[Scratch Build] Wood Case

[drc00k3]

My current case was bought for less than £10 over 9 years ago so it is obviously very bad.

Although I don't have a budget, I'd like to keep the cost for a new case as low as possible so I considered building a Lego case but I soon realised it would cause many issues. So, I decided to build it out of wood because I can get it for a reasonably low price and I can build a case similar to a 900D or SMA8 without paying anywhere near as much.

 

My system specs:

CPU: Xeon E3-1220 v3

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97-D3H

RAM: Corsair Vengeance LP 16gb(2 x 8gb)

GPU: ASUS silent GT 730

SSD: 120gb OCZ Vertex 2(might be dead so I'm replacing it)

HDD: 2 x 1TB Seagate Barracuda + 2TB Toshiba

PSU: OCZ StealthXStream 600W

 

I will be building my case out of an 8' by 4' by 4mm sheet of plywood.

The case will be 10" x 24" x 30" (Width x Height x Depth). At the bottom, I will have a 6" high basement which can mount 2 PSUs, 8 SSDs, 8 HDDs and 2 120mm fans(on the top of the basement). The back panel will have 10 expansion slots. The front panel will have 3 120mm fan slots, a power button, power led and HDD led. I'm probably not going to have any front IO because I never use it. The side panel will be solid initially but I might put a sheet of clear acrylic/petg in later. Here's all the wood after being cut:

The motherboard on the inner panel:

I might post an update tommorow if I get any time, after that it will be mostly updates every Thursday because I'm building it at my Grandad's house because he's the only one with the tools and knowledge to do this.

[Mikius10001]

Following for sure. Lego you say.... I have spare parts and my son has a shit ton of lego...

[givingtnt]

noice

[aeroencychris]

Be careful with GPU support. That card doesn't look like too much but GPU sag can become an issue with cases like these (speaking from personal experience )

[★ Coups ★]

Just now, cdsboy2000 said:

Be careful with GPU support. That card doesn't look like too much but GPU sag can become an issue with cases like these (speaking from personal experience )

Good point. My GPU sags a lot in a normal case!

 

 

Also, "gud luk, hav fun!"

[drc00k3]

7 minutes ago, cdsboy2000 said:

Be careful with GPU support. That card doesn't look like too much but GPU sag can become an issue with cases like these (speaking from personal experience )

I'm either going to get a small strip of wood and drill the holes for expansion cards or just use mesh and hope there are holes reasonably close to where they need to be.

[drc00k3]

Update #1

The standoff holes have been drilled and the cable management holes have been drawn on to the wood.

Because wood can't be threaded, normal standoffs will not go in so I will be using a screw going through the hole with two nuts holding it on, then the Motherboard, then another nut. I've got back and front  of the case drawn on the wood as well.

The cable management holes have been cut:

Since this photo, I've made the drilling for the cable management holes less obvious.

[drc00k3]

Update #2 - New GPU

I found an old GTX Titan X that is definitely not a GTX 260. It outperforms my GT 730, so I'm using it.

[KSores]

looks cool. excited to see the finished product

[drc00k3]

Update #3:

The power button, LEDs and 2 fans have arrived.

Holes for fans, io, etc have been cut.

 

[KSores]

this is really a great idea! i am excited to see how this turns out. and that titian x looks beast!

[drc00k3]

It's been finished since April but I was too lazy to update the thread.

Here's an album of photos of the case and the cardboard box I used for my pc while the wood one was being built. https://goo.gl/photos/SsLEhgHeTUvFMXRc8

I'll add more photos sometime on Sunday.

Its probably the most impractical case possible, it can take more than 15 minutes to mount the motherboard, the power supply's cables aren't long enough so I had to get an extension for the CPU power cable and put the power supply futher in the case than it is meant to go so the motherboard power cable can reach, my sata cables arent long enough to reach the hard drives if they are routed properly so they have to go through an empty fan hole instead, I had to make extensions for the power buttons and leds. However, it is a very good case, it has enough room to do pretty much anything. It cost less than a low end mid tower but it can be used for as much as the best case labs cases.