Building a Lexan Watercooled Dualie from scratch

[Bender]

I’m looking for ideas and inspiration on my new project. This will be an ATX watercooled dual athlon rig. The case will be made entirely from .25" thick Lexan (http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=199333). The 2 side pieces and the top will be all 1 piece formed with a heat gun. The formed piece gets rid of unnecessary joints and adds a lot in the looks department. I have a lot of small details to work out but this gives you a basic idea of what I’m looking for.

http://www.daocplace.com/~bender/lexan/assembly4.jpg

This is the first step in design so I’m open for any crazy ideas or suggestions. I will have a side panel that fits neatly inside the left side cutout. If anyone is good at art they can design me a nice OC logo. Bender spelled out and a little Bender robot is also something I want to have etched or cut into the side panel. Thoughts, Suggestions, comments ect…

[Über~PhLuBB]

lol Is that a window... IN a window? Looks like there's a window hole on the left side there!

Well, make the drive cage bigger (two parallel sheets of Lexan, with drives in between, you know what I'm talking about, alot of clear cases use them), and fan locations. Since you're making your own case, you can put 'em anywhere.

Also, what are you going to use to keep the base off whatever the case is sitting on? Feet of some sort. Little adhesive rubber feet maybe? Like something you would use on a home entertainment system woofer.

You'll definately want to open up that area where your PSU and 5.25" drives are located, leave as much open space as possible, for ventilation and cable routing.

[Koopa_Fett]

That sounds really cool. Make sure you take lots of pictures as it progresses. What are the case's dimensions going to be?

[Bender]

Originally posted by Koopa_Fett
That sounds really cool. Make sure you take lots of pictures as it progresses. What are the case's dimensions going to be?

I’m not exactly sure on case dimensions yet but it will be within the norm for standard ATX. The cool part about using Inventor is how you can change features even after they have been drawn. Their is no need to redraw parts to make a size change.

Über~PhLuBB
I plan on adding some serious case cooling. No sissy 80mm fans for me. The water cooling gets 1 or possibly 2 172mm Comair Rotron Majors. I also want to make a duct so the hot air from the radiator doesn’t affect the case temps. In the rear I'll try to fit 92s or 120s.

[AlucardCasull]

you should put the hard drives on the sides, like 2 panels, so the ide cable (if you have flat) would for some kind of ""walkway""...
|CDROM|
ide cable
-------------------------------
HD HD
| | | |
| | | |

[AlucardCasull]

well its not working, just slode the left HD over to the end of the cable and thats what im talking about

[Captain Slug]

There are a couple online stores that offer custom laser etching that's done based on whatever greyscale image you send them. So any bender image could be used.

I don't have time to dig up the link right now...

[Koopa_Fett]

That'll be one cold case. Store ice-cream in there while you're at it. :)