Building a Wood m-ITX PC Case

1st attempt at building a mini itx timber computer case.

A mixture of MDF, hardwood veneer, and real mahogany, oh and some aluminium foil to make this 2nd wooden PC case. (after the huge ATX one last year)!

You can read and add your questions or comments here.
 
Having a go at a mini silent PC seemed like a good idea. I wanted a silent HTPC but I also wanted a mini server too! This has led me down a slightly confused path...

I bought a basic D525* duel core Intel ATOM board (170mm x 170mm) with passive cooling as it is all that is needed to run this home server and two 2TB drives.

This board also offers the option of two extra SATA ports via an add in Mini PCIe SATA raid card. still leaving the PCI slot free. So at least in theory it could be easy to have 4x2tb drives, so 8TB server for around £380. Or go for an all in massive one with an add in PCI Raid card with 4-6 drives ... so 10 drives in all (in a bigger case of course!) Hmm, 20TB or with 3TB drives 30TB home server, wow - then again redundancy might be a good idea so maybe 6 - 12 TB home server.

To get back to my little server I got a 60gb SSD and a pico ATX Power unit along with an external power brick. to keep it quiet and as low energy consuming as possible.

As before I used an old metal case as guiding template but as this motherboard was so much smaller and only really needed the IO shield installed accurately it was much easier this time around.

The finished unit is 350mm wide, 230mm deep and 190m high (The height could have been much less but I decided to turn it into a mini server which meant accommodating bigger 3.5" drives. I also wanted in integrated CD/DVD drive

Wooden mini ITX case - narrower than a standard keyboard!  See also the ATX project from last year.

Built in July 2011 with the last remains of a circa 1910 mahogany table top and 12mm MDF
The basic components for the timber mitx case. Setting the IO plate location.
Figured footprint of the base and located the IO plate position It all lines up so glued a strip of hardwood to hold the bottom of the IO plate in position
A tight fit and no cables yet!
Hmm, Yin and Yang drive cage!
Vent holes drilled.
Cut the front and sides inc drilling vent holes to maximise airflow across the ram and heat sink, this included drilling the base to allow air to rise through the base around the front and enclosed side.
A quick test!
Just could not resist testing the rig with a standard PSU which waiting for the pico psu. The rear panel turned into a bit of a nightmare because I had not allowed enough room for a fan and 3.5" hard drive cage
Putting the back panel and base together. Testing that it all fits in.
Not my best work, but it did the job. Fitting and testing, it works! Now to fit the lid...
Rear end, a little un-finished!

The two sections of a wooden itx case come togeher.
PSU connector.

 A book shelf!

Perspective with standard keyboard and mouse.
Made in two sections works well. (Notice pico PSU and holes in base to aid ventilation) All done and working very quietly!
   
It works by the way and sits on a low shelf looking like a very old cigar box or something!!
 

The Finished mini-ITX media server case with 1 SSD and 2x 2TB hard drives.

The main challenge was getting it all into such a small case, I went all out to make it small given the limitations of full size hard drives that need cooling.

The foil, external veneers etc all add to the look, protection and stability.

Messy cabling!  Two section wooden case.
This two section approach makes component access easy.

The fan only runs at 30% or around 850 rpm so is silent, however the main storage drives do make some noise :-(

All in all it is very quiet and uses considerably less power. Total when running full tilt is about 45w and 25-30w when idle less that an average light bulb!

When large capacity SSD's become main stream, the mechanical ones can be removed and it will be 100% silent!

Rear IO plate set back 40mm
The rear IO ports are set back about 40mm which was about right to help hide cabling etc. might have been better 50-55mm to really help keep cabling discreet.


Underside of case.   Completed mitx case..
The ventilation underneath helps to force incoming air around the motherboard. The extra strips of hardwood help to reinforce the fixings for the hard drive cage and reduce potential vibration with mechanical drives.

 

 

The next attempt will be integrated into a small (or large) piece of furniture and will be 100% silent HTPC with duel output so that TV and other stuff runs from one small unit! Duel viewing so the unit will sit close to sitting area and will need to be silent. Then again with the proliferation of pads maybe this is a lost cause?

* Note: Intel D425 shown in pictures

Back to first wooden ATX case

 

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I will generally respond to questions here rather than email you. So if asking questions please
come back in a day or two  to see a response.

My comments and Visitors questions/comments on the MITX project.

Name: MettaBiz
Comment: The wooden M-ITX case is now made and working so pictures will follow shorthy, watch this space! 1 SSD drive and two 2TB drives, passive cooling on the MB and a 90mm fan at 30% or around 850 rpm - silent!
 28/07/2011 00:52:00

Name: MettaBiz
Comment: Well I finally got round to making an ITX case but got torn betwen a media/general server and an HTPC so ended up with a wee server with 4 terabytes of storage.
 30/07/2011 00:58:42

Name: MettaBiz
Comment: Hmm, make that Mini ITX
 06/09/2011 01:14:48

Name: MettaBiz
Comment: After running the mini itx server for about 6 week I decided to change things around. So the D425 is now in the wooden case with two SSD drives, no fan at all and it works perfectly.

It sits on a shelf with a 12" touch screen on the wall nearby... web browsing, email, music and even non HD video delivery from the home server! All in a neat, small package.
 25/09/2011 14:43:47

Name: nocturnal
Comment: Good project and I am considering building one myself.

To further quieten the noise you could use a high-end 120mm - 140mm case fan.

To eliminate hard drive noise you could put them in another room connected ethernet style to an NAS server.


 13/12/2011 09:54:35

Name: MettaBiz
Comment: Thanks Nocturnal

I have built a low power Server with 1 OS SSD and 4x2TB (green) drives for storage. The media PC shown here now has 2 SSD's, one as system and one 128GB for recording, so no fan at all now.
 28/12/2011 16:38:30