Custom case concept... revised, with mock-ups.

[n00btard]

So a while back, I posted a messed up picture of a whiteboard with chickenscratches everywhere in a "mad scientist" fashion. It was basically a dual-chamber design, made out of polycarbonate sheets.

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1076710

but Lexan scratches easily (those of you who use Nalgene bottles probably know that), you can't exactly tap it, and there's the EMI factor to worry about. So I figured I'll use 2mm Aluminum sheets instead. I also switched around some stuff. Because the place where everything's plugged in will be along the top, there will be a 120mm fan where one would expect to see a fan mount in a standard mid-tower... to the "north" of the PCI slots, and "east" of the I/O ports.

Here are some mockups:

Here is the drive cage... it holds one 5.25" drive and two 3.5" drives, and a 120mm fan. It will have aluminum cubes brazed to the side, and bolted with M3 screws to the "roof" of the case on the inside:

with an inch of space underneath the mobo to let cables through to the mobo comparment, this is how much space I have to fit a standard ATX power supply (and yes, I want the power plug in the front of the case):

It'll just barely fit (standard ATX PSUs are 3.5" tall.), but the PSU DOES have some breathing room:

How high the case will be (add 0.5" to the height... I'm using a proprietary mATX-ish eMachine mobo in that pic):

More or less how wide it will be (add about a 3/4" to the left, about 2" to the right):

And how long:

there will be a 120mm fan in the rear, to which I'll mount a 120mm rad. There also is enough room for a pump, along with (hopefully) enough room for extra cables.

Currently, I have a 1/2" loop in the works, but I'd like to move to an Innovatek/Aqua-Computer loop in the future. Enough room in the back to stick a HPPS pump there.
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So the dimensions are roughly 13"D x 12" W x 10.5"H

In comparison, the dimension of an Aspire X-QPack: 13.8"D x 11.2"W x 9"H

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I'd like to use this project to learn how to braze. Namely brazing the top, bottom, front and back panels together, along with threaded aluminum cubes to mount the side panels and the drive cage. Is a hand-held blow torch sufficient? What are the specs of the blow torch I have to look for? What is the difference between brazing and soldering, and which is stronger?

If you like anything you see here or would like to incorporate anything you see here into your case-mods, feel free to use them. That's why it's posted here.

 

[Notarikon]

While I understand you want to use this project to practice your brazing, might I recommend you bend the aluminium sheets into shape from one piece for the drive cage and possibly the bottom & sides of the case? E.g.

Not only does it look nicer, but brazing might be a bit fiddly for this and probably make the vibrations a bit worse... are you going to use rubber grommets to mount everything?

Brazing is stronger than soldering, but you need to mod the edges you're going to braze together more than you do for soldering. Check out THe Brazing Book - there's a copy online at

http://www.handyharmancanada.com/TheBrazingBook/bbook.htm

 

[n00btard]

I don't want to braze everything together, just some stuff where it is required. Drive cage will be folded, with the HDD cage brazed on.

And if I braze the cage to the case, it'll be impossible to reach half the screws, because it'll be right up against the inner partition of the case separating the mobo from the other stuff.

 

[n00btard]

SRY for the bumpage...

double post too

seeing as brazing uses filler material that melts at over 840F and soldering uses filler material that melts at less than 840F, how much difference will there be in structural integrity between soldering and brazing? The skeletal structure of the case made out of square alu stock will be brazed/soldered together, so I need to know...