Since my Mineral Oil Cooled PC is on the fritz, I have decided to move my main workstation into my old wood case. It has been out of use collecting dust for the past few years, and it's time for it to receive some more love. The hardware in my new machine includes: Asus M4A78T-E 790GX AM3 mobo AMD Phenom X2 550 BE 3.1ghz cpu OCZ ModXStream 700w modular psu OCZ 3x2gb DDR3 1600 ram MSI GTX275 gpu 4x1Tb Hitachi HD's The CPU is cooled by a TRUE with 2 Noctua NF-P12's. I've ramped it up from 3.1ghz to 3.8ghz fairly easily. However, before I put the new bits into the old case, I had to do some work on it...
Before I get into the new work I did on the case, I'd like to repost some of the construction pics from the project log. This is the frame that my wood case was built around. I made several modifications to it. The beginning of one of the right side panel. The beginning of the front of the panel. The pieces that will become the left side panel/door. Gluing the left side panel together. The right side panel, sanded and cut. How the door works. My original paint job. I was never really satisfied with this and am disappointed at myself for living with it for so long. The front panel cut into sections with the holes cut out for the buttons, vent, and LCD. View from the back before gluing it all together. The trim work. Gluing the louvers onto the front panel. Back with the holes cut out. Right before being glued together. Can never have enough clamps. Installing the trim. It really adds a lot of character to the case. And after staining it with linseed oil for the first time. I love this stuff. The wiring on the inside. The 4 switches control fans by switching them from 7v to 12v. They do this by moving the negative terminal between 5v and 0v while leaving the positive terminal at 12v. All nice and pretty.
The case was finished in January 2004 and was put out of commission in February 2008. Since then it has been sitting in my closet collecting dust. The switches on the front never actually worked right. I finally fixed them a week ago. (Lol, they were only non-working for 5.5 years) This new "paint" job ranks somewhere among the best $100 I ever spent. I got it powder coated glossy black. It looks absolutely amazing in person. So smooth and impossible to scratch. I love it. I bought a new mini Crystalfontz LCD screen since I sold my old one. As you can see, the front door is bowed a little. A lot happens to wood after 5 years of heat and use. I plan on fixing this soon. Inside the case there are 4 Noctua NF-P12's; 2 on the chassis and 2 on the CPU heatsink. There are also 2 NF-P9's; one on the door, the other in the rear above the PSU. The side door is sagging a little bit, I need to do something about that as well. That said, for a 5.5 year old case, it's looking pretty sharp!
I added 2 pieces of aluminum L angle to try to remove some of the bow from the door. A single screw to the middle was all I used. I wasn't able to get rid of 100% of the bow, but it's about 80% gone. The fan grill I made a while back in support of my university, the University of Cincinnati.
I must say, you are an excellent woodworker! That is an awesome case right there. I agree on the fans. They fit in perfectly. Window is made of acrylic?
I've seen Norm make a few relief cuts on the back side with a table saw, leave about an eighth inch on the front, then clamp it flat and fill the cuts with putty. I think that's why they use plywood for most doors, more stable. Greets from about an hour north of you by the way!
Looks foreign without the mass of tubes! Would the cpu heatsink get better natural flow if it was aligned vertically? I known the heatpipes work more efficiently if they're horizontal, but the fans don't line up and it bugs me.
Clamping it flat and putting it somewhere humid usually works here. I've seen a huge cutting board fixed by adding furniture oil and a bunch of weights on the top. After a week it went from a 1" bow to perfectly flat. Tl;dr= Oil it up! It's not like you're not used to oil stink or anything.
I might have to try that, cheers! Hah, I hadn't even thought of it; they were just what I had sitting around. But you're right, the light tan frame and brown blade assembly go well with the wood case. Yes, the window is acrylic (and needs to be cleaned). Thanks! Indeed it has. I've been telling myself that I wanted my next case to be wood, so this worked out perfectly. Hm, I'd be afraid of it cracking if I only left 1/8" of an inch. Greetings! How's the weather? It's like 65F here, ridiculous. I had intended to mount it vertically, but much to my chagrin, the mounting bracket only goes on one way. It'd work a lot better if I was able to exhaust hot air out of the heatsink directly out the rear chassis fan.
The black looks good with the wood I'm curious to know, what case did you use for the metal frame. it looks like my Antec but much bigger.
Thanks! With regards to the metal frame, I do not know. I purchased it ~6 years ago from www.directron.com as a "skeleton case." That is, it did not come with side panels or any markings. I had always assumed it was an Antec, since that's what it looked like.
Lol. I think its a Cheiftec Dragon DA-01BD-U-OP. Its virtually identical to my Antec TX1050B apparently there is some tie up. anyway, thanks. *goes looking for a local agent*
