SteamPunk Wood Case project

Conan257 · 15 Mar 2009 at 16:11

Seen these wooden pine boxes in B&Q for a while now, and since they were only a tenner I thought i'd pick one up and see what it can be...

Its a plain pine box, 400mmx300mmx230mm... Big enough for a matx board to fit in with full size psu.. Just hoping I can fit some water in there too!

Currently no space for hdd's or optical drives or pump/res... I'm sure I can fit them in somewhere though...

Hopefully get some better sketches done while the rugby is on...

MumboJumbo · 15 Mar 2009 at 16:16

Get another box to house all the water stuff and link them via the tubes

mjones1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 16:18

That would be silly to cram in all that all in.

Conan257 · 15 Mar 2009 at 16:31

mjones1 said:
That would be silly to cram in all that all in.

Isn't that the point?

Its a lovely small box that would be great to fit some high-end hardware in...

Debating making one of the radiators passive so i'll have more space for pump and res...

All I need is a sponsor

mjones1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 17:35

If your gonig to get a sponsor and but high end stuff in get a better box as the one as the you are using is cheap (Use your current one to hold all the red, pumps etc.

Conan257 · 15 Mar 2009 at 18:01

Was kind of joking about the sponsor bit tbh...

Updated the Sketch a bit... some brass panelling and changed the wood colour, turned out a little more red than i'm planning on, but plenty of time to play with that...

Cant see from that angle, but i'll have 2 slimline optical drives underneath the bottom panel... Like so:

mjones1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 18:16

You can only have them under there if you have some feet at the bottom to keep it stable and protect the dvd rw.
What will the specs be?

Conan257 · 15 Mar 2009 at 19:02

I was trying to model some feet earlier, with great difficulty...

i'll probably get some brass feet from fleabay..

It will either sit around my tv as an htpc, or will replace my 180 mini as my gaming machine... not sure yet...

mjones1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 19:08

Make a circle, pull/push it then cover it with metal.
A wooden box under a tv would look odd so use it as your gaming machine.

Conan257 · 15 Mar 2009 at 19:31

Was trying something a bit more adventurous than that, but it'll have to wait... Feet design doesn't matter as I wont be making them, i'll be buying some.

Managed to fit the 2 hdd's underneath the case with the 2 optical drives.... That leaves me attempting to fit the watercooling inside. Little worried about air-in as well, got 4 fans extracting, as well as the PSU... So I reckon i'll need at least 3 120mm with a decent cfm, and run the extraction fans at a lower cfm to account for the difference.

mjones1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 20:16

You need two boxs for sure if you want a triple rad in there.

mjones1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 20:19

If i have some spare time tomorrow i will quickly do a basic sketch up for that it should look like.

Conan257 · 15 Mar 2009 at 20:19

Got 2 120.2 rads in at the moment.... All fans fitted and it seems to fit fine on the model...

Just working out on squeezing the pump/res in at the moment...

mjones1 · 15 Mar 2009 at 20:39

You would need a res/pump combo for sure, you will need a modular psu for sure, what type of mobo will you be going for?

Conan257 · 15 Mar 2009 at 21:36

It will only fit mAtx mobo's.... Which isn't a problem since I only buy matx boards....

Probably aim for a DDC with res top, still not sure where its going to fit...

mjones1 · 16 Mar 2009 at 18:17

Mount rad on the back of the case.

Conan257 · 17 Mar 2009 at 16:51

Small update, quick render of the case open and closed...

Blocks at the bottom give a rough sizing for feet, allows air to circulate over drives underneath the case...

Monkey Puzzle · 17 Mar 2009 at 16:57

Nice idea - Is there any clearance between the fans on the radiator and the psu though? and where are you going cut to allow fresh air to come into the case?

It might be easier rotating the radiators round 90 degrees if you can (so tubing is at the hinge end) so you don't need a massive loop of lax tubing to allow the lid to open.

Conan257 · 18 Mar 2009 at 01:54

Yeah, tubing will have to go to the hinge to make it easier... Rads wont go that way around, but I can route the pipe that way easily enough...

There is no clearance between PSU and 1 fan... But its only a very small percentage of that fan that is over the psu...

I think I can fit 3 intake fans, I'll model those in the next few days.

JayMax · 18 Mar 2009 at 21:01

How about routing the tubing externally to show the steampunk 'old tech achieving modern tech results'?
And would save you internal space.
Maybe even copper pipe?

(disclaimer: be careful of mixing copper and aluminium)