Portal: The Companion Cube Mini PC! - Page 2

Pretty sure I am going with Intel. I have a Pentium D 945 sitting here...I figure why not get a decent board and put it to good use and OC it up.

So a little update....

Watercooling has been postponed for this. I need to buy my laptop for college this week. I kept promising my parents I wouldn't go over $750, but...really...lol. ASUS G51 caught my eye.

Regardless, this case will still turn out amazing. I got the board, video card, cooler, PSU, and I am just waiting on the RMA from kingston for the memory.

So now that I'm back from vacation this project will resume. I got all the materials I need for it now. I'll be sure to post pictures over the weekend.

Update: Got a better graphics card, replaced the 8500gt with a 9800gso.

UPDATE TIME!

So I finally got around to starting the case. I will probably have the whole shell done by tomorrow night.

So here are my six panels to work with. All of these will form together to make a perfect 11" x 11" x 11" cube. 4 of them will have the large fan hole. The front and top will actually have 120mm fans. The front will be an intake, the top will be an exhaust. The left and right sides are just open for ventilation, and the bottom and side will not have openings for obvious reasons.


Close up shot of one panel. This would be the front panel for the case. Everything was carefully measured out, and all holes drilled.


Yet another panel, the top I believe, which is marked and ready to have its hole cut out.


The test cube I made to connect the panels. I will make 7 more of these tomorrow. Yes I know its wood, but it works exceedingly well. I ordered cast acrylic cubes, however, they have a tolerance of +/- .125 inches. So all of them are more like rectangular prisms. The wood works just as well. Cut it from a 1" x 1" x 36" dowel rod. Holes were drilled and tapped for the 6-32 machine screws that hold it in place. I will most likely paint them black or dark gray.


This is how the hard drives and PSU will be aligned on the bottom of the cube.


Right after I drilled the holes for the hard drives and secured them fast.


Hard drives secured. Very good strength for 1/8" cast acrylic. The goal is to keep this case light. This should definitely help.


More to come tomorrow. I am going to start working on the motherboard tray in a few minutes.

FrozenQ
Edited by Frozen-Q - 8/21/09 at 8:52pm