DIY test bench from an old case

[Phantom329]

Hi LTT!

I'm sure many of you have seen Luke's video about building a test bench from an old case. I took an extra Rosewill Challenger case I had and created my own test bench. It came out surprisingly well though there is a bit of wobble that I will fix eventually. It took about 12 hours total although I was in no rush and I enjoy this kind of thing. I only spent about $15 on aluminum square tube and some packs of bolts. Overall it was a fun project but not for everyone. I have a bunch of experience with tools and a decently equipped shop. For anyone who is going to attempt this type of build, some advice: get some material for struts and to reinforce the bottom, the flat panel will warp without it. Also, the best tool to shape metal is tin snips although a 4" grinder is best for cutting large sections.

 

The Build:

Spoiler

1. The motherboard tray extracted and prepped

 

2. Front panel IO and buttons

 

3. Building struts

 

4. Reinforcement and feet

 

5. Final assembly

 

More pics

I would've shown it with an actual computer in it but I don't actually have any extra hardware and I didn't want to take apart my current PC.

[SlipperyPete]

That looks really good. Good work m8

[Clanscorpia]

Nice build, gotta make me one of those, I'd totally just put old stuff in it and light it up to make it look dope  Something else you could do would be to make an acrylic cover with fan holes to keep everything protected when you're not around

[CRO-Master]

Hi from Croatia
I just sign in for this topic.
i made PC test bench myself a year ago.

[lilkuz2005]

i needed an open case for easy part swapping in my arcade machine to mame conversion build, i did have my old pc in a

coolermaster storm scout v1 case, the scout case has very limited space for graphics cards, and when i tried to replace the 2

sapphire radeon hd 6870's that i was running in crossfire, with my old sapphire radeon hd 7970 GHz Edition, the hdd cage was in the way, i wasn't about to spend $50+ on a cheap plastic test bench that are found on sites like newegg and amazon, and i wasn't about to spend upwards of $100-$200 USD on a high end metal one from companies like Lian-LI. so with previously working on a custom 

control panel for my mame cab project, i had lots of spare 3/4" MDF and wood screws laying around, i had an old "junk" clear

acrylic case that was popular back in the P4 era, i robbed some parts from it, like the motherboard stand offs,the rear shroud and the

power switch pcb, after a few cuts, a few screws, and some cheap black spray paint, i now have a custom open air test bench style case that was pretty much free. best part is i can now install what ever sized gpu i want to install in my mame cabinet with ease lol