3D models of my wooden case, input wanted :)

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun May 06, 2007 1:45 pm

Howdy. Im looking for some feedback on this design, i've been working on it for a couple of days and i think it looks pretty good but im sure i've missed something and im hoping you can point out what it is

The idea of a case like this has been in my head for a long time..

Filtered bottom intake and top exhasut with a baffle so it's really a rear exhaust. The rear exhaust area is about 1.6 times that of a 120mm fan, and the three panaflos would run very slowly.

The translucent stuff is 50mm damping material, not quite sure on what to use yet.

The panels will slide forward on some metal rails with ball bearings, think file cabinet. The rails are not shown, i have not taken any measurments of them yet.

As it is now the wood is 12mm thick.

I removed the sidepanel and the damping material so you get a better view of the inside,

And here is how it should look opened up, missing sidepanel here too. It's difficult to say( =i can't be botherred to calculate) how heavy the exterior panels will be compared to the chassis, but i might have to add some tiny wheels to the front edge for it to not tip over when open... The big hole in the bottom is for the filter, and there will be a gap alll around the case to act as an intake.

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Sun May 06, 2007 2:35 pm

YES!!!!!!!! I thought of doing something simliar with the mobo configured like that. Some thoughts are do you really want the dvd drive vertical? And also, the hard drives could be enclosed in something. You could save some space by putting the PSU somewhere else but I guess that its configuration is good as it is.

Good work!

Derek

sareiodata · Post by **sareiodata** » Sun May 06, 2007 3:28 pm

Oau....that's something...I can tell by just taking the motherboard as a reference that it will be a really big case. Also it is quite complicated from my point of view.

As far as the components place go's it's the same design as my case from my signature except the hdd : that design has a cable length issue... To power the DVD you will stretch the power cable to it's maximum. Also I had to use a really long IDE cable. The solution for this is to make an extension for the power cable and route the wires nicely.

To power the motherboard also your cable will have to pass over the GFX, stretching it and blocking air flow. The solution for this one is to move the motherboard on the other side of the computer(I didn't do that because it meant taking the case apart and putting it back together due to the fact that I didn't realize this problem until the case was finished.)

I see you have 3*120mm fans...well I think that 2 will suffice. I have one 120mm @ 5V and one 80mm @7V. You don't need all that much air flow...because hot air will never stay to long in your case.

The nosiest part of this design is the HDD. It would be best if you could suspend them some how....maybe under the 120mm fans...using rubber bands. Mine is on foam but the seek noise is still there...

I personally find it complicated (due to the dampening and the sidedorrs) but if you go ahead and build I strongly believe you'll have an inaudible system. [/u]

regal196 · Post by **regal196** » Sun May 06, 2007 3:56 pm

Question:
What PSU are you going you use?
[i know that my seasonic 550 can reach that far (approx 13 straight light)]

Also the supports for your mobo will have to be spaced a bit wider and i think you can get away with one intake fan.

Your drawing looks good.

-Pennell

HammerSandwich · Post by **HammerSandwich** » Sun May 06, 2007 9:46 pm

Nice design! But do you really plan to open the case every time you need to change CDs?

nici · Post by **nici** » Sun May 06, 2007 11:10 pm

Oh yeah i forgot to mention that, im going to make part of the front top hinged so i can open it.

I would rather have the optical drive horizontal, but it becomes more difficult that way. Though i think i might have just figured it out.

Im going to use the passive silverstone ST30NF im using right now, and there should not be any cable issues. Well, not more than in any P180 anyway, and that's what i have right now. The distance from the IDE port to the ODD is about 31cm if i follow the mobo tray and then the front upwards.

And yes i do plan to suspend the HDDs somehow.

Right now it is pretty damn huge, about 60x60x30 cm.. Im working on a smaller version.

edit: Smaller version. Moving the DVD drive had it's pros and cons as usual, moving it allowed me to make the case 40mm shorter, but now it is in the stream of hot air and i definately have a cable problem..

Also moving the PSU allowed me to make it shorter, it is now 47cm deep and 56cm high since i made the space between the fans and the filter 40mm shorter, it is now about 40mm. As it is now there's no holes around the PSU, im trying to figure out where to put them. If i use the passive PSU it will act as an exhaust, and it could work very well. Or it may not. I could also make it a separate compartment with its own fan, or use an actively cooled PSU...

IsaacKuo · Post by **IsaacKuo** » Mon May 07, 2007 7:22 am

My main concern is that the exhaust is too restrictive. Your original plan to bottleneck the airflow of three 120mm fans through an exhaust only 1.6 times the area of a single 120mm fan is not good. Ideally, both the intake and the exhaust should have the same area as the total area of the fans (all working in parallel). Smaller intake/exhaust area means bottlenecked airflow. Larger intake/exhaust area means more area for sound to escape.

The revised plan isn't quite as bottlenecked, assuming I'm interpreting the airflow correctly, but it's still excessively restricted.

I'm also concerned that the hard drives seem to be slapped in there as an afterthought. In both the original and revised layouts, they don't seem to be easy to work with and might not be easily suspended. Since the hard drives will likely be the noisiest components of the system, I think there should be more thought put into their placement with respect to the overall sound baffling plan.

One thing which you should seriously consider is exactly why you want the ATX backplane to be on the "top" side. Having the ports in either the rear or the front is VERY convenient, compared to that alternative (bearing in mind that my favorite workstation has them on "top" like that also...). If I'm interpreting the front/rear of this case properly, the ATX connectors are deep near the front, and the cables need to snake all the way to the rear out the rear exhaust. Is that right? This will essentially shorten those cables significantly, and be a general annoyance.

nici · Post by **nici** » Mon May 07, 2007 2:42 pm

I want the connectors on top because i have the computer on the floor nowadays, and crawling under the desk is a major problem. Also i want a baffle on the exhaust side, and having it on the backside could be a problem.

The hard drives look just slapped on for a very simple reason...

This would be really easy if there ws no power supply or filter to think about..

I'll be using my 120x38mm panaflos which are good against resistance, and ultimately i don't need a lot of airflow. I will still run a very slow fan on the Ninja, and the GPU survives on it's own.

Here is a couple more designs, i put the mobo in the normal position, and when i was finished i flipped it 90 degrees like it used to be. And no, the dvd drive would not be facing the floor in my final design...

If i leave both sides open, the exhaust area is 3.6x the size of a 119mm circle. So i could have just one side open, or half of each side. Or i could have like the previous design and open the sides some.

The problem now is finding a space for a filter, it should preferably be at leastt 20x30cm to minimize restriction. Having the mobo the "wrong" way makes this easier as i can use the bottom as the intake without a 90Â° bend in airflow.

The damping material in these shots is also reduced to 30mm in thickness.

The size of this thing is now 48x52x31cm, with 52cm being the height in the left model and the dept in the right model.

And in case you are wondering, i made these models with google scetchup. Google Ketchup...

derekchinese · Post by **derekchinese** » Tue May 08, 2007 4:40 pm

Isn't case design a challenge? It always seems much more convenient to revert to the convential configurations (mobo vertical instead of horizontal).

Keep up the case design though! I think if you work at it you will find the right solution. I think your latest design is the best in terms of practicality because your drive is easily accessible and the cables that connect to the back are also easily accessible

Are you planning to do some HDD suspension? and how will you cool the HDD's?

Keep up the good work!

Derek

ronrem · Post by **ronrem** » Tue May 08, 2007 5:55 pm

Look at your 3rd illustration from the top-with the unit-I believe sliding out to the rear. Now visualize it sliding to the FRONT. Then the near face becomes where the DVD mounds...the Switch is etc.

I'd done some raw sketches with the cables upside-good if accessable,I also looked at ideas for intake/outlet indirect chambers. I Was working a design where the mobo panel-backplane-PSU all swing open with a bottom hinge. The roll-out core is a nice alterative,a bit more complex but using less space.

I'm lately real into using the big 220 mm fans--ideally as the only fan besides the PSU. Bluefront's project actually mounted one INTERNAL and with a big slide-in filter using an indirect inlet a bit like yours.

I'd considered spaced louvers with an otherwise normal door mount.

I'd go with NO intake fans,however much fan you need-let that mainly be exhaust as air is pulled in as air is forced out--with case design deciding where. If you run a hot or OC chip you may need a fan on the Ninja.
Maybe even 2 exhausts plus PSU fan. For a "regular" load/temp ONE 120 at 700-1000 rpm near a Ninja as exhaust is usually fine-and the PSU can cool itself + HDDs.

You have several excellent core concepts and the illustrations are excellent. However...you need to do a few more simple sketches,based on airflow + positioning components + ergonomics+ function+ access before going furthur on the detail.

I think it will be excellent--but it's not quite there yet.

aerodynamics · Post by **aerodynamics** » Tue May 08, 2007 6:45 pm

I've never built a computer from scratch before so I can't offer much advice as far as the internal stuff. But looking at the case, I think the bottom vent/filter would benefit if you did the legs this way (quick sketch I did in illustrator):

That way, you'd have air coming in 360 degrees.

regal196 · Post by **regal196** » Tue May 08, 2007 7:30 pm

nici, of the last two drawings you have posted, I like the the one on the left. It is much like the one I am in the process of drawing up.

I am building a travel case for my computer... I'm going to college.

rjhythloday · Post by **rjhythloday** » Fri May 11, 2007 5:36 pm

I went and got google skech thanks to you, and wasted away the whole morning

for the life of me couldn't get the 120mm fans rotated the direction I wanted but over all a pretty cool little app. I'll post my file server case when it gets a little further along.