Mounting a second motherboard

[silentcoercion]

Okay, so here's my basic idea. I've got a decent, relatively roomy ATX case. What I want to do is take a second mobo, either a nano-itx or, more likely, something like the internals of a MacMini/Aopen MiniPC, and mount it in the empty drive bays I've got. I've got more than enough room if I mount everything vertically. I'll run one monitor for each computer, but have a KVM so I can have just the one keyboard and mouse switching between the two. I like having two computers running simultaneously so I can run things like games or strenuous computations on one while just using the other as a media center/web/office machine, and having both in one discreet case appeals to me (I'm really not that concerned about heat; my cooling is pretty good as is, and I can always upgrade that if necessary).

The only thing I'm not all that certain about is the best way to actually mount as second motherboard. I've got the room, but it's not like I can really use the spacers normally required to keep the board from being grounded. Any suggestions?

 

[Oldwolf]

*sigh* Times like this ya with mobo's had a bus specificaly designed for ram , vid & drive sharing.

 

[Evilot]

Why not put the entire mother board in a case made from plastic, and have hole cut to the shape of the CPU fan, memory slots, and the PSI slots.. you oculd even make the case for it transparent so you can still see it but it is completly isolated. ANd to mount in the case just use screws, and then mount the case in the computer case

 

[silentcoercion]

That really would make things a lot cheaper.

 

[MrMaxwell]

You could mount a Mac Mini-sized mobo with some sheet metal, if you're trying to mount it directly to the bottom of the drive bay. Use spacers and mount the sheet to the bay, then use spacers to mount the motherboard to the sheet. A little drilling and cutting and it's done.

Also, use Synergy instead of a KVM. You're just wasting money on a physical device when you're running two monitors anyhow. The application shares the keyboard and mouse (along with copy/paste and screensaver sync) between two networked computers.