Completed WWII Online case

[saxxon68]

Here is the final assembly stages which took a few days:

It is getting really busy in here:

not easy to get the monitor in there but it fits great:

the left side:

this view really looks sweet:

the back side, I have Nanboshi connectors instead of C13 and USB:

the left side showing wide angle diffuser air intake, speaker and lifting handle:

Lots of info avaliable on the front bezel:

time to get this thing to breath some fire:

the gauges from the game look great with the front panel

Compared to the concept drawing it looks great:

The specs are:
Saxon Computers Hemmed LCD Case with Keyboard Slide
4 Honeycomb Airflow Straighteners from Saxonpc.com
GIGABYTE GA-965QM-DS2 LGA Q965 Express Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
eVGA GeForce 8800GTS 320MB Superclocked PCI Express Video Card
Western Digital Raptor X WD150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
HIPER HPU-4B580 12V v2.2 580W Power Supply
OCZ Platinum 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 (loaner chip employee benefit)
ViewSonic's 20.1" VX2025wm widescreen LCD
HIPER HCK-1S18- Silver Slim Clavier Keyboard
Sony NEC Optiarc 18X DVDSATA Model AWG170S-B2
AeroCool TURBINE 1000 120mm Fan
LINKSYS WRT54GL Wireless-G Broadband Router
HAWKING HWUG1 USB 2.0 Wireless-G Adapter with Removable Antenna
ALTEC LANSING Speakers
Logitech 931379-0403 Cordless Notebook Mouse
Fieon Digital HYN104-BLU 4-Port Hub

Work is dedicated to Lyn Hofhine, my mother, who lost her hard drive to breast cancer June 18th

Thanks to:
Barry Sharp &
Shawn Erickson for endless questions and listening to verbal updates
Slaymate and Hardware Hell for sporting my worklog and questions
Logan Goodenough for sacrificing dad playtime for PC building time.
Charlie FM 97.1
Donna Essenburg for her great customer service

 

[aadamszc]

Wow, very nice. Looks very cool.

 

[dmroeder]

I gotta admit man, that's pretty trick! Well done!

What are the temps like? Is it difficult to keep cool?

 

[badge]

So, the LCD has to come out to access the MB, etc.?

 

[emp]

Holy crap... If you can manage to keep temps pretty cool, the LCD isolated from most of the hardware heat, and still make it easy-to-tinker-with case, then I seriously suggest you go to Antec or Thermaltake or another big case manufacturer and sell this design. Because it looks great for those are on the move and don't want to lose performance due to the use of laptops and those who don't have much space in their homes. Really great idea, I wish I had one...

 

[paq7512]

That is awesome that looks great.

 

[nukemaster]

All thats left to say is when are you shipping it out to me?

 

[Heyyou27]

Wow, that's one fine case mod!

 

[saxxon68]

Thanks for all the great comments. The hard drive is the warmest running item in this case. The honeycomb flow straightener on the input ensures that the MB and monitor never share heat.
you can access any panel at any time. I made the frame so I could do that. My other acrylic cases used blocks to assemble, so if you removed more than 1 panel it started falling apart. this stays up with any one panel on or removed. Here are some more pics of the keyboard and LCD cover:

Hre is a close up of the seams, all the front panels were cut at 45 degrees to show as much of the framing as possible and make one visable seam.

 

[emp]

How much did it cost you to build that? (The case only) Since I can't seem to ever get enough money to buy a new case I was thinking maybe about building one. I'm wanting it to be a true air cooling behemoth, do you have any guidelines/tips? Maybe I'll actually stop playing games for a week or so to get it done.

 

[saxxon68]

cost, oh geez. the aluminum was only like $30, it is about $40 worth of plexi (if you buy the whole sheet for $80)
the thin aluminum I got free from a ATE tester from work. So not even $200 worth of materials to make the case itself. But over 300 hours designing, drilling, filing, sanding.. Even at $1 an hour it was costly. I bought a $10 case from newegg to get the start and reset switches because it was cheaper than the switches themselves.
Unless you have a serious need to build, and like making a mess. I think even I will buy a case in the future so I can spend more time on the game playing

 

[emp]

Ah yes... I'm made to destroy not create anyway (That's why I'm getting CRYSIS! haha). Hmmm I guess I could mod my case, but im not into pretty... I'm into cooling so. I'm going to try find a 140mm fan, drill a hole on top, and set a fan there. I could set another fan below the GTS me thinks, also drill a few holes for fans on the plastic door.

Oh OH! And the front has a door, I'll rip that apart and drill more holes for more fans. This is going to cost me like $20... (Fans) But going to be so worth it! Hooray! Going for an Antec 900-like cooling, but better... The Emp Sixteen Hundred !

 

[justjc]

Very nice design and build!

 

[saxxon68]

I got around to getting some lighted shots.

You can see alot of what is going on with the lights on:

I like the lights on those fans, for one I could not get thtem to be switchable, and they glow very faint diffused LED's, not bright like some fans.

I was a little worried the diffuser would make noise as it does it's work, but it is dead quiet and you can tell it is drawing air very even.

Here is a 1/2 dark shot so you can see the body too.

I may go back in and add a regular 2.0 amp, oh man that will be sweet to have this baby crank some good tunes too. It goes plenty loud for gaming and youtube, but not for a party PC 7.2 surround

 

[PartyChief]

WWII Online?

 

[sunny27]

wow!! love that sliding keyboard thing! really awesome build with good specs!

 

[saxxon68]

WWII Online?

Yea, it is not the most popular game, but I have been playing it for 6 years since it came out. Here is a youtube link that shows some game action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIpT05Fq6mw&mode=related&search=

 

[niz]

So where does the coffee come out?

 

[rodney_ws]

It's very nice! Makes me wish I had more free time on my hands for things like that... AND the technical/mechanical skills necessary to pull something like that off.

 

[saxxon68]

Thanks for the comments. This took so much space apart, keeping track of all the parts was the toughest thing.
The two request for photos I have recieved of course were from Shawn and Barry, the folks I thanked for many electronics Q: they wanted to see more pics of the connector to the ouside world, and Barry wanted to see something on the monitor more interesting than WWII Online (Yaaaaawn) He was bored on that game. So here is some other screen shots, anyone got tips on filming the LCD?

And the connector to the outside world. Only the 3 pin AC, rated at 10amp, and the 5 pin for gaming joystick. I may order another 5 pin and hook it USB, but I rarely use USB 'cept for the camera. These Nanaboshi connectors are from Kinetic Technologies of Ohio. They are a great vendor and really helped me ascertain the right configurations.

I also meant to post this pic of the LCD cover being removed.

And it was noted that the last pics I posted the wires look pretty messy.
Considering is has all the PC wires and wires usually running behind the desk I think it turned out OK for 2 days of soldering. Here is how the wires look before the monitor goes in.

And one pic of the top which was not posted.

 

[lunyone]

Nice build! I could build something like this, if I had the time and $ to do it So when is the 30" model coming out?

 

[oriveron]

dude this is by far the coolest case I've ever seen!

 

[saxxon68]

thanks oriveron, you do me too much honor I was inspiried by many great builders and need to store everything when done.
I was at work using a 24 inch wide Dell, and it was such a sweet monitor, but a case that big would be
a monster. But I am ready to own one, where is my file....

 

[lunyone]

All you need is some straps to carry that system with and you have a one bitchin' LAN system!! Nice job BTW. I could see this being copied by others, because of the basic design of it all

 

[Winly]

nice case bro, i love it. nice job