Hi guyz, as some might know I am still in school and I do product design. As part of our course I have to design a product out of wood, metal or acrylic with the theme "storage"...
So I decided to design a clear see through, well ventilated PC case. Which can house a full developer's computer (I mean ATX mobo and some huge gfx card like gtx 480).
My teacher challenged me to come up with 4 various ideas from which 1 is taken further, developed and made.
I have read about the physical dimensions and mounting hole locations for all different components. I have drew up a specification which says what the case must do/be (essentials) and what it would be good to have/be (desirables)
SYSTEM HAS CHANGED[\b]
If you would like to rate (complete a questionnaire about) each idea. The way it works is, 0 to 5 points for how well the case does for each essential criteria and 0 or 1 for the desirables. Also feel free to post any personal opinions, comment on the part placing etc etc. And rate question 22 out of 8 please
Essentials
The case must fit:
1) At least one hard drive of the 3½ form factor which fits a bay/mounting space which can accommodate a floppy drive and at least one 5¼ form factor Optical Disk Drive (examples: CD drive/burner, DVD drive/burner, BLU-RAY drive/burner) in a bay/mounting space
2) The bays for the above must be open at both ends, on the front to allow the operation by the user such as putting disks in, and on the back to allow for connecting to the power supply and other devices.
3) 3 fans for the purpose of air cooling. The fans must be able to be screwed onto the case. Two different fans are to be supported, 80mm and 90mm if there is a fan on the top it must be the 120mm sized fan
4) One motherboard which is of the ATX or µATX form factor. There must be a totally empty space in which no other components except the ones which mount onto the motherboard
5) A Power Supply Unit without obstructing it’s air inlet/120mm fan areas specified in the ATX PSU specification by Intel - in layman’s terms the big powersupply in desktops
6) A “power on” button from my old computer case, it will be located on the front facing side and the extra USB, microphone and audio output sockets/ports must be easily accesible.
7) There must be some grounding (metal) easy to attach the anti-static wrist strap used when servicing a PC
The product must have this Form/Shape:
My product must attempt at being “see-through” at many angles, to show the components inside.9) The case must allow for itself to be stood and laid on the side. These two positions must be stable.
10) The case must allow for itself to be laid on its largest side, and support an 8kg monitor on the opposite side with a round base with a 100mm radius. It would be desirable if the monitor placing would not block the air inlet or fans.
11) Do you think it will rust? or deteriorate in other way? rate 0 to 3, 3 means it will not decay
Environmental Concerns:
12) I must use construction methods which allow for easy/better recycling, e.g. screws instead of rivets, ie. can you take it apart to bin it
13) I cannot use thermo-set plastics because they are non-recyclable, I must use thermoplastic ones like acrylic. Do you think its environmentally neutral/less harmful
14) Does it look durable?
15) DO you think there is enough air circulation
16) The case must be stable in both positions, when lying and when standing.
17) The case must be serviceable by user or a technician; therefore every component must be easy to remove/replace. The case would be a fail if it was impossible to put in the components.
18) Rate how good it looks out of 8
Desirable Features
19) It would be more aesthetically pleasing if all wire sockets etc. including the IO area a.k.a. motherboard backplate and the back of the PSU were all out of direct sight.
20) Is this statement true "Many people use 2 hard drives instead of one so it would be wise to include space for them", if yes then rate the each case that has 2 HDD spaces as "yes" or "1"
NOW HERE ARE THE IDEAS
IDEA 1
This is a global standard, a box about the width of a CD drive with a switch/powerOn button and optional USB and/or audio jacks on the front side fo the case and all other connectors round the back with the motherboard I/O area and the PSU. The PSU is either at the very top or the bottom. So what makes this very different.... the hexagonal air inlet holes, exxactly the size to fit an LED tightly and providing open vents with the least area and the most strength. The fully perforated top provides excellent heat extraction with the aid of a 120mm fan. The air intake can be equipped with a 120mm fan because of the immense width of the case. 3 ODD drives and 4 HDD positions make this beast excellent for data storage. The largest sides of the case are also perforated (not visible). Obviously its clear and see through
, all this provides an excellent starting point for further modifications in this 36000 cubic centimetre monster.sorry for the tacky background
http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/7641/001hij.jpg
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/5331 ... 000005.jpg
http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/4280 ... 000006.jpg
http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/875/ ... 000007.jpg
IDEA 2
This is most probably my most extravagant and “most likely to fail” design, it's called DeathStar because of the 1/8 hemisphere parts which inspired the rest of the round hemispherical case. At first they were supposed to slide back, creating an illusion of pincers, some primitive invertebrate's mouth opening to eat you or simply a “Death Star” or other weapon opening up to shoot you. However that was not possible without adding a lot more depth to the cylindrical part, instead the 1/8ths were made in pairs each 3mm thick and the next 3mm less in radius which are supposed to slide around and under each other to open the case. The case's four main downsides are the decorative 1/8 hemispherical parts which will be hard to manufacture, the structural integrity of the monitor stand, ease of HDD mounting and the amount/size of fans. The flat back of the case is made of acrylic to for a see through window of little use, however this will contribute to the lower cost of the case saving 0.19625 m^2 of steel.
IDEA 3[\b]
This case has two possible positions, laying (provided that rubber spacers used in order not to scratch the desk etc.) and hanging (screwed onto the wall). It would be possible to have the case standing but it would most likely tip forward. It is wide and tall to keep the depth small, this way it does not stick out the wall a lot . It has a nice round profile to address the danger or walking into it and hurting yourself on the sharp corners. The use of a transparent refracting material like acrylic makes the front round face refract the elements inside creating an illusion of the case being even more shallow, just like the water in a swimming pool. Also in my opinion it looks stylish. The air vent holes on flat surfaces are laser cut hexagons, while the ones on curved surfaces would be drilled (so they would be round), this is because it is prohibitively hard to laser cut a hexagon pattern and then line bend or vacuum form the sheet. A monitor is supported only in the lying position by a steel stand which has 6 legs that slide through the middle of the case to make contact with the metal back plate. The stand is manufactured out of 2mm steel or aluminium to reduce the weight (if made of steel it would weigh approx. 1,5 kg with density of steel at 7.85g/cm^3). There are 4 possible fan positions, with only one big enough for the 120mm heat extractor. The other positions are two in the front and one directly above the hard drive all can accommodate 80 and 92 mm fans.
The case also has a handle which is really there to keep the top and bottom of the case together without glue. The nuts are placed at the bottom of the case, they use large washers to distribute the force over a larger area and to reach the vertical sides of the case. The handle slides in from the top, there are no nuts there but soldered or welded washers. The user will have to pay attention to whether he/she is mounting the CD/DVD/BD drives the right way round otherwise they will be obstructed. The main structural concern is the strength of acrylic, I had this in mind while designing the case, the outer acrylic body only has to support the fans and the power supply. The rest of the components are supported by the 1.5mm steel backplate and another plate to support the 3½” and 5¼” drives which is again mounted onto that one. The backplate requires 8 screws to fix it to a wall, motherboard stand-offs of minimum 6mm.
The housing and cross-halving joints are rarely used, the first is used by the PSU mounts and the motherboard I/O acrylic backplate piece (not the same as the metal backplate of the case onto which the motherboard mounts), the second is used only on the metal frame supporting the 3½” and 5¼” drives. The finger joint is the most common in the design, I have given up on the dovetail as I felt 3mm long dovetails would be just difficult to make accurately while perfect finger joints can be cut by the laser.
IDEA 4
This design, repeats my PC case signature the sticking out PSU. “In case of this case” it does not go well with the overall shape of the design, therefore the PSU would have to be taken care of, either by fattening or lengthening the case. In effect either of these would make the case bigger, which is an unwanted characteristic. It features 3 fan locations (one not visible on the back), and has 4 3½ inch drive slots making this design the most competitive in terms of the amount of hardware that it can house.
