Going to build an mITX case and have some questions.

[willzter]

Hi all!

I have, during a pretty long time, fiddled around with the idea of building my own case, and seeing how i now got the chance to do it since I will be allowed to work on it in school I have now started to plan the build, however, I still have some questions that I hope you guys can help me with.

The case is supposed to hold an mITX motherboard as well as a 25 cm long, 2 slot, GPU. In the case I had in mind the motherboard will lay down flat with the CPU pointing to the roof. The motherboard will be screwed to a motherboard plate that will be around 3 cm above the floor of the case and below the motherboard plate there will be two 3.5" HDD's.

Pictures from google SketchUp as well as a really simple layout made in paint:

Spoiler

So, my questions are as follow:

1. How will the cooling be, the PSU I'm not really worried about since that has a 140 mm intake fan which sucks in air from below the case, however, I'm not 100% that the rest of the parts will be cooled down enough, the GPU I had in mind is a gtx 770 but it might change.

2. What is the "best" material for this? I was thinking doing something like all aluminium + plexiglass for the side window (the "hole" that lets you see the GPU).

3. Do you guys have any recommendations when it comes to the CPU cooler or the mITX motherboard? I have about 15 cm of spare space above the CPU for a cooler if all goes by plan.

Also, if there is anything else you guys think I should keep in mind, feel free to mention it, the more information the better

And if this is posted in the wrong section I'm really sorry, as you might see I'm pretty new to this forum (btw, yay, first post! )

 

[DonkeyOatie]

The 'blower' card in the illustration exhausts most of it's hot air. There's plenty of good coolers, starting with Noctua C12 and C14 that will fit and cool your CPU.

'Best' material is a matter of preference. Do you have access to a 3D printer? How cool' is it supposed to look.? Are you planning any sexy lighting effects?

Hot air rises. Have you seen the Thermaltake Core V1 or are you set on making your own case?

 

[willzter]

Yeah, I forgot to mention that as well >.<, the GPU is only for reference, the card that I'm thinking about using is a Palit card with an open air cooler, but if a blower would be a lot better (which, in theory, it should be) is there any possibility of buying a separate blower cooler and then installing that on the card, or would I have to buy an entirely new card in that case? However, since I have a rather great positive air flow this might not matter since the excess air will want to get out somewhere and should, in theory, go out through the GPU since that has a large hole in the back.

I do not have access to a 3D printer and will have to pretty much do the hole case on my own, this is due to me getting a grade on this. Here in Sweden we have a subject pretty much called "wood and metalwork" and it is during these lessons that I will work on the case. When it comes to how it looks I really want something rather minimalistic and was thinking spray painting it in black or something like that. I might do an RGB strip around or at the sides of the side window.

 

[DonkeyOatie]

You can do some cool detail effects with a router then. If it is for a class, I would consider some more sophisticated wood-working techniques, such as removable panels aligned by dowels, dovetail or tenon and mortise joints, and rabbets for holding the clear panels. LED from the edge can produce a 'light-pipe' effect for hidden illumination. Wood is much easier to finish well than metal. Aluminum is comparatively soft and hard to join. Steel can be soldered or welded.