Gaming chassis ideas

@ electrofunk

yes holes are for cable management although they are very basic right now and need more thought.

As for the HDD - that shape remains from the original concept, and is just symbolic now. I'm actually working on that right now, the verticle mounting is a thought but I'm not going to cram as many HDD in there as possible - that's often overkill, I think 6 is enough for this chassis but I'd love to know what the perfect number is and work around that.

It did occur to me to incorporate a NAS feature in there so when it's off, or almost off, you could still host your own site, bittorrents or games (if hosting a game is possible without a full OS).

Thanks for the excellent ASCII illustration!

I'm not sure exactly that they will impede the airflow that much if the chamber sizes don't bottleneck (reduce in size) too suddenly - Also to aid greater flow there will be a fan at the top of that system sucking out air and one at the bottom pushing it in. You also have to remember I suppose that the HDD's are sealed units. so you cannot directly cool the very small moving parts that fail in a HDD from heat damage by blowing air into them like you can with the CPU, GPU and PSU (I know they have no moving parts) - you have to blow air over the entire unit, transferring heat away from the unit. Because you can't address the problem directly you have to move the surrounding ambient hot air away from the unit the faster this happens the better higher rate of heat transference occurs and a high air pressure is one fairly effective way of doing this. Another thing is (correct me if im wrong) as far as I know HDD's just don't get THAT hot anymore.

Also to aid greater flow there will be a fan at the top of that system sucking out air and one at the bottom pushing it in. The other reason for the chambers is that the HDD's don't heat each other up, or the other components for that matter.

I hope this makes sense? can you provide specific feedback - it would be greatly apreciated

most fans will be 120mm - the fans in that image are a made up dimension

Thanks for commenting

Dan

Hej hej,

Some more images - I wasn't going to put anymore online until further into the model making process, but I would like you guys to see the design process, how the design evolves so here are some test renders from my digital 3D models:

HDD block (flow chamber??) with a kind of skin to keep the channels airtight when the side door is off
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HDD block with previously mentioned skin but this time transparent (plexiglass?)...I prefer this, I think the 'skin' part looks heavy, and changes the feel of the fins of the HDD block.

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This is a test of materials, colors etc. I keep switching between anodizing and paint finishes. As always opinions would be appreciated...

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This is one with a few minor variations in it - some are hard to spot but the main idea was to see what some light looking skeletal HDD holders would look like inside the chambers...

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The above image also includes a logotype ( ©!) and some anodized water cooling fittings (because all case manufacturers seem to do is poke a hole in their cases and hope it's enough)

The next image is a test of the HDD chamber positions, looks a bit strange - binned that idea...

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more recent rendering of the HDD area with 'hot swappable' HDD bays at the bottom, they open from the center opposite sides so you can whip them out by pressing the round button,the door opens and the HDD slides out in one action....(I hope)...

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The hot swapping in action...kinda....

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Thanks Kyre - might render that later today and put it up - any other requests?

redkid thanks for the chance to explain this in detail - I think you're right I may be cooling the HDD's excessively, because when they get hot it doesn't immediately affect their performance as far as I'm aware. However there are the other reasons for cooling them this way and see if you or anyone think it makes sense:

HDD's do generate heat, and individually too - 1 or 2 no problem but 6 - 8 and it turns into a large heat source to affect the rest of the chassis temperature. the cool air that passes over them from fans usually on the front turns to warm (ish air) after dealing with the HDDS - which flows around the case in conventional cases - adding to the ambient heat, which heats up the other components. Separating them this way prevents that almost completely by exhausting any heat from them directly up and out of the case away from the Motherboard / GPU. the same principle is applied to the PSU also, but they tend to have internal fans, I am just separating the whole PSU unit from the MB.

Also your data is valuable (my whole portfolio is digital for example) and HDD's are mechanical, and anything mechanical will last a whole lot longer if the environment they've operated in their life span is not too hot (metal changes shape and fatigues when cools / heats repeatedly then parts fail).

Cooling in the main chamber will be more conventional, unless you use the liquid cooling sockets I'm putting in.

So basically this system manages hot air, as well as provides cool air - rather than just blasting away with lots of tiny fans that sound like a swarm of bees in a tin can...:)

Hope that makes sense?

Dan

Hey, yes I really should render the MB chamber because it's causing alot of confusion - Fans will be in there, and exactly where you said - right behind flow chamber also one next to serial ports. It's beginning to look like a very conventional chassis...like...deep breath.....a...a...BOX!

Linqon had a very good idea about re-directing some of the air from the HDD channels into the MB area, although that would make the flow chmaber idea less purist maybe it's a good creative comprimise...

Cheers guys

Dan

don't forget to look at both pages in this post as there are images in p1 too and if you like my chassis you can vote here: http://www.webhallen.com/list_group.php?avd=3&group=1596 for it, or chassis design from the other students.

Cheers!

Dan

I intend this chassis to be used with the longest GFX cards available if needed by the user - I can extend the case it's just been stuck with those dimensions while I work out HDD area, then when that space is worked out entirely I will change proportions to work out MB area

It will be quite deep, and is looking a little funny now since I re-sized it and gave 400mm from serial cut outs to back of HDD section, to accommodate the longest GPU in my research which is 380mm. So it looks unusual proportionately but I guess this shows quite obviously that larger GPU's can be accommodated and gamers will make this association, if you look at a more evenly sized case it doesn't strike you and say 'this can fit any GPU I want'. Height-wise it's very reasonable, depth wise it's quite long but for a good reason so I think I'm happy with it. Plus I can fit in huge 180mm fans for the MB area this way.

At present it's 65cm deep, 50cm tall, 22 cm wide.

Okay - bit of a change, one you guys might like: I have changed the bottom HDD chamber into a huge inlet for some equally huge fans that will bolt onto back of the HDD block, feeding air sucked in from the grill that will wrap right round the chassis, also air will come from the front bottom HDD fan through the chanel. The CPU and GPU could have between a 140mm-200mm fan each, or a combination of the sizes so the motherboard area now has a solid solution for cooling. current visuals still don't show much detail of MB area but have shown how the part of the grill is looking so you can see what I mean.

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Hot swap bays will be in the channel above the MB cooling channel, so in total there will be 6 HDD slots.