Project Clockwork vII

[The boy 4rm oz]

Those corner caps look amazing, really nice work mate.

[OvRiDe]

I think the natural angle iron looks GREAT! I can't wait to see this mod in full swing!

Nice work blue.

[DonT-FeaR]

looks great man!

[Mach]

That's awesome! I love the gear train in motion and the acrylic cubes with the rust are incredible. I wouldn't have guessed that they were acrylic.

[blueonblack]

I'd like to build a cover for my motherboard, but I'm concerned about heat. I plan to make cutouts for the heat sinks already in place, but I honestly don't know enough about how much heat the rest of the components put out to know if I should be worried. I want the cover as close to the board as possible, and there will be exactly zero air flow behind it, so I don't know. Here's my board:

And here are the areas I plan to cover (I forgot to leave a hole for the 8-pin power connector but it'll be there):

That leaves the heat sinks uncovered, and a slot for the video card, but I plan to make a cover for that as well. I could upgrade the stock heatsinks for the chipsets and MOSFETS if needed, but obviously I'd rather not. Remember also that there will be a 250mm side fan blowing on the board, and a 120mm also, with a blowhole in the top of the case.

Anyone have on opinion on heat being an issue here? Thanks!

[artoodeeto]

awesome looking mod so far! I love the aged copper and wood look, and I've used that Rustoleum paint before, it's good stuff, especially the texture it adds. For your mobo, I have mixed feelings on the cover. I doubt you'd run into any real issues, and with both those big fans blowing, some air movement will probably happen between the board and cover. Best thing I can think of is test it: if you've got some kind of temp measuring program, fire the machine up with the cover on (maybe make it out of a cheap/easy material first, like a thin MDF or something, before you potentially waste time making it out of the final material), and run whatever you can throw at it, see what happens.
In my own experience building my sandcrawler case, I'm on version 3, and I left a lot less room inside this one for airflow, so I'm constantly having to adjust it to try and improve things. the main lesson I've learned is there's no such thing as too much airflow room.
Here's one other idea: what about cutting a fan opening in the cover over the PCI slots, and putting in a similar-looking fan to the ones on the outside of the case? That'd provide plenty of airflow directly onto the board, you'd have nothing to worry about, and it'd be in keeping with the design of the rest of the case.

[Datech]

Check out the spotlight here.

[Luke122]

Originally Posted by blueonblack

...secondary 110 connection (for the water pump and possibly the lighting - still deciding whether to use LED lights or 110 lights with a dimmer switch),

I would definitely advise against using a 110 with dimmer inside the case. Dimmers create tons of noise, both audible and RF, and could cause other problems within the case.

If you really want that same sort of warmth you get from an incandescent bulb, why not use 12v automotive bulbs? Interior lights, signal lights, etc?

If I'm not mistaken, you can just run less voltage to them to dim them.. like a fan controller maybe?

[blueonblack]

Spotlight!!!! Thanks guys.

[blueonblack]

@ Luke: I was planning on the 110 lights because I found some the right size with very cool filaments that look perfect when the voltage is dropped. If I can find some 12-volts as good, then great. I was able to find a potentiometer that's supposed to be used as a volume control, would that be better than a dimmer? I wouldn't think they would use something that causes noise in a sound system?

@ arto: Thanks very much, it's finally starting to come together to look like a case. I don't have a problem testing a cover on the system, and may yet do that, but I hand't thought of putting a fan into the cover itself. That's a good thought, I'll look into it, thanks!! That has also gotten me thinking about a simple vent in the cover, in front of the big side fan. That may be all I need.