I'm building a tiny case out of laser-cut bamboo

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I've been working hard at getting all of the design details worked out, and the design is getting fairly close to completion. Once it's done, I'll have it laser cut by Ponoko and will put it all together, mostly using glue, with some other hardware for the removable side panel and of course attaching the computer parts inside.

Features/limitations:

• Within a few mm of being as small in height/depth as possible with a mATX motherboard.
• Pretty small in the width dimension too (5.4" / 137mm)
• Uses a Pico-PSU
• Decent airflow -- 2x92mm fans, airflow straight from bottom to top (also, no conventional PSU to deal with)
• Large dust filter on bottom (much larger than the fans, so it clogs up more slowly and impedes airflow less)
• Enough room for a larger-than-stock, pretty quiet cooler (Scythe Shuriken rev. B)
• Designed for a slim optical drive (normal 5.25" drives are stupidly large)
• Room for one 3.5" drive and one 2.5" drive
• Optical drive and 4 usb ports on front (and nothing else)
• Power button on back
• No room for any PCI[-e] cards
• Will be running an i3 with 8GB RAM

Some pictures:

Will post more details as I make more progress!

By the way, digital calipers are the coolest thing ever, and they're really cheap! Every geek should own some.

 

[alfa147x]

By the way, digital calipers are the coolest thing ever, and they're really cheap! Every geek should own some.

Wow! Looks VERY well planned out! Keep us updated! Good luck on the build!

Also what are you planing on using as the main material? (if covered in OP sorry :\)

 

[JSt0rm]

that ponoko website has blown my mind

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Wow! Looks VERY well planned out! Keep us updated! Good luck on the build!

Also what are you planing on using as the main material? (if covered in OP sorry :\)

Thanks! The material is 5mm thick bamboo. You can see a sample and more details about it here: http://ponoko.com/make-and-sell/show-material/82-bamboo-natural

that ponoko website has blown my mind

Mine too! Also check out thingiverse. The diy fabrication scene is seriously cool.

 

[Lonyo]

I've always wanted to make a custom case, or throw some PC bits into an existing box like object and force it to act like a case, but never had the $$$ to be able to do it properly
Yours looks nice, although a lot of design work!

If you moved the HDD and optical mounting points up slightly, would there be room to put in a low profile card in the top PCI slot?
Although being PCI it might not be hugely useful, but if you could potentially accommodate it, then there's no reason not to have the option (assuming the case is wide enough), although it might not be too nice for heatsink airflow.

Also any reason you went for mATX instead of an ITX mobo?

 

[alfa147x]

Thanks! The material is 5mm thick bamboo. You can see a sample and more details about it here: http://ponoko.com/make-and-sell/show-material/82-bamboo-natural


Mine too! Also check out thingiverse. The diy fabrication scene is seriously cool.

Haha last night was well.... interesting

Totally missed the title!

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

If you moved the HDD and optical mounting points up slightly, would there be room to put in a low profile card in the top PCI slot?

Although being PCI it might not be hugely useful, but if you could potentially accommodate it, then there's no reason not to have the option (assuming the case is wide enough), although it might not be too nice for heatsink airflow.

Yeah, I think airflow would be hurt. It's certainly not an impossibility though. It just doesn't matter to me personally. (I haven't used an expansion card in years and can't foresee any reason I would want to)

Also any reason you went for mATX instead of an ITX mobo?

Money is one reason. The Zotac H55-ITX costs about 50% more, (edit: this is wrong and also irrelevant after you read below) and since it only has two ram slots, I'd have to use 4GB sticks which are also about 50% more expensive than 2GB sticks. (this part is still true)

The other issue is something I was actually mistaken about until you motivated me to look further into it... I thought the Zotac board was the only option for an i3 ITX box, and I was uncomfortable with that, but in reality there are at least 3 boards now (Intel, ECS, and Zotac). This might make me change my plans... smaller would be awesome!

edit: Also, the ECS ITX board is very cheap which would partially offset additional RAM cost. The one downside is that I could never go above 8GB.

edit: I also can't find any low voltage ram available in 4GB sticks (not a huge deal though, just would be nice).

 

[Modelworks]

Make sure you cover the grounding issues.
The motherboard needs to be mounted to some sort of thin metal so a ground plane is formed below it. Also need to run a wire from that metal to the power supply case and any drives or hard drives, normally the pc case provides that connection.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Make sure you cover the grounding issues.
The motherboard needs to be mounted to some sort of thin metal so a ground plane is formed below it. Also need to run a wire from that metal to the power supply case and any drives or hard drives, normally the pc case provides that connection.

I was wondering about that. Surely it's not required to function, because I and many other people have built PCs in cardboard boxes, tupperware, and all kinds of other strange enclosures. And can safety really be an issue when there is nothing above 12VDC in the computer? (it's using an external AC/DC brick)

 

[Modelworks]

I was wondering about that. Surely it's not required to function, because I and many other people have built PCs in cardboard boxes, tupperware, and all kinds of other strange enclosures. And can safety really be an issue when there is nothing above 12VDC in the computer? (it's using an external AC/DC brick)

1. it creates a ground plane below the board. Without a ground plane there is nothing to maintain an equal ground throughout the board except the boards own ground layers. Not a problem if the board is well designed but you never know if the designer was relying on their being a metal connection between all the points. In circuits that operate at high speeds having a stable ground plane prevents stray voltages from causing errors.

2. It blocks RF energy. RF energy is generated by the board traces, cpu, memory, chipset and other electronics in the case as well as cables connected to it carry it out of the case. That is why monitor cables have those large round chokes on the connectors. Without metal the RF energy can effect other devices near it like cordless phones, cell phones, pace makers ( you probably don't have one but it can effect them). It also prevents other RF sources like your cell phones signal and wifi signals from penetrating the case into the boards electronics and causing errors.

Fire is always a risk . You can start a fire with as little as 12 watts of power or 12vdc @ 1A. Make sure your supply has good short circuit protection, some of the cheaper mini supplies do not.

For the metal to mount the board onto you can use anything really. It doesn't need to be thick 1/16" would work and any metal will do so that all the standoffs on the motherboard can connect to it. That will give you the ground plane.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

1. it creates a ground plane below the board. Without a ground plane there is nothing to maintain an equal ground throughout the board except the boards own ground layers. Not a problem if the board is well designed but you never know if the designer was relying on their being a metal connection between all the points. In circuits that operate at high speeds having a stable ground plane prevents stray voltages from causing errors.

Ah, interesting.

2. It blocks RF energy. RF energy is generated by the board traces, cpu, memory, chipset and other electronics in the case as well as cables connected to it carry it out of the case. That is why monitor cables have those large round chokes on the connectors. Without metal the RF energy can effect other devices near it like cordless phones, cell phones, pace makers ( you probably don't have one but it can effect them). It also prevents other RF sources like your cell phones signal and wifi signals from penetrating the case into the boards electronics and causing errors.

I have some aluminum tape that I've used for RF shielding before. I was debating whether or not it's necessary for this project since so many computers these days have side windows and whatnot.

Fire is always a risk . You can start a fire with as little as 12 watts of power or 12vdc @ 1A. Make sure your supply has good short circuit protection, some of the cheaper mini supplies do not.

I have no idea how to ensure it has good short circuit protection. Even if the specs say so, it would be naive to simply believe them.

 

[Modelworks]

Ah, interesting.


I have some aluminum tape that I've used for RF shielding before. I was debating whether or not it's necessary for this project since so many computers these days have side windows and whatnot.


I have no idea how to ensure it has good short circuit protection. Even if the specs say so, it would be naive to simply believe them.

Which supply are you planning to use ?
One thing you can do is put a fuse between it and the pc. That way it will blow for sure should something go wrong.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Which supply are you planning to use ?

I'll be using this AC/DC brick power supply (or at least something very similar): http://cgi.ebay.com/150W-12V-12-5A-...ultDomain_0?hash=item5d284f82ae#ht_1129wt_909

With this PicoPSU on the motherboard: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...=130326462972&ff4=263602_263622#ht_1569wt_909

One thing you can do is put a fuse between it and the pc. That way it will blow for sure should something go wrong.

That's a good idea!

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Ugh! I've been trying to work out the logistics of mounting the drives, and the slim optical drive is just a nightmare. I've tried to look up brackets for them that I could cannibalize, but they're all expensive or inappropriate, and even if I can get the optical drive mounted, I have no idea how I could get the HDD mounted along with it (in my new tentative ITX design which is different from the one originally posted).

So I'm thinking about just dropping the optical drive altogether. It'd make the build a lot simpler, and smaller. I use Linux so I never have commercial software discs to deal with, and the few times I've ever needed an optical drive in the last few years could have almost certainly been dealt with via usb thumb drive. We are living in the future, after all...

I might as well ditch the 3.5" drive while I'm at it! 2x2.5"!

 

[nitromullet]

Ugh! I've been trying to work out the logistics of mounting the drives, and the slim optical drive is just a nightmare. I've tried to look up brackets for them that I could cannibalize, but they're all expensive or inappropriate, and even if I can get the optical drive mounted, I have no idea how I could get the HDD mounted along with it.

I have no idea if this would work for you or not, but it allows you mount a laptop HD and a slim optical drive in a 5.25" drive bay. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817994088

Even if you can't use this, it might help with some ideas.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I have no idea if this would work for you or not, but it allows you mount a laptop HD and a slim optical drive in a 5.25" drive bay. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817994088

Even if you can't use this, it might help with some ideas.

I must have spent a good hour and a half googling... I've seen that thing more times than I care to remember! Thanks for the effort though.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I was a bit ignorant on the topic before, but it looks like 2.5" drives are quite competitive with 3.5" drives these days as far as performance goes (given the same rotational speed), and they use significantly less power as well. It's quite freeing to only have to design for a couple 2.5" drives. This thing is really going to be tiny now!

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Rough sketch of ITX layout:

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

My test cuts from Ponoko came today!

These are to figure out the exact cutting tolerances so that the final design fits together correctly.

 

[nitromullet]

I must have spent a good hour and a half googling... I've seen that thing more times than I care to remember! Thanks for the effort though.

lol. I figured as much.

This is a cool build. Good luck!

 

[alfa147x]

They look awesome, would you mind posting how much that cost?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

They look awesome, would you mind posting how much that cost?

Materials $2.47
Making (cutting) $19.77
Post & Handling $8.82
Total $31.06

As you can see, cutting complexity (i.e. time) is the biggest factor in cost.

 

[alfa147x]

Materials $2.47
Making (cutting) $19.77
Post & Handling $8.82
Total $31.06

As you can see, cutting complexity (i.e. time) is the biggest factor in cost.

Wow nice find! That's not bad at all! I was thinking $75+

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Tentative component list:

ECS H55H-I Mini-ITX motherboard
Core i3 540
2x4GB DDR3 1333 (1.5v or lower) (whatever brand is cheapest)
Scythe Shuriken rev. B heatsink
WD Scorpio Black 250GB 7200 RPM 2.5" SATA hard drive
Intel X25-M G2 80GB 2.5" (transplant from current system)
PicoPSU 150
Nexus Real Silent 120mm

 

[alfa147x]

Sorry I am bombarding you with questions, how strong is the material? Are you going to need to reinforce it at all? After your build I might look into it for a NAS box