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Emission
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Dec 6, 2005
- Messages
- 4,420
Hello all! Emission is at it again, this time he's serious 
. I'd like to welcome everyone to a new worklog, Worklog: Nocturnal Woody. This is my first crack at making a case of any kind, but I've got my fair share of wood-working experience, and I think that as long as I've put forth all the planning, I'll be OK.
Introduction.
Well, this all started as a personal workstation I'm building for school/home. I was looking into something that was cheap, yet not crappy, and as everyone knows thats fairly hard to find. Good news though, a friend over at BlazingPC Forums got me a really nice deal on a Mobo/CPU/RAM/Cooler combo ($60!), and it sparked some thought.
I wanted this to be small and aesthetically pleasing, so, I was looking into an SFF mATX case. Turns out that all the well-built cases of this kind go for over $100, and that just would NOT do. But I didn't want to let this bring my dream of an awesome workstation come down in flames, so I thought about it a little. What if.... I made my own case? To hell with that manufactured crap! I can make something 100000x better, thats 10x cheaper, hand-built, and a lot more functional! And so, Worklog X was born!
A little info about Nocturnal Woody.
This worklog/project sets out to be one-of-a-kind (or at least a stepping stone for those who wish to pursue a concept like this). I chose wood because it's a readily available resource for me, that I can get for absolutely nothing 99.9% of the time, and I also chose it because I'm comfortable working with it. It's easy to make every piece I need with hand-tools, and most of the time most accurate.
Short List of Basic Goals:
- Aesthetically Pleasing (AKA Looks good).
- Wide Range of Compatibility.
- Quiet.
- Roomy.
- Small as Possible.
- Inexpensive.
Initial Parts.
- Pentium 4 2.26 GHz Northwood S478.
- Gateway S478 Motherboard.
- 1GB DDR400 (2x512) RAM.
- Thermaltake P4 Spark 5+ All-Copper CPU Cooler.
- Some Random PSU (Will find at school.)
- ATi Rage 128 Ultra 16MB AGP 4x/8x -> Converted to full height slot.
- Undecided HDD.
- Undecided Opticals/NIC's, etc....
Design.
I'm making this mATX for SFF purposes. I AM however considering building an extend-able frame so that I can make this ATX in the future if I ever have a good enough reason to. In terms of compatibility, there are a few key things I'm trying to achieve. I made PSU placement above the Expansion/PCI ports so that the CPU area is spacious, and can fit the largest air coolers out there. Even so, the PSU is just high enough that you can still place tall cards there without issues, also, using a PSU with a 120MM fan right under it means airflow for graphics and other cards, so that it doesn't create a pocket of stagnant air in that area. Moving onward, I designed it with 2 3.5" HDD bays on each side of the 5.25" Bay stack, for maximum HDD capacity if I ever find that I need it. Moving onwards, I'm not sure where to place the Exhaust Fan, but I laid out a few areas where it's most convenient/functional to have one.
Other than that, the last few touch-ups would be the LCD and the Power/Reset/LED panel. I have a 2x16 Parallel Port LCD Assembly that's sitting in a HTPC case that's not in use, and I'm considering integrating it into this box. I might, might not, depends on if the box calls for it, but most likely not as I cannot see a suitable function for it at this time.
Colors? I'd generally like this to be on the darker side of things, simply because I prefer the dark colors. Maybe a dark cherry finish, or a more subtle oriental color, not really sure how I'd like that, but I won't worry about it for now.
Materials.... Basically, anything I can find to use. I'll see if I can find a big enough sheet or pieces of wood that have the same characteristics. This is one of those things that requires a little research, of which I will begin tomorrow.
I/O Plate and other interchangeable parts. Well, I thought about making custom wooden I/O plates for the varying boards that are going to see this case in it's lifetime, seeing as I'd much rather prefer to use as little actual metal as possible. I'm also trying to think of what else would see this interchangeable treatment, but I'm not sure theres anything I haven't covered. This is a plan in it's early stages, so of course I'm not gonna cover everything in the first shot.
Pictures of Initial Drawings.
Suggestions/Comments/Anything.
I'm 100% open to suggestions on every aspect of this worklog/project. It appears that I've gotten a fairly solid layout worked out, but nothing is perfect. Also open to suggestions on possible add-ons and such, anything that can make this case function better. I still don't know how I'm going to join everything together, and how the doors/sides are going to work out, so if anyone has input on that, would be great!
. I'd like to welcome everyone to a new worklog, Worklog: Nocturnal Woody. This is my first crack at making a case of any kind, but I've got my fair share of wood-working experience, and I think that as long as I've put forth all the planning, I'll be OK. Introduction.
Well, this all started as a personal workstation I'm building for school/home. I was looking into something that was cheap, yet not crappy, and as everyone knows thats fairly hard to find. Good news though, a friend over at BlazingPC Forums got me a really nice deal on a Mobo/CPU/RAM/Cooler combo ($60!), and it sparked some thought.
I wanted this to be small and aesthetically pleasing, so, I was looking into an SFF mATX case. Turns out that all the well-built cases of this kind go for over $100, and that just would NOT do. But I didn't want to let this bring my dream of an awesome workstation come down in flames, so I thought about it a little. What if.... I made my own case? To hell with that manufactured crap! I can make something 100000x better, thats 10x cheaper, hand-built, and a lot more functional! And so, Worklog X was born!
A little info about Nocturnal Woody.
This worklog/project sets out to be one-of-a-kind (or at least a stepping stone for those who wish to pursue a concept like this). I chose wood because it's a readily available resource for me, that I can get for absolutely nothing 99.9% of the time, and I also chose it because I'm comfortable working with it. It's easy to make every piece I need with hand-tools, and most of the time most accurate.
Short List of Basic Goals:
- Aesthetically Pleasing (AKA Looks good).
- Wide Range of Compatibility.
- Quiet.
- Roomy.
- Small as Possible.
- Inexpensive.
Initial Parts.
- Pentium 4 2.26 GHz Northwood S478.
- Gateway S478 Motherboard.
- 1GB DDR400 (2x512) RAM.
- Thermaltake P4 Spark 5+ All-Copper CPU Cooler.
- Some Random PSU (Will find at school.)
- ATi Rage 128 Ultra 16MB AGP 4x/8x -> Converted to full height slot.
- Undecided HDD.
- Undecided Opticals/NIC's, etc....
Design.
I'm making this mATX for SFF purposes. I AM however considering building an extend-able frame so that I can make this ATX in the future if I ever have a good enough reason to. In terms of compatibility, there are a few key things I'm trying to achieve. I made PSU placement above the Expansion/PCI ports so that the CPU area is spacious, and can fit the largest air coolers out there. Even so, the PSU is just high enough that you can still place tall cards there without issues, also, using a PSU with a 120MM fan right under it means airflow for graphics and other cards, so that it doesn't create a pocket of stagnant air in that area. Moving onward, I designed it with 2 3.5" HDD bays on each side of the 5.25" Bay stack, for maximum HDD capacity if I ever find that I need it. Moving onwards, I'm not sure where to place the Exhaust Fan, but I laid out a few areas where it's most convenient/functional to have one.
Other than that, the last few touch-ups would be the LCD and the Power/Reset/LED panel. I have a 2x16 Parallel Port LCD Assembly that's sitting in a HTPC case that's not in use, and I'm considering integrating it into this box. I might, might not, depends on if the box calls for it, but most likely not as I cannot see a suitable function for it at this time.
Colors? I'd generally like this to be on the darker side of things, simply because I prefer the dark colors. Maybe a dark cherry finish, or a more subtle oriental color, not really sure how I'd like that, but I won't worry about it for now.
Materials.... Basically, anything I can find to use. I'll see if I can find a big enough sheet or pieces of wood that have the same characteristics. This is one of those things that requires a little research, of which I will begin tomorrow.
I/O Plate and other interchangeable parts. Well, I thought about making custom wooden I/O plates for the varying boards that are going to see this case in it's lifetime, seeing as I'd much rather prefer to use as little actual metal as possible. I'm also trying to think of what else would see this interchangeable treatment, but I'm not sure theres anything I haven't covered. This is a plan in it's early stages, so of course I'm not gonna cover everything in the first shot.
Pictures of Initial Drawings.
Suggestions/Comments/Anything.
I'm 100% open to suggestions on every aspect of this worklog/project. It appears that I've gotten a fairly solid layout worked out, but nothing is perfect. Also open to suggestions on possible add-ons and such, anything that can make this case function better. I still don't know how I'm going to join everything together, and how the doors/sides are going to work out, so if anyone has input on that, would be great!
