Project ChequerPlex

[Stygian Shane]

First thing: Havn't yet decided on a name for this one, so I'll leave the title as is for now.

Alright. Went to a LAN recently, and ran out of hard drive space while leeching. That isn't cool. So I thought to myself; OK, need more hard drives. And Project CF can't accomodate more hard drives. So I'm going to make another case!

This one will be made out of perspex, with polished aluminium chequerplate covering the bottom half of the case, and used inside in a few feature points.

This is an odd shape too; dimensions are: 450*160*300 (L*W*H).

The whole thing will be attached with M4 Stainless Hex head screws, no glueing whatsoever.

The top panel will have "Seagate" and the accompanying logo, laser etched onto it.

So far, I have ordered the perspex at the local supplier, and it is being cut to size and etched. I should be able to get it on Thursday morning, today being Monday.

So: the hardware.
It will be able to hold 8 hard drives, but I am planning to use 3-4 to start off with. Seagate hard drive units, obviously. The motherboard will be a mATX, with onboard video, sound and network. If need be I will buy a second hand RAID card, but that will be later down the line when I get more hard drives. I'm aiming for around 1.2TB of storage to start off. I'll be using a Shuttle 320W small form factor PSU, with a shroud to hide the cables. Not planning on having any expansion cards at the moment.

2 120mm fans on the front of the case, and possibly 1 on the back to cool it. Handles on top, secured to both the top and bottom panels of perspex. Sides will be 4mm thick perspex, front/back & top/bottom will be 10mm.

Updates when I get my perpsex.

[Lethal_Lynx]

Sounds Awsome
Cant Wait

[Stygian Shane]

Well, I got my perspex today, a day eariler than expected. Apart from a mismeasurement on my part while designing, everything is perfect. (BTW, all I have to do to correct the mistake is cut 20mm off the 2 pieces of 4mm plex. Easy enough.)

Well, I'll get to the pictures.


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First up, the engraving! This looks awesome in person. This piece will be the top of my case, and I'll have a few green leds shining in one end to highlight this feature. (The feature colour of this one will be green, as it seems to 'suit' the case.)

Next are just some shots of the different sized pieces of the case. It's gonna be short, wide, and long. Easy to lug around to LAN's and suchforth. Here are some pics with a HDD unit (3.5") for comparison. The space at the back is perfect for a mATX motherboard.


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Well that's it for now, I'll be cutting fan holes, HDD securing holes, drilling/tapping anchor points etc etc... I'll post updates as I go. This won't have a permenent optical drive, for those of you who are wondering.

Also, the place that I buy my fans/cathodes at, PC Case Gear, is closed for the Christmas break. Doesn't matter, as I REALLY should be saving money for university ( I have to pay for my accomodation next year, living on campus but should be fun! Nanotechnology woo!).

More updates as I go... Presently I'm cutting down/filing these two panels that were a little large for the others.

Oh and BTW; any Seagate distributors/employees reading this; wouldn't mind some sponsorship for hard drives, seeing as I've got a big logo of yours on my case! email me at shaneburns@iprimus.com.au!
(fat chance of that though, I reckon! )

[power]

just replace small drives with bigger ones!!

also case project is looking pretty cool

[Stygian Shane]

Hehe still won't need large capacity drives, although I will be using them; the two 'brackets' that I'm using for holding the drives, will hold probably 10-12 if I put them fairly close together, and still have enough room for good airflow!

[ener]

hey, this is my first post here but i have an idea. because you have a a heap of hds you could try what i just came up with...


uhh the blue is the harddrives in a rectange box of arcrylc, the red are 120mm fans and the pink lines are the way the air is moving lol, yeah im not sure but you could like put it at the top or bottom of your case as a wind chamber to cool your harddrives

[meth05]

how much did the etching cost, and could you give me the details of the place in geelong....looks good btw

[Stygian Shane]

The etching itself, cost $60.

I got it done at Resiplex
3 Douro Strret, North Geelong 3215
(03) 5278 6500
email: resiplex@pipeline.com.au

[Stygian Shane]

Well; I went out tonight to cut/drill some perspex. All was going well. I was about to try and see how a 5mm hole, would support the head of the M4 screw that I'm using. I tested it in a scrap piece of 10mm thick perspex. Bad idea.

The piece caught on the end of the drill, and it started spinning. Due to this being one of the cutout fanholes, It had an entry cut from the scrollsaw, which made a nice sharp point.

It bit me.



That's a gash about 1 inch long, right down my WASD finger. Not cool.

So, I went back out, determined to hold the bloody thing properly this time. I tried again, and failed
This time it got my thumb.



Ouch!

And the bastard that got me. A bit blurred, but you can probably make out the sharp bit? On the bottom right of the circle.



Anyway, here are the screws that I will be using. M4 stainless steel hex heads. These things look awesome.



Well, because of my 'injury' (but more because I'm pissed off at myself for letting it happen...) I'm finished for the night, and CBF taking more piccies of what I've done. I'll make an attempt to do it tomorrow.

[Taceo Corpus]

It's gonna be short, wide, and long.

Quite a contradictory statement you have going there.

[OCMunkee]

Originally Posted by dfcowell

Quite a contradictory statement you have going there.

Short in height, long in width and depth. (My guess anyhoo)
--Nathan

[Stygian Shane]

Ah well, finally an update. WoW has kinda been stealing my time. I drilled and tapped the holes, in the sides that I could, of the top piece, to attach the sides to for a test. Apart from accidently stripping one hole, and 2 about 1mm off, it came out fine. I'll enlarge the untapped holes on the side panels of those 2, and fill in the stripped hole with Araldite to try again.

Anyhoo, here are the pictures.



NB: The front hasn't been attached yet, just testing.





And just for size comparison. This thing is gonna be small.

This thing already weighs a ton, I hate to see what it's gonna be like when the hard drives are in.... Some beefy hannd;es and supporting rods will suffice. As I said, they will be anchored to both the bottom and top of the case, both being made out of 10mm perpsex. Washers will be used too for support.

I'm yet to buy the chequerplate. Soon.

EDIT: Fixed up picture hotlinks.

[Runit]

lol @ the green can

[tazwegion]

Originally Posted by Runit

lol @ the green can

What... were you expecting a guarana/caffiene NrG drink?

BTW nice (seagate) stenciling job

[Stygian Shane]

Heh.

Anyway, yeah the engraving is good. Cost me $60 to get done, too

May aswell post some progress while I'm here.

Got the piece of plex that I fucked up, replaced, and holes drilled into the ends of the top and bottom pieces, seeing as I didn't have the equipment to do it myself.

Fucked up a measurement that was given to the plex supplier, and as a reslult 1 hole was drilled in the wrong spot before they rang me. This would normally be fine, but it theres about a 1mm gap between holes. This means I can't tap it properly the way it was

Ended up using a syringe for refilling inkjet printers, to pill it with perspex glue. So far, a few bubbles have developed in it, which isn't good, but providing it goes hard, I can safely tap the correct hole.

Apart from that, havn't made much more progress... Drilled and tapped the holes in the top piece, for attaching the sides to; havn't done it to the bottom piece yet. A few of the holes lost their threads when I tapped them as I went 1/2 twist too far, but it holds the screw in place and there's more than enough support for the sides, from the other screws.

I'll probably post pics up of it when it actually LOOKS as if works been done on it. I'm also at the moment preparing an old POS case to be modded for a friend of the family. New front bezel, coupl'a windows, fairly standard stuff.