Project: Casemod - Hardware@Wall - Concept, product samples & prototyping

theguymasamato (52)in #casemodding • 6 years ago (edited)

Habedere everyone,

today I show you my first casemod project.
It's a Wall-PC.
I like the idea and I have also enough room for it.

Prolog

The year is 50 B.C. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invadors. And life is not easy for the Roman legionaries who garrison the fortified camps of Totorum, Aquarium, Laudanum and Compendium...

Wait, what?? I'think this post is about casemodding.

Yes you're right.
But the Asterix Intro is similar to casemodding.
Most of us has no more any desktop pc at home. Most of them are gone. Now Laptop, Smartphone and Tablet is state of the art.

The world is entirely occupied by Laptop, Smartphone and Tablet. Well, not entirely... One small village (group) have and love these desktop pc's and customize them in any way.

This post and the following ones are all about this topic.
If you don't have any idea what this means... here is an example.
In my opinion one of the best ever made.
https://www.million-dollar-pc.com/systems-2017/wing-x99/wing-x99.htm

Ok let's start

My first thoughts:

Wall-PC made out of wood with SMD light
Black and white should be the main colors, additionally only 1-2 other colors
Water cooling with a single loop for the CPU and GPU
One radiator and a pump integrated in the reservoir
No riser cable for the GPU
Cable duct on the backside
Plan everything digital

Materials that I will use:

MDF 16mm
MDF 3mm
Spruce for the frame
Imitation leather black and white
LED RGB Strip
Cardboard tube
acrylic glass WH17
acrylic glass 2C01

Hardware that I will use:

HDD - Seagate SV35 1 TB
SSD - Samsung 840 EVO 1 TB
DVD/Blu-ray - LiteO iHES112-115
PSU - Corsair AX850
GPU - Asus Strix GTX970-DC2OC-4GD5
CPU - Intel I7-7700K
RAM - Corsair Dominator 3200 16GB
Mainboard - Asus Maximus VIII Formular
Radiator - Alphacool NexXxoS XT45 Full Copper 360mm
Fan - Corsair Air Series SP120 High Performance Edition
Shroud - Phobya 7mm
Pump - Alphacool VPP655 - Single Edition
Pump Top - Aquacomputer D5
Reservoir - Aquacomputer aqualis Basic 880 ml

I placed all water cooling components and the tubes in one area of the MDF panel.

I didn't want to install the pipes over the hardware. For that reason I needed more space below the components.

This concept was better, but the wiring would be chaotic.
So I moved the SSD, HDD, DVD and the PSU to the right side.
The on/off, audio and usb was moved to an external unit.

The outlet was on the front which is not very sexy. To fill the system I had to use the top of the reservoir.

To fix this "optical problem" I decided to go with the tubes to the backside of the panel and install the outlet here.

After I had thought a few days about the concept, I decided to start with this design.

After the concept had been finished I created the whole thing inside a 2D CAD program.
I measured everything directly on the object or looked inside the datasheet
In the end I had the exact dimension of the MDF main Panel.

I also added all holes and grooves to the drawing.

Product samples

To get a better feeling for the different kinds of material and the design of the mod I ordered some product samples and built a little prototype.

Leather:

Foils:

Plexiglass:

Sleeves:

LED-Strips:

Soft- and Hardtubes:

With these samples I created a little prototype.
To be realistic I used the same materials that I'd like use in the main mod.
MDF and plexiglass with all drillings and grooves.