3D Printed ATX Case - Designed From Scratch

[suit1337]

1 minute ago, James Evens said:

ABS has completely different material properties. One major difference is ABS turns white when stress is applied.

Of course, but i'm not talking about mechanical properties, that occur under standard conditions when you deform it plastically or elastically

i'm talking only about the fact that FDM printers use thermosoftening polymers that have a glass transition temperature which turns them soft before they melt

a pc produces heat, and if your internal case temperature exceeds the glass transition temperature of the polymer, it will start to deform and probably warp the case or even shift the layers, which will cause layer separation of the finished print - thats why FDM printers for certain materials use heated chambers or heated beds to prevent this happening during the print process

to minimize this issue you can either use a polymer with higher transition temperatures (like ABS or PETG) which sometimes require a different printer, especially ABS does not like to be printed open, you'll rather use a heated chamber for that, while PETG is a bit more forgiving - or you eneal the part afterwards to better fuse the layers together

but no matter what you do: if you heat it up again, it will get soft 

[suit1337]

19 hours ago, James Evens said:

ABS is more then fine. PETG should also be fine. There is little chance that your case reaches 80 °C inside.

The overall Temp won't reach such high temperatures - but there could be hotspots, typically right below the CPU or VRMs, those could very easy exceed 100°C  - thats why it is smart to - at least - manufacture the mainboard carrier/tray out of a different material or make ventialtion cutouts

 

19 hours ago, James Evens said:

Btw. eneal is shit unless you spend a lot of time on software simulating the process/predicting deformation and adjusting the original print files.

enealing is pretty easy if you pack your parts in fine grain salt or plaster, basically no warping/deforming at all - what you should avoid is open-enealing though

CNC Kitchen has a good video about this topic:

i've used this technique multiple times so far (on smaller parts though) that had issues with layer separation (due to mechanical stress though)

[Ωhmbreon]

Little case is done! I definitely didn't finish it a while ago and forgot to put it here.

 

[Ωhmbreon]

I built a system in it too, of course. It was good to do a test case like this, especially because I need to improve a lot. These parts don't run hot enough to reach the glass transition temperature of the PLA, so it should be fine, with exception perhaps of that hard drive cage which I lazily mounted via friction to the heatsink because I was lazy and it looked like a good spot. I'm not going to paint it since it was difficult to assemble and I don't want to disassemble it. I also need to add a power button.

 

If you're interested in the specs:

i5-6600T

16GB DDR4

GTX 1650 Super

1TB HDD + 240GB SSD

[Ωhmbreon]

I did see the discussion on different materials and methods. Right now, I only have access to a 3D printer. As much as I'd love to use a waterjet or CNC of some kind, I can't. The maker's spaces with them are closed and I am far away from school.  I have made a pc case before with the help of a plasma cutter a couple years ago. It was my first custom case, so quality is meh. If you would like to see it, it is here:

 

As for materials besides PLA, I'll look into them and choose. The final case will be be a mix of PLA and other materials since PLA is cheap and I am decent at printing with it. I do need to do a complete redesign of the case to be able to print it in pieces, as a monolithic print will most definitely fail.

 

[Ωhmbreon]

I had a realization that it would be the best idea to just cut off the motherboard tray from an ATX case and use that as a base. Less technical stuff to print and guaranteed not to melt or deform from the heat of a processor and graphics card and such.

 

As for hardware, I couldn't get a 3080 or a 3070, so I got a 3060 Ti Founder's Edition (which is broken... but at least I have it and can RMA). That means the case can be smaller. Not sure how I'll fit a 420mm radiator in now.

[Kilrah]

A 420mm radiator is massive overkill for just a CPU.

[Ωhmbreon]

On 12/4/2020 at 4:03 PM, Kilrah said:

A 420mm radiator is massive overkill for just a CPU.

I know. I have one and it was making sense when I was planning on having an excessively large gpu. Now that I have one about as long as an ATX board, I'm reconsidering since I want the case to be compact, and a radiator with a total length of 450mm doesn't really fit in with "compact."

[Ωhmbreon]

I bought a 280mm radiator. It's a be quiet! Pure Loop and it's quite excellent despite being quite cheap compared to other 280mm radiators. Fit my system perfectly with the white led ring and aluminum on the block. I'll likely change out the fans for something different, though. to better fit the color scheme. The orange on the sticker of the fans is distracting. I also got 16GB more RAM since I ran out while doing other 3D modeling. 4 slots filled looks nice.

 

I worked a little more on the case tonight. Just putting holes so fans can be fans, and a slot for the radiator tubes to fit in. I also added a shroud for the front of the case to make it look better and reduce noise slightly. I'm thinking for the holes in the shroud I'll use a patterns with triangles or rectangles. I need to do a bit of a study on what patterns will match the design language of the parts in the system. I'm thinking triangles may not fit well, but I need to do more work. I am also going to put a "cap" on the top and bottom of the case to hide the fans and elevate the bottom intake fans. This will increase size, but they will also be removable, The front shroud will likely also be removable. I do need to find a place to put front I/O and the power button as well.

[Ωhmbreon]

I decided on rectangles as the shroud for vents. Triangles didn't fit and rhombuses didn't work well enough. I also added a base to elevate the case for the bottom intake fans, which will be doing a majority of the work putting air into the case. The front panel has limited vents to help suppress noise and have a nice clean look and to cover the power supply intake and somewhat awkward looking placement of the front fan. I also added a short cover to the top of the case to cover the fans and the tabs that will support the sidepanels. The sidepanels will slide in from the top and be held in by two screws. 

 

I also did various minor improvements to help make it look better and improve compatibility. 

 

 

[Ωhmbreon]

This is still a thing and I have printed a few parts so far. I've gotten quite busy so I just haven't had too much time.