[Scratchbuild] HyperMod - Finished

[Ch2pa]

Last update of the mod.

The DVD reader is now in position thanks to the last chiseling work:

I wanted to create a cover for the DVD reader that would be invisible, or at least so far as possible. It means that I hope to keep the wood grain continuity between the cover and the flank. So I started to cut a piece of wood like that:

I made a mistake cutting this piece with a handsaw. As the wood is an orthotropic material and as I sawed it perpendicularly to the fibers, it became very fragile. After 40 minutes of cutting and sanding, the piece of wood broke off into my hand. In three part. FFFuuuuuuuu!!!!

I made a break, breath and start again. This time I cut the piece of wood with a hacksaw, and hand-sandpapered it instead of using a sander machine.

After 1h of meticulous work, I got that:

This small piece of wood does integrate well in the flank.

Then I started to make the "eject" button.

After cutting the piece of aluminium, I filed it to get:

Once assembled on the DVD reader (with temporary adhesive tape)

And finnally, the assembly mounted in the flank:

I am really proud of the result.

I also started another part of the mod: the motherboard tray. I used an off cut piece of aluminium gathered at work:

I cut it and bend one of the sides:

Now I am able to make a first dummy assembly with all the components!

First the wood structure only:

Then I put the PSU, the GPU, an HDD (old and broken components) and the Excalibur fan:

Then come the motherboard tray, the motherboard and a 2.5"HDD (which will be replaced by an SSD):

With the covers on:

The good news is that I manage to get new aluminium sheets so I will be able to make new covers with perfect surface finish!

That's all for this week, next job will be the creation and integration of the front panel

[Meelobee]

The thick 'sidepanels' are awesome, and the way you installed the cd/dvd drive in it is very nice

[Ch2pa]

Thanks Meelobee!

Last week I worked on the front panel as announced.

First operation was to file the pins at the back of the PCB:

Nothing must exceed 1mm under the PCB or it won't fit.

Before creating the panel support with aluminium, I made a try with cardboard:

The final result with aluminium will be longer, which wil allow me to hide the cables. It will be screwed in the flanks.

I began the integration of the front panel in the flanks by creating a wood cover, as I did for the DVD reader. Once again, my goal was to keep the wood grain continuity between the cover and the flank. I cut it in this piece of wood:

Thanks to my experience on the DVD reader cover, I did it the right way at first:

-Cutting with hacksaw:

-Hand-sandpapering (with P40):

Results:

It is even better than the DVD reader cover .

Then I made the aluminium front panel support from a sheet bended in Z:

I cut it, bend it, drilled it to get to this:

I still have to put caps on the nuts, but I need shorter screws for that.

Next week I will make the holes in the flanks and the wood cover to finalize the front panel integration.

Second thing that I worked on last week was the motherboard tray.

I cut with my Dremel the back bend of the tray (which will be screwed on the PSU):

The rough result:

Once filed and drilled:

Test in its final position:

I drilled the tray and mounted the spacers:

To finally be able to mount the motherboard:

And lastly, I started to create the piece that will hide/support the GPU. It's a "U" bended sheet of aluminium:

Until now I just cut two slots (2x10mm) for the bracket:

That's all for this week, next working day will be Saturday 22th.

[Fotes Lykos]

Very interesting design. Simple yet nice. Will be following this one.

[Ch2pa]

Update of the week!

Here is the summary of the work I did last saturday. The goal was to finnaly integrate the front panel.

For this purpose, I had to route the left flank. I did a triple pocket, i.e. a pocket with three different depth(5, 10 et 29mm):

First pass:

In order to have straight borders, I had to steady the flank and another piece of wood in position to make a guide for the router. It took me about 5 minutes per border.

Once I had finished the four sides of the first depth, I routed the second depth (29mm) which was opened onto the mortise:

Second pass with 29mm depth:

And after the final pass with 10mm depth, here is the rough result:

After some sandpapering (a lot actually) and work with wood chisel, I got a cleaner result and I was able to mount the front panel support:

I also worked on the GPU holder/cover, bending the bottom edge. It now fits in the flank:

I still have to make some cuts and add the fixations.

Let's get back to the front panel. I mounted it with its support in the flank:

Then I started to create the opennings in the cover that I made last week. For this task I used a drill press. I proceeded with extrem precaution by drilling progressivly (Ø3.2mm then 4mm, 4.5mm and finally 5mm).

Once the holes were drilled, I made them bigger and rectangular using precisions files and a cutter:

Two of the four USB holes done:

Here it is, four USB holes and two audio jacks holes.

The two holes for the power switch and states leds are still missing.

I just keep a bit filing when suddenly:

5 hours of work ruined in the blink of an eye!

I didn't want to start over so I decided to glue the two broken parts together.

Once in final position, the fracture won't be visible:

The gluing process started, result will be known at the end of the week.

Last thing started this week end: the power switch. It will be cut in a slid piece of aluminium:

Next update next week

@wolfpc: I’m glad that you like my design. Thanks for following.

[Paladin | Patrick]

This is a very exciting project, especially for a carpenter

I have so far only built a project with wood, but since I have veneer.

It's great pleasure that I also am building something out of wood.

Keep it up

Ps: I hope your USB ports are not too far inside. As I had in my "Green Power" project has problems almost

[Ch2pa]

Update of the week (actually the last week, I am a bit late on this one)

So last week I received the CPU:

It's a Core i5 3450S (4c, 4t, 2.5 to 3.8GHz, 65W of TDP).

It was time to assemble and test the configuration (even if I still miss the SSD and GPU).

First step: mount the processor.

That was the easy step.

Second step: mount the Hyper 612s.

I screwed the two fixations on the heatsink base:

then mounted the heatsink on the motherboard and tightened it with the backplate.

And here it is:

In the rush I forgot to plug the DDR3. Fortunately, the fan can be removed from the heatsink very easily.

I plugged the PSU, HDD, keyboard, mice and screen:

and it boot. or not. It scared me while I was trying to figure out what was wrong. Hopefully it was just the power switch which was dead so I just striped its wire to get a direct contact and it finally boot.

I installed Seven on the HDD to check if everything runs fine.

I still need to install the drivers and some updates and then I will do some benchmark and stress test (mainly to check CPU temperature).

Later on saturday I worked a bit on the case. The front panel cover gluing process is a success:

I started to create the plexiglas cover for the leds. I made it in a cut:

I also made the two missing rectangular holes for the leds and power switch:

The led holes is done:

but I was not able to made the last hole. The cover slipped again from my fingers and broke again (at the same location as the first time).

I glued it again with the same method. I will finish next saturday.

Thanks for reading, next update in a few days.

@Patrick: thanks for following

Don't worry about the USB ports depth, I took mesures to do it right.

[Ch2pa]

Update of the week:

Last saturday I finally managed to finish the integration of the front apnel along with the power switch and the state leds. Here is the piece of wood, front:

and back:

In its final position with the power switch, the plexiglas leds cover and the front panel:

There is still some finishing that I will have to do after I stuck it on the flank.

I had not much time to work on my mod this week-end, beside the panel cover I only had time to test the PSU fitting and the GPU holder:

Underneath view of the PSU:

That's all until next week-end.

[Ch2pa]

Update of the week!

This saturday I finished three points of the mod: the fixations of the PSU, the fixations of the motherboard tray and the fixations of the DVD reader.

To fix the PSU on the wood structure, I used one of the screw that hold the PSU cover (obviuously not the one voiding the warranty ):

This way the PSU is scewed from underneath:

To complete the PSU fixing, I also used two of the rear fixing holes:

The PSU is now firmly screwed on the wood, it is time to fix the motherboard tray.

It is screwed at the back on the PSU and fixed in the front on the wood (both sides of the 120mm fan).

I drilled:

And then taped the aluminium sheet:

The two screws at the front fit in a insert in the wood (they are not screwed). Here is the final result of the motherboard tray:

Last thing finished this saturday is the DVD reader fiaxtion. for this task I used an aluminium sheet and a small block of aluminium:

First step, I cut the sheet to make it fit the back of the DVD:

Second step, I cut, filed and drilled the block. I screwed it at the back of the DVD (with M2x15 screws).

I drill the sheet and then put it in position to drill the block:

Then I taped it:

And the result all back in position:

I screwed the sheet on the block and tightened it to drill the wood:

Finally I put the M4 inserts in the wood:

That's al until next week .

Thanks for reading (and forgive my spelling mistakes).

[Brian White]

Coming along nicely.