Design your own case!

[KimberlyHulshof]

PC Designing is hard to do occasionally,

 

The starting Idea

First you want to think up the ideas of the type of case you want to make, we need to know this to know the type of material we choose to use.

 

Do you want to make a Case that acts as a leg or carrier for your desk? Alright then we'd have to use something, I'd recommend using Aluminum Square profiles for this or LDF. This due to the strength of the construction you can make - Be careful with using Acrylic panes on this design however.

I myself wanted to make a big case that would envision what i wanted, i wanted a computer case with an extreme amount of distance between the motherboard tray - 2.5 millimeters, this because i want to have the ability to use another set of profiles to make a custom HDD and SSD Mount, now will this frame look great? Yes and no. Under here you will see the Google Sketchup file i made to show the design i made. - Know i am buying 1 meter long Corner Profiles of aluminum, and for the middle frame i am using a T profile of also aluminum to be able to make a build in tray for a PSU cover. But it also allows you to use Rivets to hold it together so if something is placed wrong you can drill them out and replace it correctly, or with another piece that would be more useful in it's place.

 

 

The Materials

Now we come to what i would call the starting of a fun time.

We start to look back at what we wanted, how much space we wanted, and what for and what the case would be used as.

 

Does it need to carry a lot of weight? Use triangles in the design, or use more internal frames. This will provide stability and allow it to carry more weight.

 

Now I'd suggest using only aluminum profiles to make your case frame due to the ease of working with it. An angle grinder for cutting in size, and a drill for making rivet holes, and rivets and the rivet puller to put it together.

 

On top of this frame we can put whatever we want, you want to make a big, bulky computer with wheels under it that looks cool? Go ahead and use LDF or Chipboard due to their strengths these are okay to use, and you can use a bigger rivet inside those too, or even screws on the inside of the case into the wood.

 

But I'd advise again using aluminum, now most hardware stores in America sell Aluminum in sheets. but outside of America you have a higher chance of ordering them in size from one of them online - Which is what i am doing, this also allows you to get more precise cuts then if you do it yourself.

 

Now for my case i will need 4 pieces of Aluminum that are 670mm long and 320mm wide due to the size of the case i am making, but if you want it to overlap the case make it 322mm due to being able to use another sheet of aluminum on the back, and a sheet of Acrylic on the other side.

 

If you have a hole drill then you can easily use it to cut aluminum in most cases, otherwise you can find cheap 120mm drills on Wish or AliExpress for about €13,- so you can buy two and be sure to be able to put in holes for your fans in the aluminum sheets, now if you look at the front of my case, there is a big part of the case that is not divided, this is due to the fact i plan on putting a 360mm and a 240mm radiator in there, this is due to the fact i made the front part of the case [ divided by the T profiles in the middle ] to become a place for Reservoirs with nice looking designs one reservoir for any part of the pc you want to cool so you can pick them to have a different color. If not you can make a custom Water carrier block in it's size and put it in there for a nice design.

Things to consider:

How many fans do you want?

Do you want to put radiators and fans in the bottom next to the PSU?

Do you want to make a designed RGB plate somewhere?

Do you want to run RGB Strips? - Another point for using the Aluminum profiles, a lot come in the correct size for putting in RGB strips on the inside of them to be hidden.

Where are you going to connect your Acrylic window or glass window?

How big of a Motherboard are you using?

Do you need more cable management space?

 

The Construction Process

Now here comes everything into play we wanted to use before, and what we even designed this to be - realize that you will have less space inside then you think due to the fact you are putting profiles onto profiles! even fi they are normally around 0.5mm or 1mm think or even if you are unlucky 1.5mm thick, why is this unlucky? Rivets are nice to use but they can become expensive if you have to buy longer ones because the ones you bought were too short for the layers.

 

So now you got your parts and you are putting together your profile - be sure to use your Fans to make the Fan spaces so you are sure you use the right size, or the radiators and fans to make sure you use the correct height and width of the case and its profile. After doing this you are ready to put  your first rivets in, i would heavily instruct you to first make the Square frames on the outside and then the in between sizes just so you know that they won't be messed up due to the other things you do on the inside as you would have done the most important parts already.

 

After doing that you can work on the Outside inbetweeners, the GPU carrier & PSU shroud part, This we do now becuse this would mainly be made from T frames and connects to the middle frame for the motherboard tray and the Mid case splitter for design. It also allows us to rethink anything now and then we can order the parts of the case outside.

 

What are we going to use for the outside? That fully depends again on what you made it for.

 

Are you making a wooden exterior? Good on you, it is both harder and easier to do. Due to the wood being normally thicker and heavier it will be able to be connected to a desk or couch easier or allow you to put actual wheels under it, but it makes it harder due to the heaviness of it and because it is WAY less forgiving with leaving edges that can make it look ugly, or the wood grain coming through can break it - take it from someone who made one entirely out of MDF before.

 

Are you making it out of Aluminum? It is hard to find tools that are cheap to work with it - luckily you can use a lot of wood tools on it even though they break a lot faster. It can leave sharp edges, but with a dremel you can easily fix it. And with an angle grinder or dremel you can put in very easily some VGA slots and the IO plate hole that is in the correct size.

 

Now what could be easier to work with, but harder to keep whole? Acrylic Plates, now a lot of you probably know how hard it is to work with it without making it bubble, or having weird edges. But it is easier to cut, all you need is an acrylic knife/scorer and if you take care you can make perfect edges and holes, even in a circle if you attache it to a Geometry compass - for drawing. That way you can have a perfect circle every single time if you know how to work with one. And one could argue if you get a piece big enough, you can make the entire outside of the case in 3 or 4 pieces of acrylic plate.

 

 I myself for one

Would love to see Linus and Alex make a case like this or their own Dream case!

[KimberlyHulshof]

Update - Got my PC case basically together, now it's just time to reinforce it tomorrow, and in two/three weeks make the insides and outside done.

 

Might need to use something to put better placement for the fans as now there is some space left.

[LOLZR]

Hey, looks good!

 

I'm thinking of doing the same thing, but I couldn't think of what to use for the frame.  What did you use? It looks like aluminum, but how did you attach all the pieces together?

 

Thanks!

[KimberlyHulshof]

On 2/25/2020 at 4:00 PM, LOLZR said:

Hey, looks good!

 

I'm thinking of doing the same thing, but I couldn't think of what to use for the frame.  What did you use? It looks like aluminum, but how did you attach all the pieces together?

 

Thanks!

I did use Aluminium frames, i used a basic system of rivets to hold it together. It's hard and will take time to perfect but it is worth the hassel! I myself ended up using flooring to finish it up!