SketchUp - Simple CAD For DIY-ers

I'm thinking about getting another storage hard drive, since I'm so happy with my Samsung SpinPoint P120, but I want to put it into an external enclosure. All current external hard drive enclosures frankly suck. Between poor chipsets and spotty power supplies, you are forced to make large compromises. I did my homework and got something with the Oxford firewire chipset so that removes chipset concerns. I also got one with a multi-pin power connector, to help with the power issues I've had with other enclosures. So I have an external enclosure thats reliable and works great. However, the case is awful. It's not ugly by any means, but it does little to remove heat away from the hard drive. And for something that will be sitting on or near the desk, I didn't want a fan making it any louder then it should be. I'll just make my own external case.

So I've found some good places to order metal online. My old man has a decent assortment of power tools and a garage where I can build my pimp HD case. So now I just needed to start fleshing out my idea into some measurements.

I needed a CAD or three dimensional program that would let me specify dimensions and help me visualize my concepts. SketchUp does this wonderfully. It took me only an hour to learn it and another hour to get my concepts into the program. It's a crazy nice program and Google offers it for a free download. Here is a sneek-peak at my external hard drive case: