My Dell case completely sucks. It is small, ugly, and opens quite strangely. I want a new case. I want an extremely large case. By this I mean 10+ 5.25" bays, enough orom to house two complete systems, and a huge wateercooling setup. SO I shopped around. I really liked the Antec Plus 1500 B Unfortunately, I don't have $700. I would have ot build it. SO if you have any ideas, that would be totally awesome. The Plus 1500 B: EDIT: Pic removed for faster load times
An idea for it it is 18" wide and 20" long. On the right side are the 5.25" bays, behidn them the PSU. On the left side is a motherboard and a heater core. Thanks to DeX for the dimensions of the stuff in his mod guide thread EDIT: This is to scale, 1 pixel = 1mm EDIT: Pic removed because the page was loading so damn slow...
doesnt look to hard to build...frame it with alu L channel maybe? then use some 1-2mm alu sides(easy to cut)?
I got the idea for this from a case very similar to yours. Would I have to weld to attach aluminum? Well i'm always up for a challenge I am of course going to design it for watercooling heh thats funny amodded, watercooled Dell sitting in a huge custom server case.
if you didnt live in another country i would buy the dell case off you, ive usualy liked them, can we get a shot of the old 1?
You may have seen my case around on a few other forums over the past 6 months (since I got it), so it could well be mine that you DID get the idea from lol. Welding AL is much more difficult, and different, to welding steel (or so my dad says, he's a mechanic, and knows a lot about welding etc, esp since he has welded back together pretty much 2 whole Ford Anglia 105E's, plus MANY more cars!), you need different gasses etc. Confused
Mine is the Dimension 4400 Go to www.dell.com and find the Dimension 4550, which has the same case. I think I might bolt it together. I have decided to make it a 20" cube case, still not finished iwht the details. It's going to be designed to fit a watercooling setup
Pop rivets are prolly the best way to join your aluminium. Welding is gonna need some specialist gear! I used rivets extensively in my last project
Ok, new pics! http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=1748170&uid=777343 First image is the first section. This is big enough to fit a full computer in It will eventually hold watercooling in the top, but for now it will hold the Dell's PSU. Below that is motherboard with 120mm fan There are 2 5.25" bays for LCD, and 2 3.5" bays for hard drives. Hard drives will also fit behind the LCD if I ever get 4 of them. There is a front 120mm intake, and enough room for a full size ATX board (I believe mine is somewhere between MicroATX and ATX, there are 5 slots compared to most board's 7, I think MicroATX uses 4) Then there's the top view. And the watercooling stuff that will go at the top of the left side.
Ok, even mroe new ideas! I will be using a dehumidifier to cool this (Yeah I know there has been talk of this buzzing around, but I had the idea a long time ago. I was jus tunsure of how to use it, more like a Vapochill or Prometeria than the wtaer chiller i know someone here is using) Anyway, I will be doing homemade waterblocks I am waiting to get a dehmidifier before I can do more design work, so I will be able to fit it in, hopefully using the large dehumidifier fan to cool whole system. It's very quite and very big.
Ah! What would you reccomend for an easy free CAD type program for designing this? I love Paint, but a 3d view or soemthing would be awesome. Just a little something that can help me...
Oh, that was Altron posting. I am on the puter Xilron was using, the IBM Thinkpad was getting cramped... Seems he logged in. lol. I had no idea he even registered here until tonight...
Ah, figured out the front bezel design. I am not oging to make any windows or lighty uppy stuff. There are casters on the bottom, a large door with a screen over the bays, then on top there is a thing with side handles, a LCD, and a rheostat for a rackmount look. I am waiting to get my radiator so I can measure it properly.
Side view the gray blobs in thje front are 2 120mm fans and a Black Ice Extreme 2 The red thing is 3" PVC pipe for a resivoir, feeding directly into a VIA Aqua 1300 There are 2 120mm top blowholes. It comes out 1" near the top, this will hold an rheostat and possibly a LCD, along with all the controls and such (and handles, facing foreward) Below that will be a door, that's why it's indented. Still working on design for the right side.
hmmm... Which do you think is better? two regular Heater Core radiators, or one Black Ice Extreme 2? The heater cores are $20 cheaper, but the Black Ice is bigger.
