Thinking "out of the box" when building a PC

More and more, as I look at prefabricated cases for PCs, I ask myself:
what prevents someone from building a PC with no case? For example,
why couldn't you, say, build some sort of wooden mounting area into a
wall or a desk, then mount all the components to it, so that you have
something that blends into the furniture and/or something with plenty
of open space to ease maintenance and keep the machine cooler? Why
does everything always have to be in a cramped box? As long as you
respect things like cable lengths, are there other limitations?

Beyond cable lengths, it occurred to me that perhaps rotating parts
like CD and especially disk drives need to rotate in a horizontal
plane in order to have a symmetric load on the bearings. Is this
true? I've seen PCs in the past with disk drives mounted vertically,
and one of them was quite new (although it failed for other reasons
later on--it was pretty cheap). Do disk drives have to be mounted in
only certain orientations?

Another concern might be EMI, but if you had a metal mesh enclosure or
something around the machine that you could close and ground, wouldn't
that stop EMI? Does anyone really have much trouble with EMI, anyway?

Anyway, what I picture is a sort of vast PC with tons of room between
components, almost like a huge rack in the style of old mainframes
into which you could easily stick your arm if you had to replace
something. Current cases are so cramped that one must pay careful
attention not to break anything when removing or adding parts, and the
air circulation never seems to be anywhere close to ideal.

Maybe something that fits under a desktop (literally) would work.
You'd have a hinged door on the desktop, and when you lift it up, you
have your PC components all nicely mounted in a roomy enclosure with
plenty of space to maintain or upgrade them, and powerful silent fans
to keep the whole thing comfortably cool. It would be the opposite of
a laptop: instead of trying to squeeze everything into the smallest
possible space, you'd be spreading it out into a very large and
accessible place that could potentially give you years of easy and
trouble-free use--and could be discreet enough that people wouldn't
even know that you had a PC (out of sight, and out of sound).

I've seen companies that build special furniture to receive a PC, but
it's always just a spot into which a standard cabinet can be fitted.
I haven't found anyone who builds PCs directly into furniture, walls,
etc.

Maybe there's no much demand for easy access. I'm the type who would
like to see subfloors and false ceilings with open cable trays and
access

Posted by Al Dykes on July 15, 2005, 8:16 am

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Have a ball. I think FCC regs and even safety regulations (or at
least company lawyers worrying about lawsuits) limit cases to the
boring, as you have noted.

As for taste, nobody's going to make a PC in a way that only one
person likes.

--
a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m

Don't blame me. I voted for Gore.

Posted by Ed Medlin on July 15, 2005, 12:48 pm

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> More and more, as I look at prefabricated cases for PCs, I ask myself:
> what prevents someone from building a PC with no case? For example,
> why couldn't you, say, build some sort of wooden mounting area into a
> wall or a desk, then mount all the components to it, so that you have
> something that blends into the furniture and/or something with plenty
> of open space to ease maintenance and keep the machine cooler? Why
> does everything always have to be in a cramped box? As long as you
> respect things like cable lengths, are there other limitations?
>
> Beyond cable lengths, it occurred to me that perhaps rotating parts
> like CD and especially disk drives need to rotate in a horizontal
> plane in order to have a symmetric load on the bearings. Is this
> true? I've seen PCs in the past with disk drives mounted vertically,
> and one of them was quite new (although it failed for other reasons
> later on--it was pretty cheap). Do disk drives have to be mounted in
> only certain orientations?
>
> Another concern might be EMI, but if you had a metal mesh enclosure or
> something around the machine that you could close and ground, wouldn't
> that stop EMI? Does anyone really have much trouble with EMI, anyway?
>
> Anyway, what I picture is a sort of vast PC with tons of room between
> components, almost like a huge rack in the style of old mainframes
> into which you could easily stick your arm if you had to replace
> something. Current cases are so cramped that one must pay careful
> attention not to break anything when removing or adding parts, and the
> air circulation never seems to be anywhere close to ideal.
>
> Maybe something that fits under a desktop (literally) would work.
> You'd have a hinged door on the desktop, and when you lift it up, you
> have your PC components all nicely mounted in a roomy enclosure with
> plenty of space to maintain or upgrade them, and powerful silent fans
> to keep the whole thing comfortably cool. It would be the opposite of
> a laptop: instead of trying to squeeze everything into the smallest
> possible space, you'd be spreading it out into a very large and
> accessible place that could potentially give you years of easy and
> trouble-free use--and could be discreet enough that people wouldn't
> even know that you had a PC (out of sight, and out of sound).
>
> I've seen companies that build special furniture to receive a PC, but
> it's always just a spot into which a standard cabinet can be fitted.
> I haven't found anyone who builds PCs directly into furniture, walls,
> etc.
>
> Maybe there's no much demand for easy access. I'm the type who would
> like to see subfloors and false ceilings with open cable trays and
> access

I built a case out of 1" stock (wood) with laminated plywood set in grooves
for side panels that just slide out from the front. I use it for testing
purposes at my work bench. It hangs by woodscrews under one end of my bench.
The main problem I had was the rear panel (scavenged from a case I had
setting around) and the on/off and reset switches which I also scavenged and
cut holes to match. Never thought much about EMI since I use a completely
open wooden board for testing MBs, PSUs interior components etc. I could
stain it and mount it pretty much anywhere if I wanted and it would not look
much like a PC. I use it for testing printers, USB devices and other
externals mainly. It has 802.11g so it is very functional and I have posted
here from it while working. It is an old FCPGA P3-700 @ 933 and stays nice
and cool running W2K. My workspace is small and bench room is at a premium,
but I guess I could have done the same thing with an old case I already had.
All the components are easy to get to and change since my bench is fairly
high and it is mounted with the left side panel to the front. I just have
two 80mm fans in the case and an old Golden Orb for CPU cooling. The main
drawback is that if your time is valuable, it would probably be more cost
effective to purchase a case...........:-). On the positive side, you can
build it the way you want and make things very easy to swap out.

Ed

Posted by Clyde on July 15, 2005, 1:11 pm

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Mxsmanic wrote:

Once in "Maximum PC" I saw pictures and descriptions about a guy who
build his PC in a desk. All the parts were in different drawers. Yes,
there were mods to the desk and wiring considerations. He had to make it
to get air in there for cooling, but found that separating all the hot
parts kept things pretty cool anyway.

I thought that was pretty cool.

Hey, look around on the Web. There are a lot of people that have done
some creative and/or crazy things.

Clyde

Posted by Matt on July 15, 2005, 3:40 pm

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Mxsmanic wrote:

> More and more, as I look at prefabricated cases for PCs, I ask myself:
> what prevents someone from building a PC with no case?

That is unwholesome thinking.

Find a case that is easy to open and that supports easy changing of
components.

On the other hand I wouldn't want you to repress your need for
self-expression.

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Home-built Computers Thinking "out of the box" when building a PC