Project - Air Cube v2

waynio

waynio

waynio

Associate
Joined
1 Nov 2008
Posts
1,222
Hi all, time for my imaginatively titled Air Cube v2 to get done :D sorry could not think of a good title so it is a spare of the moment title.

I got the flat bars and angle bars today of the aluminium, I should have the sheets tomorrow. at last woohoo :D lol i'm a tad excited for my next modding fix.
The flat bars are 20mm wide by 3mm thick / angle bars are 12.7mm x 12.7mm x 1.58mm
the sheets are 1mm thick for components and 1.5mm thick for panels

insert completed project pic here ;)

Here is the new small 2-5mm hss countersink bit I just bought and these are the little m3 countersunk allen head bolts and half nuts, I'm hoping I will not need rivets at all for this so it can all be dismantled easily for painting and further mods.

fastenersbit.jpg


Here is the main structure I will be making 1st of all which I hope will be strong, probably got over 30 120mm fans in bags lol, so 3 for the front instead of the 200mm fan this time so it will need to be about 30mm wider than planned but that can be a good thing for hdd wire space, 2 for the true, 1 at back and 1 in front of the hdd's.
I'll be swapping all the fans when I can afford it with the akasa apache 120mm fans as they are 57cfm at only 16db and are rated to last 50,000 hours.

skeleton1a.jpg


skeleton1b.jpg


I'm going to have my 1st go on a drill press with this project and plan to use it quite a bit, hope it is as good as I imagine it would be, I'll be sure to very carefully do the measuring and marking and it should be fine I hope :D, lucky my dad is into motorbikes and has done a bit of restoration work on them so he has a few very useful tools to compliment the ones I have bought. He has a powerful air compressor that is outstanding for making a dust clogged pc look like brand new :), still yet to get into using quality paint with a paint gun and air brush, annodising seems quite hazardous unless you really know what you are doing but I think it would be my prefered choice or I could just pollish it to a mirror finnish.

dp.jpg


gb.jpg


I'm very tired from over exercising every day for the past month I'm shattered lol so will start on the project in a couple of days when i'm a bit more sparky :D as long as the aluminium sheets come tomorrow.

So hopefully I will not bore you all any further and just post pics with as short as possible descriptions whenever I progress a bit further :D.

Compliments & pointers are very welcome ;) without them the 1st time round I would not have redesigned it better so if you think I'm doing a good job once I have some actual work in progress shots leave a comment :).
 
My current hardware will be going into this when its done
enermax galaxy 1000w
gigabyte p45-dq6
q9650 @ 3.6ghz 8x450fsb with true & push pull low db fans
8gb ddr2 @900mhz 4,5,5,18 1:1 ratio
BFG GTX 285 OCX
Auzentech prelude x-fi sound card
6 hdd's out of a possible 8
2 dvd-drives or 1 dvd drive and a fan controller or blu-ray:cool:

Yes the drives will be resting on a nice thick accoustic foam cushion to seperate them from the alu as they are in my current case & only hear the hdd's a tiny bit when its busy but no vibrations, still not decided if I should clamp the hdd cages down yet because if I do that there might be vibrations going through the case. could put a window in and still have sliding side panels without obstructions, I'll be puting plenty of vents throughout the sides and back panel also.
 
WooHooo Got the rest of the aluminium today and its all in perfect condition :D
aluminium.jpg

Not quite prepared to start on it yet, but by friday I will.
 
I'd be inclined to use nylock nuts or at least put a spring washer on your bolts somewhere - they will work loose quite easily with vibrations in the case.
 
The prototype I made and using right now has pretty much no vibrations because I use acoustic foam in key spots where vibrations would occur and when I touch any area of the case I can't feel any vibrations, so fingers crossed the v2 should be good, also the bolts are countersunk with allen head and will be good and tight but if not then I could make a simple fixable revision ;) or if worst comes to worst countersunk rivets.

I estimate anything from a week to a month before it is ready for painting or pollishing as long as no major hiccups or delays for anything I might need to get come up :D.

The alu angle bars are 1/2" x 1/2" x 1/16" so you was very close Monkey Puzzle :D.
 
Woa! Just looked at those Akasa Apache fans. Finally someone has designed a fan colour that looks worse than the Noctuas! :p

Specifications look pretty good, with airflow very slightly higher than the Noctua NF-P12, yet with apparently 3db less noise, although I would like to see reviews comparing the 2, as some companies are notorious for measuring their db levels from further away to make their fans look quieter on paper.
 
Diggsy said:
I would like to see reviews comparing the 2, as some companies are notorious for measuring their db levels from further away to make their fans look quieter on paper.
Click to expand...
None of non-OEM brands advertise anything correctly. (except size and speed)
And Akasa is the last one to trust with their traditions of impotent "noise absorption" foams and acoustically plain craptacular fans like these.

And that flow rate graph... Now why there's that sudden jump in graph of normal fan? It's not like blade geometry changes suddenly.
And if this fan is so different how that same jump can still be there and exactly in same place?
Stinks like certain brown smelly substance coming out of rear end hole!

Blades look like they might be slightly bigger than in normal fans but hub is still lot bigger than in SlipStream whose blades actually sweep bigger area making airflow provedly higher:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article832-page3.html#SS-M
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article739-page2.html#yateloon


DeadMan said:
designed as a fashion statement more reflecting its military build grade.
Click to expand...
For some reason I doubt that... IP-54 isn't any military standard.
Or that it has even passed slightest certification: "first digit indicates the level of protection that the enclosure provides against access to hazardous parts, e.g... moving parts" Just how is that fan protected against accessing those hazardous parts?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_Code
 
lol I should have left the fans out of the discription till later updates but anyway.

I still think the akasa apache's would be good fans thou, I mean akasa have been around for some time and they usually only make cheap fans and this is the 1st premium fan I have seen them make, not wrong about the poor choice of colour thou lol.
I would like to see antec do a premium low db fan they make good reliable fans, I'm not a fan of noctua fans they are overly expensive especially if you want 7 of em @ £120 and think they look worse than the apache's, although either could have a light spray of preferred colour, I found the apache's through google as low as £10 with free postage, most places they are going for £14.

I'll buy 1 apache instead of 7 and see how it performs, hopefully they have made a good fan.

Those SilenX Fan Ixtrema Pro 14dBA 120x120x25 72CFM Blue LED fans I tried out a while ago died within 3 months so that was an absolute waste of money @ nearly £16 each and the led was very dim, the performance of them was very good but they were not as low as 14db must have been around 20db.

Ultimately I would like to see the 140mm fans get more mainstream so some good ones make it to consumers I'm aware you can get some already but none have great performance cfm & db wise to top current 120mm fans strangely.
 
waynio said:
Those SilenX Fan Ixtrema Pro... but they were not as low as 14db must have been around 20db.
Click to expand...
Their "11dB" is 26dBA@1m with lousy resonant materials and bad bearing making it lot worser than meter says. (and trailing edge parallel to motor supports)
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article739-page3.html#silenx
Clear bling bling plastics probably doesn't correct resonance problem and 300RPM more makes roughly at least 3-4dB of extra noise.
And their specs plain lie also in airflow.

While that design actually moves little more air than normal it's nothing close to Slip Streams level.
If you'll have fans in vertical position try Slip Streams, their airflow/noise ratio is best of fans tested by SPCR and there hasn't been anything hinting to reliability problems. (but SilenX's poor reliability mentioned in forums)
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article832-page6.html


Ultimately I would like to see the 140mm fans get more mainstream so some good ones make it to consumers I'm aware you can get some already but none have great performance cfm & db wise to top current 120mm fans strangely.
Click to expand...
Increasing weight of blade assembly is probably challenge for keeping bearing/motor noises low.
 
:D I see overclockers are now stocking the akasa apache's and at a good price:), for overclockers to be stocking them they must be good as they mainly sell reliable fans and not quirky ones that come out of nowhere, the place I thought sold them at £10 with free postage I must have been mistaken as I went to order 1 and it was £7 shipping, so ordered 1 through ebay, I'm just curious to see how good they are and if it is as great as the specs then I'll be ordering 6 more from here now oc are stocking them ;).

You seem nicely clued up about fans EsaT thanks for the input :) yes the SilenX fans are straight up lies and a con.

I have tried the Scythe Kaze Jyuni 1900RPM Slip Stream 110cfm but way too noisy for me, but I see the 1200rpm version looks a good choice @ 68.5 cfm & 24db nice price too.

Still want to try out OCZ Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound to see if it is better than Arctic Silver 5, I have heard it is.

anyway enough about fans for now, I'm off to do my measuring and marking :).
 
waynio said:
:D I see overclockers are now stocking the akasa apache's and at a good price:), for overclockers to be stocking them they must be good as they mainly sell reliable fans
Click to expand...
Don't know about reliability but acoustically this is the absolutely worst fan i've ever listened with horrible bearing noise (achievement for sleeve bearing!), resonances and also vibration and design/materials of other akasas don't look any better...
probably no one interested from noise aspect will ever use them long enough to know reliability.

i have tried the scythe kaze jyuni 1900rpm slip stream... way too noisy...
1200rpm version looks a good choice @ 68.5 cfm & 24db nice price too.
Click to expand...
any 1900rpm fan sounds like aircraft taking off from front door regardless who made it and what it says on packet.

specs are specs but 1200rpm slipstream moves same amount of air as normal fan at ~1500-1600rpm and probably more than that 1400rpm silenx with clearly better acoustics.
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article832-page3.html#SS-M
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article739-page3.html#silenx (multiply airflow by 1.27 for rpm adjustment)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom