Avast, I have an update for ye mateys...

Mounting Motherboard

I got my motherboard in finally after over a week wait (slow shipping), and got it mounted on the MB tray.



I ran into a problem though that because of mismarking the hole positions, the bottom right hole was in the middle of the square hole I cut to help with the PSU airflow. I JB welded a piece onto the corner to give the screw something to mount to.



PSU Wiring Insert

I copied and drilled out the holes for the PSU wiring insert on the MB. I'm not satisfied with the way the holes turned out on this. I should have taken more time to make sure they are exactly straight, and they really need to be spaced apart a bit more.



I got in a 4 port USB PCI bracket to add some USB ports to the MB as the Micro ATX MB only has 4 ports. I bent the bracket out, and that is where I will drill mounting holes on the backpanel for mounting. I'll make a custom mount for the bracket, but I want the holes to line up so that you could simply bend a regular PCI bracket flat and screw it into the back panel if need be.





I got some stuff in from Frozen CPU that I ordered. I got rubber fan mounts, sound absorbing material, fan screws, an 80mm Scythe S-Flex fan, and a 92mm Scythe S-Flex fan. They by far have the best deal on sound absorbing material, and give you twice as much as anywhere else I can find for $20.



Not exactly related to this build, but I also made a metal shelf for my new Asus RT-N16 router to sit on above my desk, and a shelf for my external 1TB HD to sit on mounted behind my desk. It will be used as a NAS. I haven't gotten them hooked up yet though as I had to leave to go out of town for a week and a half. I get to spend my “vacation” at my mother-in-law's.





Plan to Redo Motherboard and PSU Panels and Make New Top Panel

After looking it all over and messing entirely too much with the MB tray in particular, I've decided to scrap the MB tray and PSU panels completely. The large bends in the current design simply have caused way too many problems trying to get clean countersinks, and I've had to patch too much for my liking due to goofs. I went back to the place I bought my aluminum from, and got a new 1' x 4' piece of 16 gauge to make new panels from. Thankfully I found this metal shop that is very reasonable. He cut the piece to be exactly 1' wide for me, and only charged me $10 cash for the alu sheet. Everywhere else locally wants a lot more, and won't cut anything for less than a $20 min charge. I also got a new piece of 1/2” steel square bar to make a new center support as I'm not happy with it either. I am going to change the MB and PSU panels to be just plain square pieces, and make a new top panel piece. This will eliminate my countersinking issues. I also ordered some #6 screws from Smallparts.com so use in place of the #8 screws I am currently using as they should countersink much better.

Old/Current Plans:



Revised Plans:


I won't get any more done until I get back from “vacation” in a week and a half.

Thanks for stopping by and happy 4th of July everyone.