Wall mount PC case design

KometeKomete Member
edited January 2009 in Hardware
Hi all, long time no chat :)

It's about upgrade time again and one thing I must upgrade is my PC case. Between old water cooling modding holes, 4 children, and other mods my old knock off Antec case has about had it. There are plenty of great cases out there but with my children's ability to hit the rest button, limited floor space, and pure hatread of desktop cases, I've pretty much been reduced to making my own.

The plan is to buy a donor case for the motherboard tray, hard drive bays, power button and whatever else I may need and with my wood working skills build a wall-mount-case.

My biggest concern is heat. I do overclock. The case will be drawing air from the bottom and exhausting at the top. Please view the sketch-up pictures I've attached to get an idea what I'm looking at. The 80mm fan usually found on the rear of a traditional case will be one of my intakes. As you can see this case will be mounted right above my 24inch lcd. It'll be about 6 inches above it. And while the heat isn't great I wanted to get your ideas on it.

Space is limited as you can see. My daughters use that little table on the side for homework and a breakfast nook.
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Comments

  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Komete, this looks like an outstanding project! Please take lots of pictures as you're building it :D Glad to see you around again.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Hell of a project. Good luck. :)
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited October 2008
    Thanks for the encouragement guys. Do either of you think I'll run into any problems drawing in some of that lcd heat from the bottom?

    Also if you take a look at the exhaust for the power supply, it'll be feeding into a chimney type hole to conceal the back of the tower and its wires. I don't think it'll get too hot in that chimney or build up too much to effect the rear intake that'll be blowing towards the CPU and the top of the video card.

    At least I'll get to buy some new power tools! yay
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    WATCH THIS SPACE. This is gonna be awesome! This is definitely front page material when you're done, Komete.
  • LincLinc Owner Detroit Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Komete wrote:
    Do either of you think I'll run into any problems drawing in some of that lcd heat from the bottom?
    Obviously don't have experience in mounting a PC over a monitor, but I really don't see that being a factor. That case will be pulling air much faster than the LCD will be warming it.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    LCDs get warm, but not that warm. I don't think you'll have any trouble with monitor exhaust contaminating the cool temperature of your intake, Komete.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited October 2008
    Yeah, LCD's don't dump nearly the amount of heat a CRT monitor dumps into the room. That looks like a great idea man. I will be watching for further developments. :thumbsup:
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Awesome!
  • lemonlimelemonlime Canada Member
    edited October 2008
    Very cool! :) Can't wait to see this in action.
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    I wonder if there'd be a market for something like this?
  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Maybe not wood, but the apartment set would love a wall-mount Aluminum case!
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    Awesome project, keep us posted! I'd like to do something similar someday. :thumbsup:
    Komete wrote:
    Also if you take a look at the exhaust for the power supply, it'll be feeding into a chimney type hole to conceal the back of the tower and its wires. I don't think it'll get too hot in that chimney or build up too much to effect the rear intake that'll be blowing towards the CPU and the top of the video card.

    I think I'd partition the chimney into upper and lower halves, just to be safe.
  • NightwolfNightwolf Afghanistan Member
    edited October 2008
    That looks awesome, can't wait to see what comes of it.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited October 2008
    Well since you guys helped relieve my heat woes, I went out and bought some wood. I went with a 4'X4' foot sheet of birch plywood. Birch is a pain to stain (which I'm not) but for some reason I spent about half an hour choosing one with a grain I liked. I'm going to be painting it a high gloss dark red. I don't know the proper name of the finnish but basically with the use of many coats and a brush you end up with a look and texture as if wind carved lines across it. If that makes any sense. It's one of those looks good feels good sort of things.

    Anyways, I eyeballed it in the store and got lucky. Looks like I'll get all the pieces I want out of it. Pictures below.

    If anyone has an old case they are looking to sell or especially a mother board tray, let me know. I have paypal :)

    I should have another update coming this weekend, as long as it doesn't rain.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited October 2008
    Komete, instead of trying to get an old case and mod the motherboard tray out of it, why not buy something like one of these mobo trays from Mountain Mods? I know it's a little pricey but it would be much better suited to your build and would be much easier to build around.

    Just a thought. :)
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited October 2008
    muddocktor wrote:
    Komete, instead of trying to get an old case and mod the motherboard tray out of it, why not buy something like one of these mobo trays from Mountain Mods? I know it's a little pricey but it would be much better suited to your build and would be much easier to build around.

    Just a thought. :)

    Good looking out Muddoctor. I really wanted to make my own motherboard tray but I didn't want to deal with the hassle of dealing with all the IO stuff.

    I'm thinking about this one. http://www.mountainmods.com/modular-io-panel-brushed-alu-p-486.html

    Thanks again man.
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited October 2008
    Yeah, when I saw that page I thought you might go either way on either the whole mobo tray or just the i/o panel, so I just linked to the page that had both on it. They also make a nice set of hard drive mounting brackets that mount off of the screw holes on a 120 mm fan too, if you are interested in something like that. That way your hard drives sit directly in the airflow of a fan.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited October 2008
    muddocktor wrote:
    They also make a nice set of hard drive mounting brackets that mount off of the screw holes on a 120 mm fan too, if you are interested in something like that. That way your hard drives sit directly in the airflow of a fan.

    I saw those too. At first I was like ohh yeahh.. but I want to have at least four hard drives and those only fit a max of 3. I think I'll just end up making some brackets and attach the hard drives in a way that the intake air is sandwiched b tween them. But I liked the idea of using the fan screw as a mount so I'll be following their lead in that regards.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited October 2008
    Just FYI, My boards are all cut. They didn't come out as straight as I wanted but I planned for that and cut them a little larger. A few passes on a belt sander should get them nice and even. I'm thinking it'll be about a quarter inch over all.

    Does anyone know if it is more important for the metal side (silver part) of a hard drive to get air or the side with the exposed electronics?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    The metal side.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited October 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    The metal side.

    Man that was fast. Thanks!
  • BuddyJBuddyJ Dept. of Propaganda OKC Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    The side with the electronics is what most hard drive coolers mount to. I'd guess that's the important side to keep cooled.

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/HardDiskAnatomy.jpg

    Keeping the spindle motor cool is what you're after. After seeing how it mounts, it makes me think keeping the drive's chassis cooled is what your ultimate aim should be.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited November 2008
    Not an actual build update but a new tool update. I went up to lowes to buy a belt sander, to get all the pieces I already cut into shape, when I came across a Scroll saw. Scroll saws are great for cutting sharp lines and detail work.

    Long story short, I talked the employee in the tool world section into selling me the floor model for 20 bucks! They were on clearance for $84 and change. My next project is building a CNC machine and I needed a scroll saw to make accurate cuts. Feel like I won the lottery.


    I should be able to cut out all my fan holes, windows, and whatever else with this thing.

    A year ago I rebuilt the engine on my 240sx. Well Friday, one of the radiator hoses sprung a leak. I remember when I was attaching that hose seeing a tiny nick and thinking I'll need to replace that hose soon. So tomorrow I'll be doing that and not working on my wall case :( But luckily I work for the state and we have election day off. So I should be able to put up some pictures of all the boards cut on tuesday. I'm hoping next weekend to actually get a dry assembly going.

    PS here's a picture of my scroll saw and my little helper. Before you ask, he's a boy... One of these days I'm going to take some clippers to that boys hair when his mother is not around.
  • mas0nmas0n howdy Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Nice find on the $20 scroll saw. Also, cute kid, let the hair grow.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited November 2008
    mas0n wrote:
    Nice find on the $20 scroll saw. Also, cute kid, let the hair grow.

    I think so too :) I just had to make some modifications to it. The top arm was hitting the plastic cover on the up stroke. Nothing a few dremil cut couldn't handle. Now it's almost as smooth as a sewing machine. Tested it on a board and it was a nice straight clean cut. Only thing left to do on it is to drill some holes and make a guide on it. Later on down the road it'll be donating it's led light and blower to the CNC build.
  • abutalaabutala
    edited November 2008
    very coooooooooool
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    Man, $20 on a scroll saw is a steal! Those things are hella fun.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited November 2008
    WATCH THIS SPACE.
    I am! This is gonna be outstanding. I love this kind of project. :D:D

    Komete, if you are going to wall mount the case, start thinking about noise and vibration. It has the possibility to radiate vibrations throughout the wall, creating a large snare drum effect! A 25-cent solution would be a patch of carpet padding between the case and the wall. A flooring company would probably give some scrap for free.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited November 2008
    Leonardo wrote:
    I am! This is gonna be outstanding. I love this kind of project. :D:D

    Komete, It has the possibility to radiate vibrations throughout the wall, creating a large snare drum effect! A 25-cent solution would be a patch of carpet padding between the case and the wall.

    That's a good suggestion Leonardo. I was going to glue rubber feet between the wall and the case but padding may work better. I may try both. I have some padding left over from when I redid my stairs. My first job at 14 was installing carpet with my stepfather. I always have some carpet and padding scraps around from odd jobs for family.

    The only real problem I'm facing now is how I'm going to secure the boards together. I'm using 1/4 inch birch plywood and I don't want to use nails or screws from anywhere that can be seen. That leaves me the back and the chimney area. I have a few solutions but not one that I'm sold completely on. I think it'll be hybrid of securing techniques.
  • KometeKomete Member
    edited November 2008
    Well I got about 90% of my cutting is done. For some reason I completely forgot to cut down one of the boards. It's the one with the remote. Guess I'll get to it on Saturday.

    The design lost about half an inch in depth due to previous bad cuts. Now it has a depth of 7 1/ 2inches. Looks like that'll change my cpu cooler from a side to side version to one that blows down on the chip set.

    The scroll saw has proved its worth today. I used a medium blade on it and it still produced clean cuts. Cutting out the fan holes were easy as could be. I simply drilled a hole, ran the blade through, and then let her rip. I'll never cutout another fan hole by hand again. I'm tempted to carve out a unique design with a plexi glass back instead of just a window. The scroll saw is just that nimble. If you can trace a picture, you can do some nice cuts on it.

    Only bad thing to report is some of the boards warped slightly from being left standing at an angle for a week. I've pulled out some old weights, those 55's never felt heavier, and hopefully that will flatten that warping out. If anyone has any ideas on how to flatten them again please let me know.

    Plans for this weekend:
    do a light finnish to protect if from humidity and any future warping
    build the HDD cage
    build the cdrom cage
    Cut down that final board
    Possibly start the case assembly.

    I still need to cut out a window, the IO ports, one more case fan, cdrom hole, and power button hole. I'm thinking I have about 3 more weeks. It could all be finnished in a weekend, if I pushed, but family comes first.
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