Feasibility of an Acrylic Case

[ProGearUk]

I am thinking about starting the first phases of building my first Acrylic Computer Case. I want it to be a cube case that will more than likely have a tower cooler instead of water cooling but the option for watercooling like the kraken x60 or h100i will still be there on the sides of the case. Any ideas on how to do the measurements properly or how to make it look as tidy as possible. Max I want to spend on building it not including tools is about $300. ~ £200. Any suggestions/ideas are welcome. I want it to be probably matx because it will be a haswell socket lga 1150 i think so it probably wont have any more than 16 pci-e lanes so I will only be putting the next gen nvidia card in the same price range as a direct cu ii gtx 680 4gb I will use an external sound card because i dont want my gpu to run on 8x

[ProGearUk]

Maybe have the top part of it Acrylic and have a concealed base for it, that way all of the cables can go into the base and it won't look too messy?

Thats a good idea actually. Picture this, I could have sort of a bottom area where the psu and cables go as well as all of the drives as well as a water cooling pump if there were to be one with the option for a smaller rad in the bottom. If I do all of this I will need to get thick acrylic to stop the acrylic from smashing under the weight or cracking. I could also make it a hybrid with a skeleton made from metal and the rest from acrylic.

[douchecanoe]

As said before, having a completely clear acrylic case seems good in theory, but ends up looking pretty bad

My friend has one, and we make fun of him all the time for it, because it's just so bad. Dust goes everywhere and it's so noticeable, and there is just no where to put cables without it looking bad

Things like optical drives and hard drives also make it look weird because of their aluminum colour, and there's no where to hid it behind like a metal drive cage, so they stand out

If you can figure out a way to combat that issue, then it sure is feasible. Your "basement" idea sounds like a good solution, hide all the crap you don't want down there, would look nicer than most of the acrylic cases out there already I would say

[Vanderburg]

I had one of these about 4 years ago and it wasn't really bad, but dust shows EVERYWHERE, especially if it's UV. Also, it's rather easy for the plastic to crack while screwing it together, so be careful.

[cafe]

You just have to have sweet cable tubing and lots of leds :P

AND clean it alot

[Money]

That would be a cool idea. You could really tell if they put in an effort to make it look pretty if it still looks good with nothing hidden.

[ProGearUk]

ye i am going to either get the phobya led's that can change colour or i will get the bit fenix ones for the case. I will have them lighting upwards so that they will be less visible from the outside of the case. I want to have sort of hinged side/top panels that will open instead of normal side panels but I dont want it to look goofy. Also I will need to ensure if I can to make the intakes filtered but usually filters look odd if they are on acrylic. I will at least need to filter the psu and the rad that I put in if I put a rad in. I will use a special kind of drill to ensure that I dont crack the acrylic when i am drilling.

[ProGearUk]

douchecanoe that is awesome. That would sort out my main problem because I can line up the board in that and then do my stand offs for the motherboard from that. I know a place where I can get plastic m/b standoffs but I think that I will stick to metal ones. I will maximize space in the case by doing stuff like mounting ssd drives under the motherboard tray. These may work to clip in but I think that I will stay with the metal screws and stand offs. The system will have a ton of led's in the case just to light it up and make it look better.

[Ghost]

When i was at LITS (London International Technology Show) I saw many computers with acrylic cases. The best thing though was the computers that has fully acrylic side panels only stuck down with 4 pieces of those bouncy thick doubles sided sticky things. I think a metal frame would be a good idea too, and a metal motherboard tray.

[ProGearUk]

ye i will probably do a metal frame and motherboard tray but I want to secure the acrylic securely not with the sticky things

[ProGearUk]

I could do with examples if anybody has seen any and are there any other suggestions from you guys on what I should do before I measure it all up.

[nickolasnm]

I had an acrylic case with my previous build and the temps were pretty low/cool but it was so tough taking it apart to clean and upgrade. Because all the angles were joined with acrylic corners so the structure is dependent on the sides of the case. It would be cool to see an acryllic case with a metallic structure... though you would have to use a LOW rpm drill to punch in holes in the acrylic material because it might break. Might be a nice experiment to test out :) Good luck with this though!

[ProGearUk]

I think I may have found the motherboard tray that I need. http://www.thelaserhive.com/products/powermac-g5-conversion-products/motherboard-tray/

[ProGearUk]

I had an acrylic case with my previous build and the temps were pretty low/cool but it was so tough taking it apart to clean and upgrade. Because all the angles were joined with acrylic corners so the structure is dependent on the sides of the case. It would be cool to see an acryllic case with a metallic structure... though you would have to use a LOW rpm drill to punch in holes in the acrylic material because it might break. Might be a nice experiment to test out :) Good luck with this though!

thanks I am going to get the low rpm drill soon.

[ProGearUk]

does anybody know where I can get a pci card supporter like the kind that you get on test benches so that the pci-e card slot does not have a possibility of being bent or snapping.

[nickolasnm]

does anybody know where I can get a pci card supporter like the kind that you get on test benches so that the pci-e card slot does not have a possibility of being bent or snapping.

Quick google and I couldnt find one. Maybe take one out of another case? that might be tough to find on its own.

[ProGearUk]

i guess i could

[ProGearUk]

i could use this but it is in the us http://www.pugetsystems.com/store/item.php?cat=All+Categories&id=7718&com=d41d8cd9%22]http://www.pugetsystems.com/store/it...8&com=d41d8cd9

[nickolasnm]

Oh nice! that might work for you. You might also have to go from store to store where you live to see if you can get one of those. Im sure you'll be able to find one.

[ProGearUk]

ye i may be able to but will be hard. I could make one like the ones on test benches instead with just one metal bar to support the pci cards.

[nickolasnm]

Sure that too. Just see what kind of metal to use, the measurments and which tools to cut the metal, obviously. Hope you'll be able to post some pics of the actual building process, that would be neat :)

[ProGearUk]

I sure will. I can do a build log if you want.

[ProGearUk]

Does anybody know a place in the UK where I can get a PCI backplate type thing to support my GPU.

[ProGearUk]

Does anybody know a place where I may be able to get a PCI backplate type thing to hold my GPU in the uk

[ProGearUk]

I am not to good with Google sketch up but I am sure I can learn. It will be a long process and does anybody want me to maybe do videos as sort of a build log and as a guide for other people.