Hand Made Custom Pc case

Aidanlockett1 · July 25, 2017

Hey guys for a while Ive wanted to do a kinda, smallish form factor pc case but with expensive cases and shelling out money for a new motherboard and storage devices due to compatibility errors, I want to build my own pc case.

Rationale:

I want a case thats fairly light but can fit an atx psu 2 3.5 drives and 1 or more 2.5 drives and at least 1 front 5.25 drive, Also fitting a micro atx board and a 1060 g1 gaming.

Budget:

For Cost of materials I dont know what I should Use or how much that should cost, I have a thermaltake powder white case for scrap parts, and I have about 45$ for sure maybe 145$ im in talks with selling some things so that would help.

Materials:

Im thinking of right now doing a mostly metal case with some mesh on one side for fans and using wood or sheet metal to fill in blank spots. like i said i have a case for scrap parts.

Use Case: Hehe "case"

bad puns aside I plan to use this case well into highschool and once i go into college I plan to upgrade to something more solid like the Node 202 or Zabres sentry case if that becomes available and comepletely upgrade new.

Overall, I need help with materials and a little planning and once i start building I will update with a build log, Thanks in advanced.

Imbellis · July 25, 2017

For the complete development, it may be hard to do under a hundred. First, I'd start out with crude renditions of each part you want to fit in (out of layered cardboard, styrofoam sheets, or other easily sculpted materials) and find out how you want to orient them. Following that, I'd load up a CAD program such as Blender, Maya, or Inventor and form a case design to how you want. You'll need a 2.5+D Mill, some way to bend the metal, and other workshop related tools. I'm doing a similar project, and it has taken 2 months of on and off work to get a design out - now in the process of iterative design.

Overall, you can do it the proper way or the improper way. The latter will yield very poor results.

On the other hand, a mITX case that works well would be the SG13 (b). It;s price is hovering around 40 USD.

Zyndo · July 25, 2017

12 minutes ago, Aidanlockett1 said:

Snip

If you're doing this because you think it would be fun cool and unique then that's one thing... if you want to do this as some sort of cost saving measure, that simply is not a feasible approach.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/case/overall-list/#t=7,6&sort=price&page=1&K=1,12&J=2,20&G=1,12

there is a list of all cases fitting your requirements according to pcpartpicker.com. as you can see there are a plethora of cheap cases of all shapes and sizes to choose from for not a large cost to your wallet, certainly less than trying to source tools/materials to make your own case.

Neomuffins · July 26, 2017

3 hours ago, Imbellis said:

You'll need a 2.5+D Mill

Or... you know... crafting skills and basic tools. A PC case is just a box after all.

To the OP: If you have a scrap case, you can take the mobo tray and pci bracket from it, and plan a wood build around it. Stain/varnish and sandpaper are cheap if you already have the lumber to build with.

If you don't, maybe just take your 45$ and buy a case, because materials to build your own, even wood, will most certainly cost more than that.

There is also the issue of the electronics (switches, usb headers, headphone jacks, ect.). If you can salvage them from your old case thats great, but if you cant, again, probably better to just buy a budget or used case.