Building a case

[Puffi]

Hi.
I've been coming here for years and I've built a few cases in my time utilizing your advice. Last one was pretty extreme, now I'm thinking about reducing it to the essentials. I have some stuff left over from that project; mainly the Thermochill PA120.3 radiator, a fan controller chip, and a bunch of sound absorption material. But also some woodworking stuff, so hey, let's put that to use...

So, I was thinking about building something like this:


If image doesn't work, click URL:
http://www.picpaste.com/f737d6b370e3965 ... 3a6eb5.jpg

Any thoughts/comments?

The PA120.3's low CFM fans will suck the air out and blow it out the back. It will function as an HTPC in a sense, so it will not be on its side. I hope you can figure out what the components are. the green thing is a water pump, the two grey boxes are HDDs, and the yellowish stuff on the walls is 3cm thick sound absorption material I have left over.

The fan controller chip can shut down fans completely, so I can have for example the middle fan be shut down most of the time. But this will not be a standard HTPC... I'll probably get an i7 960 and overclock it (TDP 130W I think)...

I feel I should keep the front of the case solid as it is now and keep the air intakes on the sides as I will be facing it head on. Not sure about how big the air intakes should be. Now they're 9x16cm, because that's about how big the air "intake" for the PSU is. You can't see it, but there's an identical hole on the other side of the case parallel to the PSU's hole.

Oh I'm also a bit concerned with the fact that the DVD drive will have no air on top of it, the lid will be touching it, and the sound absorption material will touch its sides. I probably can't lower it because of the PSU's cables. I could get a silm drive that would fix the problem, but that's double the money so I'd rather not.

The whole thing is 52w 46d 23h in cm (with the lid on).

[Spotswood]

Air enters from where?

GPU, power, network cables enter/exit from where?

[Puffi]

Air enters from where?

GPU, power, network cables enter/exit from where?

Air enters from the front sides. Through the PSU and the other side. See where there's none of that yellow stuff on the walls in the front? There. The radiator is very good. It just being there with minimal airflow will dissipate a lot of heat, so I don't feel like I need too big air intakes.

all the cables except PSU power exit under the radiator. In the pic there's like 3x43cm of space for them now, but I'll make that hole smaller. About 10cm is enough from past experience. The GPU's power cord has about 6cm space to bend down in that model before it hits the radiator. That's because if I get a DVI-D model it needs that space. If I get an HDMI model it wont need much, also there are HDMI cables that are angled 90 degrees, that would be nice. I could make the case even smaller.

The PSU power cable will enter/exit from the side where the PSU is. I guess that is a bit ugly. If I'd push the PSU deeper in maybe I could bend the cable and take it to the back with the other stuff. They do sell angled power cables too... hmm...

[bozar]

Why not make some more room for cable management and the cables for better durability and more airflow? Cables shouldn't have to twist and turn in a case.

[Puffi]

Why not make some more room for cable management and the cables for better durability and more airflow? Cables shouldn't have to twist and turn in a case.

The only cables that need to be twisted are the ones going to the video card. No matter how much room there is, it still needs to be done if the radiator is at the back. All the other cables can go straight under it. Well except the power cable that I probably will draw through the inside of the case, under the sound absorption material.

Or can you think of a way to make more room?