Custom Built Case

[CalebSchmerge]

Just thought I would share some shots of my custom, handmade case. Let me know what you think, feel free to ask any questions. I'll do a build log sometime as well.

[mtarm1]

very nice mate.

one thing though whats with the bits covering the dvd drive?

you should try and look for some vinyl book covering stuff with a similar grain to the wood you used and stick that on the front bezel if you donnt like the look of it...

plus i would have to say that area of the case looks really dodgy and with the rest looking brilliant it takes alot away from it.


although i think you have done a brilliant job with the rest of it and very good worksmanship (bar the drive bays)

ill give it a 10/10 (-1 point for what i mentioned above) = 9/10

also how much does that thing weigh?

[mtarm1]

also whats the specs of that machine?

[CalebSchmerge]

I agree - the front has the most trouble. Things got off somewhere and I tried to correct them which was a mistake. The doors are all around a pain in the rear. I am going to leave them, but I have ideas if I ever lose my mind enough to try this again later.

The weight is surprising low. It weighs as much if not less than this build did inside a comparable sized steel ATX tower.

I will post specs later tonight, the quick version is:
2.3GHz quad core, ati 3870x2 1gb, 8gb ram, 1200gb hdd in raid 0.

[K-TRON]

I see your using my 3870X2

Pretty sweet, looks like red oak stain?

Its definitely one of a kind, and very well executed

K-TRON

[CalebSchmerge]

That is correct - red oak, with red oak stain. I wanted to cherry at first, but that is much more expensive and I would probably have to have ordered it.

[fifafreak18]

so you used red cherry? did you pick it for any reason?

[CalebSchmerge]

No, I used red oak. The frame is true solid wood. The side panels, etc. are made from a red oak ply wood. There are some 1/2" square dowels used in the hdd rack and to support the PSU, motherboad, etc. that are supposed to be red oak, but I'm not positive that they are.

The construction is all wood. The only metal in the case is the thread inserts used for where the motherboard mounts and where the side panels mount (10 inserts total). There are no nails or screws holding the case together. Even the DVD door is all wood.

I wanted to use cherry at first - mostly just for the look. Cherry is expensive in comparison (the wood for this project cost $20 tops). If I ever get bored enough I might redo this in Cherry, but this project was a ton more work that I thought, and I don't recommend this project to others. There are a substantial number of things that have to be perfect, otherwise your motherboard won't mount, for instance. If you slip, it shows, and your choice is to redo that entire piece. The top panel, for instance, took over a half hour just to mark out, and the cut the panel, and the fan grills, and the openings for the memory card reader and fan controller the piece took well over 2 hours. The final one was also the third attempt at it.

Having the design done would make doing it again go faster, but the precise nature needed for this was insane. I used a digital caliper for 80%+ of my measurements. It takes forever to do that way, but any other way and things have gaps and don't look as nice as they should.

I also learned the hard way that the glue I used didn't stain well, and it bugs me because I can see every slip I made when gluing.

Full Specs:
Motherboard: GigaByte GA-MA780G-UD3H
Processor: AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz Quad-Core
RAM: OCZ Blade Series DDR2 800 - 4x 2GB (8GB total)
Hard Drives: Seagate 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s (2 in RAID 0)
Graphics: HIS Radeon 3870X2 1GB
Optical Drive: LG Black Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Burner and HD DVD-ROM
Power Supply: Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W
Fan Controller: Scythe Black Kaze Master Ace
Fans: XigmaTek XLF-F1453 (x4, LED's disabled)
Memory Card Reader: Rosewill RCR-IC001 40-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader

[KryptoRoxx]

Awesome!! Looks great. I really like the angled mount for the fan control as well. Pretty sweet all around. Nice woodwork too.

[Uzen]

wow thats crazy man, i cant believe u built that lol, looks sick