[jameseboy]

COMPLETED PROJECT




Okay, well ive been looking at some of the rather nice Bench stations on here, and one in particular caught my eye.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/s...nching+station
Now My design is to have the top made from acrylic (in which the motherboard gfx card ect will be mounted on, Then have 5 collums coming down to a wooden base in which the PSU, Hard Drive(s) and Dvd Drive will be mounted on.

For a google Sketchup model (which i officially suck at making) here is my attempt.



I plan to box off the PSU and have the hard drives mounted on the bottom in a removable hard drive cage which has a thumbscrew for easy use.

Now for cabling, im thinking about changing my design so that the middle collum can be opened from the rear and i can push all my cables through that then out the top somehow. Seen as my psu is modular and all i will have running in it will be the 24pin atx + 6+2pin GFX power cable, i dont see this being an issue. For the sata cables i plan to cut a small opening in the acrylic so that they can be twisted from the base.

For now, the actual hardware wont be anything impressive and will be as follows :-

AMD ATHLON 64 X2 3800+ @ 2 ghz
Asus M2N-E Motherboard
2 GB kingston DDR2 800 mhz ram
450Watt Modular PSU
Modded Internal DVD drive
ASUS HD4850 (stock for now but WILL be overclocked)
And A few WD Cadavier Blue Hard drives (150gb,250gb,80gb)

Now, once this is finnished I have two plans for it.
1:- To start benching =]
2:- To use as a HTPC as ive done the design so it will be perfect to have sitting next to my tv + ps3 =]

[jameseboy]

Okay, so today i started working on my bench case.

So.

I had a really old case lying around and was wondering how i was going to give the pci cards some support so they are in nice and secure so i drilled the rivets on the case and took the back panel apart and marked out what parts of it i would need. Also was needing a template for a psu bracket.




Okay so ill start with the psu bracket.
My plan for this is to make a box for my psu out of wood so it goes with the rest of the base unit which will be wood. Im going to use this to make the back section of the box so that the fan will not be blocked and thus shouldnt overheat.





If you notice the pci slot panel has a rounded bottom edge but square top edge so i decided to even these out and round them both off.



Both of these have now been primed and are drying in my garden as i write this up.

Next i started the acrylic top. Im using 3mm thick acrylic for this.


I wasnt sure how well drilling the acrylic and putting motherboard standoffs on it would go so i tried it out on an offcut i had.

It worked well.

Next up, was cutting slots for cabling to run through on the main body of the acrylic.



Now, i done them to look nice and rounded and kind of playful, but it seems to have failed, so im thinking of just making them into straight slots with rounded edges (think it would look more professional)

Anyway, more tomorrow hopefully.

[MattNo5ss]

Looks like you have a good start there

- You may need some supports to prevent horizontal movement of the top tier.
- Don't forget about your CPU power, you'll need to get that to the top with the 24pin and 6+2pin too.

I really like how low-profile and compact SaveSamMax's station was made. I've made a couple benching stations that turned out pretty well. They were pretty simple, basically no screws or bolts. Feel free to check them out in my sig.

[jameseboy]

Thanks.
Ive been thinking about the supports for the top tier, not 100% sure what im going to do with that yet.
And the cpu power will go through the slots, there actually to the right side of the motherboard, not the bottom as they look in the pics. And im just about to have a look through yours. Thanks

[jameseboy]

Okay so never really got much done today, apart from i rebuilt all the hardware i had back into the case so it was nice and protected and still useable.
Also thought id take a minute to say why im doing this case.


Need i say more?
the fact i have the pc sitting on the floor infront of my tv kinda explains alot. I want it off my floor, but havent got the room to fit it onto my cabinet so im putting it on the top beside the tv =]

[ChanceCoats123]

What's the distance from the bottom panel to the top panel? Some PSU's don't have the longest cables and it could be a pain.

[Janus67]

Nice, I like the look of it. I've been considering doing something like that as well (although I don't have the hardware for it so I'd have to do it at a friends/parents house) but I'd love to have my own benching station instead of free-boarding it [cwutididthere?] basically sitting on my desk.

[jameseboy]

Its literally going to be high enough to allow the HDD mount in between. Ive decided for cable managment issues im going to mount the psu inside the base of it so i can hide most of the cabling inside the box. I also have 60cm extensions for everything par my 4pin cpu power, so again, nothing should be a problem in that aspect, however you did just make me think about how i shall run the 4pin power cable. forgot about it in the design

Thanks guys

[jameseboy]

Okay, so id say i got a fair bit done today. For the base of the unit, i got all the wood cut, got the psu mount cut out (with great difficulty) and got the circular columns cut also.
I then got the base unit glued together (no more nails'd technically) and got the acrylic top measured for screws.

The base minus top :-


Top and acrylic with coloms (unfixed)


Hopefully once the glue is dry tomorrow ill be able to get it sanded and get any gaps filled. Also going to be cutting the cable holes on the top panel tomorrow. Hopefully have it ready to be painted by the end of the weekend =]

[ChanceCoats123]

Looks great! You'll be a very nice addition to the benching team! This project is really shaping up.

[Janus67]

Just curious how is the acrylic going to hold up/avoid stripping with the standoffs in place? I figure that needing to (un)screw in various motherboards/etc into it would strip right through the plastic pretty easily unless they are held in place.

[elari20]

Damn nice! I plan to do something similar

[jameseboy]

Originally Posted by Janus67

Just curious how is the acrylic going to hold up/avoid stripping with the standoffs in place? I figure that needing to (un)screw in various motherboards/etc into it would strip right through the plastic pretty easily unless they are held in place.

The standoffs wont be moved between motherboards, they will just be unscrewed from the standoffs, im going to glue the standoffs in with a light layer of superglue to keep them strongly in place.

Thanks elari20 + ChanceCoats123

[jameseboy]

Okay, just a quick update, got the base unit filled this morning (woodshavings + wood glue mix) and got all the colloms attached to to the top plate.

Filled


Top of base


Acrylic with top attached using thumbscrews to keep the colloms in place


full base unit


Full case assembled (not complete)


Full case assembled (With HDD rack)





Once all the glue is dry and that im going to be sanding it down and getting ready to paint it all. The PCI slots are needing repainted so thats going to be a bit of a setback unfortunatly =[

Cheers

[ssjwizard]

Love the build man. Maybe its just the picture but it looks like your measuring tape malfunctioned when you marked out the far right corner. Anyway, keep up the good work.

[SamSaveMax]

Hi, I'm glad you guys like my built.

I see a couple of potential problems I thought should be addressed.
1- Plexy sheet is a bit thin for that size. It plexes and could easily wrapped under pressure.
2- Right corner support column looks uneven and crooked....and might collapse.
____and it looks like it might need more than 5 support columns for stability of that size.
3- Big distance from PSU to motherboard power socket.
4- This whole build you are trying to fit inside the TV stand? It seems really big for fitment.

Don't rush and keep up the good work.

[jameseboy]

Originally Posted by ssjwizard

Love the build man. Maybe its just the picture but it looks like your measuring tape malfunctioned when you marked out the far right corner. Anyway, keep up the good work.

The lid isnt on straight in these pictures, its not yet attached.

Originally Posted by SamSaveMax

Hi, I'm glad you guys like my built.

I see a couple of potential problems I thought should be addressed.
1- Plexy sheet is a bit thin for that size. It plexes and could easily wrapped under pressure.
2- Right corner support column looks uneven and crooked....and might collapse.
____and it looks like it might need more than 5 support columns for stability of that size.
3- Big distance from PSU to motherboard power socket.
4- This whole build you are trying to fit inside the TV stand? It seems really big for fitment.

Don't rush and keep up the good work.

I shall answer in order asked =]

1. this did worry me at first, however i did test the hardware and it seemed to hold.
2.It is slightly, that was my stupidity and i never noticed untill it was attached, im going to make another support bit for it (hopefully straighter)
3. the slots are at the side of the motherboard, not the bottom, so there not as far as looks, also, the psu i have has long cables and im going to be getting red braided extension cables soon also.
4. its going to sit beside the tv on the top. The tv can move over a bit XD

Thanks a lot =]

[jameseboy]

Okay took a few suggestions and redone the supports. using 9 now for the weight, when i first check it, it was just the motherboard but i have a massive cpu cooler going on this so thought id be better with more support so there is now 9 supports. Also straightened them all up =]



Next stage is to fill in all the whole and gaps again and then sand everything down. will try to get this done tomorrow =]

Im still needing to find a way to attach the top section to the bottom, i was thinking about putting some screws in to hold it in place so they can be easily removed. The only thing going in the base is the psu which i hope to not need access to very often.

Thanks

[jameseboy]

finally got round to painting =]

Only first coat done on the base, but its a start tbh. Hopefully with another few coats itll look nice =]

[jameseboy]

Mounted the hardware to the upper panel whilst waiting the lower to dry, heres the results



=] its starting to come together if i may say so myself XD