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I have no idea what the decision making process was and it's best not to speculate, I'll just bung it into my portfolio and that'll be the end of it It'll be nice to see what finally transpires at the end of the prototyping, I'm here for a year so hopefully I'll see some of the winning designs evolve into gaming chassis!

again - watch this space for other projects! I'm loving the feedback from designer to user to designer - will be incorporating it into my Bachelors project next year

Hi all, I would like to thank everyone for the input into this project - it's been a lot of fun and I enjoyed designing based on something people are passionate about

Special thanks to forum user patrikringdahl for putting so much effort into visualising his version of my design

Article about competition winners and the rationale for choosing them is here: http://www.webhallen.com/list_group.php?avd=3&group=1593

Please watch this space for links to another gaming product I'm working on related to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 - Details will be here in 1 week!

Cheers all!

It's yours...for ONE MILLION DOLLARS! wuh hah hah hah...

Hej Hej Patrikringdahl

good work - and I have sent the link to Webhallen who may feature it in the development article also (woo!). But please keep your posts in this thread to a low roar otherwise it could get confusing

Also on another completely seperate note which is nothing to do with Patrikringdahl: I've been concerned about a rather strange email from a forum user to one of my class mates regarding the intellectual property of his designs - so I feel I must re-iterate basically the same point they did in their response: The intellectual property and rights to the design belong completely and solely to the designer as an individual. Some of the designs may be prototyped and produced by the project partners of course, but that is obvious because this is the reason this project initiated.

point made I guess!

oh and I'd love to do some practical experiments to prove the theory! Now..all I need are lots of hard drives....

patrikringdahl is only showing me what he thinks of some other points, it's not a solution for a whole chassis. And the HDD's do need cold air, how much is subjective when you factor in the value of your data, quality of HDD i.e it's expected lifespan and it's cost also. Plus they don't just need cooling, they also generate heat that could affect other parts - this system takes that air hot air away without it passing over other parts that can fail through the affects of heating.

And, of course, the channels are there because (I think) they 'look' like there's an emphasis on cooling - sure it's easy to say aesthetics can be considered superficial and irrelevant when you're talking about a function but if you consider your thought process when you look at something while trying to figure out how it works, or how you hope it works, you tend to look for some visual re-assurance that it functions well - in this instance the function is cooling and in the aesthetics I'm trying to convey that I guess

thanks for the comments!

P.S please put your render on my main thread, I don't mind it being there at all - make it clear it's your own version so you get the credit for your hard work!

Thanks again!

NICE!! There's something very cool about being able to see the fins of the flow chamber through the outer shell. BUT...the whole idea was to take cool air from outside in through the HDD's and exhaust them, thus not re-cycling already warm air from any other parts, and also not exhausting any warm air to heat up the other parts - and I think this configuration misses that point but I also think the point your making about managing the space better is something to think about.

It sounds like you know a ton of stuff about chassis / building them - So it would be really nice to get some more input from you. I'm in the middle of another project right now so have to dedicate my time to that but it's not at all as time consuming as this one so I will have a chance to incorporate some of your suggestions in some new models at some point.

keep up the good work!!

Dan

Thanks, good advice - I already looked at a guide on how to take them out. Feel like taking Steve Jobs out too...

Just came on here to download some images I no longer have access to - will re-format everything so it's more cohesive in the week. Will continue to develop as it's been a really nice project so you should expect to see more stuff and also the Mod concept.

Hi all - for those who are still following the progress of this chassis - I won't be putting up anymore work until after the presentation.

The reason for this: My 'amazing' iMac 24" that is marketed as being so reliable, with an operating system that has the tag line 'It Just Works' is now toast, one day before the final presentation no less - and will be on it's way back to Apple in a polystyrene body bag. Rather than the 'blue screen of death' - Macs apparently give you the 'grey screen of maybe I'll work, maybe I won't...'

Sorry guys, blame steve jobs.

Linqon, Hi - these renders aren't of the finished design, it's just me putting some test renders out here for you guys to see, and they don't cover everything - those images will be here tonight though

But I will answer your questions:

cable routing - I have thought about that the cable routing is all happening behind a large divider, and goes around the HDD channels (or behind them depending on how you are looking at the case) and doesn't interfere with the HDD system at all. I will try to illustrate this later today.

The motherboard door opens up with those big disc shaped latches you see in the renderings, they're functional and part of the way I'd like the user to view the chassis experience: quick and easy access - no messing around looking for a phillips screw driver when you have only a flat headed one thats too big, only to lose the screws in your cup of tea when you eventually get them off, all the while you are trying to get the door off without knocking over your stack of loose DVD's because it pops off real quick because it's being held in place by hundreds of tiny tabs that usually bend out of place when you slide the door back on...

Air will leave those channels where they end facing upwards and out of the case, the holes arent in the case visuals because rendering lots of tiny little holes takes up allot of processing power that my computer just doesn't have (I'm currently on a mac running windows for my 3D modeling and rendering tasks). The holes you do see take a LONG time to render and often crash the computer, wasting sometimes allot of time spent making them. I could go on moaning but I won't

Thanks for the comments, keep checking back for more explanation visuals - they will be up here eventually

cheers!

thanks guys! kind words! - ok answers: I use Rhino to model with (this chassis is a result of 'sketching' in Rhino), then I import it into a program called Hypershot, which I seriously recommend - and they have an excellent student discount.

As for the voting - that is only a small competition within a bigger one. The other guys all have strong designs and each one of them have great things I think people would like to see on the market to choose from.

Ventilation: I have a fan at the back, like as you say most chassis - it's just physics. it would be nice to keep every hot part in it's own compartment and I believe it would be possible if a motherboard was designed specifically for this chassis - maybe in the 'Flow 2' chassis...

Will upload the final design tomorrow evening, and will upload some promotional and story telling visuals to explain every aspect of the chassis on monday evening.

Cheers!

and some more

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Some test renders - lacking detail but they show some development...

http://www.imagehost.se/images/4jmfzd3b.jpg

Hey man - that's alot of input! thanks! You suggested alot here, and mentioned cooling in the motherboard area. To clarify I did a visual (very basic one!) to illustrate how the MB chamber will be cooled. As for the rest of your ideas - they're great, especially about the alternative MB option. I will present this to the project partners in my presentation on Tuesday (the big day) in some way but right now it's too late to change anything in a major way. So here's some more images of rendering tests and also the cooling explanation and thanks again for all your suggestions (and killer diagram )

Dan

>>Image removed<<

bling-tastic

>>Image removed<<

thanks It's all fun, no real stress - yet! And there is only a modeling stage included in the actual project - there will be some actual prototyping but that will be afterwards and only for a few of the chassis.

I will update the thread with images to answer some technical questions after I spend some time in the workshop.

Hi - thanks for posting in my thread. I cant post images right now but to explain the parts you asked about:

The front fans: They push air through the channels that the HDD's sit in. Each channel is separate from the other and the air from this section is exhausted out the top follow the lines of the channel with your eye and they go up wards to top of case - hot air exits here. If you go to page one of this thread, you'll see the original idea and it is clearer I think in this image. hope that helps.

Cooling for motherboard area: Out of the channels for the HDD's, the one at the very bottom, has no HDD in it, it is reserved for the 'main chamber' or area-where-cpu-gpu-motherboard is. To explain how this works I need to finish an air-flow illustration I'm working on, but I'll try here - There will also be 2 180mm fans in the main chamber, they are situation on the right wall of the chamber which is the back of the HDD channel system (they are not in the posted renders - top secret stuff ) and they suck air from the bottom channel, which is the one with the holes in the side, this channel has the largest surface area as it wraps around the whole chassis so there is no bottle-neck effect on air coming in. The air from the main chamber will quite boringly just leave through a bunch of holes (or maybe I can make it evaporate with lasers??). it is also assisted by air blow through bottom channel by the front bottom fan.

PSU's tend to have their own built in fan system so all Im doing in that area is closing it off from main chamber to stop it affecting the ambient temp too much. The psu fans tend to suck in from bottom or top and blow out the back.

So to re-iterate: The air from the main chamber will blow from right to left/top, from 2 180mm fans, each covering a half of the MB. The air for these fans comes from directly behind them, where there will be a cut-away where air will travel from the bottom / back channel from the HDD system, and the air for this comes from all along the side of that particular channel (the only one that is vented along the sides, front and top of case).

At the moment we are all moving to the physical modeling phase so we probably wont be posting on here as much, the project ends soon (17th). Personally I am going to get the model out of the way as soon as possible because in my particular situation it will explain very little about my design - it's essentially a traditional chassis shape, however it's got to be done....

There's always stuff on exhibit, just not sure if ours will be - it's usually fine art as far as I can tell but I really don't know. I'm only here for a year as I'm on exchange from Glasgow School of Art. Will definitely check this afternoon and if there's any info I will post it

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