Case made out of Safety Mats?

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 8:28 am

Hi guys,

For the ones that have worked with this stuff, do you think it would be possible to build a case completely out of it? I have been playing around with this idea and was thinking that by cutting intelocking pattern for the panels to fit together kinda like a puzzle that this might work. Maybe a few nuts/bolts/washer could be usefull too... Basically do you think that this case could possibly work and be structuraly strong enough? Is it easy to make good straight cuts in this material?

I have been playing around with this concept a bit and have came up with some drawings. I do not know how to post them but if somebody could post them for me i could send em to you.

Blappo · Post by **Blappo** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 9:47 am

I think the material would be strong enough to support the weight of the components (although the PSU might need to be on the bottom). The difficult part would be securing the pieces together so the foam doesn't rip under the weight.

I used pins to connect my HDD enclosure that I built using the safefy mats. Perhaps something like metal cloth hangers would work with the benefit of increasing the strength of the structure (sort of like rebar).

Try testing out some of you're ideas on a small scale to see if it can support the weight of a CD-ROM or PSU.

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 10:05 am

In my design so far the PSU is in fact on the bottom sucking out air from the HDD Bay (very similar to Bluefront's "Bird House". I also have my PSU exhaust and Case exhaust fan set to in a way that Bluefront's mentionned ventury effect might be present here. The exhaust fan is to be ducted with the fan on the inside part of the duct to further muffle it's sound. Which would work great with and Alpha type heatsink. In this type of setup (alpha) there would be only one fan sucking air out the back from the alfa heatsink and the psu fan. The intake is filtered.

There is room for 4 HDD (might be able to sqeeze 6) and three 5 1/4" drives (can probably add 2 vertically next to the 3 or if needed a couple 3 1/2" drive could be added

peteamer · Post by **peteamer** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 10:57 am

www.imgspot.com for free hosting of pics.

Pete

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 11:34 am

Thanks for the link

left side open:

Notice the "a la Bluefront" HDD mounting. Air is being sucked from here with a 120mm faned PSU.

Top Down View:

Back View:

IO shield and pci back plate to the left. 120MM exhaust fan to the top right with 120mm faned psu enclosed below blowing up. The power cables from the psu will come out of the bottom to then be routed hidden between panels to there destination. The exhaust fan here should create a vacuum effect on the psu exhaust or ventur effect.

Well thats it for now. Gotta get this over with cause supper's gonna burn. Will Post more later.

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 11:36 am

Oh and btw, light pink is a hole or possibly a 120mm fan. dark pink is 120mm fan. white is air filter.

Blappo · Post by **Blappo** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 12:08 pm

I think I'm missing something. It looks like the intake is blocked off by your front panel.

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 12:15 pm

Since my skill aren't the best with this new software i am using. I can't figure out how to make holes... anyways the intake air is intended to come in from a comination of holes in the side panels and the bottom, maybe if i could make something that would look nice i might make something on the front also but i was avoiding hole on the front panel for intake because of the escape path for sound comming straight at me. Although the noise source would be pretty isolated behind a few layers of that foam maybe i could make intake holes on the front. Would have to have it built and running to decide.

Bluefront · Post by **Bluefront** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 3:03 pm

Well that safety mat is pretty tough stuff.....but a case made out of it?

You can cut perfect straight edges w/o problems. And panels could be joined with drywall screws. Just push the screw in....it can be unscrewed normally. As far as duplicating the scollopped edges....I wouldn't try. I suspect making a whole case out of the stuff without any additional bracing would result in sagging panels.

Sorry I can't figure out the drawing...looks nice though.

streety · Post by **streety** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 3:50 pm

Ok, let me get this right. The black boxes are the 5.25 inch drives, the blue the 3.5 inch HDD's. The orange box is the PSU mounted vertically so the 120mm fan sucks air over the HDD's. That air is then directed up over the scarlet air outlet hopefully sucking air out by the ventury (or is it venturi?) effect. The green box is the motherboard.

Assuming thats all correct then i would say you don't need the 120mm fan you suggested in the front of the case. The PSU should be more than capable of cooling the 4 HDD's. Do you need 4 HDD's?

If you do want to use the ventury effect I think you would be better shortening the top piece of mat and extending the back piece so that the air from the PSU is directed over the case outlet hole and can then escape directly upward.

I've never used safety mats so can't really comment on how practical they would be for this purpose but I have to wonder if it's worth it.

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 4:06 pm

You are mostly right. But there are no fans up front. Only fan in there is the case exhaust fan (dark pink) in the back. The light pink boxes are supposed to be holes. that's all they are. It would be possible to put a fans there but it isn't my intention.

The case exhaust fan would blow air over the PSU duct hole maybe lowering the pressure in this duct so that PSU fan may spin slower. That is why the air is exhausted in the back and not on the top like you where mentionning.

Legend:

Orange = PSU with 120mm fan vertically so that it sucks air from the hdd and exhausts it upwards.

Light Purple = 3 1/2 HDD in a box a la bluefront (birdhouse mod)

Dark pink = 120 mm fan

Light Pink = this is just a hole for the air to pass through

White = filter

Dark green = the motherboard

light blue = io shield

light green = pci bracket area

black = 5 1/4" drives

Sorry for the confusion. Will try to make better pictures now that i learned how to make actual holes in the panels. Will be able to add front intake vents and remove those light pink boxes

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 5:50 pm

Here is a couple extra pics hopefully it will clear some things up.

The first one is the case closed, pretty straighforward. You can see the 4 5 1/4" on there and the fresh air intake on the side. There is a similar intake on the right side on the case too.

The second one is a non rendered picture with some of the panels set to be transparent so you can see the insides a little better. In this one you can see the air intakes with the filter (white), the 4 HDD locations (light blue) in a box of their own with the 120mm faned psu sucking the air through the back (orange). You can also see the case exhaust fan (dark pink) blowing air out the back over the PSU duct which will possibly cause a venturi effect with the PSU air exhaust helping it be more efficient.

The rest of what you see there is:

Green = motherboard
Cyan = IO Shield (not the cyan cilinder by the psu that represents the PSU fan)

You can somewhat see the pci back plate in a light yellowish color.

Hope this makes things a little clearer.

I am just playing with this idea for fun, I have been around SPCR for a long long time. But just started posting lately. I do not have a need for 4 HDDs at this time but since 4 would fit in there then 4 it is. I might actually go about building this if I get good feedback. I might also consider making it out of wood. I would think that this case would dampen sound very well and would also have very good airflow. Any comment or recommendations would be great!

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 10:33 pm

I think that you would really need to build a structure out of wood or something outside that safetymat to support everything. I think that you could make a box the size of your case, cut holes in the box (and safetymat) where needed and mount everything that way. However, I think you might as well just mount your motherboard to the wood because it's not like the motherboard resonates all that much. I think that the safetymat could hold your optical drives and everything else as long as it was inside a rigid solid structure, that way you'd also know that it wouldn't collapse on itself. Think of how bluefront designed his birdhouse, there's a wooden structure outside the safetymat, so there's really no way to collapse the structure (as long as it is well built and you don't do anything stupid with it).

Straker · Post by **Straker** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 12:05 am

why not just start with one two crappy generic ATX cases and cut them up? just use them as a sort of wire frame (most cases have extra layers/support on the corner edges at least) or scaffold... i think building an entire case out of anything soft enough to prevent vibrations/absorb sound (unless it's concrete) would probably be silly.

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 4:31 am

Ok so maybe I should build this from a combination wood/safety mat using the safety mat only where it is useful and the wood elsewhere. Let's assume the construction material wasn't a problem. From a case design point of view what do you guys think? Would that intake work well, is it sufficient of an area? Is it too open? What about the exhaust? Would the way the air is exhausted from the case improve efficiency or lessen it? How quiet do you think this could be? Would i need to vent some air from the 5 1/4" Drive area or is heat generation neglegible in this area?

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 6:48 am

Hey guys,

Made a few changes.

-The exterior Panels are now wood except for the front
-The HDD capacity is now 2
-The PSU has been pulled inside the case where the extra HDD where
-There is only 2 5 1/4" Drives now
-Added a whole above the top 5 1/4" drive on the inner most pannel to circulate air around the drives (notice this doesn't bypass the filter
-Replaced rear 120mm exhaust fan with 2 80mm fans due to space

The changed where made to make this case more fitting to my need. I don't have a need for that many drives. The changes also removed 4" off the depth of the case.

Dimension are now about 12*14*16 (Width*Height*Depth)

New look closed:

New inside view:

New top down view:

Would like your comments. Do you see any problems with the air flow or layout?

Thanks for the feedback so far!

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 1:00 pm

I see a problem with assembly. If you ever want to change a PCI card, then you need too remove the PSU and the HD cage.

MonsterMac · Post by **MonsterMac** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:29 pm

lets hope you don't heh...

streety · Post by **streety** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 3:23 pm

Either that or have some mechanism by which the motherboard can be removed from the right side of the case.

The diagrams are looking much better now. What program are you using? Glad to see you've dropped the unneeded drives as well.

I don't know how practical it would be in terms of alignment but have you considered a ducted CPU heatsink?

You could probably maximise the venturi effects with some carefully placed slats or something similar but I've no idea what would be the best arrangement and it sounds like something requiring a lot of testing. Keep us informed.

Becks · Post by **Becks** » Tue Aug 17, 2004 7:33 pm

(this is an interesting topic, so thanks for that)

First of all what is safety mats? I'm missing something here hehe.

Looking at the design, for what its worth...

I'd worry a little about the total airflow though the case, the case looks constrictive, from the small intakes (compared to the total size of the fans) then though the filter, then leaving the case they're almost blwoing against eachother.. thats just my opinion, I like fans working as little as possible.

One other thing, is the intake would appear to do a good job of blocking sound from inside the case.. it woudl have to bouce off a few walls before it got out the air-intakes. On the other side however, the fans noise has a good path straight out the case. It seems out of proportion considering the 3 fans shown are the major source of noise, yet have nothing to muffle their sound, while on teh other side, with less overall noise, is muffled very well.

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 4:45 am

Hey guys!

Happy you are finding the topic interesting. As for what is safety mats: They usually come in 2'x2' panels whith interlocking edges used in kids play rooms or as flooring for a home gym they are made of some kind of foam. http://www.greatmats.com/children.html They come in different colors but the ones available at our local Walmart here in Summerside PEI are of the multicolor kind shown on the link. They are selling packs of 4 for 14$ Cad.

As for what software I am using, it is a 3D Studio Max 6 30 day trial Version so hopefully i'll have time to finalize the design before my time runs out.

I do realize that this is probably not the more user friendly design when it come to installing/removing hardware. I was thinking that I would have it made so that any panel could be removed, even the rigth panel which would end up being a removable MB tray

I was thinking of maybe ducting the heatsink to one or both of the fans. Would probably use an alpha heatsink for this. I am also considering building a duct that would come from the ducted intake area to the cpu fan sucking in air to a zalman 7000 type heatsink.

As for the total airflow in the case adding some vents up front would be very easy to do. Could be done last if more airflow would be needed.

The exaust area is somewhat of a question for me. I realize that all the fans have a direct path out when it come to sound. Being at the back of the case I was hoping that it would conceil the noise pretty good. I do have the option of exhausting out of the back panel instead of the side if that would help. I also have a fair sized area where thos fans are where I could build some kind of muffler. Input would be great cause I wouldn't know the first thing about building mufflers. I like the sound dampening idea from a muffler but wouldn't want it to cause problems with the air flow and having to run fans faster because of it.

Thanks for the input so far.

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 5:26 am

I have been working on the problem of accessing the components and how the case will open. So here it is in all it's glory...

The right side is now hinged at the bottom and there is a door in the back to access the PSU. The top pannel would probalby have to be removable so that i can open it up when all the rest is closed in order to tidy up the cables and stuff.

Let me know what you think

Blappo · Post by **Blappo** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 5:52 am

You will need a frame for your case if both of the side panels and top are going to be removable.

Keep up the good work.

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 6:06 am

Not both side panels would be removable the left panel would be fixed. I don't see a reason why I would need to access the case from the left side. I might need some kind of framing or reinforcement but for the most part I would think that the case would be solid. I can always substitute one (or part of one) safety mat panel for more wood. Probably the panel that seperated the PSU from the HDD would be a good candidate for wood.

Thanks again, you guys are bringing up all good points!

streety · Post by **streety** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 6:25 am

Although your diagram shows both the right side and back panels swung open you probably wouldn't need them both open at the same time and I don't see why your design wouldn't be solid with any one panel open.

It would be difficult to have the top panel attached to the back as it breaks in half down the middle but you can still use the left hand side which shouldn't make it much more difficult to work inside.

It's looking good.

Blappo · Post by **Blappo** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 6:39 am

My mistake about the left panel. With the right panel hinged at the bottom, there would be no need to open the other panel

Cyver · Post by **Cyver** » Wed Aug 18, 2004 7:51 pm

I've been trying out different things with this project and have noticed after putting a CPU HS in the picture that my exhaust fans aren't in the best position. If I would have a standard HS on there pushing air towards the HS, the exhaust would be fighting against it. If I have an alpha type heatsink where air would be pulled off of the HS then it wouln't be too bad but would be to close to duct. Lucky for me there is quite a bit of room to play with in that area i might have to move things around. The empty space above my HDD cage and behind my 5 1/4" drive will be usefull.

Would be pretty cool to duct a XP-120 pulling air off the heatsink and straight out the exhaust! The 1 CPU fan would probably be enough to cool the whole system. Although I doubt that the XP-120's design would be efficient with a fan pulling air instead of pushing it. Maybe with some kind of homemade shroud on it?

What do you think guys?

Tibors · Post by **Tibors** » Thu Aug 19, 2004 11:12 am

If you don't want to play with ducts, then you can mirror the whole design. With the motherboard on the left side of the case, the CPU will be at the bottom. The CPU fan won't compete for air with the exhaust fans and the air at the bottom is generally cooler than at the top.

This only works if there is sufficient space between the top of the graphics card and the middle pannel. Otherwise the hot air has a hard time to get to the top of the case.

Case made out of Safety Mats?

Case made out of Safety Mats?

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