I have built several cases in the past, but never done a project log, so this will be my first. I recently saw the HSPC Tech Case on their website and liked it alot. I liked the openess of the case and the ease of changing out parts. But I felt that there were things that could be improved upon. I didn't like the need to put the PSU and Optical drives on top of the case due to the size. And I felt that the price for the large case was quite high. So I decided to make my own and see if I could make it cheaper and make it to act as a dedicated personal computer case. I also wanted to integrate my 320x240 Sharp Graphical LCD that runs LCD Studio for temps, cpu usage, mem usage, etc. Currently, I have it on a stand beside my current case. This case will be made for the following: Top and bottom: 14 guage Sheet Steel with Lexan Legs: Nylon 1" rod Component mounts: Aluminum angle, channel and flat. I first decided to make a Tech case from wood, just to see how everything I had in mind would work. There is no project log for this, just a finished pic: As you can see, all my parts fit inside the case, not on top. This case turned out relatively ok, but bulky. The real one will be much more streamlined, I hope, lolol. Anyway, first I got all my materials, steel, lexan, nylon rod, aluminum, etc. A friend cut the steel to the appropriate size, and the vendor that I purchased the 1/4" lexan from cut it for me, that made things a lot easier. The nylon rod came in a 4' length, so I cut it at 11 3/4" each. Here are all the major parts cut to size and some rubber feet attached to the bottom. Before that, I removed the plastic covering from the lexan and taped it, its less likely to scratch that way. Then I put one piece of steel with one piece of lexan. The steel will be on the top and bottom, with lexan under and over. I will use some 1/4" x 20 nickel flat head security bolts to hold the steel and lexan together. The head of the bolts is round and does not have a slot or phillips head or hex. As you tighten the nut, the head "seizes" the material and holds. I will also use black rounded security bolts for the aluminum component hangers. Here you can see one of the nickel flat head bolts attached. I used 8 nickel bolts for each piece of steel/lexan to hold them together. Here is a pic of the parts all drilled. Here, I am tapping the holes in the nylon rods with the actual bolts that will hold them. I am using black hex socket bolts, #4. I am not showing all the measuring, drilling, etc since that is boring stuff, lol. Here is the bottom section with the rubber feet installed and the four legs attached. Here is a closeup of the hex socket bolts. Here, I have the top mounted to the four legs, it is starting to take shape. Now, this is a really simple case to build, for just about anyone. The hardest thing, really, is cleaning up the steel after so much drilling, deburring, etc. Next, I drilled the holes for the rubber mounts that go under the motherboard and mounted them to the bottom with the nickel bolts. 2 of the mounts were mounted with 1 3/4" #40 bolts, this will allow me to secure the motherboard to the bottom. Next, comes aluminum. I cut a piece of 3/4" angle for the pci card retention bar, cut out an area where the cards occupy, and drilled the screw holes for the thumb screws. Here is a pic of one side mounted to the leg. Next comes the bar of 1" flat aluminum for the psu mount. It is just a flat piece of aluminum mounted to the 2 back legs, and drilled once for one of the mounting holes in the psu that I will be using. I am going to put a screen on the front to keep my 2 year old from grabbing the "pretty wires" that will be so close for him to get to. I used a piece of 3/4" angle for this, mounted under the top and in between the front legs, bolted to the top with more nickel security bolts. Now I made a simple bracket for the psu. One end will attach to the bar at the back, and the psu will sit in this bracket, which is bolted to the top with the black security bolts. Now for the HD rack. This, again, is made from aluminum angle and square channel. It will hold 2 hard drives and is mounted to the bottom of the case with black security bolts. Lastly come the dvd bracket. It is 3/4" angle and 2" flat made into a "C" on each side of the drive and mounted to the top. Here is a pic from the back of all the brackets mounted along with the rubber mounts for the motherboard. For the switches. On the wood case, the legs were 1 1/4" in diameter, so I used some 1/2" aluminum pipe and drilled 1/2" holes in the leg for the power and reset switches. I put the pipe in the holes and glued a switch to the back of the pipe. Then I cut some 3/8" aluminum rod to size and drilled a hole in the end for the plunger on the switch. I then painted the 3/8" rod to match the wood. This made a nice switch that matched the case. The HD led is a 1/4" lexan rod in the leg with the led in the back. For this case, the leg is only 1" in diameter, so drilling a 1/2" hole all the way thru it would weaken it too much, so I had to figure out something different. Since I planned to mount my LCD screen on the same side as the switches, I made a simple bracket that would hold 2 standard switches, a led, and the tube that will hold the post for the lcd mount. The bracket is mounted to the leg with 2 #3 hex socket bolts. The LCD screen will be mounted on a piece of lexan and have a steel rod to serve as a mount/hinge. The hinge sleeve will slide in between the switch bracket and the leg, then the lcd rod will slide down into the sleeve allowing the lcd screen to be moved in and out of the case, pics to come. Here are the steel panels and legs primed and painted. After painting the legs Flame Red Enamel and the top/bottom steel Chalkboard Black, time to begin assembling.
Most of the case is now assembled. For the switches, I used some fiber optic line connector boots and some cable sleeve and heatshrink. In the pic above you can see the nylon tube that will serve as the sleeve for the lcd screen mount. I am awaiting some ultrabrite 15,000mcd red leds that I will use to edge light the lexan from the back of the case. Also, I need to make a screen for the front of the case and tie up some loose ends. Hopefully I will be finished after this weekend!!! Woo Hoo, lemme know what you think so far, what I did good, what I can improve on. I will put up a thread in the Project Log Discussion Area.
Razor Modz Tech Case Please leave me some feedback about what you liked, disliked, or what I can improve on. The wooden case only cost about $32 to build, and this case will end up costing a little more, around $80, but thats not too bad, lolololol.
ive never been a fan of this style case until i saw yours. should be awesome in the end so long as you use silent components or really like noise
Hey, the way you separate the PSU and the Optical drives from the mobo en the HDD's looks awsome. I'll might have to steal some idaes from your design if I'm gonna build a case from cratch
as far as the noise of the case, with the first wood one, i only had the cpu fan running, so it is very quiet. I am running a A64 3700 and with JUST the cpu fan and no other cooling, i idle at 31 c and when playing Q4 only 44 c so my temps are actually BETTER than they were in my stock CoolerMaster case with 6 fans!!!! lol. Thanks for the good words guys, I appreciate it.
