Homemade ATX case idea?

[Isaac Kuo]

I have this idea for a simple compact ATX case. I think I've
thought of all the issues, but I wonder if there's anything
I've missed. Here is what a cross section looks like, when facing
the motherboard from behind (the ports are facing you).


cardboard wall
|
V intake
____________ __________________
| | | | |
|##### | | | A P |
|##### | \|||/ G C |
|#PSU# | CPU P I |
|##### |=======MOTHERBOARD======= |
|##### ---------------|
|##### [[[HDD]]] | DVD |========] Tray opens to side
|#####______________|_______________|

Airflow enters the case via the top intake directly to the CPU
fan. This air travels over the motherboard to the right, where
it escapes downward over the DVD. This air travels left over the
DVD and around the HDD. Finally, the PSU sucks the air out the
rear. I think airflow will be efficient, because the CPU fan and
the PSU fan work with each other in push-pull tandem.

The PSU and DVD drive rest directly on the base board. The hard
drive rests upside-down, with foam tape spacers at the corners
to isolate vibrations and allow all around airflow.

Not visible in the cross section are two wooden block spacers in
front of and behind the drives. The motherboard rests on top
of these blocks.

Construction is very simple. The two wooden block spacers are
glued to the baseboard, and then the walls are glued to the
basebaord also. The rear wall needs holes for the PSU and ports,
of course. Then, the cardboard internal wall is taped in place
(this wall needs a hole for the power cable to reach the
motherboard). The lid is a separate piece, and it features a
large hole and a cylindrical foam intake. RF shielding is provided
by incorporating an aluminum foil layer in the walls and lid.

I think this case has adequate airflow and will keep all
components cool. If the snaking air path around the drives is
too restrictive, I can punch a hole in the cardboard wall to
allow more flow straight from the CPU area to the PSU.

I think this computer has the potential to be rather quiet, since
it only has two cooperating fans and two major openings. I can
easily modify the lid to incorporate a large muffler and/or
air filter, if necessary. I could also modify the PSU area to
route the exhaust downward through a hole in the baseboard.
That would let me experiment with a large muffler underneath
the baseboard.

I like the simplistic maintainability of this case. There are no
nuts and bolts at all! The various components are simply dropped
into place. Neither the drives nor the PSU obscure the
motherboard from above, so adding/removing memory, CPU, or
expansion cards is a snap. Just remove the lid, and it's all
right there on top.

As a final note, I intend to use this computer "sideways", so that
the DVD tray opens toward me and the ports are to the left.
This minimizes the perceived profile of the computer even if it's
very deep.

So, is there anything I missed?

Thanks!

Isaac Kuo

 

[Will Dormann]

I have this idea for a simple compact ATX case. I think I've
thought of all the issues, but I wonder if there's anything
I've missed.

Wooden blocks, cardboard, glue, aluminum foil... Yup. Sounds like
you've got the essentials covered!

-WD

 

[Sooky Grumper]

You'd better have a powerful (and noisy) CPU fan, otherwise the warm air
from that heat sink will impair the cooling of other components. A
better idea would be to simply put vent holes in the front of the case
to let the PSU suck air in that hasn't been pre-heated by the CPU heat sink.

 

[Sooky Grumper]

You'd better have a powerful (and noisy) CPU fan, otherwise the warm air
from that heat sink will impair the cooling of other components. A
better idea would be to simply put vent holes in the front of the case
to let the PSU suck air in that hasn't been pre-heated by the CPU heat
sink.

Some futher thoughts (and I haven't the time to read your entire post):

1. won't that foam beneath the hard drive hold residual static charge
and also be a fire hazard?

2. How are you planning to ground the motherboard? I may be wrong, but I
was under the impression that all motherboards had at least one metal
screw used to ground them to the case (and view the case to the PSU to
the electrical ground).

 

[Hank]

Isaac Kuo wrote:

Wooden blocks, cardboard, glue, aluminum foil... Yup. Sounds like
you've got the essentials covered!

-WD

Actually he doesn't!
Where's the popsicle sticks and rubber bands?

Hank

 

[)-()-(]

Sound like a great project. The only thing that comes to mind is
cooling the video card. Maybe some inlet vents above the DVD
that will allow cool air to the video card. If it's onboard video,
it should be no problem.. But a GF4 runs about 12 watts.

These are great fans to run at 7v or even 5v for low noise cooling

http://www.casecooler.com/pan80hydwavb.html

 

[)-()-(]

On second thought, I didn't see the cardboard wall.

If the hard drive overheats, maybe remove the
cardboard wall and add inlet vents on the front near the DVD.

Try Dtemp for monitoring hard drive temps.
http://private.peterlink.ru/tochinov/

Great idea

 

[Gary Tait]

I have this idea for a simple compact ATX case. I think I've
thought of all the issues, but I wonder if there's anything
I've missed. Here is what a cross section looks like, when facing
the motherboard from behind (the ports are facing you).


cardboard wall
|
V intake
____________ __________________
| | | | |
|##### | | | A P |
|##### | \|||/ G C |
|#PSU# | CPU P I |
|##### |=======MOTHERBOARD======= |
|##### ---------------|
|##### [[[HDD]]] | DVD |========] Tray opens to side
|#####______________|_______________|

So, is there anything I missed?

Thanks!

Isaac Kuo

Where does the stuff plug in?

 

[ric]

Wooden blocks, cardboard, glue, aluminum foil... Yup. Sounds like
you've got the essentials covered!

What? No duct tape? BAH!

 

[Isaac Kuo]

I figure that the other components don't need as much cooling.
In particular, the location of the DVD and HDD drives in most
tower cases seems to get so little airflow that I think I'll
be fine. The air may be warmer but the amount of flow will be
large and fast (note that the air path is "bottlenecked" around
the drives).

I'm concerned that this will let too much sound out, and it will
reduce the amount of airflow through the CPU. As it is, the
PSU fan will give the CPU airflow a small boost because the only
major intake is above the CPU.

However, I'm not going to go through all of the trouble of
sealing things airtight for a "negative pressure" case. The air
intake will NOT be completely sealed against the CPU fan, so
extra air can leak in bypassing the CPU heat sink. Also, the
rear side needs holes for the various ports (VGA, audio out,
ethernet, keyboard, mouse). I'm not going to bother making those
holes airtight, so extra air can enter from there.

Some futher thoughts (and I haven't the time to read your entire post):

1. won't that foam beneath the hard drive hold residual static charge
and also be a fire hazard?

I am talking about 4 small pieces of double sided foam mounting
tape in the corners. I don't think there's any chance of static
or fire. Also, using plain old packing foam has been done. On
silentpcreview.com there are examples of hard drive "mountings"
using nothing but cut up packing foam to isolate their vibrations.

2. How are you planning to ground the motherboard? I may be wrong, but I
was under the impression that all motherboards had at least one metal
screw used to ground them to the case (and view the case to the PSU to
the electrical ground).

I hadn't really put much thought into grounding. The more I
think about it, the more I just can't see that it's necessary.
Certainly, it's not needed for the drives--I've seen plenty of
examples of drive "suspensions" where obviously the only grounding
is via the power and IDE cables. Similarly, the motherboard is
surely grounded to the PSU via the ATX connector. Also, some
computer cases isolate the PSU from the case via rubber grommits
to isolate vibration (reducing noise).

The only thing I can think of is that grounding to the case may
assist in RF shielding.

In any case, thanks for the feedback! I really hadn't thought
about the grounding issue. Perhaps there are other important
issues I hadn't really thought of yet.

Isaac Kuo

 

[AndrewJ]

You'd better have a powerful (and noisy) CPU fan, otherwise the warm air
from that heat sink will impair the cooling of other components. A
better idea would be to simply put vent holes in the front of the case
to let the PSU suck air in that hasn't been pre-heated by the CPU heat sink.

This is a 2500+ @ 3200+ in an oak case:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8518375~mode=flat?hilite=classic+cruncher
__________
If you give a little they give a lot.
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/disco

 

[Al Dykes]

Some futher thoughts (and I haven't the time to read your entire post):

1. won't that foam beneath the hard drive hold residual static charge
and also be a fire hazard?

1. I missed than. Foam is a heat insulator and will keep the disk
toasty warm. Not good.

2. How are you planning to ground the motherboard? I may be wrong, but I
was under the impression that all motherboards had at least one metal
screw used to ground them to the case (and view the case to the PSU to
the electrical ground).

3. Why ?

 

[Isaac Kuo]

If the hard drive overheats, maybe remove the
cardboard wall and add inlet vents on the front near the DVD.

If this happens, I'll remove the cardboard wall and modify
the lid to have a second intake on the other side of the
AGP card. That way, the air from the CPU heat sink will go
directly to the PSU, while the air from the second intake
goes around the other way past the drives.

Try Dtemp for monitoring hard drive temps.
http://private.peterlink.ru/tochinov/

Thanks! I hadn't seen that site before.

Great idea

Isaac Kuo

 

[Isaac Kuo]

On 26 Jan 2004 11:00:35 -0800, (e-mail address removed) (Isaac Kuo) wrote:

I have this idea for a simple compact ATX case. I think I've
thought of all the issues, but I wonder if there's anything
I've missed. Here is what a cross section looks like, when facing
the motherboard from behind (the ports are facing you).
cardboard wall
|
V intake
____________ __________________
| | | | |
|##### | | | A P |
|##### | \|||/ G C |
|#PSU# | CPU P I |
|##### |=======MOTHERBOARD======= |
|##### ---------------|
|##### [[[HDD]]] | DVD |========] Tray opens to side
|#####______________|_______________|

Where does the stuff plug in?

I don't understand the question. This cross section is
viewed from behind the motherboard, so that the near side
is where all the ports are. Everything external plugs in
on the near side. Internally, I need a hole in the
cardboard wall to route the ATX power cable through, and
some minor cablegami is required to fold the IDE cables
underneath the far edge of the motherboard to get to the
drives.

Isaac Kuo

 

[Isaac Kuo]

This is a 2500+ @ 3200+ in an oak case:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,8518375~mode=flat?hilite=classic+cruncher

Interesting project! It's a little more complex than
I'd care to tackle with my first homebuilt case, and
I'm going for a more horizontal layout. I'm going
to be putting this computer on top of my TV, which
is the main reason I don't want a tower.

At any rate, I'm waiting for my Fortron 350 PSU to
arrive before I really get started. So far, I've
just been prototyping with cardboard.

Isaac Kuo

 

[Isaac Kuo]

1. I missed than. Foam is a heat insulator and will keep the disk
toasty warm. Not good.

This is only a problem if the foam covers a relatively large
area. I'm only using 4 relatively small pieces of foam tape
in the corners, so the insulative effect is minimal. In
return, spacing the drive up in the air allows air to pass
underneath as well as over the drive--overall, it should
keep the drive much cooler than simply resting the drive
on the baseboard. Also, the foam will isolate drive
vibrations from the baseboard, reducing noise.

3. Why ?

Mainly because I had very specific ideas about what sort of
case I wanted for my home theatre PC, and the commercially
available ones which fit my desires cost much more than I
care to pay right now. Also, I didn't find any ATX cases
designed around my desired layout--having the motherboard
fit sideways to minimize width. My motherboard isn't quite
full size, so my case will be only about 8.5 inches wide.
The height will be about 7 inches, although it could end
up significantly taller if I add on mufflers later.

The depth of this box will be around 18 inches, which is
long but still a comfortable fit on top of my TV (the top
of the TV is 21" deep by 42" wide).

Isaac Kuo

 

[Sooky Grumper]

This is only a problem if the foam covers a relatively large
area. I'm only using 4 relatively small pieces of foam tape
in the corners, so the insulative effect is minimal. In
return, spacing the drive up in the air allows air to pass
underneath as well as over the drive--overall, it should
keep the drive much cooler than simply resting the drive
on the baseboard. Also, the foam will isolate drive
vibrations from the baseboard, reducing noise.




Mainly because I had very specific ideas about what sort of
case I wanted for my home theatre PC, and the commercially
available ones which fit my desires cost much more than I
care to pay right now. Also, I didn't find any ATX cases
designed around my desired layout--having the motherboard
fit sideways to minimize width. My motherboard isn't quite
full size, so my case will be only about 8.5 inches wide.
The height will be about 7 inches, although it could end
up significantly taller if I add on mufflers later.

The depth of this box will be around 18 inches, which is
long but still a comfortable fit on top of my TV (the top
of the TV is 21" deep by 42" wide).

Isaac Kuo

Althought the activity on alt.comp.case-mods has died down recently, it
may still be worth posting this there. Also, there are a host of good
sites with case mod discussion boards. Find one or two and ask!

 

[Al Dykes]

AndrewJ <[email protected]> wrote in message ?hilite=classic+cruncher

Interesting project! It's a little more complex than
I'd care to tackle with my first homebuilt case, and
I'm going for a more horizontal layout. I'm going
to be putting this computer on top of my TV, which
is the main reason I don't want a tower.

At any rate, I'm waiting for my Fortron 350 PSU to
arrive before I really get started. So far, I've
just been prototyping with cardboard.

Isaac Kuo

You can buy "Bud Boxes" in a hundred shapes and sizes from any place
that sells electronic parts to industry or hobbyists. These are boxes
that hams and audio DIYers have built home-built have used for 50
years, that I know of. You'll see all sorts of box ideas here;

http://www.budind.com/newcatalog.html

Most of these boxes are made if thin rigid aluminum that cuts easily.
You cut holes with a nibbling tool. Radio Shack sells thes. I believe
the shops that sell case mod stuff do, also.

See;
http://www.pccasegear.com/prod723.htm

 

[Gary Tait]

On 26 Jan 2004 11:00:35 -0800, (e-mail address removed) (Isaac Kuo) wrote:

I have this idea for a simple compact ATX case. I think I've
thought of all the issues, but I wonder if there's anything
I've missed. Here is what a cross section looks like, when facing
the motherboard from behind (the ports are facing you).
cardboard wall
|
V intake
____________ __________________
| | | | |
|##### | | | A P |
|##### | \|||/ G C |
|#PSU# | CPU P I |
|##### |=======MOTHERBOARD======= |
|##### ---------------|
|##### [[[HDD]]] | DVD |========] Tray opens to side
|#####______________|_______________|

Where does the stuff plug in?

I don't understand the question. This cross section is
viewed from behind the motherboard, so that the near side
is where all the ports are. Everything external plugs in
on the near side. Internally, I need a hole in the
cardboard wall to route the ATX power cable through, and
some minor cablegami is required to fold the IDE cables
underneath the far edge of the motherboard to get to the
drives.

Isaac Kuo

I see now, except I'd have the drive open to the front. I'd also like
the drive at the top (so as the mess on my desk not interfere with
tray operation), or lengthen it and make it vertical. (or put the case
vertical, with the PCU down.)