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Custom Metal Computer Cases?
Sarreq Teryx asks: "I'm looking to buy a new case for my system, to fit in a particular space (20¼" tall x 11" wide), I've found plenty that fit the height (I personally like the Lian-Li PC-6089A out of that bunch), but all the cases I've seen are either the too-too narrow 7½" to 8¼" wide consumer tower cases (that Lian-Li included), or the super wide 13" to 20" wide server cases (which tend to be on the unbearably ugly side), both of which are the wrong width.Does anyone happen to know if any PC case company makes cases that are ~20" tall x ~10¾" wide, or of any company makes custom cases from the plate metal up? I've never done any metal working, so if I were to make one myself, it'd end up being made of wood, and I don't particularly like that idea."
HardOCP ran an article about one of those today.
Repeal the DMCA!
If I were building a wooden, ceramic, or plastic case I would line it with window screen, or reasonable equivalent, to sheild the rest of the world from the radio-frequency interference the computer generated.
I bought a waity-waity-wait IBM-XT clone in 1985 from my buddy. He had been forced to build a faraday cage to surround it, because it was noisy, both acoustically and electronically.
He built it out of particle board, lined with alumninum foil, lined with foam.
Heating was a serious problem. The foam insulation that lined the faraday cage, held in place a one litre coffee can, with both ends removed. Fitted over the exhaust fan from the power supply it was just the right size to form a snorkel to direct the exhaust air out of the cage. But on a couple of occasions the can got knocked out of position. On those occasions when I opened the faraday cage a few hours later, it was like an oven.
The clone still worked, but some of the components had scorch marks, and my Six-pack-plus card is noticably warped.
Do you think that electricity ignites gasoline? There is nothing wrong with the safety of a wooden case. In fact, do you recall that televisions maybe 2 decades ago where often set in wood cabinets. Also, isn't your oven surrounded by some type of wood product?
When I was younger, I had a little farm of 386 motherboards held in with a wood rack I built. I never had problems. You might say that a 3 Ghz Pentium runs hotter than a 386, but that really doesn't matter since you do not place a block of wood on top of a CPU like you would a heatsink.
Not to insult your intelligence, but have you thought about how you would secure a motherboard to a liquid like gasoline?
PCMods has a line of wooden cases.
Google: wooden computer case
Anyway, this is offtopic. Good luck to the poster in their search...
Ditto
My favorite bookstore Has a number of books that will help anyone planning to make their own computer case. Not to mention all the fun science things that can help you do. Get the dead tree catalog, it has many books that are not online.
Anyone know of any good vandal resistand metal cases? for school and kiosk levels of torture :)
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