# DIY Cases and creative cases.



## spanglefox (Oct 19, 2013)

Hi there,

Has anyone had any success making their own external case(s) for a PC?

Particularly e-ATX and similar. I am looking to build some "light use" servers (cheap too) and begrudge paying Â£90+ for what appears to be a "starter" case. Which appear to be nothing more than bent metal and pre-drilled holes. Things like hot plug, dual PSUs are not important. 

On a slight side note I did see on YouTube a chap who recycled the motherboard box as a PC case, which I thought was rather inventive, as a quick "get it up and running" solution. Anyone seen anything else creative like that?


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## beatgammit (Oct 19, 2013)

I enjoyed this post about DIY server rack and another about building one out of an IKEA table. There are plenty others on Google as well.

I'll probably go this route when I end up doing the home automation stuff I've been putting off.

As for ATX boards, I haven't heard of much. I bought my case for $25 US on a Newegg shell shocker, and I've had that case for ~3 years now. I don't know if there's anything like that where you're located though. You may get some mileage out of a surplus sale from a university though.


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## spanglefox (Oct 20, 2013)

Certainly some interesting projects there!

I have to admit that my questions were partly inspired by the James Bond movie Skyfall. The scene where we are introduced to the bad guy for the first time I noticed lots of motherboards separated by nothing more than some form of spacer through the motherboard screw-holes. I would attach a picture but I am sure that would violate some copyright. I thought that could be a very effective way of "building" systems.

I do "enjoy" re-purposing tech and its green credentials. To me there is a lot of cheap, suitable hardware available online. I would dearly love to use some of that. Opterons and Xeons for a Â£1, etc!

I do run a small tech firm and most of my clients do not require a 4+ GHz behemoth churning away as most of their requirements are just plain file serving (taking data from ZFS and stuffing down a network card). Again it would be great to let them take advantage of cheap hardware.

Sadly to quote another film, albeit rather geekily, "Well, if there's a bright centre to the universe, you're on the planet that it's farthest from." That pretty much describes the place I live in. Sadly we do not have many universities nearby but it might be worth a try!

I can find normal Î¼-ATX and ATX cases cheap. c. [what? -- mod.] Â£20 with & and without PSU. It is the E-ATX (Extended-ATX) cases I am having difficulty locating at a decent price. These motherboards are 86 mm (3.4") taller than ATX motherboards and I think have different screw holes.

Getting side tracked again; I did find another online guide where the computer was in a fish tank and the tank filled with liquid! It looked really great, especially seeing the fans rotate in slow motion. The liquid used was an electrically non-conductive oil. I should imagine that it has a better thermal conductivity than air, so better for cooling. I did hear Facebook were looking at a related version of this for their data centres. 

Enjoy your home automation!


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## drhowarddrfine (Oct 20, 2013)

spanglefox said:
			
		

> I have to admit that my questions were partly inspired by the James Bond movie Skyfall. The scene where we are introduced to the bad guy for the first time I noticed lots of motherboards separated by nothing more than some form of spacer through the motherboard screw-holes.



That's how Google did it for many years. It's more highly developed now but for the longest time it was nothing more than off-the-shelf motherboards laying on a shelf with power supplies strapped to the rack.


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## vanessa (Oct 20, 2013)

For a quality case you need a sort of a Faraday cage in order to have enough electromagnetic shielding. This is the reason all cases are made out of metal.
Bare boards lying around might look cool but you will experience distortion.


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## mix_room (Oct 22, 2013)

beatgammit said:
			
		

> I enjoyed this post about DIY server rack and another about building one out of an IKEA table. There are plenty others on Google as well.



Also works very well with the Lack table. For example: http://lifehacker.com/5479251/upgrade-your-lackrack-to-lackrack-20 or http://www.sysadminslife.com/hardware/lackrack-billigstes-19-zoll-serverrack-made-by-ikea/


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## spanglefox (Oct 23, 2013)

Wonder if IKEA would ever pick this up in their marketing? I can just picture it "....oh, and our furniture can also be used for rack mounting servers!" hehe.....doubtful.

I certainly like these projects!


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## SirDice (Oct 23, 2013)

I've used some Chenbro cases at home. They're not that expensive. Keep an eye on the PSU placing though, not all of their cases will fit a standard ATX PSU. But the ones I have do and can fit full-size ATX or mini-ITX mainboards. The 4U cases will also fit full-sized cards.

A friend of my brother is a carpenter/furniture maker and he's going to make a nice custom built double 12U high cabinet I can roll under my desk. It'll be a bit expensive but nothing on the market would fit and it's still cheaper than anything pre-made. I'll try and post some pictures when he's done.


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## saxon3049 (Oct 25, 2013)

This is interesting: http://www.protocase.co.uk/index.php. They make custom enclosures, not just for home brew electronics but they also make custom rack mount cases (VERY interesting to me at the moment). Might be worth taking a look.


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## drhowarddrfine (Oct 26, 2013)

There was a site somewhere that showed people's custom workstations. Unfortunately, most of them were just monitors sitting on highly polished glass tables with reflecting lights but a few had pretty cool layouts and enclosures.


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## spanglefox (Oct 28, 2013)

I am looking forward to see those photos!

The protocase looks interesting. Will have to see how cheap they are!


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## saxon3049 (Oct 28, 2013)

spanglefox said:
			
		

> The protocase looks interesting. Will have to see how cheap they are!



I was told by the person who passed me the link that they are quite reasonable, I am going to come up with a design and see what I can find out in regards to price.


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