My Habey 600 with room for slim drive

[okolepuka]

So Habey has 2 similar cool ITX cases, the 600 and the 800. The 800 is slightly taller designed with room for a slim drive. However I thought I would share my build using a 600 that I managed to get a slim DVD drive into. I wasnt planning on installing a disc drive, but when I finished I realized there was just enough room, with a little tweaking. So I thought I would share and hopefully offset all the generous help tonymac members have given me in the past, esp. DBP and jmpa. Without getting into too much detail, basically what makes it work is:

-Remove the stock metal internal HD mount--it's pretty useless besides taking up space.

-Used the Dynatron low-pro CPU fan, perfect for this case because of the low height and that it blows air right toward the side vent. It's strong and quiet.

-Spray Adhesive (5 or 6 spots, at corners applied to top of drive with a chopstick, dont spray directly on) to mount the drive to the top underside of the case top cover(also mounted ssd to top cover with velcro). Probably any kind of good glue will work. I made sure not to over-do it, in case I needed to take it out in the future. It was important to mount it flush this way to save precious vertical space (as opposed to velcro or whatever)

-Cut, filed, sanded and spray-painted a DVD-width slit in the front of the case above the power button. The aluminum is pretty easy to work with. I made a template in Illustrator, printed it on adhesive paper and stuck it to the front as a guide.

-4 small washers under the top cover as spacers/shims to give a bit more vertical room. The top cover actually looks good sitting a mm higher, like an iPhone or something. Washers on the bottom cover also create vertical space if you need it.

--Angled SATA cables can be difficult, stay with straight ones, and get the shortest you can find. Slim drives use a special SATA connector that works well with the extra MOLEX power connector from the Habey PSU

Anyway, I will post more pictures later.

 

[okolepuka]

Front loading slit--I could have actually made it thinner. To get a professional look, I used a smooth, flat 1x4" with fine grit sandpaper stapled to it to sand down. I might glue a strip of dust sweeping material to the bottom loading edge.

 

[okolepuka]

Filed down the front underside of the top case cover edge.

 

[okolepuka]

Slap a sloppy Apple spray painted stencil on it and call it a day(flat white)! I wanted it to look industrial and stenciled, but I made the mistake of using adhesive backed paper which instead amplified all the rough Xacto knife edges and made it look like a really ****ty screen print. I might redo it. UPDATE: Used a little steel wool to tone down and "distress"/fade the apple logo a bit--looks perfect now.

 

[neilhart]

okolepuka are you running the i7-3770 that is in your profile in this case? How are the thermals under load? This is a very busy box and I applaud you for getting it all in there and the cover on.

neil

 

[okolepuka]

hi neil--yeah the i7-3770. The core reads about 52 deg core right now/46 at the heatsink with HWMonitor, but I havent done any benchmarking. I havent really done all my research in that area, admittedly. I knew that I might run into issues with that processor in this case/PSU. But based on my experience, I think the Dynatron fan is doing its job pretty well (fast, pretty quiet, and exhausts right out the side vent), and I live in a cool environment. I would however like to get sleep working with my BT so I dont have to shut it down each time Im done working. THX

 

[teraflow]

Nice job fitting all that in such a small case
Out of curiosity, are you using a PicoPsu?
If so, which one and which adapter?
Also, I would get some shorter SATA cables, shorter cables mean more free room and better ventilation

 

[okolepuka]

hey teraflow--no, I used the power that came installed with the Habey. As far as SATA cables I went on eBay and searched for the shortest I could find. Keep in mind the slim drive takes a special SATA cable, if you plan to fit one in.