Custom 12" mATX Cube Case!

[tkitch]

So I've finally finished (*mostly) my 12" mATX Cube case.  

 

Of course I recently was given a 4th gen board/cpu on an ITX Motherboard, sooo...  for the moment, that's going in this build, but sadly lacking an I/O Shield.  Cooler is a 92mm Arctic Tower Cooler (120mm towers are too tall for the build, sadly.)  GPU is a GTX 950 2GB. (Original board was AMD, so a GPU was required.)

 

The build was (vaguely) inspired by the LTT video where they built a case out of Cardboard, but it's also been a stupid idea floating around in the back of my head for a long while.

 

The build is primarily built out of 0.118" Styrene Sheet Plastic, with 1/4" Angle Styrene strips to reinforce corners / joints etc.  Side Panels are 1/8" Blue Tinted Acrylic sheet (Leaving the protective paper on until it's ready to go live, don't want more scratches than needed on it.)  Measurements are just slightly over 12" Cube.  (My base sheets of material started at just under 12" square)

 

Fans are 4x Arctic 120mm PWM on Intake, 1x Exhaust and 2x 92mm Arctic PWM Fans exhausting as well.  There's a Silverstone 8 Fan PWM hub in the back, to hook up the 7 case fans in this box.

 

Front intakes have removable foam filters (Modified, so they still properly fit the case.)  The Motherboard side of the Cube is built with (what should be) space for a 240mm Rad/AIO if I want to put one in the case (But that would seriously limit the GPU Length you can install.)

 

Power / Reset Switches are LED Lit (Reset SW has HDD LED) and came pre-wired with motherboard header pins.  

 

I have plans to mount a small caddy in the back to hold 3 or 4 3.5" HDDs, and use it as a NAS / PLEX box, but haven't built that part quite yet.  I may find something and 3D Print instead, but we'll see.  

 

Goal was to have plenty of air movement, with filtered intakes, and a (relatively) easy to build inside of box.  Considering I made up most of this as I went along?  I'd say it worked out pretty damned well.  It's a very solid build, everything works as it should, no super-glaring errors present.  Considering my most advanced tool I used was a Dremel?  It worked out really well.

 

Things I would change if I build another one:

The border strips on both sides would be a bit narrower, along with the size of the corner triangles.  (They were mostly to make sure the build was sturdy, but I probably went a bit overkill on the size.)  I might try a different method of building out the slot covers on the back (but it worked 'well enough' for what I was working with.)

 

[TetraSky]

Cool.

How long do you estimate it took you to create it and how much did it cost in parts ?
Looking at the cuts, did you cut it all by hand/bandsaw? Doesn't look like the type of cuts a laser cutter would do after all.

 

Also, I got those same cheapo fan filters off ebay a while ago. They do the job fine. Changed for magnetic filters for my more recent current PC, though.

[Haraikomono]

looks pretty slick, have you already tested it ?

If so, how are the noise and vibration levels ?

[tkitch]

1 minute ago, TetraSky said:

Cool.

How long do you estimate it took you to create it and how much did it cost in parts ?
Looking at the cuts, did you cut it all by hand/bandsaw? Doesn't look like the type of cuts a laser cutter would do after all.

 

Also, I got those same cheapo fan filters off ebay a while ago. They do the job fine. Changed for magnetic filters for my more recent current PC, though.

Bandsaw?  That's way more high-tech than I had access too

Mostly it was with a straight-edge and a sharp box cutter.  Styrene has the advantage of being really good at 'Score and then Snap'

 

Hole Cutter for the fan holes

 

Dremel and other things occasionally depending on what was being done.

[tkitch]

6 minutes ago, Haraikomono said:

looks pretty slick, have you already tested it ?

If so, how are the noise and vibration levels ?

only minimally.  I need to get the last USB adapter, and do some proper cable cleanup and such.  

 

The fans are PWM, so generally they're spinning very slowly and do not make a lot of noise.  

 

[Blue4130]

And possibly the most important question...

 

How was the macaroni salad?

[tkitch]

4 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

And possibly the most important question...

 

How was the macaroni salad?

Perfectly reasonable for store-bought.  Nothing fancy though lololol

[lpdevIT]

43 minutes ago, tkitch said:

 

 

Hi, I’m also building my own custom pc case (check it out here) and I have some doubts about your rear panel

 Where did you find exact measurements for i/o panel and pci slots?

Did you install your gpu screws? If yes, could you please post a close up pic?

The other side of gpu slot (the one without screws, at the left of you images) goes above your motherboard, is this correct?

 

Thank you for your help

[tkitch]

3 hours ago, lpdevIT said:

Hi, I’m also building my own custom pc case (check it out here) and I have some doubts about your rear panel

 Where did you find exact measurements for i/o panel and pci slots?

Did you install your gpu screws? If yes, could you please post a close up pic?

The other side of gpu slot (the one without screws, at the left of you images) goes above your motherboard, is this correct?

 

Thank you for your help

I found a PDF somewhere....  I'll have to check my work computer tomorrow and see.  

 

It was the most annoying part to find, I'm not going to lie.

 

[tkitch]

4 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Cool.

How long do you estimate it took you to create it and how much did it cost in parts ?

 

I wasn't dedicated to it, so I can't say /exactly/ how long I spent on it.  

I spent more building this than I would have buying a case.  But I kinda expected that from the beginning.  

 

Doing this isn't to 'save' money.  You will never build a case for less than you can buy a 'moderately' priced box, ever.  You do this for fun, and to say "I DID THIS!"

 

If I had to guess....  75$ in plastic, 55$ in fans, 30$ for the buttons, 20$ for filters, more for tools and other misc parts and bits.  

[lpdevIT]

4 hours ago, tkitch said:

I found a PDF somewhere....  I'll have to check my work computer tomorrow and see.  

 

It was the most annoying part to find, I'm not going to lie.

 

Thank you, let me know if you can find it

 

could you please answer also the other questions? Thank you

[Blue4130]

8 hours ago, lpdevIT said:

Hi, I’m also building my own custom pc case (check it out here) and I have some doubts about your rear panel

 Where did you find exact measurements for i/o panel and pci slots?

Did you install your gpu screws? If yes, could you please post a close up pic?

The other side of gpu slot (the one without screws, at the left of you images) goes above your motherboard, is this correct?

 

Thank you for your help

First search result came up with the atx specification pdf. 

https://web.aub.edu.lb/pub/docs/atx_201.pdf

 

This is information is easy to find.