FreeNAS Box V1 Prototype
With the concept designed, it's time to head over to Tux-Lab to build it!
To be honest, it was not fully designed for use as a computer case. Since this was my first effort designing for acrylic construction I expected to run into some amateur mistakes very quickly. As a result I had left some known design issues open to be resolved in future prototypes. One example: I had not designed any kind of door or hinge. The prototype panels are mostly glued together, except for the front panel which is held in place by tape.
Aesthetically, I am pleased with how the clear acrylic looked though I am not pleased at how much of a rat's nest the power supply cables became. Taming wires is a perpetual challenge. I now understand why Apple enclosed all the ugly guts of the G4 cube in shiny aluminum shell inside the clear acrylic shell.
Other than the messy computer wires, the clear acrylic does hint at the illusion of a computer floating in mid air. I'm pretty happy with that, but it's not enough to offset the tangle of wires. Next prototype will either have good cable management (takes effort) or have some dark colored acrylic to hide the interior (much easier.)
The cooling functionality worked as designed: the intake air is drawn from the bottom, past the two hard drives keeping them cool, and out the top.
Similarly, the designed goals of tilted-PSU (power supply unit) space optimization was successful, as did the gentler turn demanded of the wires. However, there was an unforeseen deal-breaker of an issue.
Uh-oh!
On the back side of the tilted-PSU, we see that the tilt has pressed the bottom of the PSU up against the wire bundle at the top of the motherboard. The tight quarters mean individual wires of the bundle tried to relieve the crowding by moving into the space for the PSU fan preventing it from turning. Since the PSU fan is the primary air-mover for this enclosure, a stopped fan is obviously not acceptable.
Other notes
Space utilization efficiency has room for improvement. Some of this was caused by the desire to emulate the Apple G4 cube and have a square footprint. (20 cm squared!) The squareness was completely unnecessary and future iteration will likely have a rectangular footprint for space efficiency.
There was uncertainty about how well 3mm acrylic can hold the weight of the power supply unit. It proved to be surprisingly capable once the two top sheets reinforced each other at right angle.
Amateur Hour: A laser cutter only cuts vertically. There was no way to cut a 30 or 60 degree edge for the tilted PSU section! For this learning exercise, the cornered edges are simply left open and unattached.
The angled PSU was a novel idea to solve specific problems, but it caused new ones and also unsuitable for laser cut acrylic construction. That was a fun experiment, but we'll have to leave the angled PSU concept behind for the next prototype.