Hello Everyone!
I recently took a stab at building my own case using 10mm L profiles, 4mm plywood and a dremel in addition to a monitor for a laptop style desktop computer. But before I get into the details, the specs for the build:
Gigabyte AB350 N Gaming Wifi
Ryzen 7 1700
Noctua NH-L9a
1x Ballistix Sport LT Gray 16GB DDR4-2400
GeForce® GTX 1080 Mini ITX 8G
2x 2.5'' 2TB Seagate harddrives
FSP 500W platinum flex-atx power supply
8-pin EPS to 2x 6-pin PCIe power connector
2x Noctua NF-A4x20 PWM
EZDIY 20cm 90° riser cable
So far, a pretty standard build and similar to some of the things I have seen on the forum. Now for the atypical:
6-pin PCIe power connector to circular connector (built by myself)
HDMI LCD Controller board
15.6'' FullHD Screen
The idea behind having a custom power connector from PCIe to the controller board was the extra connector that was flying about in the case and the possibility of expanding to up to 3 screens from that one connector. Now for some images:
As you may have noticed, this build isn't finished yet. There are still some cutouts missing, two of the L profiles and the GPU arent even secured yet and the monitor is not finished at all. Plus there are a number of screw ups that I made, some of which are quite visible. But at least the system runs!
From the plan, the dimensions would add up to roughly 3.9 Liters inside the case. In reality, I added 2 cm to the length to accommodate one of the A4x20 fans right next to the CPU and the width and height are also a few mm larger. It comes out to roughly 4.4 Liters. The exterior dimensions came out as 35.5x26x6cm (~5.5 Liters). The reason for the increase in size is the wood. At 4 mm thickness, it adds 8 mm in each dimension. The L profiles are another mm so in total 1 cm in each dimension.
The monitor itself is around 4 mm thick and roughly 35x22cm and will be encased (top and bottom) in plywood to provide some protection against the environment. Thats roughly another liter.
To cut down the height of the case, I used the low profile noctua cooler that just fits into the 65W thermal specification of the Ryzen 7 1700 and used the popular FSP 500W power supply. Although the volume of the case could be less if I had used the HDPlex DC-DC converter, it would have meant an increase in total volume of ~0.2 liters (HD Plex + power brick) and in addition I would have had to use two power bricks, one for the motherboard and one for the GPU. On the other hand it could have lessened with cable clutter.
All in All I'm quite proud of my first case build but wouldn't do it again. It took me far too long to do myself and I'm considering using a cnc milling service to cut out metal sheets and then connect them on the outside with L profiles. This would probably keep the cost low (currently around 40€) while also having a nice DIY feel to it.
I recently took a stab at building my own case using 10mm L profiles, 4mm plywood and a dremel in addition to a monitor for a laptop style desktop computer. But before I get into the details, the specs for the build:
Gigabyte AB350 N Gaming Wifi
Ryzen 7 1700
Noctua NH-L9a
1x Ballistix Sport LT Gray 16GB DDR4-2400
GeForce® GTX 1080 Mini ITX 8G
2x 2.5'' 2TB Seagate harddrives
FSP 500W platinum flex-atx power supply
8-pin EPS to 2x 6-pin PCIe power connector
2x Noctua NF-A4x20 PWM
EZDIY 20cm 90° riser cable
So far, a pretty standard build and similar to some of the things I have seen on the forum. Now for the atypical:
6-pin PCIe power connector to circular connector (built by myself)
HDMI LCD Controller board
15.6'' FullHD Screen
The idea behind having a custom power connector from PCIe to the controller board was the extra connector that was flying about in the case and the possibility of expanding to up to 3 screens from that one connector. Now for some images:
As you may have noticed, this build isn't finished yet. There are still some cutouts missing, two of the L profiles and the GPU arent even secured yet and the monitor is not finished at all. Plus there are a number of screw ups that I made, some of which are quite visible. But at least the system runs!
From the plan, the dimensions would add up to roughly 3.9 Liters inside the case. In reality, I added 2 cm to the length to accommodate one of the A4x20 fans right next to the CPU and the width and height are also a few mm larger. It comes out to roughly 4.4 Liters. The exterior dimensions came out as 35.5x26x6cm (~5.5 Liters). The reason for the increase in size is the wood. At 4 mm thickness, it adds 8 mm in each dimension. The L profiles are another mm so in total 1 cm in each dimension.
The monitor itself is around 4 mm thick and roughly 35x22cm and will be encased (top and bottom) in plywood to provide some protection against the environment. Thats roughly another liter.
To cut down the height of the case, I used the low profile noctua cooler that just fits into the 65W thermal specification of the Ryzen 7 1700 and used the popular FSP 500W power supply. Although the volume of the case could be less if I had used the HDPlex DC-DC converter, it would have meant an increase in total volume of ~0.2 liters (HD Plex + power brick) and in addition I would have had to use two power bricks, one for the motherboard and one for the GPU. On the other hand it could have lessened with cable clutter.
All in All I'm quite proud of my first case build but wouldn't do it again. It took me far too long to do myself and I'm considering using a cnc milling service to cut out metal sheets and then connect them on the outside with L profiles. This would probably keep the cost low (currently around 40€) while also having a nice DIY feel to it.