Steampunk mATX DeepCool Steam Castle

BikingViking11

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Feb 10, 2019
93
167
After a ton of construction work on my studio I got a bit burnt out on it and wanted to just do a project again. Over the holidays I learned that my eldest son (who's 30, so he's no kid) doesn't have a desktop PC. He's been through a lot and lost a lot of his young life to substance abuse, but he's been sober for several years now, has a steady and good job and is even engaged to be married. I am proud of how he's turned his life around and wanted to give him the same gift I was given by my own father in my late 20's: my very first PC. That used IBM 286 clone got me started on a road to building and customizing PCs, becoming staff on a forum and these days coaching other young people through their own builds.

This also means...I have a lot of computer hardware laying around unused in storage. I went through a move and a lot of the projects I'd been working on before were boxed up, new projects replaced them and they were forgotten. One was a PC I built on an Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z board with an i7-2600K and 16GB Corsair Dominator DDR3. This was my main PC until 2016 when I upgraded to an i7-6700K and the Gene-Z sat in my dual PC Phanteks case as a streaming PC...and never got used. Thing is, I've done some homework and although it's old by most standards, the 2600K is still competitive with a modern i5...especially when overclocked. Paired up with a more modern GPU it should be more than capable of playing even recent titles at 1080p...and certainly an improvement over having no computer at all.

The case, a DeepCool Steam Castle, is a project started for my wife. I painted it purple at her request, but before I could build it I was given two computer's worth of parts that had been struck by lightning. I managed to salvage a single working PC out of the lot...but it was full ATX, so the mATX Steam Castle case was put into storage. We've since built her an Asrock Deskmini with a Ryzen 5 2400G (She did the complete build herself including a recent USB port upgrade) so the ATX rig dubbed "Ol' Sparky" was put out to pasture.

My apologies that I didn't start documenting it earlier. As I stated in another post, I didn't feel this was SFF enough, but as it's coming along I realized that it does fit in with the mission statement of, "an online community geared towards small form factor enthusiasts: system builders who prize space efficiency and thoughtful design in what they create, use, and enjoy. " This project has already taken up a great deal of thought, mainly because I'm trying to use what components I already have and somehow mash them all into a workable machine. Nothing too exotic, many of the parts are out of fashion, but since I'll be giving it away that's a good goal.

OK, on to the case:



Stripped of plastic the Steam Castle is a 30 liter cube case. The mITX or mATX board sits horizontal, front intake fan is 200mm, rear exhaust is 120-140mm, top is designed for
2X 120-140mm fans or even a 240-280mm radiator, PSU sits at the bottom and is full ATX drawing air from underneath with a mesh filter.

I stripped out all the stock fans, the HDD rack/motherboard tray extension, optical drive/floppy cages and took a hard look.



...and thought, "Yeah, I could fit those 180mm and 200mm rads in there...but I have some other work to do first."

The first step was to modify the top plastics to actually function as an exhaust at the back of the case, one of many dubious design decisions made by DeepCool.



Pretty easily accomplished by drilling four more holes for the plastic barbs to fit into, one pair already lined up.

I then needed to make room for the dual-bay reservoir, another relic from a project that never happened.





It fit right in there, though with the drive cage gone...with nothing to hold it in place.



I then started fitting the front 180mm radiator in place.



It's ported to the case bottom for both drainage and to give as much height clearance as possible.

The 180mm fan holds it in place, though I've since ordered thinner 17mm x 180mm Silverstone fans to actually fit inside the front bezel.



The thicker 32mm fan may or may not be used as a pull fan on the inside depending upon what GPU card length is.

That done I got to work on the top 200mm radiator.



Looked like enough room so I committed and cut off the 120-140mm bracketry.



There were some holes where the rad needed to mount, but using the 200mm to 180mm adapter bracket gave it enough support to hold it.

I then cut out wider for better airflow through the top radiator.



After removing the HDD rack the motherboard tray was only suited for mITX. Two of the standoffs were missing for mATX, so I started fabricating a shelf.



I'm almost finished with a couple brackets for mounting the bay res too since the drive tray is gone. I felt it left it looking less cluttered.

I'm starting to collect parts for all sorts of other mods, effects and steampunky additions...but I'll save the details for those for a future update.



I know the Steam Castle is one of those love it or hate it aesthetics, so all I can say is wait to see what I'm doing with it. It has some flaws (and definitely some warts) but the more it progresses, the better the ideas are and clearer the vision is for what it can be. Thanks for reading thus far.
 

BikingViking11

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Feb 10, 2019
93
167
I got into hacking plastic again today.



There wasn't quite enough room for a fan, even a thin 18mm one above the top radiator. After looking it over carefully and even measuring a bit I determined it really only needed 4-5mm to clear...so out came the Dremel.



I started with the grilles and took the tabs off the ends. Part of the top came off as the 180mm fan cut into that space too. I then had to cut the mounting posts down as well as slot the mounting holes so it could move at the same angle.





This raised the grilles about 5mm and I think it still looks fine.



There will be more grille cutouts on the front and top.



And the side panels will get framed windows.



Some of the next mods will take some fine soldering so I upgraded that setup with a Hakko 888 soldering station, a selection of tips and a silicone soldering mat.



A plasma disc will be mounted directly over the front fan hub. It works just like the plasma balls where the "lightning" follows your fingertips when touched. I wanted it to be out front where people can play with it.


I took a chance and waited a long time for this as it was shipped from Ukraine.


It's a small Nixie clock that will be inserted at the top of the front bezel where the mesh section is. I still have to work out mounting it and how to make the setting buttons accessible from outside the case, but I'm super happy with the function and effect. It's cool enough that I've considered powering it separately from the PC so it can be left on, but the tubes do have a shorter lifespan than LEDs. I'll figure that out later.

I still have more tricks up my sleeve, stuff I haven't seen in any other mods, though I also don't know if they'll work. I'll be updating you all as I perform my experiments whether they succeed or not.
 

BikingViking11

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Feb 10, 2019
93
167
Great build so far. It may not be small but the ingenuity is the important bit :)
Yeah, but it's small-ish. ;)

Today I made a lot of progress on fitting that nixie clock in there. I live stream the build so it's often that I forget to also take still pics. I'll be sure to take some for the next post.
 
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BikingViking11

SFF Lingo Aficionado
Original poster
Feb 10, 2019
93
167
Mini update:

Yesterday the nixie clock was fit in place...nearly.



This took shaving out the ridge that supported the mesh insert to make clearance for the vacuum tubes as well as cutting out a chunk of the case. I don't know if the designers of the clock thought much about how to mount it as they left very little tab area on the board. At first I planned on mounting it to the bezel, but wisdom (and the cautions of friends) told me that would be a bad idea. The bezel is held on by friction, so if it ever popped off and took the clock with it, at the least wires would be ripped out, at most the clock destroyed. Instead I'll be mounting it to the metal case with brackets so any of the bezel/panels can be removed easily. I didn't get far enough to actually mount them and one I may remake as it didn't come out to my satisfaction.

I also finished the job of recessing/raising the grills to clear the top rad fan. There's very little clearance in there and the grills are the only ventilation so I'm planning to cut in a slot between the stacks to accommodate a strip of the same "shamrock" pattern mesh that will be going on the front of the case. I think that will give more purpose and integration to the overall design as well as more texture. Better ventilation always helps too.



For anyone wondering about the nixie clock, I bought it on Etsy and there's a myriad of other types available. It shipped from Ukraine (which took forever) and includes instructions on how to reset it, as well as a warning.



I can attest to the "discomfort".

Once I get the clock mounted, some sort of backdrop shield will be fabricated to cover up the PCB and gaps alongside it. This has become a somewhat tedious and slow moving project, but also very satisfying as each challenge is surpassed and when my kooky ideas actually work out.

Upcoming aspects will be creating a "control panel" housing a round analog voltmeter and ammeter with micro switches to turn the various features on and off. The Steam Castle case originally had a primitive RGB lighting kit in the top grills with SMDs giving you the choice of red, green or blue...nothing else. I'll be replacing those with "flame flicker" 3mm red and yellow LEDs to hopefully create the illusion of fire inside them.