Ideas for custom case

[moonbogg]

I work in manufacturing and an leaning towards designing a custom case. I'm looking for ideas. I have access to water jet machines, mills and everything else and can make just about anything, but I am looking for some crazy ass ideas. No limits in imagination are necessary, but keep in mind I'm sort of a blue collar kind of guy with limited funds for materials, but the machining and stuff I can get done for free or really cheap, so I can get a lot done for way less money than many other people could.
I am thinking of maybe an aluminum chassis design of some crazy type, I don't know. Throw some stuff out there.
What I mean by limited funds is basically no titanium or gold plated parts etc.

 

[smackababy]

Personally, if I was going to build a custom case, I'd integrate copper tubing and radiators throughout it. But, as far as crazy, it would be a basic box. Definitely would have a horizontal MB tray though.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Personally, if I was going to build a custom case, I'd integrate copper tubing and radiators throughout it. But, as far as crazy, it would be a basic box. Definitely would have a horizontal MB tray though.

It would be interesting to see what he comes up with. For me, it had been a big project to mod a steel Compaq Proliant server case from 1995. I briefly looked into the tool needed to bend sheet aluminum. I forgot what it's called, but some units can be had from Harbor Freight. But they need to be wide enough . . . The investment there would cost you more than a top-end aluminum case . . .

Lucky man. If I had access to all those tools, I could be churning out cases like crazy -- maybe to sell a few . . .

 

[moonbogg]

It would be interesting to see what he comes up with. For me, it had been a big project to mod a steel Compaq Proliant server case from 1995. I briefly looked into the tool needed to bend sheet aluminum. I forgot what it's called, but some units can be had from Harbor Freight. But they need to be wide enough . . . The investment there would cost you more than a top-end aluminum case . . .

Lucky man. If I had access to all those tools, I could be churning out cases like crazy -- maybe to sell a few . . .

Well I don't own the shop. I'm just an employee so they might cut me a break and do me a few favors but for certain operations, like bending or rolling sheets, I'd have to pay to have that done like everyone else. Water jetting I could probably get a good break. Milling, tapping and all that could be free. So i'll design based on what is practical for me but I think I can do something fairly unique and interesting.
I like the idea of tubes etc in the design. Making the design integral and functional is a good idea.

 

[smackababy]

The tubing could serve as a structural template, most likely. And then sheet metal could be used to enclose the case.

The only problem with that is how efficient could you actually build a radiator type structure to disperse the heat. I can't recall ever seeing a PC radiator cut open. But, from a car radiator standpoint, simply having some coils and fins attached to send air through seems like it would work.

But, that entire idea relies around wanting to actually water cool your PC, which is a must for me.

EDIT: I just did a quick search and I still can't find out if the radiators in PCs are straight through or serpentine. I would think serpentine would be more efficient (as more water would be in contact with the fins at once), but I am not entirely sure.

 

[moonbogg]

I got a silly idea. What if I named the case "Planao" (Greek for deceit) or "Apate" (Goddess or spirit of deceit) and then found a clever way to hide every part. When you look in the window of the case it will look like a full sized case, but will be totally empty.

 

[deerslayer]

No free bending or rolling? You're not scratching the right people's backs. I work for a custom steel fabrication shop (no waterjet table, but we have two plasma tables). I try to keep a few people from each area on my good side for such occasions.

Even if you bought a case and put the side panels on the water jet table you could make some pretty impressive window cut outs. I really wish we had a water jet at work, but they would probably have to put up a separate building to house it. Our shop gets pretty filthy at times.

 

[nitromullet]

I've been looking into mini-itx cases lately, and there are some interesting ones out there, but nothing quite hits all the bullet points.

Mainly, I'd like a case that can accommodate:

• a full length video card
• an oversized/modular psu
• at least a full size 2x120 radiator without slim fans (would need ~80mm clearance)

The upcoming Corsair 250D comes closest, but fails on the full size rad part. ...I guess they will sell more H100i's that way.

So, here's my idea:

mini-itx case with the PSU in the bottom, the motherboard vertical above the psu, but flipped upside down 'btx' style. The case is long enough to mount a full size 240mm rad with fans in front of a full size graphics card.

The case is only wide enough to accommodate the PSU (which pretty much rules out big air coolers).

The motherboard tray is only deep enough in the case to allow the graphics to fit. Cards with heat pipes and extra wide coolers wouldn't fit. The reason for this is that SSD's and 2.5" HDD's could be mounted on backside of the motherboard tray. Plus, this would give you room for cable management (and maybe a DCC pump).

The top of the case is fully vented so the video card (which has the fans facing upwards) can get access to fresh air.

I think I've covered everything. The idea here is to go a more slim and long with the case than boxy.

The closest thing I've found to my design is the In Win 901 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811108457

Although its design goals seem to be different then mine, the layout seems to prove that my idea could work.