This is more aimed at those who have fabricated their own case/modded them but any ideas input etc is appreciated. Planning a dual 1366 build with a supermicro board which is a very odd proprietary form factor coming in at 12.8 inches by 16.5 inches. I could slash and hack an eatx/eeatx case but in the spirit of being a cheap f*cker I'm gonna build it myself. Here's a photo of the board for reference:
And here's 20 minutes of Sketchup work (note the mobo image is not accurate at all):
The sizing of the wood base on the first model is 14x18 and I'll put m3 standoffs into the wood to mount the board. The second is the same size, using 2x2 inch, 85mm high posts. This is based on the PSU also being 85mm high and I figure with the position of it that'll help to support the heatsinks. The orange space represents the HDD area; I'll be using 2 3.5 HDD's and 1 2.5 SSD so I'll most likely end up rigging a drive cage into there. For the last picture the two yellow spaces represent the cpus (roughly), red is power for the board, pink is IO and the bright green is SATA ports. The dark green area represents potential GPU area; it'll be odd to build a supporting post if I mount the gpu to the board plus there could be clearance issues so it's a toss up between a PCIE riser cable and mounting it flat or using a PCIE riser card and mounting it that way which is what I'm leaning towards. The card choice isn't 100% yet but it'll probably end up being some sort of 970. Other things to note is that I'll have to cut a hole in the bottom for PSU airflow and also be using rubber feet on the bottom.
The few questions I have are what sort of wood could I use for this; was thinking particle/mdf at first but they use epoxy/resin to bond the wood and the heat could weaken it, maybe plywood? I know that has a tendency to splinter but it's nothing sandpaper cant fix. Also, how would I go about painting this? Was thinking just a few coats of normal black Rustoleum spraypaint and a coat of clearcoat. Any ideas advice or input is appreciated.
And here's 20 minutes of Sketchup work (note the mobo image is not accurate at all):
The sizing of the wood base on the first model is 14x18 and I'll put m3 standoffs into the wood to mount the board. The second is the same size, using 2x2 inch, 85mm high posts. This is based on the PSU also being 85mm high and I figure with the position of it that'll help to support the heatsinks. The orange space represents the HDD area; I'll be using 2 3.5 HDD's and 1 2.5 SSD so I'll most likely end up rigging a drive cage into there. For the last picture the two yellow spaces represent the cpus (roughly), red is power for the board, pink is IO and the bright green is SATA ports. The dark green area represents potential GPU area; it'll be odd to build a supporting post if I mount the gpu to the board plus there could be clearance issues so it's a toss up between a PCIE riser cable and mounting it flat or using a PCIE riser card and mounting it that way which is what I'm leaning towards. The card choice isn't 100% yet but it'll probably end up being some sort of 970. Other things to note is that I'll have to cut a hole in the bottom for PSU airflow and also be using rubber feet on the bottom.
The few questions I have are what sort of wood could I use for this; was thinking particle/mdf at first but they use epoxy/resin to bond the wood and the heat could weaken it, maybe plywood? I know that has a tendency to splinter but it's nothing sandpaper cant fix. Also, how would I go about painting this? Was thinking just a few coats of normal black Rustoleum spraypaint and a coat of clearcoat. Any ideas advice or input is appreciated.
