SketchUp The MNPCTech Case Design Competition, part II: Scratch Build

thanks editor, and apologies for the writing in the last post but I was rushing out. And obviously the lappie is melting.

Had an idea for a completely see through centre, wrapped around the front in a curve and the mobo will kind of float in the centre, rounded off top and bottom, nice clean simple lines. Then I saw your cases and thought I'd either have to surrender and bow down to the skill or have to get drunk and go mental instead to get an off the wall idea going. I'll have to see what happens, but it better not be solid sides as it took me ages to do that so far, but it's been good and fun. Every day's a school day!

 

The idea of a clear central curve sounds cool. As for the lag I feel your pain dude, only started using sketchup when this comp opened and it was a nightmare for my PC. Heres a few tricks I found if your intrested.

- Make components of the things your using alot of eg. bolts - switches - barbs etc and then copy them (this saves LOADS of time)

- Go to wire frame often and make sure there's no stray lines from extruding.

- Try to keep things grouped and name the groups as you go so you can quickly hide unhide what's not needed.

-If your freezing every 5 mins its the auto save and you can tune it down a bit to say 15 mins once your over the initial design phase.

 

Thanks for the tips, I might be able to put the fire extinguisher away now. Here is the rough draft I was looking at but it could be a bit plain for this site! I might just keep it as a template for a project for after the HTPC I need to do. The window could be just a tad tricky though!

 

I like what you have so far, Verdi. Go mental!
@Editor - Awesome, sir... but you are not done yet! Your pump bracket needs to be modified so it covers the bottom of the pumps. -or maybe mesh. Trust me on this. The bottom of a DDC is ugly. A full cover bracket will fix your problem with the flipped pump housing in a real-world build too.

 

OK, here is the rough draft of where it's aiming. still got the tidying up, watercooling loop etc. to put in.

 

Here's the project with the internals kind of in. Need to do a big tidy up on it as the acrylic above the psu and HDD cage will form a tray, as will the one separating the slot DVD, pump area etc. I like the centrally mounted "floating" mobo idea as well as having the cabling almost invisible so I'm working on that in my cellar at the minute. The wraparound is intended to be one solid unit so ignore the line until I fix that to

 

Getting a bit late now but I got all day tomorrow to redesign the res to a build able format including the new pump shrouds

-> Cheapskate] Got a question I was thinking of using one sheet of plexi for the res, putting 4 bends in it and then making the join in the middle of the top.. but I've never done anything that needs to be watertight so have no idea if its possible or if I'm going to need to get a huge block and mill out the core?

When can we expect to see your design dude?

 

It sounds doable. It would be best to glue the seam after bending, then sand the open ends flat for gluing. You should leave one side open until you are completely done.

The trickiest part of the whole thing will be getting the length of the unbent plexi and the placement of the bends perfect. You may have to reheat a few of them.

 

My first design. Not finished

Ok.... I know I'm going to get smoked in this competition; however, I'd like to put up a design I've been working on.

Please bear in mind my design skills are awful, and yes I stole a few components from the Sketchup list but here it is anyway.









It's not completed yet, but it's going to be a Peltier cooled CPU powered by a Meanwell PS and cooled via a small loop. I need to figure out the thermal properties a bit better and determine if the radiator is sufficient to use.

I couldn't find any designs on a Meanwell so I went off of some pretty poor images I did find. Those slots on the mobo supports are there for hiding wires. As well I tried to make this a removable mobo tray. I intend to have several fans mounted on the side panel and when removed the quick disconnect allows for no wires to be unplugged.

The large space above the Meanwell PS is to hold my HD's, and DVD drive. I know it's not finished.

If you guys only knew how long it took me to come up with this you'd laugh until your sides split. What takes you guys a hour or so takes me days upon days.

One odd thing. My file is 27meg's. Odd. I create a LOT of components and eliminate anything that doesn't need to be visible so I can't figure it out. Oh well.

Oops... Just looking at my pictures now I realize that my design resembles Craigbru's Rouge a bit too much. Looks like I need to redo it now.

Editor: You got this in the bag bud. Your artistic skills are incredible. I understand the program just fine, but you have the side of your brain that handles artistic talent tuned WAY beyond anything I could even comprehend.

Edit.... Why the heck aren't my images displaying? I'm not THAT much of a newb. I posted my pictures in my profile and then linked them in my post.... Am I having another brain fart?

Edit... Edit... I fixed it. I'm just stupid.

 

lol! "What takes you guys a hour or so takes me days upon days."

I'm so glad you said that I thought I was alone!

 

-> Verdi] looks like the basis for one epic mineral cool PC!

-> SkyLord77]

you could keep the internal placement the same but just pimp out the exterior shell

Thanks man but cheap or confusis still gets my vote they have some crazy designs!

-> Cheapskate]
This is what I came up with for the bends.. the internal x section filter thingy that also holds the cylinder connecting the 2 pumps needs some work but the basics are there.


(always seem to get carried away with designs lol)

Hopefully that would work.. for the ends I was thinking of milling a groove in a ally panel putting a rubber seal into it and then using threaded rods running from the front and back panels so when I tighten the nuts it would compress the plexi into the seals but not sure if that would work either yet lol

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On a side note;

I'm pretty new the sketch up but I thought uploading the skp file for download might help some of the other guys/girls that are starting out to get an idea of how things go together.. Its probably a total mess to the experienced eye but it seems to work on keeping the program running smooth on my old p4 setup

Click to download

If that's breaking any rules then give me a slap and i'll remove it

 

done a bit of work...



still lots more to do

 

I probably should have phrased that a bit differently.

I certainly didn't mean to slap anyone in the face with my remark. I know that ALL you guys are far more talented than I.

Thanks for the download Editor!

 

@Skylord77 - I'm betting the reason it took you forever was because you are working out the layout first. I've been screwing with the layout on my next build for months, and I still haven't got it nailed down.
-For this contest I started big (like, 8foot high big,) and shrunk the frame down to the mobo.
@Editor - I can see a lot of frustration in your future if you plan on bending that. This would be much easier to build if you cut and glued everything. -Granted, you would be a god if you did do it, (but you would have to be a god...)
@Dan-ere-07 - I see a slick SLI port. Is it safe to assume the fins on the face wrap around the side? I hope you don't have a cat. The little creep would LOVE that corner.

 

You might do i need to make a new mounting bracket for the CPU block, its too stock


And yes they do


Heres the power button and cd eject.

 

Well i'm no god but its worth a crack main reason for it was me being worried about it being water tight with all the joints : /

 

well, it for AM2 and s939 ^^ not 775

 

@Dan - ere-07 - Where's the eject button for the eject button?

 

You are being picky again in a 'how about' thread! Quit it! PBTTTTTTTTTTTH! This is all about 'what if?''

Too much of the real world is harmful. One needs to think freely.
So there.

john

 

It's not a sketchup rendering or even a full idea, but your post got me thinking, John. Since they have laser projection keyboards (http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/zoom/), what about a laser projection eject button? ;P