WD XOI [Scratch Build] (Complete)

[Willy Dijo]

"WD XOI"

 

www.instagram.com/willydijo

 

willydijo.com

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

XOI as in "EXO-I"

 

This case is designed to be a very space efficient M-ITX system for a friend that is moving for university. Dimensions being 343mm long x 206mm wide and 283mm tall, all measurements include the bolts. The cases frame is entirely made from 3mm angle and plate aluminium, with black acrylic panels. The side window panel is not finalized, it will be either clear or black depending on how the inside turns out, a lot of the view will be the back of a PSU and its cables. The case is designed to house a reference GPU, ATX PSU, 2x 3.5" HDD's, 2x 2.5" Drives, M-ITX Motherboard, 2x 140mm and a 120mm AIO cooler radiator. The PSU will be covering the motherboard and will require a Corsair H55 120mm AIO cooler. I am looking forward to seeing how the case performs thermally, I haven't done any temp tests before but I'll post my results once complete, I'll test with my GTX 690 and try with my friends R9 290 two quite hot cards. There are two 140mm intake fans at the bottom of the system directly under the GPU, a 120mm radiator as an exhaust behind the front cover and the PSU's fan drawing air away from the motherboards heatsink. The case manages storage by having two 3.5" HDD's behind the motherboards support rails and two 2.5" drives screwed to the underside of the top panel.

 

System Components

 

• i7 4770k
• ASRock H97 M-ITX
• 8GB DDR3 RAM
• GTX 690
• EVGA 750W
• 120GB Intel SSD + 1TB HDD
• Corsair H55 120mm Cooler
• 2x Thermaltake Riing 140mm fans

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

All the angle aluminium for the case. Each length being 1 metre bar a couple being half a metre.

Hacksawed to their rough length.

Filed to their final length.

Quick system size mock-up, I've never seen at an ITX system in person but I couldn't help but "Naaaww" at how tiny it is.

 

Scribing markings at the moment, please let me know what you think of the case.

 

 

[19_blackie_73]

looks promising  

followed

[mikat]

Followed

[paddy-stone]

Following, looks interesting

[Warning]

I follow you on Insta and your stuff is great! Keep up the work!

[Willy Dijo]

Whole lot ah drillin'...

and a whole load ah tappin'

but that result was worth it entirely, I love this case a lot and its going to be hard to give it to my friend when its done.

I'm looking forward to seeing the temps when this system is running.

 

[UnlimitedTMD]

This is awesome dude, had  pleasure seeing your other builds.

Are the exact dimensions and stuff listed somewhere? May have missed them, if not, great either way

 

Looking forward to the result

[Willy Dijo]

On 22/05/2016 at 7:42 PM, Willy Dijo said:

Dimensions being 343mm long x 206mm wide and 283mm tall

@UnlimitedTMD Yeah, it was in the big write up at the top.

[ThatCoolBlueKidd]

Reminded me of a Parvum case at first glance  Very nice looking mockup indeed. 

[NighthawkBNE]

Great looking build.  Takes talent to build from scratch.  Patience too.  Can't wait to see this progress.

[Willy Dijo]

Sawed, filed and sanded the vertical fame lengths 

Looking a lot nicer.

[UnlimitedTMD]

15 hours ago, Willy Dijo said:

@UnlimitedTMD Yeah, it was in the big write up at the top.

I meant the exact, exact dimensions, with all parts and stuff, but that would be a lot of work so nevermind

[colinreay]

Wow this looks awesome! I really want to do a custom case for my high school pc club, probably out of aluminum angle extrusion (the frame for max strength) like yours. I'm thinking of miter joints to make the corners flush, have you ever tried doing these?

[Willy Dijo]

Radiator mounts and top braces sawn and filed to shape.

Assembled view of the filed parts.

Got to work on the front plate, scribed the line and used black vinyl wrap to see it better, ended up with a very straight edge.

To mark out the "WD" Logo I got the size of the final design on my iPad then put paper over the screen, marked the corners and used a ruler and connected the dots.

Then I wrapped the aluminium plate with black vinyl wrap then placed the paper over where I wanted the design then cut through the paper and vinyl...

 then removed the centre vinyl.

The negative spacing of the logo will be acting as an exhaust route for the radiator.

 

[Willy Dijo]

The H55 cooler arrived, quick test fit. After using the H100i GTX, the tubing on this is a pleasure to work with.

Started by drilling out the rough shape then filing back to the boundaries.

All filed out, these are the files I used. Using vinyl for marking the edges worked out great, its a clear marking and holds to the metal better than masking tape.

Close up of the logo.

All that's left to do is drill the holes to mount it to the case.

 

Next job is to make a GPU sag support bar, its not in the rendering because I thought of it after.

 

[tikker]

Looks great, looking forward to seeing more

[vex_dm]

Wow. Nice to see project like this. It gives me ideas for my next case. And looks awesome. Can't wait to see more.

[Willy Dijo]

Been working on the acrylic top and side panels.

This is the acrylic panels on the system, Waiting for the ITX motherboard to arrive before I can make the rear panel and GPU support, and that would be the last of the aluminium work.

[Willy Dijo]

I couldn't do any work on the case until I had the motherboard, that was the reason of the update time gaps... that and Overwatch. 

The blue turned out quite dark in this photo.

Quick test fit, I made sure the system posted also but my area was too messy for a photo.

 

Next job is to make the rear plate and GPU support, end result isn't far away.

[zombiepixel]

nice build man i really like the material you use! i just really love metal haha! 

[Willy Dijo]

@zombiepixel Thanks man, Yeah I've used 3mm thick aluminium for all my builds so far, its such a great material to work with.

[zombiepixel]

 Willy Dijo thts the golden material for me haha 3mm or go home!

[Willy Dijo]

I've been working on the last few parts of the case, being the rear plate and the PCI mounting bar.

This panel alone was a large job in itself.

all turned out as planned.

This is the GPU mounting bar. The GPU had minimal sag once installed so I scrapped the the GPU support idea.

The rear panel blocks off the on-board HDMI port and the gap between the audio ports and USB ports

The case is small, but anything is small beside a 900D.

If I had more time I would sleeve custom cables for it, however it needs to be done before the 20th.

 

Now it's time to disassemble and paint.

[Willy Dijo]

Just tried my EXO builds PSU and cables, I think I'll be using these instead.

[Willy Dijo]

Thank you to everyone that commented on and followed this build, it really means a lot. I present to you "XOI".

 

I had a lot of fun making this case, now its time for me to see it go.