"Orangebox", a custom small, but powerful mini-itx

[grmocg]

Case outside dimensions: 11 3/8" by 9 1/4" by 7.5"

So, what does it fit?

It fits a 650w power supply, a gtx285 (not that it has one of those in there anymore, but many 2-slot cards work fine), a full-size CPU cooler, slimline cdrom, laptop-harddrive and a mini-itx board.
It currently has an h55itx in it, but it had a 9300-itx in the past. My favorite CPU coolers in it have been the ThermalTake SpinQ and various of the Noctua heatsinks (full-size). All have worked well.

Assuming you don't put a huge heatsink in there, it can fit many more drives. In these photos I've stuck two more drives in. In the past I've had combinations of drives up to 2 3.5" and 2 2.5".

It is actually more quiet than my watercooled rig "bluebox", posted elsewhere here under all but very stressful workloads.

I made it myself out of acrylic.

Here is the gallery of all the images I've bothered to take of it:
https://picasaweb.google.com/108235972789266631973/Orangebox?authkey=Gv1sRgCNedx_yvrb3KXQ#


What does everyone think? Should I work on it some more?

Here is my other small form-factor case "bluebox", which is watercooled: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1037405510#post1037405510
Bluebox is 13 3/8" by 9 1/2" by 11 1/2"and it fits the HD5970 which is the whole reason the case is as deep as it is!

 

[sleepeeg3]

Very cool! How do the panels connect? It looks like they are interlocked and... screws?

 

[grmocg]

Yea, I made t-slots for the screws and nuts. It makes the panels easy to change out/customize, and sacrifices no volume inside the case (which is darn precious at this size).

Here is a closer look:

And another:

I've considered hinging some of the panels, but so far the systems have been fire&&forget.

 

[fr500]

You got me thinking again about getting this

http://www.orangeamps.com/uk-shop/category.php?id_category=7

 

[grmocg]

Heh that too is orange.

The initial incarnation of this computer was made with 100% "amber" (really orange) panels, thus the name.

The most interesting thing about that at the time was that the heatsink inside was a SpinQ with a blue light. .. Well, the amber panels 100% filtered out that light, so you'd only see the blue light when you saw the insides through the the (ample) vent holes. I gave that one to my little brother and then made this one for myself out of acrylic scraps which I had around (which were mostly clear).

 

[Patyrn]

How did you make the vent holes? They look incredibly precise to be hand-drilled.

 

[grmocg]

I laser-cut them with a 60w laser!
They come out (when it is done properly) looking very pretty indeed-- the edges are not quite buff-polished, but still quite clear.

 

[Patyrn]

Was it some kind of computer controlled laser?

 

[grmocg]

Yup. Epilog Helix 24 http://www.epiloglaser.com/legend_helix.htm and... well, coreldraw. I designed it all in my head at first.

Here is what it looks like in action (the acrylic still has its masking on, which is a good idea for sure).
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqj9wQAjfdg"]YouTube - ‪60W Epilog Laser in ACTION‬‏[/ame]

 

[iakovl]

great work, love the laser

 

[Patyrn]

That is awesome. I wish I had access to tools like that!

 

[grmocg]

I belong to a place called "TechShop", where members get to use awesome tools like lasercutters, etc. I think the new on in SF may have a waterjet cutter, which I'd love to use someday!

 

[Patyrn]

I've looked into tech shop in the past but I need access to such tools so infrequently that it never seemed worth it.

 

[grmocg]

In that case, just take the "SBUs", and then buy a daily pass when you need to use the tools, or, find a friend who is a member and do joint projects, heh.

 

[Flyboat]

Is it possible to put hard drive and DVD drive at bottom at motherboard to improve airflow to CPU?

 

[grmocg]

It was one of the things I considered... but it turned out that I had zero problems at all with airflow-- the CPU has its own region of intake and expel, as does the video card, and even the powersupply does.

I actually removed the intake fan for the CPU-- it wasn't even necessary for my setup, although the grill and mounting still is there.

 

[Joe S]

Wow, great work. I certainly wish I had the time and skills to make something that nice. spec-wise it is very similar to the long-awaited lan-gear mini-itx and you seem to have done it with nowhere near the trouble and delay lan-gear has been going through.

 

[DrakonSan]

The ventilation reminds me of bubble wrap, I want to pop it. What are the temps over ambient you are getting?

Excellent use of space in the case and only a little bigger than a sugo05. It's odd to me, seeing the PSU up at the front of a SFF case. I'd move the PSU closer to the wall of the case; that cut out to access the PSU switch bothers me for some reason. Offset ODD for the HDD makes me happy.

If only I could get that layout in aluminum or steel... makes me wanna mod my case even more.

 

[Skott]

Interesting little box. That psu is just screaming for a bigger more powerful GPU though.

 

[grmocg]

Actually, a mod of the sugo05 was my prototype ... and it all fit. The tx650, the gtx285, the MB, etc. I didn't like it as much, though, and so orangebox was born.

As for temps over ambient? I don't remember-- I just remember being extremely satisfied, though. It also depended on which heatsink I was using-- I went through a number of them just to play around (including some low-profile ones that I had from when I was modding the Apex mw-100).

Here is a better picture of the CPU (and ventilation for same):

I suppose that I could attempt to run it again one of these days and report it. Admittedly, I use "bluebox" a lot more-- it has the three monitors hooked up and that makes me happy ^_^

One of these days when I have time (like that is going to happen anytime soon), I'll learn to do sheet metal fabrication.