Edit: Heres some pictures of my new case(s) taking shape. Im plan on fitting at least 2 full ATX boards in this box Its 28" high, 24" inside diameter 24" deep tray got the 1st slide out tray done, doing the 2nd one in a minute any ideas on things I should add as I go along? http://img51.imageshack.us/i/photo1np.jpg/ http://img411.imageshack.us/i/photo2ld.jpg/ To Do: - Finish squaring up the outside so I can put a good wood finish around it. - Drill a good sized hole on each tray for wiring - Think about some sort of interior lighting - See if I can mount 2 PC's per tray - Think of cooling options once its inclosed. - Snazzy looking items like a temp monitor...
No real issues, there are a number that do just this. I'm running my SR-2 on a cardboard box I will say if your gearing up just make sure your PSUs are 80+ or better. Your power bill will thank you.
Best to have the motherboards mounted off the board, like a normal case. More isn't bad because of airflow.
yeah like king said.. dont let them sit directly on the wood.. just screw the motherboard mounts into the piece of wood then screw the board down onto those so you have air movement under the board..
I made a case out of fiberboard, i just used standoffs and on the other side used nuts to hold the standoffs on it, it was like a $5 case when I finished, never had nay problems with it.
What I have been doing is taking the motherboard tray + expansion card mounts out of some old cases. The one problem you run into is if you have large video cards that you want to use. It always bothered me having them flopping around without a way to mount them. Pirating old cases solved this problem. You can screw the tray to a piece of plywood and have a pretty nice setup. This wouldn't work for my SR-2, so I have it bolted to a piece of wood directly. My stand-offs are a #6-32 x 2" taper head bolt with a flat washer, hex nut, and 1/2" nylon spacer. A nylon washer and a hex nut hold it down. It works pretty well. Another idea that wouold work well is to use something like this, which would allow you to screw an actual standoff into the wood. Looking back on it, this would make mounting the board easier. The window repair section of your local hardware store is a great source for parts to mount your PSU and HDD to a piece of plywood. I can post some pictures of what I am using if you are interested. You should also plan to mount some fans to get air to your components. I'd recommend using some sort of filter grills for these fans to keep dust down. With good airflow and a place to catch the dirt, I really haven't had problems with parts collecting much grime, or at least not any more of a problem than I have with a case. Get a little shelving unit with adjustable shelves to store everything. You'll need it to be 18" or more wide, and you could probably get away with anything 12" or more deep. I'd get your first system mounted up before I got the shelving unit to see how much room you think you need. A KVM, a network switch, a small monitor, mouse, and keyboard round out your new folding rack. You can get one wireless card and use one of your machines to share an internet connection if you can't get a network cable to it. These are fun little projects in my opinion, and they go a long way to keep your room from looking like a computer threw up in it.
This is what I do. I use my KVM to set everything up and test. Once I know everything works, I plug it into a corner and turn it on. The only cable coming out of it is the power cable. If I need to connect to it I use remote connect in Windows 7 and there I am! Now if I can get WHS working right!!!
PSU mount - these "L" brackets are common things for window repair, and they come in all different sizes. http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/psu1.jpg http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/psu2.jpg HDD mount - again, these brackets are also commonly available. I haven't screwed this one down to the board yet. I want to get my fans mounted first. http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/hdd1.jpg http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/hdd2.jpg MB stand-offs - this is what I am using. You should be able to get an idea of how far the motherboard is off of the plywood. http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/mbstdoff1.jpg http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/mbstdoff2.jpg MB tray - this is out of an old case I had laying around. I use it quite a bit for bench testing. http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/mbtray1.jpg http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/mbtray2.jpg This is another mb tray I salvaged from an old case. This one has the PSU mount, which may be even better. I haven't used it yet, though. http://www.avid-edge.com/pc/mbtray3.jpg My situation is different than most since I have a 42U standard rack in my basement. If I had it to do over, I would have gone with something much more like I described above. The server rack is just too big and takes up more room than it needs to.
Do I need to ground every screw or can I screw the mb directly into the Wood and ground one screw to the power supply?
I have the the board and PSU screwed directly to the wood, with nothing really grounded. I think that the three prong plug on your PSU takes care of any grounding needs. If you think about it, what is really grounded with a mb mounted in a case? You may or may not be grounded to the case itself, but it is usully sitting on rubber feet, so it isn't grounded.
Thank you for those pictures, i got some similar items today from Home Depot. im going try and use my HDD cages ( both are about 6 drives each ) in this build strapping down the PS should be interesting. haha.. Also I found these rubber "grommets" at Home Depot that Im going to try and use as standoffs. Should hopefully be excellent for vibration too..
Post some pic with whatever you end up with. I love this kind of stuff...probably the mechanical engineer still in me...
![[H]ard|Forum](styles/hardforum/xenforo/logo_dark.png){kind=logo}