LZ7 – First Prototype parts have arrived!

The first prototype Acrylic panels have arrived:

I’ve used hex head bolts for this build, but the intention is investigate countersinking the screw holes for a flush finish. But saying that I actually quite like how these black hex bolts have turned out!

For the prototype I chose a slightly transparent white material for the 5mm panels and a smokey grey transparent material for the 3mm panels.

Here are a few shots of assembling the Acrylic panels onto the corner joints:

In the first photo you can see the bottom panel vents, the positive pressure design of the case in conjunction with these vents will allow for much improved cooling of M.2 drives that are mounted under the motherboard. The vents at the front of the bottom panel will help to have the same effect with the front mounted 2.5″ storage drives. The vents under the graphics card will allow for direct exhaust path for GPU’s with a radial style cooler such as the Asus GTX 970 Mini:

For this prototype I chose to go with angled slots for the GPU intake side panel:

Here you can see the IO panel in place, you can also see the mounting holes for 120mm and 140mm fans. A 140mm dust filter will be provided, I may develop a side panel with slots similar to the GPU side for those who would prefer a case without a dust filter:

Here is a shot of the case pretty much fully assembled, its jsut missing the dust filter and rubber feet:

Here is a shot of the rear: