Do-it-yourself system case. Making a PC case with your own hands. Development of side and cladding panels
I don't like standard system blocks. They are large, have a lot of empty space inside and take up a lot of table space. I need the block to stand on the table, because I often have to climb into it. Well, yes, I'll climb in and sit there. No, for example, extraneous screws to connect or something else. In general, when I look at him, I want to take and saw off half. That's what I did. I bought an old building in the commission department for 300 rubles, removed the side walls, sawed off the excess with a hacksaw and made such a compact turret. Its dimensions are 175x220x425 mm. I even painted it, but how, this is the most important thing.
There are such mATX format motherboards with a width of 170 mm. Here is one in this case and installed. In all other respects, this is an ordinary office computer, nothing special. ASRock LGA775 G41M-VGS3 board, dual core intel E6600. Not an expensive cooler for a processor with two heat pipes. I have been using it for several years at work. Here you can take a look inside. The hard drive fits into the back wall and makes it impossible to use the PCI-e slot, the PCI slot is available. If you still want to use PCI-e, you can mount the hard drive over the DVD-RW.
Instead of a side wall, a latch door is easy to open and close.
The front panel was glued from plexiglass and wooden rulers. Let's look into the BIOS, the processor temperature is nothing. Well, yes, the fan is noisy in full, and the room where it is used is not quiet, so it does not interfere.
Here we open the door, attach an extraneous hard drive and work calmly.
It is quite natural that, as a lover of small system units, I was interested in mini-ITX motherboards with a size of 170 by 170 mm. Let's look at my first design on such a scarf. What do we have inside. Intel D945GCLF-2 motherboard with integrated Intel ATOM 330 dual-core processor. FSP250 - 50 GLV power supply. DVD-RW NEC AD-7590S slim. Winchester Samsung HD200HJ. Memory DDR2 - 2 GB. For this computer, I designed and built the chassis entirely from aluminum. The interior space is divided into two parts by an aluminum partition. In one part is the motherboard itself, which is attached to this partition.
In another power supply, hard drive and DVD-RW.
It closes with a U-shaped lid made of the same metal. This building is packed to capacity, there is no free space there. The temperature is normal, everything works great. Size - 140 X 220 X 230 mm. This is such a modest machine for surfing the Internet, office tasks, photo processing, and so on, it coped well with its tasks. It was a long time ago, even before that first turret. Here is another rear view, well, the whole machine itself.
And finally the last brainchild. Motherboard with socket FM1 GA-A75N-USB3, mini-ITX form factor, AMD A75 chipset, AMD A8-3870K processor, AMD Radeon HD 6550D integrated video card, DDR3-4 gb memory, Scythe Samurai ZZ processor cooler. Fan speed controller Scythe Kaze Master Ace. In this computer, for the system and software, I used a Samsung 830 SSD with a capacity of 64 gb., For everything else, a 2.5 Hitachi 250 gb hard drive. There is no DVD. If necessary, use an external USB. At first I managed to push it all into a case measuring 230x200x170 mm. I had to use a non-standard power supply and the processor cooler was another Scythe Kozuti, it is much more compact. In principle, everything worked fine in such a case, but all the fans were spinning at full speed, the processor temperature was at 50 degrees. In this case, it didn't work for me. It makes noise like a vacuum cleaner does not howl, but hisses like an angry cat. Therefore, the case had to be made differently. More roomy. And he became such 240X220X360. As you can see, the space occupied on the table has not changed much, and the body has grown significantly in height. Well, let it grow. This is how it looks
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Here's another background.
The internal structure of the building is two-story. On the first floor there is a standard power supply, fan speed controller, SSD and HDD. On the second floor, the system board is installed horizontally.
The processor cooler does not drive air inside the case, but takes it from outside through the air duct, which I glued from cardboard and pasted over with foil. One end of the air duct is put on the fan, and the other end is inserted into the frame of the window, which is located on the rear wall, goes outside the case and is covered with a metal mesh. There is a 80X80mm fan on the front wall, which blows warm air out of the case, you can warm up.
Now everything is fine. And it does not make noise and the temperature of the components is normal, it rises on some difficult tasks, for example, when converting large video files, the processor heats up to 47 degrees, which is also quite low.
The configuration of this machine suits me perfectly, no modernization is foreseen. In addition, socket FM1 is no longer being developed and has given way to FM2. Of course, if necessary, you can change the hard drive to a more capacious one, and if you decide to switch to a 64-bit OS, you can increase the amount of RAM, so this is a complete design. Now about the body. He's made of wood. Glued together from pine slats and corners. In general, everything is quite simple. We cut out the board for the base, glue the mount for the legs, the front and back walls with PVA glue to it, approximately in the middle we fasten the aluminum plate on which the motherboard is placed and which provides additional structural rigidity.
The side walls are removable and slide into the grooves of the rear and front panels. This provides access to the insides. They are also glued from longitudinal and transverse rails, the ventilation holes are sealed with a metal mesh, covered with foil from the inside. All this is closed on top with a wooden lid.
Everything, here is such a short review, thank you for your attention, be healthy.
Good afternoon, Khabrovites. Thank you very much for the invite! And although it’s not a good idea to start by translating other people’s posts, perhaps this homemade project will seem mega-cool to someone else.
This is a translation of a post from the Overclock.net forum. Show4Pro user decided to pull out all the insides of his super computer and hang everything on the wall. Great idea beautifully implemented. Who cares how it was going and how it works - wellcome under cat.
The last time I upgraded my home machine was 1.5 years ago. Well, I thought about upgrading the car to i7 (before that there was Bloomfield), although in fact, I didn’t need a more powerful processor. I wanted to buy a new case - Corsair 900D, to change the 8 year old Super Armor. But I wanted something special, unique. In Battlestations on Reddit, I came across a very simple yet elegant solution - a wall mount computer. And that's where the whole project started.
Accessories:
Processor: Intel Core i7 950
Motherboard: Asus Rampage III Extreme
Video cards: 2 x AMD HD7970
RAM: 6 x 2GB Corsair Dominator
SSD drives: 4 x 120GB Corsair Force GT SSD
HDD drives: 2 x 1TB WD Caviar Black
2TB WD Caviar Green
1.5TB WD Caviar Green
Power supply: Corsair AX1200i
Sound: Creative Sound Blaster Zx
Cooling:
Cooling for CPU:
Water Cooled CPU Heatsink EK Supreme HF Full Copper
Pump Swiftech MCP655 /w Speed Control
Cooler FrozenQ Liquid Fusion V Series 400 ml Reservoir - Blood Red
XSPC RX360 Performance Triple 120mm Radiator
GPU cooling
Heatsink for video card EK FC7970 - Acetal+EN
The pump and cooler are the same as for the processor.
Swiftech MCP655 /w Speed Control
FrozenQ Liquid Fusion V Series 400 ml Reservoir - Blood Red
Watercool MO-RA3 9x120 LT Radiator
Other:
Branch pipes for the cooling system
Koolance QD4 Quick Discounnec No Spill Coupling
Bitspower G1/4 Silver Triple Rotary 90deg Compression Fittings
Monsoon Free Center Compression Fittings
Phobya Angled Clip 90° Tubing Guide
Phobya Terminal Strip Tubing Clip/Holder
Cooling tubes themselves (red) PrimoChill Advanced LRT Tubing Bloodshed Red
Refrigerant phosphorescent, blue EK UV Blue Non-Conductive Fluid
Cables:
Bitfenix Alchemy Premium Sleeved Extensions
Corsair Individually Sleeved Modular Cables
Creation.
First, I took photos of all the components in their real size and put it all together in Photoshop. This way I was able to move them around the work surface and decide what it would look like. Well, this is necessary for wiring the cooling pipes. Here are a couple of layouts:
I refused this, because of the empty space in the lower right corner. And the motherboard turned out to be on the left, although it should be in the very center and draw attention to the entire panel. 
There is also a lot of space on the right, although the power supply and motherboard are already closer to the center. In the final version, the cooling pipes stretch along the entire right edge, plus two thermometers appeared there.
I transfer the motherboard drawing to an acrylic sheet.
Since the video adapters will be far away from the motherboard, I ordered PCIe slot extensions for each of the cards on eBay. This is me testing how they work. True, then I had huge problems with the crossover of cards due to cheap unshielded wires. They were on top of each other and created serious interference. The system hung on loading BIOS. It was possible to launch it with only one card. In the end, I had to fork out for very expensive cables with good protection. But more on that later.
The product has arrived!
Most of the water cooling comes from Performance-PC. They even gave me a T-shirt and two whole mouse pads!
Acrylic substrate for the motherboard.
All acrylic panels are cut at 45° to achieve a glowing edge effect.
The holes are drilled, the fasteners are installed.
TA-dah!!! It turns out that the mother of Rampage III Extreme is eATX format. And this is for the ATX form factor.
I made the correct eATX substrate later.
Time to gut my dusty old hull.
In the old computer, the disks are inserted into Vantec HDCS boxes, which make 3 HDD boxes out of 2 5.25" boxes.
Video cards.
Substrates for all components.
Custom acrylic pump mounts.
Close-up of a rough finish made with a table saw. Later they will need to be sanded.
There is a triangular cut in the center of each plate. It will reflect light that is projected perpendicularly inside the plate at the edges. Without a cut, the edges barely glow.
Test with the light on on the sound panel.
All panels are sanded with 120 grit sandpaper.
Close-up of grinding.
All back panels are pre-drilled.
Under the table - acrylic snow.
Preparing to paint red.
Surprisingly, Corsair did put thermal pads on the petals, even though they don't get hot at all.
Marking all the components on the main board to mark the various slots and holes. Board - 1/4 "48 x 30 fiberboard.
All slots and holes are marked in their places.
I'm getting ready to cut the slots with a jigsaw.
I glue the frame.
I paint the inner edges black - the color of the carbon film.
Soldering LED strips.
Workplace.
LED strips. Temporary fastening.
Gluing a giant vinyl film. This was the most brutal part. I almost got a heart attack. How to stick a film on a phone screen, only x1000 more.
No bubbles!
I use aluminum tape to hide the LED on the front side of the hard drive panel, between them.
My assistant is Tommy.
All substrates are installed in their places on the common board with screws No. 10. They were screwed into pre-prepared holes.
Light check.
The coolant and cables have arrived. I used Bitfenix for the components and Corsair for the power supply.
On the left is Bitfenix, on the right is Сorsair. Bitfenix doesn't have black heat shrink on the ends, so the Corsair looks cooler.
Red ties to tighten hanging wires.
Backside. All cables are connected.
We test for leaks while the entire system is on the floor - it's easier to fix problems.
First start.
Not loaded. I connected via iROG USB to my laptop to see the download log. It turned out that the system was stuck on the VGA BIOS. Disconnected one of the video cards - everything worked. Tried to connect another - also works. Both cards are not. Did a little research and found that unshielded PCIe extenders with ribbon cables are very susceptible to EMI. I tried to shield them by wrapping them in several layers of aluminum foil. 
After 4 layers of foil, I was able to run both cards. But the car immediately hung as soon as it launched any game or some 3D editor. Not only that, my Soundblaster is also cascaded to a 3 x1 PCIe slot, and this also greatly interfered with the operation of the video cards and hung up the system.
As a result, with pain in my heart, I had to order expensive protected extenders for PCIe slots from 3M (about $100 each)
Shielded 3M extensions in place. They turned out to be longer than the previous ones and now both video cards have reached PCIe x16.
Changed the previous sound to SoundBlaster Zx. This one looks amazing!
And finally
At the moment everything is working smoothly. The unit has only 2 fans. On the PSU, it barely moves, and I put another one on the chipset - very quiet. The pump runs at the lowest power, so the computer came out pretty quiet. The only thing that irritates is that it turned out that the work of some components is heard outside the case. In my case, this is the buzzing of the video and 1TV hard drive.EK UV refrigerant is very sensitive to ultraviolet light. I know you shouldn't mix coolants to preserve their properties, but gosh, if I used it undiluted, I wouldn't be able to see the coils in the tank. For both circuits, I took about 1/8 of the can, the rest is distilled water.
From the translator
I do not pretend to at least some authorship of this incredible project. It's just that I'm a journalist, with an education in electronics, and doing such things is my dream. And to be honest, I would make a table, not a wall. So I decided, all of a sudden, not all Khabrovites are sitting onA student with no experience in woodworking or computers made a computer case with his own hands. Of the tools he needed: a hammer and a chisel for wood, a jigsaw and a drill, and computer components. What came of it, see the step-by-step instructions in the photos.
You can make the same computer case yourself, here's what it looks like:
To start making the case, you will need a wooden frame measuring 420mm x 420mm.
Then you need to remove the edge for the side panels with a chisel and a hammer. The recess should be 5 mm by 15 mm.
Installing fans in the case. To prevent the fans from having friction that will create sound during operation, you need to cut down a fraction of the tree over and over again until the coolers fit snugly. The same method was used for the coolers on the bottom of the case.
Installation of controllers. The compartments were cut with a jigsaw and the slots were sanded with sandpaper. RGB LED controllers were installed in the case.
For the inner and outer walls of the case, aluminum sheets will be needed.
The next step is to install the power supply into the case. To do this, you need to cut a hole to attach the power supply to the back of the case.
Now you will need a 390x390x5mm black plexiglass, in which you need to cut the edges to fit the oval depressions on the wooden case.
Then the inner wall inside the case is attached. For this, metal corners, screws and washers were used.
Installing the ON / OFF button in the housing. A hole is drilled in the aluminum wall, and the edges are rubbed with a file, adjusting it to the correct size.
Installing an I/O panel that is held in the chassis opening only by a snug fit.
This is how wooden legs for the case are made, on such legs the computer will stand steadily.
The case is almost ready, all that remains is to try to install computer components correctly with your own hands so that your creative wooden computer not only pleases you with its beauty, but also works :)
All cables are hidden in the space between the walls of the case.
For a more spectacular look of a wooden case, you can install LEDs under glass.
Here is the end result - this is what a wooden case for a computer made by yourself at home looks like.
In the age of computer technology, it is impossible to imagine life without a computer or any other multimedia gadget. Those who understand computer "hardware" assemble their own computers, giving them certain characteristics that they need to perform their tasks. Some modify their computers, so to speak, in their own shirt, and some go further and make system units in various variations. So the author decided to independently upgrade his system unit, giving it an exclusive, attractive and creative look.
For the basis of the system unit, the author used a wooden rounded square. This can be found in subwoofers. They are, of course, longer, but if you have a hacksaw for wood or a grinder attachment, it will not be difficult to reduce its size to the one you need.
the next step is to make a groove around the entire perimeter of the workpiece, into which the wall of the system unit will lie. To do this, you will need a chisel and a hammer. If the farm has a cutter, then things will go even faster, and the result will be much better.
Next, in the upper part of the workpiece, we begin to cut an opening for two fans using an electric jigsaw. If you have more and space, you can install more. Won't hurt. The place of the future drank is marked and either electrical tape or masking tape is glued along the border of the saw cut. This is to ensure that there are no chips and burrs on the surface. A hole is drilled for the jigsaw blade and sawed out. We insert the fans and see how they are located. If everything suits you, then good. If not, we bring to mind - we grind and so on. For further work, it is necessary to remove them and put them aside for a while, because. when carrying out other work, they will interfere with you.
Next, we determine where and in what order you will have the rest of the connectors - USB, a place for a hard drive, and so on. Everything is cut in the same way as described above.
One of the walls of the system unit is installed.
Next, install all the components. Fasten everything to small wood screws.
The metal wall is attached to the base and fixed. From the inside, they are also attached to the corners.
Now a hole is drilled in the wall for the power button.
We assemble and fasten the strips on which all the connectors are located.
Next, we make the legs. They are cut from the same material that you use to build the hull. We glue them to the bottom and wait for drying. For a stronger connection, you can drill through holes in the legs and non-through holes in the body. And put it all on self-tapping screws.
connect the power button and install the wall in place.
The author made the second wall from dark transparent plastic. I placed an LED strip around the perimeter. When you turn on the computer, it lights up and all the insides are visible. Quite beautiful and unusual. When turned off, the system unit has a strict appearance.
And this is what happened after the end of all the work. In my opinion it is very interesting and unusual. I wish you good luck in modifying your computers.
Most users who have mastered a computer at an amateur level can hardly imagine the situation when you need to change its case. However, it occurs quite often. For example, you can add a new power supply to your system, causing the old case to simply no longer fit or become so hot that it becomes unusable. What to do in such a case? The easiest way is to buy a new case, but it is much cheaper and more convenient (and, of course, more interesting) to make it yourself. In this article, we will look at how to make a DIY PC case.
Types of PC cases and their features
Since we decided to do amateur performances, first we need to decide what exactly should turn out in the end. To do this, you need to figure out what computer cases generally exist. There are four types in total:
1. Moddle Tower Form
The most popular type today. Most suitable for avid computer enthusiasts and gamers who do not care how the new case will fit into the interior of the room. But instead of a spoiled design, they get a chance to use additional hard drives or install several video cards at once. Well, to protect against overheating in such a model, it is strongly recommended to install a good ventilation system.
2.Small Form Factor
The main plus is its small size, suitable for use at home or in a cramped office where space on the table is limited. This is where the advantages of this model end. But there are disadvantages. Firstly, due to the proximity of parts to each other, the case can get very hot and after a while the entire computer threatens to simply fail. Secondly, you will have to work hard to pick up components of such a small size and assemble exactly the version of the system that you need.
3.Mini Tower Form
More rational and powerful (power supply - from 400 W) option than the previous one. On the basis of such a case, you can complete a normal system on a dual-core processor. It will also suit gamers, because it makes it possible to install a normal video card. However, you still have to torment yourself with the details, since many of them will still refer to the same mini-version mentioned above.
4. Big Tower
The vertical model, extremely bulky (at least 50 cm high) and voluminous (can accommodate, for example, five hard drives), requires the installation of high-quality ventilation, otherwise it will simply overheat and break. Of course, for the layman is useless. But for the office it is quite a working option in the form of a control computer. Also suitable for IT-specialists and especially passionate gamers who install more than three video cards at once.
Advantages of a homemade case:
- Often cheaper than standard store options.
- It can contain any filling and additional elements that you want to install on your computer.
- It can be made from non-standard materials (suppose you are a supporter of environmental cleanliness and certainly want a wooden case).
- It is unique and looks the way you want, because in this case you are both a master and a designer at the same time.
Do-it-yourself computer case. Preparatory stage
So, we learned what cases are and chose the type that suits us best. Before you start active work, it is worth answering a few important questions. This will help to avoid mistakes and, accordingly, multiple alterations in the future.
The first such question is whether the internal space of the case is enough for what you planned to place there. At the same time, do not forget about the ventilation system, it requires that at least a minimum distance for air flow be left between the parts of the system.
Special attention should be paid to the power supply. Not only does it itself take up some space inside the PC case, it also needs to be cooled additionally due to its high power. In addition, the power supply can become a source of terrible noise that will haunt all the inhabitants of your apartment.
There are two ways out of this situation. We can place the power supply on the top of the case, which is generally accepted as a standard option. This will significantly reduce the noise level, and the elements will heat up by a maximum of 3 ° due to the free air flow. The option with the lower location also has a place to be, although not so often. However, it is less good, since the noise in this case is much more audible, and the overheating situation happens more often.
Having dealt with the internal space of the planned building, we turn to the second question of the preparatory stage. It also concerns the appearance, from the functionality: what material to use for work?
Most often, computer cases are steel or aluminum. At the same time, in the first case, we will get a durable and quieter model, in the second - light and not heating up so quickly. Of course, each option has its drawbacks. So, aluminum cases are unstable to mechanical damage and are quite expensive, while steel cases are very heavy.
In addition to metal, you can use wood or plexiglass / acrylic for work. Next, we will consider and explain in an accessible way in Russian how to make a case for a computer from these materials.
Making a computer case out of wood
Consider the option in which the body is made of chipboard. Such a model is good because it is quite light and versatile, i.e. Inside there are all the necessary components, without frills. We assemble the case from six walls, it is also provided for the presence of a transverse partition in the middle part of the case, which will divide it into two parts. At the top we place video adapters, a motherboard and fans for processors and a video card (there must be several of them, otherwise overheating cannot be avoided!) On the front wall. At the bottom there will be a hard drive (one or more, depending on your desire), a power supply with a fan, a floppy drive, a card reader, plus all drives.
We prepare the walls using a special saw for wood and a jigsaw (it is better to align the edges with emery to facilitate the connection of parts). Then we fasten the parts together and as a result we get a six-walled structure. Don't forget to make all the necessary holes for the buttons and ports on the front of the case! Otherwise, your computer, for example, simply cannot be turned on due to the lack of a power button. When distributing wires, do not forget about insulation! The easiest way to provide it is with heat shrink (this is a PVC tube that changes its diameter with increasing temperature: it is put on the place where the wires are soldered and heated with a lighter, because of which it fits snugly to the wires and gives a good insulating effect).
When mounting fans in the upper part, do not forget about their design! Because there will be more than one cooling device, the option with “holes” on the front panel disappears (ugly and inconvenient). It is better to install a good fan like Termaltake, which will last a long time and will not spoil the appearance of the case.
Do not forget about the holes for connectors of internal devices (for example, a hard drive) with the motherboard! After applying the full pre-marking and cutting out the holes, you can start designing and cover our case with a self-adhesive rubberized film. To avoid problems in places with particularly strong wear (for example, at the points of connection of wires), it is better to process cutouts for holes and drives over the film with double-sided foam-based tape.
The final stage of creation is the installation of a "basket" for hard drives, disk drives, etc. We make it from plexiglass, and we fix the drives with the help of the same adhesive tape on foam rubber. After creating this last detail, we proceed to the assembly and after a while we are already admiring the exclusive case we have created.
How to make a plexiglass computer case
The main disadvantage of this option is the high cost. But from the point of view of design, it is very attractive: you can come up with any shape, and even add lighting effects and other innovations.
When working, remember that plexiglass is a fragile material, so be careful. For work, we need plexiglass of different thicknesses, from 5 to 10 mm. We first make side walls from it (the size depends on your needs), then the top and bottom covers (the thickness of the bottom should be greater). Please note that the size of the caps must be exactly the same, otherwise you will have assembly problems later! Then we make vertical racks (better also thicker, from 10 mm plexiglass). We connect ready-made parts. You can attach legs from below so as not to scratch our body and not spoil its appearance.
When mounting the rear wall, do not forget about the holes for the wires of the drives. For this reason, it is better to fix the motherboard inside in advance, marking the places of the future connection with all the necessary details on it. So we will save time and will know in advance which holes and where exactly to make. The board itself is easiest to place on a cut off piece of medium-thick plexiglass, while securing it with dichloroethane.
Next, we mount shelves for hard drives and floppy drives inside. They are best made from thin 5 mm plexiglass. If you want to make the structure more rigid, you can glue the sides of the boxes under the drives with thicker plexiglass, but this is optional.
We proceed to the installation of the front wall. Here, do not forget about the hole for the indicator (for greater beauty, you can insert a piece of glass of a different color using the same dichloroethane) and on / off buttons, etc. (you can take ready-made buttons from another case, place a board with LEDs under them and after that insert the entire structure into our creation). You can arrange all this beauty both horizontally and vertically as standard, it looks beautiful and unusual, like our entire future building as a whole.
So, all the walls are ready, you can start assembling. We add that, since the case is planned to be completely transparent, you can install any kind of LEDs and other lighting elements inside. In any case, it will look beautiful, and the choice of color, flashing mode and other innovations is purely a matter of your taste and imagination.
