Computer Worklog-log [Darkninja462]

Darkninja462 · 20 Apr 2009 at 21:05

Computer Build-log – “Great Heights”

Background History

Been thinking about getting a new case for a while just never found “The One” that appealed to me with lots of room, correct price, style and management. Well In essence I need more room as my TT Armour is full up and no more room for expansion in any direction. I would need it to house all of my stuff internally with ease and maybe add another loop into it.

Current Rig:

Core 2 Duo E8400 (775s) @ 4.0 GHz
Evga 780i 3way-Sli motherboard
Evga 9800GTX+ SSC edition
Creative X-Fi Platinum Fatality + Front Bay
Zalman ZM850-HP Modular
3x 320GB WD (Raid 0 & Storage)
4 GB Kingston Ram (5-7-7-20)
Hauppauge WinTv 1100-HVR
Thermaltake Armour (Silver)

2 Water cooling loops
Loop 1 (CPU) – Pump -> CPU Block -> 120Rad -> 240Rad -> Res
Loop 2 (GFX) – Pump -> GFX Block -> 240(external)Rad -> Res

Samsung 2433WB Monitor 1920*1200
Phillips 200WB Monitor 1600*1050

Prologue:

With this in mind I thought up some concepts that I like/would like to create. This was to have sections within the main case. My main though is to have 3 sections all lying parallel in the case:

Bottom:
Watercooling Rads/Pumps/Etc.
Middle:
Motherboard/DVD Bays/Etc.
Top:
HDDs/PSU/Control Box

My aim is to stick to this and house all of my Rig + Extra Room for expansion in the future.

This led me to do some concept art (Mainly during lessons at school). I love the look of the Tenjim TJ-07 how the Rad sections is situated and separated from the rest of the Case, this was my main theme and I decided to mirror this by having same design for the top section as bottom.

As I knew there wasn’t a case in production that was like this, I will haft to go it alone and build a case from scratch, this required a lot of thinking and research and skills which I will need to pick up.

Also took me on a trip to my design teacher to actually see if it was physically possible, all good talked him through what I wanted to do and he gave me the all clear and the facilities of whole design block to use (inc. Laser CNC, Milling machine, Pillar Drills, Most tools). This should make my life easier with all these at my disposal.

More later

Ninja

Darkninja462 · 20 Apr 2009 at 21:11

Construction

Construction

This was relatively difficult to come up with as there are lots of options of materials, but after a lot of talking over with my teacher over usability/strength/appearance. This led me to decide upon using aluminium. As it is (Fairly) easy to work with and has a nice appearance and strong, this will be the basis of my main frame for my case and more than likely 100% of the case. There is a downside to aluminium though and that is attaching it together, it is possible in some ways but not always financially (e.g. plasma welding) as I don’t have the facilities to do this or the funds to seek out such a magical place. I will need to bolt the pieces together, this will require solid bars instead of hollow ones as the bolts will need to be tapped to allow the bolts to hold together using M5 Allen Hex Bolts. This also makes the case very heavy from the start.

These are the Frame Plans:

Back:

Front:

Isometric

Left

Right

Top

Dimensions

More Later

Ninja

Darkninja462 · 20 Apr 2009 at 21:11

Prototypes

Prototypes:

As for many things there are certain ways to go about doing them and not all of them work so this is where my prototype’s come in, I had many ideas that I would like to implement into my design some have evolved from my design board to actual life (with the help of my Design Teacher & My Step Dad), these range from very small things to large things, also some of them a secret to surprise you all later on in the build.

Aluminium Joint’s/Cuts/Tapping/Drilling:

But here is the prototype for the aluminium joints. I ordered 500mm bar of 5/8” x 5/8” square bar, to start testing the joint’s/cuts/taping/drilling to see if was actually possible, and it was here are some of the results:

My First Ever Taps (Took a while but was well worth it

)

Starting To Tap The Holes (hardest bit)

Mess Made From Tapping

Selection Of Tools Used, The pot of black/brown stuff is metal cutting lube

Horrible "Gunk" that appears while tapping

Closeup of "Gunk" on the tap

"Gunk" on the bar and the nice clean-"ish" threads in the hole

Checking The M5 Bolt fits in the thread

Ninja

Darkninja462 · 20 Apr 2009 at 21:12

Counter Sinking

Flush Countersunk Joint

Countersink Head test

Flush Countersunk Head

Countersink Hole

End Countersunk Result

Many Thanks Guys & Girls

Comments Appreciated

More To Come in the following days

Ordered the Aluminium for the frame all 40ft of it

should arrive on Wednesday

so I can start Cutting it down then

Many Thanks

Ninja

Angst · 20 Apr 2009 at 21:22

deleted

Darkninja462 · 20 Apr 2009 at 21:26

its changed now ^^ just wanted to keep it so the all of the intro was together

sorry for inconvenience

Ninja

RJC · 20 Apr 2009 at 21:29

Have to keep an eye out on this thread, nice work

ian|Squared² · 20 Apr 2009 at 22:02

definately going to be keeping an eye on this one aswell

millsy888 · 20 Apr 2009 at 22:06

looks well planned out.

subscribed

Darkninja462 · 20 Apr 2009 at 22:07

RJC said:
Have to keep an eye out on this thread, nice work

ian|Squared² said:
definately going to be keeping an eye on this one aswell

Thank you glad I caught both you're interests

should be very interesting for me as well being my first scratch build

.

Ninja

Schnippzle · 20 Apr 2009 at 23:07

Looks awesome so far man. Will be keeping an eye on this one

Wedge · 20 Apr 2009 at 23:16

Love scratch builds, good luck!

ps, whats philloi's problem :confused:

JonJ678 · 21 Apr 2009 at 01:07

Good call on aluminium. Far nicer to work with than steel.

One thing to mention, is JB weld. Its normally available for steel, but I'm pretty certain theres an aluminium version. Its a chemical weld, goes on like epoxy, never comes off. Ever. I'm about to use it on sheet material fairly extensively, if I remember I'll report back on how well it works (bit worried it'll eat clear through 2mm plate)

halliwelldj · 21 Apr 2009 at 01:29

Good luck with your build, looks like a lot of work

Monkey Puzzle · 21 Apr 2009 at 02:44

Very nice project. :cool:

Good work with the tapping- looks nice and tidy.

mejinks · 21 Apr 2009 at 03:18

Hmmm, looks interesting! I'll be watching this with interest. Im glad you went with hex bolts instead of riveting it together.

Darkninja462 · 21 Apr 2009 at 08:50

Wedge said:
Love scratch builds, good luck!

ps, whats philloi's problem

I put the first 3 posts as "Reserved" (now changed) so I could put all of my introduction in the first 3 so that it was neat and tidy.

mejinks said:
Hmmm, looks interesting! I'll be watching this with interest. Im glad you went with hex bolts instead of riveting it together.

Yea I didn't really consider riveting as in my opinion it looks good dam awful, and I like the look of my HEX caps they look nice and shiny

.

I will post more pics of some other protoypes of some LED work I have been doing and just general shots of items I have.

Ninja

Darkninja462 · 21 Apr 2009 at 18:44

Been doing some more prototype work today and all has turned out well in my opinion. I will post more information later

when I have though how to word it, without giving to much away

Ninja

Darkninja462 · 22 Apr 2009 at 10:41

Aluminium Arrived Bout 10mins ago, I doubt I will have time to upload the pictures in school but will definatly do that when I get home tonight

Ninja

Nick1881 · 22 Apr 2009 at 11:17

Nice work, look forward to seeing more.