gx640/gt640/gt627/gx620/gx630 custom aluminum chassis project!

Hello, gx640, gt640, gt627, gx620 and gx630 owners!

I've been in the process of designing a custom aluminum case for these laptops.
The case will be stronger and will accommodate better cooling.
It will also be more affordable than getting the crappy plastic case from a reseller.

I have 3 questions for you all, before I get a final design and price quote.

1. Should general design be the same as the old case/most cases, where the motherboard is mounted between 2 main cases (palmrest and bottom frame) OR
2. Should the design be 1 single piece for the main chassis and 1 large bottom cover? The motherboard would be removable as easily as the CPU/GPU and it would be a bit bulkier.
3. I plan on using a mag alloy lid and hinges from a different brand. Do you have any better ideas? What brand and model do you recommend? I was thinking the dell e6500/m4400.

Thanks for any input.

 

Make it as thin/light as possible. But need some vents for a better cooling system. The 2nd and 3rd option sounds great. The Dell notebooks got a really good hinges and I really like the E6500 case.

I'm missing the gt628 from the list.

edit: a macbook pro 4.1 style house should be awesome! with a lots of vents on the bottom around the fan and around the vga. It can't be as thin as the macbook but it looks great I think. Or maybe the E6500 case that you mentioned. Keep it simple and thin.

 

gt628, gx623, gx633 will work too, as well as ms-1651, ms-1652 and ms-1656.
There, I think I got them all covered

I think the case may be a little thicker. It shouldn't be any heavier, that is without cooling mods. But it will be much much stronger.
The reason I'm making it thicker is to fit a huge delta server fan which is more than an inch thick.

That said it wont be much thicker than the thickest point already which is where the fan is. It will help a lot to mostly get rid of the feet.

Any more suggestions?

 

It will be only a case for the current components or maybe there will be a different screen or keyboard?

The bigger fan is a good idea.

Have you got a plan? A 3d model or even a quick sketch?

edit: What if somebody (for example me) don't want a bigger cooler? I'll be more happy with a thinner case.

 

To be honest, I don't want to spoil your wishes but I think most people would rather make a small sacrifice for better cooling.
If I make it so the new fan is practically a drop in replacement, the laptop will literally have more than double the cooling capacity. This would give hope for the 6970m and other cards in the gx640, and actually overclocking the 5850 or a 5870 higher.

I can't make it thinner than the original case... I don't plan on making it noticeably thicker. Hopefully it will be lighter even if thicker.

My goal is essentially to compromise, because while the MSIs are very lightweight, the strength of the case and the cooling is very very bad. The new case will be nothing like stepping up to a heavier alienware or clevo, but the cooling and strength should be just as good.

I am open to suggestions about further modifications for other components, but the case must accommodate all the original components as well.

The keyboard isn't really possible to change. One would basically have to hack the KBC/EC and flash it to accept a different layout. Unless you wanted to do it with the software sharpkeys, there may be some limitations to that, as the keystrokes are still going through the MSI KBC/EC.
If you find a nice looking chicklet keyboard however I will look into it. It should have at least the same number of pins for the connector.

These laptops can already accept a variety of screens. I'm not sure what modification to the chassis would help it accept LED LCDs. The only real incompatibility is the CCFL inverter which also depends on the EC for brightness control. In general there hasn't been enough ambitious/experimental testing on CCFL based laptop to LED screen conversion. One thing I am not going to do is switch it to 16:9.
The Dells have both LED and CCFL screens, so there are lid assemblies for both.

 

Ok, I understand your opinion about the cooling and case thickness.

As for the keyboard I really love to have a chicklet style keyboard from another MSI notebook. The layout is the same on all MSI's in Europe just the width can be a problem on the stock chassis.

The mobo not support LED backlit screens, just CCFL. Is it possible to have a WUXGA screen in this model?

 

^This sounds like a great project!!

How will you make this chassis? CNC milling? Or grinding/welding etc? Casting aluminium would be pretty difficult I guess.

 

Sweet project, I'll definitely be strongly considering buying one if we pull this off. For me, as long as it's less than 10 pounds, cooling is the top priority.

Good luck!

 

Will definitely keep an eye out for this.

 

@Kirr: yes you can already install a WUXGA LCD.

If I'm not mistaken, some of the Dell lids have room for dual CCFL as well.

@svl7: Actually I considered asking in a machining forum about this... but I've made the decision to use bent/welded sheet metal.

Of course I can't do this myself very easily so I found a company to do it.
Aluminum can be casted and its possible that the design costs of such detail in bending will be too much compared to casting.

I think the macbooks are casted.

Thanks minerals!

The case current case weighs about 1.5lbs or less, I don't think I'll go over that.

 

Macbooks are machined. YouTube - ‪Fräsen von einem Aluminium Notebookgehäuse‬‏

 

Hmm, don't think so, way too expensive. That's probably only a prototype. Casting is pretty cheap if you do it en masse.

 

Actually all macbook are machined from one simple aluminium plate.

 

The made a big fuss about them being machined and they show videos of the actual process in Apple stores.

 

Ok, impressive!

Back to topic... how do you want to design the whole thing niffcreature? CAD? Since the mobo etc. has to fit well I assume you start measuring the standard chassis and then doing some sketches on the computer until you got the whole part...

 

Yes. Next step is purchasing a drafting board for exact measurements.
I am designing it in CAD software but with bend methods for a manual machine.

 

OFF: Is the GT640 compaible with some beast mxm cards? Cuz maybe I can make a good deal to change my old GT628 to that. But I don't want that GTS 250m.

 

The gt640 and gx640 are the same, so yes.
I'm going to do a pretty extreme cooling mod on my gx640 soon. It is quite difficult to really properly cool a 5850 or 5870. If you were to upgrade your motherboard I might recommend a 6770m gddr5 for you.

I don't believe it is compatible with newer nvidia 400 series cards, but I could be wrong. I have only tested a QS gtx 470m.

 

I'll change the whole laptop to another. That will come, with i7-720qm and a GTS 250m.

Need to upgrade the heatsink for the 6770m?

 

You will not need to upgrade the heatsink from the ms-1656 barebones or the gt640.

You will not be able to use the heatsink from your gt628 unless you have a CPU heatpipe for the gt640/gx640 and are willing to do some serious soldering.

BTW the 6770m has a 99.99% of working IMO but no one has ever tried it. Please post your results... especially if it runs cooler and better than the 5850!!

 

No, I want to sell the gt628 and buy a totally "new" notebook. In my country it's impossible to buy some components for my notebook, for example a heatsink.

 

Yes, then the 6770m should work fine for you. You can buy it here:
Wholesale del M14x HD6770M 1G DDR5 MXM3 VGA card

Actually if you overclock it you can get it to the performance level of a 5870m.

I believe the only things you could possibly need for this upgrade are thermal paste, maybe a copper shim and some thermal pads.

 

Any news about the project, Niff?

 

This will be on hold for a week or two... I'm kinda deciding where to live right now

 

I still have this little warrior (and the next step will be an SSD). Any news about the new case?

 

Wow this is an awesome project! I take it you have experience with and access to cnc machining... I am very jealous!

I bet this will take some time to design. How detailed are you going with the casing? Are you using mastercam to design it?

Thanks for doing this, even if I don't currently own one of these machines - super cool.

make one for the ms-1722!!! Long live the 1722!!!

 

the upcoming asus ux21 is like this. very sweet indeed!

 

Is this project dead?

 

not yet
I need some funding.

I may try to hand weld a case soon.

 

this looks VERY interesting. the thin case for these models becomes a limiting factor for cooling more beefy parts.

i still have my GT628 with me and as much as i want to buy a new laptop with more horsepower, i'd like to keep this as long as it's not yet dead. i'll be watching this project unfold.

 

Any updates about the project?

 

on a side note. i figure i'd mention i'm a machinist(well, first year student), with some CAM software experience.

i can help out a little if you need some as i have a gx640.