One of the things that I had problems with when I was building my rig was space! You know what I mean, cramping your hand to get that screw that fell, adding a drive in the bay or what every you fill your box with. So after I threw together my acrylic case that ran me 70 bucks and I had to put it together myself (I am not lazy!), I started with the board, drives and psu, then I ran all my hoses for the water blocks. Yeah, that is where it gets bushed in! The wires become messy and hoses are in the way, but hey it is a case that shines bright and gaming is good. The fans are humming and if you are like me, I like surround sound when I can run the kids out and close the door, so you have a sensitivity light flashing when your shooting it up in UT, Quake, Far Cry, or Call of Duty. In all of this, I decided that I needed a better box. And bigger is better when you are talking air flow. A good friend of mine was laughing at me about my 80mm fans pushing my rads on a Swiftech system, so he blessed me with a big (thin) dual 120mm for Christmas. God bless the thought process that went into that! So, I was OC'ing my p4 2.6 and something went wrong. I fried my 7800gs cards due to "water" and I don't trust my psu so I went and started new.



So here are the items for my line up of the new box;

1. Intel E6600 Core 2 dual 2.4GHz
2. ECS EliteGroup nForce 570 SLIT-A
3. 2X EVGA Geforce 8600GTS 512MB PCIe
4. Hitachi 250GB Serial ATA HD 8MB/7200/SATA 3G
5. Logisys 650W Silent ATX12V PSU
6. 2X Giel 512MB PC5300 DDR2

Now, as you can guess I will have plenty of other things stuffed into the box besides what is listed above. I just posted those items cause you people go crazy over what is in the box. I will admit, I am not well off and I have kids, wife, and nice house so money is tighter that a gnats hind end so I don't want to hear what I should have went with, you don't know me and you don't do what I do so back it up and just enjoy reading the thread. I read these threads to learn what others do and how to make mine better. I expect you to do the same!


Now I wanted space and I like acrylic so I decided to make a box myself and if I am to design it, I want it cubed with lots of room to see what is in it. So here are some pics that will help describe my ideas.


Alright here is the deal, I have to post like 14 threads before i can add pics as a url, so watch out.

I will get more pics as time allows me to edit this thread. I still need to pick up two more sheets of acrylic from lowes and cut them. I will be a bit more detailed next round of pics as well. I will post my measurements and what tools ect.
Have a good night. Work starts early.

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Subscribed.

E

I can add more pics now, I just didn't have time last night. I hope you can vision what I am doing, and where I am going. Thanks for viewing.

I will add more tomorrow, but I am not going to be able to show real progress till I have all my materials.

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THATS WHAT IM TALKIN ABOUT!
just got on to see if you put anything on the forum yet
this thing is going to be SWEET!
have to see how she overclocks 2
great start keep it coming
L8r

Add me to the subscribe list!

Well, I have been busy today and I have done quite allot on the production of the cube. First off, I want to detail every step so those who wish to use this in the attempt to create their own version, you can glean off the methods I have used. As I stated previously, I don't have allot of dollars, so I use only what I can to make what I want. This is my way and you may use it as well.

I first started with Lowe's, I bought three sheets of Plexiglas, the biggest that they had. I made my measures, 17.5 inches by 17.5 inches. I used a band saw to cut the slender piece off the side so I could break each piece according to my measurements. I used the aluminum angle to make a straight edge and used my carpet knife to make several passes down the straight edge on both sides of the acrylic. ( I learned this from a Lowe's visit.) Then I pulled up on the acrylic and snapped the glass in two, then the third. Now as you may notice, my cuts did not line up and I kind of expected this, so I took all six squares and laid the factory edge on the ground and used some clamps to hold them together, I then ran the band saw down the edge allowing the longer edges to match the shortest edge.
I have also added some customized stenciling for the base that my mobo will rest on. This is the last few pics that I have added into the collage. I used a drywall rotozip bit for this customization.

Now that I have all the pieces near the same size, I need to assemble the base which turned out quite nicely. I first
needed to check if my rivet idea would work so I took some scraps and drilled and fastened and it looks nice.

So, I took the angle and cut four pieces the lengths of each side. I then took the band saw and used the slider and set it to 45* degrees and cut each end according to how it would set at the edge of the square. I then took my drill with a steel cutting blade on it and drilled three holes through the angle and into the edge. I used rivets to fasten the acrylic to the angle. This provides a nice fit and strengthens the acrylic. I then took another cutting bit for the drill and positioned my casters on each corner and drilled holes to fit my bolts. I fastened them to the acrylic and produced a nice base to start with. .........

Now you have the base of what will soon be a big BLUE box just waiting for parts to fill it up. I have added a few sides on but you will have to wait till I get those posted. Thanks for checking it out!

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Back again, Its saturday and last night I got busy cutting away scraps from my air dam that the radiators will be fastened to. I have constructed the box 3/4 of the way so I can start fitting pieces together. I have one side that is slightly taller then the others so I will have to cut it down to match. I have been using all aluminum stock angle to fasten my sides together using aluminum rivits (1/8 in. diameter with 3/16 in. depth) which allows a nice finish. I have changed ideas again about air flow and so I had to start the air dam construction so I can properly situate the motherboard plate.

I have measured each side of the squares to get the proper length of the angle to use and I have made the cuts with a 45 degree cut on each side so I don't overlap when I fasten the pieces together. This is really simple, just basic math stuff, the kind you didn't flunk out of in school!

In making the air dam, I knew that I wanted the radiators to be in the back pulling the cool air from low and exhausting the hot air out the top back but when I measured the radiators stacked on top of each with space I quickly found out I was going to be pushing my motherboard up high and I really didn't like how that was going to look so I decided to use space that was going to be for show anyway and use it, thus creating a better air flow method. So I will be using the left side case as my air intake and exhausting out the back as normal. Plus, I wanted to filter my intake so I came up with a better idea. I would create my grills from the cube like most cases have but I would be introducing a slip to slide a sheet into. This is where I start with my air dam plate. I found a small aluminum U channel from lowe's and it was just enough (4') to make a frame out of. So my measurements for the clustered radiators are 11 1/2" X 8 1/2" and so I cut out a rectangular piece 13" X 10". I also cut my U channel the same dementions and gave each a 45 degree cut and placed them on the acrylic, which fit nicely. I used my drill and tapped in some rivets and fastened them together. I then used my dremel with drywall hole saw bit to cut out my radiator slots. I used the high speed to cut the bulk out then used the slow speed to dress up the edges of the acrylic, which still looks rought to me but not a whole lot I can do about that. I will sand them down later with 220-b waterproof sandpaper by GatorGrit and since I bought a combo pack, it has 320, 400, and 600,grit as well. I just hope I can get into the corners.

More to come

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Man, I am gonna have so much room in this case, I can't believe how much space there will be, I do have some concerns about cable length, but if I have to mod the cables, it will not be the first time.
I was working with my airdam last night and getting my screw holes lined up and I took the blue film off to get a good look and to line up the holes, and I was amazed how awesome it looked.

As I was attaching the top rails for the last face of the cube, I noticed that either the gaps were a little spaces or shifted, though it will not be noticed by most, I still wish it would have been flawless. The top of the case will look good and I am considering a handle just as a decorative add on. It would be accented by the thumb screws that will be for accessing the inside of the case.

So here are some more pics, things are really starting to come together. I am going to start sanding my edges today. So I should be able to add parts into the case later this week, do a 24hr. water cooling cycle and installing my software by the weekend.

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