Okay, I thought I would start writing this up as a project log. I showed a bit of this in "mod" forum but thought I would do a full log. I'm about half finished at this point. I've been in need of a new project, so I thought I would try making a case from scratch. I had been pondering using stained glass, and my brother had made me a peice of glass that I decided to integrate into a case. So, I decided to go with a wood and plexi case. I wanted something that would look fairly classy and dispay the stained glass as the focal point. I also wanted it to be fairly fun and glowy with the lights on I knew this was going to be a pretty big project for me as I own no tools (a drill, a saw and a dremel were the only tools I used for this) and I'm not very good at designing stuff. I started out with just a rough idea of my design, and built the basic frame: The area I was most worried about making work was the ass end so I started just fitting stuff in and brainstorming: Next came the frame for the stained glass... Which I didn't like so I tore it off and made a new one: I spent the next week or two working on getting the back all worked out, as well as the motherboard tray etc... I was pretty happy with the back, it isn't beautiful but it isn't ugly either. Getting the wood and metal to all sit perfectly didn't really happen, but it isn't very noticable where the wood isn't perfectly flush, and hey, its the ass end, nobody really looks at that: I did up the motherboard tray and it works well, screwing into the inside of the frame. It is made out of plexi...don't seem to have any pics of it atm. The powersupply is going to sit in plain view of the side window, but since it is a clear one with blue led fans it is fairly pretty, so it should look okay imo. I wasn't sure how to make the front (behind the stained glass door). At first I was going to make it out of wood, and then I decided to go the easier route of plexi. I got some black and blue coloured plexi. Decided to frame the fanbus and cdrom with wood - mostly to cover the hacked up cut-outs I did. The fanbus took some thinking as I couldnt have my toggles hitting the stained glass door, so I made it to fit behind the main front plexi. My Nexus control panel worked well, so I still have my front usb and cpu fan control: Power and reset buttons are going on either side of the cdrom. Maybe not the best placement in the world, but they will be small and black against black, so they won't be noticable. I know my fanbus looks pretty crappy in that picture, but its mostly the flash showing all my fingerprints and ****. It looks fine irl, and better once I clean it off. [edit: just realized I didn't post the fanbus - here it is] Here is a shot of the side frame. The sides and the top will be framed like this, and the stained glass will be hinged to the front to make a door. Hopefully the two red led will look okay through the door. I will have 3 fans along the top front and two fans (along with the psu) near the bottom rear. I hope that this brings the air across the cards okay - I would appreciate any suggestions regarding airflow. I think I may make or buy something to make sure I'm getting some flow along my overclocked 9800. So, the hardest parts being the front and the back are pretty much finished. Next I have to make sure my plans for the cdrom and hdd work okay - I think I have that all figured out but it looks a bit crappy at the moment so I have to ensure that I can make it look better.
Did you ever get round to painting the back of the PSU red, because that would make it look so much better. Anyway keep it up dude
Good job so far. Why is it named "H-Street"? Did you steal the stained glass window from a church on H-Street? (I crack myself up )
The stained glass is the logo of an old, defunct skate company named H-street. I have always liked the logo since I was a youngin, just doodling it etc... I don't know if most people see it as 4 triangles, it is more 4 arrows.
