In my last article, I laid out the scenario for which I needed to build a custom external GPU for mobile robotics development. I decided to build my own for various reasons; in this article I will describe the first part of the process by which I built an external GPU.
The preliminary testing of the eGPU interface, which I put together in the last article, works. Now, I needed to build an enclosure for it.
After looking into my IEEE Lab room (also known as my storage unit), I was debating over whether I should take an old solid P2/P3 ATX case, the el cheapo P4 case, or even the heavy as hell AMD K6 AT case. The P2/P3 case is very solid, it seems to be molded into shape, and most of joints are welded together. It is constructed with hard metal, probably steel or a hardened alloy of some sort.
As for the P4 case (you know, those el cheapos made in China, frizzy, light and looks like they can be pressed into pancakes by just two people sitting on it), the internal construction is soft aluminum. I can bend them easily with my finger, and the exterior sliding cover seems to be made from same material as the P2/3 case.
That leaves the good old AT case. Solid—I mean really solid—it must be steel or something, extremely heavy, and seems to be indestructible.
Well, like most engineers who are building any prototypes, I decided to go with, in this order, the minimum amount of work, easy working material, cheapness, and of course I wanted to get it done fast (also, don’t forget the laziness factor). I went with the P4 case.
The craptastic P4 case
The good thing about the P4 case is that the entire case is so cheap—both in cost and quality of construction. It looks cheap, it feels cheap, and it is riveted together without any welding. There are a minimal number of screws—I counted three on each side panel, two for the top, four for the front panels. That leaves a total of twelve screws. The case has over 40 rivets, and they can be removed easily with the help of a good drill; with each drilled rivet I also gain one aluminum washer!
Lovely rivets in the P4 case
Body Parts
The most important part of case is the back support. No one likes the video card flopping around, especially one with so much weight in the front
The back support, plus some lovely hand modeling!
Progress!
The enclosure needs to support a 12.5" GPU
I decided that just in case I would like to get an even bigger card, such as a Geforce GTX 590, I am making the total clearance for video card 12.5″. As you can see, the 560Ti barely fits under 10”
More progress:
This time with some refinements including some grinding
After playing with the box a bit, it seems to me that the soft aluminum is actually way too soft—it deforms under pressure, so I decided to add an outer casing for reinforcement, using the ugly side panel from the cheap case:
From ugly side panel to outer casing for the GPU enclosure
And finally, day one comes to a close:
Finally, day one!
As you can see, I used screws to join everything together. This is not ideal, as many of the pieces are slightly loose, and let’s be frank: you will never take most of it apart anyway.
During the grinding, some aluminum dust went into my eyes. I wrote it off as just dust, and I figured if I blink enough it should come out, but… the next morning my eyes hurt like hell. I ended up going to the ER twice to get two pieces of debris removed. For the next four days, I am a half blind man who also looks like an Asian penguin. Day two of the build will be coming soon!
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