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Any Cases With Front-Facing Expansion Slots?
owenferguson asks: "I'm sick and bloody tired of futzing around with ports (USB, sound, video, firewire, serial) that come out of the back of my mid-tower case. Does anyone know of a case that allows you to mount the motherboard 'backwards,' that is, with the expansion slots and various ports situated beneath the drive bays, facing foreward? I'm planning to build one myself, but if there's one already on the market, I'll probably just buy it."
Dunno 'bout cases (rather doubt there's sufficient market), but you could have an expansion chassis facing forward easily enough to get the cards around.
Or, cheaper but more difficult (due to having to do your own cabling) you could use an external drive chassis the same way.
I have my computer on a large banquet table; the case sits sideways under the table with the "back" of the case facing out the edge of the table. It works well, and the table is large enough to accommodate my 19" monitor and all of the other papers, books, tea cups and so on.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
BTW, does anyone know of a case that allows you to mount cd drives, floppy drives etc on the back of the machine?
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Depending on how many free drive bays you have, there are certainly drive bay mounting panels to present most of the common things you'd want to plug and unplug regularly - audio, USB, 1394 and serial.
An external one (intended for laptops, but what the heck) is made by Mobility Electronics. There was an internal one featured on Scan's Today Only page the other day, with temperature monitoring and all sorts - I'm pretty sure it was made by ASUS, although I can't find it on their site.
I've seen several cases with front panels like this, too. Even my gf's cruddy e-machines PC does that. Coolmaster case with front USB (and optional 1394 IIRC).
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Just buy some extension cables approx 50cm you will need high quality cables for Firewire / USB / LAN and Video if running at a high res. This will also releve "wear and tear" on the ports.
These guys were mentioned in a previous AskSlashdot article. Looks kinda neat, doesn't it?
Another simpler option (USB only) can be found at Antec's site.
If you're after a rack mount case, then a Spin Server Case might be what you're after.
Why don't you just turn your case around?
there are plenty of cases like this one at Colorcase.
It has both USB and speaker/mic ports on the front. I have bought some of these cases before and am very satisfied. Just use the supplied cable extensions, and you're ready to go.
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CyberGuys carries this, which will take up a drive bay and an expansion slot, but gives you front-panel connections for FireWire, game, headphone out, speaker out, microphone, and two USB connectors, plus volume control. Seems kinda like a kludgey solution to me, but it will do what you're looking for.
~Philly
If I recall correctly, Big Blue played around with Satellite systems at one stage. (If they didn't, they bloody well should!)
The concept;
Stick your computer on the floor or wherever, plug in one thick cable that connects to an external box not much bigger than an external CD-Rom.
The External box houses the CD-Rom drive, floppy drive, keyboard/mouse connectors, Audio connectors, USB and the like.
"What's that on your desk? A Game Cube?!"
My solution?
I got a six foot folding table (they make larger ones if you need it), put it in the middle of the room, and put my computers underneath it. That way, if I need to change connections, etc - I just go around to the back and fiddle with them. No more dragging machines out, etc.
To get power to the machines, I ran an extension cord along the ceiling, then down to the desk, and wrapped it with split loom tubing. Same for network connections, etc. You can also run the cords along the floor, and use those rubber floor cover thingies. Ideally, you would have a raised floor - I might do that next time.
So far, it has worked great for me, much better than the desk I had!
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I've got three of these. They are rack mount to help keep thing neat but you could put them anywhere including on sliding rails. They have everything put the power out the front. The company also loans equipment to the local Linux Users Group.
Cut the case in half right above the motherboard bay and below the drive bays. Flip the bottom half around, and weld/rivet/duct tape it back together. I'm not sure if the side panels would go back on, but it seems like it would work, otherwise.
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Put the CD-ROM in an external case and turn the unit around so the backs to you.
Well, I said probably stupid, but what do you expect when I'm only on my second cup of coffee.
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
Just hack your case! It's yours, right? You own it, right? So make it better fit your needs. Fuck a couple LEDs or buttons in the front, or, if you have an extra drive bay, use that. Just wire your shit to the front. I've been doing this for 10 years now, and I've been nothing but happy. It's convenient, *and* then I've got a customized case. Everything's all good.
How about a Lazy Susan (you know, a rotating platform like in a chinese restaurant). No that's stupid idea, the cables won't stretch.
;-) for your service workbench, very nice.
Mind you, there's one I've seen in the Jensen catalogue (it's a UK tool company, an kind of engineering pr0n magazine
OK, run extension cables from the ports back into the case thru a slot, then up to the drive bays, and make a new drive bay plate that you mount them in.
Or, ignore all our ranting and just read the posts that answer your question, i.e. who mkaes these sorts of case!
~~~~~ BigLig2? You mean there's another one of me?
I used to use a couple of machines with expansion cards on the top of the case, making them very easy to get to. There was also an additional cover that fitted above the slots and allowed cabling to be ducted to the rear if needed.
Unfortunatly this was a good number of years ago and I've no idea who produced them.
There are literally piles of boxes with front mounted USB ports. The only problem is that most of them are really cheap. Best advice is to grab a $30 usb hub and velcro it to the side of your box.
Reboot macht Frei.
It would be worth $20 to $30 to not need to get out the dremel and make my own rear facing drive bay.
The other choice is externally mounting the CD-Writer. That makes the whole system more fragile. More of a pain to move and to work on. It's hard to run IDE cables externally, possible, but hard. SCSI CDWriters are either slower, more expensive or both. USB 1.1 is slower. Firewire and USB 2.0 are more expensive. Check pricewatch.com, $71 for 24x10x40x IDE, USB 1.1 is limited to 4X4X6X ($85), firewire starts at $144.
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All the guy asked is does anyone know of a case designed this way...
We all know of the drive bay plug answers, and other such stuff and there is always the dremel tool solution, but if would be nice to know if there is a case that already fits the need. which amoung the 30+ answers no one really says...
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I've been using two six foot folding tables as computer desks for years. Four PCs and monitors (soon to add a fifth) and an HP printer.
One of the tables has a bookshelf on/over it, to keep the references handy. Coffee cup holds the pens and pencils.
Computer desks may be stylish, but at $40 each, folding tables are hard to beat.
What about putting the case on a lazy susan, that way you can just spin the case around to mess around with the back and spin it around again to put in a CD etc. You might need longer cables, though, and be careful for the soy sauce. Hm, does anyone make a round case?
Some of the newer Dell towers have their USB and firewire ports on the front. They are hidden behind a little swing out door. Yes, the door can become a pain...
There is the Multi-Function Access Panel (FPT01S) for $27.95 from CrazyPC.com as reviewed at ipKonfig.com.
Specs:
* Fits in standard drive bay
* 2 USB Ports
* 1 Firewire Port (IEEE 1394)
* 1 Microphone input jack
* 1 Speaker Output jack (headphones)
* 1 Game port for use with joystick
* 1 LCD Temperature Sensor with thin probe (battery included)
* Stickers to label temperature for CPU, HDD, and Chip
* Extension cables for USB, Firewire, Sound and Gamport
* PCI slot interface card to route extension cables outside to back of case
My case is a 4ft squared peice of 1/4 inch thick plywood lying down flat on a banquet table. The back of the motherboard is facing my monitor and the front is hanging off the front of the table. very nice setup... makes swapping out cards a flash for testing.
You can set a desk fan next to it, to blow on it at full blast to ease your overclocking/cooling needs :)
:)
I have one side door open, with a desk fan pointed at it
The Nokia appliance is what you describe. Seek an older IP440. Rack mount, everything is in front and you'll get the market leading firewall vendor's package installed. They only support 368 Megs of RAM, though...
Seriously, what shit-for-brains moderator marked this redundant? Do these people actually read the fucking topic? It's a fucking perfect answer for the guy's question. Jesus.
Here's a nice rackmount case that does what you want. They sell full systems or just the cases. You could always buy the 4u and put it on its side.
http://www.spinserver.com
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