Custom case

Hey guys

After reading through Thiddy's MM thread I decided to start designing my own case in that style. I realise he bought his but I want to build something.

I designed the case in Solidworks and there is still a whole lot of things to add to the case but this is just what I'm looking at for the moment.
I have all the parts that I want to put into it I just need the cash for the aluminium.

What do you guys think?

The green thing is the motherboard. I'll add the GFX card later and for some reason my PSU is missing.

What size are all the fans ment to be? Just so i can get an idea for the.

The layout looks fine, but I'd be concerned about structural integrity. Assuming you add a full case-height frame for the 5.25" drives, I would still like to see some sort of support frame to keep it from folding like a tin-can when the side is off.

Also, since you're starting from scratch, why not locate the PSU low at the rear? My Lian-Li has the PSU in its own mini bay at the back rear, and with long enough cabling, it seems to be a great location for stability as well as heat and airflow management.

Lastly, I personally prefer a small number of 12cm fans over many 8cm fans, which appear to be what are in your case.

EDIT: I would reconsider the fans above the motherboard. I'm not sure how that would affect airflow around the expansion cards.

All the fans are 80mm except for the top extraction fan which is 120mm.

I'm planning adding a couple of extruded aluminium tubes to add with the support and still need to work out how to make the cage for the DVD roms. I could swap out the 80's and fit maybe 2 120mm fans at the front and 2 at the back.

I was thinking about just stripping my current case for the cages and whatever else I can remove and put that into the design. It'll probably be a tin can untill I can get my boss to look at it and maybe get some advice.

Thank you for suggesting putting the PSU at the bottom. It'll be easier to get power to the drives and I could just get/mod cables that can go all the way to the DVD drives.

The motherboard tray is about 20mm away from the side panel and I'm planning on cutting holes in it to hide the cables.

Thanks guys.

I would focus less on having all those intake fans and try and balance it out more. You really do not have very good airflow around the motherboard with that setup.

Side panel fans are probably the BEST method of keeping motherbaord cool. The direct pressure of exterior air blowing on the hot compopnents can not be beat.

They are a pain in the butt to wire manage, but since you are building it yourself you could mod something up that will work great.

The side panel wire management isn't that difficult. This is one thing I love about my 900.



You can run the wire right up the frame of the triangle like area that the fan is in. You can easily include something similar in your design. I agree completely with including a side panel fan AND the upgrade to 120mm fans instead of the smaller louder 80's.
Also, maybe think about upgrading the top fan. I like that you have it up there(another favorite feature on my 900) but something bigger than a 80/120 could really upgrade your exhaust. Go with Antecs sized 200, or something even bigger. You will definitely have the room with that wide load case.
I agree with the idea of ripping a frame from another case as well. It's already together, and made for holding PC parts, why not.
Definitely move the PSU to the bottom(+1 for the 900 haha), it should be there on every case lol.
Great idea on the holes in the MOBO tray for wire management. That has to be the only down side of the 900.
Otherwise, fantastic design, I like it a lot.

While bottom mounted PSUs are great for balance (and keeping it cool should you decide to really stress it I would not suggest doing so unless you mount the motherboard in reverse ATX style.

Reason being you will either have to get extenders, or be limited in your PSU selection (neither option do I like). If you intend to run multi GPU you will want to leave clearance at the bottom of the motherbaord for large 3rd party coolers, as well as making it a bit easier to connect those darn front panel connectors. This would move the PSU even further away from the mobo.

I really like reverse ATX setups, but with modern heatpipe cooling on motherboards it might not always be the best solution.

I'm revising the design of the case and it seems it might just cost too much to build it.

What I'll do is try to make it a little smaller and work out the fan layout. I've always been the kind of person to stick a million fans into a case and hope it stays cool but it seems this time I'll actually need to work out what would be the best sollution. I could make ducts for the CPU cooler that go to the back extraction fans and maybe work something out to get fans directly infront of the motherboard.

I'll stick to using a top mounted PSU layout and I'll extend the wires to get power to the DVD drives and the HDD's. All I need to do now is get some supports into the case to make sure it won't be too flimsy and then make the case a littl smaller.

Thanks for all the suggestions and help guys.