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Design-Your-Own Computer Case Kits
lord black writes "I was walking the aisles of the local Fry's and discovered a nifty computer-case-erector-set-thingy. Made by Aero Cool, the Lubic kit is basically a bunch of aluminum rails, acrylic panels (for mounting hardware to), and misc. screws to connect it all, for constructing a unique computer case. They have a gallery of example cases. BTW, Aero Cool also makes neat CPU coolers."
I have had one of these similar kits for years now!
Some links that actually work:
The cases.
The coolers.
The company.
Don't thank me; thank Google.
Kid-proof tablet..
When I tried to view the pics the site had already been ./'ed. Here's the google cache for the
Lubic Gallery of Case Mods
Tweaknews.net did a review of the Lubic kit last month. Apparently it's not as easy to use as an erector set, but it's still a cool product for case modders.
eclecti.cc
How did this get modded up?
p sticks.shtml for just one reference.) And Michaelangelo was commissioned to paint, among other things, the Sistine Chapel during his lifetime.
Chopsticks were certainly NOT invented in the U.S. (See http://www.cuisinenet.com/digest/region/china/cho
Michelangelo WAS able to sell his works. Are you forgetting David? Are you forgetting the Sistine Chapel? The Laurentian Library? The Medici Tombs? The Last Judgment? If anything, he was very successful. Leave it to pretentious geeks to spew out bullshit on the bullshit capital of the Net: Slashdot.
A blog like any other.
The shielding is so your computer doesn't muck-up your next door neighbors TV reception. It doesn't have anything to do with shielding PEOPLE from EM radiation. If you're really concerned about such things, you should be more afraid of your blender than your computer.
AccountKiller
People "in the know" should realize that Formosa was the Portuguese name for the island, not Dutch.
Look here.
They call themselves World`s smallest PC`s and they damn sure got some small guys.
If you build your own case you had better be careful that the fans and other components are positioned so that you get good airflow around the stuff that gets hot. Case designers spend a lot of time verifying that their boxes won't overheat and it's sometimes not at all obvious how the air is going to move.
Fact is, though, that you can touch a computer's cooling fan without getting injure. It doesn't even hurt. In fact, I just touched my case fan and my cpu fan just to prove the point.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Self-building a system, especially with a creative enclosure, is never a Bad Thing. However, there is one very important -- I would even say 'critical' -- aspect of doing so that no one seems to be paying attention to, and it applies to ANY computer case that is not a full wrap-around all-metal enclosure.
Specifically: Unless you take explicit steps to electrically shield the transparent parts, the enclosure will never meet FCC Part 15 requirements for not radiating RF energy, or being susceptible to outside RFI (Radio Frequency Interference).
Here's the filthy details, and some more info on why this is a Bad Thing. Early computer systems and peripherals were classed as "Unintentional Radiators" under part 15.3(z) of the FCC regs. Later, as processor speeds climbed, an additional category of 'Digital Device' was created under part 15.3(k).
It was under this part that two subclasses were created. You may have heard references to something being a "Class A Computing Device" in the commercial world, or a "Class B Computing Device" in the consumer world. Both of these subclasses have to do with how much RF the device radiates under normal use, and how much potential it has to interfere with other nearby devices, including TV's, stereos, etc. The ARRL's web site has a page that summarizes this, and provides a great explanation on the issue of what 'harmful interference' is, and what the rules say about responsibility for solving issues involving it.
The Reader's Disgust version is this: Sure, you can build your computer into the flashiest Lexan-and-Aluminum enclosure you can find. You can equip it with all kinds of see-through parts, flashing LEDs, and other useless fluff to your heart's content.
HOWEVER -- remember that any material other than metal, solid or mesh, is going to be pretty much transparent to whatever RF energy your system spews into the surrounding environment in the course of its normal operation. If your flashy see-through system causes interference to ANY other RF-using device that is NOT covered by Part 15, to the point where said device cannot operate properly, it is YOUR responsibility to clean it up, electrically speaking.
Transparency to RF is a two-edged sword. You might get incredibly lucky, in that your way-cool see-through system might not be causing any interference at all. But what happens when, just as one example, the ham radio operator next door to you starts transmitting with a 1,000-watt-plus signal? (Yes, we are allowed to use that kind of power, and more).
Another example: What happens if a cop, the paramedics, or anyone else with a portable transceiver happens to transmit with said portable and they happen to be close to your computer at the same time?
Either way, a good chunk of the RF energy from those transmissions are going to go straight into your computer, because all that Lexan is going to let it in like a firehose stream through tissue paper. At best, your system may lock up or reboot unexpectedly. At worst, you could be looking at hard drive corruption.
And guess who's responsible for clearing up the resultant mess? Not the ham radio op. What they're doing is covered very well indeed under FCC Part 97. (That's not to say they'd just tell you to fix it yourself -- most hams are pretty nice about helping you to fix such issues if their transmitters appear to be wreaking havoc, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the owner of the Part 15 device).
Not the cops, paramedics, or whoever else was using the portable radio either. They're operating perfectly within the limits of their FCC license as well. No, the onus for fixing the problem lands right back on your shoulders, as the computer owner, all because you wanted a
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
If it's all made out of plexiglas (or other compounds other than metal, as are many typical case mods), wouldn't this end up doing something like, say, causing all your sperm to mutate?
It's been said elsewhere, but I'd still like to clarify.
1) EM fields are created by AC current. (AC = Alternating Current, the kind in a wall, goes "back and forth" 60 times a second, and for this reason, any 2-prong plug can be reversed and it still works)
2) Computers use 5 (and a little) 12 v DC current (DC = Direct Current, goes in same direction at usually a steady rate - think batteries with a "+" and a "-" side that cannot be reversed)
Since A) DC doesn't give off EM radiation, and B) computers use extremely low DC voltage, most of a computer's circuitry will give off very little detectable radiation.
-Ben
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Taiwan's modern history goes back about 400 years, to the day when the first Western ship passed by the island, and Jan Huygen van Linschoten, a Dutch navigator on a Portugese ship, exclaimed "Ilha Formosa" (Beautiful Island).
Heat, Dust -- how about Radio Frequency (RF) interferance? Both in and out of the computer.
My handheld aviation transceiver picks up quite a bit of noise around most (metal box) computers. I have to turn the squelch up a couple of notches.
So apparently some energy in the 118.000 - 136.975 MHz band is emitted from cases which comply with Part 15.
I'll have to pull off a side panel sometime and see how much worse it gets.
----- Quemadmodum gladius neminem occidit, occidentis telum est.
As for problems with EMI reception...well, I suppose that if my next door neighbor had a kilowatt transmitter, the antenna in the backyard would be a dead giveaway and I might think twice before building one of these systems. But, apart from an extreme case like that, PCs are really quite immune from RF interference. A great deal of the design work that goes into the actual chips on the boards is devoted to EMI and ESD rejection. Critical signals are routed differentially. Signals on the PCB are (relatively) low frequency and routed with an eye toward reducing EMI transmission and susceptability.
My current work involves designing and simulating high speed digital systems. Part of that design work is to determine both how well the network rejects EMI and how little it radiates. And, as I mentioned before, short an extreme case (like the 1000 watt Ham transmitter), it is virtually impossible to couple enough energy onto the transmission lines to cause any trouble. And the amount of energy radiated beyond a foot or so is almost unmeasurable.
So, from a practical point (electrically speaking), these "cases", such as they are, are probably not the EMI terrors that one might thing. That being said, I sure wouldn't want one around my cat.
-h-