A friend and I want to try our hands at building a case for a computer that we’re going to cobble together from spare parts. I have looked, quite a bit, for a website that details how to do this, but I have found nothing but the following:
Sites dedicated to case modding, which, although it looks really cool, mostly assumes that you have a case to start with.
Sites describing how a particular person built a particular case, but without any of the nitty gritty (ie. here’re the plans we used… here’s the ATX spec that requires this size rack, etc.).
Does anyone know of a good (online?) resource to help people design/build computer cases? Preferably we would start with basically raw materials and build from there (we have access to a metal shop/wood shop).
It will definitely be cheaper and quicker to buy one or get hold of an old case.
If it is sheer bloodymindedness (and there’s nothing wrong with that) then all you need is a sheet of wood/mdf/plastic/metal and a few washers to keep the motherboard above the surface. then make a few struts to hold cards in place and something to mount the drives and you’re away. Don’t forget to earth the various bits, and watch out for overheating and you’ll need some metal cover for the lot to stop RF interference.
Pause for breath
That’s a lot of work for something that will not look nice unless you spend a fair bit of money on nice wood and machine everything out etc.
Re specs, the mounting points are clearly marked on motherboards so you know where to fix it to your base. The drives and power supply are connected by cables so you can put them pretty much anywhere. So The spec and final look are really up to you.
I’ve never heard of people using wood for a case, but it would be cool. Anyway, the case can be made out of anything as long as it holds the parts right, i think.
Although it would look kinda stupid from an old meatlocker or somthing
It’s certainly possible to build a case, here’s what a good case does:
Holds everything solidly in place (motherboard, drives, power supply, on/off/reset buttons and possibly a front-mounted USB or headphones socket). Easiest way to get the size right is just by building it around your motherboard. Everything else connects with cables, so exact location isn’t necessary, but cable lengths could be an issue. Something to hold expansion cards down is nice, but not absolutely necessary. The motherboard can be attached in a variety of ways, but drives will need to be held down with metal screws. So you’ll need metal brackets for the drives (and likely the power supply), but wood could work for the structure.
Keeps dust and such off the stuff inside. Heck, cardboard could do that.
However, you also need to get some air moving through it, so things stay cool (the newer/faster the components, the more important this is). Have a fan or two blowing air through, and make sure there’s some clearance around the CPU.
Keeps down RF interference, by having a more or less continuous shield of metal all around the parts. This is hard to do with wood. You can skip this, but may mess up radio/TV reception in the immediate area (meaning, that side of your house)
Earthing isn’t really that important, as the power supply should be grounding anything that needs it. (I wouldn’t recommend building a power supply, unless you really Know What You’re Doing. Buy/scavenge one that matches your motherboard).
In fact, as long as there’s cool air getting to the parts, you don’t really need any of these. I’ve run computers with the motherboard and parts just sitting on top of the case or a table(with something insulating underneath the motherboard). Not recommended for keeping all the parts alive and working for long periods of time, but it works for testing.
Remarkably enough, a computer does output a lot of stray RF,but that can be fixed pretty easily, by gluing tinfoil to the inside of the case and grounding(earthing) the tinfoil. Tinfoil is apparently not just for hats anymore. A good grounded screen or mesh made from aluminum or copper would do nicely as well. The idea is that the RF thinks the foil/screen is an antenna, most of the waves are absorbed into the metal and passed off into the earthing/grounding.
Good luck! I’m trying to build a Linux cluster, and I have to figure out how to mount ten+ motherboards/hard drives/power supplies. I’m probably going to use PVC pipe and wire ties.