All parts mounted in the final build
All peripherals plugged in. Benchmarking with and without the front cover yielded almost the same temperatures so maximum cooling has been achieved!
This is the first iteration of the case. It is cut from 3 mm cardboard and will simply show what modifications I must make.
Here is the cardboard prototype assembled. It is full size so I can start fitting older PC parts. The video card will be vertically mounted and I need one small PCI-slot for my FW card that controls my sound card.
The MB is mounted using standard standoffs and the IO shield is perfectly aligned. That was a major concern but it worked out just fine. The GPU has the same size as the 780 I will use. I am so happy I made a full size prototype because I was shocked that I measured completely wrong! The MB tray is about 5cm too small to fit the video card so some modifications definitely needs to be made here. Other things I will change is the overall height of the case. I will cut about 6 cm of the height, 4 cm in the PSU shroud and 2 cm from the MB tray
Left to right: Back panel with large cutout to route external cabling through. Fan mount for exhaust fans. Mobo tray with indicator rectangles for two ssd. Fan mount for intake fans. Front panel grill for intake of fresh air, will be complemented with a dust mesh.
Center mount, will curve around the PSU shroud. The smaller two rectangles will be glued onto the GPU port to allow for two thumbscrews to attach te GPU to the case.
Front-side and back-side panels. Front will be cut from acrylic and back from plywood. bottom-left is the bottom plate and bottom-right is the top-plate.
Flowchart of cables and peripherals, I will use this to manage my cables neatly.
New fans from Fractal!
Looking lit!
First assembly on the laser cutter
Final assembly with double layers of cardboard. The parts are not my final parts except for the fans.
New design for dovetail notches on front of shroud
The top plate of the shroud will be attached using screw-in notches to make a more reliable fit since the bend is really tight.
The bend works if the fibres are aligned with the bend. The top will put extreme strain on the assembly, possibly warping the whole case. To mitigate that, the notches here is redesigned for the next update
The laser in action
Front panel "mesh". This is where all air is coming in to the case
Dovetails are looking good! First time doing this and it turned out fine
Modified the bend a little and it was sooo easy to bend and the result is looking good!
Mounting bracket for the PSU. It will pull air from underneath but it is also a 0dB PSU, meaning that under low load, it will not use the fan at all.
All plywood is sanded and assembled. Most pieces were fitting snuggly but I added glue in most joints just to be on the safe side!. It is looking good so far, cant wait to mount the PC inside!
New mounting plate for MB
The I/O shield fits well
It took some time to figure out a good placement for the GPU and it will need to be improved for a future update.
Now with Fractal fans! Just got to install the CPU cooler and boot!
Front with fans shining through. Will add a dust filter in a future update
Lighting effect is not really visible from this angle though... But the cutout is looking good!
Here is the full prototype setup
Lit up and looking like a fireplace.
Front shot
All the cables here are neatly tucked in so they are not really visible when looking at it casually.
Now, it all looks good so I can move on to the real build with some design changes and swap out the fans for Noctuas
I did some redesign and added some interesting geometric elements
Motherboard tray and PSU shroud mounted
Fully assembled
Six Noctua NF-A14 PWM fans blend in perfectly with the colors of the plywood and are super silent.
The cable routing is nearly invisible, no cable sleeves were needed when routing like this.
Laser cut Torus case scratch build
In the recent virus outbreak I found the time to invest in some pc parts. It is a modest build that should last me around ten years without any major updates, however I wanted to have the opportunity to expand later. Therefore, I focused on good cooling. I dont have OC in mind but maybe later!
Paired with this, I have a hobby. At my local MakerSpace, we have a laser cutter I have used quite a lot so I want to challenge myself to make the case out of plywood and acrylic where as much as possible should be done by the laser. When I had finished the design more or less I found a really interesting build here from TerHorstCustoms . It is his tweaked Meshify S2. Check it out! Since I dont have any size limitations I did not copy his measurements but his idea is very prevalent in this build.
Paired with this, I have a hobby. At my local MakerSpace, we have a laser cutter I have used quite a lot so I want to challenge myself to make the case out of plywood and acrylic where as much as possible should be done by the laser. When I had finished the design more or less I found a really interesting build here from TerHorstCustoms . It is his tweaked Meshify S2. Check it out! Since I dont have any size limitations I did not copy his measurements but his idea is very prevalent in this build.
Color(s): Black
RGB Lighting? Yes
Theme: Art
Cooling: Air Cooling
Size: ATX
Type: General Build
Contests
This build participated in 1 contest.
| Rank | Contest | Date |
|---|---|---|
| #9 | Build of the Month - May 2021 | ended |
Build Updates
Color profiles
Mounting and testing the feels
Lasercut plywood
Getting closer to a final design
Prototype 2 test fit
Hardware
CPU
$ 79.99
Motherboard
$ 290.99
Memory
$ 617.90
Graphics
$ 504.75
Case
$ 207.03
Case Fan
$ 149.70
Cooling
$ 129.95
Monitor
$ 390.00
ASUS - Asus VH242H 23.6-Inch Full-HD 5 ms LCD Monitor (2x)
Size: 23.6 Inch
Panel: TN
Refresh Rate: 60 Hz
Keyboard
$ 93.99
Estimated total value of this build:
$ 2,601.49
Approved by: