Carved ITX - Evil Dead

[bxcounter]

Greetings fellow scratch builders,
just wanted to share my work in progress so far (actually, i'm just testing my carving skills with this case).

MATERIAL: Wood (Paulownia 18mm)
SIZE: height 46cm, width 29cm, depth 26,5cm / Weight 1,8 kg
CPU: i3 540@Lapped@OC 4.6
MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte H55N-USB3
COOLER: Prolimatech Samuel 17@Lapped
FANS: Scythe Grand Flex x 3 @PWM
GPU: Gigabyte 1060 3gb ITX
DISK: OCZ Vertex 2 60gb + Seagate Baracuda ST1000LM048
PSU: Seasonic SSR-360GP
All four frames with aluminum mesh are detachable, as are top and back cover.
All together 48 neodimium magnets.

More pics: https://www.flickr.com/photos/152856425@N04/albums

 

[GentlemanShark]

wot

 

[Kmpkt]

Whoa. Nice.

 

[BirdofPrey]

 

[Phuncz]

Epic, very impressive ! Taking the term "scratch building" to a whole new level ! 36L of volume is quite big for an mITX setup, which makes sense when you see the dual compartments, wall thickness and ATX PSU. Nevertheless a very awesome looking PC !

 

[bxcounter]

Thanks for the feedback..

Yeah, i know it's pretty big compared to some cases i glanced on this forum. Next one will unfortunately be even bigger since wall thickness will be around 4,5cm (i need depth for more detailed carving).

Quick question: Has anybody here made electricaly modular case ?
I ask because i plan to make a case with two compartments.
One for motherboard and gpu, and the second one for PSU and SSD/HDD.
Plan is to install multiple 24pin/8pin/6pin/molex/sata/fan connectors/etc that connect two compartments
(all the wireing will be hidden forever inside the panel that seperates two compartments. Only connectors will be visible).

side note: just installed Mugen 5 inside, silence is finally here.

 

[cadiguno]

I'm pretty sure this thread doesn't get more replies than it does because most people simply went speechless the moment they see that amazing work.

 

[Phuncz]

Thanks for the feedback..

Yeah, i know it's pretty big compared to some cases i glanced on this forum. Next one will unfortunately be even bigger since wall thickness will be around 4,5cm (i need depth for more detailed carving).

Oh wow, can't wait to see your next carving project !

Quick question: Has anybody here made electricaly modular case ?
I ask because i plan to make a case with two compartments.
One for motherboard and gpu, and the second one for PSU and SSD/HDD.
Plan is to install multiple 24pin/8pin/6pin/molex/sata/fan connectors/etc that connect two compartments
(all the wireing will be hidden forever inside the panel that seperates two compartments. Only connectors will be visible).

That sounds very interesting and difficult, I'll be watching that project very closely !

 

[iFreilicht]

Quick question: Has anybody here made electricaly modular case ?
I ask because i plan to make a case with two compartments.
One for motherboard and gpu, and the second one for PSU and SSD/HDD.
Plan is to install multiple 24pin/8pin/6pin/molex/sata/fan connectors/etc that connect two compartments
(all the wireing will be hidden forever inside the panel that seperates two compartments. Only connectors will be visible).

Asus did. Very cool idea, I'd love to see how that works out!

I think the main issue will be alignment. You should search for BMI (Blind mate interface) connectors, and try to install them on your case in such a way that they can move around a little. SATA does fortunately have BMI specifications for hot-swap bays, and molex mini-fit jr. connectors (as used for PCIe, Mainboard and CPU power) are also available in a BMI variant, I think some of those even have misalignment tolerance, so that will make this a lot easier. You can also use these connectors for the fans with no problem at all.

The one thing I'd recommend against is putting mainboard and GPU into separate parts of the case, unless you want to expose PCIe via Thunderbolt or something like that. Physical PCIe is not built for many connection cycles, and multiple connections in series will deteriorate signal quality, which could lead to the PCIe link simply not working.

 

[bxcounter]

Thanks for the links, will look into that types of connectors. I am leaning more to something like this : Link

I agree. Everything modular, except the GPU (maybe short angle adapter).

 

[iFreilicht]

I am leaning more to something like this : Link

You can use those if you really want, but you have to make sure they can pass enough current, and from my experience they need to be aligned very well. These also don't seem to have any facilities for misalignment correction, so you might have a very hard time getting them together properly.