Crooked Convection

Crooked Convection is a PC stand (it's hardly a case!), uploaded here for posterity. Do not build it. 

Inspired by open-air PC testbenches, massive tower-style air coolers and the idea of convection assisted cooling, designed out of a desire to make something cool looking, save money, and put up a big fat, ‘Seems overcomplicated’, to the concept of water-cooling a PC. It acheives none of these goals but was a lot of fun to make either way.

I think it looks cool and it runs pretty well too, but aesthetics are highly subjective and the performance has a couple major downsides. It is flimsy and inconvnient and probably won't be proportioned correctly unless you have the same GPU as me. Its gets incredibly dusty, muffles zero fan noise, has no place to mount external SSD's or HDDs, or a power button, or any external case interfacing that a real case would come with. And it feels super fragile if you so much as brush against it. But hey, it runs cool :D. Again, do not build this.

If for some godforsaken reason you do want to build this (theres' no accounting for masochism or taste!), here's a parts list:

• 1  Main Backplate (Done by an external company to keep it 1 piece)
• 10 Standoff Spacers
• 1  PCIe and IO Support (I never got the IO plate to work)
• 2  PSU Cage Feet (1 mirrored, also done by an external company) 
• 2  PSU Cage Top Bars
• 4  PSU Cage Tie Bars
• 2  PSU Cage Tie Bars (Through Hole)

In terms of hardware:

• 14 M3 Heat-Set Inserts
• 14 M3x10 Flanged Button Head Screws
• 10 4x18mm Steel Dowel Pins
• Thumbscrews and Heat Set Inserts for the PCIe cards you want to install. I recommend M3

For anyone interested, the computer parts used to propotion and align the various edges of the stand:

• NZXT N5 Z690 Motherboard
• INNO3D GEFORCE RTX™ 3080 TI ICHILL X4
• Corsair HX850 PSU

It took a couple evenings of underclocking to get my GPU playing nicely with that PSU. I do not want or need a more powerful GPU and CPU, I want the same performance sipping back half the power.

Assembly:

1. Heat set the inserts into the backplate, PCIe support and PSU cage feet. The holes are stepped for the flanges on the inserts I bought
2. Drill out the PSU Feet and bars to 4mm if they're too tight after printing
3. Use the pins to tie the PSU cage together using the 6 Tie bars.
4. Install the RAM, CPU and its  cooler to the motherboard and any M.2 SSD's that you want to use on the back of the motherboard.
5. Screw the motherboard into the backplate, using the standoff spacers. This is extremely tedious and frustrating and would benefit from a redesign. Anyway.
6. Screw the backplate onto the PSU legs. Be careful, as the motherboard may make the frame want to tip over
7. Cage the PSU in it's frame and secure it with the top bars. No it doesn't have a method to stop it sliding out, yes that's probably poor design. Don't poke it. With it in place, the frame becomes much more stable
8. Attatch the PCIe Support and any PCIe cards you want to put on the motherboard. Transfer the locations of the support holes for the card to the bracket.
9. Remove the card and the bracket. Drill out the holes in the bracket and install the inserts
10. Re-attatch the PCIe bracket and card.
11. Build the rest of the PC.
12. Dissamble and move to a better designed case, seriously. The way the backplate lifts away from the PSU cage if you pull on it is terrifying, as is the way the PCIe bracket gets cut into by the edge of the motherboard. And the bracket covers the top port of the GPU

And that's the design! I do have a much, much better design in the works, ready for some aesthetic flares too courtesy of a few designer friends I have. In any case, If you made it here, thanks for spending some time looking at my attempt at preserving my work for a little while and have a lovely day :D.