Hello, everybody! First post here, and what better way to introduce myself than to show you all one of my recent projects, right? Sorry for my garbage english in advance.
I called it "6410X" specifically because it's somewhat inspired by the Corsair 6500X dual chamber PC case and because the APU is an AMD A8-6410. It's not fully finished yet, and i didn't document every step, but i think it's good enough to show off!
It all started with an Acer Laptop that was acting a little funky. It would run very hot, would beep every seconds or so, and the screen would turn on and off every second or so too. So, naturally, one thing lead to another and i opened it up and disassembled it. That's when i noticed that the Motherboard looked a lot like an ITX motherboard would and that kinda kicked off the whole Idea.
I quickly decided to build a Case for it, going for said Corsair 6500X look, just.. smaller. I opted for 4mm ABS plates for now. Here i made a mounting Plate for the Mobo and the daughterboard and used standoff screws from PC cases to mount them. It required me slightly drilling out the holes, but thankfully not by much. The 2 white rectangles you see are for future holes for the SATA and slimline SATA connectors for the DVD drive and SSD on the second chamber of the case. I also attached a thin piece of PLA plate over the APU to get a rough idea of the mounting posts and the location of the chip itself.
First test fit of a cooler that was originally meant for a Raspberry Pi. As you can see, the mounting points didn't line up at all and i had to do some filing of the base plate to make it work.
I decided to use a PLA plate in a T-Shape to mount the cooler on it. It's not perfect, and i'm thinking of replacing it with a more sturdy structure in the future, but it does the job for now. Maybe i will go for a 3d printed brace in the future, with additional support to prevent it from twisting and moving.
Small leap forward and i made a 5V splitter, using power and ground from the rear USB 2 port that was unused anyway. Everything modular just in case i want to upgrade or change anything in the future. The first port is the power input, with the other 3 being output. Here i was using 3x 5V fans just for testing purposes. I did try and run the CPU fan off of the original CPU fan header, but it didn't quite work out. The original header expects a "tacho" signal to regulate speed and all. Without that, the Fan would instantly turn off again and refuse to spin. As far as i could research, using 3-pin or 4-pin PWM fans and their tach signal would also not have worked, so i opted to go straight to 5V.
This is where i started building the case structure out of the same 4mm ABS plates. I made small right-angle plates on the 4 corners of the motherboard mounting plate where the whole left chamber can be screwed on to. I also added 2 beams as braces on the top and bottom so the sidepanel will have something to mount to. I also created openings for the front and rear IO.
Work on the right Chamber has begun. The 2.5" SSD is mounted on the back side of the motherboard mounting plate using a small metal mounting frame from some other Laptop. The DVD drive, originally from an HP desktop, was mocked up right on top of it just so i have an idea on how wide the case will need to be.
I bought some wood-style vinyl from amazon and build the right side of the Case. It's generally bigger than i first expected, but it's still tiny compared to the mATX PC underneath and next to it.
And this is where it currently is. It's mostly finished, just waiting for more refining and polishing of details and the wood vinyl. I added a 70mm front fan, although it's not the final fan yet. This one is a 12V fan, and runs too slow on the 5V power so i will change it to a 5V fan in the future. I have also made a 3V splitter with power from the SD card slot. It was meant to be used for an LED strip and some 60mm and 70mm angel-eye LED rings meant for cars that i wanted to attach to the fans just to spice it up. But they are also 12V and just refuse to light up with 5V and with the 3V. I expected them to be less bright, but they just don't light up at all, so i might put a buck connector in-between to give them 12V. I also mostly finished up mounting the DVD drive and sidepanels. Mistakes were made, but it's alright.. for now.
I also added a tiny plastic plate over the daughterboard because the hot-glue didn't look aesthetically pleasing.
There's also something i sadly didn't take a photo of. I bought a USB-3 Hub, gutted it, and attached it in the back of the case in the right chamber, plugging it in using the mini PCI-E that would normally house the WIFI Card with a small adapter to USB-3.
I still want to add a power LED and harddrive LED in the front.
I called it "6410X" specifically because it's somewhat inspired by the Corsair 6500X dual chamber PC case and because the APU is an AMD A8-6410. It's not fully finished yet, and i didn't document every step, but i think it's good enough to show off!
It all started with an Acer Laptop that was acting a little funky. It would run very hot, would beep every seconds or so, and the screen would turn on and off every second or so too. So, naturally, one thing lead to another and i opened it up and disassembled it. That's when i noticed that the Motherboard looked a lot like an ITX motherboard would and that kinda kicked off the whole Idea.
I quickly decided to build a Case for it, going for said Corsair 6500X look, just.. smaller. I opted for 4mm ABS plates for now. Here i made a mounting Plate for the Mobo and the daughterboard and used standoff screws from PC cases to mount them. It required me slightly drilling out the holes, but thankfully not by much. The 2 white rectangles you see are for future holes for the SATA and slimline SATA connectors for the DVD drive and SSD on the second chamber of the case. I also attached a thin piece of PLA plate over the APU to get a rough idea of the mounting posts and the location of the chip itself.
First test fit of a cooler that was originally meant for a Raspberry Pi. As you can see, the mounting points didn't line up at all and i had to do some filing of the base plate to make it work.
I decided to use a PLA plate in a T-Shape to mount the cooler on it. It's not perfect, and i'm thinking of replacing it with a more sturdy structure in the future, but it does the job for now. Maybe i will go for a 3d printed brace in the future, with additional support to prevent it from twisting and moving.
Small leap forward and i made a 5V splitter, using power and ground from the rear USB 2 port that was unused anyway. Everything modular just in case i want to upgrade or change anything in the future. The first port is the power input, with the other 3 being output. Here i was using 3x 5V fans just for testing purposes. I did try and run the CPU fan off of the original CPU fan header, but it didn't quite work out. The original header expects a "tacho" signal to regulate speed and all. Without that, the Fan would instantly turn off again and refuse to spin. As far as i could research, using 3-pin or 4-pin PWM fans and their tach signal would also not have worked, so i opted to go straight to 5V.
This is where i started building the case structure out of the same 4mm ABS plates. I made small right-angle plates on the 4 corners of the motherboard mounting plate where the whole left chamber can be screwed on to. I also added 2 beams as braces on the top and bottom so the sidepanel will have something to mount to. I also created openings for the front and rear IO.
Work on the right Chamber has begun. The 2.5" SSD is mounted on the back side of the motherboard mounting plate using a small metal mounting frame from some other Laptop. The DVD drive, originally from an HP desktop, was mocked up right on top of it just so i have an idea on how wide the case will need to be.
I bought some wood-style vinyl from amazon and build the right side of the Case. It's generally bigger than i first expected, but it's still tiny compared to the mATX PC underneath and next to it.
And this is where it currently is. It's mostly finished, just waiting for more refining and polishing of details and the wood vinyl. I added a 70mm front fan, although it's not the final fan yet. This one is a 12V fan, and runs too slow on the 5V power so i will change it to a 5V fan in the future. I have also made a 3V splitter with power from the SD card slot. It was meant to be used for an LED strip and some 60mm and 70mm angel-eye LED rings meant for cars that i wanted to attach to the fans just to spice it up. But they are also 12V and just refuse to light up with 5V and with the 3V. I expected them to be less bright, but they just don't light up at all, so i might put a buck connector in-between to give them 12V. I also mostly finished up mounting the DVD drive and sidepanels. Mistakes were made, but it's alright.. for now.
I also added a tiny plastic plate over the daughterboard because the hot-glue didn't look aesthetically pleasing.
There's also something i sadly didn't take a photo of. I bought a USB-3 Hub, gutted it, and attached it in the back of the case in the right chamber, plugging it in using the mini PCI-E that would normally house the WIFI Card with a small adapter to USB-3.
I still want to add a power LED and harddrive LED in the front.
