Project - Air Cube v2

[The boy 4rm oz]

Personally I still like the first design better, it's more simplistic and elegant IMO. The new design reminds me of a rainbow .

[Waynio]

Bit too busy then rainbow lol, you're probably right mate, the earlier design would be cheaper to do also.

But as a last check how about dropping the 2 tone for just the light tint.

Also don't forget the aluminium might be treated to black anodise but not before giving it a brushed effect , I just keep my models in white as it's easier to model , can't see the measuring marks in black lol.

[Waynio]

Fully coloured it in to give a better idea of what I'm aiming for, showing 2 tone & 1.

Size is
235mm wide
391.7mm deep
747.2mm high at the highest point & will be a little bit higher with case feet, I'm considering Mnpctech billet machined aluminium "Diamond Knurl" case feet in black anodise, they look good & sturdy as well as being very nice looking.

[The boy 4rm oz]

I think the pattered side looks great with the the standard front.

[Waynio]

Thanks for the feedback Jase, appreciated .

Here is what I posted on bit-tech which may answer a few possible questions

I'll be putting a hole for cpu cooler changes.

The slot & lip in the top at the back isn't a handle & it's not a decorative bit, it has a function, I done something similar in the Xbox mod I done, it's basically an air duct so the air from the top fan gets guided out the rear without the need for holes in the top so sides would be added to the fan mount so it gets properly guided out, but I could change it so the lip goes away for a minimal grill, I just like the way everything flows nicely with this case.

It could house at least 6 hdd's with nice spacing & an optical drive in the bottom area & could also have a fan controller mounted the same as the optical on the back panel with hidden wire management but if I wanted to I could have 3 or 4 hdd in the hidden psu area at the front & dedicate the bottom area to water cooling but I don't do extreme overclocking & we don't get much warm weather in the UK so I don't really have a need for water cooling.
It sure is tall but that's how it is when you go more vertical with separate cooling sections than horizontal like most cases for the layout.

Never been a fan of fans in front of warm hdd's then the main components are catching warmer than ambient air, just doesn't make much sense to me, not only that but the push of air completely loses it's focus by the time it passes through the hdd cage.

The only reason it is so deep is if I wanted something like a 5970 it would fit in.
I could shrink the size a bit but I like an easy maintenance pc.

I'll sum up what makes it so tall going from top to bottom
Height 747.2mm = yes it is rather high , but the Lian Li PC-X2000F is 695mm high & is deeper & wider.
fan mount with air duct
small space
motherboard including back IO fixing points
small space
fan mount
small space
full case length psu cover
layer with grill for overflowing air from hdd's going to the psu
optical mount & possibility of a fan controller mounted in the rear.
tiny space
2x 3 well spaced hdd's with push/pull/exhaust 120mm fans
platform for hdd's where the hdd cages slide in & a slot in bar holds them in place
layer
case feet

Also it's possible for future upgrades to take away the fan below the motherboard & change it into xl-atx. Acually I'll make an xl-atx IO/pci piece, with mobo mounting holes, that way all I need to do is remove the fan .

Width 235mm
33.5mm gap behind the motherboard tray so heaps of space for good wire management.
Enough room for the tallest of cpu heatsinks
standard ATX .

Depth
Now this could be shrunk by a further 22mm or even more if I discard the possibility of the long 5970, I mean I don't have one & have no intentions of getting one but it's good to have the option .

[diluzio91]

Depth
Now this could be shrunk by a further 22mm or even more if I discard the possibility of the long 5970, I mean I don't have one & have no intentions of getting one but it's good to have the option .

lol... the 5970 is gonna be outdated. you work for AMD! go with the 6990!

[Waynio]

Sure it's gonna be outdated but are any gpu manufacturers really gonna make a longer card than the crazily long 5970?, can't find the real specs & length for it anywhere google is just mostly turning up dodgy links to bogus sites or forum speculation when I search for an AMD HD 6990.
And lol I wish I had the brains to work for AMD .

Anyway I think I'll stick with single GPU's in crossfire or sli & leave space for 12 inch expansion cards, from the 4870x2 experience I had it left the impression that dual gpu's cause more problems than anything else & see the exact same issues for many 5970 users, 5870's in crossfire though I've not experienced 1 single problem but mostly seen close to or double performance.

Progress on materials, I'll have the acrylic tomorrow .

[BS Mods]

I really like this idea. Done right, I think you could get it in a magazine.

It's a great stylish concept.

I would like to see it with some tinted acrylic and brushed aluminum exterior. I think the multiple stripes in the sides looks good too. Then you could put enough light in it to still see through the tinted acrylic.

Find someone with a CNC to cut the pieces for you so they are precise and it will look awesome.

[Waynio]

Many thanks BS :thumb:, I know this time I probably should turn to the semi-auto machine side to get the pieces done but I'll at least try 1 of the middle straight piece strips with the sabersaw, files, sanding, polishing to see if I'll be able to manage it before I properly consider CNC, dunno theres something about me that just likes to do things myself lol, must be all the spare time I have & find modding very therapeutic .

If I cut 1 or 2mm away from the lines I want I should be able to do it all manually, the middle piece is going to be the hardest to do to get the flat bars & acrylic formed into the curves I want, think I'll need to make some kind of shape former & some templates so I get it all correct.

For lighting I have a few nice ideas with hidden LED strips, subtle but good looking.

[Waynio]

Absolutely awesome, I fixed a neighbours laptop the other day, the screen was damaged so needed a new one & the hdd had spyware/adware & a trojan on it so needed cleaning up & a fresh reinstall of the os.
Ordered a brand new screen & replaced & is working sweet.
Reinstalled vista for them & got it all up to date & put eset smart security on it & made a ghost image of it for if it mucks up again so it can be easily restored.

The extra coin I got for doing this has risen my balance to the magic number so has just about enabled me to order the aluminium so I could be starting this project within 2 weeks, depends on how long the delivery takes, sometimes it's a couple of days, sometimes up to 2 weeks, but this is awesome, I was thinking I'd be lucky if I could start within a month so now it's even sooner, I'm over the moon woo hoo .

I held off on saying this until I ordered it, I'll be flat broke for a bit, but it'll be worth it.

I'm gonna need to think up a name for the project, hopefully something more catchy than the air cube this time & more distinguished & something that describes it's features, it's going to be a virtually silent running machine so that's 1 element to tie into the name.

Here's how I worked out the amount of aluminium I needed so I'm leaving myself no room for error on many of the parts so the golden rule of measure twice, maybe 10 times & cut once absolutely applies with this build .

So...

Disc sander = check
Acrylic = check
Aluminium = ordered
Name for project = thinking