Project Air Cube - Going back to air

UPDATED 12-30-2008

It has been a long time (about 7 years) since I have built a computer without water cooling.
This project is going to be a little different then some of my past computers. Those have
always been geared towards extreme performance, and while I will of course be overclocking
this as much as I can, it will be air cooled (so there will be limitations). The idea behind this is
more of a very quiet multimedia/multi-use computer.

It is not going to be as custom as some of my other computers, but I think it will still stand
out when I am done. Instead of providing a large outline here, I will slowly reveal everything
as the build progresses. I plan to complete this project before the new year (when College
starts backup).

All of these pictures can be clicked on to get a larger version.

Here is the actual case as it was shipped to me. Obviously this a put together type of case.



Here are a couple of my little helpers (my one year old twins). Trying to get them into computers young



After getting rid of all the packaging, here are the actual contents. As you can see, this is
just a bare aluminum case. I have pretty much always had black so I thought this would be
a nice change. Plus, if I want to paint it in the future, it will be easy to do.



Close up of some of the contents. I have a few small upgrades here (you can't really see
them but you will be able to later on).

After about 30 minutes the assembly of the case is well under way. It took a few minutes of
looking at the instructions to get this going, but once I started it didn't take very long to get
it assembled.




Pretty much done here. As you will see later on, the top and sides are all plexi-glass. You can
also see here that the motherboard will be laying flat. This is to accommodate the enormous
copper heat sink that will be installed later. It weights so much, the manufacture states that
you should position the motherboard this way to avoid any damage to your board



Here is the front. You can see here that the drives and such will be located at the bottom of
the case.

This is where some of the custom work will be. This case does not have any front
USB so that will need to be added. Also I am going to have to add some light switches
for the cold cathodes lights, BIOS reset switch (nice for overclocking), custom fan
guards (instead of the standard fan guards), etc.




Hard drive mounts pictured here.



I knew that this case was large, but once I put it together I realized how large it really
is. This picture does not show it really well, but it is very large. It is pictured here in
front of my 42" TV.



Now I am just waiting for parts.

that is nicely massive.... Rather than plain aluminum.. WOODGRAIN

Looks like a nice project. What kind of case is that? I like it a lot.

metloaf said:

Looks like a nice project. What kind of case is that? I like it a lot.

Click to expand...

It is from a place called Mountain Mods. They are a bit expensive, but they have some really
unique cases. They are very well built and built by hand. I really had a hard time picking
between the one I got and their brand new one, the Pinnacle 24. I think I might get one
of those in a few months (probably the Pinnacle 18 version) and take my current hardware
and water cooling (minus the video card) and make it my new Linux server.

MARCI said:

that is nicely massive.... Rather than plain aluminum.. WOODGRAIN

Click to expand...

I don't know about woodgrain.... But I will be tearing it back down in order to add some color this weekend.

Something that size, in a living area, needs a furniture like finish.. unless you go 'modern' and do a gloss black.

MARCI said:

Something that size, in a living area, needs a furniture like finish.. unless you go 'modern' and do a gloss black.

Click to expand...

Ah, I see what you are saying, and I agree. The only reason it is pictured there is
because I wanted to show it up next to the TV. Right now it sits in my office
upstairs and I am on the process of building a 500 sq/ft office/computer workshop
in my basement. So, it isn't housed in any 'living' space.

Thats pretty impressive rig there skahtul, BTW which plexy colour came with it.

Jolly-Swagman said:

Thats pretty impressive rig there skahtul, BTW which plexy colour came with it.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Hopefully as it takes shape over the next few weeks, it will get even better.
I really debated about getting different colored plexi, but I went with clear. I think
with the way I am going to light this up, and some internal mods the clear will work best.

I got too busy today at work to sneak away and grab some raw material I had wanted to get for
the weekend. Plus, there is a 3 day snow storm on its way where I live starting tonight, so
I won't be going anywhere (since the place I need to go is about an hour north and it will be
really bad there). So I won't be getting as much done as I had wanted.

Anyway, I did get one of my many shipments in today so here is what I got done after work today.

Now begins the phase of the project where most of the modification is going to take place, the
face plate. Shown below is a fan controller kit. The middle position is off, up is 12 volts, and
down is 7 volts. These options should give me the ability to really tune the cooling performance
vs. noise levels. The kit includes the electronics, a template made of plexi-glass, and some LED
holders. You provide the face plate. Or, you could mount this directly to the case somewhere.



The template has some double sided sticky tape, so you simply line up the template to the
face plate and get your drill ready with a 1/4" drill bit.



Shown here with all 12 holes drilled out.



Finished up and ready to mount.



I think it turned out okay. The LED's will change to indicate if the voltage is at 12 or 7.

I will probably be doing some polishing on the face plate this weekend, so I will post my results.

Pretty cool little kit. How much it run you?

Hopefully, our fearless leader will post back up, before long. This is a very nice project.

Adak said:

Hopefully, our fearless leader will post back up, before long. This is a very nice project.

Click to expand...

I am out of school, I have 2 weeks of work off (after the 23rd) so there is TONS of time to do
this project. Unfortunately due to snow and slow shipping I still have not received any more
of my parts. I called a few companies that I ordered parts through (mesh and some other
materials I need) on the 4th of December and they are just now getting stuff out! I hope
to get all the stuff in soon as possible while I have all this time.

I did get all of the hardware (MB, CPU, etc) but I won't get that till the 25th
(the actual hardware are presents from my wife).

KosAMD said:

Pretty cool little kit. How much it run you?

Click to expand...

Yeah, it is a pretty cool kit. It was 29.00 from FrozenCPU. Seems to be a good company (at least they can ship fast).

Finally after a few weeks of not really being able to get much done, I have received a
few packages. Let's see what is in here!



Looks like we have some fans, switches, LCD display, mesh and some other odds and
ends. Now it is time to see what I can do with these parts.



First up will be the mesh. This is going to be used to make some custom fan guards.
This is far and away cheaper then purchasing custom fan guards. Also, we will see
next that I will use this in a number of places, including the front panel of the case.
Pictured below is the 92mm fan for the video card cooler. Those edges still need a
bit of cleaning up, but you get the idea.



The next few mods are going to involve this front panel. One thing I really like about
this case is that I can simply take off any part that I want and work with it. This is
very nice since I am going to be doing some dremel work on the front panel and I
don't want tiny metal bits all over the inside of the case. I think these 'custom' fan
guards made with the mesh looks much better than the stock round wire guards.
I left out the middle fan so you could see the mesh better.

Next up is the LCD screen. This does not really serve any purpose per say,
but I have always wanted to put one in so here we go. This one is black,
but it will not make any difference as I will be directly installing it into the
front of the case.



Here I have it connected to my current rig for testing. This was very easy to
setup and can display all sorts of cool items.



Next up will be to mount that LCD to the front panel. Time to break out my favorite tool (dremel)!

why you runnin your tv all distorted? fixed aspect ftw.

he likes fat chicks? so he streches them out on tv?
acually it doesent look that bad