EggXpert

So, I finished a "quick" sketchup model and I put a copy on picasa to share/get comments. (only took me two hours or so) It's nice to see how things really stack up next to each other, my hand drawings had the mobo about 12" wide (normal ATX) and 15-16" long, (definitely not normal) so I had to get a little more creative in terms of where things go and the actual scale. I think I will probably work out a way of pushing it all the way to the back of the case again, but

Original concepts:

I wanted to do something really unique, but I didn't want that to mean just slapping a Dragnet theme over the front of a regular old tower. I've seen motherboards upside down, flat on their backs, "rightside" up, but none of those configurations appealed to me and all have been in their own way kinda difficult to work with. My priorities were originality, ease of use, and obviously, style. I figured, 'how do you hold any other flat object while you're looking at it or working on it?' Obviously, with a book, cell phone, notepad, pretty much anything, you hold it on an incline facing you, so that's what I did with the motherboard.

I had been inspired to try out some watercooling, so that odd grouping of shapes in the back is a 360mm radiator with six fans, three on each side. The pump will probably go just on top of the radiator and under the plane on which the motherboard sits. In the front of the case (and I haven't sized these objects accurately yet) is a pair of HDDs, the PSU, and an optical drive on an incline facing towards the ground in front of the machine. You can see the mobo and my 8800GT (the mobo is to scale, the GT is not) pretty clearly in the middle of the unit.

Here's where the "ease of use" thing comes in: The top part of the case will be on a hinge at the very back of the case and will rotate away from the base assembly. I'm thinking of putting a couple of screen-door hydraulic pistons on either side connecting the base with the top component I'm just going to grease a pair of washers to create the hinge. The top assembly has six 120mm fans, three in the front and three in the back. (another reason I wanted to push the mobo forward despite the difficulty with cords-better airflow from the front fans) You can probably recognize the three windows in the top assembly, even if I couldn't get a lot of the irregular faces to fill in. Sketchup was also nice in that I could make a group of the top assembly and then rotate it exactly the way I want it to in real life. Turns out that without any serious modification, the top plate will rotate up to about waist height if it's set on the floor.

I'm thinking of going with a mottled green and black kinda theme for most of the case, and I'll probably accent the side windows with some green and black stencils of jungle plants/animals and maybe one lone guy with a gun on one side. Jaguar on one side, man on the other, maybe? All those stencils would be at the bottom of the windows so they don't block the view of the guts. The top window will be clear with maybe an extremely light green spray from the inside of the acrylic, (or whatever I use) to cloud it a tiny bit.

Comments/Suggestions welcome. I'm not really happy with the size of the thing, I think I could tighten it up a bit for a better overall effect. The one thing I don't like about a lot of custom cases I've seen is how fargen' ginormous they are. I don't want two full towers stapled together, I want something nice and compact. I will probably push the mobo back to the rear of the PC, render the pump so I know how much space I need for it/tubing, and try to shorten the case longwise and heightwise. I might have to sacrifice the rear fans in order to do that, but we'll see.

Very interesting project

Please keep at least one rear fan.

I'll have at the very least the fan on the rear panel. (the one I rip out of my old case)

"Interesting" is putting it mildly, I look forward to seeing this project get off the ground.

Just so you know, hard drives are designed to operate on one of their 6 surfaces. Angling it will cause significantly shortened life and cause increased prone to errors and loss of data. Interesting concept though.

The HDDs will remain level. They are located at the front of the case on the left-hand side if you are looking straight at it, right under the plane the mobo is mounted on. Do you know if there are similar problems for optical drives? It is definitely something I'm kinda worried about.

Got a Dremel for Christmas (thanks, pops), so now I just need a few more tools and a pile of aluminum and I can get started. I think I'm going to get a cheap rotary or jig saw to make some of the longer cuts, sitting with a Dremel for an hour in order to shear a 25" sheet of aluminum does not sound very appealing.

My latest idea for making this case special: Including a Super Nintendo. (god I love NBA Jam) I'll either have to eviscerate one or find a Super Nintendo on a Chip. (not sure if they make these?)

Looks cool. Don't know about the angling issue for optical drives. Are you going to set up a model train or slot cars to run throught that arch or something? Or maybe you could set up a trap door and use that space to hide a spitting cobra you can unleash on your other players to temporarily blind them if they start beating you at one of your games! j/k.

It really doeas look neat. You modders do some amazing things.

A model train tunnel might be workable. Really the arch is there to provide an air intake for the radiator.

Hey MM nice concept but a few questions for you where are your cables for video and audio going to go. I hate to rain on your parade but the mobo will either have to be mounted to the rear of the case or you will have to make an access hole for the cables to exit the case. as for the optical drives put a bend forward of the mobo to make a level mounting plain for those drives and move the bend up on the front panel or make a double bend on the front panel to leave room for several optical drives or fan controlers or a floppy drive.

I am going to push the mobo all the way to the rear and shrink the entire concept considerably. Are you saying you don't think that optical drives will function properly at an angle like that? I was really hoping I'd be able to get away with this but if not I'll have to do some rethinking.

Ok, redid a lot of the design and ended up with something quite different. The concept and placement of many components is very similar but I realized I could both minimize the size of the case and create some really interesting empty space at the same time by utilizing a different orientation for the mobo. This case really defies any attempt to categorize one side as the "front" which I really like. Most of the cables will be hidden in the "forward" (right side?) enclosure that houses the PSU, HDDs and ODD, and others will be held in between the mobo and the mobo plate. Sorry that some faces are not filled in, I just can't #(*&$ing get Sketchup to include them.

 

These are only rough sketchup models, of course, in reality I won't have the bottom assembly intersecting with the top.

Yes you will be able to see the desk below the case from the top like that and no, the movement of the top assembly will not interfere in any way with the operation of the machine. (i.e., you can open it with everything plugged in)

All the individual components I used for scaling purposes and are the work of their respective authors. All original work can be found at http://scc.jezmckean.com/ 

Ok MM but I notice you got rid of the curves don't have access to a metal roller machine. Just joshing you its a nice rig but I'd still like to see you put that dvd unit on a flat plane or mount it to the side above the fan by building a shelf or a bracket then you could mount 2 HDDs above the dvd and the fan could be mounted on the front panel pulling air in to cool all drives. A mesh screen across the front would jazz it up. Just day dreaming cause I'd like to be building stuff again thats where the fun is.

This design is really quite brilliant. Great concept.

Remember thinking outside the box is where great things come from.. 

Look into a DDC pump with a Koolance top (flows better, smaller and more mounting/hose options) 

I could have done the curves with metal shears but after I made it so much smaller (It's five inches shorter lengthwise and a lot shorter in height) there wasn't much room for those spacious curves anymore. I tend to agree with DTMAce; I'm keeping the inclined ODD. The HDDs are already lifted a little, I think I will push them up a bit more to get more airflow across them.

Way ahead of you on the mesh screen. Sketchup doesn't really get my painting ideas across either.  

very cool design just wondering whether the DVD-ROM tray can stretch in full since it is hooked downward...

MM, Your reservior or T-line for the water loop must  be above the pump, the low level of the res or T can be as low as 1/4' above the inlet for the pump. Inlet on the 655 is the lower in the center the outlet is on the outside of the circumfrence. I'm looking at this currently for one of my builds.

That should be fine, then. That's not the pump I'm going to use in the end, (thanks, Markkleb) and the loop will probably run pump > CPU > GPU > rad with the bottom fitting on the rad as an inlet. I'll be putting the t-line just before the rad and attaching it to a fillport in the very top of the bottom half of the case. Get my meaning? The fillport will reside facing straight up about four inches above the pump.

Pump to the rad then cpu, pump adds heat to the loop.

I thought about that, but every source I've seen (including the manual from my PA120.3) says that the order of components in the loop makes only a very minimal difference in the heat of specific components. I don't know how and it confuses me, but apparently it creates a sort of black box effect after about a minute of operation.

True enough, but in any loop the biggest difference is from front to back of the rad which is in the case of a Thermochill 120.3 more so. 1+1+1 adds up and in watercooling every bit counts. Check out Marci's threads over at extreme, he's one of the Thermochill team and has done extensive testing on many rads.

Ok, well assuming I did it that way (pump > rad > CPU > GPU) would it be best to put the rad input on the bottom or the top and should I put the t-line just before or just after the rad?

IMO, T-line or res> pump> rad> cpu then other blocks, vid last as it is the hottest. The T or res, right before the pump on the inlet side makes bleeding faster and allows for a reserve of water when you firts turn on the pump. Bleeding is better as the air bubbles have had a chance to become bubbles again, when bubbles go through the pump the pump makes a foam and those tiny bubbles will stay in the flow rather than rise in a T or res. Granted, this makes a minimal differece so if I'm forced to vary because of case or tubing restrictions I don't worry but I do water because I want the best possible senario, why start w/ a handicap?

For the rad intake on the bottom if it is on it's side, again, a bleeding thing, air rises, why fight city hall? When you first setup sometimes it speeds bleeding to lift the case while running to chase the air. Check out this thread, most detailed bit I've seen yet.

Interesting design. As for your optical drive, why not remove the front bezel and make an angled front bezel for the tray? Doing it that way, you'd be able to keep the tray flat, but keep the angled face. This does add to the complexity of the installation, because you'll need a push button extension to reach the drive's button to be able to open the drive. Keep on it, it looks like fun!

Intentsly

i don't know about standard optical drives, but i have used my laptop in some very odd angles (can't always sit on a desk) and the drive still works fine after 1 year and 8 months, of course that would also apply to the HD, so maybe laptop drives are made to work longer at odd angles?

what ever happened with this case?

if you built it, I would love to see it