Overwatch Box

[Runebeard]

So it's been a LONG while since my last post here. Some of the older folks may remember my attempts to start a Bioshock build back in 2010.

Well after getting married, buying a house and having 2 kids, I had to cut my losses and just build a standard rig due to space.

Over summer though, I thought about a new case, with the remastered Bioshock out. An ITX version complete with Art deco work and an aged copper appearance. After many hours on Sketck up to make a really good design, I ran it by the wife.

So now I'm doing an Overwatch ITX scratchbuild instead :lol:

Why ITX? Well space is a premium at the moment with two toddlers, so it needs to be out of reach of their grubby mitts. Also, I'm still at an age where I can LAN with friends, so the more portable the better.

After a few hours work and some research this is where I'm up to:

For anyone not in the know, the face is taken from Winston, but sketch up wouldn't let me cut out the "face" to show the fan hole properly so apologies for that, and I'm not about to try and find the broken line!

This is the side window, made to show as much as possible without any cables showing.

And without the panel you can see the false floor I have planned to help with cable management.

Back of the case means you can see that I'm going to use a SFX psu to power it. One of the new Corsair ones for reliability.

This view shows the motherboard tray with cable holes. I'm planning on having some cablemod custom made ones, so I don't have as much clutter.

Lastly to avoid a boring side panel, I will, or more likely an artist will, "graffiti" the Pachimari from Overwatch on the side to make it more interesting.

In terms of scale the case dimensions will be:

L270mm x W174mm x H325

This also takes into account the use of a Corsair H100i V2 (or similar) and a smaller length GPU like the EVGA GTX1060 SC, which fairs very well in cooling despite it's smaller heatsink.

I figured given the high pressure fans from the rad rans and their proximity to the other parts, there won't really be much room for heat to stay trapped anywhere.

The case itself will be made from 2mm aluminium, which will be mostly cut to size before it arrives to me, I just then have to trim it down, cut the holes etc, making it much easier with the little time I have.

If you're wondering how the sheets will be fixed together, I've done some research into methods and think that Brazing the aluminium in place (aside from the 2 side panels) will allow for as few screws as possible giving it a much cleaner look. It may need some trial and error, however seeing as you can do it at the same temperature as a kitchen heating torch, it's not too difficult.

Any comments, questions or suggestions are welcome.

 

[Wraith]

Having looked at your image and thrown Winston into Blender, myself and Kilbane are wondering how you would create the fan opening for the air flow.. the only way I can see it looking well would be to use a firm mesh behind the design.

 

[Runebeard]

Having looked at your image and thrown Winston into Blender, myself and Kilbane are wondering how you would create the fan opening for the air flow.. the only way I can see it looking well would be to use a firm mesh behind the design.

Hi Wraith,

If you look closely I changed the face a bit so it's not quite the same as the in-game tag. I added furrows, changed the nose detail and added the bit beneath the lip to secure it to the case panel.

As it's 2mm aluminium this should still be rigid enough and will only need some light mesh for aesthetic reasons.

The only alternative would be structurally sound mesh I agree and the. Sticking the cut out pieces in the right places.

Good point though. And loving the blender skills!

 

[Wraith]

Thanks fella, myself and Kilbane probably spent about 2 hours mocking stuff up and talking about this last night :lol:

 

[Runebeard]

Thanks fella, myself and Kilbane probably spent about 2 hours mocking stuff up and talking about this last night :lol:

It would look like your nicer version (on the right) of my crude hand drawn one haha.

What do you think? Looks ok with the added bits or should I use stiff mesh behind it?

 

[AlienALX]

Wow, there's an old face good to see you old chap ! not lost your sense of humour either, the OP made me chuckle

The only time I run things past my wife is when she's sleeping so she can't see how much money I have spent

 

[Runebeard]

Wow, there's an old face good to see you old chap ! not lost your sense of humour either, the OP made me chuckle

The only time I run things past my wife is when she's sleeping so she can't see how much money I have spent

Alien! Good to see some of the old gang still around ^_^

Hopefully gonna order the Aluminium in the next couple of weeks once I get paid and then it's time to get the ol' jigsaw out and start cutting!

Current plans for hardware although subject to change if new hardware is released during the build:

Intel Core i5-6500
Corsair H100i v2
Asus Pro Gaming Z170i
16GB Corsair Vengeance Led
Crucial MX300 1TB
EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SC
Corsair SF 450W

The wife is gonna hate me when she finds out the cost haha

 

[Kilbane]

It would look like your nicer version (on the right) of my crude hand drawn one haha.

What do you think? Looks ok with the added bits or should I use stiff mesh behind it?

The only issue I can't get past on the design is how little material is left holding the mouth and face, personally in order to combat that I would suggest using a mesh behind it just to add a little rigidity to it.

Worse case scenario is one side gets knocked twisting the design straight into a fan. You could use any relatively sturdy mesh mounted behind just to keep any issues at bay.

 

[Runebeard]

The only issue I can't get past on the design is how little material is left holding the mouth and face, personally in order to combat that I would suggest using a mesh behind it just to add a little rigidity to it.

Worse case scenario is one side gets knocked twisting the design straight into a fan. You could use any relatively sturdy mesh mounted behind just to keep any issues at bay.

I guess you're right. It will be more than rigid enough to hold itself, but if one of the kids rams a toy at it, it might still flex.

It was always going to have some mesh/dust filter behind it, but I'll have to judge how thick that mesh should be once I cut it out and how much it flexes.

Cheers for the input dude

 

[AlienALX]

Good that you are going with a scratch build man. My latest project comes pretty bloody close, given I have either made or modded almost all of it. Almost....

Ironic that they're called a scratch build, given it makes me itch I've always had this grandiose plan in my head of what mine would look like and be themed on. So I have always saved that name and those plans for the ultra mega mega build.

Maybe next year. Mine will be all acrylic though as I hate working with alu. Mostly because I prefer to use a Dremel and they hate alu. They just jam and get coated in alu.

I must get myself clued up on this Overwatch stuff. That way I will have a clue as to what you are doing

 

[Runebeard]

Good that you are going with a scratch build man. My latest project comes pretty bloody close, given I have either made or modded almost all of it. Almost....

Ironic that they're called a scratch build, given it makes me itch I've always had this grandiose plan in my head of what mine would look like and be themed on. So I have always saved that name and those plans for the ultra mega mega build.

Maybe next year. Mine will be all acrylic though as I hate working with alu. Mostly because I prefer to use a Dremel and they hate alu. They just jam and get coated in alu.

I must get myself clued up on this Overwatch stuff. That way I will have a clue as to what you are doing

Yeah, I looked around for ages for a case I liked in ITX form, but the only one I liked was the NZXT Manta. £109 though and it was far too big.

Scratchbuild it had to be, that meant I could make it smaller than a 30cm ruler!

I've only ever worked with Alu once before. It's kinder on jigsaw blades than steel, but isn't as strong so intricate work can be tricky. Unless I can befriend the DT guys at my school to use their scroll saw, I'll probably just use a coping saw for the intricate bits and clamp it down nicely.

I did think about acrylic, but for strength I'd probably have had to use 5mm and that would have made my tiny case noticeably bigger. On an matx or atx it would be negligible however.

Overwatch is good. I'm not totally addicted, but it's great fun with friends. I'd liken it to Team Fortress 2 with more variation and a more polished feel. Oh and it runs on ANYTHING so kudos to Blizzard for optimisation. Seriously, I'm sure a modified android phone could run it haha.

 

[AlienALX]

5mm acryl is really heavy too dude. Even 3mm adds up eventually ! It's also harder to work with than 3mm too.

I'd never heard of them before, but apparently if you have one local to you you can rent "time" from a lazer cutter. Sadly there's nothing around here.

I know with wood cutting you can get like really delicate blades for cutting. Kinda like a scroll saw in size. Not sure about HSS blades though ! mine are all about 8mm.

 

[Runebeard]

Aye there are quite a few online laser cutting firms that if you upload your design they will cut it for you and post it you for a pretty reasonable price. Just gotta have the right file format.

However I haven't actually seen results so couldn't comment on the quality of cutting.

I looked into it for my Aluminium, but apparently it's too reflective and will damage the laser!

Also I'd be a pretty lazy modder if all I did was braze it into place and paint it eh? Gotta put some blood, sweat and tears into a project I guess :lol:

 

[AlienALX]

Oh crap man you're actually going to weld it?

Can't wait to see this one art form I never learned. Man, I would love to be able to weld alu with perfect arrow shaped welds. That was one of the reasons why I bought the bike I did, because they know how to weld aircraft alu in California !

 

[Runebeard]

So the aluminium arrived this week. 2mm feels really thick at first, but is deceptive easy to cut with even just a coping saw.

It's also necessary as thinner Alu would be too weak for the heat of brazing and may malform during the process.

I'll try to get some pictures up tomorrow, I was just too excited and got stuck in today.

Stay tuned!

 

[Runebeard]

So progress has been slow. A couple of busy weekends and a manic work life at the moment have put paid to that.

Anyway, here's where we are so far.

This shows the front fan hole for the overwatch logo. I had originally intended to cut the shape directly into the Alu, but realised this would lose definition of the logo. As such I opted to cut a plain hole and will stick/weld the logo in place over the top later. More work but should give a better finish.

I then moved on to the back panel. I looked around online for dimensions for the PCI and I/O slots. Be careful when doing so, I think some people must have funny rulers as some of them are odd.

The grid on the side is for the drilled mesh I'm doing. Punching all those holes was not fun...

...Drilling them was worse however. In the end I sat down doing it as my back was aching haha!

You can also see I've drilled then used a jigsaw to remove the I/O plate hole. All this now needs to be filed and titdied up.

P.S. Do excuse the top row of drilled holes, somehow I missed my punch hole a couple of times with the drill and they're noticeably inaccurate to my eyes.

Next time I might invest in a drill press to do them for accuracy, but funds wouldn't allow that with Christmas on the way.

Next I'll aim to cut the window out, should be a simple 20 mins jigsaw job that one and then onto the motherboard tray!

 

[Runebeard]

So another mental week and a family filled weekend passes by.

I managed to squeeze in some time though, much to my wife's annoyance.

I jigsawed the window out, but for some reason haven't taken any WIP photos of that. Will take a nice one once it's all tidied up with a file.

I did however cut out the silhouette of Winston's face today:

A stuck down template may be low-tech, but it's working for me and my coping saw.

And after he's finished. I still will need to cut the glasses, nose and mouth pieces, so will be recycling that cut out piece in order to do that.

BTW if you were wondering, yes that is a window sill I'm using as a workbench. It's far too cold this week for me to brave my man-shed as it has no heating haha.

Anyways, next up is the job of filing all edges down and then bending the roof and base panels as per the design pics.

Have seen some nice bending tools that fit into a workbench vice and make VERY neat small bends. Does mean buying it though and they're not exactly cheap, but still way cheaper than the bending brake I would need for it.

I might see if work have anything I can scab and use though.

Then after that it's on to the brazing! So lots more to come yet!

 

[Runebeard]

So after having a lazy weekend last week of doing nothing, except my lesson planning and marking, I tried to catch up a bit.

Finished up the backpanel template for the SFX PSU and then also cut the PCI slots. I decided to do all of it with my coping saw in the end. I'm sure a real metal worker would tell me off, but after using the jigsaw for the window, I liked the control I have with the smaller saw and it means a lot less filing afterwards.

Then I templated and cut out the logo for the lower front fan grille. Gotta say I'm really chuffed with it, needs only some light sanding to smooth off, but is otherwise nigh on perfect for being done all by hand.

So after the advice from Wraith and Killbane, I looked in to getting some mesh for behind the front fan holes. Not only will it stop my little ones from shoving fingers in a moving fan, but handily I can tidy up the Winston face and bond the features to the mesh itself to hold them in a "floating" kid of way. Took an age of man to find the appropriate mesh. In the end I settled for this 4.5mm hex mesh from eBay. It's weird though the lack of mesh types out there on PC modding sites.

And here's the mock up on the front panel. Obviously I need to finish off Winston's facial features, but otherwise I'm really happy with how it's looking.

Next up, after a long session of filing, will be the brazing. The wife was generous enough to say I could purchase the equipment on the join account, but I felt like I was stealing so will wait until my post-crimbo pay check to get that in. Not to mention I'm going to be forking out for a simple metal brake as well! But sshhhhhh! Don't tell her about that one!

Until next time folks!

 

[AlienALX]

Nice going man

That mesh is the same stuff I used recently. Looks mint