With the current COVID situation putting a damper on outside activities, I decided to take the opportunity to try my hand at learning how to do some basic CAD design, as well as design a case for my future self. At the moment I have 2 very basic work in progress designs and looking for a bit of feedback and criticism.
I do NOT have personal access to any form of manufacturing facilities. So anything I designed I would need to pay to have created. To this end I chose to target laser cut materials and 10x10x10mm threaded construction cubes. Additionally, to keep costs down I wanted to avoid countersinking and threading of materials if I could.
My primary resources for measurements has been Protocase as well as the motherboard models in the resource section.
To get an idea about material availability and cost, I decided to reference sendcutsend. I will shop around more once the case is ready to go.
Never doen any form of CAD work before so this was a bit of a learning process. The actual design I have been doing in 2D via the ezdxf Python package. This has allowed me to easily keep many aspect of the design very parametric, and allow for tweaking clearances on the fly. With many of the major parts roughly created I decided to slap it all together in Fusion360 to see how things are looking.
Overall I am a beginner at case design, and just looking for feedback from people, particularly those much more well versed in design and have done projects like this before.
Design 1: 17L+ mATX tower
302 x 168 x 334mm (ignoring front standoffs)
One of the first thing that surprised me is that, according to sendcutsend, creating a perforation pattern for airflow is VERY EXPENSIVE! Not sure if this is a general rule, or just how they calculate price via online quote.
As such my first design is a very basic. I wanted to see how a very traditional mATX tower layout worked if I attempted to trim all the fat. I had a Inwin 301c in the past and it was fairly compact despite using a standard layout.
The front fans are simple circle cutouts, but I could use a basic metal front plate attached on long standoffs to visually cover them, allowing for some airflow around the plate, which is common in many mainstream case designs (at the expense of airflow)
No perforations on the top/sides would generate a wind-tunnel effect, with all the exhaust coming out the back.
GPU length is limited though. (But I can extend the design with a click of a button thanks to parametrics)
The to-do list for this is at least:
- Rear fan cutout. Deciding between 1x 92mm or 2x 80mm
- PCIe upper cutout/mounting
- I think I can split the rear panel and make it so I can freely choose PSU above or below the mobo (just need a few small connectors for cubes)
- Power Button
- Maybe some SSD mounts but I could just Velcro them in
Design 1: 12L+ ITX sandwich /vertical case
303 x 165 x 244mm
I think this is what I REALLY set out to do, but wanted to get more comfortable with software before going at it. Its a basic sandwich design, but wide enough to support triple-slot GPUs and a 70mm CPU cooler, and tall enough to position 140mm fans above and below. I would probable also cut a base for this to have the option to vertical mount it, which should give some serious airflow with 4x140mm fans.
Not really to sure how feasible this type of layout is if perforation cutting is that expensive.
The to-do list for this is at least:
- PCIe upper cutout/mounting
- Mounting points for SFX on upper fan bracket via standoffs
- SSD mounts on lower bracket
- Power button
- PCIe riser mounting holes.
I do NOT have personal access to any form of manufacturing facilities. So anything I designed I would need to pay to have created. To this end I chose to target laser cut materials and 10x10x10mm threaded construction cubes. Additionally, to keep costs down I wanted to avoid countersinking and threading of materials if I could.
My primary resources for measurements has been Protocase as well as the motherboard models in the resource section.
To get an idea about material availability and cost, I decided to reference sendcutsend. I will shop around more once the case is ready to go.
Never doen any form of CAD work before so this was a bit of a learning process. The actual design I have been doing in 2D via the ezdxf Python package. This has allowed me to easily keep many aspect of the design very parametric, and allow for tweaking clearances on the fly. With many of the major parts roughly created I decided to slap it all together in Fusion360 to see how things are looking.
Overall I am a beginner at case design, and just looking for feedback from people, particularly those much more well versed in design and have done projects like this before.
Design 1: 17L+ mATX tower
302 x 168 x 334mm (ignoring front standoffs)
One of the first thing that surprised me is that, according to sendcutsend, creating a perforation pattern for airflow is VERY EXPENSIVE! Not sure if this is a general rule, or just how they calculate price via online quote.
As such my first design is a very basic. I wanted to see how a very traditional mATX tower layout worked if I attempted to trim all the fat. I had a Inwin 301c in the past and it was fairly compact despite using a standard layout.
The front fans are simple circle cutouts, but I could use a basic metal front plate attached on long standoffs to visually cover them, allowing for some airflow around the plate, which is common in many mainstream case designs (at the expense of airflow)
No perforations on the top/sides would generate a wind-tunnel effect, with all the exhaust coming out the back.
GPU length is limited though. (But I can extend the design with a click of a button thanks to parametrics)
The to-do list for this is at least:
- Rear fan cutout. Deciding between 1x 92mm or 2x 80mm
- PCIe upper cutout/mounting
- I think I can split the rear panel and make it so I can freely choose PSU above or below the mobo (just need a few small connectors for cubes)
- Power Button
- Maybe some SSD mounts but I could just Velcro them in
Design 1: 12L+ ITX sandwich /vertical case
303 x 165 x 244mm
I think this is what I REALLY set out to do, but wanted to get more comfortable with software before going at it. Its a basic sandwich design, but wide enough to support triple-slot GPUs and a 70mm CPU cooler, and tall enough to position 140mm fans above and below. I would probable also cut a base for this to have the option to vertical mount it, which should give some serious airflow with 4x140mm fans.
Not really to sure how feasible this type of layout is if perforation cutting is that expensive.
The to-do list for this is at least:
- PCIe upper cutout/mounting
- Mounting points for SFX on upper fan bracket via standoffs
- SSD mounts on lower bracket
- Power button
- PCIe riser mounting holes.
