So a couple months ago, I was contacted by NVIDIA who invited me to do some live modding at the Maker Faire in San Mateo. This was a great opportunity and I couldn't pass it up! So once again I put my Cruizer build on hold to focus on designing a custom case for the event. After throwing ideas around and taking into consideration the extremely tight deadline, I came up with the idea to create a custom enclosure in the shape of the Maker Faire robot logo, using the tried-and-true layered acrylic method.
Here is their logo:
And here is the final 3D concept renderings:
The idea was to get as much of the difficult modding done ahead of time, then finish it up at the show. I wasn't sure how the NVIDIA booth would be set up, and what I would be allowed to do (dremeling, grinding, cutting, etc..), so I just tried to get as much done as possible prior to driving down.
First thing I did was to get the design finalized so I could send the files out to be laser cut. Brian at Mod/Smart was instrumental in getting this handled for me. Knowing I was on a tight deadline, he stayed late to make sure all the pieces got cut and sent out to me as quick as possible. I can't thank him enough!
In the mean time, I started assembling the base, using 1" box tubing and angle bar.
Once I got the two sides built, I added the ends to complete the box.
Then I added a couple reinforcement pieces between the two top bars.
The front would be recessed with the Maker Faire lettering, so a piece of 1/8" acrylic was cut and notched to fit in behind the box tubing.
Since the lettering would be backlit, I sanded the back side of the panel to diffuse the light, and I shot it with some frosting spray paint for good measure.
Once dry, I removed the protective coating on the front and proceeded to lay out the letters and glue them down.
NVIDIA sent me all the components needed to make a kickass gaming rig:
ASUS Rampage Gene microATX motherboard
Intel 3970X cpu
GTX TITAN video cards (x2)
32Gb Corsair Dominator RAM
360Gb Corsair SSD
Corsair AX1200W psu
Corsair H110 cpu Cooler
The Maker Faire was May 18-19, so I'll be posting up pics of the event shortly. Needless to say, I did not finish the case there, as it was too problematic to do any significant modding. The original intent was to raffle off the case on the last day of the show, but after seeing it come together, NVIDIA decided to give away a different system, and will be holding on to this one. They are planning to attend the Maker Faire in New York (and possibly a few others), so they will have it on display there and future events.
And that means I have a little more time to finish it up, which is a huge relief for me! More updates to come...