Custom Computer Cases

[Jason Matthews]

Hey everyone. The discussions over the last week or two regarding custom cases / enclosures has really peaked my interests. I am seriously considering making one to house three (3) ASUS P9X79 Pro motherboards with 3930k processors and 32GB of RAM each as well as power supplies and graphics cards. I have seen some pretty wild stuff via google and now I wanted to see some of your creations. If you or someone you know has built a custom rig please post pictures on this thread. Here are some links to some really awesome stuff that I have found.

 

http://www.nickfalzonedesign.com/computercases.html

http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/tech/case-mod.html

http://www.overclock.net/t/1090249/project-nobility-a-custom-wood-case-work-log

 

I love overclock.net by the way!

[Valtiel]

Wow, Nick Falzone's stuff is brilliant.

 

I can't say I've ever modded or scratch built a case. I've only got a never-executed plan to mod my old thermaltake armour with a watercooling setup that doesn't exist anymore

 

If you're interested in just modelling it up in SolidWorks (Maybe Rhino), there's a company or two out there that will fabricate custom aluminum designs for you. Aluminum and Steel do a better job of passive heat dissipation than wood, though I wouldn't say no to any of those gorgeous Japanese designs.

 

Riley

[Dimitris Tolios]

Other than Optical drives and HDDs, pretty much no component touches the case for heat to conduct.

Plus most modern cases feature modular HDD cages with plastic bracket mounts, which means that even HDDs are thermally isolated from the case - unless you use a 5.25 aluminum heatsink etc for your 3.5 HDD or SSD, there will be almost no heat conduction to and from the case.

 

The 90-95%* of the heat produced in a modern system, comes from the CPU(s) and the GPU(s), which sit on plastic sockets, ontop of fiberglass/resin based boards...pretty much thermally isolated - not that the little metal standoffs from the mobo-tray would conduct much, nor would the rear slot(s) where the GPU breaths out through.

 

Just remember: even big and heavy cases, cannot come evne close to keeping up with CPUs/GPUs with a thermal density in excess of 100W per cm2: thus dissipating heat involves heatpipes a inside of heatsinks with insane fin area and powerful fans that push multiple times the air volume of a case per minute through...

 

Long story short - your case does almost nothing directly conducting heat. Whoever owns a metal laptop (MBP anyone?) knows how fast and how hot the chassis gets "saturated" by the heat, and cannot pass it to the air passively.

...otherwise manufacturers would just connect the heatpipes to the chassis and call it a day.

 

*ok, in reality the PSU produces at least 20-25% of the total due to inefficiencies, feeding the rest 75-80% of power for components to burn through, but - again - most heat generating components of the PSU are thermally isolated from the case.

[Valtiel]

Hehe, I was referring more to passive exchange between the heated internal airmass and the ambient external mass than direct conduction from components but you're right on most of those counts. I see it as a marginal passive effect that assists your case fans in removing heat from the system after the HSF's have pulled it from the components and dumped it into the internal air mass; it couldn't cool most hardware on it's own and no system builder would rely on it in lieu of metal that directly contacts components. Case fans do the heavy lifting in cooling the internal airmass by actually moving it out and fresh air in, which is why you'd still be ok with a wood case, but if your case's surface is warmer than your desk's (not where the coffee's been sitting ) then it's removing heat from the airmass that hasn't been ejected yet and metal does that better than wood. The cooler the internal air mass, the faster it can pull heat from your heatsink/fan apparati and thus the hot components they're attached to.

 

Where I might disagree is the case of the MBP, where all of the components are very close to the aluminum chassis in a thin airspace, may actually be where the chassis plays a significant job in cooling the system. The fact that it feels hot is evidence that it is removing heat from the system; The hotter, the faster due to a steeper concentration gradient between it and the external air mass (or your hand if you're touching it). A case material that isn't passing heat would feel cooler, closer to room temperature. This may be uncomfortable to have on your lap and again the critical components (CPU and GPU) still need active heatsink and blower fans to keep from burning out but I wouldn't be surprised if the choice to go aluminum was an enabler of the slimmer form factor we see there. I think Apple would have to go with a larger body to fit a more aggressive hsf system if the chassis was made of a more insulative material.

[Dimitris Tolios]

IMHO, MBPs are far inferior in GPU specs by other, larger (plastic or metal) bodies exactly cause of the metal thin body.

 

The CPUs are great, but the GPUs, adding 1 to 2 times the heat the CPU is producing, MPB is always using low to mid-range cards.

 

The metal/aluminum is used as a vanity/luxury material, not as a cooler. The components are thermally insulated from the chassis, its the hot air and the weird intake/exchaust combo of the MBP that keeps it warm/hot (man, those 1st G4 MBs were HOT)...intel making their CPUs more efficient is the factor that reduces / slims down the MBPs, and ofc allowing them to go with better hardware, not the superior thermal design - far from that.

 

They did a great job for the size - its not like HP envy or thin metal chassis Sony's do any better - but they cannot beat physics

Working intensive with any of them on your lap (aka laptop) is uncomfortable, and it will be for a few years more at least.

 

We have to understand how intensive 50W or constant heat production can be, even worse 70+, what an average laptop would be producing.

A house refrigerator probably would have trouble keeping up removing that heat for prolonged time.

 

Thus for desktops and crazy applications using phase changes, commercial grade refrigerator components are used - capable of sucking more than 250-300W of heat (consuming like double that in the process ofc - far from efficient).