I know its not finished. But I would like to present you the status of my chieftec project. :)

I start to be kinda proud, he's my first 100% self assembled PC.

What’s up with the weird lonely fan up there and who tf is gonna fill these optical media bays?

Hehey nice work! I built my first one a few months back as well.
And per Chance helped my friend build his first yesterday.

It's great having a fully customized PC where you know where everything is and what's going on inside and so on.
Have fun

@petergriffin Three pcs of these are going there. :) They didn't arrived yet

Is this meant to be a dual-system case (i.e. with another motherboard in the now empty space in the top and another PSU who knows where)?

@kamen In the empty space will be a pi controlled system monitor. I want to monitor all the data, from ethernet interfaces, network usage, etc.

A Pi with a display doesn't need that much space - you can probably fit one in most cases.

@kamen its a custum display for the case, it will be 25-30 cm long and 13cm high, to fill the space nicely

I don't like how the PSU draws its cooling air from the warm inside of the case, and the AIO fans should be close to the front because right now, they don't suck in air, but only distribute warm air within the case.

Looks like big tower cases still exist.

@Fast-Nop I was thinking to turn up upside down, if there is accumulated heat, in will rotate the fan next to it to supply air from outside too. The chieftec BA case have grills on the both front sides and the front too, so he will have plenty of fresh air.

@Oktokolo They doesn't, :) I wanted to save this old guy.

@blindXfish
Reuse is the best recycling.
So thumbs up for that!

@blindXfish I've reused my old case from 2010 (Lancoool PC-K58) for the rebuild in 2020 because they don't make cases like that anymore. Only the front panel lacks USB3, but that I have a USB3 cable outside the case from rear to front.

Seems like a lot of work, but as long as you enjoy it that's all that counts.

Nobody ever climbed Everest because it was easy.

Nice build man.

Probably not the best bang for the buck. But if you like it, it's worth it.

@Fast-Nop Just curious - what part of this case's features you can't find in a modern case?

@kamen You are definitely not from Europe.

@kamen I want a case that can take a DVD burner and has a proper mesh front instead of airtight glass, a filter in the mesh, metal sidewalls without holes, and ideally even that awesome looking top side. The PSU must take in air from the outside, guarded with a dust filter. Oh and it must take a 155mm tower cooler, but that's usually not an issue.

The closest I found for a recent PC build was the Bequiet Pure Base 600. It works, but the material quality is a step downwards, and the manual fan control is a useless switch on the front because I let my mobo control the fans.

Very nice everyone!

@Fast-Nop Yeah, most probably the 5.25" is the limiting factor since most new cases have dropped that. If you can get away with an external burner, that will greatly increase your options. As for the PSU, most new cases are like this, although I've found that sometimes turning it with the fan up and letting it just radiate heat upwards works well (some PSUs won't spin up the fan at all until a certain load %/temperature).

P.S. I'm a fan of Fractal Design, the Define 7 series checks all the boxes sans the front panel (it's dampened, so not fully open as a mesh would be); the Meshify 2 series seems like all that you want sans the 5.25" bay.

@kamen No internal DVD drive is a deal breaker for me because I do have quite some DVDs that I like to watch - and I have a lot more of them than what can be ripped even when discounting copy protection problems.

But even if so - I will not accept a glass front just for bling bling design because that puts form over function. The ATX spec is meant for air flow from front-bottom to rear-top, and a glass front cannot achieve this. It's stupid.

This is a fine example of change in abscence of improvement, rather the opposite, but still trying to simulate progress while actually decaying, and that's indicative of our time in general.

Incidentally, it's also why this machine runs the last classic desktop OS still standing. What an irony that it's also the one with the least desktop market share.

@Fast-Nop I have a similar one too. He's my Ubuntu server. :)

@blindXfish Looks interesting, and it seems to have external 5.25" slots. What case model is that?

@Fast-Nop ms-tech xerxes I paid 20$ for it :D

@petergriffin Filled the holes today :)

@blindXfish the brand of that 5.25" caddy suggests that it will get stuck in a canal if you ever ship it somewhere