scratch built Roisin Dearg (a Scratch Built "Modular" Case)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

A little over a year and a half ago, I started working on a case for a new computer to replace my aging one. Unfortunately, I ran into frequent delays due to life happening (including my toilet falling through the floor while I was taking care of business, blowing out my back) and various health issues (being a handicapped, flatulent geriatric doesn't help any). I'm finally getting back to work on the thing, which has become a higher priority since the aforementioned aging computer just died (trying to do anything I had been doing on the late desktop machine, other than web surfing, on my little notebook ranges from being a total pain to completely impossible).

 

The name of the new computer is Roisin Dearg (roe-sheen dare-ug), which is Irish Gaelic for Red Rose (actually, Rose Red). To hopefully make this the last case I ever need to build (I'm too old for this kind of stuff anymore), I'm making it as modular as possible so I can just swap out, add, or remove portions of it as technology or my mind changes instead of tearing down the machine so I can do major surgery on the case or have to build a new one. To achieve this, the MOBO tray is removable. The case has 14 5.25" bays I can put in things like an optical drive (don't laugh, I still use ODDs for ripping optical discs), a switch panel, the front panel I/O, various hot swap bays, my SSD cages (I've switched over to all SSDs), storage drawers for small items like USB sticks), and anything else I may happen to want or need. Whenever practical, I'm "stealthing" the 5.25" devices for a cleaner look.

 

The frame is made from 80/20 aluminum extrusions. The top, front, and two side panels are held on by magnets for a cleaner look. While the frame and inner panels will be all satin black, the top, front, and two side panels will be covered with a highly figured Anigre wood veneer. I'll make most of the power cables myself but they won't be individually sleeved; I prefer to hide my cables as much as possible. The left side panel will have a small, tempered glass window.

 

Also, since I live in the dusty Phoenix, AZ area and live in a mobile home that isn't exactly dust proof, I've designed the case to take a 10" x 20" pleated paper air filter which fits in the floor of the case. There are eight 120mm fans for pulling air through the filter and four exhaust fans, one in the back and three on top. I will also be putting sound deadening foam inside the case. I have it in the deceased computer and really makes a difference in the amount of noise the computer puts out. I could barely hear it from two to three feet away at my desk and not at all from further away.

 

I was running a build log over on OCN Forums but their ownership recently changed and the forums were migrated to another platform that makes posting photos a royal pain in the neck (actually, the pain is about two feet lower). Since migrating everything there over to here would be a massive undertaking I just don't feel up to doing, here a couple of links to what I have already over on OCN:

 

http://www.overclock.net/forum/15-case-mods/1602023-preparing-scratch-built-case.html

http://www.overclock.net/forum/15-case-mods/1632464-roisin-dearg-scratch-built-case-part-2-preparing-scratch-built-case.html

 

I've been ready to paint the various panels of the build and the frame for quite some time but every time my health was behaving, the weather wasn't. Today, health and weather cooperated although I had a pretty narrow window to get the painting done before it got too hot so I was able to get all the panels painted today. Hopefully, I'll get the frame painted Saturday or Sunday, depending on the weather. Anyroad, here are some shots of what it looked like today after I finished painting:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to get all the panels back into the house and everything put away before dark. Right now, my tired hurts (along with the rest of my carcass) and I'll probably hibernate all day tomorrow.

[Arkratos]

Love me some scratch builds!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

35 minutes ago, Arkratos said:

Love me some scratch builds!

Thanks. Enjoy the ride.

So far, I've slept 12 hours today. I was thoroughly whipped from yesterday (I also had to drive all over town to make sure I had enough self-etching primer and paint for the frame).

[MEC-777]

Sub'd.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

19 hours ago, MEC-777 said:

Sub'd.

 

Welcome aboard!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

First, I lied about the number of exhaust fans. There will be four, not three. I fixed the error in the first post.

 

Today, I started cutting and installing the acoustic foam to the top, front, and right side panels. The foam is 7mm thick x 17" x 18", is made by Acoustipak, and I get it from Performance-PCs. It's expensive but it works well, both by absorbing sound and by damping panel vibrations.

 

 

Normally, I would have scanned that but my desktop died and I'm too lazy to try to connect my scanners to my notebook.

 

I always like to start by cutting ou the largest pieces so I can use any scrap for the smaller piecees so I started with the right side panel. This the panel and an uncut piece of foam.

 

 

 

The foam almost fit as is. I just had to trim a tiny bit off one side. I will have to splice on some more foam at one end.

 

To install the foam, i first peeled away part of the release paper. The adhesive on the foam sticks like nobody's business so peeling back only part of it makes aligning it much easier. The foam is supposed to be relocatable; maybe in someone's dreams! As I applied the foam, I kept pulling back more and more of the release paper. 

 

 

 

 

This is the panel after installing the scnd piece of foam. I used a laminate roller on the foam to ensure the foam was firmly stuck down (it was that or play patty cake). I did get a bit of wrinkling I couldn't roll out but that won't keep the foam from doing its job and will show only when the panel is removed from the case.

 

 

The scrap from the second piece of foam was just a bit too small for the remaining panels (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble), but I hated to waste so large of an expensive piece of foam so I cut a third piece of a full sheet foam for most of the front panel and used part of the scrap from the second piece to pretty much fill the remaining space. It left a bit of a gap but it's not particularly noticeable unless you know it's there and it won't affect its acoustic properties enough to write home about.

 

 

 

The scrap from the third piece of foam was just a bit longer that the top panel and was wider, so I cut it down to fit.

 

 

Then the fun began. There are three fan holes in the top panel and I needed an opening in the foam for the fan hub.

 

After marking the fan holes with a Sharpie, I cut them out a little oversized, then dropped the foam back in to determine where the hole for the fan hub will go. I started by putting some gaffer's tape over where the hub was going to go and screw the base of the hub on so I could draw the outline on the tape. The mounting screws were too short to fit through the foam to the base so I had to find some longer screws to use temporarily. Of course, of all the hundreds of 6-32 screws I have, all were either just too short or were waaaay too long. That's why there is so much screw sticking out in the photo. The hub itself is off to one side.

 

 

After marking the outline of the base on the tape, I cut out the hole using the razor blade in a scraper (I could have used an Exacto knife but I would rather dull a cheap, disposable razor blade).

 

 

This is how the base and hub look in the trial fitting.

 

 

 

The fan hub is made by Phobya. It's secured to the base with adhesive foam strips. I'm not going to permanantly install the hub until after I install and finsh the veneer on the opposide of the panel to make sure I don't damage the pins while installing the veneer.

 

The hub base is secured with both a pair of 6-32 flat head screws and an adhesive backing (I believe in a belt and suspenders approach). Just before I cinched down the screws for the last time, I put some superglue under the heads to make sure they stayed put since they will eventually be covered by veneer.

 

 

 

I wish I had painted the entire inside of the panel even though it's unlikely that the bare alunminum around the fan holes won't show once the fans are installed but, to make sure (yes, I'm a coward), I ran a chisel tipped Sharpie around the edges.

 

 

And this is how looks after installing the foam. I didn't get the foam on perfectly aligned but, since I cut the fan holes a little oversized, it'll be fine, especially once the fans are installed.

 

 

I didn't have any scraps left large enough to do the small space under the window on the left side panel without it looking lik a major patch job so I'll let that keep until I start "foaming" the interior panels so I'll hopefully wind up with a large enough scrap piece. I have one more full sheet left but I went ahead and ordered some more to make sure I have enough (and to cover my ample asset if I make any major mistakes).

 

Tomorow, I have to finish prepping the case frame for painting on Sunday morning (probably the last morning until Fall the weather will be barely suitable for painting). That means some sanding, removing layout marks, and washing down the aluminum with 99% IPA (isopropyl alcohol) to remove as much oxide as possible (the self etching primer will eat through only so much of the oxide that naturally forms on aluminum so the more I can remove before painting, the better). I'm not looking forward to that job since the frame is so darned heavy and has a lot of convoluted surfaces and flanges.

 

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I got up at omigosh dark thirty and set up to paint the frame before it could get too hot outside. The frame will have rubber feet on the legs but, to make painting easier, I put some 1/4"-20 bolts iin the bottom of the legs to raise the frame up slightly. I started by laying the frame on its side so I could reach the underparts I wouldn't be able to reach well when the frame gets turned upright. Starting at the bottom...

 

 

...and finishing at the top.

 

 

The primer I'm using is SEM's Self Etching Primer that comes in black and gray. It's expensive but it works better than anything else I've tried. It's supposed to get three thin coats. It's hard to see if I'm getting the proper coverage after the first coat so I alternate between black and gray. Since the frame is going to be black, I started with black primer. The next coat was gray.

 

 

 

Then finish up with black.

 

 

 

After priming the under areas, I tipped thee frame upright to finish prining, then shoot (squirt?) on the color. You are supposed to use a regular primer over the self etching primer before shooting on the color but I've found Krylon Dual Paint and Primer works well directly over the self etching primer. I put down two coats on the interior areas that won't show when the top, side and back panels are installed as well as the rest of the drame, then put a third coat on the parts that will show. Since everything is black over black from here on out, let's just jump to the final coat.

 

 

To be able to reach the very top, I had to use a short step ladder. I'm now just letting the case ferment...er...dry in the sun until tonight, then I'll haul it back into the house to finish drying. It will have to set for at least a week before I can do anything else with it.

 

Since my current desktop couldn't wait until I finished the new computer was finished before rudely deciding to die (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble), I'm going to start dismantling it to make some more room to work in, then I need to build a bridge. Seriously, I need to build a frame to bridge a stupid window in my way to hang six monitors and a new TV onto. But, first, I need to hibernate for a day to recover from today (this old age business is for the birds!).

 

[MEC-777]

Looking goo so far!  

 

Moved thread to the build log section. 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 hours ago, MEC-777 said:

Looking goo so far!  

 

Moved thread to the build log section. 

Thanks! (Goo?)

 

Are you a mind reader? I was going to suggest that this morning. 

[mAs81]

Checking in from OCN m'Lady

 

Looking great so far,keep it up

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks! Welcome to LTT Forums!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I didn't get much done this morning (I'm still recovering from yesterday). Since the MOBO tray was actually a repaint to cover where I filled in the heads of some screws so I wouldn't accidentally (more like stupidly) remove them when removing the MOBO tray from the case, I wasn't too worried about messing up the paint job by handling the tray so soon after painting.

 

The first thing I did was install the grommet for the front panel, audio, and USB 2.0 cables.

 

 

 

 

The grommet is underneath the MOBO so the cables will slip under the MOBO before passing through to the backside of the tray. I'm going to install short extensions connected to the MOBO headers so, when I want to remove the MOBO tray/MOBO assembly, I can easily disconnect the cables from the backside of the tray (yes, I am lazy).

 

The next thing was to install feet on the MOBO tray so I can set it down on a flat surface, such as a desktop, when the tray has been removed from the computer for servicing, doing a test build before installing in the case, etc. First, I had to cut the screws to length (I had already drilled and countersink the mounting holes in the MOBO tray; the tray needed to be heavily modified, in case you haven't gone over to OCN to see what I had already done before moving the build log over to here). I can't get black, flat and pan head, Phillips head 4-40 and 6-32 screws locally so I just buy long ones in bulk from McMaster.com and trim the to length as needed.

 

These Waldom crimper used to be my favorite crimpers until I, first, replaced them with a set of three Engineers, then replaced those with a single Molex crimper.

 

 

The Waldom is still my best tool for cutting screws to length since it both shears off the excess length and straightens threads that get boogered up while shearing them off. To use them, I first thread in a screw (in this case, a 4-40 flathead)...

 

 

 

...then check the length using a little pocket rule as a depth guage.

 

 

My old hands aren't strong enough to squeeze the handles so I set one handle against the floor, then gently (ok, maybe not so gently) hit the other handle with a hammer. Backing out the screw after cutting straightens out any boogered threads.

 

Now is where the fun began. I tried, and even modified, several feet before settling on the ones I wound up using. It didn't come with a washer embedded in it so I had to push in a 4-40 washer into each foot first. To make sure the screws and nuts wouldn't loosen, I used 4-40 Nyloks. Unfortunately, there isn't room for a nut to fit safely between the tray and the MOBO (I'm also a coward) so I used flathead screws and countersunk the holes in the MOBO tray. The nut then needed to go into the recess in each foot. Of course, a wrench or a socket won't fit in the recess so I had to use a pair of true needle nose pliers to keep the nut from turning. Simple in theory; "challenging" in practice.

 

 

 

I had to hold the pliers with a death grip (you can see how the jaw tips are flexing in the above photo) to keep them from slipping off the nut.

 

Normally, installing the standoffs on the MOBO tray is a simple operation but the threads in the threaded inserts in the tray got clogged with paint. I had to take a 6-32 tap to the threads before I could intall the standoffs.

 

 

 

I'm using brass standoffs because I couldn't find any black ones that were 6-32 on both ends. They shouldn't show when the tray is installed in the case. Here are the installed feet and stand offs.

 

 

 

It took me two hours to do this little (yeesh!). I don't know what I'm going to next on the computer but I'm going back to bed after lunch. My tired still hurts from yesterday.

[mAs81]

You attention to detail is truly amazing..wish I had your know-how

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 hours ago, mAs81 said:

You attention to detail is truly amazing..wish I had your know-how

 

Thanks. Getting my know-how is easy; just read a lot for almost 70% of a century and have a father who was a machinist (I won't mention my college minor in Industrial Arts Education).

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I was supposed to run (ok, drive) errands today but I had a rough night last night and decided to sleep in rather than drive around with toothpicks propping my eyelids open. This afternoon, after I got my nap out, I installed my MOBO, CPU, and RAM to the MOBO tray. I also test fitted my graphics card and the CPU cooler to check for clearance and started work on a mid-board power cable jumper (ASUS has a penchant for putting power connectors in the darnedest places).

 

The MOBO is an ASUS X99-E WS/USB 3.1. The main reason I got this board was for the the 40 PCI-e lanes (effectively 64 thanks to the PLEX chips) and the number of SATA ports.

 

The CPU is an i7 5930K six cores. A four core CPU would have been enough but that would have cut me down to 28 PCI-e lanes amd I want as many as possible for possible future add-on cards.

 

The RAM is a G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 64GB (8 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Memory Kit Model F4-2133C15Q2-64GRB G.SKILL Ripjaws 4 Series 64GB (8 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2133 (PC4 17000) Memory Kit Model F4-2133C15Q2-64GRB (I cheated and copyied and pasted that here). At the time I bought these (back before RAM prices starting skyrocketing, thank God!), a 64GB kit was all I could find that would fill all the RAM slots (yes, I'm that anal) in the color I wanted (anal again). 64GB is overkill; I could do just fine with 24-32GB.

 

The graphics card is a Visiontek Radeon 7870 2GB GDDR5 6M (6 x Mini DP), 900548. I got this for hassle free support of six 24" monitors. I'm not a gamer so this card should be adequate for my needs.

 

The cooler is a Noctua NH-D15s. I prefer air cooling because it's reliable, quiet, low maintenance, and I have yet to hear of an air leak shorting out a MOBO, etc. I replaced the hideous, barf colored stock fan with a new Chromax fan and also got the Chromax covers.

 

Ok, enough chatter, it's picture time. These are shots of the MOBO installed on the MOBO tray with the CPU and RAM installed and the graphic card temporarily installed. The air here is dry and I'm having some trouble with static electricity so I'm working on a grounded anti-static mat on top of my washing machine. I'm working on top of the washing machine for now because its height is easier on the old back and the lighting is halfway decent.

 

 

 

 

These next shots show that pesky mid-board power socket.

 

 

 

 

I'll need to make a jumper cable since, with the graphics card and the CPU cooler installed, it will be completely inaccessible and the whole point of the removable MOBO tray is to not have to remove components to get at anything. I'll show the cable in a bit.

 

In these shots, I just set the CPU cooler in place just to check clearance around the graphics card, etc. then put it away for now. I also removed the graphics card and put it away for now.

 

 

 

 

I was considering making a back plate for the graphics card but since clearances are a bit tight, the card is short enough, and the cooler is large enough, I probably won't bother unless I decide to make partial back plates for the exposed front and rear ends of the graphics card.

 

After removing the graphics card, I installed the mounting brackets for the CPU cooler.

 

 

Since that mid-board power socket will be inaccessable, I need to make a jumper cable to go from that annoying socket to the top edge of the MOBO so I can easily disconnect the cable when removing the MOBO tray. I have several small parts boxes but the one below is the one that had most of the connector bodies and pins I needed. The following shots also show the tools I used in starting on the cable.

 

 

 

I have a fair collection of crimpers but this Molex crimper is a recent addition and should meet all my crimping needs except for, maybe, DuPont pins.

 

 

 

My eyes are as old and decrepit as I am (funny how that worked out) so these have pretty much become a necessity for close work.

 

 

I'm using #16 wire with the thinnest insulation I've been able to find so far. Here, I've crimped on on the female pins, inserted them into the female connector body, and shaped the wire with cellophane tape to keep the wires in parallel to make keeping track of them easier. I've also crimped on the male pins on the other end and covered them with tape so they won't snag the sleeving when I slide it over the pins.

 

 

I've never had good luck using a lighter to partially melt the end of sleeving after cutting it off so i prefer to use an old telco knife I keep knocking about just for cutting sleeving. I heat it up In a gas burner on my stove and, when hot enough, it will slice through the sleeving like a hot knife through butter, also sealing the ends from unraveling. After cutting the sleeving to length, I "slud" it over the pins onto the cable.

 

 

After supergluing the sleeving to the cable at the end with the female connector, I slid a mastic lined heat shrink sleeve over the wire and shrunk it using a small heat gun. I also slipped on a heat shrink for the other end of the cable but it's just sitting there for now.

 

 

 

The reason I haven't put on the male connector body yet is I don't have one. Of all the connector bodies I have, many of which I'll probably never use, and I still don't have a single male six pin body (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). I just ordered a few so the cable will remain unfinished until I get them in. At least I had the pins.

 

Here, I'm test fitting the cable. Once I finish it, it will get pretty much permanently installed. It's tight but it fits. There is a heat pipe that runs under where the pins are right now but the connector body will rest on the pipe so I don't have to worry about melting any insulation.

 

 

This is most of my heat shrink collection. They are all 3 to 1 mastic lined sleeves.

 

 

This is the little heat gun I have for shrinking heat shrink sleeves. it's just the perfect size for the job.

 

 

My idea of cable management is to hide the cables as much as possible. That means one sleeve per cable instead of individually sleeving each wire in a cable. Some of the cables I'm going to be making will be ribbon cables so I can slip them between the MOBO tray and the plate the tray will be mounted on.

 

And it is past my supper time so now is a good time to shut up.

[Professor Dingledore]

As a Scot I support any build that uses a Gaelic name lol. Although in Scots Gaelic it would be Ròs Dearg I think. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

10 minutes ago, Professor Dingledore said:

As a Scot I support any build that uses a Gaelic name lol. Although in Scots Gaelic it would be Ròs Dearg I think. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

Welcome aboard the crazy train!

[mAs81]

Finally , some hardware,lol

Good job on the cable sleeve , nicely done 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Thanks!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I ran my errands today and picked up some 1/2" aluminum round bar stock while I was at it to make a bracket to prevent graphics card sag. Even as short as my card is, I didn't want to take chance on sag over time damaging the card or, worse, the PCI-e slot it's plugged into.

 

I needed to make some kind of a platform to bolt the round bar to. I had thought about using a scrap of 1/16" x 1/8" angle since I had a bunch of it left over and use it to support a platform made from 1/16" sheet stock which I also have a bunch of left over. However, that would have to be braced and was starting to get complicated in a hurry. After digging through my scraps some more, I came across a piece of 1/4"  x 1" bar stock. If the angle was stong enough, I wouldn't need to worry about sag. I thought I had some 1/8" x 1/2" angle but couldn't find it. I did, however find some 1/8" wall 1/2" x 1/2 channel the 1" bar stock would fit into tightly (as in hammer in tightly). I also could use the same bar stock to back up the channel to provide bracing for it.

 

Now that a plan had finally gelled in the one working brain cell of my remaing three, since there was't any thing on TV, I started cutting up (the aluminum, that is). These are the first two pieces.

 

 

I didn't worry about getting them both exactly the same length since I could trim the ends off after putting them together. This shot shows how they are going to be put together (the piece of angle behind them was to help align them more accurately).

 

 

I used some .006" 3M VHB tape (the strongest tape i've ever encountered) to hold the two pieces together while drilling the mounting screws. Here I've put the tape on the back of the channel.

 

 

That tape grabs and holds like nobody's business. Here is what the two pieces look like after sticking them together.

 

 

Note how the bottom piece is a bit longer than the channel. Time to head back to my little bandsaw. Below is how it looks after I trimmed a bit off the ends.

 

 

 

It was one "heckuvalot" easier to do it this way than it would have been to try to get both pieces exactly the same length and then stick them together with the ends exactly lined up.

 

I needed a couple of mounting holes for 6-32 screws to fasten the pieces to the MOBO tray. Laying out those holes was "challenging" since the screw heads were the same diameter as the width of the inside of the channel so the holes had to be centered exactly inside the channel. Adding to the "fun" was I was going to use two existing threaded holes on the MOBO tray (they were there for use with XL-ATX MOBOs) to mount the pieces so they had to be the exact distance apart. I got around the problem of centering the holes in the channel by using a 1/4" countersink to start the holes since it just fit inside the channel.

 

 

I used a pair of dividers to find the spacing between the threaded holes on the MOBO tray. That part had me nervous as a squirrel in a dog park since I had to get it right the first time since I didn't have enough 1" bar stock left over for a do over. I got lucky (or God took pity on me) and got it right.

 

Since it fit correctly, I went ahead an "prettied" it up a bit by radiusing some of the corners. It took a fair amount of filing and, if you read what I had already written over over on OCN, you would know just how much I love filing.

 

 

At this point, i got wrapped up with what I was doing and forgot to take pictures (sorry!). I rounded the end of the 1" bar stock y nibbling at it with my bandsaw, then filed away on it to smooth it out. I then drilled and countersunk the mounting hole for the 1/2" round bar stock. After "gently encouraging" the 1" bar into the channel with a framing hammer and a block of wood to keep from dinging up my filing job, I drilled and countersunk the first hole, then tapped it for a 6-32 flat head screw to make sure the bar stock would stay put. I waited to do the second hole until after I finished with the first hole andd installed the screw to make sure nothing shifted while drilling the second hole.

 

Tapping was fun since I had to go through 1/2" of aluminum. It's easy to break small taps so I was as nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I took my sweet time and used plenty of tapping fluid (Tap Magic). I started with a starting tap but ran out of threads on the tap before running out of aluminum to tap so I had to switch to a bottoming tap to finish up. Once I had the screw cut to length and installed, I did the second screw hole.

 

I cut a piece of the 1/2" round bar to length and drilled a hole on the center of each end and tapped them for 6-32 screws. Again, I had to use both starting and bottoming taps. I had decided to use one of the same rubber feet I used on the MOBO tray (I had to buy a package of ten to get the four I used) on the end of the round bar that was going against the graphics card.. I didn't want to use a 4-40 screw to secure the rubber foot to the round bar because I was worried about tapping such a deep hole might break the tap so I tried embedding a 6-32 washer into the foot. It took a few tries but I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to do it.

 

OK, enough yakking; it's time for some photos of the finished bracket.

 

 

 

 

 

Hopefully it won't get in the way of any other cards I put into the computer. If it does, I can easily remove by removing two screws, then head back to the drawing board.

 

I needed to take it off and apart for painting so I took a few snaps before taking it apart.

 

 

 

 

Here it is disassembled for painting.

 

 

The round bar will get painted blue and the rest, black.

 

And as the pig says, th-th-th-that's all folks!

[TekRed]

Looks good but why not get a support braxket? Seems like it would be a lot easier with less clutter, they sell for around $10 USD so pretty cheap too

[Arkratos]

V1tech also offers custom ones.  However I do like the look and feel of yours more.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

4 hours ago, Tekred said:

Looks good but why not get a support braxket? Seems like it would be a lot easier with less clutter, they sell for around $10 USD so pretty cheap too

Because every support bracket I've seen up to now blocked the two PCI-e brackets below the card. This one, however, only blocks one PCI-e slot so it may be worth looking into (or I might try to make one like it). Can you post a link to the one in the picture you posted? Never mind, I found a similar one in blue.

 

Thanks for pointing this out to me!

 

I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the one you pictured since I can easily shorten it to better fit the length of my card. If it works out, I can always repaint it. Thanks for putting me onto this. Now I guess I'll just put the one I made back together and put it into storage in case I decide to use it in the future for whatever reason.

Edited May 31, 2018 by Lady Fitzgerald

[Lady Fitzgerald]

22 minutes ago, Arkratos said:

V1tech also offers custom ones.  However I do like the look and feel of yours more.

Thanks!

[Voxels-Box]

Great progress!  I appreciate the effort and design of your custom brace.  Excellent work!