Thread: PC Case Project

DeadLock, What material are you intending to use. I have mounted perspex inside plywood cabinets by just using really small brass nuts & bolts.

Good tip - plenty ventilation = better computer

Cheers

Are you going to rebate the plexi flush with the wood, if so just use silicon sealant. As with car audio installs they paint the plexi's edge with black paint about 10mm inwards before installing to cover up any visable glue/wood.
Make sure the rebate is around 1-2mm deeper than the plexi thickness to allow for the silicon, let the silicon fully cure before installing the computer parts as it gives off some pretty nasty fumes that can eat some plastics...

This is the wood and perspex case I've built for my kids.
It uses a mini-itx system board, so the whole machine is approx 9 inch cube.
The wooden uprights simply have grooves routered into them about 5mm deep that the perspex slides down into. It's retained by the top, which is held in place by anodised round headed bolts (used for securing motorcycle fairings).

I second the advice on the cooling fans, a current PC could be dissapating up to 200 watts inside the case, so keep the air moving and watch for areas of dead air inside the box. My little system runs a lot cooler but has 4 small fans on the back of the case, to blowing air in and 2 moving it out. The system board is mounted on a removable tray that acts as an air guide, ensuring the air moves thru the whole case before exiting again.

Custom built PC cases is so much more original than just mounting a window and putting some neons on a normal PC

IanaB -I really love your computer!
I too have been wanting to do this for years - just can never get round too it.

isn't a nice timber computer box nicer than those fairy light bells and whistles modern plastic ones?

Thx for all the advice... This case will house 6 120mm fans powered by a second PSU from an SFF PC.

The wood I was thinking of using is 0.25" thickness MDF or in mm that is 6.4mm.
I have everything worked out apart from the perspex mounting. I have a few ideas how to do it.

1. Have the perspex slide in from top by creating a frame on the inside of the panel.

2. Step the panel about 1" bigger than the hole and use clips to hold the perspex in place.

This will be my first wood project since I left school in 1998 and since I am into building custom PCs I thought what better than to do a custom case for my custom PC.

Heres my PC specs fo those of you interested...

AMD64 3000+ (Overclocked to 2.4GHz)
DFI Lanparty nf3 250Gb
2x512 Geil Ultra Platinum
xFx 6800 GT (Overclocked to Ultra speeds)
2x80Gb Maxtor Diamond Max 9 HDDs
DVD-R/RW

The case is going to be big for maximum cooling from the 120mm fans and there will more than enough room for a water cooling kit.

I'd go with the frame on the inside of the case and slide the perspex in. It will reinforce the thin mdf, rather than routing out more of the thin panel.

I do tend to overengineer things however

It sounds like you have the cooling side covered, either that or it will double as a model hovercraft

Ian

Originally Posted by Ianab

I'd go with the frame on the inside of the case and slide the perspex in. It will reinforce the thin mdf, rather than routing out more of the thin panel.

I do tend to overengineer things however

It sounds like you have the cooling side covered, either that or it will double as a model hovercraft

Ian

Since there 120mm fans I will be able to run them at a slow speed reducing noise but still giving a much better airflow than say 80mm fans.

Im still not sure what finish I will do on the case... I was thinking of staining the wood but Im not sure how dark I could get the stain.
I may even paint the case and try and give it a gloss effect. But we will see what happends.

Heres a few features I decided upon last night while in bed...

Double hinged roof and left side panel.
Alumium sheet lined inside (Mirror black finish)
Front loading HDD rack
Hidden cable management (Put most the cables under a second wood panel on the bottom of case
Dust filter screens behined the fans
4 Lockable wheel under the case (It will be very heavy once hardware installed)

Wish me luck..

No Offence DeadLock, but why don't you just get one of these and stick it in a ventilated drawer?




P

Originally Posted by bitingmidge

No Offence DeadLock, but why don't you just get one of these and stick it in a ventilated drawer?




P

Because I have a PC not a MAC... Completley different format and layout.
Plus I want to build a completley custom case... I could spend £200 on the U2-UFO case which is 18x18x18 Inches in size and holds even more 120mm fans.

But I dont want to spend hundreads of £ on a case... I already have an ok case from Chieftec but having a custom built case stands out more and is unique.

Ianab
Any chance of a few more pics of your machine showing the internals and rear panel?

Yes Ianab, if you would please.
I am really interested in what you have done there.

Just a tip if you want a custom shaped perspex window, Cut it to shape with either a bandsaw or jigsaw using a fine blade to avoid chipout or cracking, sand it to the final shape.

Assuming you have wood side panels follow this technique:

Pass router around fixed bit of perspex (tape or move clamps) using 1/4" straight bit, on a big enough piece of MDF to make template 1

Pass router inside first template using 1/4" straight bit on another bit of MDF to make template 2

Attach a 3/4in brushing to the router, position template 2 on the case where the window needs to go, Then with the same 1/4in bit follow the inside of template 2. Assuming none of the pieces move during the process you will have a perfect fit. Then you can silicone it in or whatever.

The only disadvantage to the aforementioned method is that it won't work too well for shapes that have tight concave curves etc. If anyone has a better method for what i just mentioned, i'd like to hear it.

Here's another picture of the back panel. The EPIA system board has everything integrated onboard, so no expansion cards to worry about.
This one has an 800mhz cpu, 256mb ram and 20gb hard disk. Because the whole system board only draws about 15 watts cooling isn't a problem.

The diagram shows the layout of parts inside the box. The dvd rom is mounted to the top of the case with some small metal brackets. The system board is bolted to the removable perspex shelf and the power supply and hard disk are screwed to the base.

Check this site for lots of zany PC case ideas
http://www.mini-itx.com/projects.asp

Cheers

Ian

Just a tip if you want a custom shaped perspex window, Cut it to shape with either a bandsaw or jigsaw using a fine blade to avoid chipout or cracking, sand it to the final shape.

Assuming you have wood side panels follow this technique:

Pass router around fixed bit of perspex (tape or move clamps) using 1/4" straight bit, on a big enough piece of MDF to make template 1

Pass router inside first template using 1/4" straight bit on another bit of MDF to make template 2

Attach a 3/4in brushing to the router, position template 2 on the case where the window needs to go, Then with the same 1/4in bit follow the inside of template 2. Assuming none of the pieces move during the process you will have a perfect fit. Then you can silicone it in or whatever.

The only disadvantage to the aforementioned method is that it won't work too well for shapes that have tight concave curves etc. If anyone has a better method for what i just mentioned, i'd like to hear it.