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[Case Mod]••Reaper N1's (Dark Side)••Custom-3D printed parts

57K views 1K replies 51 participants last post by  dirty elf 
#1 ·


Explanation Of My Process:
I have a rather odd way of building and creating my case mods. It may start out looking rather odd and jumbled. This is due to a severe brain injury I sustained a few years ago (bare with me). Since the accident my brain works in odd ways but, I also look at design/modding differently now. I have lots of far out there ideas which overtime translate into very neat creations.

I start by doing all the rough cutting and mock ups first. Once I have everything in order I start finish work (filing edges perfectly straight & cleaning up the chaos) after that I prep everything for paint and do final touches. A lot of modders start with one part and take that specific piece from start to finish before moving on. If you take the time to read through this build log it will all start to make sense. Thank you in advance for taking this crazy journey with me and I can promise you that; when this build is finished, it will be unlike any case mod you've ever seen.

Dark Side Case Mod
I come from a design background, primarily in additive and subtractive manufacturing. Throughout the years I've modded just about everything I can get my hands on. It's been a bit since I've built a desktop computer but, thats all about to change. I stumbled upon a few modded cases online and ever since, I've been hooked.

My first thought was to check out all the 3D printed custom mods online and I found one case that was done by ShapeWays. Needless to say, I wasn't all that impressed. The possibilities are almost endless with a 3D printer at your disposal. After discovering the lack of 3D printed mods, I decided it was time to come out of retirement and build the best modded case I could.

Custom building 3D printers has given me a ton of usable skills in my modders tool belt. I have lots of custom fab experience as well as years of prototyping experience. With almost ever custom build I've done, the plans rest within my head. These plans always evolve as the project progresses.

I'm also doing this on a budget and I mean a tight budget. I see so many cases that you can just tell money was thrown at it and I didn't want this to be one of them. I don't have the best parts in the world but hey, isn't this about what can be done to the design of the case. Molding a combination of cutting edge design with functionality

So if seeing some new things done in case modding is your idea of a good time than join me on this journey into the modding abiss.

Planned Mods:

• Custom top cover with futuristic/modern/Steampunk styling.

• Custom sleeved wiring with an extensive cable management setup.

• Completely redesigned side panels with added acrylic set on standoffs. (One side almost finished and rear panels currently under construction)

• Custom built, hinged doors and top cover.

• Slide open top with fans and hard drive mounts moved to top. It can be activated via switch or through Bluetooth from a mobile device. (Hard drive mounts made and tracks for slide. Need to setup the stepper/linear system for movement)

• Painted & modded PSU was moved from top left to bottom right. 2-3" bent tubing to exhaust all PSU heated air out the side via ducts. (mock ups finished)

• Removed all hard drive cages from donor case. Custom cut down optic drive mount. (done)

• New panel cutouts in the MB tray with 3D printed pass throughs. (Might build a custom slide out mobo tray) (Panels cutout and need to finish bezels)

• Sliding rail system for optical drives and spare HD space. (Mostly finished)

• Scratch built fan controller using an Arduino Uno or Mega. As well as an LCD to monitor system operating conditions.

• Top acrlyic mounted dual 250 gig Western Digital SATA drives. (Scratch built cooling)

• Negative Pressure cooling system with filters and sound dampening mount. (Complete custom designed airflow and cooling system that uses only air management)

• Extensive cable management design with parts designed specifically for this build. (3D printed parts FDM out of Nylon or Carbon Fiber reinforced filament)

• Modded Logic Sys keyboard with built in touch screen. (Also has wifi, card reader and windows mobile 6.0 OS) (Currently under construction)

• Scratch built acrylic hard drive mounts. (2x Western Digital black SATA drives 250 GB)

• Extensive air cooling system and fully vented outer case shell.

• 4 x 80mm rad mountable fan mounts (Custom designed dual fan mounts) (Almost finished)

• Full re-paint of case and inner shell (As of now colors will be: white, grey, black and orange. As well as a few carbon fiber parts) (Color options changed to: black, white, silver, gun metal and one bright color)

• Top mounted ribcage with 2 x 80mm cooling fans for hard drives. (Design portion finished)

• Reaper & DarkSide logo, custom 3D printed in a few small locations. (Design portion finished)

• Holographic effect using a combination of LED's and overhead prints. (Layering has started and the rest is in progress)

• Lots of 3D printed parts molded together with metal work for accent pieces.

• Several different uses of LEDs - Color choices include: Cool white and possibly orange. (Color changed to cool white and blue. LEDs have arrived and need to be wired)


Updated Mods:


• 3 x 50mm fans in a custom enclosure to cool the ram. (3X50mm fans and enclosure finished))

• Motorized slide back top with drag cables. (Drag cables designed and SATA cables need to ordered)

• Scratch built ribcage system which will have integrated cooling for the top (2) mounted hard drives

• Fully tilt-able top for easy access (future mods etc)

• 200mm side mounted Antec fan with custom acrylic bracket

• Cool white LEDs throughout the case as well as edge lit acrylic

• 3D honeycomb design cues throughout the case as well as a matching menu setup on the motorized touch screen

• Custom built side fairings

• Ferrari hinges built in a suicide door for easy axis

• Custom latches for suicide door

• Panel Mounted 200mm Antec fan mounted with custom made acrylic mounts

• GPU & sound card custom built acrylic backplates

• Fan lighting has been added to some of the fans

• All the fans throughout the case have had the stickers replaced with custom made ones

Main Comp Parts Being Used:

• Gigabyte Motherboard with PCI Express. Socket 775, accepts two types of ram on the same board. Tough cover custom designed (3D printed), ram cooling system and custom wired reset/power switches.)

• Changed Motherboard to Asrock x58 extreme socket 1366

• Changed CPU from a P4 3.2 Ghz to a core i7

• Ram changed from 6 GB of DDR2 to 6GB DDR3 OCZ XMP 7-7-7-20

• Asus S2 Pro CPU cooler with 10 heat pipes

• Digital sound card with multi-channel support 7.1 ch (Creative Sound Blaster 192khz 24-bit)

• 2 x 250 GIG Western Digital Black series hard drives and at least two other WD drives. (possible RAID or custom mirror config)

• Gigabyte Video Card Nvidia GeForce SLI ready with scratch made cooling system

• Video card switched to EVGA GTX 560ti & planning to add a second GTX 560ti for dual SLI setup.

• External 1.5 Terabyte Seagate hard drive as well as 1 Terabyte Western digital external

• Monitors include a three monitor configuration with a 47 inch Samsung for the main

• Logitech keyboard with touch screen built in. Touch screen replaces number keypad

Current Progress Pics: These will be rotated periodically to show current progress at milestones

••••••••••• These pics are for quick reference for those who don't like to read••••••••••••




Updated October 10th 2014:






Updated October 18th 2014:



Updated October 22nd 2014: Touch panel and other panel parts


Updated October 25th 2014:




Updated October 30th:




Updated November 30th



:


Updated December 15th:




Updated December 31st:






Update January 6th 2015:




Updated January 12th 2015:



Updated Febuary 5th 2015:






Updated Febuary 12th 2015:




 
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#2 ·
And so it begins:

The first thing I did was to strip down the case and take every single piece apart, so I can see what I was working with. To start off, the plan is to make everything nice and neat. That means tucking cables through the new cut outs I will make. I cut out several cable pass throughs on the MB tray. I wanted some to come out right next to the edge of the motherboard and others to come out behind it. I also wanted another cut out to make it easy to remove and add on the CPU Cooler. I will be using a Asus CPU cooler with 6 heat pipes.



Another idea I've been toying around with is the use of this heavy duty hamster fan. I've yet to see one used on a case ever. I found one for a reasonable price and ordered it. The trick is it runs off AC voltage regulated through a small transformer. Typically I don't mess with A/C but, for this case I'll make and exception. I will have to map out the fan intake and exhaust ports once I get the overall layout finished. That way I can decide whether the hamster fan will pull air in or push air out. Given the placement more than likely I will have it suck hot air out as hot air rises.

Another perk that I splurged on with the little budget I had was a touch sensitive button. More than likely it will be used to turn on and off the computer. The picture above was the only one I could find. It's a touch sensitive 20 amp switch. It will work great for this build as it's all black and easily hidden.

I also have a great idea for how to power all the stuff that will be mounted on the side panels without running wiring all over, more on that later. Another feature I'm interested in which is nothing new, is opening the side and top panels in a new fashion. I have yet to decide how they will open but more than likely I will use some sort of gas strut.

Last night and this morning I was able to cut the acrylic for the hard drive mounts. They will be mounted on a track system, which will open up the top of the case. Both of these hard drives will be fan cooled. It took quite a bit of time as I cut the acrylic out with a scroll saw and then filed it for a perfect fit. Hopefully today I can get all the finish work and polishing done on all the acrylic panels.

Here's a few of the updates as of today:


 
#3 ·
Mapping Out The Inside: Decisions, Decisions

I still haven't decided 100% on what I'm going to use for the standoffs on both side panels. More than likely I will use some aluminum ones I have. I also need to cut the cooling hole for the 120 mm top PSU fan which will be ran through a duct to the outside of the back side panel. I was able to mount the two top mounted hard drives in their acrylic supports. I still need to design the bezals for both of them as well as do some cutouts on the top of the case. I went back through the motherboard backplate and decided to take a little more off. I did this in order to offer up more space to take off the CPU cooler. More than likely I will design a custom cover for the cutout.





I made the first few cuts on the custom matching keyboard. It will have a touch screen PDA built in where the number section used to be. So far I've stripped out the insides, cut out a spot for the PDA and remove some of the electronic pieces that will no longer be needed.

I'm going to focus on finishing up the mounts for the bottom of the case. The The feet will consist of three rails, two outside rails and one thicker inside rail. I will be building a suspension system and mounting that the case with custom 3-D printed mounts that follow the cases overall styling. I was able to get the four bar mounts printed today and those will hold the feet to the case. I also need to print out a few pieces that I'm designing for the end caps.



The bezels for the two top mounted hard drives still need to be designed. More than likely I will also design the mounts for the acrylic panels for the inside of the case at the same time. Once I have the main design features finished and mocked up I can start on adding all of the smaller touches. I am a very detail oriented designer and excel when it comes to these parts.
6


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Mock ups have been started for the ribcage cooling setup. It will have two 80mm fans which will cool the two top mounted hard drives. I still need to figure out where I'm going to put my external 500 gig Western Digital hard drive. More than likely I will build a custom matched stand unless, I can incorporate it into the case somehow.



I was also able to get all of the aluminum stand-offs I needed for the acrylic panels that will be mounted on the side panels. Next week I will start sketching out the design of the other side panel. I will have to incorporate the PSU exhaust into this panel.








The 3 long feet are also spring mounted, this way they will auto level themselves depending on the surface that they are on. It has an inch or two worth of travel but that can be adjusted by swapping out the individual rods and springs for longer ones. I'm in the midst of designing the side covers for the feet. I'm going to use cardboard so that I can determine the shape and size I want to use. After that I will model it in CAD and print it in carbon fiber.

 
#4 ·
Waiting for a few new parts to be shipped, including carbon fiber filament. The next item on the, (to do) check list is the aluminum standoffs for the acrylic sheets that will be mounted on the outside. The plan is to spend this weekend designing the ribcage setup for the top as well as all of the cable management parts that I will be designing in Sketchup. Hopefully by late Monday I can start printing all of these parts. That way I'll have time to make any needed adjustments soon after. I also need to test fit the motorized flip out touch screen panel and finish prepping all the panels for paint.
 
#5 ·
Prototyping Lab: 3D Printers

In the spirit of having an complete build log I thought I might add a few pics of the beastly 3D printers that I will be using for some of the custom designed parts.

The first one up is a heavily modded Printrbot Plus V2.2 with dual extruders. I've extended the bed and height to 17 inches which will come in handy for some of the parts I will be designing and printing for this case build.


This one is a complete ground up design and build that I did. It will be primarily used to print exotic plastics for this case mod including carbon fiber and conductive filaments. The combination of these two 3D printers will allow me to print just about any needed parts for this custom case.

 
#6 ·
Mobo Work: Cable Pass Throughs
Here's the cable pass throughs that I designed for the mobo tray. I still haven't decided if I'm going to make the mobo tray slide out. I'm in the midst of designing the new pass through for the cutout that gives access to the back of the CPU cooler mounts.


Here's where I'm at with the mobo tray. I just cut a new CPU heat sink access hole which can be seen in the bottom pictures. The original one I cut was two small and didn't follow the look I was going for.


This is the updated mobo tray. I need to finish designing and printing the rest of the cable pass throughs. I decided to cut out more to give the space requires to swap out the CPU cooler without taking out the motherboard. In the last picture you can see the mockup tubing that will exhaust the air out the side from the power supplies fan. This will help to cut down case temps substantially. More on that later.
 
#7 ·
What would you 3D print if you had a 3D printer?

I'm trying to decide what other parts I need to design for the Dark Side Case build. One idea I've had is to print snap on 90 degree covers for the motherboards power connections. Having the connections come out towards the side never made much sense. I'm looking for ideas that are fairly quick to print and could be used on just about any build. I do have a dual extruder printer so I can print dissolvable support material for large gaps and overhangs.
More Updates on the Dark Side build, (Coming Soon)
 
#8 ·
I've spent a ton of hours on Sketchup designing the upper ribcage this weekend. I have made probably 15-20 iterations but I've finally figured out the basic design. It's hard to explain exactly how this will look but, essentially I will print a lot of these plates and they will taper in size towards the end. The plates that are above the hard drives will have cutouts for horizontally placed fans which will cool the hard drives. These plates will slide along the center mounted rod that is pictured above. Here's a few quick shots from Sketchup. I will be making a few changes as time progresses.



Here's some updates of what the ribcages individual panels will look like. I am also working on a cable management setup that will be into grated into the panels. There is a lot of work involved in designing and building this setup but, I think it is well worth the time and effort.


 
#11 ·
Thanks guys, I've always modded but case modding has been a dream that I couldn't afford. I recently inherited a decent amount of old school tools. This will allow me to build the ideas that have been rattling around in my head. Once the ribcage system is finished, it will really start to come together.
 
#12 ·
Finally got some time to start mocking up the side panels that will be mounted on stand-offs with neoprene custom washers. I will be using neoprene in several different locations on the case. The reason I'm doing this is to help keep down any rattling or noise, especially on the fan mounts. There are a lot of different materials that could be used to remedy this situation but, I have found neoprene to be both cost-effective and easy to work with. I still need to finish filing all the acrylic to make the edges straight and even. After that I will be polishing them. In between the two pieces of acrylic that are mounted on the side of the case will be a fan for cooling.



The case has little holes to let it beathe. I am adding filters for the majority of the case.




I haven't decided if I will make a few cuts in the side panel in order to mount fans. I probably won't need to will all the little holes. I'm in the midst of designing a mount for the filters on the top and side panels.
 
#13 ·
I've gotten a decent amount done tonight including a lot of mock-ups and a few new parts also arrived. New switches of all types and kinds. I've also been messing around with new sleeve colors and patterns. I was lucky enough to get a smoking deal on almost every kind of switch and indicator light I've ever seen. I also received 2, 3, 4 and 5 pin DuPont 70cm cables which will be helpful.



I also took the time tonight to finish up all the acrylic panels for the side of the case. I 3-D printed a custom designed honeycomb fan grille for the 92 mm center - panel mounted fan. I made quite a bit of progress but it still needs a lot of work. Here's some pictures of what I was able to accomplish tonight.







I really appreciate all the support and "atta boy" I've received on my first desktop case mod in over 10 years. I've had to learn a lot of new techniques and you all have been the best resource on the net, hands down. Thanks again.
 
#16 ·
Last night I finished up the design for the Corsair logo that will go on the new power supply. It turned out pretty good for looking at a picture to design it. I might 3D print it today to see how it comes out. Thanks guys for checking out the build, definatly more to come today.


Here's what it looked like after this design was printed on my 3D printer.
 
#18 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wiz766 View Post

My eyes didn't know what was going on with the first page (no offense)
biggrin.gif
but I am subbed becasue this is interesting to my brain.
No matter what I'm building, it always starts out as a very scattered flow of ideas. Once I start getting some of those ideas together and built - it starts to smooth out. I guess my builds are like a small window into my thoughts. I had a brain hemorrhage not too long ago and it messed up my brain quite a bit. I see builds, mods and ideas differently now. I also got epilepsy out of the whole deal but, I look at it in a positive way. Case modding has given me an outlet to clear my mind and focus on something I enjoy a lot. So, if it ever starts to get confusing - it will all start to come together into something down the road. Thanks for the comments and I hope you enjoy the build.
 
#19 ·
Today I'm hoping to get the mount figured out for the 7" motorized flip out display. The display will primarily be used for system monitoring. It can also be used as a expanded display, 2ndary display and just about anything else you can think of. It's setup with a tiny 60 gig hard drive as well to store videos, music and pictured. It will be fully integrated into the system but the 60 gig hd is specifically for the 7" motorized display. I also hope to finish the back input/output video panel as well as figure out all the wiring. It will definatly be a lot to finish in one day. I have already made the cuts in the acrylic for it to slide in. I will have to reinforce the end of the acrylic that sits towards the front because there is hardly any acrylic holding the two pieces together as you can see in the pic.



Here's the motorized flip out touch screen mocked up and being put through the paces.
 
#20 ·
I am sorry to hear about that but I am definitely glad you are still able to do great work and put you ideas to life! I love custom mods and stuff like this. Looking forward to updates!
 
#21 ·
My goal is to get good enough at case modeling that I can build some custom cases to be auctioned off and use the proceeds to go towards a good cause like the Epilepsy Foundation. I've done custom fab work and wood work since I was able to hold a tool. After my brain hemorrhage I had the real learn a lot and then relearn it over again. It takes me about two or three times of doing something to actually learn it again. So case mobbing is a great process for me. Thanks for the kind words .
 
#22 ·
I know I said earlier that I wanted to finish up the touch screen mount but, I decided to start on a circuit board model. I've got quite a few monotonous hours into the work so far and I'm sure I have a few more before I'm completely finished. I wanted to make this design from scratch, a multilayered to circuit board that will be used on the side of the 5.25 inch base. It will use a combination of 3D print, Acrylic, metal and LEDs to get the exact look I'm trying to accomplish. I hope to get the design portion finished by tonight so that I will be ready when my filament orders arrive.

Here's where I'm at with the Multi layered circuit board design. It should come out pretty cool once it's finished. Really it's a lot of work to put into a space it's only about 5 x 5". Like I said before this is where I excel, with the little details.

I was finally able to get the majority of the design finished in Sketchup. I can officially say my eyes hurt from staring at the screen for as long as I did. It will all be worth it once I'm finished. Here's a pic of the almost complete design. I will be creating something similar but, probably a new design for the floor plate. I was also able to cut the floor plate before calling it a night.
 
#23 ·
The 5.25" bay cover is something I'm very interested in.

I had in mind a removable magnetic plate to cover the Bay area and particularly the screws, to allow for servicing the bay devices I have installed.

Here is my design for a bay cover for the build I'm currently working on:


My problem is that magnetic adhesive strips I used do not stick well enough to the plastic embossing plate to support its weight. A metal plate would be ideal. I've actually made two of them, the other hides a space presumably used for cable management:
 
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