Igor Kromin |   Consultant. Coder. Blogger. Tinkerer. Gamer.

Earlier on in the month I mostly assembled my new file/media server but didn't get to finish it because of some panels being incorrectly cut for me. Now I was able to get new panels laser cut and finally assembled the whole unit. It looks amazing...
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To complete this assembly, I needed the front panel. My original design wasn't great and when I got it back from the laser cutters they cut it quite off from the design, so the panel wasn't usable. After thinking more about the front panel design I decided to make it out of two layers of acrylic, a black base and a clear top. The base was going to go around the frame of the case and the clear top would attach to that with some screws.
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I used some black bolts to hold the USB socket in place and then some PC case screws to attach the clear front panel. All the holes for these had to be hand drilled since they weren't part of the design sent to the laser cutters.

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The black panel was attached to the aluminium chassis with some thin double sided tape. I wasn't sure it would hold at first, but seems to be doing a good job so far.
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With just the black frame attached, the case wasn't much to look at, but as soon as the clear acrylic front went on, it started to look amazing!

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Here are a few more close up shots of the completed assembly...

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I noticed that after the front panel was attached, the XU4 temperature actually dropped down about 1C. I am guessing that's due to better airflow around the XU4 since air is sucked in from the slits right in front of it and is pushed out the back by the 80mm fan.

-i

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