Log 8.4L SFX Custom Built Case

[NUMB]

I've been using the NFC S4 Skyreach case for my system for the past two years now, but i've had some recent issues with the power brick causing the system to crash. So with needing to address the power supply issue I thought what better opportunity than to do this and give a custom case another go.

The basic concept for the case is to have the motherboard and GPU back to back, with a SFX power supply below them. Please excuse the component scaling on the drawings as it is not 100% correct but hopefully it gives an idea of how the space is used.

My plan is to make the motherboard tray, top, middle, and bottom pieces out of aluminum. The front and back pieces will be made out of wood to add some colour and keep some symmetry.

The overall size at the moment is (LxWxH) 230mm x 130mm x 280mm - 8.4L, but the height will probably come down a little bit.

 

[Unix]

In taobao, there are several cases with this layout available price at around $100, but they are not quite popular. Not sure how much you will need to make such case. My opinion is that don't lower the height, leave some room to put exhaust fan on the top

 

[NUMB]

The main aluminum pieces have been cut out. Nothing too complex at this stage but i've now got a better idea on the available internal space and where extra components such as SSDs can be mounted out of the way.

 

[NUMB]

Had a bit of a set back with the layout doing the first mock-up, with the HDDs not being able to be properly installed where they were planned to go.

I've moved to a more traditional "sandwich" layout where the PSU lives in the front of case next to the motherboard. Getting the framing done is first task before beginning to work on brackets to mount the components to.

Some spare M3 screws and nuts have been used for assembly so far, but the plan is to use some self clinching nuts, and countersunk screws in the final version.

 

[NUMB]

The case is coming along nicely. The top rails were simply a mirror of the ones that were made for the bottom.

Once they were cut to size and screwed in the next step was to mount the motherboard tray. This was done in the same way as the top and bottom rails with some 90 degree brackets at the end securing them to the front and back panels. Some space was allowed below the motherboard tray in order to mount some slim 15mm fans at the bottom of the case to provide additional airflow if needed.