There are all kinds of fun, glowing PC cases on the market these days. However, if you want something that focuses on serviceability over flash while still looking stylish, you might like the Makeyo MK01. It’s a PC case that you can print yourself, and [Marst_art] has published a video on what it’s like to whip one up at home.
The MK01 is assembled from lots of smaller parts, so the components can be made on any 3D printer that has a print area of 210 x 210 mm or more. All the outer panels are affixed to the main chassis with magnets, which makes servicing easy. You can just pop off panels when you need to get inside without undoing any fasteners or clips.
Plus, the cool thing about the MK01 is that since you’re printing it yourself, you can easily make whatever mods you like prior to printing it out. [Marst_art] notes that he threw in a USB-C port to the front panel for easy access, and a few internal mounts for 2.5″ SSDs. He also made some mods to the power switch assembly. It also bears noting—you get to choose your own color scheme when you make one of these. This level of customization is something you simply don’t get when you buy off the shelf!
[Marst_art]’s video is a useful guide if you’re planning to undertake such a build yourself. It outlines what it’s like to actually print one of these things on a consumer printer, and how the settings will influence the final look and feel. It’s worth noting that you’ll probably want to print this in ABS or another filament that can handle high heat, unless you’re building a very cool running machine.
It’s not just a great looking case, it’s a highly functional one, too. Files are available on Printables if you’d like to make your own. We’ve featured other printed cases before, too.
That’s damned close to Poly 88 Orange…!
Sponsored post? The model files are $20.
Myself, I wouldn’t pay that.
But, there are pictures. If I want a similar one badly enough, but not enough to pay $20, well, FreeCAD is free and the learning pays me.
(That sounded like an advertising slogan for FC. Yeah…if it catches on, I’ll ask for a percentage of the sales it brings in.)
To be clear, I wouldn’t pay that because I’m cheap. I really like the design. It’s a nice departure from square black boxes.
I do agree with you and I could be in the same situation but as you said you/we’re cheap because designing this ourself would likely put us below minimum hourly wages. 20$ is only expensive if your time is worth nothing.
The question is rather, how much would you be willing to pay to do nothing for an hour. That is the cost of lost opportunity. You could argue that you can make the money more effectively through your day job, but you can’t arbitrarily increase the number of your work hours to pay for the difference, so doing nothing is just doing nothing and you’re simply throwing away the opportunity to gain a little bit of value.
There are worse ways to spend an afternoon. It’s curious that people would rather waste their energy doing something completely non-productive or even something that costs them money, than work for something that saves or gains simply because they’re not “making minimum wage” on it.
My time is worth nothing.
But seriously, a lot of people get enjoyment out of designing things, even if just for themselves. If you consider it hobby time then it’s great value.
Time is finite, yes. Also, yes, during your afternoon instead of watching videos on Facebook, creating something beautiful is time better spent.
But also, remember designing this is going to be a lot of fails in designs, pitfalls, wrong connection between peaces, oops smaller hole, damn it, must reprint x23… 20$ or something is not that much. You will save your self the effort and headache
you all a bit harsh on this one.
that design is cool but as i have the tooling and the skill, i’ll probably design my own in a different style of course!
However if i wanted to make an exact copy, paying 20$ to get the 3mf will be a no brainer and save me tons of time and trials.
it’s not the “you don’t value your time” crap that we read often here, it just doesnt make sense to reproduce an such design if you can get the model for that cheap, this is not a one evening design.
That joke of youtuber Scott Lee charge more for trivial crap
hey, Nice design. a refreshing view after the decades of all black boxes.
I miss the beige boxes ;p
You could paint an existing case, print a few custom front decals.
Only so much freedom when standards make it into a box.
To put it lightly, i’m not the intended audience for this. But i have some anecdata that maybe people can pile on to?
I printed exclusively with PLA from 2014-2024, and mostly it turned into brittle garbage after only a year or two (no-climate-control humid indoors). Thicker parts and parts that never see any mechanical stress last longer, but when i’ve tested them they are brittle too. But the exception seems to be parts that are regularly heated (maybe a few minutes a day). I know there’s a couple other ones but the one that jumps to mind is a knob on a brass hot water fixture. So only to about 120F/50C. Not very hot. Hotter than the inside of my PC, i suppose. Subjectively, it seems as if there’s an annealing process over time that prevents the parts from becoming brittle, even when exposed directly to water?
PLA also has awful creeping characteristics when under static tension, and i generally take care to avoid that in my designs, so i can only imagine regular heating would exacerbate that problem. And in the context of a computer that might be warm 24/7, i imagine it would be all downside.
But i wonder if anyone else has noticed that? It’s just something that crosses my mind because the few times i run into a PLA thing still in service in my house, i marvel at it and almost always i say to myself “ah, because it gets hot on some schedule.” ???
The real engineering lesson that i can vouch for being more than superstition is that i’m using PLA in a lot of roles that it’s really unsuited for and still getting years of service out of it. Every tool that i use in every field of my life, the stupidest hack can almost always last for years. Which is lots of upsides and lots of downsides, for example if you’ve ever had to take care of a house.
” a great looking case” ….
In the words of Rick James…. (in Charlie Murphy’s True
Life Stories)…. “cocaine is a helluva drug”…..
I’ll be “that guy”.
It looks like sheeeiitt ! ( feces ).
I think years ago Dell had a similar case that looked like it.
Didn’t sell many of them.
Really? It does looks slick, but I’d prefer a case that won’t melt, isn’t flammable, and provides a decent radio interference shield. Oh, and doesn’t have fans blowing into my face and ears, with gratuitous rainbow LEDs flickering away in my peripheral vision.
Seriously, are these just for the clicks? Does anybody really use these pretty boxes?
Looks like something you’d see in portal that might kill you, design is great but the price is too much to justify. The lack of EMI shielding is also a concern depending on environment, offer suggestionsfor shielding on the build. The material absolutely needs to be high heat, pla for this is a mess waiting to happen. I’d suggest lowering the price and offering the 3mf for endless community contributions. Buy me a coffee is a better approach.
The main problem with these 3d printed cases is they are large flat stock . . . A thing which exists all over the world. If you used the 3D print to align and drill the holes in sheet stock you would wind up with a sturdy case.
Wow whata miserable lot. The person spent time and probably a fair bit of printing to design this, $20 is not a lot to ask. To those moaning about melting, there are other plastics than PLA. PETG would be perfectly fine, ABS if you have a heated print chamber.
Fire? Really? Considering it would be more likely that the extension lead the monitor(s), PC, speakers etc are connected to would catch fire (well unless it is a modern NVIDIA GPU in there).
If EMI is a concern then paint the inside with a conductive paint and earth it.
Honestly I just wish it would could take ATX mobo and a full ATX PSU not STX.
“…paint the inside with a conductive paint and earth it.”
You nailed it. That’s pretty much the tell to show your inexperience in EMI shielding.
Nice design.
Me? I’ll just spray paint a ThinkCentre case if I want small, stylish, serviceable, cheap.
There’s zero RFI shielding in that case. ESD is also going to be an issue. The inside of the case needs to be painted with conductive paint and designed so all of the pieces are electrically connected.
I’m the creator of the PC Case. I discovered the article today, thank you for talking about the project !
To be honest, I am always a little surprised by comments about the price. This project took me hundreds of hours of design and testing. It is far from perfect, and we all learn from our mistakes to do better on future projects. I tried to set a very reasonable price for the unique design proposal, considering its complexity, unique aesthetic appeal, and the prices of 3D models in general.
That being said, no worries, it’s not for everyone, and everyone is free to make up their own mind.
Regarding legitimate questions about the use of PLA. Personally, I printed mine entirely in PLA, and after 6 months of use, I haven’t noticed any deformation. My PC runs at normal temperatures, my 4070super doesn’t heat up any more than my old Corsair 4000D, and the case is holding up well.
PETG, ASA, or ABS may still be recommended for internal parts (at the time I printed mine, I didn’t have a printer capable of printing these materials).
For EMI, That’s something I hadn’t thought about, which proves that I’m no expert, haha. However, based on my experience using the case on a daily basis, I haven’t encountered any problems (there are still contact points via the motherboard).
Feel free to ask if you have any questions! I’m glad to see that it’s sparking debate. I’m just a tinkerer and 3D printing enthusiast trying to bring my vision to the PC world with the resources I have.