Overclockers

Dukeman · 06-25-07, 11:00 PM

I tried a wood case last fall but wasn't happy with the way it was coming together so I abandoned it. On Father's Day I started a new one that would be bigger and a little easier to build. Still had some issues but I'm happy with it so far.

Laying out the main parts.

Fitting a motherboard.

Brass wood nuts for setting the stand-offs.

Laying out the back panel.

Dukeman · 06-25-07, 11:06 PM

More pics...

Back panel cut and ready.

Starting assembly.

From the back.

Front.

Added a stabilizing bar and T-Nuts for securing the side door (these will end up being replaced with brass wood nuts because they don't hold very well). Notice the bottom is cut so cool air will enter the PSU from underneath and go right out of the case. The case will sit on feed so the air can flow in.

Dukeman · 06-25-07, 11:10 PM

Even more pics...

You make a better door than...well actually you are both.

Front with start of a drive cage.

Home made fan grill, courtesy of a cheap pencil holder from Wal-Mart.

After a few cuts with some tin snips.

icantfindone · 06-26-07, 03:12 AM

Looks good so far. Any functional reason for the slanted side, or purely for aesthetics?

Cant wait to see how it turns out.

BTW, is that a pentium 3? What hardware will be going in it?

EmAn · 06-26-07, 07:30 AM

it looks good and i like the originality of the slanted side

and wally world stuff can come in handy

also... what hardware will go in there as i dont think a p3 will work that well...

Dukeman · 06-26-07, 11:10 AM

The side is slanted for asthetics. The PIII is just there for a pattern for the ATX motherboard. I'll be using the hardware from my sig until next year when I can upgrade.

I'm gonna try to finish the drive cage and start laying out the front of the case tonight. I'll post more pics over the next few days.

JamesXP · 06-26-07, 12:07 PM

Nothing wrong with a P3 :P

DorianBrytestar · 06-26-07, 02:59 PM

Nice home brew look!

Going to stain the wood?

4od · 06-26-07, 05:32 PM

I thought only pII used slots...

Dukeman · 06-26-07, 05:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DorianBrytestar

Nice home brew look!

Going to stain the wood?

Yeah, I'm gonna use a cherry stain and black hardware. I will also try to wood face the optical drive and flash reader.

Dukeman · 06-30-07, 08:29 PM

I cut the front plate and began cutting out the holes for the various parts.

Sleepy_Steve · 06-30-07, 10:54 PM

Nice workmanship so far man!

Brings back fond memories of me building my WC enclosure out of MDF.

Keep it up!

Dukeman · 07-02-07, 08:33 PM

I secured the top plate of the drive cage then realized it would need a cut-out to allow for ATX motherboards (little oversite on the design). Then I cut the drive and fan holes in the front plate and secured the front.

Still need to add the power switch and power/drive light combo.

JDXNC · 07-02-07, 09:14 PM

Looks good! I like the unique shape. What sort of finish are you planning for the surface?

Dukeman · 07-03-07, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDXNC

Looks good! I like the unique shape. What sort of finish are you planning for the surface?

Thanks. I'm planning a dark cherry stain with a satin polyurethane finish. I would like to do the wiring in chrome or silver.

Dukeman · 07-15-07, 07:01 PM

I've filled and sanded many nail and accidental holes

using Plastic Wood from Dap. I cut feet for the case using a 1 1/4" hole saw and used hole cutouts from 3/4" plywood. After staining I will add felt pads to the feet. This will provide plenty of clearance for the airflow from the bottom into the PSU.

Staining the inside. The kids helped with this.

Staining the outside. The top and side have only one coat. The side is splotchy. I will blend this side when I put on the second coat. I have advice for using water based stain. 1) Use the pre-stain conditioner to help keep the color uniform. 2) Don't let it dry before you can wipe all of the excess off. Drying causes the worst splotchyness. 3) Have lots of clean rags ready to wipe off the excess.

Godfather1138 · 07-15-07, 07:14 PM

That is looking really good Duke. Great color choice. I am looking forward to the finished product.

.:DuD3:. · 07-17-07, 11:34 PM

You should carpet it

freakdiablo · 07-18-07, 06:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by .:DuD3:.

You should carpet it

Good idea, but...not really. Im sure itll build up static electricity or something.

Looks good.

Dukeman · 07-23-07, 01:42 AM

Well its done...for now. I stained and finished the rest of the box. Added felt feet to the wooden ones. Filed the opening for the flash reader because it just didn't want to fit where the floppy had been and added the power button with a wooden top.
Stained and ready to start being a PC.

Side view.

Front panel wiring

Drives installed

Dukeman · 07-23-07, 01:46 AM

Back detail

PSU detail

Look Ma, I shorted the motherboard out

You can't tell from here but the system doesn't work because the motherboard standoffs aren't in the right spots and shorted it out when I fired it up. After pulling the mobo and testing it again, there were no problems but I do need to adjust where the standoffs are before I try to secure the mobo again.

Still, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and there is plenty of room for full sized ATX board and a water cooling system.

Sam__ · 07-23-07, 06:46 AM

that awesome dude...nice job

JDXNC · 07-23-07, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dukeman

Back detail

You can't tell from here but the system doesn't work because the motherboard standoffs aren't in the right spots and shorted it out when I fired it up. After pulling the mobo and testing it again, there were no problems but I do need to adjust where the standoffs are before I try to secure the mobo again.

Still, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and there is plenty of room for full sized ATX board and a water cooling system.

There are carbon washers that you can use for this situation so that standoffs don't actually make contact with the board.

Edit... forgot the mention it looks great!

Dukeman · 07-23-07, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JDXNC

There are carbon washers that you can use for this situation so that standoffs don't actually make contact with the board.

Edit... forgot the mention it looks great!

Thanks for the info. I'll try re-seating the standoffs using this board as the template tonight and see how that works.

Godfather1138 · 07-23-07, 10:25 AM

That came out really good. It looks like you didn't have any problem getting rid of the streaks on the back either. Nice work.

darkcow · 07-23-07, 03:10 PM

how i mounted my mobo is i just put the mobo on a peice of thin plywood. got a sharpie. drew a few dots, drilled, screwd in the standoffs, then i put a piece of electrical tape on top of each standoff, and then screwed the motherboard on top. one standoff was half a mm off but since there was tape on it i could care less.

but great work on the case. it looks great. my only criticisms are that the plywood you used looks abnormally thick, you probably could of used plywood half as thick and it still would of worked. but since your already pretty much done no point in changing it, only thing is that the case might be a little heavier. just a tip for next time.

Also you did cheat by using metal mounting systems

. but i will give it to you, making my cd drive mounts and expansion card mounts was a PITA lol.

any ways, great work. hope you fix the shorting mobo.

Dukeman · 07-23-07, 03:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darkcow

Also you did cheat by using metal mounting systems

. but i will give it to you, making my cd drive mounts and expansion card mounts was a PITA lol.

Yes I did cheat. Using the mouting brackets from a TT Armor I was able to just mount everthing to a single board.

For the mobo I plan to use nails to mark the locations where the holes should go then re-drill and mount the standoffs. For the wood I used 1/2 inch plywood. Next time I will use either 1/2 or 3/8 solid wood (maybe oak).

darkcow · 07-24-07, 06:38 PM

on my case im used white oak as a frame, then i used 3/16th inch ply wood for the sides and the motherboard tray. it kept the weight of the case really light. less than 18 pounds. and its freaking huge. about 2 feet by 2 feet.

nail is a good idea, works just as well as a pen. plus it makes a good starting point

make sure you also put some electrical tape on top of each standoff just in case. seems to work really well.

voigts · 07-25-07, 01:16 PM

I had ordered a MB tray with back panel to use the back panel when I built mine. So all I had to do was to mark the holes on the MB tray onto my acrylic MB tray to mount mine. I used 3/16" acrylic for the MB tray as I was concerned about warpage with using wood for it, especially given the way that my tray has no top support and doesn't attach to the case except via the bottom and back panel. As long as the standoffs are properly placed they won't short anything out. I used metal standoffs with no problems. (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=476159)

I used 1/2" knot-free white pine from Lowe's. I thought about plywood but didn't want the rough edges. Oak and the like are just so heavy that I ruled that out as well. The knot-free pine was only about $20 for a 1"x10"x8' board, and allowed me to route the edges for a cleaner look.

Your case is very original and looks good. It takes a lot of time to make something custom. It looks like you designed it more for air cooling than for water. If you go water with it, where would you put your rad, etc.?

Dukeman · 07-25-07, 08:17 PM

Thanks for the comments.

I probably won't ever water cool in this case. If I decide I want to do it I will probably build a new case. Still it has lots of room for whatever I want to do.

I did get the motherboard mounted properly and it is up and running now. Here are a few more pics of it actually running.

06-25-07, 11:00 PM	#1
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	Woody! 2nd Try... I tried a wood case last fall but wasn't happy with the way it was coming together so I abandoned it. On Father's Day I started a new one that would be bigger and a little easier to build. Still had some issues but I'm happy with it so far. Laying out the main parts. Fitting a motherboard. Brass wood nuts for setting the stand-offs. Laying out the back panel.

06-26-07, 07:30 AM	#5
EmAn Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Ft. Eustis Virginia	it looks good and i like the originality of the slanted side and wally world stuff can come in handy also... what hardware will go in there as i dont think a p3 will work that well... __________________ Cooler Master HAF 932 Asus P5Q-PRO E8400 4050mhz Tuniq Tower 120 Crossfire Diamond HD4850's 512mb a piece 2x2 GB OCZ DDR2 1066 Platinum OCZ GameXStream 600W Lappy - Compaq AMD Sempron M120 2gb ddr2 ATI 4200 Windows 7 Home Premium x64 Pfc in the US ARMY working on AH-64D Appache Longbow Attack Helicopters

06-26-07, 12:07 PM	#7
JamesXP Epic Fail Guy Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: England	Nothing wrong with a P3 :P __________________ HTPC: A64 3200+ / 1024MB RAM / 320GB HD / 8600GT Main-Laptop: Travelmate C300 / 1.6GHz P-M / 512MB / 60GB My Saitek Eclipse III Review

06-26-07, 02:59 PM	#8
DorianBrytestar Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Buford, Georgia	Nice home brew look! Going to stain the wood? __________________ Lego PCs for the win! For everyone's sanity, please only make one change at a time!

06-26-07, 05:32 PM	#9
4od Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Westchester, NY	I thought only pII used slots... __________________ Gigabyte DS3 v1.3 E6400 @ 3.8 @ 1.425 BFG 8800GTS G92 @ stock for now 4x1GB OCZ Reapers (D9's) @ stock for now Hitachi SCSI 15kRPM 36.7GB (Ultra320) Seagate SCSI 10kRPM 17.0GB (Ultra160) Maxtor IDE 7200RPM 75.4GB (ATA133) Apogee Classic, Maze4, MCW30, MCR320, 3x Yate Loon Medium Speed, MCP655, MCRES Heavily Modded Lian-Li A05B

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06-25-07, 11:06 PM	#2
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	More pics... Back panel cut and ready. Starting assembly. From the back. Front. Added a stabilizing bar and T-Nuts for securing the side door (these will end up being replaced with brass wood nuts because they don't hold very well). Notice the bottom is cut so cool air will enter the PSU from underneath and go right out of the case. The case will sit on feed so the air can flow in.

06-25-07, 11:10 PM	#3
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	Even more pics... You make a better door than...well actually you are both. Front with start of a drive cage. Home made fan grill, courtesy of a cheap pencil holder from Wal-Mart. After a few cuts with some tin snips.

06-26-07, 03:12 AM	#4
icantfindone Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Atlanta, GA	Looks good so far. Any functional reason for the slanted side, or purely for aesthetics? Cant wait to see how it turns out. BTW, is that a pentium 3? What hardware will be going in it?

06-26-07, 11:10 AM	#6
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	The side is slanted for asthetics. The PIII is just there for a pattern for the ATX motherboard. I'll be using the hardware from my sig until next year when I can upgrade. I'm gonna try to finish the drive cage and start laying out the front of the case tonight. I'll post more pics over the next few days.

06-30-07, 08:29 PM	#11
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	Starting on the front plate I cut the front plate and began cutting out the holes for the various parts.

06-30-07, 10:54 PM	#12
Sleepy_Steve Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: VT... or MD	Nice workmanship so far man! Brings back fond memories of me building my WC enclosure out of MDF. Keep it up! __________________ Main Box: CPU Q9550 @ 3.4 Cooling Ultra 120 w/ 2x108 CFM fan RAM Corsair 4x 1GB DDR2 800 Video Saphire X1950XT Jet Black: Linux Box / Never ending case mod experiment. Runs an old P4. "This one goes to ELEVEN"

07-02-07, 08:33 PM	#13
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	More Pics... I secured the top plate of the drive cage then realized it would need a cut-out to allow for ATX motherboards (little oversite on the design). Then I cut the drive and fan holes in the front plate and secured the front. Still need to add the power switch and power/drive light combo.

07-02-07, 09:14 PM	#14
JDXNC Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Québec, Canada Èh?	Looks good! I like the unique shape. What sort of finish are you planning for the surface? __________________ Desktop: AMD Phenom 9550 @ 2.6Ghz @ 1.25v Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 \| OCZ Gold XTC PC2-6400 2 X 1GB 2 x Seagate 250GB ST3250410S \| Radeon HD 3650 512MB \| Dual 19" LCD's Heatware

07-15-07, 07:01 PM	#16
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	Staining Begins I've filled and sanded many nail and accidental holes using Plastic Wood from Dap. I cut feet for the case using a 1 1/4" hole saw and used hole cutouts from 3/4" plywood. After staining I will add felt pads to the feet. This will provide plenty of clearance for the airflow from the bottom into the PSU. Staining the inside. The kids helped with this. Staining the outside. The top and side have only one coat. The side is splotchy. I will blend this side when I put on the second coat. I have advice for using water based stain. 1) Use the pre-stain conditioner to help keep the color uniform. 2) Don't let it dry before you can wipe all of the excess off. Drying causes the worst splotchyness. 3) Have lots of clean rags ready to wipe off the excess.

07-15-07, 07:14 PM	#17
Godfather1138 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: AR-USA	That is looking really good Duke. Great color choice. I am looking forward to the finished product.

07-17-07, 11:34 PM	#18
.:DuD3:. Registered Join Date: May 2007 Location: Chesapeake, Va	You should carpet it

07-23-07, 01:42 AM	#20
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	Finished and More Pics Well its done...for now. I stained and finished the rest of the box. Added felt feet to the wooden ones. Filed the opening for the flash reader because it just didn't want to fit where the floppy had been and added the power button with a wooden top. Stained and ready to start being a PC. Side view. Front panel wiring Drives installed

07-23-07, 01:46 AM	#21
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	Back detail PSU detail Look Ma, I shorted the motherboard out You can't tell from here but the system doesn't work because the motherboard standoffs aren't in the right spots and shorted it out when I fired it up. After pulling the mobo and testing it again, there were no problems but I do need to adjust where the standoffs are before I try to secure the mobo again. Still, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and there is plenty of room for full sized ATX board and a water cooling system.

07-23-07, 06:46 AM	#22
Sam__ Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: UK	that awesome dude...nice job __________________ "Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons." - Popular Mechanics, 1949 "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." - Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943 Heat

07-23-07, 10:25 AM	#25
Godfather1138 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: AR-USA	That came out really good. It looks like you didn't have any problem getting rid of the streaks on the back either. Nice work. __________________ OCF Folding Team Site OCF Podcast RIP... Folding for "Dub" and everyone else who didn't have a choice... 1* HEAT "stock is just bad for your perfomance" -Drinkyoghurt

07-23-07, 03:10 PM	#26
darkcow Member Join Date: Jun 2006	how i mounted my mobo is i just put the mobo on a peice of thin plywood. got a sharpie. drew a few dots, drilled, screwd in the standoffs, then i put a piece of electrical tape on top of each standoff, and then screwed the motherboard on top. one standoff was half a mm off but since there was tape on it i could care less. but great work on the case. it looks great. my only criticisms are that the plywood you used looks abnormally thick, you probably could of used plywood half as thick and it still would of worked. but since your already pretty much done no point in changing it, only thing is that the case might be a little heavier. just a tip for next time. Also you did cheat by using metal mounting systems . but i will give it to you, making my cd drive mounts and expansion card mounts was a PITA lol. any ways, great work. hope you fix the shorting mobo. __________________ EVGA 780i - P08 [ FSB:1.4v SPP:1.5v MCP:1.65v SPP<>MCP:1.4v ] Q6600 G0 L747A [ 400x9:3.6ghz @ 1.43v - 445x9:4.0Ghz @ 1.55v ] xFx GTX260 216 Black Edition [ GPU:740Mhz Shader:1515 Ram:1215Mhz ] 2x 1 GB - 2x 2 GB OCZ Reaper DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 [ 990Mhz ] Win 7 Build 7600 - Arch Linux Apogee GTZ - MCW60-R - 2xMCR320 - MCP655 - MasterKleer 7/16 7x yate loons - 2x Arctic fan 8 All in my wooden case

07-24-07, 06:38 PM	#28
darkcow Member Join Date: Jun 2006	on my case im used white oak as a frame, then i used 3/16th inch ply wood for the sides and the motherboard tray. it kept the weight of the case really light. less than 18 pounds. and its freaking huge. about 2 feet by 2 feet. nail is a good idea, works just as well as a pen. plus it makes a good starting point make sure you also put some electrical tape on top of each standoff just in case. seems to work really well. __________________ EVGA 780i - P08 [ FSB:1.4v SPP:1.5v MCP:1.65v SPP<>MCP:1.4v ] Q6600 G0 L747A [ 400x9:3.6ghz @ 1.43v - 445x9:4.0Ghz @ 1.55v ] xFx GTX260 216 Black Edition [ GPU:740Mhz Shader:1515 Ram:1215Mhz ] 2x 1 GB - 2x 2 GB OCZ Reaper DDR2-800 4-4-4-12 [ 990Mhz ] Win 7 Build 7600 - Arch Linux Apogee GTZ - MCW60-R - 2xMCR320 - MCP655 - MasterKleer 7/16 7x yate loons - 2x Arctic fan 8 All in my wooden case

07-25-07, 01:16 PM	#29
voigts Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tennessee	I had ordered a MB tray with back panel to use the back panel when I built mine. So all I had to do was to mark the holes on the MB tray onto my acrylic MB tray to mount mine. I used 3/16" acrylic for the MB tray as I was concerned about warpage with using wood for it, especially given the way that my tray has no top support and doesn't attach to the case except via the bottom and back panel. As long as the standoffs are properly placed they won't short anything out. I used metal standoffs with no problems. (http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=476159) I used 1/2" knot-free white pine from Lowe's. I thought about plywood but didn't want the rough edges. Oak and the like are just so heavy that I ruled that out as well. The knot-free pine was only about $20 for a 1"x10"x8' board, and allowed me to route the edges for a cleaner look. Your case is very original and looks good. It takes a lot of time to make something custom. It looks like you designed it more for air cooling than for water. If you go water with it, where would you put your rad, etc.?

07-25-07, 08:17 PM	#30
Dukeman Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Rocky Mountian High	Thanks for the comments. I probably won't ever water cool in this case. If I decide I want to do it I will probably build a new case. Still it has lots of room for whatever I want to do. I did get the motherboard mounted properly and it is up and running now. Here are a few more pics of it actually running.