Build your own PC case from scratch (how-to-guide)

in this video I'll be showing you how to build your very own PC couch from the ground up using nothing but cheap materials and basic controls let's get to it [Music] above everything else the cases primary goal is to be easy to construct this is resulted in a design that's rather unusual in the fact that all of the components are mounted to a base plant onto which you can easily slide the outer shell this allows you to experiment with different looks as you can change this appearance entirely without having to start from scratch each time the structure of the case is made out of six millimeter thick fibre board known as MDF it's an easy material to work with using hand tools which is why it's been chosen for this build to make things even easier the case is available in kit form more details about that in just a minute so the first thing to do is make the base platform in the description you can find some templates for this which need to be printed out onto a4 sized paper which can then be stuck to pieces of MDF of the same dimensions all of the mounting holes are marked on these and the key is provided for the correct sizes you'll also notice outlines for the various cutouts and vents and cut along these will need the single most important tool in this entire build which is the humble coping saw coping saws have removable blades which allows them to be threaded through holes and then used to cut out shapes the trick is to remove chunks bit by bit by taking the blade to the corners first and then pulling back to start at it from a different angle if you don't fancy doing all of this manual cutting however or want precisely cut panels this project as I mentioned earlier is available in kit form these are far more accurately cut than what you could do by hand as they be milled with the CNC which results in neater edges and the more exact fit also included all the screws and mounting hardware that you'll need so you can literally get building right away for the rest of the build I'm actually going to be using one of these kits but don't let that lessen the fact that you can do this build and do it well using hand tools the option of the kit is there if you want it and you can find a link to it in the description it's on the brand new DIY perk tree website too so worth checking out once you've made or received the panels the two base panels can be screwed together with right angle brackets note that the one on the left needs two washers behind it which creates a gap for the graphics card to slide into later now we can add some 25 millimeter long PCB pillars for the motherboard to sit on and also some feet which in just m6 bolts although a good alternative would be to use speaker spikes they're quite expensive but do look quite nice so I'll be adding these in later so that's the base itself completed and the next thing to tackle is the outer shell the making of which is just as easy it consists of two sides a front and the top and fitting them together is just the case of using some right angle brackets and some very short self tapping screws when you're done the edges are unlikely to be perfectly flush so slightly loosen the screws and adjust them to be as close as possible it still might not be perfect but we'll be using some sandpaper later to make it super smooth so that this shell can be screwed securely to the base platform we need to get three brackets and glue in place and knot it onto each being careful not to get any on the inside of the nut itself one can then be screwed to the front of the shell and the other two to the back the one of the front provides an anchor point at the front of the case which can be screwed in at the bottom while the other two clamped the whole thing in place optionally you could add two more brackets to the size of the base plate as shown here what doing so would mean that the screws would be visible on the sides which depending on your design might not be desired still the option is there if you need it and it would keep the sides clamped down very securely so that is how it all fits together and now the fun can really begin as it's time to make this thing look good so the first thing we'll tackle is the base platform and the first thing to do is seal the panels with a mix of PVA and water note that when I recorded these steps I use the prototype version of the product so you may notice a few minor changes in the panel design so to give me a really cool industrial look I'm going to use some carbon fiber effect vinyl wrap after painting in the edges of the panel's black this vinyl can be stuck to the surface and trimmed around the edges once the panels are screwed back together it looks really good and you could almost forget that is actually made out of fiber board here you can see that I've used those speaker spikes I mentioned earlier and they look great so now it's time to add the computer components mine have been very kindly provided by RIE Calcutta UK who are an electronics retailer with a huge catalogue of products many up to 20 percent cheaper than elsewhere in the UK they seem to sell literally everything so are a perfect one-stop-shop for project builds you can find a link to them in the description the first thing to fit is the motherboard this needs to be an ITX sized board which is the smallest format you can buy you can still build a very high-end PC around these smaller boards as they have very few compromises over larger ones these days for example this one even has an MDOT two slot on the back around the storage drive to be mounted to the motherboard itself saving space and keeping things neat and tidy so after the processor has been installed the RAM 2 can be slaughtered in place and then the cooler added as you can see this is a particularly large cooler one of the largest you can buy in fact which demonstrates that apart from the motherboard full-size components can still be used in the case despite its smaller internal volume now before fitting this to the base any straw is tribe's need to be screwed in place first as these reside underneath the motherboard you'll need to use at least two washers to raise the drives up slightly though so that the connectors won't be bent upwards but there's still plenty of room for the motherboard thanks to the tall standoffs there are mounting holes for two drives here but as my drive is on the motherboard itself I won't be utilizing either of them so after the motherboard has being screwed in place we can add the power supply which can again be a full size unit it's important not to use a cheaper power supply though as reliability is important for the rest of the system I'm using a 500 watt unit from super flower that features platinum grade efficiency allowing it to be completely fanless and therefore silent it's a great unit which was kindly provided by overclockers UK and you can find a link to it in the description before mounting it however we need to at this point plug in any cables as it will be difficult to do so afterwards this includes extending any motherboard headers that you want to use I'm going to use a little extender for the power button and also an extender for the front panel USB ports looking good as the power supply faces downwards we'll need to use a right angle plug to later hook it up to the mains now the last component to add is the graphics card the one I'm using is a very large full-length desktop card but again it still fits with room to spare not bad at all for a compact case it's steel backplate should slide down behind the bracket I mentioned earlier which clamps it at the bottom and the top can be simply held in place for the cable ties this is actually surprisingly sturdy so that's the base completed and it's looking great now it's time to tackle the outer shell the design of this is largely up to you and I do encourage you to experiment with your own ideas here but I will show you what I did mine just to start you off the first thing to do is to cut out various holes in the side panels according to your desired design and fit them together if you use wood glue like I did here don't forget to slide it over the base before the glue dries just to make sure you've not made it too tight as you can see I've added a hole for the power button that could help vent for the graphics card and some holes for the USB ports now it's important to sand down the edges once the glues dried so that it's all nice and flat along the joints this is because the vinyl wrap shows up imperfections quite easily so it's worth spending a little time here as it will look much better later now for my design I want to have a different texture look running down towards the power button as vinyl wrap doesn't look particularly good when just buttered together I use the saw to cut a shallow groove to act as a separator you'll see what effect this has in just a sec just as before the MDF can be filled with a mix of PVA and water and then the edge is painted the vinyl wrap can now be added and pushed into the groove you may want to use a hairdryer to soften it up so that it adheres more securely this is particularly important for curved edges and it actually makes it a life thick enough to stretch around some quite tight curves for a really super looking finish I'm using a brushed aluminium effect lying off for the stripe which looks surprisingly convincing and goes nicely with the power button amusing this needs to be a momentary button rather than the latching one so the to Tony makes a circuit when pushed however before inserting it we need to add a little pin connector so that we can hook it up to the power button extension we added earlier the USB header port can at this point also be added so to finish off the divide between the two vinyl textures we have a few different options if you want a simple clean divide you can insert a piece of wire or elastic into the gap but we can do one better and make an awesome looking glowing rim by using some flexible electroluminescent wire known as el wire this stuff is available in different colors and is surprisingly cheap I've put a link to some in the description mounting it is just a case of using a small amount of glue to stick it onto the groove mine was slightly too large to fit fully inside but that's ok as it actually looks better when slightly proud as it can still be seen when viewed from the side if you have any left over it weigh one to finish they can just be cut down to size so the last thing to do is Mount the driver that powers this el wire this runs off 12 volts so I'm going to hook it up to the power supplies 12 volt output by sacrificing one of its modular cables I also have this go to three power Jack's on the back so that I can power 12 volt devices direct from the PC like my monitor and RGB lights in my DIY headphone stand however as this driver emits quite an annoying high-pitched mosquito whine I boxless inside a little enclosure to silence it with that done all of the various connectors can be plugged in and then the shelf lid in place and screwed down now for the ground switch on so as you can see it looks absolutely great and at this point you should give yourself a pat on the back because you've just made something unique that you can call your very own the only limit on what you can make is your own imagination as you can experiment with different vinyl wrap textures different colors you can paint it and kids have different shapes could help literally go wild this is part of the fun of this project you can even make a shell out of aluminium which is certainly a head turner thanks to its retro looks so our temperatures on this thing well as the graphics card has an intake vent right next to it its temperatures are very low under heavy load in fact the card is cooler with the case closed and when it's run in the open air this is down to the rear fan helping to pull the air through as there are no other intake vents in my particular design now the CPU temperatures were about 5 Celsius hotter with the case closed which is still pretty good going if you want to prioritize cooling however you could always include an intake vent right next to the CPU cooler which should improve things even more so that's it for this video don't forget that this project is available in kit form a link to which you can find in the description it's much easier and quicker to put together than if you're you know cooking it out by yourself and you get all of the screws and mounting hardware standoffs and nuts and bolts even the washers you get everything so you can just put it together and put your components in after you've added vinyl or painted it or whatever you want to do so you've got complete creative freedom over the final look at the case it just takes care of the hard bits which are making the panels themselves so let me know if you'd like to see more of my projects in kit form it's a bit of an experiment to see whether you guys are interested so do support if you are and other than that I'm Matt you've been watching DIY perks and I hope to see you next time goodbye for now PS the last PC case I made out of wood had one consistent comment which was that it was allegedly a fire hazard so to debunk this I used a Fleur one thermal camera to check the maximum temperature the MDF got too and it was about 40 degrees Celsius this is about the same temperature as your hand after doing the washing-up and a far cry from the 200 degrees Celsius required for MDF to spontaneously combust so with that I bid you idea

Channel: DIY Perks

Views: 3,026,798

Keywords: computer, case, build, mod, scratch, diy, make, rgb, led, ram, processor, motherboard, gpu, graphics, upgrade, diy perks

Id: K8hLXJUQFoc

Length: 14min 0sec (840 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 20 2017