Project: Jeff Acrylic

[SarverSystems]

I know, the name isn't very artistic, but I think the project will speak for itself once it is done.

On to the pics!

Here is our victim. A brand new dark-smoke acrylic gullwing case from Clearpc.ca. 3 months in the making, it finally arrived.

Side angle. Things to note in this image: The motherboard mounts on the right side of the case on the door itself, similar to how a BTX board would mount. Therefore, the fan on the video card will face up, the CPU will mounted lower in the case, and all of the PCI cards will be near the top.

The front.

The right side. Things to note in this image: The door attaches to the top of the case, therefore the 2 thumbscrews at the top are there to keep the door closed. You can also see how the 2 drivebay faceplates stick out in the front. Some people like this look, but I don't care for it. Doesn't matter much, neither one will be used in the final product. You can also see the 2 holes for the switches, and 2 holes for the LEDs. They are up on the top left front of the case if you can't spot them easily.

Here you can see the back of the case and how the power supply mounts on the bottom.

Door closed.

Door open.

Here is a closeup of the hinges, which are made of acrylic as well. Would've been nice to have them in dark smoke tint as well, but clear works nicely. Even the hinge pins are acrylic.

 

[SarverSystems]

Here we can see the latest change that Clearpc.ca has made to their cases. They now permanently attach the motherboard standoffs. I can see how this would save time, but honestly, I like the old method better. For one, what if it snaps off, or worse yet, strips out if you tighten a screw down just a bit too much? Also, I like to get a little creative with the motherboard standoffs when I use acrylic cases.

Here you can see the switch holes and LED holes.

The entire front of the case slides out. This is the only way to attach the drives since there is no door on the right side of the case. I have 3 problems with this piece in every system I've built with these cases. #1 is that the acrylic uprights are spaced about 5mm too far apart. When you attach the drives and tighten down the screws, the acrylic actually bends. #2 is that the screw holes that attach the drives need to be slotted instead of perfectly round. This would allow the drives to mounted at any depth, allowing for stealthed drives (yeah, you can stealth a drive in an acrylic case), or to accomodate unusual-sized drives. #3 is that there is only 4 screws per drive. When mounting anything other than a drive in a drive bay, such as a switch-bus, fan-bus, light-bus, etc, there are only 2 screws holding it in. That allows it to pivot on those 2 screws. I will post more pics of that once I get the rest of the parts in.

Screw holes. No room for adjustment whatsoever.

Here you can see just how well this piece was made. Perfectly straight cuts. You can tell he uses a waterjet or laserjet to make these pieces.

Even the fan hols is perfectly round. Something a dremel can't achieve without years of practice. You can order yours with no fan, 80mm, 92mm, or 120mm in the front.

 

[SarverSystems]

The power supply cutout is perfect as well. My only beef here is that on 2 of my latest acrylic projects, I was only able to line up 3 of the 4 screws for the power supply.

I will post more pics as the project progresses.

 

[Spaceninja]

That is a really nice case. Makes the $40 one I got from Xoxide look like crap. Guess I can't complain server got a case that is neat and cheap.

So what are you going to do to the case?

 

[SarverSystems]

Not all of the hardware has been decided yet.

As far as mods go, we'll be using a Cooler Master Cool Drive 4 in black for the fan controller, temp monitoring, and to hide the hard drive. We'll be using a Sunbeam Lightbus in black to control 4 sets of dual tube 12" cathodes. I also plan for a little surprise with the cathodes. I'll post pics of those during the mod.

 

[rogue_jedi]

is there any particular reason the back of the case is flipped like that?

looks like a nice starting point, though.

 

[zapperfish]

what are you going to be doig to the case?, but i love the case

 

[SarverSystems]

rogue_jedi: Maybe you should look at the words?

 

[rogue_jedi]

Side angle. Things to note in this image: The motherboard mounts on the right side of the case on the door itself, similar to how a BTX board would mount. Therefore, the fan on the video card will face up, the CPU will mounted lower in the case, and all of the PCI cards will be near the top.

i see that you mention that it is like that, but is it just put that way so the video card fan is on top?

and it's hard to look at words with all the pretty pictures...

 

[SarverSystems]

I see your point. Let me rephrase it.

THe motherboard is on the left side because it mounts to the door. Openning the door allows the motherboard to lay almost flat on the table as shown in this pic.

 

[SpangeMonkee]

I see your point. Let me rephrase it.

THe motherboard is on the left side because it mounts to the door. Openning the door allows the motherboard to lay almost flat on the table as shown in this pic.

doesn't that mean that all the cables have to be extra long to allow for it to open?

 

[SarverSystems]

Yes. I am working on a cure for that though. I know all of the drives will be SATA, except the DVD burner, which he INSISTS be a Pioneer. Pioneer doesn't make a SATA burner yet.

 

[zapperfish]

Mady you could have all the cable sleeved together, then have a junktion box on the mobo try where all the cables go to the requied places,
you can do the same thing with the SATA cables. Just use one of the things that come with gigabyte mobos, the things that mean you can runn the HDD's externaly

 

[SarverSystems]

Quit reading my mind! I hate when people do that!!!!

 

[isp]

Nice table cloth atleast

 

[zapperfish]

there is that the same idea you had? also other people can get the idea

 

[SarverSystems]

Yes and no. Move the junction box to the bottom of the case, not on the door.

And don't be table-cloth hatin'.

 

[-UrbanAssassin-]

Not a bad case, its very different. I cant wait to see how it turns out.

 

[GlobalFear]

Yes. I am working on a cure for that though. I know all of the drives will be SATA, except the DVD burner, which he INSISTS be a Pioneer. Pioneer doesn't make a SATA burner yet.

Can you use SATA hard drive adapters for DVD drives?

 

[SarverSystems]

Funny you should mention that. That's exactly the plan. SVC carries one, but I am having a hard time judging the size of it, and I'm not sure how it hooks up exactly.

 

[Kankykur7]

Abit mades a ATA to SATA converter that they put with motherboards like the NF7-S. I dont know what motherboard you have and if the "serillel" thing works with other motherboards but you might want to look up that to see if you can buy them seperately. looking sweet so far.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Can you use SATA hard drive adapters for DVD drives?

I've heard that some have gotten them to work with some drives and mobos.

 

[SarverSystems]

http://store.yahoo.com/svcompucycle/satoul133cob.html

That's what I planned to use.

 

[rogue_jedi]

just looking at that adaptor... it looks like what you see is what you'd still see when looking at the back of the drive it is plugged in to. the black dots across it are probably the IDE connector pins. so i'd guess it is about as wide as a ide connector, and then the cables plug into the sides/bottom/top of it. it is probably a lot smaller than the abit solution.

if it doesn't work right, you could always try putting a ide->sata adapter (the other way) on the other end. then, plug that into an ide port on the motherboard.

or just use an ide cable, but that's no fun.

 

[SarverSystems]

Finally got some more parts in for this project.

I asked in a previous thread about the Centaurus fans. Nobody had heard of them, let alone had any pics of them. Well, these things are actually pretty neat-looking. They definitely won't fit EVERYONE'S theme, but I think they will work nicely with what I am doing.

I also received my PC-120.

But the aluminum fan that I originally bought (as seen in the first pic) won't work with the mounting brackets on the PC-120. I will either mod the fan, the brackets, or both, or maybe just leave this clear fan on it. I haven't decided yet.

 

[SarverSystems]

I also got in a CoolDrive 4. I bought this to "Stealth" the hard drive, help keep it a little cooler, and to add fan controls.

 

[SarverSystems]

We also needed to keep the antiquated floppy drive, and.... needed a card reader. The problem is, there isn't enough bays to fit both. Introducing the floppy drive card reader!