Project "I Got Wood"

[dayvurd]

so im currently using a >>NZXT phantom 240<<
with
Intel i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4690(3.5GHz)
ASUS® Z97-E
HyperX FURY Series 8GB (2x 4GB ) DDR3 1866MHz
4GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 970
120GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD
2TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD20EZRX
CORSAIR 750W CS SERIES - Corsair H60 Hydro Cooling
BenQ XL2411 144HZ Monitor

so ive had it for about a year now and it gets in the way a little bit (i only have a small room) so i thought id do myself some case modding. im going to make a case from wood and perspex. i've already got some ideas for ventilation with using >>this<<. basically im going to make the frame from either MDF or Ply, im unsure about mdf because of how warped it can get so ill decide this when i come to build it. im also going to make it wall hangable so it will fit to the side of my monitor and also do some tapered perspex backing with LEDs, so when it is on the wall you will see the LEDs through perspex.
Measurements, sizes and materials
Case size: 23Hx14Wx12D MDF or Ply - Wood base, two sides and back. clear perspex side and top that will be removable.
Ventilation: so keeping in the theme of wood, the ventilation ill be using is normally used as radiator covers in houses. il be placing these on either sides of the case and ill be using wire/nylon or cloth mesh to act as a dust filter.

Upgrades:
>New Processor<
>Motherboard upgrade to keep with white and black theme<
x2 >>SSD<< to replace the 2TB hard drive
x1 GTX 970 for SLI
>PSU<
>>New cables<<
so keeping with a white and black theme the case will be painted, although im not sure on what colour variation to go for. The GTX 970 i currently have is white/black
and ill probably throw in some proper water cooling also, given that the temps will be far higher than what i currently get with just an i5 and x1 gpu.

I plan on drawing up a plan, or sketch to resemble what layout i want and what i hope the case will look like, i will post as i go along with any ideas or plans i make along the way. i am open to criticisms about using wood or any cool ideas revolving around my use with the ventilation idea.

Cheers

 

[Wraith]

If you go with Plywood you should use Marine ply as it is less prone to warping, as for MDF I'd go with FRB (Red) or Moisture resistant (Green) both are fine for this type of project and like marine ply don't tend to warp easily especially if you treat them first.

MDF building can get a little pricey when you take all the prep work and suitable adhesives, glues and paints in to account but the finish is generally much sharper, with plywood you'll be quicker but the necessary work needed with filling and sanding is much harder to achieve the same standard.

I think you'll be fine with radiator covers as ventilation tbh it's a nice simple effective alternative to machining the vents manually, I found that voile net curtain was a really quality mesh to use as dust filters which is like £1 for the meter or you could just get a sample from your local haberdashery for a few pence.

 

[dayvurd]

If you go with Plywood you should use Marine ply as it is less prone to warping, as for MDF I'd go with FRB (Red) or Moisture resistant (Green) both are fine for this type of project and like marine ply don't tend to warp easily especially if you treat them first.

MDF building can get a little pricey when you take all the prep work and suitable adhesives, glues and paints in to account but the finish is generally much sharper, with plywood you'll be quicker but the necessary work needed with filling and sanding is much harder to achieve the same standard.

I think you'll be fine with radiator covers as ventilation tbh it's a nice simple effective alternative to machining the vents manually, I found that voile net curtain was a really quality mesh to use as dust filters which is like £1 for the meter or you could just get a sample from your local haberdashery for a few pence.

Thanks very much for your input. I was going to try and steer clear of using mdf as i know it can be a pain to work with, but it was still a very loose option. I think if i did go with ply all the work needed would deffinitly be worth it. With reguards to gluing i was going to do a dovtail or box joint to get a nice edge. But then this is where i get confused on the colour variation. Im thinking black base and white sides box/dovtail joint will be then overlapped black and white. Which i think would be quite pleasing to the eye. The sides will have a rectangular hole which behind it will have the wood with the pattern holes in (radiator cover) for ventilation which will also be black. Given the pattern on the wood set inside the white will give off a really nice effect.

 

[dayvurd]

so, planning has begun, ive used some 3D modeling software to get the sizes and the look (kind of) to how i want it. the black parts are the radiator covers for ventilation (circles are not to desired design). the first image below shows what one side will look like. the bottom would be 1 piece of ply/mdf but with the software it wouldnt let me ad a 3d block for the base without messing up the box joint design on the base/side.

the next one shows what it would look like with each side on

the next image shows on each side on the top, two lips will host a Plexiglas/ acrylic top that will just sit snug inside the case

and this last one shows a lip on the inside of the case to host a Plexiglas/acrylic side panel

i am considering doing the wooden back panel black and doing a box joint for the back also. this would look like this...

so on the inside of these ventilation holes, they will probably house some rads/fans either push/pull or just one side pull and the other side push, what my current case is doing atm. im looking to mix it up a bit by mounting the psu on the side of the case to show it off a bit more, and maybe throw the cables through the back panel. i am hoping to mount this on a wall so hiding cables wont be a problem, just with the Plexiglas being a full panel i want minimal cables on show.
these are subject to change, although probably not by much

let me know if there is anything i could change, any alterations which would work better. i think using a box joint is a great aesthetically pleasing concept for a black and white design and a strong joint to hold the case together.

3D software used -Sketch-up http://www.sketchup.com/

 

[dayvurd]

EDIT: i forgot to add this in, basically the top plexiglass/acrylic will fit snug on top, and the side panel with fit between the front lips and the top panel. so no need to screws or glue, and is easy to take off for any adjustments needed inside the case.

 

[dayvurd]

Shopping begins!!

So on looking in B&Q i found that ply is very strong, but i dont like the look of it at all, although its strong it seems like it could split so easily. So. Ive decided to go for 18mm thick mdf, less prone to warping(due to thickness and size of the cut panel), and it seemed alot more sturdy out of the two.

This is the two types of ventilation covers i can go for, i really like the first but i think going for the smaller circles would look really nice.

 

[dayvurd]

So 5 hours since i started building and i have two panels cut and shaped with box joints. Soooooo much filing done, I just need to cut a rectangle in the front and back panels for the vent covers, do some more cutting and more filing and ill be ready to do a mock fit of the whole thing. I bought some stand offs for the motherboard mounting and some screws to mount stuff. I decided im going to raise the motherboard off the back panel by about 2 inches just for getting the cables through and under the board.

 

[dayvurd]

So ive had a couple of days break due to work and being busy doing other things, i spent about 4 hours tonight cutting and filling the last two sides of the case and ive finaly got a decent shape that actually fits together

Im going to start painting soon, i still need to cut out the side panels on either side and fit my ventilation panels. Im buying mdf primer tomorrow and some paint so over the next week i can prime, sand and paint

 

[dayvurd]

Okay so slight change of plan, due to plexiglass and acrylic to be VERYYY expensive at the sizes i want ive decided to go all wood with no visual veiw through into the case, although this means that i can light it up inside brilliantly and have the shadows of the casing cast into my bedroom, image below is a mock up of the side panel...this is also the same stuff ill be using as ventilation panels on the front and back

 

[dayvurd]

Sides have now been cut out and the mock up of the ventilation covers fitted, now time to give all the sides and base a good scrub with a sanding block and prime, then paint

 

[dayvurd]

First coat of primer going on, this piece will be black eventually. Two coats of primer, and a black matt finish. Will post again once everything has been painted

 

[dayvurd]

so here we are, party painted, ventilation panels have been glued in, still some work to do on the base and some black painting to do also. when i'm done painting i'm going to glue it all together and use black screws on the white for a bit of aesthetics and ofcourse so it doesn't decide to fall apart

 

[dayvurd]

so heres an update on the work. at the moment the paint is still not completely 100% but in this picture you can see the lid is on, and ive done the same as the sides and added ventilation so i can have some fans on the lid, ive stuck hinges on the back, this will allow easy access to the case when i need to. almost done with the painting and gluing, once thats done i get to fit all the computer parts inside

 

[dayvurd]

So its getting to the point now where my building is almost done and where now i have to plan how im going to mount things.

In the image if you can see, i have a nice little bag choc full of M3 screws and some standoffs also, i plan to use the stand offs in the ventalation panel and just screw the M3 into the stand off, thus holding my fans in place. Ill probably do this with my motherboard also as it seems like the simplest thing to do

 

[dayvurd]

Ao this is it, pretty much what the final design and colour scheme will be from the outside, i still need to do black touch ups on the back panal for a bit of contrast between the box joints though but i thought id just share it in its near final form. Its been hard work and its very satisfying to ser how its all come together. I hope you guys like it.

 

[dayvurd]

Black and white theme flowing

Back panel finally fully painted and fixed in place, if you look closly you can also see that ive done alternate colours on the hinge also, which in the moment of peeling off the masking tape i happend to catch it with the stanly knife -.- but ill fix that later

 

[dayvurd]

So building the computer case has pretty been done. Apart from holes needing to be cut for power etc. So ive fitted the stand offs for the mobo and also mocked up where everything will go, bottom left is the psu, either side of the mobo will be the hdd and ssd and as you can see in the image the 4 rectanguler shaped wood standing up, these are actually going to hold strips of LEDs from under the Mobo and act as back lighting. The scribble marks you see is where im going to be cutting some holes for wires and power. One directly behind the mobo and one just behind the psu. Im doing this because i want the case to not have a front or back, well not as a front or back is classed in a normal computer case. Hopefully i will be able to fit all the components in the next few days. Im hoping to get some 140mm fans for the side panels in the next week or so

 

[dayvurd]

this my look a tiny bit off, but i think its the angle of the photo, i think its coming together quite nicely atm, some things have moved because of the time of the mock up, i didnt take into account the GPU. the MOBO and the GPU are both attached with standoffs and bolts underneath to suspend them in the air so they dont touch the surface below. im waiting on a delivery from amazon with will have my new 140mm fans and some new thermal paste, so i can get rid of this old stuff and have a nice fresh cpu coolant also in the post (which i hope to get tomorrow) is a PCIe ribbon to go to my GPU. one thing i didnt cater for doing the mobo like this is the GPU didnt have any structure, so i had to lay it down and order a PCIe ribbon to connect it that way.
one thing i dont currently like about this is the unnecessary extra molex connectors on the wires, unfortunately i am on a budget and can only afford to upgrade bits every so often. i will do it, just not all at once.
at the moment i also have my LED strips placed behind the MOBO on the pieces of wood that i laid out in the previous post. (i think) the top and bottom are blue and the sides are red, but i wont know until i actually turn it on.
if you can also see i have moved the USB 3.0 to the lid of the case, they're glued on so when the case is shut and the front panel is on ill have complete access to the use of USB without having to dive into my case. everything inside is there to stay one its plugged in. if need be i will use a USB hub on my desk.

i think ive been doing this log for about 2 weeks or so now, but thanks for taking a look at my work up to now, just a reminder that all of this was done with hand tools, no power tools were used at all. it may not be shiny, glorious and expensive, but to me this is utter satisfaction being made from the ground up

 

[Wraith]

This is the key to being a happy modder, to be proud of what you've created and get the satisfaction at the end result, to quote B-Negative "If you're not doing it for yourself, you're doing it wrong".

Keep it coming fella.

 

[dayvurd]

Thanks dude, i appreciate it