Making My Own PC Case

[Orangeator]

Hypothetically would the case I am suggesting work? I need to make more precise measurements and the fans won't be that close together as they aren't that big (4, 140mm on top and bottom is the plan). But as a concept would this work well? I have a CNC machine so I can cut any material (thinking Oak with a nice finish) out perfectly with inhuman like precision. I'll have my dad do the measurements and draw it... Etc (he built the CNC machine himself). in AutoCad. Just would like your guys input. I drew this up in like 3 minutes after finishing my Physics class. So basically the motherboard will be laying flat down on a "floating" middle piece of the case. Air being blown around the edges from the bottom and blown out from the top. It's practically a big square, it will be much shorter then a standard desktop case but much wider (obviously).

[Archeval]

it's a neat concept, the concerning thing would be how the fans would mount to the case. would they slide into a cage to make them easier to insert/remove? would they have mounting brackets on the bottom for them to fit into and screw in? and i would say you would need a good 1/4 in. to 1/2in gap between the case and the ground so that may get in the way of the fan mounting depending on how it's setup.

 

many details to iron out but it could be neat in the end. especially if you can manage to put in dust filters somehow.

 

also if you have the air flowing up you would be overpowering the CPU cooler's fan and it won't cool as effectively i would recommend having the air flow down instead of up so your CPU fan wouldn't be fighting the case fans. unless you're going to have a passive cooler on top of the CPU then this is all moot

[Orangeator]

15 minutes ago, Archeval said:

it's a neat concept, the concerning thing would be how the fans would mount to the case. would they slide into a cage to make them easier to insert/remove? would they have mounting brackets on the bottom for them to fit into and screw in? and i would say you would need a good 1/4 in. to 1/2in gap between the case and the ground so that may get in the way of the fan mounting depending on how it's setup.

 

many details to iron out but it could be neat in the end. especially if you can manage to put in dust filters somehow

Edit:  also if you have the air flowing up you would be overpowering the CPU cooler's fan and it won't cool as effectively i would recommend having the air flow down instead of up so your CPU fan wouldn't be fighting the case fans. unless you're going to have a passive cooler on top of the CPU then this is all moot

1. I am thinking mounting holes, like pre-drilled in holes in the material (might be metal might be wood) and just screw in and out the fans.

2. Their will be fan filters on the top and bottom. The top and bottom fans will be inside the case. Filters will be covering the exhaust and intake from the outside.

 

Yes many many details to iron out, but my dad will help with the majority of it, I just need to tell him/give him an idea of what I am trying to accomplish. The PSU mounting is the big one I am worried about. I am thinking of having like a cage that is permanently attached to the back of the case and the the bottom of the motherboard platform. That way I can easily slide a PSU in and out with just a few screws to unscrew from the outside which will hold it in place.

 

Edit: I am thinking of having like an after market CPU cooler that has that shape as most stock coolers that come with CPU's. You know the ones that blow upward from the motherboard? Something like this: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835608071&cm_re=cpu_cooler-_-35-608-071-_-Product

[VVoltor]

Interesting design! If you want to build your own case and have the ability to do so, definitely go for it! I'll be following this thread for sure.

My concern would be turbulence inside the case, because of the mobo blocking most of the airflow. You'll have 8 fans (and PSU, CPU and GPU cooler fans) but because of that they might not be super effective. (Also, that's a lot of fans, are you using AMD or something? )

I'm no expert in airflow dynamics though. It just seems to be more logical to have the fans on the side, like some HTPC cases do.

 

 

Edit: I'm not sure, but I thought CPU coolers like that Noctua blow air down, no idea how mounting the fan upside down affects temperatures, maybe see if someone on the forums can test that?

[Orangeator]

15 minutes ago, VVoltor said:

Interesting design! If you want to build your own case and have the ability to do so, definitely go for it! I'll be following this thread for sure.

My concern would be turbulence inside the case, because of the mobo blocking most of the airflow. You'll have 8 fans (and PSU, CPU and GPU cooler fans) but because of that they might not be super effective. (Also, that's a lot of fans, are you using AMD or something? )

I'm no expert in airflow dynamics though. It just seems to be more logical to have the fans on the side, like some HTPC cases do.

Edit: I'm not sure, but I thought CPU coolers like that Noctua blow air down, no idea how mounting the fan upside down affects temperatures, maybe see if someone on the forums can test that?

We are in the same boat here, I have no idea how airflow in such a case would work. That is one of the main reasons I am posting, I would like opinions on it. There will be substantial gaps on three sides of the motherboard with small "support beams" to hold the platform in place. So my thought process was to have the bottom fans at a higher rpm then the top fans. That way their will be positive air pressure in the case. However, I could be terribly wrong on this, so anyone with a bigger brain then me, let me know.

 

Again, the idea of this case isn't entirely for the absolute best performance but rather the looks and unique design. That is way I am certainly considering to at least have the shell made entirely of oak or some kind of high end wood with a nice grain pattern then put a nice finish on it.

 

Edit: Oh yes I believe you are right. These coolers push air through the fins and onto the motherboard. With the fan setup this case will have I believe it won't be a problem as (I think) there should be a lot of airflow pushing the hot air (and sucking) inside the case, out. Also about your AMD comment, YES! This will be a Ryzen build. So I might engrave on the front panel of the case the logo of Ryzen. @VVoltor

[Paradine Sage]

If you have the fans blowing upwards then you should have the CPU facing the bottom of the case, which means hanging the cooler at a 90 degree angle to the bottom. This also means that you can't support the motherboard as well as you would otherwise be able (the board is hanging off the standoffs as opposed to pressing into them).

 

Probably should look at making the bottom fans exhaust pulling air out of the case while the top fans are intakes. You would want to run the bottom fans slower to ensure positive pressure but it should work better that way.

 

The other problem with doing things like you are is that heatsinks are generally optimized for blowing air across them at a 90 degree angle to the CPU and not straight down on the top. If you want the board sitting horizontal then you might want to think about watercooling, 

 

If you are making a custom case then you can do some truly wicked things with water cooling and cable management. Things like insetting the tubing into the side of the case. Or the great fun that is pre-tubing your whole loop in copper and then using relatively short pieces of soft-tubing to go from the in-built system to the waterblock.

 

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If you are doing custom case work then generally the only limits on what you can do in a system are your desires and your budget.

[Orangeator]

12 minutes ago, Paradine Sage said:

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If you are doing custom case work then generally the only limits on what you can do in a system are your desires and your budget.

I'd prefer to go air rather then water personally as it's what I am comfortable with. Also my budget cannot afford water cooling. I would like to make a case as my dad has offered to help me, so if you have any neat ideas I would honestly love to hear them. Even though it's not practicle I would like to have the motherboard in a non standard position. Just to give the case a unique look to it. Again, my dad built his own cnc machine in modeling software, whatever you can imagine he can make. Not just in software but now that we have the cnc machine... In real life. Lol.

[Archeval]

what you could do is mount the motherboard vertically, same with the PSU and have them both passive cooled making sure the fins for the coolers also run vertically so that you would get the most effective cooling from your fins

[Orangeator]

1 hour ago, Archeval said:

what you could do is mount the motherboard vertically, same with the PSU and have them both passive cooled making sure the fins for the coolers also run vertically so that you would get the most effective cooling from your fins

The idea is not to mount the motherboard vertically. That is the point of the case. Lol. I need help figuring out a way to effectively cool the GPU and CPU (air, not water) while the motherboard is laying down.

[Archeval]

10 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

The idea is not to mount the motherboard vertically. That is the point of the case. Lol. I need help figuring out a way to effectively cool the GPU and CPU (air, not water) while the motherboard is laying down.

then i would suggest having 2 fans side-by-side on 2 sides of the case instead of 4 on the bottom and top, this way you wouldn't have to fight against the parts themselves to get good airflow, i would still say passive would be a good idea, and you would be left with something that looks like this..

 

 

[Orangeator]

7 minutes ago, Archeval said:

then i would suggest having 2 fans side-by-side on 2 sides of the case instead of 4 on the bottom and top, this way you wouldn't have to fight against the parts themselves to get good airflow, i would still say passive would be a good idea, and you would be left with something that looks like this..

 

 

Oh okay, I see what you are saying. Thanks! Now here is the question of the day... What kind of fans should I use for intake and what kind of fans should I use for exhaust.

[Archeval]

2 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

Oh okay, I see what you are saying. Thanks! Now here is the question of the day... What kind of fans should I use for intake and what kind of fans should I use for exhaust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdx9U-KW038

[Orangeator]

39 minutes ago, Archeval said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mdx9U-KW038

So static pressure fans as intake and high cfm fans as exhaust?

[Archeval]

i don't see why not

[infinitymdm]

@OrangeatorI saw your original design, and I thought to myself, there must be a better way. I know side mounted fans would be ideal, but just for the sake of why not, I drew this up real quick. 

 

EDIT: Sorry for my handwriting.

[infinitymdm]

Also, a tip when machining your own components: you can always take more material off, but you can't put it back on once it's removed. So my advice would be to make all cuts ever so slightly larger than they need to be. If you have too much material to fit the parts together after the first cut, you can take some off by hand. But if you have too little material and it doesn't fit together snugly, you have to make an entire new side panel, or motherboard  bracket, or whatever. And like you said, you have a limited budget. 

[Orangeator]

1 hour ago, infinitymdm said:

@OrangeatorI saw your original design, and I thought to myself, there must be a better way. I know side mounted fans would be ideal, but just for the sake of why not, I drew this up real quick. 

 

EDIT: Sorry for my handwriting.

 

Very interesting design! I'll make a couple models of different concepts out of cheap ply wood and see how the airflow works inside the case. Thanks for this.

[infinitymdm]

Another thought: how are you going to hide cables? Are you going to cut holes in the mobo braces, or go around the braces, or what? You could adapt @Paradine Sage's idea by insetting wiring into the braces. 

On 1/20/2017 at 1:31 AM, Paradine Sage said:

If you are making a custom case then you can do some truly wicked things with water cooling and cable management. Things like insetting the tubing [or wiring] into the side of the case.

[infinitymdm]

And there is also the question of what to do with all the leftover space inside the chassis. If you were watercooling, it might be radiator space, but you aren't watercooling. 

[Archeval]

On 1/20/2017 at 7:02 PM, infinitymdm said:

@OrangeatorI saw your original design, and I thought to myself, there must be a better way. I know side mounted fans would be ideal, but just for the sake of why not, I drew this up real quick. 

 

EDIT: Sorry for my handwriting.

the only problem i can see with this design is that the GPU blower might cause unwanted turbulence and vortexing in the case

[infinitymdm]

10 hours ago, Archeval said:

the only problem i can see with this design is that the GPU blower might cause unwanted turbulence and vortexing in the case

Yes, I think you may be right. But, theoretically, the pressure equilibrium in the case - with the left half having positive pressure and the right having negative pressure - should help prevent turbulence, shouldn't it? I'm no expert, but that seems to make sense to me. But I could certainly be wrong. 

[Archeval]

it depends on how much air is going through and how forcefully, if the air is going through forcefully enough it may overpower the effect of the blower. I believe that it would still cause turbulence but the effect would be minimized.

[infinitymdm]

1 hour ago, Archeval said:

it depends on how much air is going through and how forcefully, if the air is going through forcefully enough it may overpower the effect of the blower. I believe that it would still cause turbulence but the effect would be minimized.

If that's the case, this might be an optimal opportunity to take advantage of passive cooling. The GPU will still block airflow, but there doesn't seem to be a way to get around that. 

[Archeval]

1 minute ago, infinitymdm said:

If that's the case, this might be an optimal opportunity to take advantage of passive cooling. The GPU will still block airflow, but there doesn't seem to be a way to get around that. 

if that's the case then you would probably have to plug in a PCIe riser to orient the GPU in a that wouldn't restrict airflow as much and add some complexity to the case

[infinitymdm]

1 hour ago, Archeval said:

if that's the case then you would probably have to plug in a PCIe riser to orient the GPU in a that wouldn't restrict airflow as much and add some complexity to the case

I don't think you would necessarily have to. I'm speculating that, if the GPU fans are overpowered by the airflow inside the case, there would be no reason not to exchange the fans for a beefier GPU heatsink because the fans wouldn't be doing much work anyways.

 

I think what you are getting at is the problem of the GPU blocking the CPU heatsink. Which is certainly an important problem, and might be solved by using a GPU riser, or simply a taller CPU cooler. Do you think we could figure out a way to effectively solve this problem?