[gvblake22]

Well, I just finished my first ever custom case from scratch and it was quite the journey to say the least. I made a lot of mistakes but learned a lot along the way as well. This was my first attempt at making a totally custom case from scratch, so I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. But as you will see, I think it turned out pretty well! Anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking, but if you want to get more pictures or detail on any part of the project feel free to post questions or comments. You can also see the entire worklog in real-time as it was (very) slowly completed HERE....

Well, first up was to get settled into my workspace; prettymuch a modder's paradise!


Here we are working on the drive frames:

[gvblake22]

And the motherboard tray (revision 1)...



The handle...

[gvblake22]

Here we have the piece of aluminum (purchased for a few bucks at the hardware store) all masked off with the cuts marked and ready to be hacked up:


After swearing and fighting with the dremel and somehow breaking the shaft, I finally got something kindof cut out:

...pretty, ain't it??

But after some fun, fun filing, I got it to look a little more like it should:


And it fits!


I still have to design, drill, and cut the outsides of the bracket, sand it all down, and paint it gloss black after all is said and done but I'm happy with the progress so far.

[gvblake22]

The acrylic corner cubes seen before were eventually ditched in favor of 3/4" aluminum angle...

Not very friendly to the wallet though


Pieces of correct length were then cut and clamped in place on the edge of the panel for drilling:

This allowed me to perfectly align any and all holes drilled (unline with the corner cubes).

Then the holes in the aluminum frame were tapped for 6/32 screws...


And fastened to the panel:

[gvblake22]

Don't forget which is this side...

...and which is that side...

[gvblake22]

There will be one of these pieces in all four corners of the front and back (8 pieces in total). And there will also be another drilled and tapped hole on that bare side that will accept the screw through the front or rear panel (so the one pictured above is only half done).

Now the frame is nearly finished!!


Next task was to get to work on the new front panel replacement:

..and here it is with the screw holes drilled and installed on the front of the case (paper towel role for size reference only ):

[gvblake22]

Then I wanted to get to work on the green frames that go behind the front and back panels...
I started with a 12" x 12" piece of the florescent green acrylic (1/8" thickness) and measured everything out from there:


Because I am a cheapscate, I just guestimated that the 12" x 12" piece would be enough, but it didn't end up being quite big enough for what I was hoping for...
But I got the piece cut out and installed and I think it still might turn out ok:

[gvblake22]

I had to redo the motherboard tray and remount it to the frame, but the final result works great and fits nearly perfect, so I'm happy!







The rectangle around the rear I/O ports seems to be a little crooked (which I didn't notice before). So I'll be correcting that as well as eventually painting all the aluminum glossy black when everything is cut and finished.

[gvblake22]

Got the top rear exhaust fan mounting all cut out....

[gvblake22]

Now to make some progress on the front panel...



I'm gonna make another flourescent green frame type thing to go around the drives. The same thing will be done to the 3.5" drive bay devices to be located right next to the 5.25" drives...


You can kind of see the design I'm going for outlined in pencil. I managed to get this far before my hands were numb and I had to take a break and go inside (the workshop is outside and it's about 15 degrees F). :brrr:

After thawing out and having a bit of lunch, I went right ahead and cut out the openings for the two 3.5" drive bay devices...



Then it was on to making them look pretty (or so I hoped). This involved making more fluorescent green acrylic frames around the drives...

[gvblake22]

One of the openings for the temperature display (there will be another on the other side of the fan)...

[gvblake22]

Then it was on to getting some of the custom modular cables created and sleaved...

[gvblake22]

And I decided to whip out the UV CCFLs and check out how the stuff will look under special lighting conditions...

[gvblake22]

Now to put it all together!!!
Rear panel:


Front of the case with no front panel:


Front of the case with front panel:

[gvblake22]

The motherboard (Gigabyte GA-M61PM-S2) with upgraded chipset cooling (a Zalman ZM-NB47J), AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600 Brisbane, 2x512MB Team Group Team Extreem DDR2-800 CAS 4 (good ol' Micron D9GMH chips), Zalman CNPS-9500AM2; all mounted to the mobo tray:


The Lower half of the case with 500W Enermax Liberty PSU, two PATA optical drives (one DVD burner, one DVD-ROM), and two Hard Drives (but only one Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200.8 is being used right now).


And with the motherboard installed over the PSU and drives...

[gvblake22]

And a slightly less blurry lit up shot...

(don't mind the top panel that isn't shut all the way. I was messing with the power switch trying to get it to work...)

I also totally forgot to paint up some expansion card slot covers and some wire fan grills for the back panel. I'll see if I can get those fabricated sometime later on. But for now, I think you get the idea

[Evil_inc]

Thats damned impressive, good use of acrylic!

[WonderingSoul]

Agreed. That's one fine peice of work there man.

[Atomic Dawg]

Totally awesome! You are the Dremel King! A few questions:

1. What kind of building is that? A barn?!?
2. How long did it take you from start to finish?
3. How did you cut circles and curves into the acrylic? Freehand with the Dremel?

[gvblake22]

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by Atomic Dawg

Totally awesome! You are the Dremel King! A few questions:

1. What kind of building is that? A barn?!?
2. How long did it take you from start to finish?
3. How did you cut circles and curves into the acrylic? Freehand with the Dremel?

1. It is a large pole barn actually. That picture is taken on the upper floor where there is an 80 foot workbench
2. It took TOO LONG! HAHAHA. Seriously though, I started it in February of 2006 and finally finished in April 2007
3. I used a bench mounted jig saw like the one pictured below to make most of the cuts on the front and back panels. I got it close with the jigsaw then finished it off by hand with large round and half-round files (also pictured below).

[TorquedJetta]

I have a caseless computer that has been dying for something new but I can't decide of 1/4" acrylic or just use some MDF and let my good friend tag it.

What thickness did you use? and if you dont mind me asking where you got it from?

[gvblake22]

I got all my acrylic from Delvies Plastics and I highly recommend them.

If I remember correctly, I used 3/16" for the side panels and motherboard tray and 1/8" for everything else.

[Burdman27911]

First of all, great job. It turned out very well!

I couldn't really see from the pictures, but how is the handle on the top side supported? Is it anchored in some metal, or only supported by the 1/8" acrylic? Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable picking up my PC with a handle only attached to acrylic, though I do tend to over engineer things (the professors will soon get on my case with that).

[Vio1]

Nice mod!

At first i thought this was gonna be a getto mod (cause i wasnt reading your details, just looking at the pictures... i thought you were using particle board...
What a suprise when you removed the protective covering off of that acrylic. looks amazing!

[EmAn]

nice job i like it a lot nice job with the acrylic too

[DanOnTheMoon]

Pimpness, I like! I might just have to build a cube case for myself.

[Chaos_Being]

Great mod! I just did a black/green themed case with some of those ac ryan uv fans too...It's such a nice contrast of colors I eventually want to try working with some acrylic like that too.

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by Burdman27911

First of all, great job. It turned out very well!

I couldn't really see from the pictures, but how is the handle on the top side supported? Is it anchored in some metal, or only supported by the 1/8" acrylic? Personally I wouldn't feel comfortable picking up my PC with a handle only attached to acrylic, though I do tend to over engineer things (the professors will soon get on my case with that).

Thanks!
As for the top handle, it is not only bolted to the top panel (3/16" thick acrylic), but goes through the circular green 1/8" thick piece of acrylic that is also screwed to the top panel. So the weight/pull from the handle is spread out around the surface of the top panel by the green piece. The top panel its self is screwed directly to the aluminum angle (that is attached to the side panels) in six places around the outside. It is surprisingly strong and I am not worried about picking it up by the handle even when it is loaded down with hardware.

[gangaskan]

wow, that is amazing, however, i would go nuts keeping that thing clean

[gvblake22]

Originally Posted by gangaskan

wow, that is amazing, however, i would go nuts keeping that thing clean

HAHAHA, you are (unfortunately) exctly right. I didn't really think about how fast it would get dusty, but after the first day I quickly educated myself as to what I got myself into!