinged handles, huh? I'll have to look into that. That would be a pretty cool idea to pull off. -Regarding the LCD, I'd have to lose a hard drive to store the LCD in one of the side panels. Right now, the left panel houses the PSU and one hard drive, while the other houses three hard drives. Sure, I could use SSD's, but that's cheating... I currently need the storage capacity. That being said, I'll play around with your idea, and see how much I would have to modify to make it happen. -With the window, are you referring to the size? I'm not that far along yet, but I was planning to etch something on it... Not sure yet. Tonight I'm going to add holes back the the 'cage', but I'm going to copy the design currently on the side panels. I thought that might tie things together nicely... We'll see. Overall, I like your ideas. Thanks for the input!
I never paid much attention to shuttles tbh, but now i feel the pressure of doing this baby justice. It seems like i caught both bugs just as fast as you did: SFF and touchscreen are here to stay in my repertoire! no cheating! I will not allow it, and confiscate the rig on sight! (i wish!) Anyway, that's what you get for not telling us how you organised the innards... i start eyeing every hole i see! (please guys, let me get away with that one, you know what i mean ) Is there a chance to store the screen underneath maybe? You might not have to store it at all, but that is a 240 rad it's blocking, right? Not really referring to the size. I just think you should somehow use the angles from the rest of your design again in the window. As it stands now, it's basically on it's own. Also, i never liked window etches. either let me look at the insides, or at the art. An etched window only succeeds in ruining both usually... but you might be a lot better judging by the Rogue. I'll wait to see what you got now, before i get too carried away. I'm watching though!
craigbru, you really don't cease to amaze us do you? I really like the industrial design of the case, but I think the handels are a bit too big for the rest of the case. They make the case look at bit too large... I'm gonna have to read through your logs to get some more inspiration on some future projects
Totaly "out there" idea that probably isn't possible but you could frame the LCD in some kind of bevel that sits just outside the front of case (so you get airflow from the sides of it) then connect all 4 corners to small motorized pistons that move in and out depending on the ambient temp. So as the temp gets higher the LCD moves further outwards giving more airflow to the rad and moves back in as it gets cooler. Might be a total electrics noob way of looking at it but surely if you can make an alarm/LED ect flash when the temp gets to a certain level you could use that current to control a motor? hope that makes even a little sense lol
Haha, Excellent! SFF is where it's at. Remember, dynamite comes in small packages... Exactly! Just because SSD's would save space, doesn't offset my need for storage. It's got to fit full size components all the way around. I don't think I need to worry about you confiscating the rig though. Holland is a long way from Nebraska... You bring up a good point though. You haven't seen the interior. That's one of the biggest reasons for it's design. It is nice and compact in there, and I'll see if I can get some pics of that up tonight. I need to find a home for the waterpump yet, and then parts placement should be pretty much taken care of. I still have to draw out the mounts for everything though. Oh, and you might want to watch out... I can see your small hole fetish leading to some awkward visit to a doctor's office... "Honestly doc! I swear I don't know how I got it stuck in there. I tripped! Yeah, that's it... I tripped!" Yes, it's a 240 rad... True. It is kind of separated in design from the rest. In the pic i've got a Raptor X sitting behind it, but anything is possible. Honestly, besides the hard drives, there isn't much to see under there. I thought that either the hard drives could be the focal point, or I'd just follow the rest of the pattern I already have on the side panel. If I went with the window, the drive would be illuminated, and any etching on the window would be smaller, and along the lower edge. Most likely the name of the case or something. I would make sure it's tasteful.
Thanks man! Industrial is where it's at this time around... You know, I've had a few other people mention the handles look a little large. So, taking that to heart, I played around with resizing them, as well as moving them inward a little more. It did make the case more sleek, but took away from the industrial feel. It made the case appear to have 'straps' around the case, instead of an actual 'cage'. I'm not sure I liked it, so I reverted, and am working on other details. I haven't ruled any changes out, it's just something I need to ponder for a bit. Hey, read away. I'm glad you like my work! Oh man... that's an awesome idea! Low profile would be the key here... inside the case. As designed now, everything, including the rad, slides out the back of the case. Anything inside, would have to allow the rad to slide past.
I'm using ViaCAD. I've mentioned it before, but I really love it. It's pretty powerful, and large files don't bog it down like SketchUp sometimes can. Also, it's got great import features. I can import anything from the SketchUp library.
Seem like a decent program I'm more familiar with Solid Edge (use it at work full time), Solidworks (the most common program used at school) and Catia is also used in some projects that I've been involved with I've never really gotten into Sketchup, even though it has the great sketchup library full of parts.. For me it takes out half of the fun, when you don't "have" to model the parts yourself. I've been waiting for a scratch build from you for a while, so I'm really waiting for the project log of this one on the forums.
Don't get too comfortable. With that parts list, it might just be prifitable to make the trip! Lol, we are on parallel tracks it seems. I'm also done placing stuff, apart from the screen and the pump, and have yet to start drawing brackets and structural parts... That's ok. I didn't REALLY expect to get away with that Hmm... if you found a way to move that raptor, you could place the screen behind the window. If you REALLY want to freak out the judges, display a video of the RaptorX on it, then pull it out and begin using the Pico! Ahh i'm rambling again!
I'd mount the LCD in the front of a louvered grill that filled in the gaps around the radiator. The back of the LCD would be about an inch out from the rad. Keep the frame mounted to the cover with a backplate. Unscrew the back panel, and the guts slide out the front. @xtrafresh - Don't become like the legendary hot tub guy...
Ah Solidworks... I've been meaning to play around with that a bit. Although it's a little out of my price range... I don't mind importing parts, although there are a few I've had to piece together because they didn't exist. Like the DFX X58 mATX board I have in the model right now. Yeah, it's been fun to start from scratch. With this case, I literally started from the inside out. I placed the components inside with the absolute minimum workable clearance, and went from there. That's the biggest reason you see the side shaped the way that it is. On the top you have the PSU and hard drives responsible for the bulge. On the lower part, you have the Pico on the right rear, and then the fans on the left rear. Airflow is very important here. Just because it's small, doesn't mean I want it hot. There has to be plenty of ventilation. Haha, I'll watch my back then... The interior will be fun. There's going to have to be some creativity in there, that most people will never see. I don't mind though. I'll know... and so will all of my friends here at bit-tech. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with... The video of a raptor would be fun. I could put some anomalies in the video. Things like a troll peeking out of the window every once in a while... A louvered grill, huh? That's interesting. You've been inspiring... Now I'm going to be staring at the clock. Only 3 more hours of work left, until I can go home and play.
Thank god for student licenses... I know what you're talking about. That's the way I designed my own case a while back... Just check the metku.net link on my signature. Granted, my design is nowhere near as cramped as yours... Here's another cramped case that you might not have seen before case n
Wow, that's a great looking mod you did. The layout similarities are quite surprising. I guess when it comes to saving space, there really aren't many options. (BTW, you may want to check your link. There's an extra http in it). That second case is pretty interesting as well. That heatsink is massive! (Although a little wavy.)
Now the link is fixed... There really are a limited number of solutions on how to cram a computer in a small space. Believe me... I've tried Well homemade heatsink usually turn a bit wavy
Well, I didn't have as much time as I had hoped for last night, but I did make a few small revisions. I made the side window slightly smaller, and added another opening beside it. Even thought the window is still larger than the rest of the openings, the spacing between them is consistent. Also, I added matching holes the the 'cage'. I'm unsure about the abundance of holes now, but I need the airflow. There will also be mesh behind them, so they won't stand out as much as the vents, for example. Speaking of mesh, I created some mesh with 1mm holes... Lol, talk about a CPU killer! I'll have to revise that... Now, this next part is just for Xtra. He wanted to see the interior arrangement....
Really like the layout. The raptor is probably used as the main hdd for the main rig? And one of the others is for the pico... or are all of them? Have you decided on which graphics your going for? I can spot two HD4870X2s atleast in these pictures
Thanks man! Yes, the Raptor would be used as the main drive. I've got no practical reason for this, but I may add another one to the other side if I follow through with the windows. Then I would have another drive for games. One of those drives will be dedicated to the Pico. Not pictured is a laptop drive for the Pico's OS. Those are indeed 4870X2's pictured, but I'll use my current pair of 260 GTX's until the true next gen card comes along.
Hey! that part is just for me! Nice design though. Are you sure the Pico is proportioned right? i thought they were the same size as a 3,5"HDD (roughly). I must be falling behind... I like the layout, however, i can spot two potential problems: 1) you have no space for the tubing from and to the CPU block. Will that run past the "roof" of the case? It'll be tight! 2) Between the PSU/Mobo/RAM/IO shield/GPU/roof you have the X58 chipset boxed in on 6 sides, with virtually 0 airflow. Now i dont know how hot this thing gets, but it might become an issue...
