Ok...so I've wanted to do this for some time now! Initially I wanted a normal ATX standard case made out of wood, with the air flow from front - to - back, but after seeing some of the other Wood cases build by some of the users of this forum I decided that a down - to - up air flow would be best suited for a silent and cool PC. I would like to thank with this occasion to thank my friend Adi for helping me with this project and the users regal196 and McBanjo for their ideas that I shamelessly stolen!

Now let's start with the image gallery

The case assembled!




Next is an upside view of the case! At this point the HDD is hard mounted on the case and was making a lot of seek noise! Later on I put the hdd on some foam and eliminated part of the vibrations!




Next is a photo with the side of the case and with the HDD hard mounted as in the above picture.




This is the case viewed from the side with the HDD mounted using foam!



This last one is a picture with the only button my case has: the power button!



As you can see there are no light's no shiny buttons, no UV tubes!! Just plain black!

The only noise comes from the stock intel cooler with the fan spinning @ 1000 RPM most of the time due to some bios tweaking! I tried replacing it (the fan) with a simple 80mm fan but the 3 pin connector did not allow the fan to be pulse modulated because the intel fan has a 4 pin connector! For now I'm stuck with the stock cooler ( ). The source fan is a 80mm Nexus fan, and the 120mm is an old Antec fan @ 5V.
Changing the source or the 120mm fan would do no good because of that intel fan....but even so this is a silent computer, at least as far as you ask me! There is no low resonance noise like the one I had from my old extremely thin aluminum case!
I really enjoyed this project and I would like to thank my girl fried for encouraging me to actually build the damn thing and get it over with !!!
The dimensions of the case are Height: 40cm ; Length: 50 cm; Width : 20 cm. In a way is short and long !


Well this is it! I hope you liked it and I await your feedback!!

Logical, simple to execute, looks good: It's a unique and effective design.

Possible improvements.... swap the HS for something like a fanless Ninja, and the PSU for something better -- it looks like a generic model that's probably not so quiet. Even a fan swap and grill snip might be enough.

You could also have made it smaller by turning the optical drive and the PSU 90 degrees, looking at it from the top. But this might have made things run hotter & noisier.

Any RF interference effects with the absence of shielding? You will notice it most with wireless devices like cell phones, cordless phones, remotes, etc.

Thank you for the feed back!


This is my idea to, No.1 on the to do list!


The PSU IS a generic model (it came with my old case)...with the fan changed with the 80mm Nexus(it spins at a maximum of 1500RMP)...also it has some sort of temperature regulator and it doesn't ramp...Compared with the intel fan or the 120mm Antec @ 5V it is inaudible....




None that I can tell. I only had a cell phone to test it... The buzzing-noise in my head phones when no sound is played is as loud as before, with the aluminum case (integrated audio). Other then that every thing seams ok...

I like it, it looks very clean. Just reiterating what MikeC said, a Ninja would look awesome in that case.

As for my case, i get very little RF interference on the radio, phones are not effect.

Is the top latched/locked on?

-Pennell

looks great! congratulations

a wood case like this of nice figuring would really enable the computer to become part of the furniture for the toal Tech living room experience heh

inspring work, sareiodata

regards
Runn3r

amazing!!!

Thank you all for your feed back!



The top is like 1-2 mm longer then the distance between the front and back plate so it stays fixed by friction and 4 screws that don't let it fall inside the case... The side panel is also held by friction alone...
The top is really easy to take off and access the connectors from the mother board....the only "real" effort is to get up from the chair be cause I can't reach it siting down

Nice.....if you sit to the left of the case, that setup will be quiet. I'd be tempted to put two 120MM fans on the bottom, along with a big filter, of course. And since the PSU is running on ambient air, a fanless model should work fine. I'd place the HD under the optical drive, on edge of course, and I'd be tempted to do a stealth job on the optical drive. A slot type would be nice, or a drawer door that matched the case, and retracted flush with the top. I'd also hinge the top, and put the whole thing on some wheels.....looks heavy. Nice design, good job.

nice version of the "topload" case.I think it was Regal sketched out. I've been playing around with that concept a bit. Mine also would steal some concepts from Bluefront and Felger Carbon in using a "Big-Fan" and a passive Dominator/Gemini type hs,with intake filtering-but probably louvered (window shutter) side door to deflect sound rearward. I'd have a slightly larger case than this one,and some system of routing cables. on the sketches Regal did,I did think a bigger case would allow the optical to face forward. A top load CD/DVD seems a bit awkward A slot load would be okay IF it had a hinged cover-otherwise it will die young fron dirt falling in

As to THIS design-I love the overall workmanship. I'm sure there's a lot of better options than that Intel sooler...you'll come up with something.

That is actually a very good idea! I wonder why didn't I think of that ! I think I will mount the HDD in this way! Thank's for the heads up!



I didn't have a lot of time on my hands when I build-it and I tried to keep it as simple as possible... that means no door's for me . As far as wheels go...I have wheels on my desk and I hate that because it moves around all the time...



Even with my case (I should have made it a little shorter) I have problems with wire management because they're to short...if you have a larger case you really must plan where your cables are suppose to go and if they are long enough !

Looking very nice!

Quite lovely! One thing, though...

AAAUUUUGGGGGHHH!!!!! You bent the video card backplane! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Instead of bending the video card backplane, you should have just removed it. It's not too late to remove that unnecessary backplane, but it's too late to never have bent it.

It's trivial to remove the backplane. Just take some needlenose pliers and unscrew the hex nuts. Then remove the backplane, and screw the hex nuts back in. Voila!

I do it on all of my scratchbuilt projects--it gets rid of that annoying pokey bit.

[edit: added:]

Oh, some further thoughts. I'm a bit perplexed by your layout decisions. The placement of the PSU and optical drive seem designed to stretch out the connections as badly as possible. I'm almost impressed that you managed to get all the cables to reach, except that you could have flipped the motherboard to the opposite side to make everything reach easier.

Sorry, I'm just being nitpicky. I so often have the experience of dreaming up what would be a really neat case layout only to discover during experimenting with the layout that the cables won't reach or that they are excessively messy.

Ha ha! I guessed i did that, didn't I ? I remember the exact moment when I put for the first time the video card and it didn't fit. Without the slightest hesitation I just reached for the plier and it was done. . Since what's done is done there is no point in removing it! (there is a very good chance I'll lose it ).



Unfortunately for me it seams that my design is not as good as I hoped regarding cable management. Your idea to move the mother board on the other side is the exact thing my case needs to get rid of the cables stretching. I still have to make a hole in the back panel through where I'll put all the cables that connect to the mother board (for now they are just hanging over the side of the case), and while I'm at it I think I could move the board on the other side!

It seams there are still a lot of improvements and modifications that can be done to create a better design (moving the mother board, changing the hdd place - right now it's hard for me to find a place to put 2 hdd's side by side mostly because the cables are stretched to the limit).

Oh well... I guess I shouldn't have expected to get it right from the first time...After all, this is my first custom build case! Nothing a little experience can't cure!

Thank you all for your feed back, it's been most helpful!

My young padiwan...welcome to da dark side


Consider you stole some other ideas from me why don't you steal my stolen idea?
Wheels on the back of the case and 2 pieces of wood in the front? Just lift the front and move it around. Very neat solution

A filter would be recommended as well.

How does the DVD work having there? I was considering that position but was afraid it might hit the desk or something like that

I wouldn't bother about the optical drive but since you doesn't have any soundcard you can twist the PSU 90 degrees and move it inwards a bit so it hangs over some of the PCI-slots. Since you doesn't have any heatsource under that spot it wouldn't effect the noise in anyway

I really like the simple and clean look of it.
We'll see if you can stay away from it now or you'll build a new case

Nice, simple build! Throw some quieter components in there, and you'll be in good shape.

BTW, I'd rotate the DVD 180* to avoid reaching around the tray when (un)loading discs.

Thank you!!! It's good to be here...nice and cozy and dark!!!



The case is next to my desk...it doesn't have much to hit but air and my fingers! Other then that...I wrote dvd's and read dvd's without any problem!

Regarding the wheels...I don't move the case around to much....and I think they are of no use to me! (I think I have some kind of grudge regarding furniture/case wheels )


The case could have been a lot smaller! I took "safety" precautions by leaving 1extra cm here and there, and that all most became a problem with the cables needed to be stretched to the maximum. I had several other layouts planed in my head...but this was the one to be! And yes...probably NEXT TIME I'LL BUILD another case I'll assign more time to the design phase and maybe I'll consider some sort of cable management!!


That was my initial plan...but as you can see I had to use plan B . The L shaped metal pieces I used to assemble the entire case together had an exact size that allowed me to put the DVD ROM in that exact position, the other way around the hole from the DVD and the one from the piece of metal would not end up one on top of the other!

** UPDATE **

I've made a few modification's to my computer!

1. Changed the Intel Box Cooler with Arctic Freezer 7 Pro (because is incredibly quieter and cools a lot better than the Intel one and because is 3 times cheaper then the Ninja).

2. Made a hole in the back through were all the cables pass.

3. Changed the hdd location.

4. Installed a "Z" metal piece that holds in place the graphic card.

5. Added a 80mm Akasa fan @7V in the empty hole under the PSU (is quieter then the 120mm Antec @5V) - for cooling my GPU.

6. The 2 fans are now held in place by rubber bands (no more vibrations..)

Enough talk...here are the pictures :








Right now...the noisiest part is the hdd during seek! I CAN live with that!

Looks nice! What sort of rubber bands are you using? I stopped using regular rubber bands when I realized they all eventually fail.

Currently, I don't use anything rubberband-like; I tend to use mousepads, bubble wrap, and/or foam for softmounts. Others here on SPCR seem to have good experiences with something called "Stretch Magic".

One other thing--you might be able to reduce the PSU's fan noise by cutting out that very restrictive fan grill. Of course, if other things are louder anyway, then it's not really necessary.

I'm using normal rubber bands...but since I don't use them to suspend my hdd and only my 2 fan's I really don't care that much if one fails...also they are really easy to work with compared with the wire's I used before.

The fan grid from the PSU doesn't matter that much...I did stop the PSU fan with a toothpick and didn't notice a difference worth considering.

Does having the optical drive vertcally affect it in any way..?

my only suggestion would be to flip the cd-burner arround so that you can put the disk in facing you... i know its a little thing but I am thinking ease of use... it may help with the cable length issue as well?

-SLOTh

PS i would consider taking something like http://www.mnpctech.com/moddersmesh.html Modders Mesh and putting it on either side just to finish the look and keep from somehow (trust me it happens) dropping something in to your pc and fans and causing a mess (most likely ink)... just another thought.

Not really ...I have a feeling thou, it might write dvd's slower or it could have been because I used really cheap dvd's.

Regarding flipping the dvd - the L shaped metal pieces I used to assemble the entire case together had an exact size that allowed me to put the DVD ROM in that exact position, the other way around the hole from the DVD and the one from the piece of metal would not end up one on top of the other!

Also I couldn't find any Modders Mesh here in Romania. I did search but without luck...That would be a nice thing to do ....also the wires would not be visible...I guess I'll start searching again.