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Introducing
Project ECHELON, a custom fabricated computer case I am in the process of
designing and fabricating. I will be updating this webpage with my progress as this project evolves. I have been WAY over due for a new computer, and I decided that I was going to go all out, designing a almost ridiculously large computer case, that I would never out grow. Over the last few months of design work the case has grown in both size and complexity. Adding more controls, fans, I/O ports etc. |
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I started out
with a few sketches and eventually some crude CAD
drawings of what I wanted. And then drew the case and the places to be cut
out onto the 5/8" thick Oak covered plywood. Then I cut out all the panels needed, top, bottom, left, right, etc. So that I could see the case taking shape, and get a better feel for where I wanted to place all the components. This really helped me visualize the completed case better in my mind. As you can see from the photos, the case will be rather large. Outside dimensions are roughly 22" cubed. The case could have actually been made a little smaller, and still held everything I want it to, but I hate cramped cases, and was tired of trying to squeeze my hands into tight places.
I have
collected a rather large amount of spare computer parts over the years,
but there is still a great deal of things I will need to purchase for this
case. I was able to round up some drive bays, and hard drive racks,
and a few other small parts. The actual computer components, which I will
go into detail later, have reached a total of about $1500. I setup the case panels so I could see what the case looked like assembled, and placed what parts I had, for a mock-up. This made positioning everything really easy, I simply moved each component around, till it was all just like I wanted it. Some of the parts you see in the mock-up photos are NOT the parts I will actually be using. For example, I will not be using that old Dell power supply ;) |
~ Click Thumbnails for larger Images ~ |
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I got a some of
my parts in from newegg.com today, mainly just some things I needed to
finish up all the mockup and positioning. Motherboard, floppy drive, power supply, some fans, and some really cool Cathode lights. The smaller one is a 100mm long Blue cathode, the other is a 12" Kingwin Thunder effect Liquid Cathode light. It doesnt put off near the light the smaller one does, but the effect is alot cooler. Heres a 1.5MB video I made of the lightning cathode. |
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The side and
Front panels were cut out today. Only the back panel is left to cut. I
will be doing that after I have the plexiglass part that the motherboard
will mount onto, and mount that to the rear motherboard tray. The back
panel will then have the holes cut out fir the motherboard tray, and power
supply. After that all the cutting is done, I will then round off all the edges with a router. Then the panels can be assembled. |
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Today I
began to router all of the edges of the panels, even the holes for the
fans and drives are rounded off. This was one of my first times using a router, so it was a quick learning curve. Overall, I think it got the look I was after. There are a few gaps in the plywood layers that will need to be filled with wood puddy before they are all sanded down smooth. Only the rear panel needs to be cut out and routered. Then that should finish up the word work part. |
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