Concept 15L ATX Laser cut design

bdonchen

Minimal Tinkerer
Original poster
Mar 24, 2018
3
5
I was hoping to get some feedback / advice about this atx case design.
The dimensions are 304mm x 324mm x 153mm (without feet) 15.06 Liter volume assuming the use of 3mm thick material

The case supports:
graphics card up to 295mm
240mm radiator (30mm with 26mm tall fans)
sfx power supply
Combinations of 2.5" / 3.5" drives / slot load disc drive / full size disc drive


Cut outs on motherboard tray for cable management


Parts I plan to use :
To mount the graphics card MNPCTECH vertical video card mounting bracket
For VR front output Hdmi / usb3 panel mount / For the rear pass through
Power switch 22mm Adafruit RGB momentary switch
For graphics card pcie short x16 riser card

Concerns/ advice wanted:
1) Thermals: Not sure if the radiator and GPU placement will cause overheating on the motherboard.
The GPU is about 16mm from the board / 8mm from the top of the pcie slots below it. I could place the fans on the other side of the radiator so I'm thinking that will probably be fine.

2) Materials / thickness: Not sure with 3mm is thick enough for wood / acrylic material for a case. If anyone has experience with this type of material I would like to hear how well / poorly it works.

3) GPU mounting: The bracket mount was the best solution I found for this problem. Not sure how to laser cut a shape that would mount gpu well. Also not sure if 3mm wood / acrylic material is sturdy enough.

4) PCIE riser: The one in the link above seems most suitable to mount the GPU to the bottom PCIE slot since I didn't want it touching the cable on the hot side especially since there is so little room between the motherboard and GPU to begin with. Is it okay for the GPU to be touching a longer cable connected to PCIE slots higher up? or will high GPU temps damage the cable?

5) Hdmi pass-through: The solution I came up with seems kind of janky, if there's a better way to do this I would like some suggestions.

6) Laser cutting: I plan to use ponoko. I have never done a laser cutting project before. Any unexpected complications I should be aware of when designing / cutting? Tolerances / accuracy come to mind.

Thanks!
 

Fruergaard

Trash Compacter
Feb 13, 2018
37
50
Looks great hope you succeed :-)

1) Is the radiator installed on the motherboard backplate?
That will heat the motherboard up unless you reverse the fan/radiator to push air out of the case.
The 9 mm gap between radiator and motherboard would supply enough air.
And the GPU is fine with that distance to motherboard.

2) For wood I would go with at least 4 mm, especially when you have that much ventilation holes.
3 mm acrylic for front is fine (if it doesn't hold that much weight).
How will you connect the sides?
I used 6 mm wood for some of my designs and I glued the wood parts and used modding parvum cubes for the acrylic front. It worked really well :-)

3) It is possible, see some of my older designs in some of my threads.
Remember space enough for the wide connectors.
But the mount you found is good as well?

4) Not sure how you will install the riser with that position of the GFX?
You will not be able to install it below the GFX with only 8 mm gap from back of GFX to top of motherboard PCI-e port.
And I don't know of a riser low enough to allow for such installation in just 8 mm height.
Also remember that the lower PCI-e port on most Ryzen, and Z (intel) boards is only PCI-e x4 v2.0.
That will reduce your performance by some 20%. See benchmarks for correct numbers.
So go with another port and a high quality riser will be able to withstand the heat (you have good cooling from those front fans).

5) Some cards have a HDMI port on the card inside the case. Then you just need a hdmi cable towards the front.

6) Shit, there is a lot of stuff, but you will learn by trail. I have made quite a few mistakes in my process.
But accuracy is really high on a laser cut, so your files must be too!
Best things:
Spend enough time on the PC to make sure you can see no mistake.
There are different ways the laser can cut. Either it follows the line you made (a circle 3mm diameter circle becomes ~3,2mm and 5 mm square becomes 4,8 mm).
Or it is corrected so it makes what you draw (3 mm circle is 3 mm and 5 mm square is 5 mm).

Working with wood you can do a lot post cutting. But I advise to to leave 0,1 mm tolerance where parts connect.

Hope that answers a bit ;-)
 
Last edited:

owliwar

Master of Cramming
Lazer3D
Apr 7, 2017
586
1,082
I was fidling with a layout very similiar recently, I think its a great use of space :)

my 2 cents:

3mm is a bit flimsy for that huge panels, but could be enough IF you reinforce it. I think single 3mm panels should be ok for non strucutral panels (ex side transparent side panels, hd drive bays and fan mounts), but I'd recommend mixing it with 5mm panels or double 3mm panels, especially in the bottom and I/O area.

about gpu mounting, that piece will work wonders and its possible to make something similar with 3d printing, if your modeling is good enought. my advice here is : tight fitings on the gpu bracket flange and screws on the right places.

for the motherboard middle spine, try to lock it to the back panel somehow. this is a part where it usually bends if its too tight or the panel is not strong enough. also, glue alone cant do magic. try get some corner cubes or 3d print something that serves this purpose.

I'd advise against making the whole case a cheese grill. the bottom parts wiill not need that ventilation and removing them could help the airflow from the front fans to reach the end of the case

anyway, keep on :)
 

dumplinknet

Airflow Optimizer
Jan 26, 2018
364
168
That riser cable is way too short for the gpu and the Mobo to be facing the same direction. It has to be much longer.
 

CC Ricers

Shrink Ray Wielder
Bronze Supporter
Nov 1, 2015
2,233
2,556
I am using 3mm acrylic for my custom case. However, my case is also very small with 21cm on the longest side. I would be afraid of the rear panel bowing because of the graphics card and PSU. You probably need to go with 5mm on this panel, and same as with the motherboard panel probably. The heaviest parts that will attach to the motherboard are going to be your CPU cooler and graphics card.

As with using Ponoko for their laser cutting, they do a great job with accuracy with their laser cutting. I use them myself and the pieces fit in well with the other parts made with different methods (3D printed) and fit just as they did in the Sketchup model.

How will you create the files for laser cut sheets? Because I'm using this plugin that will convert faces of your model easily to SVG drawings. It will save loads of time so you don't need to recreate the patterns manually.
 

bdonchen

Minimal Tinkerer
Original poster
Mar 24, 2018
3
5
Looks great hope you succeed :-)

1) Is the radiator installed on the motherboard backplate?
That will heat the motherboard up unless you reverse the fan/radiator to push air out of the case.
The 9 mm gap between radiator and motherboard would supply enough air.
And the GPU is fine with that distance to motherboard.

2) For wood I would go with at least 4 mm, especially when you have that much ventilation holes.
3 mm acrylic for front is fine (if it doesn't hold that much weight).
How will you connect the sides?
I used 6 mm wood for some of my designs and I glued the wood parts and used modding parvum cubes for the acrylic front. It worked really well :-)

3) It is possible, see some of my older designs in some of my threads.
Remember space enough for the wide connectors.
But the mount you found is good as well?

4) Not sure how you will install the riser with that position of the GFX?
You will not be able to install it below the GFX with only 8 mm gap from back of GFX to top of motherboard PCI-e port.
And I don't know of a riser low enough to allow for such installation in just 8 mm height.
Also remember that the lower PCI-e port on most Ryzen, and Z (intel) boards is only PCI-e x4 v2.0.
That will reduce your performance by some 20%. See benchmarks for correct numbers.
So go with another port and a high quality riser will be able to withstand the heat (you have good cooling from those front fans).

5) Some cards have a HDMI port on the card inside the case. Then you just need a hdmi cable towards the front.

6) Shit, there is a lot of stuff, but you will learn by trail. I have made quite a few mistakes in my process.
But accuracy is really high on a laser cut, so your files must be too!
Best things:
Spend enough time on the PC to make sure you can see no mistake.
There are different ways the laser can cut. Either it follows the line you made (a circle 3mm diameter circle becomes ~3,2mm and 5 mm square becomes 4,8 mm).
Or it is corrected so it makes what you draw (3 mm circle is 3 mm and 5 mm square is 5 mm).

Working with wood you can do a lot post cutting. But I advise to to leave 0,1 mm tolerance where parts connect.

Hope that answers a bit ;-)

Thanks for such a detailed reply!
For the radiator, I had planned to mount it from the top of the case with these. So it will have a few mm clearance so its not touching the motherboard or the side panel.

I have never used a pcie riser before and couldn't find diagrams for the height. Do you know how far it extends above the pcie slot / how flexible the cables are?

For the asus x370 board at least the bottom pcie is an x16 I had also considered using this.

I was actually really inspired by your wood v1/ v2 post before I started, and I've been watching you progress on v3, really great work. I wasn't quite sure how you held the GPU slots in place on the bottom it looks like a screw + a flat piece? and how you attached the angled piece at the top to secure the GPU, was it glued? Also wasn't sure if wood was sturdy enough to hold the GPU in a vertical position.


I was fidling with a layout very similiar recently, I think its a great use of space :)

my 2 cents:

3mm is a bit flimsy for that huge panels, but could be enough IF you reinforce it. I think single 3mm panels should be ok for non strucutral panels (ex side transparent side panels, hd drive bays and fan mounts), but I'd recommend mixing it with 5mm panels or double 3mm panels, especially in the bottom and I/O area.

about gpu mounting, that piece will work wonders and its possible to make something similar with 3d printing, if your modeling is good enought. my advice here is : tight fitings on the gpu bracket flange and screws on the right places.

for the motherboard middle spine, try to lock it to the back panel somehow. this is a part where it usually bends if its too tight or the panel is not strong enough. also, glue alone cant do magic. try get some corner cubes or 3d print something that serves this purpose.

I'd advise against making the whole case a cheese grill. the bottom parts wiill not need that ventilation and removing them could help the airflow from the front fans to reach the end of the case

anyway, keep on :)

Thanks for the advice, yeah I was thinking of using these where needed. Far less elegant than parvum cubes but readily available in the states. That's a great point on airflow / varying panel thickness I think I'll give that a go.

I am using 3mm acrylic for my custom case. However, my case is also very small with 21cm on the longest side. I would be afraid of the rear panel bowing because of the graphics card and PSU. You probably need to go with 5mm on this panel, and same as with the motherboard panel probably. The heaviest parts that will attach to the motherboard are going to be your CPU cooler and graphics card.

As with using Ponoko for their laser cutting, they do a great job with accuracy with their laser cutting. I use them myself and the pieces fit in well with the other parts made with different methods (3D printed) and fit just as they did in the Sketchup model.

How will you create the files for laser cut sheets? Because I'm using this plugin that will convert faces of your model easily to SVG drawings. It will save loads of time so you don't need to recreate the patterns manually.

Thanks for the plugin! I hadn't gotten that far along yet so this is going to be great when I am finally ready to get it cut. Are there any specific materials you recommend or ones to avoid from Ponoko?
 
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RoLexus

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Jan 22, 2018
140
65
byanh.com
My LegoFab V3 for metal sheet is almost done, almost reach CNC milling quality, I think that it's the time to create standard for metal sheet assembly method for any one who want to use it.
 
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1461748123

Master of Cramming
Nov 5, 2016
489
1,068
I feel like 3mm acrylic won't be able to handle all the weights. Maybe consider using 3mm Aluminum panels?
 

yawacool

Average Stuffer
Li-Heat
Feb 1, 2017
80
154
www.liheat.com.tw
Thanks for such a detailed reply!
For the radiator, I had planned to mount it from the top of the case with these. So it will have a few mm clearance so its not touching the motherboard or the side panel.

I have never used a pcie riser before and couldn't find diagrams for the height. Do you know how far it extends above the pcie slot / how flexible the cables are?

About the use and size of PCIE riser can refer to here
There used reference height
 
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Fruergaard

Trash Compacter
Feb 13, 2018
37
50
Thanks for such a detailed reply!
For the radiator, I had planned to mount it from the top of the case with these. So it will have a few mm clearance so its not touching the motherboard or the side panel.

I have never used a pcie riser before and couldn't find diagrams for the height. Do you know how far it extends above the pcie slot / how flexible the cables are?

For the asus x370 board at least the bottom pcie is an x16 I had also considered using this.

I was actually really inspired by your wood v1/ v2 post before I started, and I've been watching you progress on v3, really great work. I wasn't quite sure how you held the GPU slots in place on the bottom it looks like a screw + a flat piece? and how you attached the angled piece at the top to secure the GPU, was it glued? Also wasn't sure if wood was sturdy enough to hold the GPU in a vertical position.

Thanks for the advice, yeah I was thinking of using these where needed. Far less elegant than parvum cubes but readily available in the states. That's a great point on airflow / varying panel thickness I think I'll give that a go.

Glad to help ;-)
That will work fine, just remember at least 5 mm clearance for good air flow.

Different risers, different height. However the lowest I have found needs 15 mm clearance. And most are in the 20 mm clearance.

Trust me, I have look at most boards for my RAW V3; the lower slot is a x16 physical but only x4 v2 electric (see the full specs for the boards and the back). Also that x4 is via the chipset and shared :-(
You need X299 or threadripper to have the lower slot at x8 v3 electric.

6 mm plywood is more than enough and easy to glu together.
It will hold the GFX and you can find my files for raw v2 in a previous post on here (I'm on mobile).
There you can see how I did it, but it was glued and yes a flat piece and screw at the PCI fingers.

You can make your own GFX support with a simple plate that stands from the bottom plate.
Or buy a GFX suppots ;-)

They seem fine. If you don't want to glue you can also use them to fix your parts together.
 
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CC Ricers

Shrink Ray Wielder
Bronze Supporter
Nov 1, 2015
2,233
2,556
There is an 8L custom case on this forum, with similar components and dimensions. I believe 5mm acrylic was used for all the sides so that's a pretty safe bet to go for. The main differences are that the motherboard and GPU were facing sides opposite of each other.
 

nero626

Average Stuffer
Dec 8, 2016
60
216
+1 on 5mm acrylic for everything except maybe side panel, 3mm is quite flimsy. also instead of using finger joints, you can also explore other options like mod cubes (what parvum systems use with their cases)



or extrusion beams for better support if you travel a lot with your case like I do


I can literally sit on my case without it bulging a bit haha
 

bdonchen

Minimal Tinkerer
Original poster
Mar 24, 2018
3
5
Thanks for all the great advice everyone, I updated the design a little.


Graphics card moved to the back side; should be able to connect it with 300-400mm riser.

New dimensions are 300mm x 322mm x 130mm (without legs) 12.56L

However, it can now only fit a 120mm AIO and 3x 2.5" hard drives directly underneath the graphics card (5mm clearance with riser cable in that space; I'm a bit worried about how hot that area will be with GPU / hard drives so close together). Another option is to put the hard drives in front of the motherboard PCIE slots but I'm not sure how I would mount them there. Lastly, there is now only 1 regular sized 92mm intake fan rather than 3 slim 92mm fans. There's space on the bottom for 3 60mm fans depending on graphics card height but mine is too tall.

I also added a grommet between the graphics card and power supply allowing hdmi and usb3 to plug directly to the rear i/o (still a little weird but I think this works the best for my use case) the larger button is representing the hdmi / usb panel mount I plan to use.

Also doubled the thickness of the rear panel and motherboard tray for now, still looking at materials so thickness will depend on what's available.

As for holding everything together (besides glue) I think parvum modding cubes will be the best option since they are threaded.
Something like this could also work


As always, any advice is greatly appreciated.
 
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