My unconventional case

tincanalley · June 23, 2019

I thought I'd post a couple pics of my newly created case. It is unconventional as I am not like most and don't care to showcase my PC, nor do I like the floor or desk space taken by the case. To get around that I built a wall mounted cabinet that houses the computer, monitor, shelf space and top that gives plenty of space to place items (68"L x 31.5"H x 9"D). When not in use, the doors close to hide the monitor, keyboard, mouse and DVD and Blu Ray drives.

I know it isn't pretty inside, but I am working on raising the MB tray off the back wall to allow better cable management. It is a little tight in some areas, but I don't seem to have any cooling issues. The 280mm radiator sits on the bottom bringing in cool air outside while the Noctua just under the PSU exhaust case air as the PSU doesn't use its fan until it gets over 50c and that hasn't happened yet. I have also placed a noctua on top of the drive cage to aid in cooling and must fashion a bracket for it so it doesn't just sit on top. So far, so good. The case temp is anywhere between 5 and 10c above ambient depending on load. The coolant temp never goes above 40c under heavy load and VRM temp is good with the flow it receives from the AIO. All this with a 9900K running at 5.1GHz w/out AVX offset and a voltage of 1.295.

All in all I am happy with the results. We shall see how the temps are once the RTX 2080 is installed soon. The emergency use GTX 760 is in at the moment and is pretty sad. And I am dumping the Aquos LCD monitor as soon as I find the right replacement. It's a work in progress.

Crunchy Dragon · June 23, 2019

-Moved to Build Logs-

DezGalbie · June 23, 2019

I love wood as a furnishing and building material. I'm always interested in seeing it incorporated into case designs. There should be more wooden (or at least partially wooden) PC cases out there!

star_pilot475 · June 23, 2019

46 minutes ago, tincanalley said:

GTX 760 is in at the moment and is pretty sad.

Thank God you have a 2080 coming, as that would be really sad to have a 9900k paired with a 760. This looks great by the way! Maybe tidy up some cable with some zip ties, and then it should look better.

47 minutes ago, tincanalley said:

raising the MB tray off the back wall to allow better cable management.

That’s a good idea too.

tincanalley · June 24, 2019

3 hours ago, DezGalbie said:

I love wood as a furnishing and building material. I'm always interested in seeing it incorporated into case designs. There should be more wooden (or at least partially wooden) PC cases out there!

Yeah, wood can look amazing when done correctly. I'm not an expert, but I did measure multiple times, get good quality plywood with real veneer, used matching edge banding and quality stain. I'm happy with the results.

2 hours ago, star_pilot475 said:

Thank God you have a 2080 coming, as that would be really sad to have a 9900k paired with a 760. This looks great by the way! Maybe tidy up some cable with some zip ties, and then it should look better.

That’s a good idea too.

I had to physically cut the motherboard tray from an old Antec full tower for this project and it's mounted directly to the back. I see there is a company that makes some test benches that have a replaceable MB tray. The design of them means they will be about 1.5 or more inches between the back and the bottom of the tray. That would give plenty of space for cabling to go under.