The ideal case (ideas and suggestions)

[maxx_il_giuda]

I'm going to build a new case for me in alluminium.
I want to make it wit window, liquid cooling, fan speed control, frontal usb etc...

Have you some suggestion to make it light, solid, cooler and cool?
How can i do it rock solid? i must compile a project in CAD and give it to be industrially worked.





(sorry if i'm not been clear enought)

[cloasters]

Welcome to AOA Forums, maxx_il_giuda! What an interesting project! I'm sure that more knowledgeable folks here will help you along. I enjoy looking at mechanical drawings of cases, but the idea of designing my own is more than a bit daunting.

[stigweed]

Perhaps where most cases have housing for 80mm fans at the bottom of the front, you could put in a housing for a 120mm fan to keep it quiet.

I had an idea about having some solid, built in place rails for the drive power connectors. So that each drive would just have to connect to its nearest socket built into the case, rather than stretching all the way across to the power supply's cable. Could look quite cool and tidy. Though I think this may turn out to be more trouble than its worth as molex sockets on their own are quite hard to come by.

Blue shiny bits is also the way to go - anodized heatsinks (like the volcano 7 I have and blue cold cathodes.

[maxx_il_giuda]

Nice idea that of the power connector

About the fan on top bottom right left near far etc... I say no.
I want to build a very very quite case and is for this that i'm using the liquid cooling.
In my little funny project will be a 12mm out take fan in the radiator, a 12mm in take fan that blow fresh air near the radiator, a 12mm in take fan in the bottom side of the frontal panel (that blow on the hdds) and optionally an out take fan near the CPu and the power supply.
Naturally all the fan are quiete model and can be lowered in speed or turned off.

[Renod]

I saw a picture on another forum where a guy used a automotive carb filter and housing on the side of his case with 3 80mm fans inside. He claimed it completely masked the noise and provided great air and filtered out all the dust. I thought this was a great idea as the filters are cheap and readily available at automotive supply stores. He got the filter holder parts at a salvage yard.

If you are designing from scratch, using parts from the automotive industry would be interesting.

Another thought would be ducting air through the case to provide flow across the drives where water cooling would not be appropriate. You could use plastic ducting pieces from the air conditioning or plumbing industries. Check on www.mcmaster.com for some ideas. On that same website, search on "sound dampers". They have some commercial products that I have been using to stop vibration in my systems and to lower noise. You might be able to design some of the flat areas of the case out of these materials.