He lives!

[Brians256]

"I aint dead yet! I'm getting better!" - Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail

I'll keep this short. I'm doing a down-and-dirty guide on how to make a "good enough" case from aluminum sheet metal, aluminum angled stock and a bunch of fairly common tools (nothing exotic like 8-feet-wide sheet metal shears).

The idea is that this is really a simple task that opens up the field to much better customization in our cases. Plus, it doesn't look all that bad.

The case is about 60% done now, and I've been careful to get pictures of the major (and some minor) steps so that you can see how I've done it.

I've done this once before and it turned out badly because I took too many short cuts. This time, I think I know what I'm doing, and it should look nice and perform fairly well.

The result will be a 17" tall, 17" deep, and 20" wide case. Huge, but lots of room for a larger heater core, many hard disks and good airflow. The idea is to have something be quiet AND roomy without spending $250-$600 for a double-wide case.

I call it the Redneck II case (in proud homage to my heritage), since it uses practical techniques and it does not elevate style over substance. Taint perty, but it do work.

Sneak peek:
http://www.procooling.com/~brian/images/RedneckCase2/104-0473_IMG.JPG

Now, I do have more done since that pic, but I haven't extracted the pics from my camera as yet. Plus, I should save some of it for later excitement.

[killernoodle]

Cubes are nice. Gonna watercool it?

[Brians256]

Cubes are nice. Gonna watercool it?

Of course!

[KnightElite]

Looking good. This is rather funny, but I am making an almost identical case at the moment (it is sitting at pHaestus' house ;)). Mine will be an 18"x18"x18" cube.

[gone_fishin]

I wanna know why there is a propane tank in your living room?

[Brians256]

I wanna know why there is a propane tank in your living room?

Living room? That's my garage. See the concrete floor?

There just happens to be a lot of stuff in my garage that doesn't normally go in garages: baby kick toy in background, oak table that my wife didnt like, etc...

[bigben2k]

Nice. How are you bending the Alu, if you are?

[Brians256]

I'm not bending the aluminum, actually. The 90 degree bends are joined by rivets to a common piece of angled aluminum stock.

OK, I lied a bit. I will do some sheet metal bending for the ducting from the radiator, but that should be it. For bending it, I will be using 2x4's bolted together with pieces of shim material to make room for the sheet metal to be inserted (saw that in a home repair magazine).

I don't have a sheet metal brake, unfortunately. Actually, I could probably use the one at work, but I'm stuck at home (except for brief forays to the store and for meetings at work) until my wife is done recovering from delivery (another 1-3 weeks for delivery and another 2-3 weeks for recovery).

Redneck motto: You do with what you have. :D

[Brians256]

New progress:

Picked up a 1970 Chevy Blazer heatercore which is the same as what pHaestus has been using (it has decent performance and it fits well with two 120mm fans):

Also, I picked up a Comair Rotron 24VDC fan and two 120mm 12VDC fans all for $20. Hopefully they will work well. In the background, you can see a JBL speaker cover. It just happens to be the right size to fit over the Comair Rotron fan. We'll see if it impedes airflow a lot or if the Comair even works well. If it doesn't, I've always got 120mm fans to fall back on.

http://www.procooling.com/users/brian/images/RedneckCase2/IMG_0490.JPG

[pHaestus]

Hey Brian I was wondering what you had planned for the power and reset button of this case. I ask because if I were to send you one of these new CF633s you'd be able to use the power and reset functions of them:

http://www.procooling.com/reviews/html/matrix_orbital_mx212_vs_crysta2.php

I was gonna send you the serial one anyway; this might make things a bit easier for you?

[Brians256]

Hey Brian I was wondering what you had planned for the power and reset button of this case. I ask because if I were to send you one of these new CF633s you'd be able to use the power and reset functions of them:

http://www.procooling.com/reviews/html/matrix_orbital_mx212_vs_crysta2.php

I was gonna send you the serial one anyway; this might make things a bit easier for you?

Hey, good news! I am actually making some progress on the case. To wit, I have followed the redneck credo and scavenged the parts from a junk drawer. I have several momentary single pole double (and single) throw switches that should work just fine. A couple of them are illuminated with 1.4V LEDs that only need an appropriate ballast resistor to make things work. So, I could hook one switched pair up to the motherboard and another to the CF633. But, I can always add one of those later.