Mini ITX computer case MOD

07/09/2009

Hey Guys this is what has happened with the case mod so far. I have changed from using perspex to wood that is why this was not been up earlier. I decided to use pine because I had plenty lying around and if this doesn't work (like the perspex design) I'm not wasting the good stuff. Also I can just stain or vanish it when I'm finished. So first up I had to cut all the small pieces (10mm thick) using the saw bench and thankfully I still have all my fingers and thumbs.

Next I glued all the pieces together to make the 6 panels.

After they were dry I glued the panels together to make a box but leaving the top off because I am going to attach it on hinges.

 All Glued, now to see if the top and the plug panel fit

15/09/2009

So I have now finished to sanding and staining, also in the picture below you will see that I have added little triangles to the inside corners of the frame this is to hold the top panel that sits under the lid up. And I have added a plug to the panel at the back this is for the power supply.

This is what the top panel looks like at the moment there will be a fan attached to one of the large holes as well as grills that join into the very small holes. other than that there will be the on button and the hard drive will be mounted on the underside.

15/09/2009 (Again)

I have finished making the grills. The stainless steel wire has been bent at the ends to slot into the holes and glued in place from the underside. Also see my cool start button? had to do a bit of soldering work there but that is self explanatory

25/09/2009

I got some stainless steel mesh with an aperture of 1.97mm and cut it into sections that covered the holes in the case. I used a staple gun to fix it into place. (The staples where just short enough not to go right through the wood. XD Should have checked that before I decided on the wood thickness)

Then I attached the stainless steel panel that I had laser cut to the lid and mounted it to the rest of the case with some small chrome hinges. (sorry no picture of this part but you can see in the other photos) Now all there was to do was put all the parts in. I used an Intel D945GCLF2 which has an Intel Atom 1.6Ghz dual core processor and put the max of 2Gb of RAM in it, and with a 80Gb laptop (2.5") hard drive. Now you may be wondering where is the Power supply well that is because I used a PicoPSU-150-XT with an AC adapter. Also I swapped the noisy fan the came with the motherboard for a SilenX 11dBa fan, and the big fan is a Silenx 12dba fan.

All Done. Here are some photos of the final product.

This System is running Ubuntu 9.04, I have Done a little bit of testing (mainly monitoring case temps) I had it running for 2 hours and the max CPU temperature was 45 degrees.