Case design! Any ideas?

[dml54]

I seem to have run out of parts and places to mod on my current system. Since I had a hard time finding the case that met my requirements, I have decided to design and build a case from scratch. Feel free to post suggestions and ideas, aslong as you don't mind your ideas maybe being used. I would like to give it full tower height and wider than a standard case as I wouldn't mind 2 x 120mm intake side by side, instead of 80mm's

 

[DerwenArtos12]

That is way too wide. have two 120's side by side will do very little as teh fan on the opp. side of the mobo will hardly get any of it's air acros the mobo. 2 120's on top of each other though is a much better idea. Also on the psu, if you are capable of soldering, I would move the psu to the top of the case and mount it on it's side so that you can have air move directly across it then out the top. If you are going to do water cooling this would also give you the oportunity to out a resivior right next to it. Do not forget that in the front make sure to bring the hdd racks all the way down across your fans so you can kool your hdds. I would put a single side intake right at the vid card hieght and another just about at the top as an exaust. since tha case is going to be tall i would like to see air coming in at the front side and backe then all out the top. I havea feeling you could get very efficient cooling out of it thius way. Finally if you are building a completely custom case then do something about your optical drives. I would hate to see a custom case that has ugly optical drinves just hangin out the front.

 

[dml54]

My idea for using 2 120's side by side was that One blows air across the motherboard and the other side would be for cooling my hard drive rack (which I've been working on and HAS to be mounted to be bottom of a case. I like your power supply idea but dont quite understand what you mean by if capable of soldering To mount it sideways at the top. I have a welder and I can use it so i would use that over solder. I could always talk to a buddy and possibly get a custom made power supply. Friend builds HAM radios and is extremely knowledgeable about anything with a power button.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

I just meant that if you wanted to mount teh psu at the top you would need longer power cables inside the case to get to drives even about half-way down the case. Just adding extensions is all that would be necessary. I like your idea of off-setting the hdd rack to one side and having a separate fanthat the major intake on them but with a case that wide side pannel fans would essentially not do any good and they are a major cooling asset. typically hdd racks can or cannot be mounted top to bottom but they can just about as easily not go all the way to the bottom, just a suggestion.

 

[dml54]

I didn't even think of needing extended cables, so I thank you there. I made a hard drive rack to cool and reduce noise. But made it to fasten to the bottom of a case, or the top if upside down. It works great, I used some old noisy drives (4) ranging from 2.1 to 4.3Gb when I was making it because it if reduced noise from them it would work for the new drives that are quieter to start with. Currently I am using two 80mm to cool the four drives so i can see how much lower temp there is, But would rather have a 120mm doing the job. I like to hear if you got any ideas about the CDRW and DVD drives though. I'm worried they will take away from the overall looks of it when its done.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

well stealthing them is the standard thing to do but it is almost futile on acrillyc casses. The minimum woudl have to be vinyk dying them to match whatever theme you have going on for colors. I would still stealth them as it still just looks better. Here is a link of a guy who did some serious acrillyc modding, maybe you can get better ideas from him. Serious Acryllic modder.

 

[dml54]

Nice Link. Thanks. I got a couple ideas from that

 

[SilverBack]

Here you go..

You can use that as a starting point.
I've been thinking of something similar, but I want it for a dual Opteron setup when thier prices go down.

 

[dml54]

The part I'm most in need of is to try to find away to make the optical drives actually look like they belong there, not just stuck in a hole. Maybe I'll just have to put them behind a door. I was thinking of a more rectangle shaped case, just wide. I like the treasure chest you got there SilverBack. Was that the lock, where you put the power and reset buttons? Great Job