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?'s and Help on designing a case

M

MNjosh

n00b
Joined
Oct 9, 2004
Messages
20
Do not know exactly where to post this, tried the power supply section before but it was to no avail, regardless here we go:

I am an avid woodworker and for my next case my goal is to craft my own. The concept for this enclosure (beyond being made out of wood) is that there will actually be two enclosures. The first enclosure will house the power supply (which will be compartmentalized from the rest of the guts) and the mobo, processor, vid and sound card, networking etc. The second enclosure will house the optical drives as well as the hard drives. Running from enclosure to enclosure would be some form of conduit or the ilk in which the SATA cables were located. This would allow for me to keep optical/hard drive enclosure upon my desk with a small footprint and a decreased noise signature. Within five or six feet would be the other enclosure probably looking similar to a form of a larger jewelry box (aesthetically pleasing). Within the guts portion like I mentioned earlier I would separate the power supply from the rest of the system with its own ventilation system. The mobo etc section would also have its own directed ventilation system. My query is that I realize that a majority of the power usage is for such things and mobo, vid card, and processor and that the optical drives/hard drives take a minor amount of power to work. So, i was curious if it was possible to find some sort of ac/dc transformer that I could either use externally to power the optihard enclosure or to just use a smaller power supply. An external brick power supply would be nice because of the decreased noise and would allow for the case to be smaller. Just some thoughts. . .any help/advice will be greatly appreciated.

Here is to making sawdust,

Josh
 
Okay, I'm sorry.

I don't really understand. You want to do something like: (pardon my ASCII drawing skills :D)

-----------------
| |
| |
| Drives |
| |
|__________|
|
|
|
-----------------
| |
| |
| Small PSU |
| |
|__________|

And

-----------------
| |
| |
| Main PSU |
| |
|__________|
|
|
|
|
-----------------
| |
| |
| Guts |
| |
|__________|

Sorry couldn't get it to look right... But they're supposed to be boxes :p
 
within one case will be the power supply, vid card, sound card, wifi card, mobo, processor. In this case I will isolate the power supply. The other case simply has 2-4 hard drives and 2 opti drives. I am merely trying to figure out how to power the box with the optidrives and hard drives. I guess that is what I am getting at.

-Josh
 
Okay, well I don't see any reason that wouldn't work. Just make sure you have a way for the STATA/IDE cables to get from the main box to the small one.
 
My biggest question is what is the power usage going to be on say 2 fans, 2 opti drives, and 2-4 hard drives( no mobo, pci cards, processor, vid card). Basically what size of power supply/transformer am I going to need to keep an eye out for?

-Josh
 
That is a really cool idea. I also enjoy woodworking but haven't had much time for it lately.

Your idea of a split computer system is very interesting.
In the past the only cases I've seen people make out of wood are
just wooden versions of traditional pc cases. Well traditional but very
beautifully made most of the time.

If you find time a work log or even a gallery of your progress would be greatly appreciated. Although I enjoy dabbling in woodworking I am still very much an amateur at it.

As for a second psu to power the desktop part of the case. I don't know a whole lot about modding PSUs but wouldn't it be possible to simply extended the length of the molex power connectors so that they will reach the upper portion of the computer case?
 
I would be hesitant to use a separate power supply for the second box, because you will almost certainly have some voltage differences between the drive box and the CPU box that could cause problems. In addition, you can expect a peak power draw of about 2A per hard drive during spinup, and you'll need three rails--12V, 5V, and GND. In other words, you'd probably be best served by running power from the main box to the drive box. There's no reason you can't make your own cable. You might even be able to find some nice, flexible braided 3-conductor cable at your local hardware store.I'd suggest 14AWG or 16AWG as a minimum size to make sure you have plenty of capacity.
 
Wow, this is actually a really freakin good idea. One of the best I've heard of yet.

performance-pc's has a ton of DIY cabling. I'm sure using a single PSU in the lower box you can extend the cabling to run up to the second box no problem.

A quality PSU is a must, though.
 
MNjosh said:
My biggest question is what is the power usage going to be on say 2 fans, 2 opti drives, and 2-4 hard drives( no mobo, pci cards, processor, vid card). Basically what size of power supply/transformer am I going to need to keep an eye out for?

-Josh
Click to expand...

2 optical drives around 90w (50w on 12 and around 30w on 5v) if they're both burning a dvd. 2 HD's around 30w if they're both spinning, 60 if they're powerinf up. 2 fans about 10w if they're both on (12v)

Those are very high-end measurements. Probably exagerated by 50%.

Why not just get a nice 850+w main PSU and extend the leads?
 
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