Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Blue Horizon - "MOTY" Nominee

Contents:

Page 1 : Design, Motherboard tray and floor panel cutting

Page 2 : Old Heatsink design(Discontinued), Front, bottom and side panel making continued

Page 3 : Front panel continued,old PCI back panel(Discontinued) , initial mock up of case framework, and old PCI mounting mechanism(Discontinued)

Page 4 : New PCI mounting mechanism, Motherboard tray continued, Power/Reset buttons, & Sides

Pages 6 - 7 : Old heatsink(Discontinued)

Pages 8 - 9 : Angle Barb block

Page 10 : New PCI back panel design & Panel sanding

Page 11 : Braising case framework together & Angle barb lighting

Page 12 : Angle barb continued, case sides fixed in place

Page 13 : Case sides continued, case sanding, priming, and painting

Page 14 : Frame Support blocks - CD/DVD drive bays

Pages 15 - 16 : Hinge block, Wax casting(Discontinued)

Pages 19 - 22 : Creating wood molds for aluminium sandcasting

Pages 23 - 26 : Aluminium sand casting

Page 27 - 28 : Cutting casted panels

Page 29 : New case paint & New heatsink

Page 30 : Heatsink milling

Page 31 : Heatsink acrylic back plate

Page 32 : Heatsink angle barbs & heatsink temps

Page 33 : Casted panel LED's

Page 34 : Heatsink LED's, angle barb block with fasteners, top panel acrylic strip

Page 35 : CD/DVD drive bay and more support blocks

Page 36 : Top panel LED's continued, frame supports, front cast panel continued, homemade DC crossflow fan

Page 37 : New heatsink cover design, and crossflow fan continued

Page 38 : Inside curved panel + LED lighting, front cast panel continued (Milling the shape and adding hinges)

Page 39 : Hinges continued, milling LED strip for front panel and front panel wiring, fan continued, New milling machine

Page 40 : Acrylic light strip for front panel casting, fan completed

Page 41 : 5mm aluminium polished strips, top panel mesh added

Page 42 : Second acrylic light strip for front panel casting & the wiring, Front panel and top panel casting mesh continued

Page 43 : Casted panels eye candy

Page 44 : Foam for both top and front panel castings

Page 45 : Front panel casting back cover plate & more eye candy

Page 46 : Both top and front casted panel sat in their place, inside light strip[/QUOTE]

Page 47 : Wiring, top and front casted panels fitted in place

Pages 48 - 49 : Side panel magnet strips, and the making of the side panels

Page 49 : Casting rubber HDD cage, and UV leds

Page 50 : Air filter milling, angle barbs, HDD and CD/DVD cover panels, window engraving & fitting, Motherboard I/O header hidden connector blocks

Page 51 : Even more wiring & manual milling of Motherboard waterblock

Page 52 : Motherboard waterblock continued

Page 53 : PSU wiring and waterblock continued

Pages 54 -55 : Custom built coolant pump.

Page 55 : 24pin connector wiring

Page 55 - 60 : Pump Continued

Page 60 - 61 : Sata data connectors

Page 61: Sata data connectors, SSD adaptor, painting

Page 62: Anodised rad and pump parts, rad cover

Page 63: More custom barbs and final parts of fan assembly

Page 64: Double barb block complete, & PSU cover panel

Page 67 - 71: Final stages of the project, + eye candy

Page 71:Radiator cover panel (penultimate update)

Page 71:Project Completion

Page 76:Mini mod (Spindicator)

The Blue Horizon project is now finished (If you would like to see all the final pics please visit page 71).









Feel free to browse through the log or skip through for a brief summary of the build and finished high res pictures on page 71, hope you enjoy the read .

The beginning:

Hi everyone I've finally got round to building my second scratch build after my Silent Fiberglass PC: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=164675&viewmode=author

Here are my designs from Googlesketchup, to give you all a general idea of what I'm making.

Front View - the black part is Hex Mesh and the blue strip is going to have SMD leds placed behind it to make the strip glow:




The blue strip will also have the light fading accross from top to bottom.


Window View - The blue shapes at the top will be lit from behind, the curved peice on the right of the Sata sockets on the motherboard is for the sata cable:



Opposite Side view - including side panel mounted heat sink:



Back view:



Top view:



Door panel open:



Close view of HDD's with dust filter - air will flow through the hole in the door panel shown on the right:



HDD's - the black apart above the HDD's is rubber, and the cover panel shown on the right will be attached with velcro:



Coolant Pump:



Inside with window removed:



In and out coolant tube and block:



Coolant block:



Exploded View:



Exploded View 2:



Exploded View 3:



All the panels will be made from aluminium using various techniques like sand casting and Tig welding. The black heat sink blocks are hollow to allow the coolant to flow through and provide complete heat distribution. All the wires will be hidden behind the motherboard mounting plate so they arent visible as they travel around the case. The only fan that is going to be used will be the one in the PSU, and the mesh is just for show and will not allow air through. This is to force air to be drawn throught the HDD's and out the back of the PSU. I haven't decided on a name for it yet either, if anyone has any suggestions? This build is not part of my coursework like my last mod so I am going to spend longer on getting this build perfect.

 

looks pretty sweet but, where is your radiator?

 

Cheers , the radiator is the Heatsink (the two black panels shown in the last exploded image).

 

I like it. The front is very nice and the hiding element for the HDD Cage is sweet too.
Maybe you can go with it for the DVD Cage too?

 

Very nice and well thought out. I can't suggest any improvements!

 

Looks very nice, the only consern I would have would be air flow for the ram and chipset. You might consider a fan to circulate air in the area around the cpu block.

 

I will have a go at making one, cheers

Cheers . O yeah sorry, I forgot to write that I will be making a waterblock for the RAM and bridge chips.

 

Looks great Keir, nice idea with the side panel heatsink.



My only thought is, will the cooling block be large enough to transfer the heat to the heatsink ?

Could you put a 2nd block near the bottom also, to spread the heat load of cpu and GFX card ?

( Unless i'm misunderstanding the concept, wouldn't be the first time lol .

I'm assuming that the black areas are passive cooling plates and the block transfers heat to them ? )

 

Looks great Riek! love the offset in the front design and how that follows through onto the side panel. Cant wait to see how it all pans out.. if its anything like your previous project its going to be awesome!

@ Mark - Think he covered it here

I'm guessing that means the whole black section is hollow and he has some way of circulating the fluid inside it

 

Makes sense now , thanks

 

Yeah you guessed correctly the block is only used to transfer the coolant from the cpu/gpu blocks to the radiator at the back while hidding all the excess tube behind the motherboard mounting plate.

Cheers, I will start ordering the parts and materials asap.

Cheers, the heat sink itself will be 2 meter squared worth of aluminium which is half a meter sqaured more than my previous mod heatsink, and this hollow block design will disperse the heat throughout the heatsink better than my last one, so I'm hoping to get even cooler temps.

Does anyone have an idea for a name, im hopeless at coming up with decent names?

 

Have you thought about just buying a mass produced Case?

 

Where's the fun in that? Scratch build all the way!

 

Yeah I agree Editor22 its much more fun. Also in this case if I modded a manufactured case most the case would have to get ripped out, because the space behind the motherboard tray is much larger than usual to accomodate the coolant tube and all the wires.

 

Heres the first construction update:

Making of the Motherboard Tray

First off heres all the aluminium for the shell of the case:



Once I had got the measurements off my Google sketchup I cut the tray out using a Jigsaw with an aluminium blade:





In order to smooth off the rough edges left by the Jigsaw I used a belt sander while quickly running the sheet back and forth to get a smooth straight edge:




Once the tray was trimmed down to size I used a drill bit and by hand made little notches in the tray so that the drill would sit perfectly and wouldnt move about while I made the holes for the motherboard mounting studs. Also in the pictures is my new toy the Magnifier lamp, which im going to use to solder the SMD leds :










Heres the pics of the drilled holes:

 

Thanks Antony

Heres the second part of the update:

the cut out section for the block the tube will fit into:



Time for some filing:



and the smoothed down result:



Next was the cut out to provide the HDD access:





And another large cut out for the CD/DVD access:





Next was the cut out for the Sata cable cover block:





heres the final non sanded motherboard tray:






Heres the pics of the final part, i'll sand it down more to remove the scratches once ive welded it:















Heres the original Sketchup I was working off:

 

I next started on the floor of the case:


The section was cut out with a jigsaw and filled down as usual


Next came the inward cut out which will run flush with the PSU:



Then the curved edges:











The curved edges for the opposite corners:













All it needs now is a good sand and polish.

 

Wow man, excellent 3d designs, excellent concept and I see you are already into it!! Moaaaaar!!! Good luck buddy and mod on!!!

 

Looking good riekmaharg2